On 15th May, Year 10 GCSE Drama students visited The Spotlight Theatre in Hoddesdon to see the acclaimed 60th anniversary production of Joan Littlewoods anti war play Oh! What A Lovely War by the renowned Blackeyed Theatre company

A cornerstone of modern musical theatre and one of the very greatest stage satires, Oh What A Lovely War is an extraordinary theatrical journey bringing to life the folly, farce and tragedy of the First World War.

Wildly satirical, visually stunning and deeply moving, it’s the musical that revolutionised modern theatre; an exhilarating, no-holds-barred assault on the military incompetence and inconceivable disregard for human life the First World War has come to represent.

Brimming with timeless songs, razor-sharp satire and high jinks, Oh What A Lovely War is a hilarious, heart-breaking snapshot of life for those caught in the crossfire of conflict, a unanimous voice from the trenches and a timely warning from the theatre of war itself. Now, more than ever, it holds a mirror up to the world and speaks to us all.

Students were suitably impressed with the strong ensemble performances from a company of six who interchanged characters with ease and all played multiple instruments as well as acting and told the story beautifully.

On the Thursday 25th April, 40 Year 7 and 8 mathematicians took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. This national challenge consists of 25 maths problems, which test students’ logical thinking, ability to problem solve, and extension of understanding to the mathematical ideas they cover in their maths lessons.

Congratulations to our bronze participants : Amy, George, Tyler, Itohan and Anelia in Year 7 and Jakub, Ruby, Max, Shasho and Tejal in Year 8

Our Silver participants were Caleb, Alessia, Eliseo, Joseph, and Eren, and Anton in Year 7. Anton secured the best score in his year group and was 1 mark away from a Gold. In Year 8 well done to Eva, Luca, Benjamin and Nadia.

The school is very proud to have 2 gold participants this year, and well done to Joshua scoring 102 out of 135 and Natan for scoring 106 out of 135. These students are also through to the follow on round were only 8000 students qualify each year throughout the UK.

Obtaining an award is a huge achievement and the school community and I are incredibly proud of their effort.

In the pictures, you will find 4 of my personal favourite questions that appeared in the test. If you would like to have a go yourself, please email Maths.Department@st-maryshigh.herts.sch.uk with the subject line “JMC24”  without the quotes with your answers and you will receive an automated response with the correct answers.

If your child is in Year 7, then please encourage them to prepare for next year’s challenge by practicing past paper questions and checking answers.

If your child is in Year 8, then the competition next year is the Intermediate maths challenge. A silver or gold award will automatically qualify your child to take part next year. A bronze award student can still be entered but preparation now will help ensure your child is ready to take part. Past paper questions for the intermediate maths challenge can be found here: Competition Papers – UKMT.

Two St Mary’s students recently took part in the British Karate Championship in Durham.  Both Khemi (Year 10) and Eliseo (Year 7) did well in their rounds and we are very proud of them.  Eliseo did particularly well, gaining three bronze medals after reaching the fourth round and semi-final of the boys 10-11 year category.

Well done to both the siblings who have clearly put in an enormous amount of practice and hard work in their chosen sport.

 

On Thursday 2 May our Year 13 students attended a Leaver’s Tea as they are now going on study leave and have their final public examinations starting.  It was a lovely celebration of their time at St Mary’s and all who attended, students and staff alike, enjoyed the social gathering before the serious work of Exams gets going!

We wish them every success this summer, and look forward to hearing about their future endeavours.

Mrs Mathews

Our two Young Enterprise teams attended the final event last night (30 April) at the University of Hertfordshire.

At the event they set up their stalls which both looked very professional and during the afternoon they managed to continue to sell their products to university students and staff.

Both teams were interviewed by 4 judges where they had to show their stalls, explain their business and provide answers to questions such as what promotions did you do? Why this product? What was your profit margins? They all spoke eloquently and provided thorough responses to every question, and they confidently showed their products and the adverts they had made.

During the evening both teams had to select 5 students to deliver a presentation (4 to speak and 1 to use the clicker to change slides). All the students were very nervous about this and we even had a couple of tears before one presentation. However, each team went up at the front of a large lecture theatre, with an audience of 250 people, and they delivered professional, informative and engaging presentations.

During the final awards both teams won a Participation trophy for their achievement to get into the final, attendance at the final and delivery of presentations. In addition, Embrace team won the runner-up of the Logo Competition and ReCorked Charm won the Best Innovation Award.

During the whole event all of our students represented themselves and our school fantastically, and I am overwhelmingly proud of all the team members.

Well done to Jada, Ogo, Kayleigh, Chisom, Andria, Melissa, Khyar, Olivia, Alara, Zilan, Alex, Stepans, Eray, Jerina, Ercan, Andreas, Nikki, Koray, Joshua, Ozan

Photos to follow

Ms Johnson