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”.

Last year the Ethics Committee, which is a student led group who plan and co-ordinate charity and social justice events, reviewed how the money raised in school had been distributed. The key outcome of this review was that we found for the last three years the vast majority went to national and international charities. Therefore, last year a number of our key events sought to raise money for the groups working within the local community.

Following this, on Thursday 26th January, Sophie Lawson from Poole Hospital Charity visited St Edward’s in order to be presented with a cheque for £1,460 which was raised last year by students taking part in the charity mile. We also have cheques to be presented to the International Care Network, a Bournemouth based charity supporting the relocation of migrants and refugees into the local area and one for Routes to Roots, a charity working with homeless people in Poole.

A huge well done to the Year 9A Netball Team who finished 2nd in the Poole and East Dorset Schools Netball League.

Last term, students were involved in a number of different fundraising and social justice events. In November the sale of Poppies was organised by Mr Gurr and his tutor group through a link with the Poole Branch of the Royal British Legion and managed to raise £159.69 for their work.

In December the Ethics Committee co-ordinated a collection for Poole Food Bank. We were overwhelmed with donations and a groups of sixth form students helped to deliver more than 8 trolleys worth of food, which weighed in at 265 kilos.

On the last day of term we supported the Children’s Society annual Christmas Jumper Day appeal. A number of students from across all year groups got involved and we managed to raise £422.90 to support important work done by the Children’s Society.