In November staff and students marked Anti-Bullying week with tutor activities and assemblies based around this year's theme 'United Against Bullying'.

The House Values Competition for this term was to design our school's Anti-Bullying Week poster.

Adam Howie in 8Y1 produced a captivating design that was used in school to highlight the importance of us all working together to make our school safer for everyone.

As part of the work students completed, we examined the role of the bystander in bullying incidents and how we can avoid unintentionally becoming part of the problem rather than the solution.

At St Katherine's School we say that safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and this extends to our students too. It is therefore everyone's responsibility to speak out and speak up when they see bullying taking place and students were reminded of their duty to tell someone when they are worried about another student.

Mrs Crocker, Assistant Headteacher

Another rollercoaster of a term for St Katherine’s Sixth Form has passed in a blur, but as staff and students reflect back upon Term 2, we do so with a huge amount of pride and optimism. Despite the challenges - and there have been plenty! - the festive holidays will offer a timely opportunity to refresh and reassess, in order to return in 2021 with renewed purpose and energy. 

Reflecting on our past and looking to the future has very much been a theme of this term, captured perfectly in our ‘Aspiration Maps’ (pictured with our Year 13 students Maddie and Dylan), which have proudly taken up their place on the walls of Sixth Form Block. These maps capture the institutions at which students from our three previous Year 13 cohorts have gone on to study, and truly illustrate the enormous opportunities which are available for our young people, beyond the Sixth Form. The corridors have been buzzing with conversations around familiar names and faces and their exceptional achievements. Nothing motivates young people to achieve their best quite like having a clear, aspirational vision for the future, which is precisely what these posters have given us.

Speaking of looking to the future, Term 2 has ended in a flurry of excitement as we prepare for Oxbridge interviews with no less than 10 of our Year 13 students - a truly remarkable achievement. Interviews this year have, of course, taken place on line, and students have shown exceptional resilience and open-mindedness (as well as technical aptitude!) as we adapt to these new expectations. With interviews going right up until the end of term, these young people will enjoy a well-deserved rest as we wait to hear back in the new year. 

Our festive decorations competition had a spectacular runaway winner, with Miss Ball and Mrs Shepherd transforming their tutor room into an immersive grotto, complete with fireplace, fairy lights, reading table, and milk and a carrot for Santa and his reindeers. Well done to them for putting such a massive smile on everyone’s faces. 

Finally, our recruitment for next year’s Sixth Form has been moving at pace, with a particularly high volume of applications received - an extremely promising sign for years ahead. A huge thank you to those students who have applied thus far; the Sixth Form Team look forward to meeting with you in the new year to discuss your options. To those who have not - get it done before Christmas! If you do so, we can shape our options blocks around you and ensure you get to study the courses you want. 

We wish all parents, carers and young people a restful break, and looking forward to tackling 2021 head on!

Mr Davies, Head of Sixth Form

Despite the restrictions that continue to exist in school because of Covid-19, the St Katherine's House Championship has continued with undeterred. This term we have seen more students making a contribution to our community and showcasing their talents while earning points for their house along the way. 

Artistic flair has been on show in the Anti-Bullying Week poster competition where Adam Howie used his unique artistic style to create our school's design for this year. Creativity and talent were also showcased in the Christmas card competition and Leah Wardingley's winning design is stunning.

Creativity in the kitchen was celebrated in the Christmas Bake Off competition and served as an opportunity for staff and students to compete alongside one another. A special mention must go to Miss Robinson in Pankhurst House whose Christmas tree cupcake cake was both beautiful and delicious.

There has been a huge amount of sporting competition this term and students have fought hard within their year group bubbles to give their best for their house. This term students have competed in netball, rugby, benchball and dodgeball as well as cross country. The House Championship is incredibly well supported by the PE department and provides children with a much needed opportunity to keep active in these very peculiar times.  

Our ethos competition this term was punctuality and highlights to students the importance of being on time to school and lessons, and is underpinned by our core values of resilience, respect and responsibility. Congratulations to Pankhurst House who won this competition and have the best timekeeping.

As well as supporting our values, celebrating achievement and uncovering new talent, the House Championship is also about having fun and creating memories of school that last a lifetime. This term we have needed an injection of laughter at times and our pop up Fun Fix Friday competitions have provided this in spades. Each Friday there has been something to get involved with including keepy uppy, welly wanging, hoop shot, hula hooping and the After Eight challenge. If you don't yet know what this one is, ask your child to show you and I hope it brings you as much laughter as it did for us!

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has supported the House Championship in 2020, especially the Heads of House whose enthusiasm and passion are boundless. I look forward to seeing if anyone can catch Turing House in 2021.

Mrs Crocker, Assistant Headteacher

This time of year brings with it a natural time for reflection on what has passed and thinking about what is to come and the last term has been a mixed bag for Pankhurst House. We started the term in second place in the House Championship and finished it in third place over 100 points behind the leaders, Turning. While it is far from over we are disappointed to have slipped backwards rather than leaping forward. 

There have been some highlights nonetheless. We won this term’s ethos competition again and with the focus being on punctuality to lessons I am proud that we are the most punctual house! Our year 7 students have also brought some much welcome sporting success with first place in the House Cross Country championship along with victories in the house netball and benchball competitions; well done them! I have been impressed with their attitude and desire to win. Equally impressive, if not more so, was the attitude the year 9 boys showed when losing the rugby. Mr Cook, the Head of PE, was full of praise for their never say die attitude and positivity even when losing. Well done year 9! -This is one of the reasons 9P have been named tutor group of the term for term 2. 

Perhaps less serious but nonetheless fun has been our willing participation in our 'Fun Fix Friday' competitions. I have been running these on Fridays for the year 11 bubble and they have been positively received. The highlights for me were Ollie Stratton's last minute entry and victory in the welly wanging competition, well done Ollie! He did better at welly wanging than basketball hoop shooting, but luckily in this competition we had the little fancied Toby Rice to step up and win it for Pankhurst with the last set of throws. He managed the pressure of the situation superbly! 

I hope we build on these successes and come back from the break refreshed and raring to go. We have a long way to go to catch Turing House at the top of the Championship and I look forward to rising to that challenge.

Mr Murdoch, Head of Pankhurst House

Term 2 has flown past and, despite all the goings on in the world, Stephenson students have continued to excel and immerse themselves in the whole school community. I am proud as Head of Stephenson House to see students so determined (one of our values) to succeed and overcome adversity in these trying times.

There have been many great things to celebrate this term and one of the highlights has been the pop up Fun Fix Fridays which have included welly wanging, hula hoop, keepy uppy football, shooting hoops and most recently the after eight challenge. It has been great to see students having a go, representing the house and having fun. Particular mention to Djafar Mengoud 11S who is always willing to give things a go for each competition and he ended up winning the keepy up challenge with over 200 - impressive! Other students who have stepped up have been Aiden Api 8S, Rose Barker 10S (hula champion), Charlie Topp 9S1 and Cosmo Browne who love a challenge and many other students.

Sport continues to provide some great competition in the school and there have been many successes for the house this term. In both benchball and dodgeball Stephenson finished second with a special mention to 7S1 boys and girls and 9S and 10S girls teams who all won their respective competitions. Rugby and netball was a particular success for Stephenson House where we finished first overall. Highlights include the year 8 girls netball win and the collective effort of both boys and girls year 9 teams winning their competitions. It is great to see students turning out for Stephenson House and although we were successful more importantly participation was very high!

The Great St Katherine’s Bake Off was a great success and it was a pleasure to see some of the students and staff from Stephenson House getting involved and baking their cakes. We ended up winning the competition which was fab, see the article above for photos of some of our entries.  

Reading has always been something we value in Stephenson House and it has been great to see that we continued to excel in this area where we won the reading logs competition for all three year groups taking part from years 7-9.

It has always been a challenge of mine to ensure Stephenson House sets the highest standards and it is great to see that this term following on from the last we had the highest behaviour ratio with the lowest negatives and 2nd highest positives. Well done to all students for their behaviour and I am sure that this will continue to be the case as we move through the academic year.

Stephenson Stars have continued to be prominent this term and it has been great to celebrate the students in the house that have represented our RED values of Determination, Equality and Respect. Well done to all these students for being such great role models.

Term 2 Stephenson Stars:

Daniel Vinkler, Kieran Phillips, Alfie Hirst, Tianna Grigg, Shannon Barker, Sam Andrews, Otis Burnett, Reuben Hawkesby, Jett Marlow, Agata Szymial, Tyler Cavalho, Jack Palmer-Givan, Oliver Hecker, Marwan Culosow, Daniel Grace, Aidan Api, Alice Brochot-Sharpe, Jake Iles, Dillan Faulkner, Abdi Al-Sakkaf, Vanessa Gerebenes, Jacob Lambert, Mason McIver, Harvey Niemczyk, Josie Rafferty, Monty Faulkner, Cosmo Browne, Safa Culusow, Anaia Wokoh, Najiib Yusuf, Danielle Cameron.

Finally I would like to wish all the best over the festive break and I hope you manage to enjoy time with friends and family.

Mr Thomas, Head of Stephenson House

I expect many of you are thinking that Christmas cannot have come soon enough! I would just like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope that you manage to celebrate in some form or other at this festive time. 

This term has seen the continued challenges of Tier 3 restriction for students living in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. For me, it has once again been an opportunity for the students of Turing to show their resilience and commitment to study and active participation in the wider aspects of school life.

Firstly, I would like to mention attendance. This has again been a difficult term for many to maintain the established routines of other academic years. However, students, parents and carers have demonstrated their willingness to support each other in maintaining the high standards that are expected. With the exception of covid-related absence Turing House students have been in school, learning, participating and being there for their peers.

Once again, the festive time of year does mean a period of assessment for Year 11. This year, Teacher Internal Assessments have replaced the mock examinations. I would like to commend the students for their application and perseverance in preparation for these tests and their continued involvement in house activities during this busy time. I hope they all enjoy a well-earned break over the holidays. 

I am the proud leader of Turing House and am ably supported by the House Tutor Team. Our House Leaders Jessica Stanley and Isobel Taylor have also fulfilled their roles and stepped in at every opportunity to help.

This term's Tremendous Weekly Turings are below. These students have been recognised by their tutor for demonstrating one or more of the core values of Turing (Unity, Acceptance and Determination). Their achievements are an example to us all. Well done all of you!

Year 7: Cerys Voisey, Matei Achim, Marcus Perry, Isabella Norman, Grace Jenkins, Freya Cottlier, Ella Bartovsky, Joey Doherty, Joe Cook, Hassan Maxamuud, Roary Gallagher, Sabira Caraye, Daniel Falconer, Sofia Hawkesby, George Wilkinson, Billy Stringer, Nas Gyimah Sarpong, Hope Roberts, Grace Lowther-Harris, Marley Hawkesbury, May Anderson, Michael Sirrell, Chloe Buston, Reuben O'Donnell, Owen Moss, Jake Packham, Phoebe Oakman, Balint Fekete, Layla Clarke, Amrit Gill, Nicole Conbeer, Adam Britton, Ruby Walsh, Ruby Stephens, Farida Awil, Euan Sutton, Nana Gyimah-Sarpong, Ethan Bose, Tilly Hardwell, Natalie Stringer, Jolie Breakwell, Ruby Azcel, William Parsons, Millie McLoughlin and Jessica Stanley.

The following students are the highest Turing Praise Earners in each tutor group. These students have shown what can be achieved by contributing to school life in every aspect of the academic and wider curriculum.

• Marcus Perry 7T1
• Ella Bartovsky 7T2
• Oscar Caton 8T
• Hope Roberts 9T1
• Michael Sirrell 9T2
• Adam Britton 10T
• Deya Reynolds 11T1
• Jess Stanley 11T2

I know a key part of the newsletter is house sport and other competitions. As ever, the results speak for themselves. The truly amazing results are down to the incredible turn-out and participation levels in each competition. It is proof that Turing House really is one big family.

Turing House members have excelled in the autumn Inter-House sports competitions (benchball for girls and dodgeball for boys):

Year 7 Boys  Dodgeball   (Second Place) 

Year 8 Girls   Bench-Ball (First Place)

Year 8 Boys  Dodgeball   (Second Place)

Year 9 Girls   Benchball   (First Place)

Year 9 Boys  Dodgeball   (First Place)

Year 10 Girls Benchball   (First Place) 

Year 10 Boys Dodgeball  (Second Place)

Year 11 Girls Benchball   (First Place) 

Year 11 Boys Dodgeball  (Second Place)

With such success it is hardly surprising that overall in the autumn Inter-House Sports Competition Turing House came FIRST!

In KS3 the winter competition featured netball for the girls and rugby for the boys. The show-stoppers were Year 8. Both girls and boys teams finished in FIRST PLACE. 

To finish off the competitions summary, here are the highlights:

• “Fun Fix Fridays” winners in skipping, hoop-shoot and “After Eight” Challenge.
• Christmas Card Design Competition, (Phoebe Oakman 9T2) second place.
• Lyric and Verse Competition, (Manon Herzog 7T2) second place. 
• Christmas Bake-Off Winners (Y7 Jack Atkinson 7T2, KS4 Jess Stanley 11T2)

These results also contribute to the overall standings in the Inter House Competition, well done again to all who participate and support.  

Finally, I would like to sign off with words of encouragement and support for all of Turing House’s students, parents and carers who have done such a brilliant job of “Keeping Calm and Carrying On”. I look forward to seeing you all at the start of Term 3, when we go again, full-on, like Turing House always does.

Mrs Price, Head of Turing House

And that’s another term done and another year done! I am so proud of how the Yousafzai students have conducted themselves this part term with four out of five year groups facing the challenges of learning at home. Yousafzai students have engaged (on the whole) extremely well and have just shown how much they value both their education and the time they have been able to spend at school.

Our year 11 students have been working exceptionally hard this half term with revision and many arriving at school early or staying later to get that extra bit of work in. They have been completing some in class assessments and they will reap the rewards of the hard work that they have put in. Well done year 11 - you deserve a well earned break over Christmas! 

We have had our celebration of achievement assembly for the term and there were lots of things to celebrate:

Tutors always nominate two individuals from each of their tutor group to be named as ‘Malala’s Greats’ - these individuals have made a huge impression this term, striving to be the best versions of themselves. These students were: 

7Y - Gregory Tabener and Alice White

8Y1 - Chloe Memmel and Cameron Mclean

8Y2 - Liam Hacker and Millie Horn 

9Y - Frank McCann and Jess Porter

10Y1 - James Wamulo and Edie Church

10Y2 - Eliza Shilton-Smith and Charlie Beavan

11Y - Elanor Tuckwell and Joe Paice.

We celebrated individuals who have made excellent improvements to either behaviour or attendance. These students have shown real resilience and determination to make sure they get everything they can out of school and their education this term. A huge well done to you all!

This term, house competitions have been abundant and Yousafzai students have had great fun getting involved and we have celebrated a fair few wins! Leah Wardingley’s design won the winter card competition and Adam Howie’s entry the anti-bullying poster competition. Yousafzai House also won 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Lyric and Verse competition with entries from Naomi Burr, Rochelle Woodruff and Jess Porter and Tom Creton.

Each Friday we have had a Fun Fix Friday pop up competition where students have taken part in their year group areas, trying their hand at welly wanging, shooting baskets on the courts, skipping and the after eight challenge! Joel Martineau won the year 8 competition with the highest number of keepy uppys in a minute and Lucas Packham came second in year 9. We had big wins for the hoola-hoop competition too - Asha Storer hoola hooped for at least 10 minutes, Cameron Mcclean stole the competition right at the end for year 8 hoola hooping and Alani Clay too claimed second in year 7 just at the last minute. A big shout out to Joe Betty (11Y) who has entered himself into almost every challenge -well done!

There has been lots of house sport this term too. Alfie King, Daud Ismail and Lewis Cole smashed the KS4 cross country. Many students represented the house in dodgeball/benchball and rugby and netball and have secured second place for Yousafzai. I am so proud of all the many, many individuals who have represented Yousafzai in all of the house competitions.

All of Yousafzai’s hard work means that we now stand in second place in the house competition with Turing just ahead of us which is great news. It is great to see the commitment of Yousafzai students to the house competition but even more than that, it is great to see their commitment to being the best versions of themselves and striving to treasure their education. This is our priority as a house - be the best we can be, treasure our education …..and then worry about the house championship.

And so I want to say a huge thank you to all the students of Yousafzai House who do continue to strive and be the best that they can be and a huge thank you as well to all the parents and carers for supporting them.

I think we are all very grateful for the imminent holiday and I wish you all a wonderful break and a very Happy Christmas. We shall see you in the new year! 

Miss Andrews, Head of Yousafzai House

Flexibility has been the key to term 2 as we've seen year groups in and out of school over the course of the last 7 weeks.

After a short hiatus, we're now back to co-curricular activities and have decided to ramp up our offer so that students have as many opportunities to stay active as possible. We are now running clubs for year group bubbles before school, at lunchtime and after school. We've been really impressed with the numbers of students who are taking up the offers, particularly before school with Year 9 and Year 10 making the most of the opportunities for some early exercise! We've seen more than 250 students engage with our co-curricular provision this term with activities ranging from rugby to netball, hockey to football, dodgeball to table tennis, basketball to cricket and much more!

Amazingly, we have also managed to fit in almost all of our normal house competitions too with cross country events taking place at the end of term 1 and dodgeball, benchball, rugby and netball events taking place across term 2. We had to be flexible with our dates and we've had more rescheduled competitions than I can remember but we have made it through! So far we have seen 86% of the school represent their house in at least one competition which is an amazing statistic! Almost 400 students from Years 7, 8 and 9 contested winter competitions in rugby and netball, with Stephenson enjoying the best of the performances across all of the competitions bringing them right back into contention. Dodgeball and benchball events fell favourably for Turing house which only cemented their lead at the top of the house sport standings, after they blew away the competition on the cross country course.

Our BTEC sport students would normally be surrounded by primary school children for indoor leadership events at this time of the year, alas, this isn't currently possible. Without letting that deter us, Year 11 have been busy recording videos to support virtual primary school competitions and we are looking forward to seeing how these take shape in the New Year. We can't replace the personal touch that face to face events offer but we are determined to make sure we achieve the next best thing!

Don't forget to sign up at bit.ly/skpenews, if you haven't already, to receive your copy of our termly PE newsletter with more details and all of the fall out from the last 7 weeks.

As always, we are extremely grateful to all of our students, parents, carers and supporters. From all of us in PE, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2021!

Mr Cook, Head of PE 

• 04 January: INSET DAY 5 - School closed to students 
• 05 January: Year 11 and Year 13 students return to school for Term 3. FURTHER INFORMATION TO FOLLOW.
• 05 January - 15 January: Year 11 mock exams
• 27 January: Parents/ carers association meeting, 6.30-7.30pm
• 28 January: Year 7 (virtual) Parent/carer evening
• 04 February: Year 11 Parent/ carer evening
• 09 February: Student vaccinations - Year 9
• 10 February: Year 9 (virtual) options evening
• 11 February: Year 9 Parent/ carer evening
• 12 February: INSET DAY 6 - School closed to students
• 22 February: Students in school for Term 4

There isn’t enough space here to showcase the huge variety of student experiences and achievements this term. Keep up to date by visiting the ‘News and Events’ section on the school website, check the school Facebook page or follow us on Twitter (@stkathsschool)