I can’t tell a lie - this term has been tough!

As I said to our year 13 students when we gathered together for breakfast and a brief breather two weeks ago (pictured above), this term has required these exceptional young people to delve deeper into their pools of resilience and self-efficacy than maybe ever before. As I said - it’s been tough. 

But our students, as they always do, have risen to the challenge. With the delicate act of balancing revision and coursework across subjects with maintaining wellbeing and sanity becoming ever trickier as we approached the end of Term 5, the Sixth Form team are in awe of our Year 13. 

It is fortunate that our current Year 12 students have been able to observe and learn from this very special and committed cohort. While we work under the assumption that, for this year group, their end of year assessments next year will take a more ‘traditional’ shape, the flexibility and mental agility shown by our outgoing Sixth Formers has set a very high bar. 

And now, as we complete our final assessments and neatly file our stacks of evidence, we can look ahead to plenty of happy times. The final day of Term 5 is Leavers’ Day, an opportunity to reflect on all the achievements and friendships that have marked students’ time at St Katherine’s. Then early in Term 6, we eagerly await our Step Into Sixth Form Days, where our incoming students will join us for two full days of taster lessons, workshops and inductions to build anticipation for next year. We invite all Year 11 students to join us - just email Mrs Papworth (papworthh@skdrive.org) to confirm your attendance. 

Beyond this, we have the Event Of The Year™, the St Katherine’s Sixth Form Prom on June 25th, which will see some of North Somerset’s most revered socialites (the Sixth Form Tutors) descend upon Bristol’s Harbourside in their glad-rags for what will be a fantastic night. Tickets are on ParentPay now!

And beyond that, to the well-deserved summer, and to the hugely diverse and exciting range of lives these young people are about to embark upon. I, and the whole Sixth Form team, would like to extend our sincere thanks to every student in Year 13 for taking such a difficult year and making it so memorable, and for being such kind, funny and conscientious people. It has been an honour to know you and to support you during your time here. A special thank you to our Head Students Ellie McCarthy and Stephanie Thomasset for being a credit to the school, and to the parents and carers and support networks who play such a huge part in making our Sixth Form community what it is. 

Thank you, and good luck.

Mr Davies, Head of Sixth Form

The houses came together in term 5 to raise money for two local charities and so the House Championship was a little quieter in Term 5. However, we had one of the best Fun Fix Fridays of the year which saw students competing in the water balloon challenge. The winners were the pair that could throw and safely catch a water balloon between them without it bursting. Congratulations to Pankhurst whose teamwork and skill prevailed.

The term 5 ethos competition was punctuality and reminded students of the importance of showing respect for our school, their classmates and their teachers by making sure they are on time. Our ethos competitions include the whole school community and Pankhurst proved to be most punctual from Year 7-13 and secured first place and a much needed 200 points. Stephenson House were in second place and their 150 points take them into second place overall. 

However, it is Pankhurst who have performed best this term as they also have the best accelerated reading scores. 

Term 6 brings some sporting competition into the House Championship and is something that staff and students have greatly missed. A huge number of house points are available in Term 6 and Turing should therefore by no means think that their lead, although very impressive, is unassailable. Turing however are the current holders of the Sports Cup and therefore must be feeling confident that 2021 will be a blue year once again. 

Mrs Crocker, Assistant Headteacher

At the end of term 4 Pankhurst House were 218 points off third place in the House Championship and I set the house the challenge of winning every available competition in term 5 to try and ensure that we closed that gap. Our key house values are Passion, Perseverance and Pride and trying to improve on our term 4 position gave us the opportunity to really demonstrate these qualities. I’m delighted to say that the house rose to this challenge - we managed to win all of the house competitions over the course of the term! This is a magnificent achievement that has seen us close the gap to 3rd place to only 56 points and sees us only 156 points off second. We are still fourth but we have put ourselves in a position to be competitive in term 6. I don’t think Turing will be caught in first place but Yousafzai and Stephenson House should be looking over their shoulders as the Pankhurst comeback will continue in term 6. It’s game on! I’m really proud of the whole house for their efforts. 

On an individual level it is worth noting that Emily Sell (8P2) and Hannah Green (7P) have become the first ever students in St Katherine’s to achieve over 1000 praise points. Well done both of you, we are proud of your achievements. Other notable individual achievements this term come from some of our year 11 students with Ollie Stratton and Ari Rugman who are playing county level rugby through the Bristol Bears and Toby Rice who is representing Gloucester for cricket. Well done all three of you.  

A special mention goes to Pankhurst House Year 11 students as they prepare to leave us after sitting their GCSE examinations. It’s been a torrid couple of years for all of this cohort, and I want to pay tribute to the attitude and efforts of all of the Pankhurst students who have battled hard to overcome the significant challenges presented by sitting examinations during a pandemic. You are a special group of individuals and I could not be more proud of you. I wish you all well with whatever you do in the next academic year.

Mr Murdoch, Head of Pankhurst House

This term saw Stephenson House celebrate the 84th birthday of Paul Stephenson. Paul was really pleased with the video birthday messages and we all feel that it is a huge privilege to have our house named after him. Our RED values of Respect, Equality and Determination stem from Paul Stephenson and what he stood for as well as our motto “from adversity comes progress”. We can learn a lot from his work not only in the Bristol community but afar and it is important that we continue to use our voice in a positive way.

This week Stephenson House has celebrated successes from term 5 during the celebration assemblies. It is always a pleasure to award students prizes for their hard work and determination. A big well done to Charlie Topp, Ari Westerberg and Ben Palmer who have the highest praises for term 5. As well as this a huge shout out to Felix Heurtus (791) and Evelyn Stayley (774) who are still top of the highest praises for the academic year. An amazing amount of praises!

A big well done to the students in the house who received Stephenson Stars and represented our RED values of Respect, Equality and Determination:

Lilly Stenning, Shayma Jibril, Ezekiel Pinkney, Noah Pearson, Archie Woolnough, Ali Butt, Ben Lumoso, Maisie Bobby, Daisy Lewis, Abdulrahim Yusuf, Zach Page, Harvey Niemczyck, George Skeates, Amelia Fletcher, Tehseen Ahmad, Khalid Bulaleh, Jack Palmer-Givan, Ruby Gray, Cruz Mead, Safa Culusow, Ollie Page, Annie Skeates, Jessy Brackstone, Daniel Grace, Milly Marlow, Maddie Price, Pearl Westerberg, Dylan Murray, Ava Hocking, Reuben Peacock, Charlie Thoburn, Sam Peacock, Scarlett Newby and Eve Griffin.

The house competition continues to intrigue and it has been a challenge for us in Stephenson House to work towards moving into second place above Yousafzai. Despite not faring well in Fun Fix Friday events this term, finishing third and fourth, we have managed to move into second spot overall. This is down to finishing second in the accelerated reader competition and second in the ethos competition for promptness to lessons. It would be nice to win a competition but you can’t have everything I suppose. A big well done to Pankhurst as well this term who managed to win pretty much every competition on offer and close the gap on us and Yousafzai. A long way to go to try and catch the very competitive Turing House though!!!

A final thank you and farewell to 11S who have served and represented Stephenson house and our values for the past four years. You have been a credit to not only the house but the whole school community. I wish you all the best in your future and that you continue to “dream big, work hard and make it happen”.

Mr Thomas, Head of Stephenson House

What a term we have had at St Katherine’s, especially in Turing House. This term has seen Year 11 students completing their GCSE courses in what has been a very challenging, unprecedented time with the worry of Covid, the challenge of learning at home, and finishing with the high controlled assessments in school. The examination season has seen these students make the final push with revision and then the application of their knowledge in examination conditions. I am looking forward to joining them, along with the tutor team, when they celebrate their five years at St Katherine’s at the Y11 Celebration Day and Prom.

The support provided by the Tutor Team for Y11 (and the rest of their tutor group members) is a constant reminder to me of the staff’s dedication and motivation to help students perform to the best of their abilities.

Term 5 has seen all Turing students get involved in Charity Week, with a large number taking an active role in participation and fund-raising. 

Activities included:

• Row Across the Channel in a lunch time for each year group. (Particular congratulations to the incredible rowing duo of Mr Court (10T tutor) and Kanye Christie (10T) who together rowed 4,199metres (2.6 miles) in 15 minutes. 
• Soak The Teacher (Once again, Mr Court showed his commitment to the two good causes and was soaked in the name of charity.)
• Sponsored head-shave by Marley Hawkesby in 9T1 
• Sweetie Sale. (Sweets provided by staff and sold to Y7 and Y8 students) 

A special mention to Mr Court (tutor of 10T) for being the tutor who raised the most money and took part in the greatest number of competitions. He also publicised the St Katherine's charity week, resulting in his family and friends contributing hundreds of pounds to our two chosen charities. Thank you Mr Court!

I am also very proud of the successes earned by Turing House members competing in the House Championship. We must remember that there is only one term left to maintain our lead. With Stephenson demonstrating their drive to bridge the gap, it is really important that all students in Turing House unite together and we have full representation in all House competitions in Term 6. Our motto reinforces this message: ‘The strength of the team is each individual member, the strength of each member is the team.’ Let’s demonstrate our three core values of ‘unity’, ‘determination’ and ‘acceptance’ in all that we do and finish the year 2021 House Champions.

The Highest Praise earners in each Turing tutor group, as well as the current highest praise earner since the start of the academic year are highlighted below. Congratulations to you all and keep up the good work! 

Highest praise earners term 5:

• Marcus Perry, 7T1
• Luke James, 7T2
• Roary Gallager, 8T
• Nas Gyimah-Sarpong, 9T1
• Michael Sirrell, 9T2
• Hollie Andrews, 10T
• Shadrack Bunkete, 11T1
• Jessica Stanley, 11T2

Highest praise earners this academic year:

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

Tremendous Weekly Turing students are students that have consistently demonstrated one or more of the core values of Turing (Unity, Acceptance and Determination). Their attitude and behaviour are an example to all students at St Katherine’s. Congratulations and well done to all those nominated by their tutor! 

Year 7: Daniel Stewart, Bella Norman, Liam Davies, Miko Botta, Ellie Stallard, Malak Mengoud, Luke James, Joe Cook, Jackson Burbridge and Samuel Mwangi.

Year 8: Victor Achim, Roary Gallagher, Riccardo Benoni, Evie Roberts and Fern Clarke.

Year 9: Max Packham, Hector Mackenzie-Andrieux, Tom Stancliffe, Herbie Challice, Daniel Millward, Jake Packham, Harvey Knight, Teagan Davidson, Jack Heptinstall and Michael Sirrell.

Year 10: Nicole Conbeer, Kaz Pala, Maida Mohamed, Ahmed Said and Ruby Walsh.

Year 11: Shadrach Bunkete, Daisy McCarthy, Ezra Kay, Chelsea Baker, Hugh Lewis, Jamie-Leigh Bell, Paris Saunders, Leuan Miles, Max Stevens and Lily Morris.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a very happy holiday and hope that the end of May brings some sunshine to your activities, rather than the rainy experiences of the past few weeks.

Mrs Price, Head of Turing House

And with that, it’s another term done - it has been a busy one for all! 

We have recently held our charity week but we thought this through in our assemblies about how we can be charitable with our time and actions towards others - how we can put other people’s needs before our own. We have also reflected on the last 18 months and how it has been difficult and often stressful, but we can still push on and show resilience through it. We considered the importance of speaking out about how we are feeling and focusing on behaviours that are helpful to us rather than harmful. How we can show resilience through adversity - and thinking about Malala Yousafzai - a true example of someone showing determination and grit through very difficult times. 

This week we held our celebration of achievement assembly, we celebrated a number of individuals who have been nominated by their tutors for being outstanding this term. Our Malala greats this term are:

7Y - Yuvraj Singh and Elsie Reed

8Y1  - Lola Wiltshire and Oscar Pearson

8Y2  - Poppy Warner and Lyla Moore

9Y - Ollie Songer and Lucas Packham

10Y1 - Louis Gaskell and Melissa Bartlett 

10Y2 - Zain Muhammed and Hannah Packer

11Y  - Rosa Thomson and Liv Wilshire

The spot for second in the house competition has been a close call all term and unfortunately Mr Thomas and Stephenson House have taken it from us! Our house ethos competition was punctuality, unfortunately we came last and so lost out on points. We have had a couple of great Fun Fix Friday competitions. Leah Wardingley, Year 9, made a big impression for Yousafzai in “how many tennis balls can you throw in a bin in one minute” and we had great fun at the water balloon challenge. We need to work really hard next term to get second place back and try to take down Turing for first. Lots of entries needed for house competitions and fire in our bellies to win every competition we can! 

One of our continued biggest achievements at the moment is the way we have maintained one of the best behaviour ratios this term. It is an indicator of who we are and the choices that we are making. As much as the house competition is important, becoming the best versions of ourselves is even more important, so having one of the highest behaviour ratios is brilliant! 

The end of this term sees the end of 11Y’s time here at St Katherine’s. I can’t quite believe it that we are saying goodbye already! They have been an exceptional group throughout their time at St Katherine’s. I remember teaching them when they arrived in year 7 and it has been a pleasure to be their Head of House for the last three years. I have been so impressed with the way they have handled such disrupted years 10 and 11 but they have been brilliant. Their work ethic and attitude to their exams have been exemplary, they will all no doubt go on to do great things. For those that aren’t joining the St Katherine’s sixth form - please keep in touch, we would love to hear what you are getting up to. 11Y - it has been an absolute pleasure and we will miss you loads, thank you for everything you have given to the school and all the best for your future!

Once again, I am so proud of all those in Yousafzai House. Thank you to all parents and carers for supporting our young people during this last term. 

Have a wonderful half term and we will see you in term 6!

Miss Andrews, Head of Yousafzai House

• This term we have closely followed the individual achievements of some of our sporting students. Most notably we were glued to our television sets earlier this year watching Amelie and Phoebe competing for Great Britain in the European Championships in Switzerland - we are thrilled for both of the girls and congratulate them both on their recent successes. 

• A group of our Year 9 boys also found themselves on the end of a Junior Premier League cup final victory and some of our Year 11 boys had the opportunity to represent Bristol Bears against teams from Millfield and Bath.

• Bristol Bears have been in this term working with ladies from Year 9 and Year 11 - it has been great to see the enthusiasm and the talent amongst the students! The Year 9 girls are currently gearing themselves up for a celebration of sport festival which is taking place at Ashton Gate in the last week of term. For the Year 11 girls, it's all about the transition to rugby clubs and we're delighted to share that we have lots of girls in Year 11 who are now playing regular club rugby. As part of our work with Bristol Bears, Ruby, Chloe and Isobel completed a Young Leaders programme and as part of their course they had to film an online rugby session as well as leading their peers once they were back in school - needless to say that all three led superbly!

• We've had our rowing machines out for charity week this term as students from across different year groups battled each other in a 'Row The Channel' challenge. There were fantastic performances across the school but special mentions should go to the rowers from Year 9 who covered the most distance and Year 7 who turned out more rowers than any other year group - both year groups made the 21 mile distance look easy in their lunchtime slot!

• We're back to fixtures! The last week of this term sees some of our teams back in action against other schools. We've got a Year 9 girls' rugby festival, U14 boys' cricket match and a Year 9 and 10 boys' football friendly fixture in the final week. We're really looking forward to telling you all about our first competitive sporting events in our end of term newsletter.

• Students have been attending clubs in their hundreds this term as we started our programme of summer activities. For our current Year 7 and 8 students this was their first taste of summer sport at St Katherine's and it has been great to see all year groups making the most of their opportunities for softball, rounders, tennis, athletics and plenty of summer fun.

• We have really enjoyed getting back to athletics this term and although there might not have been any competitive opportunities, that hasn't stopped students striving for their best with some impressive record breaking performances in PE lessons and at athletics clubs! We're excited to tell you about some of our new 'School Record' and 'Best in School' title holders in our end of term newsletter.

• As always, for a more detailed round up of the action then make sure you keep an eye out for our termly PE newsletter - you can subscribe by completing this form.

• 07 June: START OF TERM 6
• 12 June: D of E training walk
• 14-15 June: Step Into Sixth Form days
• 24 June: Year 8 HPV vaccinations
• 25 June: Year 13 Prom
• 28 June - 02 July: Year 10 exams
• 28 June - 02 July: Sports Weeks
• 29-30 June: Year 6 Induction days
• 30 June: Year 6 Induction evening (virtual)
• 01 July: Year 11 Prom
• 02 July: Sports Day
• 16 July: END OF TERM 6
• 19-21 July: INSET DAYS - School closed to students

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)