BSCA WEEKLY UPDATE - 21st May 2021 - Message from Rachael Lucas, Headteacher - Bolton St Catherine's ...
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BSCA WEEKLY UPDATE – 21st May 2021 Message from Rachael Lucas, Headteacher Good Afternoon Everyone, As I know you will be aware, we have had a number of positive Covid cases, resulting in some full, or partial, bubble closures this week. As you know, our control measures are just the same as they have been since September - the Lateral Flow Tests are identifying asymptomatic cases which is good in terms of everyone’s safety, however regretfully does mean some bubble closures and disruption to schooling, although limited due to teaching via Teams. The other point to bear in mind, is that during the Autumn Term, Bolton was placed in more stringent lockdown measures than other locations, which is not the case now, and so I can see the cases continue to rise as families and friends continue to meet. Reminder- if your child has any symptoms at all, please isolate them at home and book a PCR test. Lateral Flow Tests are for people with no symptoms. They are not as accurate as a PCR test. If your child has symptoms, tests negative on a Lateral Flow Test, and is sent into school they are potentially spreading Covid within the school. To clarity, please book a PCR test if your child has any Covid symptoms. Progress Evenings - It is more important than ever that we maintain good communication between school and home regarding how well the students are progressing, given the amount of disruption we have suffered this year. It is vital that you attend Progress Evening to be able to help us to support progress and development. Year 9 Parents Evening is next Thursday using the SchoolCloud online platform. Details were sent out last week, and are on Page 11. If you have any difficulty booking an appointment please email Mr Rashid, Head of Year 9 at irashid@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk Many thanks to all the parents who attended the Year 10 on-line Progress Evening on Thursday. We will be sending out an online questionnaire asking you what you thought of the new format shortly. I will also be writing home to all those parents who did not attend Progress Evening to try and establish why that was and what we can do as a school to encourage all parents to attend. Relationships and Sex Education in Secondary – Forward Notice - As part of implementing the new statutory RSE curriculum, schools must consult with the children, parents, staff and governors to ensure there is a general consensus on our approaches to policy and the curriculum content. To that end, we are inviting you as parents to try a sample RSE lesson over Microsoft Teams on Thursday 24th June at 4pm-4:30pm. Invitations will be sent out shortly - this is a prior notice to save the date and time. We hope it will be an interactive session for parents explaining what our curriculum is and what a typical lesson looks like.
PE Leggings and PE Kit - We are still working hard to source some competitively priced PE leggings
that are sufficiently non- see through so as to make them suitable to be worn as PE kit.
A big thank you to all the parents who have recently purchased new PE kit and to all the students
turning up smartly dressed in their correct PE kit.
We are still sending home all those students who ae turning up to school in incorrect PE kit, to either
change into the correct PE kit, or change into their correct school uniform. This will continue until
the students are back changing for PE in the changing rooms. I am hopeful that might be after half
term.
As always, thank you for working with BSCA during this difficult school year. Enjoy the weekend, and
please, for the safety of us all, adhere to Covid guidelines.
Rachael Lucas
Headteacher
Student Planner Front Cover
Competition – Final Chance!
Calling all Secondary Students, we need your help!
We are in the process of reviewing the design of our student
planners ready for September and like last year, we want
you to use your creative skills and design the front cover.
Last year Summer was the proud winner of this competition,
and she not only won £20 Love2Shop vouchers, but also got
to see her design on all your student planners throughout the
year. It was such an inspirational design, and we are very
proud of her design.
Entries will be voted for by students, staff and parents. There
is a £20 prize for the winner and the prestige of having your design on the front cover for
2021/22. We would like to see some inspiring designs, again, based around our values, and
the rest is up to you.
What next:
• Students have received a document which includes via email this week that includes the
various logo’s that you can use as part of your design
• You can hand draw/paint/print or use your computer skills to design the cover
• Designs need to be on A4 (standard size) paper or document
• Make your design inspirational
All entries need to be submitted by email by Wednesday 26th May to
swilliams@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk or handed into the Reception Office at our
main entrance. Good luck everyone!
BSCA PRIMARY UPDATES
KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE
As you are all well aware, the school site opens at 8:45am each day. School starts
at 8:55am. (As part of our COVID plan registration arrival is open and on time until
9:05am)
The school site is not staffed before 8:45am, and subsequently children arriving
before this time are unsupervised.
Children must arrive at, or after, 8:45am.
Children arriving before this time (especially those walking to school independently)
will be considered a safeguarding concern.
Traffic on Greenroyd Avenue:
Traffic on Greenroyd Ave at collection and drop-off continues to be a problem.
- 96% of families live within a 5 minute walk to school.
- Change for Life: guidance for families
https://walk4life.info/about-walk4life/change4life
Unless we ALL work together the risks of cars will continue to affect ALL children.
• Drivers should not park near a school entrance.
• Drivers should not park in a way that prevents access for emergency services,
• Drivers should not stop, opposite or within 10 metres of a junction,
• Drivers should not park over a dropped kerb,
• Drivers should not park in front of an entrance to a property.
• Yellow zig-zag lines indicate the length of the road where stopping or waiting is strictly
prohibited.
Thank you to those parents who continue to assist
with the protection of our students – this is our
priority, and we want to ensure all students are
able to be dropped off and collected safely.
THEME OF THE TERM:
I AM STRONG
As you may already know, each half term we explore a
new theme within school and particularly within collective
worship/assembly. So far, we’ve looked at ‘I AM…
accepted, blessed, influential, forgiven and strong’.
Despite restrictions, again student have explored these themes in many ways and we are
looking forward to showcasing their great work by hosting an I AM BSCA Exhibition next half
term. We look forward to sharing how this progress in the coming weeks.
As mentioned last week, despite the challenges
presented by the pandemic, our students have been
able to STRIVE through and show CARE by supporting
our school charities. On our Facebook page is a video
put together by our Ethos group students who have
been raising awareness about the work of Christian Aid
and what we have been doing as a school to support
them.
‘Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it
is within your power to act’. Proverbs 3:27
CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR VIDEO ABOUT CHRISTIAN AID AND HOW
WE ARE SUPPORTING THEM
HOT CHOCOLATE FRIDAYS
Each week Mrs Lucas, Head Teacher, awards students who have received the highest Steps to
Success scores each week, proving their determination to succeed.
This week, the recipients of the Head Teacher award are:
Student Name Year Total number of 1's
Ansha 7 15
Hope 9 14
Alexandra 8 14
Conner 8 14
Kayden 8 14
Mental Health Awareness Week
We carried on our focus on Mental Health
Awareness this week, and looked at this
within lessons, form time, RISE and
assemblies.
The theme for this year is CONNECT WITH NATURE. We are encouraging all students,
parents/carers and staff to look at ways they can connect with nature, and get outside in
the fresh air.
Last week’s Challenge was to get outside and take photos of nature.
It was so good to see everyone get involved – check out some of the photos we received:
Mr Hill: ‘I have been busy planting 60 trees to build a
new area of woodland this morning. Along with my
friends at Rotary we have now planted our 2000th tree.
I have kept three to bring to school to plant with the
children in primary next week’
Mrs Lucas visited some local woodlands,
and even spotted some deer!
Mrs Senior took our lovely Rocky out
for a long walk to see the ducks at
Pennington Flash
Over the last week we have included lots of links to services that can help students, and
families, with their Mental Health. They have been posted on our Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter pages, plus shown to students through the daily bulletin, and in Form and
RISE time. Below are all some services we would recommend – click the links to access
their websites:
Students can visit our School Nurse to talk
about any issues they are having, ask for
advice, or talk about how they are feeling.
Tuesday Lunchtimes – 1pm – 2pm
This is a confidential service.
PRIMARY OUT OF SCHOOL CLUB:
Our Primary students have been busy this week with lots of activities related to nature
to raise awareness for mental health during After School Club sessions with Miss L Cass.
As we are focussing on Mental Health Awareness, we have been talking about
looking for the positives. We have all made a ‘Positivity Bag’. Each day this week,
when we have entered After School Club, all of the students have thought of one
positive thing which has happened, or one thing they are thankful for, and written it down
on a piece of paper, before placing in their bag. Some students have chosen to write a
positive note to encourage someone else, and placed it in their bag instead. At the end of
last week, we read them all and remembered the positive things which had happened.
Sometimes we can go through the week and think that nothing positive has happened,
when actually there are little pockets of positivity each day. We are looking forward to
continuing this, and helping even some of our youngest students look after their mental
health.
We have now ended our focus on Mental Health Awareness. However, we
continue to take this issue seriously, and provide #CARE for our students,
and you, as their families, as well as our BSCA staff.
It is vital that if you need support yourself, or you think a friend, family
member or colleague may need some help, that you act and ask for
support.
If you require support, at any
time, you can contact either
your child’s Head of Year, or Mrs
Platt, the BSCA Designated
Safeguarding Lead.
BRINGING NATURE INTO CLASS – MS MURRAY
For both my science groups, 703 and 713. This week we have focused on how to improve our
Mental Health to feel better.
At the beginning of the lesson, the students came into class and a video of a tropical rain forest
was playing, with sound effects. The students had to say what they could hear and see; for
example, heavy rain, running water, birds chirping and insects creeping along.
We have been looking at the Digestive System in relation to how the body systems work, and
so we focused on how eating healthier foods affects digestion, and improves how we feel
(brain), and what happens when we aren’t active, and don’t eat healthy foods. Students said
they could feel stressed, have low moods or feel unhappy.
The pupils then designed a healthy eating poster which included a range of good healthy foods
and natural activities they could do locally and were accessible to them.
We also went on a nature walk around the field, and the pupils had to come back with a
Gratitude List – 5 things they could see, 4 things they could hear, 3 things they could touch, 2
things they could smell, and 1 thing they really enjoyed – they read these lists out to each other
and compared notes.
Finally, we looked at a questionnaire on how to help a friend if they seemed to be struggling
with their mental health and what they may do. They answered as we went through the
questions. The students were very mature in their answering and were fabulous outside.
If you want to take the questionnaire and seek advice on how to help a friend, CLICK HERE.
I will attach the link for the powerpoint I used – and the bbc questionnaire below, and a few
CLICK HERE TO HEAR
pics the ones I took on the field were of the field and quite vague!
RELAXING NATURE
MUSIC.
You can edit/change this if too much info
CLICK HERE TO SEE
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57013126
HOW THE FOOD YOU
bbc news mh EAT IMPACTS YOUR
BRAIN.
MANCHESTER UNITED FOUNDATION This week has been full of rewards, and we are so happy about it – it is amazing that we are able to reward those students who consistently achieve their excellence, get involved in school activities and show a real determination to succeed, both with their studies and outside of lessons. MUFC vs Fulham Match Tuesday 18th of May Last week we told you about two students who had been rewarded with tickets to watch MUFC V Fulham. Seth and Emmanuel went to the match this week and loved it! They were some of the first fans in the stadium for a very long time – what a great experience to remember forever! Emmanuel - “I cannot define, and words can’t describe how I am feeling right now. I am beyond happy, this is amazing. I cannot wait to go into the stadium with my family at watch my favourite team. This is amazing and something I never get to do, even without covid stopping me. Thank you so much.” Seth - “This is amazing, I am such a big Manchester United fan, and I cannot wait to be able to go to the Manchester United game with my dad, especially with not being able to see any football live over the past year. Being one of the first fans back in the stadium is an experience I will never forget”. MUFC X MANCHESTER MIND: This week we had an exciting delivery of 75 footballs, especially designed by Manchester United in support of Manchester MIND. The footballs came with a wellbeing pack, to encourage our students to look after their mental health. Our students loved receiving their footballs and packs which included learning tools on how to be positive, be curious and be united in supporting each other.
YEAR 11 - APPRENTICESHIPS
Year 11 pupils can start an apprenticeship from as early as 1st July.
If you are interested in apprenticeships, then there are a wide range of live apprenticeship
vacancies at Bury College that can equip you with the skills you need for success. There
are opportunities in a variety of dynamic and vibrant sectors, including Accounting,
Business Administration, Customer Service, Team Leading, Teaching, and Dental.
If you are interested then visit the following link for live vacancies:
https://studentportal.burycollege.ac.uk/ApprenticeshipVacancies/Default.aspx
Ms Begum
rbegum@boltonstcatherinesacademy.org.uk
YEAR 9 PROGRESS EVENING
This year’s Progress Evenings will be different
to our usual format. In the current climate we
are unable to offer the opportunity to come
into school to speak to teachers so, we are
offering Progress Evening online via
SchoolCloud.
All the information you need to register with
the app and book appointments has been
sent via email, the School Gateway app or text. Please check your messages so you can
see how to book appointments with staff.
Year 9 Progress Evening:
Thursday 27th May
4.00pm – 6.30pm
SPORT and HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE ACTIVITY:
Our staff in Sport and Health and Social Care this week have
produced some quizzes for you – test your knowledge and
get to know our staff by clicking the links below:
CLICK HERE FOR SPORT QUIZ
CLICK HERE FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE QUIZYEAR 9 & 10 EXAMS
All Year 9 and 10 families have received a letter with details of their upcoming PPE / mock
exams. The dates of the internal examination period are:
YEAR 9: Monday 21st June to Friday 2nd July 2021
YEAR 10: Monday 7th June to Friday 18th June 2021.
Please ensure you have read the letter, as it contains important information that will help
our students be as prepared as possible for their exams.
• Expectations for mock exams will be the same as expected in formal exams.
• All examinations will be in the sports hall
• Students will attend school in the morning as normal and then escorted to the
examination room.
• Most examinations in the afternoon will finish after the end of the school day so
therefore we ask that arrangements are made to support this. If your child is not in an
exam then they will be attending their normal timetabled lessons.
• Your child must spend time at home revising for these exams. At least one hour per
night at home is essential for them to be able to maximise their ability to tackle the
exams and achieve their full potential.
Week 1 Year 10
Monday 7th Tuesday 8th Wednesday Thursday 10th Friday 11th
June June 9th June June June
Option B (1)
AM English 1hr 45 Maths 1hr 30 English 1hr 1hr to 2hrs Science 1hr
Option A Option C French listening
PM Science 1hr 1hr to 2hrs 1hr to 2hrs 40 mins
Week 2 Year 10
Monday 14th Tuesday 15th Wednesday Thursday 17th Friday 18th
June June 16th June June June
Option B (2) French listening History option
AM 1hr to 2hrs English 1 hr Maths 1 hr 30 40mins C 1 hr
PM Science 1hr Travel/RE 1hr
Year 9 PPE
Monday 21st Tuesday 22d Wednesday Thursday 24th Friday 25th
June June 23rd June June June
English 1hr
AM 45mins Maths 1hr 30 English 1hr Maths 1hr 30 English 1hr
Option B Option A Option C
PM 1hr to 2hrs Science 1hr RE 1 hr 1hr to 2hrs 1hr to 2hrsBSCA SECONDARY PE KIT
At BSCA we want, and expect our students to look smart every week. There is still a minority
of students who are attending school in non-school uniform PE kit, on their PE day.
From Tuesday 4th May the following changes came into operation so that we can recognise
all those students that get it right all the time:
• If a student does not have the correct school PE kit then rather than attend school in
alternative sportswear, they need to come into school in their normal school uniform
and the PE department will start the process below.
• If a student ignores this and comes into school in sportswear, then we will ask parents
to come and pick them up, so they can go home and change into their normal
school inform. The impact of this will be we will have students in correct PE kit or
correct school uniform.
We will not have students
who are seemingly
dressed as a student on a
non-uniform day. This is
unacceptable.
If a student does not have
the current school PE Kit, they should attend in their normal school uniform, and the
following process will be followed:Students with no PE kit will be managed within class using positive scripting. They will assume
the role of a sports official in some capacity, coach, umpire, scorer, data analysis, organiser,
equipment manager etc. Should they require a buddy room, this will be managed within
the department with the nearest suitable PE class.
The aim of this process is that all students:
Believe that they can succeed in Sport and Vocational subjects, and that they take an active part
in their learning within lessons either practically, coaching or officiating
Strive to do their best to bring equipment, kit and take part – being work ready
Care for their equipment and kit and that of others, and care for their appearance by looking smart
in their full PE kit and having all the equipment necessary for a practical session. This is even if injured
or unable to participate fully so that they can assume the role of coach or official in some capacity
Achieve well in this subject by wearing uniform and kit with pride
BSCA PE LEGGINGS:
We reported last week that we have listened to the requests of
students (via a very respectful petition), and staff, and we are
consulting on introducing BSCA leggings to our PE kit from September
2021. So, we wanted to show you what they may look like with a design
similar to this with the BSCA in either white or blue:
https://www.whittakersschoolwear.co.uk/product/ladybridge-girls-
pe-leggings/
Bolton Music Service
Bolton Music Service will be running two music
workshop sessions from our music space at
Castle Hill Youth Centre on Monday evenings.
We have been supported with Big Local
Funding to run two sessions during term time:
6pm (from age 10) and 7pm (age 11 and
over). These are an opportunity to learn
instruments, write songs and play music with
friends. Beginners are welcome.
Places can be booked through the Youth
Centre, or by getting in touch with Bolton
Music Service –
music.service@bolton.gov.uk/ 01204 333533You can also read
