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Saint Michael's College, February 2014 Newsletter
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Welcome to the February Newsletter 2014

From the Headteacher


Welcome to the latest edition of the newsletter. As you will see from the above the school has a new name; "King’s Saint Michael’s College". This is to reflect the fact that we are part of the King’s Group, one of the largest and most successful educational groups in the world. The King’s Group currently consists of seven British curriculum schools, in Spain, Panama and the United Kingdom educating over 3,835 pupils. 
 
This edition of the newsletter is full of interesting articles and stories reflecting what our pupils have been doing over the past month.  We were fortunate enough to have a visit from our local MEP, Mr Philip Bradbourn, who kindly agreed to be interviewed by two pupils from our newspaper club, this was a great opportunity for our pupils, offering them the chance to practice hands-on journalistic skills as well as meet  a predominant figure in local society.
 
Earlier this month, our GCSE pupils attended a science day in Birmingham; Science Live, in which they were treated to lectures from a number of world famous scientists, including Alice Roberts and Sir Robert Winston. The pupils returned to school enthralled with their day and buzzing with new information that they had learnt.
 
One of the most popular things that the school organise here at Saint Michael’s is the Saturday excursion programme. One of the excursions this month was to the beautiful university city of Oxford. Read more below about the pupils’ day out in the city of ‘Dreaming Spires’.
 
The main reason for pupils being with us of course, is to get good examination results and, for most pupils, to go on to study at top universities across the UK. In order to support this and as part of a new initiative, our GCSE pupils can now access a GCSEpod, which will considerably help them with their exam revision. You will also find further links later in the newsletter to other useful revision websites.

Future editions of the newsletter will include information on our new revision guides. These have been specially written by our own teachers for each subject and they should enable our pupils to achieve even better examination results.
 
There are also interesting articles on our charity efforts, the Valentine’s Disco and our Chinese New Year celebrations.
 
Happy Reading,



Stuart Higgins
Principal

Local MEP visits the School 


On Friday 7th February, the local Member of European Parliament, Mr Philip Bradbourn visited Saint Michael’s College to meet with pupils and discuss the political issues which affected Britain and its position within the European Union.

The meeting provided a great opportunity for our pupils to sit down with a local politician over a special prefects’ lunch to discuss the very issues which affected them as students here in the UK. 



Alex and Julia from Latvia and Russia respectively, talked to Mr Bradbourn in greater detail after the lunch. The two students questioned the MEP on issues such as integration into the European Union, the pros and cons of a single currency system and the Conservative Party’s position on the freedom of movement for people between E.U states.

Mr Philip Bradbourn, MEP, being interviewed by Alex A and Julia Z, two members of the school’s newspaper club.

Diary


Tuesday 25th February
Food Committee meeting
 
Friday 28th  Feb – Sunday 2nd March
Geography Field Trip, Somerset
 
Saturday 1st March
Sea Life Centre, Birmingham
 
Thursday 6th – 8th
ISSA Basketball Tournament, Barcelona
 
Thursday 13th – 15th
Model UN, Poland
 
Thursday 13th
Class Delegates meeting
 
Saturday 15th
Cheltenham
 
Saturday 22nd
Student Leadership course
 
Monday 24th March – 1st April
Foundation Course exams
 
Friday 28th March
Talent Show
 
Saturday 29th March
Warwick Castle
 
Saturday 05th April
Departure Day

 
Click here to see the complete school calendar for the academic year.

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GCSE pupils take day trip to Science event in Birmingham 


by Victoria M

On 4th February, GCSE pupils attended a meeting in Birmingham called Science Live, where we listened to a group of remarkable scientists discussing a wide variety of topics such as the sun, time travel, and even tips for the exams we will need to take at the end of the school year. 

Saint Michael’s pupils found their own area of interest amongst Biology, Physics and Chemistry; but it was also possible for us to understand that, above all, science is a logical and rational way of looking at things, and most importantly, it is a set of ideas that can be put to the test.
 
Visitors Victoria M, Jose R. and Marina S. pose between topics

Famous scientists such as Alice Roberts and Sir Robert Winston talked about their research.  Sir Winston interested and amazed everyone on the subject of fertility.  Similarly, Andrea Sella made everyone think when asking how the zebra got its stripes. 

All the speeches were interesting and helpful for our school work, but everyone agreed that the discussions on fertility, the sun, and time travel were the most engaging ones.  I ever choose to become a scientist, I would definitely pick one of these topics to work with.

Teddy Bears for Charity Push  


The Charity committee have been busy this month collecting money for a charity called LUZ in Mozambique. The school has a strong connection with the charity through charity coordinator Jude Ussey, a former summer school teacher at Saint Michael’s. Jude has been living in Mozambique for a number of years now and has a family there.
 
Jessica, Thais and Jakub waiting to present Mr Higgins with the 100+ entries for the competition

 
Money was raised through a competition in which students and staff paid £1 to choose a name for a giant teddy bear.  The competition to win the bear has become an annual event at the school with students and staff alike, all eager to claim the teddy as their own.  On Friday, the winning name was called out by charity prefect Fedor K from Russia and it was Ezgi from Istanbul, Turkey who became the proud owner of a giant teddy called … ‘Bambi’.  With some money still being collected, charity prefect Thais from Brazil said that they were expecting to receive around £100 from the teddy bear auction. 

"LUZ" - which means light in the local Portuguese dialect, use the money they raise to address serious social problems within Mozambique and find sustainable solutions.
 
The winner, Ezgi stands with Mr Higgins and ‘Bambi’ the bear 

Valentines Disco 


Last week preparations were afoot to decorate the common room and residences ahead of the weekend’s Valentine’s Day Disco, which has become a main event on the calendar at Saint Michael’s over the years.

The disco was a great success thanks to students such as Max and Esme who helped our sports and social organiser Katie, blow up the balloons and hang the decorations that were made in the art class in the run up to the event. There was also a tasty buffet laid on for the dancers.
 

Chinese New Year Celebrations 


The Year of the Horse was ushered in by celebrations all over the world, and Saint Michael’s was certainly no exception. Not only was there a huge traditional Chinese buffet with fortune cookies, but the dining hall and corridors were decorated with brightly coloured red and gold streamers and paper lanterns.

Chinese pupils also celebrated with their friends as the hour of midnight on the night of the new moon approached in Beijing. 
 

 
Lu Y gave his own account of  how he spent the day: 

“We ate hotpot which is a mixture of beef, lamb and vegetables in a type of fish bowl.  I was in school, but some of my friends were in Birmingham and London, where there was traditional dragon dancing on the streets. Between 7-8 pm we watched the Chinese festival on TV and phoned our parents and family to wish them a good year.” 

What about those traditional red envelopes then?  “Aha, my parents are keeping them for me for when I get back to China.”
 

Oxford excursion: Pupils view ‘Dreaming Spires’


The ‘Dreaming Spires of Oxford’ was the destination of our excursion last Saturday.  The ‘Dreaming Spires’ refers to the landscape of this historic city, and it is a nickname which, over the years has been used to describe the the collection of spires rising up from the colleges and chapels of the city. 

After a two-hour coach ride through the morning mists, students were met with university undergraduates whistling through the narrow streets on bicycles underneath the stunning architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, designer of the Sheldonian theatre. They also managed to catch a glimpse of the interior of St. Catherine’s Hall, the film location for the great dining hall in the Harry Potter films. 
 

 
Students were able to draw comparisons between many of the historic Oxford buildings and our own main building at Saint Michael’s, which was designed in the same architectural style. The original founder of Saint Michael’s, Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley was an Oxford professor of music before he moved to Saint Michael’s where he designed and built the school in 1856.
 

A Level mock exams finished


A Level students could breathe a sigh of relief as their January mock examinations drew to a close. It was an opportunity for them to take stock of their progress and of how much more they need to achieve before the exams take place in summer.

With the pass rate for A Level and GCSE students rising again last year, the pressure will be on this year’s students to continue the trend.  With a term and a half to go before exams now is the time to focus, our GCSE students can make use of the ‘GCSEpod’ which can be accessed with a password obtained from one of their teachers.

There are also plenty of other useful websites including: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ and http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ which can be really useful for GCSE, A Level and foundation students alike.
 
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