Amy Seager, Art Lead at St Richard's Primary, Dover led a 'Stations of the Cross' art project across the entire school.

 

Each class combined a specific skill to an image which represented the

Stations of the Cross and the work which pupils produced has been truly amazing.

 

Pictured below are some of the pieces created by talented year 5 and year 6 pupils, supported by their brilliant teachers, Miss Drage and Miss Wilson. The artworks include a collaborative mosaic in an aboriginal style (inspired by renowned aboriginal artist and aducator, Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr). Each pupil created a section of mosaic and then the pieces were then put together.

 

Well done to everyone!

 

St Gregory's Primary, Margate are running an incredibly popular, not to mention successful, Shakespeare Club!

 

Academy Principal, Diane Rougvie-Fevrier, said the school is "super proud" of its budding thespians (pictured below), who will be performing at the Marlowe Theatre on 28th March.

 

Break a leg, everyone!

This week, pupils from St Richard’s Primary, Dover attended a Science Outreach session at St Edmund’s Secondary, Dover. The pupils learnt about antagonistic muscles and how they work by dissecting chicken wings.

 

The children had so much fun, one pupil said “the dissecting was disgusting but also cool at the same time ", another pupil said “this was the best school visit ever!”.

Mrs Helen Grant, Member of Parliament for Maidstone and the Weald, visited St Simon Stock Secondary, Maidstone on Friday 04 March to take part in a student-led ‘Question & Answer’ session.

 

Greeted by two School Prefects, Nimi and Finley (pictured below), the enthusiastic students spoke to Mrs Grant about their views on climate change, showed her a display they have created and handed her a letter collating their beliefs. The MP promised them their letter would sit on her desk in Westminster and would be with her as she made the key decisions that will impact our generation.

 

The Prefects then accompanied Mrs Grant to the drama studio for a ‘Question & Answer’ session with a group of 27 students who posed many insightful questions to the MP, ranging from what drove Mrs Grant into politics, to her views on the recently passed Policing Bill that impacts the right to protest. The MP’s role as Special Envoy for Girls’ Education was talked about in some detail and students asked about the progress made in this field. Discussion was respectful but engaging, and students were able to voice their honest opinions.

 

During the session, Mrs Grant also took the opportunity to pose her own questions to the room in order to gauge the opinions of young people on issues such as climate change, the war in Ukraine and more. 

 

The event was a great success and demonstrated the students' aptness for politics and their interest in social activism.

On Friday 11th March, children at Our Lady of Hartley Primary participated in a special Six Nations Day - a day in which the school celebrated this famous sports competition and took a closer look at the six countries that participate in it.

Classes from Years 1 to 6 were each allocated a country. Children from each class then studied an artist, prepared a dish and listened to music from their allocated country. The school also had two rugby coaches from Dartford Valley RFC visit and work with each class.

The school's Reception class had the most fun of all as they learnt about food from all six nations!

Year 2 pupils at St Edward's Primary, Sheerness have been busy creating masterpieces out of plastic bottles! We are very impressed with their artwork and the fantastic way in which they have managed to recycle bottles and put them to good use!

President of Southborough & District Lions Club, Mrs Christine Forbes together with Mrs Bronnie Verrico visited St Gregory's Catholic School, Tunbridge Wells on 28 February 2022, to make a presentation to the winner of the Lions International Peace Poster Competition.

 

At a special assembly in the school Chapel, Olivia who is a Year 9 pupil at St Gregory’s, was presented with a shield, along with a framed copy of her painting and a District winner’s certificate from the Lions. Mrs Forbes explained to the students how Olivia’s painting was the overall winner of the District Competition which includes all of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Olivia's poster has now been entered into the National Competition and, if it  wins, it will then be entered in the International Competition and compete against entries from all around the world!

 

During the assembly, Mrs Forbes expressed how delighted the Lions are that St Gregory's had taken part in the competition which encouraged young people between the ages of 11 to 13 to think about peace, asking that they creatively express what it means to them, and to share their unique vision with the world. The theme for this year’s contest was ‘We Are All Connected’.

 

When presenting the ‘John Verrico’ shield to winner Olivia, Mrs Forbes explained how this new award had been made possible thanks to the generosity of people donating in memory of Lion John Verrico. John, who sadly passed away last year, was a much loved and hardworking Lion for almost 50 years, and a Founder member of Tunbridge Wells Lions. 

 

This is the first year that Southborough & District Lions Club have sponsored a local school to participate and St Gregory’s Art Department also benefited from a cheque for £100 for their collaboration with Southborough Lions. The two competition runners up, Elvy and Florrie, also in Year 9, received vouchers for their entries. 

 

The competition will continue every year from now on in John’s memory and the shield is now proudly displayed in the school reception. 

 

Marika Landy, our IT Technical Officer at St Edmund’s Secondary, Dover, is an Independent Woman with many talents. She finds joy and harmony with singing and recently entered a competition at the Thanet Music and Drama Festival, winning three of her classes!

 

The Thanet Music and Drama Festival was founded as a charity in 1921, and each year offers a platform for hundreds of amateur musicians, actors and dancers in and around the Thanet area to perform in front of an audience and gain expert critical advice.

The festival consists of five sections (Instrumental, Speech & Drama, Piano, Dance, Vocal & Choral) and is held in February to March every year, culminating in an Award Ceremony & Gala Concert featuring some of the best performances from all sections.

 

Marika is an ex-pupil of St Edmund’s and has been a staff member at the school for the last 4 years. Her many hobbies include long distance running, karate, stage combat and Marika is also an aspiring Classical and Opera singer, often supporting the school music faculty, performing in school masses and events. 

 

A huge congratulations to Marika on her well-deserved success!
 

St Mary's Primary, Deal have used funding that was kindly raised by their PTFA to invest in some more playtime equipment for pupils; it is a brilliant example of what our schools can do with the fantastic support of parents & carers!

The first order of business for St Mary's new school council was to revamp playtimes. The council asked pupils what they felt would make breaktimes even better and then fed back all the great ideas they collected to Mrs Goodwin, the school quickly got busy ordering some of the things pupils had requested!

 

The school council were then on hand to help Mrs Goodwin when the new playground equipment was delivered and are now responsible for looking after and tidying away the equipment at play times. They are all doing a fantastic job in their new role and it was certainly a very exciting playtime when the rest of the school found their new equipment!

 

Well done, Team St Mary's!

The staff team at St Edmund's Secondary, Dover joined together for a special Wellbeing-focused Inset Day last Monday, 21 February.  Mindfulness activities included, football, boxing, yoga, painting, creative drawing, cookery, walking and even alphabet photography. The photo below details a wonderful work created by one of our colleagues, Tracy. Each photography piece was taken at the school's local church, with the images spelling out Wellbeing; the staff all agreed it was a brilliant day and certainly demonstrated that you see things more clearly when you’re focused!