2020 MSM Messenger

Mount St Mary’s

Catholic High School

Educating The Individual For the Benefit Of All

2020
MSM Messenger

The News Magazine for Mount St Mary’s Catholic High School

Dear All

Well, no-one amongst us would have imagined when reading last
Autumn’s Messenger what lay ahead of us in 2020. Consequently
this ‘bumper’ copy provides an overview of a multitude of events,
activities and efforts undertaken in the last 12 months at Mount St
Mary’s .

Adopting the ‘rainbow’ theme in continued support of all that is being
done for the benefit of others, I am once again humbled by the
lengths to which our staff, students and families go in ‘giving back’.

Welcome to We continue to reach out to all and the overwhelming desire of staff
and students is not merely for normality but to recapture the

Mount St Mary’s additional elements that make this community special. With this to
the forefront of our minds, we will use the run in to Christmas to look
out for those in need. Whilst face to face events cannot run, cards

Catholic High School will be written, virtual performances recorded and shared, hampers,
essentials and gifts delivered. All this and more whilst maintaining
the high quality teaching and learning experience for all amidst the
exhausting and relentless demands that Covid have placed upon us.

Whilst I have kept you informed of staff joining Mount St Mary’s at
various times, I extend a formal welcome and thank you to our new
colleagues who have joined us since our last edition.

These are:

Mr Bourke, Year Leader for Year 8; Mr Flynn, Year Leader for Year 9;

Our Mission Miss Davy, Teacher of Science; Miss Prentice, Teacher of English;
Miss Rooke, Teacher of English; Miss Smith, Teacher of PE;
The community of Mrs Willis, Teacher of Science;
Mount St Mary’s is
called to develop the Miss Martin, Mr Arscott, Mr Cockrill, Miss Dickinson, Mrs Holdsworth
full potential of each and Mr Flor Madueno, LSAs;
person - spiritually,
academically, socially Miss Brianezi-Melchior, Pastoral Support Officer;
and physically -
and to create a safe, Mr Burton, Assistant Superintendent.
happy and caring
school. As we move into what will be a challenging but long anticipated
Christmas, I would like to wish our whole community a safe, rest filled
and Holy Christmas from all at Mount St Mary’s. We look forward to
welcoming everyone back safe and well on Tuesday 5 January.

Kindest regards
Mr M Cooper

Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party 2019

The Mount St Mary's OAP party is an annual event dedicated to the senior citizens of the local community
and other surrounding areas. Last year our Year 10 Young Leaders had the opportunity to host the
celebration, which consisted of games of bingo, a
raffle and other entertainment from the students of
Mount St Mary's. We were also able to provide
food hampers to each of the attendees and most of
the food used for these was donated by our
students and staff.

Mrs Foster and Mrs Coatham called to say what a
wonderful afternoon they had at the Christmas
party. They asked to give special thanks to

Mr Adams for dancing with them and to Mr Cooper
for the great time they had and for reading out the Christmas card they sent to the school to all staff and students.

La Coupe de Mazenod Leeds University
creative writing trip
On Wednesday 6 December 2019, 80 students from Years
7 to 10 participated in a mathematics house competition - Some of our most
working towards the UK Mathematics Trust's Team promising Year 10
Challenges.
writers got the
In the morning session, St John emerged with a narrow opportunity to explore
lead with particularly strong work across the Houses from what it would be like
Alex, Avital, Eleanor, Kalan, Lillian, Lily, Oliwia and to study English and
Samrawi.
Creative Arts at
In the afternoon session, St John continued to dominate University with an
and won by a healthy margin - our MVPs were voted as amazing day of taster
Aleksander, Breanna, Bryant, Daisy-Grace, Essay, Lily,
Miah, Miracle, Rhianna, Unity, William and Yvonne. sessions and
activities as well as
Thank you and well done to all who took part. It was a
fantastic day. campus tours!

MSM Library Returns!

Covid-19 has brought many challenges to MSM, including how to ensure students can continue reading
without physically being able to go to the library. Our new library delivery system has made sure that
students can easily access books and keep up with their reading!

Students are able to request library books from their English teachers, which are then delivered to them in
English lessons and registration. Once a student has finished their book,
they drop their book off in their designated box in their area and request a
new one.

There has been much enthusiasm for reading at MSM. In the first half term,
507 books were taken out of the library by Years 7, 8 and 9, with another
253 taken out so far this half term. We are looking forward to the expansion
of our reading programme at MSM to Years 10 and 11!

World Book Day 2020

World Book Day was celebrated by Year 7 students, many dressing up as their
favorite literary characters. The whole year group were treated to a beatboxing
and freestyling session by author, poet and rapper Andy "Testament" Brooks.
Many of the students asked Andy how to get into freestyling and now know more
about the link between reading and progress in their studies!
Thanks Andy!

2019 Politics Matters to MSM

On Tuesday 10th December Miss Evans took a group of Year 10
students to International Politics Matters at Leeds Beckett

University. Students attended a workshop discussing the bene ts
and issues surrounding immigration, before being invited to
create a presentation. Our students focused on the bene ts of

immigration and the diversity it creates. Sta from the university
praised our students for their creativity and unity as a collective.
On Wednesday 11th December MSM hosted its rst Politics Day,
with students attending workshops throughout the day focusing

on topics such as an introduction to politics, local politics,
making your voice heard and creating a political party. Students

ended their day sharing ideas on how we can save the
environment and creating an environmental plan for school.

On Thursday 12th December the whole school voted on a
number of changes that could be made to the school, as decided

by the school council. These included planting trees and
including nance in PSHCE. Students chose an outside eating
area, which will be developed in due course. Turnout for the
student election was 74%, much higher than the General Election

turnout on the same day, which was 67.3%. Our students
de nitely showed they see the importance of democracy!

2020

Go Higher
West Yorkshire

+ Careers

Leeds College of Music hosted a Music Production What job
taster day for some of our do you
Year 9 students. Students want in the
got the opportunity to use future?
industry software to create
their own music and ask
questions about university life at LCoM.

Our Year 9 students visited Wakefield College to take
part in a Performing Arts Broadway taster day.
Students learnt all about how to break into the
industry, what types of subjects they could study
within the sector and also got the opportunity to speak
to current further education students and ask about
college life.

During International Womens’ Week some of our Year
10 girls took part in a full day construction taster at
Leeds College of Building. The day was aimed at
getting more women into the construction industry.
Students found out more about what different career
choices were available, from architecture to civil
engineering and had a hands on workshop in plumbing.

Upcoming events (2021)

IntoUniversity workshops (Year 9—11)
Media Makeup Course (Year 9)

Backstage Academy tour (Year 10)

Skipping Festival

This is a festival that runs every year for all of our feeder
primary schools, where they take part in a fun filled, exciting
afternoon and skipping competition. This was all supervised
by some of our brilliant Young Leaders who looked after,
supported and scored the competitions the children were
taking part in.

UK Mathematics The History Hub

Trust’s Intermediate The History Hub was
started by Mrs Milner at
Maths Challenge the beginning of this
year. Currently, a group
2020 of 10-15 students have
been working on a
On Progress Review Day, 6th February, 40 number of different
students came to school early to participate in projects, including their
the UK Mathematics Trust’s Intermediate Maths own family history,
Challenge 2020. The test is aimed at the most archiving the school's history
able mathematicians in the country and beyond, and creating a time capsule.
with the top 40% of entrants achieving a They have recently enjoyed a
certificate. trip to Leeds City Museum and
are planning visits to other
With record-breaking numbers of successful museums in the near future.
students, we’d like to extend our most joyous
congratulations to Iptisam Abdulmalik, "The History Hub is something
Lily Allswell, Avital Anoff, Adrian Ferech, that I always look forward to and it never disappoints. Learning
Urvi Motolall, Roanne Ramos, Niamh Staniland, about my own History and the school's has been amazing. I'd
William Swafi (for their Bronze certificate), definitely encourage other students to join." (Jessica Rooley,
Aman Abraha, Karl Carey, Dominik Chmielewski, Year 9)
Cameron Hirst, Luis Jurada, Jarred Lachica,
Samuel Ngombo, Jaleel Shahin, Alex Stanley
(for their Silver certificates) and
Samrawi Mehreteab (for his Gold certificate), as
well as congratulate all those who took part for
their responsibility and resilience.

The Maths Department

'Props Club'

We have been running a 'Props Club' after school where the
following students have been designing and making the props for
the school production. They have been making a video camera,
banners and microphones.

Ema Manusyle, Oliwia Szczepanowska, Carol-Chantelle Ibhafidon
Natalie Jones.

St Gemma’s Collection Day

Each year group is linked to a specific charity and in Year 8, for a number of years now, this has been St Gemma's Hospice
in Moortown. In the last week of the Autumn term we participated in a street collection in the middle of Leeds city centre.
This involved at least 50 students and staff.

The students were split into two groups, and each group collected for around 2 hours. This involved standing in the city
centre with a St Gemma's collection bucket, a St Gemma's T Shirt and a Santa hat, asking the public if they were willing to
donate anything towards St Gemma's Hospice.

Our students and staff are always very creative in the ways in which they ask for donations and
there was no difference this year. Each year we raise around £1500 and I feel this year we may
have surpassed that. However, what strikes students and staff every year is the generosity of the
Leeds public and how highly regarded the work of St Gemma's Hospice is. All students involved
really did live up to our school ethos of Retribuam and should include this evidence of as part of
their MSM Aspire portfolio. We look forward to next year, with the new Year 8 cohort, attempting to
raise more than we did before Christmas!

Year 9 Art Year 8 Art

Their current project is Our Year 8 Art classes have been
observational drawing creating lots of clay creations over
experimenting in materials the last few months, around their

and techniques theme Day Of The Dead

Year 8 Amazon Web Services GetIT Challenge

On 10th September 2019, all Year 8 students were invited to take part in the 2019/20 AWS GetIT Challenge when Yvette
Aarons travelled up from London to talk to them in their assembly. The challenge is designed to inspire more young people,
especially girls to get into IT and gain digital skills. They were invited to form teams of 3 to 7 students (at least 50% female)
to invent an app that could be used to improve or address a social issue impacting the school or local community.

AWS provided lots of advice and guidance on how to approach the challenge so that students became aware of the steps
involved in the design and build cycle. They even ran a bootcamp in Manchester on 6th November to help students decide
which of their ideas would work best or have the biggest impact and to give them an insight into how apps are built.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t attend the bootcamp, which resulted in some students losing interest. However, Eamen Nishat
and Taye Parker were keen to continue and showed great commitment and resilience in carrying on despite this major
setback.

The students had lots of ideas for apps but decided to focus their efforts on an app to help facilitate and extend Miss Evan’s
idea of adding to the school library through staff recommendations for books and purchases from Charity shops. As their
app idea started to take shape and the date for Yvette Aarons to make her second visit to the school approached, we
managed to get three female students onboard. On 25th February Yvette Aarons spent the afternoon with Sophie Lewis,
Hermila Yohans, Alisha Bedford and the boys. She helped them reduce the scope of their app into manageable proportions
and helped them produce a flowchart showing how their app idea would work.

We are currently in the process of pulling everything together for the final submission deadline
of 20th March. The plan was for judges to decide on the 10 best submissions and these teams
would be invited to present their ideas at the AWS Summit in London on 29th April.
Unfortunately due to the coronavirus outbreak this has had to be postponed and we are
uncertain of the new date at the moment.

UPDATE: During lockdown we were notified that our app idea had been selected as one of the
top ten, from over 150 entries, to go forward to the final. A virtual final was held on 13th
October, where the ten teams were asked to present their app idea to a panel of industry
experts. Unfortunately, it proved too difficult to get our whole team together to finalise the
presentation and practice for the last stage of the competition and we withdrew. However, the
current Year 8s have just started thinking of ideas for this year’s entry and we are hoping to
build on the massive achievement from last year.

Our show this year was a very special one. Jesus Christ Superstar is the story of Christ’s last week on earth
from riding into Jerusalem to his crucifixion at Golgotha, but told largely from Judas’ perspective as one of
Jesus’ disciples. We began our story with Christ’s resurrection and flashback to a week earlier as the
disciples prepare to enter Jerusalem. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock musical was written in the 1970’s, with
the aim of modernising Jesus’ story- the famous line ‘If you’d come today you would have reached a whole
nation’ seems to now, 50 years later, be an even more apt claim. With the modern technological revolution,
social media, celebrity status and cultural influences we aimed to show that ‘if you’d come today you would
have reached a global community’. The world we depict may not seem very far from our current one but
above all, one thing remains, that the story of Christ still prevails and gives hope and faith to millions.

This was also a landmark show for the Performing Arts Department at MSM - we had more Year 11s in this
production than ever before, it was Mr Fox’s 10th production at MSM and Mrs Rudge and Mr Bromwich’s 5th
show in school. What better way to celebrate the work of our incredible Performing Arts students and staff
than, at this time of Lent, showing the story behind our ethos and the love that binds us together as a
Catholic community.

It was an emotional show - one that is particularly poignant at this season of Lent and for our school
community. I could not be prouder of our cast and I was overwhelmed and in awe of the talent shown by our
lead performers for their dedication and trust in me to portray this amazing story.

Judas was portrayed by Gabby Gano (Yr11) who displayed such dedication and commitment to the role, her
vocal and acting performances were phenomenal and she took the audience with her as she told the story of
Christ’s last days. Her death scene included a stunning piece of aerial ballet on the hammock which was a
new skill developed for the show. Her energy and vitality on stage shone and played perfectly against
Connor White’s (Yr11) Jesus. Connor’s performance was memorable as the fated Messiah, the endurance
and concentration to pull off this role is something only professional performers can do, yet his dedication to
its true portrayal meant that he played the part perfectly, and his depiction of Christ’s death and brutal torture
outlined him as the true performer he is. Other key mentions have to go to the characters of Pilate -
Faith Odeyo (Yr11) who vocally shone and showed the true inner battle the character faced, her solo Pilate’s
Dream brought forward many tears from the audience and the other performers and also Herod -
Erin Shortell (Yr10) who portrayed Herod as a chat show host/fashion influencer for the Z Generation. Her
performance included Instagram worthy poses and a 2 second tiktok inspired costume change.
Weza Madiera (Yr11) as Mary Magdalene was perfect in every way, her extreme emotion and vocal style
won over everyone across all three nights.

A group of Year 11 performers demonstrated their exceptional performing talents as the Pharisees (Iliham,
Carmella, Jenicy, Beth and Caitlin) becoming the political power in Jerusalem and the reason behind Jesus’
demise. The disciples, Mary’s women and the press mob were made up of students from all years
showcasing the range of talent we have at MSM, including an energetic performance by Karl Carey (Year 10)
as Simon Zeaoltes, whistle vocals from Sam Ngombo (Year 9) and poignant acting from Jevic Juma (Year
10) as Peter. Leah Dillon (Yr10) also offered the audience a beautiful and haunting rendition of Hosannah as
one of Mary’s Women.

I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to all the students involved in this performance. This show
was Superstar Spectacular and it made the closing night special, so much that my heart ached with pride for
everyone involved. I especially want to thank the Year 11 cast members for their dedication and talents and
leave them in the knowledge that their performances and contributions to Jesus Christ Superstar will have a
lasting legacy to everyone who had the privilege of seeing the show.



Debate Mate/Tetley Debating Competition

On Tuesday 21st January Miss Evans took a group of Year 11
students to Debating Matters competition at The Tetley. Johanna
Jermy and Faith Odeyo competed against Outwood Academy on the
issue of privacy in the digital age, while Carmella Messu Pianta and
Bradley Barker competed against Woodkirk Academy on the issue
of no platform policies damaging free speech. Iliham Negash
attended to support. The students beat both schools and won the
competition overall. Students won copies of the Oxford Very Short
Introduction to the Renaissance and Vue Cinema vouchers.

MSM Reads

On Wednesday 4th March 16 Year 8 students took part in the MSM Spelling Bee as part
of World Book Day. Students were given 60 words to learn in preparation. After the first
round there was a three way tie for first place between Lily Wigglesworth,
Jasmine Gantala and Oluwamayokun Omidele. After a second and third round
Oluwamayokun was declared the winner with Jasmine and Lily coming in close second.
All students put in an impressive performance and had clearly prepared before the event.

On Thursday 12th March Miss Evans and Mrs Turner took a
group of Year 10 and 11 students to The Grammar School at
Leeds to a talk by Yvette Cooper MP on her recently published
book She Speaks: The Power of Women’s Voices. Ms Cooper
spoke about her experiences as a female MP, her reasons for
selecting particular speeches in her book and her hopes for women in the future. Students
were offered the opportunity to speak to her afterwards and picked up a signed copy of her
book for the MSM library.

Our sustainable MSM Read-Cycle section – where books are second hand and include a
written recommendation by a member of staff or a student – now comprises of 181 books
for students to borrow and read. As a school we continue in our drive for students to read
20 minutes a day, so check out the MSM Read-Cycle section today!

MSM Love Wall

In the run up to Valentine’s Day our school decided to create
their own #MSMLovewall. This idea was inspired by an

artist in New York who originally began the idea as a way to
spread the love, awareness of others and encourage
everyone to unite, take part and contribute to it.

Here in MSM we decided to take this idea and also make it
our own! We created two #MSMLovewalls, the first one was

for our House coloured
hearts and the second one
was to write ' I love you' in

various languages.

Both of our walls got a
huge response and

reminded our students
and staff alike of the

fantastic, diverse
community we have

here at MSM.

MSM Aspire Charity Day
6th December 2019

As part of our pastoral curriculum, students are graded on the skills and
qualities they can demonstrate in school and beyond, this is known as
MSM Aspire. At the end of each year students have to write a summary
of these skills and qualities and how they have demonstrated them in
school, the family home and the local community, embracing our school
motto 'Quid Retribuam' which means ‘how can I repay the Lord?’ or in
student language, ‘what can I do to give back?’

These skills, qualities and experiences are delivered to our students through registration time, our PSHCE programme
and year team focused MSM Aspire challenges. As a school we strive to provide opportunities for our students to 'give
back' to the communities we serve and this is another event allowing for this exposure.

The aim is to fund raise for three Leeds based charities,
allowing students to experience the value of giving their time
for others, which we truly believe is as valuable as the
money that they will raise. The three charities that are linked
to each year group specifically support many of our students
and their families, past and present, as well as the
communities in which they live. The charities are:

Leeds Irish Health and Homes, St Gemma's Hospice and
Leeds United Foundation.

Once our students have participated in this event, they can then add this experience
to their portfolio of evidence which they need to present towards the end of the year,
if they are to graduate into the following year, and gain a good or outstanding grade.
This is one of many events that our students will have the opportunity to participate
in that are all geared towards 'giving back', as this is at the heart of everything we
do.

The day involved Year 7, 8 + 9 putting on market style
stalls in the main hall, selling everything from hot
chocolate to face painting and apple bobbing. Students
were encouraged to spend what they could and any
money raised by that year group went towards the total
for their charity. We also had the Leeds United Foundation working with some of our
students and staff in the sports hall, facilitating a penalty competition. Students paid £1 to
take 7 shots, one at each of our school goal keepers in Years 9, 10 + 11, one at our staff
goal keeper Mr Lawton, one at the Leeds United mascot, one at a speed gun to see how
hard students could hit the ball and finally, they had one attempt to see if they could land the ball inside a toilet!

The toilet attempt was aimed at promoting the fund raising a Year 11 student Weza has been doing with Toilet
Twinning, which aims to build toilets in areas of the world that don't have safe places for vulnerable people, including
girls, to go to the toilet. Only one student managed to get the ball in the toilet all day!

Over the course of the day, students in Years 7 and 9, who had received
less than three negative points via class charts, were invited to spend
40 minutes in the sports hall having several attempts at each of the
challenges. All thoroughly enjoyed their time, with many having several
attempts at beating Mr Lawton, the staff goal keeper!

On the day the students managed to raise
£1,336.00, which is an astonishing amount. This
has been added to our total fundraising amount
for the term Sept-Dec and brings the total

£4,510amount raised to :

Please could I take this opportunity to thank all the staff and students from MSM, as well as
those staff from each of the charities, for all their efforts in making this such a special day.

Women In Leadership

This programme takes groups of girls from all backgrounds, and
with different interests, to teach them one thing they all have in
common, they are all women who want to succeed into leadership
roles. The amazing mentors who are experienced and successful
women work with our students to teach them the valuable skills
they need to thrive in a working environment. Working on
teamwork, leadership and communication skills as well as self
branding and selling their abilities the best they can.

Princes Trust Leeds Child Mayor
& Youth Parliament
Running over 7 sessions, the Princes
Trust have been working with a When I was in Year 5 at Bracken Edge Primary school, we
group of our Year 10s on building a received a visit from the Leeds Child Mayor Team. She spoke
variety of skills to make them ready at length about how people at my age could apply to become
for the working world. Our the Leeds Child Mayor in Year 6.
experienced mentors have helped
them to grow in confidence, To do this, I had to write a manifesto outlining how I could help. My
teamwork, leadership and manifesto concentrated on stopping bullying, which was a problem at my
communication skills as well as school. There was then a vote on all the students who had applied for the
working on CVs and other important role, and I was voted to go on to the next round.
life skills. There has been such an
increase in self belief and confidence The next stage was also a vote to go through to the public vote to become
within the students involved and they Leeds Child Mayor. I received an invitation to a celebration evening and it
are now so much more prepared for was here that I learned about Leeds City Varieties and the Youth
life after school. Parliament.

I think this process has helped me become more confident, particularly
when speaking in front of people.

Next year, I am going to apply again to become a member of the Youth
Parliament. I hope I can reach the last 6 and enter the public vote to
become a member of the Youth Parliament. (Amelia Uminska)

Women, Get Set, Go!

This programme focuses on encouraging women to enter the world of sport and building all the important skills they
need to succeed. We chose some of our strongest and most confident sportswomen to help refine their skills and
teach them how to prepare, carry
out and reflect, not only on their
own sporting ventures but also to
be able to deliver sessions to
others. Working with a mentor and
coach from the Leeds United
foundation, these girls are learning
invaluable skills to set them up for
the future.

Maths Feast

On March 10th, a team of our elite mathematicians from Year 10 took on schools
from across Yorkshire in the AMSP (Advanced Mathematics Support Programme)
Maths Feast 2020. They faced stiff competition from the likes of GSAL, St Aidan's
and many other Grammar Schools. Unfazed by the prestigious event, our four
heroes: Iptisam Abdulmalik, James Bravo, Adrian Ferech and Bradley Stapylton
showed true resilience, grit, determination and teamwork through each of the four
rounds, scoring highly and, above all else, having fun. Their laughter and enjoyment
could be heard across the event. They represented the school with a positive and
professional manner, not succumbing to nerves and managed to take away the top honours during the Relay
Event, narrowly missing out on a podium place for the overall event. Well done to everyone involved!

Leeds United Careers Day Leeds City Museum

On this On Wednesday 11th March, Mrs Milner,
amazing tour Mrs Francis and Miss Riley took 9 of their
of Elland History Hub students to the Leeds City Museum.
Road, our Year The students had the opportunity to explore
10 students different exhibitions including the Leeds Story
got to learn and a fashion exhibit. The History Hub students
about all the plan on visiting a number of other Museums and
amazing Galleries in the near future, with a trip planned
careers opportunities within the stadium. Be it to the Thackray Medical Museum after Easter.
grounds keeping, coaching, catering and hospitality,

retail or
customer
service,
there was
a job role
that
interested
everyone!

Year 8 Diana Award Workplace Visit

A group of 25 Year 8 students attended an 8 week workshop run by the prestigious ‘Diana Award’. Throughout the
process the students work closely with a group of working professionals from
the local ‘Sky’ offices at Leeds Dock. These professionals take on the role of
mentors to the students, engaging in conversation covering a whole range of
topics. The aim of the process is for the students to identify issues in their
society that they believe they can have a positive impact on. This is called their
‘Social Action Project’. Working in smaller groups, through detailed discussion,
they consider these issues and ways in which they can make a difference.
Once their focus has been voted on, the students work collaboratively to bring
their social action project to fruition.

This particular cohort of students chose to make an impact on young people’s
mental health, by raising money to put towards training and resources at Mount
St Mary’s. To achieve this, the students will be organising a fundraiser in
school next term. There will be a number of fun games and stalls for the other
year groups to enjoy, and hopefully spend some money! As well as this, there
will be various resources available for students, offering help and advice on
coping with mental health. There will also be various activates which aim to
have a calming effect, such as colouring, reading, puzzles, and fidget games.

Azahel has been involved with the Diana Award this term, and had this to say
about his experience. ‘I have gained confidence and feel that I could now talk
to people more than I used to. From the work we did during the project, I have
a better understanding of mental health issues, and how to spot them in
myself, and other people.’

At the end of the process the students spent a day at the ‘Sky’ offices in Leeds, where their mentors work. Here they
gained first-hand experience of what life is like
in the workplace. Activities included a guided
tour, an interview Q&A, a coding workshop,
and an insight into how applications are
created, modified and tested for our mobile
phones.

We are fortunate enough to be able to run this
project twice throughout the year, and soon we
will have a new group of 25 students ready to
take on the process, and we are excited to see
what fantastic ideas they will have.

MSM Bake Off 2020

With a charity bake sale organised for Valentine's day, the teachers had an idea... This
was to be the first MSM staff Bake Off!

Competitive cakes and battle ready buns, all to be sold for charity, but not before the
judging. Of course these were the products of hours of mixing, endless opening and
shutting of oven doors and the scrutinous decorating from determined bakers.

Following the vote on appearance from all staff, points were also awarded according to
the official taste tests from our independent cake judging panel.

The winner: Mr. Hinchley's Owl Buns, the cute crowd pleaser! Followed by impressive
entries of a colourful and rich M&M chocolate cake, and an expertly decorated Micky
Mouse cake.

Who will be next year's winner of what, this year, has been truly a sweet clash of
confection?

Leeds Girls Can!

Since the middle of January, 11 Year 9 students have been taking part in the “Leeds Girls Can” initiative. Leeds Girls
Can are a team of women who are here to empower and support females between the ages of 14 – 60. They primarily
focus on the use of physical activity to provide opportunities to create
sustainable activities for women and girls.

Leeds Girls Can offer a wide range of programmes, one of which is the
“Young Ambassador” programme which our students were lucky enough to
take part in. This programme mainly targets students with low self-esteem or
those that have a negative relationship with physical activity. However, the
cohort we chose had a wide range of reasons they were taking part.

Throughout the weeks, our students continued to impress School staff, the
Leeds Girls Can staff and the staff supporting from the various places we
visited due to their impeccable behaviour and manners, willingness to
participate and overall vibrancy they brought to everything they did.

Every week our students were able to engage in a new activity ranging
from team building games in a sports hall to Bouldering at the Climbing
Lab in Kirkstall and even Ice skating at the newly opened Planet Ice at
Elland Road.

It really was an absolute
pleasure to work with Leeds
Girls Can and the cohort of
students, seeing them grow
from strength to strength taking part in every activity and challenge they
were faced with and seeing their confidence in their own ability grow
every week was absolutely fantastic.

I hope the students that took part are using everything they learnt during
this process to further promote the positive attitude towards physical
activity they have developed to become advocates for sport within school.

JEEP STEM Programme

Year 7 students taking part in our STEM course had a chance to discuss their
ideas about sustainability with facilities managers from Victoria Leeds in January's

session. Students have been researching ways to improve sustainability within
Mount St Mary's and the visitors were very impressed with the students'

suggestions, which included a bug hotel and a roof top garden. In fact they
enjoyed the session and the students' enthusiasm so much that they returned to
school in February to hear all the students' final presentations. Well done to all

the Y7 who took part!

Oxford Computing Challenge

On 6th March twelve students took part in the Oxford Computing Challenge. It is an invitation event which aims to
encourage students who have achieved a top 10% score in the UK Bebras Challenge to develop their skills further and
produce programmed solutions to computational thinking problems. All of the students rose to the challenge and
showed great resilience on the day. Unfortunately none of them made it into the next round where the top 20 students
in each age group will compete for “Tech prizes” which will be awarded to the top three students in each of the age
groups. The tables below show the results and how we compare with the rest of West Yorkshire and the rest of the
Country. The students in the top 20 all scored over 60! We are hoping that we will be able to improve on this
impressive first year starting position over the next few years.

Junior Challenge – Alexander Francis & Jakub Kordonski (Merit), Weronika Motyl & Laura Staruzyk (Participation).
Intermediate Challenge – Jakub Dybikowski (Distinction), Lily Allswell, Yonatan Habtit & Noor-E-Huda Sayed (Merit),
Jacob Andalis, Samuel Bradley, Jaleel Shahin & Robyn Thompson (Participation)

Junior Challenge Min Avg Max Participants Intermediate Challenge Min Avg Max Participants
Description 8 13.5000 18 4 Description 10 19.0000 32 8
Mount St Mary’s Catholic High School 0 13.6190 32 42 Mount St Mary’s Catholic High School 4 19.1064 52 47
West Yorkshire 0 19.7749 66 3679 West Yorkshire 0 21.1426 66 5107
Country Country

Year 11 Retreat

26 Year 11 students spent a weekend at the ‘West End
Outdoor Centre’.

The weekend comprised of a mixture of academic
workshops, walks in the local area, social time and a liturgy
to prepare mind, body and spirit for the challenges ahead

over the GCSE season.

Beautiful People Health and

Beauty Clinic

A massive thank you to Beautiful People Health and Beauty Clinic for their
generous donation to our students during this difficult period. Their gesture is
an absolute example of our ambition to “give back”. Many thanks to Bee and
her team, the gifts have been used to reward students and key workers
linked to our students for their efforts over the past months. The picture
below shows gifts received by Year 11 when they came for their celebratory
assemblies. Thank you again and it is great to see our culture of giving back
spreading beyond our doors!

Rikaya Makes a Difference!

This is an extract from Burmantofts and Richmond Hill Mutual Aid Group Newsletter

“This is a picture of Rikaya, one of our younger residents at twelve years old. She decided
she wanted to help, so she took out her sewing
machine and made fabric bags for hospital staff!
The bags mean that staff members can get
changed, bag the clothes and put the whole thing
in the washer when they go home, reducing the
risk of contamination to any family members. She
has donated them to staff at Seacroft Hospital, St James and several local
carers. What a wonderful thing to do! Thank you Rikaya for your generosity,
it’s people like you that are really making a difference and making people
smile. Keep up the fantastic work.’

Well done Rikaya, we are very proud of you! Retribuam in action!

Ashton honours NHS heroes

We are very impressed with Ashton Cudahy’s entry into the John Lewis Superhero
competition. The sentiment behind his design strikes a chord with us all at this time. Well
done Ashton for getting involved!

“The reason I chose this design was because it has a lot of meaning through the colours.
The blue represents the NHS and the rainbow colours represent how much we appreciate
what they are doing for us.

The superhero power of my bear is the wand shoots out rainbows to brighten up people’s
life or whole countries that are going through hard times. The pad lock is to set them free
of worry, sadness, and anxiety.” From Ashton Cudahy, age 13

Mount St Mary’s Donates Hundreds of pounds raised
PPE to Front Line Staff for NHS by Hunslet street’s

As a school we have provided over 250 fun and games
goggles to be used as personal protective
equipment to staff at St Gemma’s Hospice Lily Wigglesworth, a student at MSM, and her entire
and the East Leeds Medical Centre, as well street have raised hundreds of pounds for the NHS by
holding community events on their street during
as donating some to Halifax Hospital. lockdown.

Mount St Mary’s are delighted that they An incredible act of
could help in supporting front line NHS at Retribuam by a
fantastic community.
this most challenging time.

Thank You Mrs Inskipp! Thank You Miss Banks

We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Inskipp, Miss Banks from the Learning Zone has been
who was in school supporting students every day volunteering with the Harrogate and Ripon
during the school closures. Community Volunteer Service. She has been
providing support for vulnerable and elderly
Mrs Inskipp was crucial to the sessions that were people, doing their weekly shops.
run for our key worker students and has been a
support for staff and One gentleman who she has been supporting
students alike. said that he doesn’t know what he would have
done without the help of the volunteers.
Thank you so much
for all you have done
as part of the Mount
St Mary’s team.

Toilet Twinning Across the World

Earlier in the academic year, students from Mount St Mary’s took part in a number of events to raise
money for the Toilet Twinning charity. They help fund projects in a poor community that will enable
families to build a basic toilet, have access to clean water and learn about hygiene – a vital
combination that saves lives.

The money we raised has twinned 4 toilets
across the world, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda
and Malawi. This means that MSM
Retribuam has spread throughout the world!

Summer school 2020

This summer saw the greatest numbers of Year 6 students
at our transition summer school. Due to current restrictions,
we had to split into smaller groups, however, this did not
stop the fun as the photos show.

As well as the usuals focus on learning, cooking, sports, and
crafts, we were able to have our traditional day out of
school, this year at Herd Farm. The mountain boarding and
archery challenged both staff and students. We must thank
St Theresas' Primary School for the loan of their minibus
that allowed the event to happen.

Well Done Alex Henrique!
Mrs Wilson is delighted
with this brilliant work!
You can clearly see the
time and effort that has
gone into making this
look so realistic.

Well Done Aicha Camara. Here we feature an Congratulations Chineadu Herbst for this
extract of her new 6 Chapter novel – Inferno’s impressive selection
of work. Mr Lawton
Revenge. has been really
Mrs Black said “Aicha has put a lot of effort into this impressed with the
quality of work
story, and I’m very proud of her.” submitted.

Well Done Alex Tuca for this brilliant Creative I Media work.
Miss Goddard said ‘ I’ve been impressed with the work that Alex
has done on a mini project designing product packaging for a
burger.’

Student Celebrations

Well done Robyn Thompson for this Geography work on
Volcanos. Miss Stirrup shared the photos of Robyn’s
volcano work with the whole year team as it was so good.

Congratulations Antonia Nowicka
Mr Hopkins was very impressed
with the level of detail in this
piece of work.

Well Done to Erin Shortell for this Performing Congratulations to
Arts work. Ms Quarless said ‘ This is good Niamh Staniland on an
quality work from Erin, I am very impressed incredible set of work.
with the powerpoint.’ Mr Stuart-Collins said

‘Niamh sent me 6
emails on the FIRST

DAY asking for
examples of work. I

am so impressed with her hard work.’

Congratulations to Alisha Corbett for the Congratulations to Cameron Feeney.
amazing Science and RE work shown above. Miss Reed says “I am so impressed with
Cameron, he has completed a fantastic 3D
Mr Hicklin said ‘I’ve had some wonderful design project with his family. He has shown
examples of work from Alisha’. real resilience and responsibility over the
course of the lock down, completing all work
Congratulations to that is asked of him and going above and
Dylan Clarke. This is an
advert for a competition beyond with
organised by McCann certain
global advertising agency
that welcomes people back aspects, I
to Leeds once lockdown is am really
over. Miss Goddard was proud of
pleased with the work that him! He has
Dylan did, this is one certainly set
aspect of his plan. the bar high
for the rest

of my
cohort!”

Look out for more examples of our
students work coming soon on our

website

www.mountstmarys.org

Throughout Lockdown

Congratulations Congratulations to Well Done
Liam Sample for this Lily Kendrew! Mrs Carden Carol-Chantelle Ibhafidon
brilliant RE work. Mrs for these two incredible
Milner says ‘The quality was delighted with the pieces or work.
and quantity of this is resilience that Lily has Miss Stirrup was very
fantastic’. shown in producing this impressed with the level
of detail in this piece of
work. work all about
Australia.

Congratulations Orla Krupa Miss Stirrup and
on this inspirational History Mr Flynn were
poem. Mr Hinchley said ‘To impressed with
say this work is outstanding the level of detail
is an understatement’. in this piece of
work and the
powerful
message.

Well Done to Clive Gambamba
for this amazing RE work.
Mr Wuisman said ‘Clive has
been working hard on a

number of subjects’ and here
is a brilliant example of that.

Open Day / Open Evening

A number of students from our Catholic feeder schools visited Mount St Mary’s for a taste of life at
secondary school. They were treated to a number
of lessons including Science, Technology,
Performing Arts and Physical Education.

The evening then saw us open our doors to the
wider community for one to one socially distanced

tours around the school.

Year 10 Each half term at MSM one of the ways we
Fly the Flag show that we love our neighbour is by

for LUFC supporting our MAD campaign. Each half
term students and staff “Give Back” as
As a reward for
supporting the Leeds United much as we can, in order to
Foundation 'Corner Cafe' Make A Difference to the lives of those
Dementia group. The less fortunate within our local community.
students were invited to
attend a home football match. We focus on giving one item of everyday
food which we offer to support the work of
As part of the reward, ten of the students were also asked the Sisters of Renewal who live and work
to be the guard of honour as the teams came out of the
within our local area.
players tunnel at Elland Road.

Year 9 Positive Choices with
The Leeds United Foundation

On Wednesday 21 October 2020 the Leeds United Foundation visited Mount St Mary’s to speak to our Year 9
students. The Positive Choices Event included guest speakers from a number of different ethnic and social
backgrounds who came to share their life stories with our young people. They gave detailed descriptions of

the setbacks they have had during their lives and discussed how those setbacks seriously affected their
thought processes and future decisions they made.

Some delivered the session by way of the spoken word, others just told us their compelling stories, but all
engaged fantastically well with the audience and actively encouraged participation. Each session identified

how actions have consequences and discussed how the choices an individual
has made can continue to have a serious impact on

their lives and that of their families and friends.

The speakers were a combination of victims and
perpetrators of crime. Some were gang members,
others were victims of serious sexual offences. The
students also heard from victim’s families including a

mother who had tragically lost her son.

The students were left with plenty to think about and
we would like to thank Leeds United Foundation and

Mr Coluccio for organising the event.

After the event we received the following thanks on behalf of the
Leeds United Foundation:

On behalf of Leeds United I would like to thank you and all the staff at Mount St Mary’s for hosting such an
amazing event on Wednesday.

What was so incredible was that in such challenging times all the staff were so welcoming, polite, patient,
and professional. They really were a credit to the school.

I would also like to pay tribute to the Year 9 students, they were nothing short of amazing. The level of
respect, engagement, sympathy shown to all the Guest Speakers was humbling. You could hear a pin drop
during the presentations and yet each session helped to create lively, honest, and respectful debate during
the “reflection” sessions. Truly inspiring. They were all a huge credit to your school and testament to all the
staff who obviously care so much about them.

But if I may I would like to say a special thanks for believing in the Guest Speakers and being so
enthusiastic, caring, and non-judgemental. Thank you. I know ALL the Guest Speakers and visitors were
delighted with how the day had gone and are really looking forward to returning to Mount St Mary’s in the
future.

Thank you

Fr Ben Hilton Young Leader

"This year we welcome Interviews Year 10
Fr Ben Hilton as our new
School Chaplain. After undergoing a rigorous application procedure,
including building a portfolio throughout Year 9, our Year 10
Fr Ben was ordained last students are now in final stages of the Young Leader
year, and spent his first year as a priest in application process. Students have been preparing during
Harrogate. He recently moved back into their PSHCE lessons and are being interviewed by senior
Leeds, living and serving the Parish of members of staff in order to secure a position on the Young
Mother of Unfailing Help, as well as working Leader team.
as one of the Hospital Chaplains.
There have been some nerves across the year group but
We are grateful for his support, and ask that feedback has been positive from the students, who have
you keep him and his work in your thoughts enjoyed the challenge and value the experience. Staff too
and prayers." have been impressed with the level of maturity, confidence
and eloquence demonstrated by their candidates. Later in
the term, successful students will take part in a Leadership
Induction and will receive the coveted Young Leader hoodie!

Fr Ben celebrating our socially distanced
Staff Welcome Mass.

Prayers of Virtual Sportshall Athletics Pentathlon
Remembrance
This week saw the start of the Virtual Sportshall Athletics Pentathlon Competition, an
They shall not grow old opportunity for our Year 7 & 8 students to compete against other schools in the safety of our
as we that are left grow school community.

old; During the event, the students compete in 5 events; speed bounce, vertical jump, standing
age shall not weary them, long jump, chest push and 10 x 10m shuttle run, to test their athletic abilities. From each
nor the years condemn. event they are awarded points based on their result, which add together to give them their
At the going down of the overall Pentathlon score. Once all scores have been collated, they are submitted and
compared to those from other schools within the local area.
sun
and in the morning,
We will remember them.
We will remember

them.

Fogging the Changing Rooms 30 Year
Service
Thanks to the school investing in sterilising fog machines,
PE has been able to continue with some normality at MSM. We would like to
Students get changed in the sterile congratulate
room with face masks on at all times to Pauline Burnwell on
protect each other and staff. This has being a Mount St Mary’s
afforded the department the opportunity employee for over 30 years,
to continue with many aspects of the which is quite an achievement!
curriculum safely following government
guidance.

A Message from our Prefects

Curriculum
We are Curriculum Head Prefects. As Curriculum ambassadors we aim to give students
in all years an insight to what life is like inside school and after school. We feel that the
best time for us to teach students about life in school and after is at PHSCE periods.
We ambassadors would make presentations about our topics which our Prefects would
then present to students. Some examples of topics that we would teach about in
PHSCE are safe & healthy relationships, manners, mental health, and finance.

Student leadership
We have split our team of Prefects into groups, each one working with a
different year group to help them with different aspects of learning. In Year 7
we are focusing on how they have found school so far and settling in. In
Year 8, choosing GCSE options and tips on how to decide. In Year 9, we
have looked at helping them with their Young Leader application and
interviews. Finally, with Year 10 we will help them with their Prefect
applications and preparing for GCSE exams.

Culture
As Prefects, we have been working very hard to make positive changes to
the school. As ambassadors of culture, we are organising an event to
help people recognise the important of celebrating different cultures.
Culture ties people of a community together, gives an individual a unique
identity, and is all about uniting. Our main idea is a smack down, where
we all learn about each other’s culture and get questioned on the day. We
will do our best to ensure each other’s safety, given the current climate
we are in.

Mental health
As mental health Prefects we felt like we had to focus on something that
was important to us, so recently we decided to talk about the stigmas
around boys’ mental health. During these times it can be especially hard to
stay optimistic so we wanted to make it clear to the boys in our school that
they are not alone.

Our prefects have been working incredibly hard this term to get their ideas in action to make a difference in
our school. You can see what they have been working on in our four main areas! Although times are hard

at the minute and we cannot go and see the other year groups, all of our prefects have been working
incredibly hard to get their ideas and actions across to the whole school. They will continue to support and

advise our students on the subjects they are passionate about whilst keeping us united as a community.

Meet our new Head Boy & Girl

Mabruk Yusuff & Holly Marshall

As Head Boy and Head Girl, we are really passionate about helping our
school community grow and develop. We are doing this by going into other
year assemblies so the younger students know who we are and what we
stand for. With the help of our head prefects, we are working to make a
positive change in all areas of school.

× - MATHS + DOCTOR %
Do you have the following symptoms?
Phobia for maths and persistent headaches learning the subject

÷√ Difficulties with certain topics = +
Homework problems

Difficulties completing tasks in lessons and at home
Confidence issues with learning maths

Problems solving past exam questions

Worry no more, a cure is at hand! See the doctors in the maths department.

All welcome, from Year 7 - 11 Thursdays 3:10 - 4:10

Make a date with us. What’s more you will earn house points for attending!!!

CyberFirst Girls Competition

Four teams of Year 8 girls spent their lunchtimes and some time at
home competing in the CyberFirst Girls Competition between 13th
January and 22nd January. This competition is run by the National
Cyber Security Centre (part of GCHQ) and requires the teams to take
on a series of online puzzles and challenges. The tasks are designed
to help students learn about cyber security and the skills needed to
defend our digital world.
Although none of our teams managed to progress beyond the rst
round of the competition, Julia Lach was inspired to continue her
CyberFirst journey by applying for a place on one of the CyberFirst
Girls Development Days in Manchester. This free day is designed to
recreate the excitement from the competition, increase
understanding of the di erent specialisms within Cyber Security and
equip participants with some valuable practical skills. If her
application is accepted, she is expecting to nd out about Digital
Forensics, Cryptography, Ethical Hacking and Open source
intelligence. She will then become a valuable source of information
and support for the current Year 7 girls that may like to enter the
competition next year.
The team members were:
Julia Lach, Natalie Jones, Oliwia Szczepanowska, Lily Wigglesworth,
Alisha Bedford, Chelsea DeGbalou, Mayokun Omidele,
Tatiana Otremba, Helen Estifanos, Dominika Szymanska, Marian
Nkonyeasua, Medhin Medhane, Robyn Thompson, Sophie Lewis and
Ema Manusyte.

Recently in Geography we purchased two
"Super Goats" that will be given to needy
families around the world. Money was raised
through year 10 and 11 students donating bits of
change whenever they could. In Afghanistan,
Oxfam is helping poor families to build a better life
by providing goats for breeding, as well as helping
them to grow more vegetables and learn new skills.