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The Head Writes

Our school year began well with pleasing public exam results, which reflect the hard work and commitment of both pupils and staff. At gcse, 64% of our students achieved 5A*-C grades, an increase of 4% on the 2008 results and 95% achieved 5A*-G grades. There were excellent performances from our sixth form students with 84%, a record for the school, gaining university places to read subjects such as Engineering, Civil Engineering, Building, Criminology, Criminal Law, Journalism, Creative Writing, Psychology, English, Film & Media Studies, Product Design, Biochemistry, Nursing, Business Studies, History, Politics, Archaeology, Performing Arts, Zoology, Maths and Education. We are extremely proud of the achievements of all our pupils and wish them every success. You can be rest assured that we will continue to strive for excellence so that our young people are even more successful. As you will see from this letter, this has been a very busy and productive term at St. Benedict's. Students have participated in many extended learning opportunities as part of their curriculum. This has included initiatives with our Primary Schools and with Mayfield School. Our pupils have participated in many liturgical events both in our local parishes and at the Cathedral in Lancaster for the visit of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux. On all these occasions, our students were complimented for their enthusiasm and maturity. Liturgical services and activities in school have developed with an ever increasing number of pupils getting involved. From the feedback we have received, everyone has benefited from all our activities in many ways.

You will be aware that in November the School was inspected by the Diocese under the regulations for section 48 inspections. Two inspectors, Mr. Antony Finnerty and Mr. Paul Wysczuk, visited the school over two days observing RE lessons and conducting interviews with students, staff, parents and governors. They were impressed with many aspects of the Catholic life of the school and i am delighted to report that our school was judged to be a good Catholic school with outstanding features. This judgement reflects the commitment of all to our Catholic Christian mission, especially our priest chaplains who are involved in our chaplaincy team. The full inspection report will be posted on the website when it arrives from the Diocese.

In addition, we have received excellent news that we have been redesignated as a specialist Engineering college for a further three years. This will enable us to continue to work with our partners in ways which we hope will benefit West Cumbria.

The cycle of progress review evenings has begun and it has been great to have the opportunity to discuss the progress of your child. This will continue next term. Celebrating our pupils' achievements at the awards evenings was an uplifting experience for everyone. it was wonderful to see an increased number of students being recognised for their hard work and commitment.

May i make a suggestion for Christmas stocking fillers? These are  some ideas to support your child's learning in school. It would be helpful for students to have their own dictionary, a thesaurus, a reading book, a calculator and a maths set to help them with their studies.

The recent extreme weather resulted in the school closing from 11.00am on Thursday, November 19th and Friday 20th November. A small number of staff were flooded. The majority of staff were unable to travel due to the flooding of the road network and damaged infrastructure, making it impossible to guarantee the health and safety of students. The school was undamaged and we were able to open as normal on Monday 23rd November. The careers event for year 7, the careers fair for year 11 and the year 9 skills fair unfortunately had to be postponed due to externalstaffing difficulties. These events will be re-arranged next term. Our students very generously donated a significant amount of money for those affected by the flood by having a nonuniform day.

We are aware that improved success for our students is dependent upon the support you, as parents, give us and i would like to thank you for all that you do and ask for your continued support.

On behalf of the Governors, Staff and Pupils of St. Benedict's, i would like to wish you all a happy, holy and restful Christmas and i look forward to welcoming you back in the new year.

Mrs A Brook

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