On Tuesday, 20th of December, the school held a carol concert at OLI church. There were many performers such as the entire year 7, the teachers’ choir, the school choir and the school orchestra. There were many speaking parts telling the Christmas story and a service of dropping straw in the nativity scene. There was a big audience full of parents, teachers, students and the local parish supporting the performers. There were also traditional carols sang by the audience, enchanting the whole church.
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Hi, I’m in year 7 and I’m going to tell you about our trip to the LSE sports grounds. During the first week the year 7s and the sixth formers went for an afternoon team building session at the LSE playing fields.
We walked to the fields and fortunately, the sun was out and shining, we were lucky it wasn’t raining! I don’t know what we would have done if it was! When we arrived we sat on the grass wherever we wanted, however we were quickly called into a number of lines, these would be our groups for the afternoon. We were put into different teams than the ones we would have chosen, and most importantly in these groups there were people we did not know. We played many games such as ‘untie the human knot’ by binding our hands together then trying to get back into a circle without letting go. In another game, we all had to crouch and rely on each other not to fall but unfortunately, this ended with us all falling over!! As the final activity, we all played a large game as a year group which involved a lot of running. We had to find letters around the large field, and each letter had a number on. When the letters were put in number order they would spell a message. Once this was all done, we knew that the letters spelt out T.E.A.M: TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE By the end, we were all tired, and in our forms we walked back, the good weather held out for the remainder of the day. I felt more confident about chatting to girls I hadn’t known before. I felt positive about the year ahead and felt confident that I would quickly settle into my new secondary school life By: Gemma Kelk Year 7
We would just like to say a big Thank you to everybody who came and supported all of our Thailand stalls as well as the PFA for giving us the opportunity to take part on the night!
Here’s how our night went... Daphne and Hallie On the night, we sold boxes of Chocolate panda biscuits, hot chocolate Rudolph mixtures and put up a photobooth with props. We have raised an amazing amount of £235 on the night and we are more than thankful for everyone who came along to our stall and bought the food items or used the photo booth! From teachers, parents and students coming along to our stall, we were happy that we could share this experience with you. Thank you again :) Mairead, Karolina, Sophie, Marta and Mailili With five of us working together, we managed to raise the amount of £120 to share between us to help our fundraising for the trip taking place early in the summer. Our stall sold warm waffles with a selection of toppings which had wonderful feedback! The night was overall enjoyable with everyone getting the christmas spirit and with the lovely crowd around us. Clara and Vanya For our stall at the Holy Cross Christmas Fair, we were raising money for our Thailand Trip and did a collaborative stall with the Holy Cross Art Department. In total, we raised £106 from selling a range of handmade christmas cards, sweet wreaths (which were also handmade by the two of us) as well as DIY charm bracelets. Overall, the stall was a success as we managed to raise a fair amount and it was a fantastic opportunity to raise money to fund our trip. “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” (Ronald Reagan)
During our last year of school, in addition to expanding our subject knowledge, we Year 13s at Holy Cross strive to develop vital skills for our future. One programme which has been put in place to aid this is the ‘Big Sister, Little Sister’ mentoring course. This opportunity allows those who wish to participate, the chance to act as a mentor to a student in the lower school, specifically those who require the care, support or advice of a more experienced individual. The mentoring programme began in September with training sessions to introduce and inform us of the responsibilities which are associated with undertaking this role. This was closely followed by workshops where the involvement became active, allowing us to experience the potential circumstances we may incur. After filling out short questionnaires which would determine which member of the lower school we would be the most suited to assisting, we were allocated our mentee by our Head of Year. From this point forwards, we would arrange to meet our ‘Little Sisters’ weekly during lunchtimes to put the skills we had previously learnt to practical use. Using ideas and suggestions we had been presented with during our training, we engage in conversation and aim to involve our mentees in activities which will contribute towards solving any issues they are experiencing. When asked if they had enjoyed the programme, the mentees commented saying “Yes of course, she was always kind and never judged or laughed at me. I can tell her anything”. Others commented: “When you have a rough time she is always there to help to give me great advice.” In addition to the students themselves, the parents have expressed how grateful they are for the support their daughter is receiving, stating that “I am over-joyed with the help and have seen a huge improvement in her confidence and self-esteem! Thank you.” The ‘Big Sister, Little Sister’ programme has been a huge success in helping the members of our school who require extra support along with increasing the integration between the years and bringing the students of Holy Cross School together. By: Sophia Demetriou Year13 The Holy Cross school previously worked with First Give last summer for Year 8 students. Various students who received the opportunity to research and work with this charity are all confident that this task developed their communication skills and is reflection of the amazing opportunities that Holy Cross provides.
The First Give project is a scheme that was set up in 2015 to encourage teenagers to raise awareness for local charities, 2016 marked the first year that Holy Cross participated within this competition. It was an immensely valuable experience as Jack Petchey donates money to this charity allowing schools to win £1000 for the winning charity and £250 for the two runners up. The Year 8’s were given the choice of charity to support following the focus on a certain social issue, some chose The Royal Marsden whereas others supported diverse charities such as Battersea Cats and Dogs home. After choosing the social issue and then the charity, a phone call was organised where the students spoke to a charity representative to explain First Give and the reward that charity could potentially receive. After this, the students were able to visit the places that their charities worked or were based, and were then faced with the challenge of constructing a presentation. During the Year 8 finals, Rosa Boyd’s team won the overall competition and £1000 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity £1000 which will contribute towards pioneering, medication and treatment. The group felt enormously uplifted and proud of such a grand achievement and were grateful the holy Cross School provided them with such a huge opportunity. A few months ago the triumphant group were invited to attend The London City Hall for a celebration of the year’s success. All competition winners from the schools who participated were invited to this event. The group were able to raise awareness for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, receive an interview and participate in a wide range of activities where they were able to socialise with other groups who had been as successful. The girls described the event as a once in a lifetime opportunity and were jubilant to be able to give back to their community in such an amazing way. This competition is hugely beneficial to the charity’s reputation as well as personal experience and contact in the community.
From the 14th of November to the 18th Holy Cross welcomed five new members to the Holy Cross family from the Evangelist community of ‘Sion’. The Sion Youth group are part of the Sion Catholic Community for Evangelism which was formed in 1984 by Father Patrick Lynch, from the Diocese of Nottingham. He was given permission by his Bishop to work full-time in Evangelisation. Within a year, Father Lynch had brought together seven other people to create the Sion Community. Today, the community works at the centre of the Church under the authority of the Catholic Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales.
During mission week, the pupils were offered a daily service called ‘Prayer 4 u’ where a member of the Sion Youth group and a trained pupil assisting them would pray for the person who chose to attend the service in the chapel. A pupil in year 11, Megan Muller, stated, “I really enjoyed the service ‘Prayer 4u’ because it helped me through my day and made me less stressed about mocks and GCSEs”. This positive feedback shows that Sion Youth group made an impact on at least one pupil, which is what they were trying to achieve. Later in the week the pupils were involved in various workshops, all run by one of the members of Sion Youth Group. These workshops included: #LikeAGirl aimed at years 10-13, True Love for years 9-13, God on Paper for Year 7-13, and 3D Gospel aimed at Year 9-10. From the feedback, I believe that the workshops which had the most impact was “#LikeAGirl”. Kate Moroney said, “Society’s idea of beauty changes constantly and it does have a negative effect on teenage girls. It was good to discuss what we believed a woman should be like and not what the media tells us a woman should be like.” The workshop “True Love” made the pupils of Holy Cross reevaluate what true love is. I spoke to pupil Imogen Paton, who spoke strongly about this workshop: “It was refreshing to hear an honest opinion from a Christian man about sex outside of marriage”. This pupil's feedback shows that Sion Youth group clearly informed the pupils about what a Christian's life should be like, but also included their own honest opinions, which showed a new and refreshing aspect of Christianity. The Liturgy at the end of the week was a sad but happy time because the pupils were saying goodbye to the Sion Youth members, but were also celebrating God and the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to everyone. However, as the pupils said farewell to the community, they also cherished the new ideas the group had taught them and the gifts they had gained during the week. On the 27th November, the Holy Cross Choir went to the Royal Albert Hall to perform at the Scratch Youth Messiah. The Scratch Youth Messiah was organised to help raise money for WaterAid UK. The money raised at the event went towards homes without access to clean water or toilets so as to change many people’s lives. Many other schools took part in the event and the beautiful singing truly made the show extraordinary. The hall was filled with the enchanting sounds of everyone's singing and the orchestra’s wonderful music. 2016 was the fourth year the Scratch Youth Messiah was run and there are many more performances to come - every new one even better than the last!
To donate to WaterAid UK, please visit https://www.wateraid.org/uk/donate On the 24th of November, the A-Level Music exams took place. The successful event lasted 1 hour where the A-Level musicians played their choice of instrument to fulfill the criteria of performing for an audience. There was a small audience including teachers, students and performers' parents. It was a great opportunity to see what's expected of students hoping to study Music in the future. The event was also a chance to see musicians of the future perform with great confidence, rhythm and potential. Audience members were very impressed and recognised the great talent of this year's A-Level Music students.
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