At 03:00 on Sunday 9th February, forty excited students and a team of four staff members arrived at school, where nervous parents waved us off into the gloomy prelude to Storm Ciara, praying that our long-awaited flight to the south of Spain would not be cancelled. Thankfully, luck was on our side, as we were able to check in swiftly and board with ease, with only a little turbulence at the beginning of the flight. Upon arrival, we were greeted by our native Spanish “monitora”, who immediately set the tone of language immersion by directing our group to the coach in Spanish, and we set off on our final part of the journey to our home for the next five days – next stop: El centro Arbolar, los Urrutias!

The shock on everyone’s face when we arrived at our destination could be summarised in one word – WOW! 

Our residence was a beautiful, white, purpose built activity centre, in a quiet little Spanish village, right on the seafront! After a lovely three course lunch to regain some energy, we met our other “monitores” (hosts and activity leaders) and played some icebreaker games – in Spanish of course – and some beach sports. In the evening, we had a lovely walk before dinner around the area and then got some well needed rest to prepare for the days ahead.

On Monday morning, after sharing some sunrise photos with our not-so-lucky family members and friends, we had breakfast, and students had to quickly tidy up upstairs as it was time for the first of the daily “inspección” of rooms, before the morning Spanish class. During the week, this really helped students learn an array of new adjectives, such as: maravilloso (marvellous), genial (great) and chupi guay (cool!). We had a busy day of cooking traditional “tarta de la abuela” (grandma’s cake), a team photo scavenger hunt and – a highlight of the trip for many – an outdoor Zumba lesson! The monitores were so impressed with the group’s engagement with the activities that they even asked two students to help lead the group in the Zumba routines – muy bien Raymond y Caroline! 

Tuesday was our first day trip: to the beautiful harbour town of Cartagena, where we were treated to a guided tour of the streets and local churches and, despite just missing out on attending the local mass, our very own Mr White led us in a wonderful spiritual reflection in one of the city’s churches. After lunch in the park, students completed an information hunt in Spanish before being treated to some highly anticipated free time in the town to purchase souvenirs and enjoy the cultural experience with friends. Some of us – staff and students alike – even tried “churros con chocolate” for the first time in a local café! The afternoon session in Cartagena took us to see a fantastic Roman theatre and we learnt much about the history behind the building and the town itself. We arrived back at our residence, were delighted to see and try the delicious tapas for dinner and we spent the rest of the evening having a lot of fun playing team games – and even discovered many hidden talents!

On Wednesday – the last full day of our trip – we had our Spanish class in the morning and then headed over to a nearby street market – where we were able to buy local products and some final souvenirs for family and friends. We were even able to practise our haggling in Spanish – and Jusnoor showed real skill here! In the afternoon we were finally able to do the star activity of the week: water sports! We geared up and split into two groups – sailing and kayaking. This was an absolutely fantastic experience on the sea, where new skills were learnt, teamwork was required and lots of fun was had by all involved – particularly Mr White and Mr Taylor who caused a lot more mischief than any of the students!

I think it is safe to say many students wanted to stay longer and that they had an experience they will not forget in a hurry. I am extremely proud of our students – we have been talking about this trip since they were in year 7 and they did not only impress us with the level of Spanish and engagement in the activities, but also our hosts, who said “thank you for being such an amazing, dynamic group and we hope you return soon!”

Well done to all of the students, and a huge thank you to all of the staff involved in planning and running of this trip – the first of many we hope! 

Miss Rainey

On April 15th, 1945 British troops of the 11th Armoured Division liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Schools across the country were invited to join the unique commemorative initiative to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation and be a part of this important national moment. 

On 12th February myself, Miss Fradgley and Monique Dhillon went on a one day trip to visit the concentration camp of Bergen Belsen in Germany. The trip was part of a four-part course which enables to provide young children like ourselves the opportunity to reflect upon the significance of Bergen-Belsen, its liberation, and its continuing legacy, and to explore the individual stories of those who experienced the site first hand. The seminars were run by educators from UCL and the Holocaust Educational Trust who supervised us whilst the day trip we had our own tour guide from the memorial site. 

Bergen-Belson was first established in 1940 by German military authorities to be used as a Prisoner of War camp which over the course of 10 years it was home to many different people. Even though it was liberated in 1945, the camp was still in use up until 1950. Nevertheless, the biggest killer in the camp was the disease that the British troops had sought out when they came to liberate it. The camp had been struck by typhus which killed huge amounts of people including Anne Frank and her sister Margot.

During the course of the day, we were able to walk around the museum which went into huge amounts of detail about the camp and the role that it played. As a group, we walked around where the old buildings used to be, visited the mass graves where the people were buried and saw the marked graves which were built by survivors for their families. At the end of the day, we took part in a memorial service to heighten the importance of the place we were standing in and was asked to place a white pebble on any tombstone of our choice whilst saying a prayer. This was a Jewish tradition to honour the deceased and to let them know that they will always be a part of our life.

The trip itself was an emotional yet educational journey and has widened our eyes to privileged lives we live today in this world as we realised that we should be more grateful for the little things we hardly think about.

“Earth conceal not the blood, shed on thee”

Jewish Memorial inscription

By Leah James

The Eco-Club took another step towards achieving their Eco-School Green Flag Award. St Edmund’s were kindly donated 30 trees to plant on the premises to help offset the carbon footprint of one our pupils companies.

The day came when the trees arrived and the Eco-Club got into action! With the help of Mr Katumba, our green fingered hero, who showed us how to plant the trees successfully, with digging a suitably sized hole and how to use compost effectively so the roots have help growing when they wake up.

In very cold conditions our Eco-Club planted all 30 trees successfully and had a great deal of fun. We all agreed that it was amazing to be part of something that will hopefully be here in years to come. It has gone towards our Eco-Schools award objective of biodiversity, which brings us very close to completing the whole award!

As part of this year’s Loyola programme, pupils from years 8, 9, 11 & 13 attended RAF Cosford for the first of two days of fierce competition to qualify for the national finals.

After a number of qualifying rounds, even pitting our two teams against each other, the year 9 team finished 2nd out of the 21 schools at the event and won two awards.

This is an excellent achievement in our first year taking part in this technically challenging competition and means they will now take part in the national finals at the end of March.

Great credit goes to Mr Morgan and the students for their hours of commitment after school to enhance and improve their design.

“Magical”,”Moving”,”Merry” that’s how this year’s annual Candlelight Carol Service- orchestrated by Mr Barbarczi (Head of St Christopher’s School) and Mr Bard (Curriculum Leader of Performing Arts at St Edmund’s Academy)- could be summed up. The “twinkly lights” service was attended by numerous people, and Monsignor Mark Crisp kicked off the event with welcomes and opening prayers. A new and upcoming organist captivated the audience’s hearts with her uplifting songs and carols. The night was filled with singing by choirs from St Bernadette’s School, St Christopher’s School, St Edmund’s Academy, SS Peter & Paul’s Academy and St Teresa’s Academy – and beautifully delivered readings by pupils from each school and even our very own Melanie Puthussery, Year 7, and Deputy Head boy, Gurveer Dhiman. Our Lay Chaplain, Mrs Ferris, also took part in the atmospheric service and eloquently read “The Birth of Jesus”. The service came to a close with Monsignor Mark Crisp saying the closing prayers and ending with a warmth-providing blessing. Christmas is all about giving back and this year’s service raised £185  for the Save the Children charity. On the whole, the event can be described as being the best way to get people feeling Christmassy.

By Janis Liora Tchiesso Nantchouang

Year 11- Work Experience