Max Power! (Year 9 boys football)

A hat-trick from Max was not enough to see the Year 9 boys win their first fixture against former competition champions, Haileybury Turnford.

The first half was fast paced and saw St Mary’s concede some early goals that gave the team a lot of ground to make up. At half time, behind and with no goals to show for their efforts, it would have been easy to give up.

Following a formation change, the boys showed great resilience in the second half and benefitted from a more direct style of play. Mason dropped into defense and secured the defensive line. His powerful runs forward caused the opposition issues and at times, it felt like I was at the Tottenham stadium watching Micky Van De Ven. The pinnacle of the half was Max capping off a hat-trick by scoring an over-head bicycle kick that even left the referee applauding.

A lot of lessons to take away from the game and the team will be looking to bounce back in their next fixture.

Mr Hunt

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Year 9 ‘Food, Glorious Food’

Year 9’s have created some scrumptious title pages and mood boards, show casing their fantastic art skills. Our project theme this term is ‘Food Glorious Food’. Students will be creating art work based on cakes, treats, junk food and sweets, studying artists such as Sarah Graham, Joel Penkman and Audrey Flack. Here are some examples of art work by Year 9 artists, Nadia, Kuzey, Amaya and Mylene.

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Year 9 Students go on a Parisian Adventure!

52 Year 9 students embarked on a memorable school trip in Paris between the 6th and 9th March. Our students immersed themselves in the rich history, culture and beauty that Paris has to offer. The itinerary was packed with iconic landmarks, including visits to the Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Montmartre and much more which could be seen in the views from the scenic boat cruise along the river Seine and from atop the Montparnasse tower, coupled with a visit to the Disneyland parks the next day!

Beyond these famous sights, students had the opportunity to engage with the local culture, sampling local cuisine, strolling along picturesque streets and gardens, and even offering some brave students a chance to practice their language skills in authentic settings! This immersive experience helps foster a deeper appreciation for other perspectives and broadens students’ worldview.

Throughout the trip, students demonstrated great behaviour and enthusiasm. The trip was a resounding success, and means the memories created will undoubtedly stay with students, and contribute to their personal and academic growth.

We look forward as a school to being able to offer more enriching experiences to our students. To Paris, we say “au revoir” for now, until the mantle is taken up next year by the current Year 8s…

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Year 9 drama work this half term

This half term, the Year 9 drama students have been working hard getting to grips with their theatre practitioner study, Bertolt Brecht.   They’ve been discovering his unique style of theatre and applying some of Brecht’s techniques to their own work.   Techniques including narration, third person narration, re-ordering the scenes sequence into non chronological order and the use of placards have all been used creatively and imaginatively in their group devised pieces.   They’ve also been exploring what style of theatre Brecht came out of and why he created and developed this new style, that is still influencing theatre and film makers today.  They learnt that Brecht had said of theatre audiences that they ‘hang up their brains with their hats’ when they watch a piece of naturalistic theatre, whereas he wanted to challenge his audience and make them use their brains.  Think of a film or TV programme where a character speaks directly to the camera, well, that’s Brecht’s influence.

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