Family Matters
Friday 11th September 2014
Quotation of the week
“Good things come to those who work hard” (anonymous)
Welcome back!
Welcome back to all our students and to you, our parents and carers. An especially
warm welcome if you are new to Holy Family. The new academic year has started
well and we are looking forward to good things in the coming year. We enjoyed
celebrating Mass with Fr. Maurice from Our Lady and St George’s Parish and our new
Yr 7 students and their families. They all looked very smart and were extremely well
behaved. Most students will settle in very quickly and be happy here, but a few may
find it more difficult. If you have any concerns then please don’t hesitate to speak to
the Yr 7 team about your son or daughter. Their contact details can be found in the
Yr 7 parent and student information booklet which you have already received.
The Aquinas Centre
If you don’t yet know what the Aquinas Centre refers to, it is the name we have given
to our new Sixth Form Building. I’m delighted to say that the building has been
completed on schedule and is a superb addition to our estate. It is very light and airy
and provides us with two new classrooms, a study room, a computer room and office
spaces. I am sure that the sixth form students will be delighted with it – we certainly
are. A massive thanks to everyone who has supported the ‘buy a brick’ campaign and
I hope you will feel that your generosity has been worth it and is appreciated. We still
need to raise money to meet our contribution to the cost of the building, so if you would
like to make a donation it would be most welcome. We are also in discussions with
the council about further significant investment in the school and I shall keep you
updated about this. The Aquinas Centre will be formally blessed and opened by
Bishop Alan on Friday 18th September.
Exam success
We were pleased to see so many of our students succeeding in their Btec, GCSE and
A level exams this summer. We again saw results above the national average at
GCSE and in the sixth form and many Yr 13 students have gone on to university and
into high quality employment. Our AS results were our best ever and we look forward
to another excellent crop of A level results next year.
The Holy Family Way
We talk to the students a great deal about what we call the Holy Family Way. This is
the name we have given to our set of expectations about how we expect everyone at
Holy Family to behave. We expect students to work hard, participate, be active
learners and respect staff and students alike. We ask that staff will give of their best
and be professional and diligent in educating your children and we ask that you as
parents and carers are supportive of the school and reinforce the work we are doing.
We believe that by working together in this partnership we will be able to provide the
best education for your son or daughter. It was lovely to see so many parents at the
Yr 7 Mass last week and we look forward to getting to know you all.
One element of the Holy Family Way then is about participation. This means both in
lessons and outside of classes. Please encourage your son/daughter to sign up for
our extra-curricular activities programme. We are proud to offer a great range of
additional opportunities to the students and we are fortunate to have staff who give up
a lot of their time to provide these. Employers and universities want students to
develop what they call ‘soft-skills’, for example leadership skills or the ability to work
well in a team. Success in life does not come about simply through academic success
– being able to relate well to others is vitally important too. Moreover, the extracurricular programme is fun!
Communication
We try to keep in touch with everyone on a regular basis through this newsletter,
through the website, by sending letters and text messages. We have a brand new
website www.holyfamily.waltham.sch.uk which is mobile and tablet friendly and
hopefully provides information more clearly to you and you can also find us on Twitter
hfcswaltham and on facebook. We hope these platforms will be useful as a means of
sharing what is going on in the school. News and photographs from July’s
Achievement Evening at the Waltham Forest Assembly Rooms can be found on our
new website.
Homework
Show my homework
Show my homework is the platform through which we set homework for the students
and your son/daughter will receive log-in details so that you can keep track of the
homework that they receive. There are homework clubs after school on both sites
where students can work in a quiet environment with access to computers and staff
support. Getting into regular patterns of study really helps students and we need your
support with that too.
Vivo
This year we are also introducing a new on-line rewards system called Vivo. This
enables teachers and staff to award what are called Vivo points to students for the
completion of good work, contributing to the life of the school, participating in extracurricular activities etc. Parents will be able to track the information and see what
students have been rewarded for. Students are able to cash in their Vivo points in the
Vivo on-line shop which contains a range of prizes from fast track lunch passes to
items of equipment and vouchers. There is also a lot of very useful learning material
on the Vivo site and regular competitions and activities for everyone. The teacher
responsible for Vivo in the school is Mr Fidegnon.
The Friends of Holy Family
The Annual General Meeting of the Friends PTA group takes place on Tuesday 15th
September at 7.00pm in the new sixth form building. Last year we managed to gain
a good number of able and enthusiastic parents and we would be delighted to
welcome new members. The friends have contributed significantly to the fundraising
for the new building and I’m sure will be very pleased with the results.
Parents’ Surgery
Parents’ surgery restarts this coming week but on a different day. It will now be on
Thursdays to allow me to be present more frequently at sports fixtures. The first
parents’ surgery will be on 17th September and then on every Thursday from 4pm to
5pm on the Walthamstow site. If ever I am unavailable, a member of the senior team
substitutes for me.
Please continue to remember us in your prayers.
Dr Andy Stone
Headteacher
The Aquinas Centre
Exam Success 2015
The following students all achieved at least 5 A*-C grades including maths and
English
Richard Akinyemi
Rachael Fagbo
Kelvin Owusu
Jaden Ampofo
Andrew Fernando
Alan Padayathil
Arjun Anthony Croos
Vlada Filipova
Kovalan Paramanantham
Aiden Argyrou
Chelsea Forbes
Klaidas Petronis
Simon Attang
Akeisha Fraser
Ines Phillipson
Analeise Auguste
Faith George
Sade Preville
Temi Babalola
Gabriele Giordano
Adrian Puzon
Anthony Bacani
Shaquille Henry
Esther Raji
Cyprian Baffour-Awuah
Malakai Hinckson-Mars
Alex Rambarran
Daniel Baranovski
Maria Hurtado
Remarni Ramchaitar
Rachel Bawa
Irene Ilunga
Eimante Raupelyte
Lakye Belle
Lauryn John-Woodburn
Theo Risveglia
Alexander Bernard-Borrell Lamidi Joseph
Sarah Roberts
Joshua Bhawanlall
Lance Kangethe
Khadeem Robinson
Reiss Bleau
Angela Kibia
Athullya Roy
Corinna Brown
Aleksandr Kim
Elliena Sakamoto
Nya Browne
John Kinson
Joseph Sandi
Zahra Campbell-Lesforis Franklin Kwawu
Danny Santos
Stephanie Canlas
Huyen Le Vy
Keana Scott
Jordan Cassell
Louie Lewis
Timothy Slack
Piolo Castillo Juriz
Ricardo Lopez-Ruiz
Shanique Spencer
Charlotte Connal
Dean Loyaga
Maxwell St Hill
Ruday Constance
Rhys Marks
Sharnae St Catherine
Paul Cox
Shannon McCormack
Lauren Stephen
Connor Day
Kiara Medina
Kyra Swaby
Joel De-Whyte
Jeremiah Mushtaq
Patrick Tolibas
Jonas Dondi
Ife Omolabi
Ella Edmunds-Cameron Natasha-Ann Nelson-Cole Richard Tukot
Ethan Edwards
Kielan Newby
Princess Ventura
Emily Elliot
Emily Nieuwerf
Kishan Weerasuriya
Joshua Elsey
Stephanie Oke-Uyanneh Aaron Westerby
Rebecca Etienne-Singh Shona Oloke
Filip Wojtczak
Lyall Young
Congratulations to all of them!
Some of our high achievers at GCSE attained the following grades:
Name
A*
A
Charlotte Connal
10
2
Eimante Roupelyte
8
4
Sarah Roberts
5
6
Lauren Stephen
5
4
Ines Phillipson
4
6
Athullya Roy
3
6
Franklin Kwawu
3
3
Aaron Westerby
3
3
Rachel Fagbo
2
4
Ella Edmunds-Cameron
1
5
Connor Day
1
4
Angela Kibia
1
4
Emily Nieuwerf
Simon Attang
Tim Slack
Theo Risveglia
Zahra Campbell-Lesforis
Dean Loyaga
1
0
0
0
0
0
4
8
7
6
5
5
Sixth Form Success
In the Sixth Form we saw more students achieving the highest grades A*-B
The following students were some of the highest achievers this year.
Highest performing students at A2 2015
Name
Subjects
Tunde Ajayi Biology A
Chemistry A*
Cyrus Arthur Biology B
Chemistry A
Tosin Bawa Psychology Sociology A*
A
Valentina
Biology A
Chemistry B
Bedoya
Weronika
Biology A
Maths A
Kowalczak
Athira Roy
Sociology A Religious St A
Divya Simon Biology A
Chemistry B
Geography A
Geography B
Media A
Maths A
Psychology A
Maths A
Spanish A
Psychology A
Psych B
Psych A
Maths C
Maths B
And at AS level the following students achieved very good grades:
Top performing students at AS 2015
Jasmine
Maths A
Music A
Hamilton
Oskar
Biology A
Maths A
Wojtczck
Florence
Sociology A
Psychology A
Ayoade
Caoky
Maths A
Psychology A
Nguyen
Patrick
Psychology A
Sociology A
Majchrowski
Psychology A
Physics C
English A
Physics B
Politics B
Sociology B
History C
Politics C
Congratulations to all of the students on these achievements.
Students on vocational programmes in Yr 13 were again incredibly successful. The
following students achieved at least one Distinction* grade:
Kemalla Chambers, Ryan Ndala, Uchenna Obobi, Daniel Williiams, Rochade Worell,
Jeff Agyenim, Michael Hall, Brenda Nakku, Celine Reynolds, Keian Edwards, Lena
Adu Danso, Kirstie Lukhram, Steffi Manzenza, Stefan James, Jack Kane Hall, Chuks
Nwakamma. A special mention to Kemalla Chambers who achieved 3 distinction*
grades and one distinction in Media and Business.
University Entry
Most of our students (over 80%) choose to go on to higher education but some
prefer to start paid employment at this stage in their life. Students will be attending
universities up and down the land and we will provide a full summary of higher
education destinations in the coming weeks.
Suffice to say we are pleased with these outcomes and we congratulate the
students, the staff and all parents/carers for your support in their education. More
than their academic success though we are proud of the kind of young people who
have come through Holy Family and leave at the end of sixth form ready to make
their way in the world.