On Thursday 27th April, we were joined by nearly 450 students, staff, parents and carers for an evening of celebration for all the commitment and sporting achievements from the last year 2016/2017.  We were honoured to have a special guest speaker Warren Cummings who had a career playing football for Chelsea, Scotland and more recently AFC Bournemouth.

We would like to congratulate all students who received an award and thank all for their efforts and contributions to extra-curricular sport and leadership.  In particular we would like to say a special well done to the nominations and winners of the ‘special’ awards of the evening:

On Friday 31^st March the upper school netball club took part in a Netball Marathon. The evening got underway with a special guest team playing against a staff and 6^th form team.  Netball was played continuously whilst  pupils ran the Marathon distance (26.2 miles) by doing shuttles to raise money for new netball kit and the upcoming Sports Tour in July. The students were fantastic and demonstrated the same outstanding levels of effort,

enthusiasm and commitment throughout the evening as they do every Friday night afterschool. After all of that exercise we had to reward ourselves with Pizza! Well done to all of the students involved, you are absolute  superstars!

A HUGE thank you to all of you who contributed to our appeal for saucepans to send to a refugee camp in Dunkerque. Due to your generosity we have sent 30 cooking pots of various sizes. Elly Harvey and the team from St Mary’s Longfleet travelled on Wednesday 28th March taking much needed supplies. The money you  donated has been used to buy leggings and underwear: basics that we take for granted but which are so welcome in the camp. We will be sending a message from staff and students as well.

It isn’t an easy trip and they will be physically and emotionally challenged. One of the team will be cutting hair…such a basic service… and the others will be doing anything that is required. We can support them by keeping the team in your prayers. I also hope that we can support them when they go again, probably in October.

On March 23^rd St Edward’s Music department hosted the annual Battle of the Bands competition. Eight competing bands as well as performances from the school Jazz Band, Orchestra, BTEC bands and a newly formed staff band dazzled the packed out hall. One audience member said “I’ve been to the last four Battle of the Bands, but this was the best one yet”.

After a gruelling contest and an exceptionally high standard all round, there could only be one winner of the Best Band award: Castl featuring Amber Blaney, Sophie Raldene, Lottie Savage, Tom Day and   Christian Kuziara won by just a single audience vote! The judges selected Kieran Scott and Amber Blaney for the Best Performer award and Liz Shannon-Delizo and Ethan Newman won Best Original Song. Well done to all involved and looking forward to Battle of the Bands 2018!

On Tuesday 21st March, two Year 12 students, Aimee Cupper and Emily Broomfield competed in the regional heats of the Public Speaking Competition at St Peter’s School, Bournemouth, hosted by The Catenian Association. Both students had to write their own speeches on a topic of their choice and present it to an audience, competing against 15 other students from schools in the South West.

Despite rigorous competition and an outstanding quality of speeches, Aimee Cupper came 1st runner up after losing out to a powerful speech on immigration by a student from St Peter’s School. Both Aimee and Emily did incredibly well and have had fantastic feedback from the Catenian Association.

The competition will be held again next year and Ms. Morgan is on the lookout for competitors who will be joining 6th form in September, to coach and prepare a speech for next year’s competition.

Well done to Harrison Moors in Year 11 who has been named as St John Ambulance’s West Region Cadet of the Year for 2017.  Harrison triumphed in the two day contest, which saw the best of the first aid charity’s young volunteers take part in some tough tasks to win prestigious regional and national titles. Well done Harrison!

The Keralan Community teamed up with the School Association to create an amazing Indian themed evening.  Guests enjoyed eating authentic Indian cuisine and watching students entertain them with dancing and singing. Guests were even invited to take part in some dancing, with the help of instructors.  We would like to thank all of those who helped make this evening so wonderful.

Well done to Chloe Pain in year 8 who was selected as a winner of the CreativeMe writing competition 2016, with her poem, “The Perfect Moment”.