Cardinal Newman Catholic School

Dear Parent/Carer,

On behalf of the Governors I am writing to inform you that we have appointed Dr James Kilmartin as Headteacher of the school.

As you will know, Dr Kilmartin has been Acting Head of the school since December 2011, when Mrs Sanders became ill. During the intervening period he has led the school with flair, commitment and with real dedication for the good of our students.

We have had a rigorous selection process over the last two days, and Dr Kilmartin proved himself against a very strong field.

As Governors we have complete confidence that in appointing Dr Kilmartin we are entrusting the leadership of this wonderful school to a person of outstanding personal qualities of integrity and ability, and who has a deep commitment to the school and everything it stands for.

Do please keep Dr Kilmartin and the school in your prayers as he formally takes over the leadership of the school. With best wishes,

Charles Wookey
Chair of Governors

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You must bring your class copy of 'Of Mice and Men' or 'Mockingbird' and 'An Inspector Calls' with you on the day. You'll need to quote from these in your answers and hand both texts to the invigilator at the end of the exam.

It is important that your copies are 'clean' and have no notes within them. See your English teacher this week in your revision session if you still require a text before Monday's exam.

Spare texts will not be available on the morning of the exam.

English Department

(A new poetry anthology will be provided for you in the Unit 2 Poetry exam on Thursday 23rd May)

Congratulations to our Year 9 Football Team who won the Brighton Schools’ Cup on April 29th. They beat close rivals, Longhill School, 4-1. You can see the photo of our victorious team by clicking the link below.

Team Photo

Well done too to our Year 7 and Year 10 Football Teams who lost in their respective finals of the Brighton Schools’ Cup. Their work ethic and the grace they demonstrated in defeat should make all of us proud.

If attending school for revision classes students must sign in/out at reception. Any students attending for exams only will be registered in their exam venue. However if students are in for both exams/revision they still must sign in / out at reception

During Lent our students raised over £8,000 for various charities including Mary’s Meals, Brighton Voices in Exile, Chestnut Tree House and Project Antifreeze. Top marks for fund raising go to Year 8 who raised £2,400 for A21 and Jubilee Action.

We were delighted to hear the news that Ms Maria Larkin has won the Royal Geographical Society Ordnance Survey Award for excellence in teaching geography at secondary level. Ms Larkin is Subject Leader for Geography and this award confirms the outstanding contribution she has made for many years to the life of the school and our students.

Congratulations to Year 9 students Isabelle Guy, Caroline Banerjee, Annabel Baldwin, Sophie Blacklaw-Taylor, Gus Hyland, Madelaine Sangco, David George and Will Allen on their submission to the Shape the Future competition organised as part of the Global Learning Programme. There were over 114 competition entries from schools in all parts of the British Isles and the Cardinal Newman entry was one of only 18 to go through to the second round. Unfortunately we did not make the final short list but they were awarded a certificate of special commendation from the Rt Hon. Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development. Their achievement is all the more remarkable because they had to do in 3 weeks what most of the other schools had 3 months to complete! Working with Mr MacDonald, our recently appointed KS3 Curriculum Leader for Geography, they produced a presentation on the progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals, established by the United Nations in 2000 and due to be achieved by 2015.

Science is a vital part of the curriculum that we offer here at Cardinal Newman Catholic School. The launch of CREST awards provides another opportunity for our students to enjoy and achieve in this subject.

CREST Awards is a project-based awards scheme for the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) and is run by the British Science Association. The Science Department has just launched the Bronze award this week with the aim of inspiring and stretching those students at KS3 who have demonstrated enthusiasm and ability in Science. They are completing a project on how they can investigate the ‘carbon footprint’ of future travel over a period of ten after school sessions and next year we will be looking to expand this to a larger number of students as it helps them to develop problem-solving skills and it can raise the level of achievement to all students at all abilities throughout KS3.

Many thanks to Mr Lowe and Ms Le Marquand for organising this opportunity.

 

Joint Statement by BHASVIC, Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Stanford Junior and Infant Schools on the proposed siting of The King’s School, Hove and a potential new primary school on BHASVIC field

7th May 2013

The announcement from the Department for Education on 18th April 2013 that they had identified the BHASVIC field as the ‘most suitable deliverable site’ for the new 1000 student King’s Free school plus a 3 form entry primary school for a further 630 children, came as a total shock to us all. We found it hard to understand how the feasibility of a proposal of this scale and significance could possibly have been properly evaluated without first having consulted with us and the other users of the field to establish the extent of current use of the playing fields.

During the school day the fields are in constant use by our institutions, in particular Cardinal Newman Catholic School, who rely on substantial daily use of the playing fields for curriculum P.E. and after school sports activities. We fully understand the demographic pressures leading to the need for further secondary provision in the City. We accept that more primary and secondary places are needed in Hove and Portslade, and that this is the rationale for the establishment of the King’s Free school.

But building over a school playing field is not the answer. Not only would it severely impair our institutions' provision for sports, it would substantially extinguish a school playing field at a time when rightly the public health emphasis on sports and exercise points towards the need for more rather than fewer amenities of this kind. It would permanently remove a vital green space in the heart of a densely populated city. It would also create great congestion around an area which already has over 4000 students coming and going each day.

We urge the Department and the Local Authority to re-examine other viable options for locating the free school, not least the site in Portslade where the new free school will be temporarily sited. There must be a better solution than this, and we are very willing to work constructively with all who are concerned to find it.

The library is introducing a new fining system to cope with the increasing numbers of books and DVDs that go overdue each week. Fines of 5p per day will be charged once items have gone overdue and the money raised will go to Book Aid International, a charity serving developing countries to create opportunities for people to realise their potential and alleviate poverty. 

Office Online has been upgraded to Office 365. Students with school email MUST read the following page: Click here to read