News and Events
Events Archive
St. Mary's Awarded the National ICT Mark
St. Mary's has been awarded the ICT Mark in recognition of the innovative, safe and integral use of technology used to support and enhance the teaching and learning experience of our pupils. The award recognises schools who have reached a high standard of e-maturity and lead the way in using this to raise standards, build strong links with the school community and inspire pupils to be confident in their use of IT. St. Mary’s are one of only two schools in Leeds and of 80 schools in the country to have achieved this Mark. We are grateful to Miss Carlin, who coordinates ICT across the curriculum; to Deputy Headteacher Mr Rothwell, and to Systems Manager Mr Birch and his ICT team who work to provide the most effective systems for students and staff.
Young Leeds United Star presents Jamie Payne Ross Award
Aidan White, Leeds United star and former St. Mary’s student presented the Jamie Payne-Ross Award at St. Mary’s on Tuesday 7 June 2011.
The Award is presented annually at the school in memory of Jamie Payne Ross who died in a tragic accident in December 1993. The Award is for outstanding achievement in sport for a Year 8 boy (12-13 year old) and was presented to the school by Jamie’s mother Colleen and elder brother Adam. Previous presenters of the Award include Sir Trevor Brooking, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and the Kaiser Chiefs.
Nineteen year old Aidan has played several times for the Leeds United first team and the England U19 team. He is widely regarded in the game as an outstanding prospect for the future. This season Aidan has gained valuable first team experience on loan at Oldham Athletic where he made a tremendous impact. Whilst at St. Mary’s as a thirteen year old Aidan was awarded the Jamie Payne-Ross trophy himself by Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Mr David Geldart, Assistant Headteacher said, “Aidan is a great lad and a wonderful role model. When asked to present the award he said it would be an honour. Having won the award himself Aidan knows more than most how important the occasion is. On numerous occasions over the last few years Aidan has said how inspired he was by the Jamie Payne-Ross Award. Aidan is in regular contact with the school and is a great supporter of the Bambisanani Partnership, the school’s work in South Africa.”
The recipient this year was James Cape. James is an outstanding pupil who always gives his best in PE lessons. He has achieved a very high standard in Martial Arts performance and competition outside of school. He showed tremendous potential from his first days at the school, attending both Football and Rugby training and displayed outstanding skill levels and commitment. He has continued with Football at school and, in addition, participates in the school Cricket team. James is also an outstanding badminton player. As a pupil he has impressed staff with his positive and supportive approach in lessons which, to the PE staff, is just as much a part of this award as the high levels of sports performance.
During the special ceremony Aidan was presented with the Bambisanani Award for his outstanding support of the school’s work in South Africa with Mnyakanya School.
At this very moving and prestigious occasion wonderful musical performances were provided by Adam Vorley, Natalia O’Shea and Molly Ness.
Commissioning of New Headteacher
On the evening of Thursday 26 May, Mr Robert Pritchard was commissioned as the new Headteacher at St. Mary’s. The commissioning formed part of the Year 13 Leavers Mass of thanksgiving which was led by Father Richard Carter, former Chaplain to the school. Mrs Catherine McMahon, Senior Deputy at the school, presented Mr Pritchard as our brother in Christ, chosen by the Governing Body to serve in the parish school of St. Mary’s. The congregation prayed that Mr Pritchard will be upheld by the spirit as he takes up his new responsibility.
Prayers were also said for all students in the year group who are undertaking their examinations before moving onto Higher Education of the world of work.
The Leavers’ Mass was very well attended and the students, their parents and many staff celebrated the massive contribution to the school community of the class of 2004.
St. Mary's Geographers are Worldwise
6 Year 10 students from St. Mary's took part in the national final of the Worldwise Challenge in the Lake District on the weekend of 13-15 May. From hundreds of competing schools, they were judged overall winners from 12 finalists. The winning team was Emma Fearon, Michael Jones and Lucy Rothwell, whilst Jake Longhorn was awarded the outstanding individual award for his contribution to the weekend. The other team members were Robbie Pennock and Michael Nisbet.
The Worldwise Challenge is a national competition sponsored by the Geographical Association (GA),
the subject association with the aim of furthering Geography education. Hundreds of schools take part in online quizzes and activities and a local quiz, in St. Mary's case, competing with other schools from Leeds and Harrogate. Year 11 students also completed a project on the theme of 'Investigating the Shrinking World'. On the merits of their products and success in these competitions, St. Mary's were selected as one of 9 schools to take part in the final weekend.
The Worldwise Challenge Final weekend is sponsored by the Field Studies Council and hosted at the Blencathra Field Centre near Keswick. The teams gathered on Friday evening and were set the challenge of investigating why the Lake District is a special place, and how this might change in the future. They visited three locations during Saturday: a working farm, a viewpoint and the Castlerigg stone circle. They carried out fieldwork and interviewed local people to prepare a multimedia p
resentation to a panel of judges from the GA followed by a question and answer session.
One St. Mary's team was judged unanimously as the best overall, whilst the other was highly commended. The senior Vice President (President elect) of the GA, Dr Fran Martin, said "despite the fact we say that the standard of the work cannot get any better year on year, it most certainly does. St. Mary's were really very impressive."
Mr Sugden said, "The sophistication of the students' conceptualisation of the Lake District as an environmental, economic, social and even spiritual place was amazing given their age, but it was also their unassuming, thoughtful and effective teamwork that, together with their intelligent presentation, impressed the judges so much."
The Geographical Association will visit the school to formally present the prize in the near future. Thanks to the Field Studies Council and the Geographical Association for their generous sponsorship of this amazing opportunity for Geography students, and to staff members Mr Sugden, Mr Calderbank and Mrs Keinhorst for supporting the teams during the weekend.
St. Mary’s Players Maintain Their Winning Ways
For the second year running St. Mary's have won the Airedale and Wharfedale Schools Rugby Union Competition.
Team coach Mr Thornton said, “It has been a tough campaign as there have been no facilities to play home fixtures on at St. Mary's due to extensive work being carried out on the site with the building of the new state of the art 3G pitch and improved drainage being put into the rugby pitch. We are looking forward to next season already as we will have areas to train and play rugby on instead of concrete yards! It is credit to the team who turn up week in week out for the training sessions, which mainly took place on the yards so no contact training could be done, making the team’s success even more remarkable. A special mention must go to James Cryan who has led the team by example through his outstanding work rate during every game and training session.”
The final was played at Otley RUFC against Horsforth on an extremely hard and unforgiving pitch which should have led to open flowing rugby, however, this being a final that was not the case. Two teams, not willing to give an inch, battled out a tense game with lots of errors on both sides. St. Mary's took an early lead through excellent field position by the forwards and a well taken try by James Selkirk in the corner timing his run to perfection. Horsforth came back strong and through excellent work from their forwards were awarded two penalties in front of the posts which were both taken. The game started to turn into a forwards battle until the flying James Selkirk intercepted a loose Horsforth pass and ran from inside his own 22 to score a fantastic try underneath the posts.
The game continued to be littered with mistakes with lots of penalties being awarded to both teams. As the score board ticked along with the game looking as though it could go either way a moment of absolute brilliance from the St. Mary's backs, starting with Darrell Tabudji (man of the match), inside his own 22 linking with Alfie Burns, who in turn gave a sublime pass back on the inside to Jacob Matthews, who raced away from the cover defense to give St. Mary's some breathing space on the score board. St. Mary's started to take control of the game in the later stages and in the end gained a comfortable 22 - 12 victory.
This was an excellent end to another successful season.
It is now a tradition that Mr Thornton chooses a player of the season and this season it went to Harry Minchella (Hooker) who has made huge improvements in all aspects of his game through his fantastic effort and application in all training sessions and games.
Mr Thornton commented, “He is an excellent rugby player who will hopefully go on and play rugby for years to come.”
Duke of Edinburgh Awards
Congratulations to St. Mary's students Rebecca Dolan and Freya Kew Y12, and James Falgate, Ciara Hanstock, Melissa Bauldry and Will Cudworth Y13 who have successfully achieved their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. The students embarked on the award at school and have continued independently with their skill, physical and volunteer sections over the past twelve months, to conclude the required sections.
Year 8 are Outward Bound!
171 Year 8 pupils recently attended the annual residential in Howtown and Watermillock which straddle the majestic Ullswater in the Lake District.
The aim of outward bound is, "To unlock the potential in young people through discovery and adventure in the wild" and this was certainly the objective this year as an overnight expedition was reintroduced to the course. Pupils also undertook a variety of activities such as canoeing, rowing, river gorge walking, hiking, rock climbing, raft building, simulated caving and orienteering as well as the overnight expedition.
Sir Trevor Brooking Opens ‘State of the Art’ Sports Facility
On Monday, 21 March, Sir Trevor Brooking, Director of Development at the FA officially opened the new state of the art floodlit Artificial Turf Pitch at St. Mary’s School in Menston.
Many high profile ex-St. Mary’s students from the world of music and sport attended the event. They included:-
Kaiser Chiefs; Peanut Baines, Nick Hodgson
Professional Cricketer - David Wigley
Professional Footballers - Aiden White, Niall Canavan, Tom Taiwo, Luke Hendrie and Jordan Sinnott
Ex professional footballer and now broadcaster John Hendrie
Sir Trevor was full of praise for St. Mary’s and the new facility, “St. Mary’s is an outstanding Sports College where excellence and inclusion in sport go hand in hand with excellent academic results and high achievement in music and the arts. Sport has the potential to add so much to a person’s all-round education. The new pitch at St. Mary’s is tremendous and David Geldart and his team deserve great credit for their determination and perseverance for making it a reality. The school has excellent links with the community and with its partner football clubs who will benefit enormously from the facility. It is a great honour for me to formally open this excellent facility.”
The new Artificial Turf Pitch forms part of a £750,000 investment in sport at the school which will also see all remaining grass pitches drained to a high standard.
The new facilities are a fantastic boost for St. Mary’s and the wider sporting community, particularly the school’s partner clubs of Guiseley Juniors FC, Menston Juniors FC and Burley Trojans FC.
The project was part funded with the help of a £325,000 grant from the Football Foundation. Funded by the Premier League, the FA and the Government via Sport England, the Football Foundation is the nation’s largest sports charity. Launched in July 2000, the Foundation celebrated its tenth anniversary last year and has so far supported around 8,000 community sports projects worth £945m.
Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation said, “We are delighted that St. Mary’s and the local community will have access to these fantastic new facilities and commend the school and the County FA for all their hard work in making this happen.”
The fruition of the project is a dream come true for Assistant Headteacher David Geldart who has campaigned for such a facility at St. Mary’s for over ten years. “I am delighted with the new facilities, they are everything that we ever hoped for and they are no less than the school and the wider community deserve. There was always the need for such a facility in the area and it was just a question of convincing others of that fact and of course the small matter of raising the £750,000 which has not been easy. The County FA and the Football Foundation have been fantastic to work with. I must also take this opportunity to thank my project team member of Catherine McMahon, Acting Headteacher, Richard Chattoe, Assistant Headteacher, Gillian Osborne, Director of Support Services and John Barnes, School Governor who have been extremely supportive of myself and instrumental in making the project happen. Together we overcame every obstacle.”
Acting Headteacher Mrs Catherine McMahon commented, “This outstanding state of the art facility proved extremely difficult and time-consuming to bring to fruition. It is therefore all the more prized to us because of this fact. St. Mary’s has a proven track record of sporting excellence and now, at last, we have some facilities which are commensurate with our achievements as a Sports College. I thank all members of the team I worked with but especially to Mr Geldart, whose vision and tenacity helped us to overcome all the obstacles in our path.”
Following a reception and speeches in the school’s Main Hall, invited guests went onto the pitch which was blessed by Father O’Connor and then formally opened by Sir Trevor Brooking. A coaching display took place involving staff and students from St. Mary’s and members of the school’s partner football clubs; Guiseley Juniors and Menston Juniors. Invited guests and celebrities thoroughly enjoyed the coaching sessions with Peanut Baines and Nick Hodgson from the Kaiser Chiefs joining in several of the 5-a-side games.
Anyone interested in booking the new facilities should contact Mr Chris Tindall, Facilities Manager at St. Mary’s on 01943 883000 or on tindalc03@leedslearning.net
Bambisanani Partnership ‘Achieving the Impossible’
In recent years the Bambisanani Partnership, developed between St. Mary’s School and Mnyakanya School in Kwa Zala Natal, South Africa, has gained international acclaim for its joint work using sport as a catalyst to develop leadership, health, global understanding and education.
Mr Geldart, Assistant Headteacher at St. Mary’s and Mr William Vilakazi, Assistant Head at Mnyakanya were invited to share their story at the Sports College Conference in Telford entitled ‘Achieving the Impossible’. The pair spoke about their joint learning projects and how the initiative was inspiring both learners and educators in both countries.
Mr William Vilakazi said, “It was a great honour to speak at the international conference in the UK. I am very proud of our story which is clearly of interest to others now.”
Mr Geldart, founder of the Bambisanani Partnership said, “The partnership has been going for five very eventful years now and it is great that many other countries are now interested in what we have achieved and how we have achieved it.”
Lisa McHendry of the Youth Sport Trust said, “The Bambisanani Partnership between St. Mary’s School and Mnyakanya School is truly inspirational. It is making a significant difference to young people in both countries. It is changing people’s lives through the power of sport.”
