News

• Friday 18 June 2021 Well Done year 13 Physicists! Two exceptional Physicists from year 13 have won Bronze medals in the annual British Physics Olympiad.
• Thursday 17 June 2021 Hezron Brown Assemblies On Thursday 17th June, students in years 8-10 were invited to listen to Hezron Brown. He is the winner of the Pride of Britain Award in 2019. Hezron spoke to students about his life experiences and how they led him to make difficult choices in life but also how he turned his life around. He now regularly goes into schools to share his story to help other young people. Hezron spoke to students about the importance of education and attendance and how these both will help them in the future. The students thoroughly enjoyed the assembly and found hope through Hezron’s message.
• Friday 11 June 2021 Year 6 Primary Visits We have been welcoming Year 6 students from our Primary Schools this week. St John Fisher and St Paul’s students have been getting a feel for our school and been exploring some very smelly chemicals as part of their introduction to Science.
• Thursday 10 June 2021 Gardening at Sophia House Fr Cecil asked for volunteers to do some light gardening at Sophia House. 5 6th formers were more than willing to give up some of their time doing this voluntary work with the encouragement of Mrs Eden.
• Friday 28 May 2021 Year 13 Leavers Mass On Friday 28th May, Year 13 celebrated their first and final Mass of the year with Father Cecil and staff. It was joined virtually by parents and carers as due to ongoing Covid restrictions they were unfortunately unable to attend in person. It was an emotional occasion with students leading readings accompanied by music by Nicole and Rosalie on piano. The opening procession reflected their seven years and in a few cases eight years at St Thomas Aquinas. Head Boy Sam pre-recorded a video of passing on The Light of Faith to the current year 7's represented by his younger sister Katie. Year 7 sang a very moving blessing of, "May your life in this world be a happy one", accompanied by Nicole on piano. It was a very special moment.Karolina and Sam gave a heartfelt and emotional speech at the end of the Mass. They spoke about their time at Aquinas and thanked Mr Martin, Mr Flood, Mrs Davies, The English and Re Faculties and the tutors Miss Kerr, Mr Biggs, Mrs Baker and Mr Hall. Mr Flood wro
• Tuesday 25 May 2021 Year 10 visit to St Chad's Cathedral and St Chad's Sanctuary I was honoured to be trusted and chosen because I am a good role model for the school.
• Friday 14 May 2021 SVP Raffle Before lockdown, the Young Vincentian group decided to organise a raffle to raise money for the St Vincent de Paul Society.
• Thursday 6 May 2021 Virtual Pilgrimage to Lourdes Add up your steps/kilometres or miles. Get sponsored so we can send money to St Mary’s India. Share the GoFundMe page with your family and friends:https://gofund.me/0991dad7
• Thursday 1 April 2021 Born for This and Easter Mass Hymns At this time last year, we wrote in the Student Bulletin how students should have been in the final stages of rehearsals for our presentation of ‘Born For This’. It continues to feel very unusual to have not been rehearsing for one of the most important weeks in the spiritual calendar.
• Monday 22 March 2021 Year 8 prayer services - Remembering Jake This week the Year 8 classes have gathered in the chapel in their form groups to remember Jake Timmis who died just before Christmas. They had time to light candles, and pray for Jake and his family. They were also given the opportunity to write their memories of him and prayers.This wasn’t easy for many of the students as some of them knew him well. Their level of respect and prayer and the questions they asked were extremely mature.
• Friday 19 March 2021 Aquinas Test Centre - a piece of history Our Testing Centre closed on Tuesday afternoon having completed almost 4000 tests. We are absolutely delighted to report that we recorded no positive results.
• Friday 12 March 2021 Student Testing at STACS I would like to thank parents for their patience and unwavering support this week. We had over 90% of parents give their consent to testing. This is much better than other local schools and compares very favourably to national reports.
• Friday 5 February 2021 Year 8 – Amazing Students Well done to Mrs Ulmkaln's English group - and how proud I am to hear such wonderful comments about your effort and progress! I'd also like to mention that Mr Gay contacted me to let me know that he had 100% lesson attendance from 8FI and 8JP; plus, as I mentioned in assembly last week, Shojas (8RO) and Nessa (8JP) are top of the Dr Frost charts!
• Friday 5 February 2021 Year 8 English – An Online Wonder! Some people wonder if our students engage in online learning and whether it is a poor substitute for face-to-face teaching. Well, here at Aquinas, our Year 8’s have been showing that they can excel at learning in remote lessons.
• Sunday 31 January 2021 Children's Mental Health Week
• Thursday 28 January 2021 STACS Day 2021 For the first time in 58 years, St Thomas Aquinas Day was celebrated remotely!
• Friday 15 January 2021 A Success Story for Renaissance Learning Renaissance Learning supply our school with the Accelerated Reading programme and myON, a resource that our year 7 and 8s use at home and in school for reading books online.  We were approached by the company to write an article for their website to use as a success story. 
• Friday 18 December 2020 End of Term Mass - December 2020
• Thursday 17 December 2020 Advent Week 4 - The Candle of Love We have come to the final Sunday of Advent. A Year 10 student lights the last purple candle on the Advent Wreath which represents love. This week, Father Gary introduces the Fourth Sunday of Advent with a short reflection. The readings are read by Mr Martin and a Year 10 student. We come together as a school community with a performance of 'In a Stable Long Ago', involving our Year 7 students and older members of the School Choir. In our busy lives, let us take a moment to listen to the readings and School Choir.
• Wednesday 16 December 2020 Faculty Committed Learner Awards As a new termly award, each faculty has named their 'Committed Learner' for the Autumn Term. These students have gone above and beyond to display outstanding diligence, commitment and resilience in their learning this term and should be very proud of their achievement. Each faculty has chosen a small prize to reward these students for their hard work. Well done to the following students:
• Friday 11 December 2020 Advent Week 3 - The Candle of Joy The Third Sunday of Advent - The Candle of Joy (Gaudete Sunday)
• Thursday 10 December 2020 Christmas Free School Meal Vouchers On Friday 18th December the parents of students eligible for Free School Meals will be emailed their unique codes. The emails will come from Edenred and it is the same system that was used during the summer. Each code will be worth £30 which will cover two weeks’ worth of Free School Meals. Below are links to FAQs and a user guide for anyone with queries.
• Thursday 10 December 2020 House Charity action through Advent Once again, there has been a fantastic response by children, staff and parents to our Christmas Hampers collection, a focus of Advent in tutor groups across Year 7 and Year 8 this year.  With a few more days to go, we are likely to have enough to distribute to those in our wider community who would otherwise spend a lonely and dismal Christmas. 
• Wednesday 9 December 2020 Signs of Advent On Wednesday we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We heard the words in Luke 1:26-38 “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favour with God’.Around the school we have signs of Advent. Although we are not able to have our usual Carol Service and end of term Mass with the whole school, we have been able to focus more on the weeks of Advent. We have had prayer stations with years 7 and 8 and they have focused on Gratitude and reconciliation. They lit the candles of the Advent wreath. Mrs Robertson-Rogers also designed and made a beautiful floral display to go on the cross in reception. The students have been recorded reading and singing carols each week in Advent.
• Tuesday 8 December 2020 Advent Collection for St. Chad's Sanctuary, Birmingham On Tuesday 8th December a mini-bus filled with items collected by tutor groups in Years 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 were delivered to St. Chad's.  Unfortunately the mini-bus which had been standing since September had a flat battery but even this delay did not put off Mrs O'Driscoll, Mr Jaep and a group of sixth formers completing the service requirement of their BTEC L3 Health & Social Care course!
• Friday 4 December 2020 Advent Week 2 - The Candle of Peace This week, students and teachers present readings, the lighting of the Second Advent candle and a beautiful performance of ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter’. We begin with some poignant words from Father Tim Menezes, followed by readings read by our Year 7 students. As you listen to the Choir’s performance, you will see our Liturgy Leaders working hard to prepare some hampers. These will be taken to our Advent Charity, St. Chad’s Sanctuary for the needy families in our community. Students in each Year group have been asked to donate items for those who are in most need. I hope you can take some time this weekend to have a moment of stillness and reflect on the readings and music.
• Wednesday 2 December 2020 Virtual School Council Meeting Last Wednesday, the School Council met for the first time this year in a new virtual format! Due to restrictions of year group bubbles mixing, the two representatives from each year group accessed the meeting through Microsoft Teams and were able to discuss key matters, using their voice to help drive whole school change.
• Friday 27 November 2020 Advent Week 1 - The Candle of Hope As we begin the season of Advent this weekend, students in our Sixth Form and Choir have prepared a short presentation of readings and a beautiful performance of ‘Like a Candle’. Father Cecil leads us in prayer and a short introduction. As you listen to the Choir’s performance, you will see images of the lighting of the Candle of Hope and students from each House stood at the Advent wreath. Let us through prayer and music, prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ.
• Friday 27 November 2020 Advent Charity - St Chad's Sanctuary
• Thursday 19 November 2020 Year 8 Junior Prefects Sixteen Year 8 students debuted this week as Junior Prefects. Dressed in their Hi-Vis jackets they certainly were a sight for sore eyes! Their primary job is to support with line-up after Lunch 1 and Lunch 2; and to keep order in their lines. Thank you to the rest of the year group who responded really well, and to those 16 exceptional Junior Prefects helping us keep our standards high!
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