Now that the weather has turned noticeably colder, students are permitted to wear the black school embroidered woolly hat on their journeys to and from school.

No other black hats are allowed and will be confiscated.

They are available to buy from Mrs Turner in the Lost Property Office for £3.50 and are available now.

Students from Year 8 took part in an IET Faraday Challenge Day (FCD) yesterday, October 19, sponsored by The Jack Petchey Foundation. The students became real-life engineers for a day when they researched, designed and built solutions to real engineering problems as part of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Faraday Challenge Day.

169 events are taking place across the UK to host 2017-18 IET Faraday Challenge Days. Up to six teams of local school students will compete at each event to find the best solution to an engineering-related challenge. The events are be free of charge and set up by IET staff and volunteers. 

This year’s challenge is in association with THORPE PARK Resort but the brief for these young engineers is shrouded in secrecy to avoid unfair preparation and research. Teams must race against the clock to solve a real-life engineering problem, putting their engineering and technology knowledge and skills to the test.

Holly Margerison-Smith, IET Faraday Education Manager, said: “Students who take part in the Faraday Challenge Days this year will experience working as an engineer through hands-on and practical engagement with real-life challenges relating to THORPE PARK Resort. The Challenge Days will give them an insight into the life of a real engineer, the variety a career in engineering can offer and just how exciting and creative engineering is.

“There is huge demand for new engineers and technicians and we’re confident that this will challenge young people’s perceptions of engineers and inspire the next generation.”

Dawn Childs, Merlin Group Engineering Director, said: “Having developed my engineering career in several large organisations, it’s clear that there’s a growing skills gap in roles where education in STEM subjects are vital. I’m pleased to see that Merlin attractions led by THORPE PARK Resort, is inspiring potential future engineers through The Institute of Engineering and Technology’s Faraday Challenge. Engineering can be creative, exciting, hands-on or office based; the diversity is amazing. I’m looking forward to seeing how the teams do and I hope this brings the best out of all those involved.”

The events aim to encourage more young people to study and consider exciting and rewarding careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by using creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills.

Each team member in the winning group will be awarded a prize and a trophy for their school. The top five teams from across the UK will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the national final at THORPE PARK Resort in 2018 to compete for a cash prize of up to £1,000 for their school.

The Faraday Challenge Days are part of a wider Faraday education programme, made up of a whole host of teaching resources and activities to inspire and attract the engineers of tomorrow.

Our school went head to head with students from Forest Gate Community School and won the challenge.

The winning team consisted of: Tommy Hugaas,Nicholas Kandrasenka, Marcelle Rubio,John Sanchez, Clarence Veras and Joaquín Ramirez.

The first reports of the academic year were emailed out to parents and carers this week by the Data Team.

Letters and reports will no longer be posted home and parents should check their emails to locate their son’s or daughter’s latest report.

A text was sent yesterday, October 19, alerting parents to look out for the report on their email.

The emailed report can be saved which will make it easier to keep a record of their child’s progress for parents on their devices without fear of losing paper copies.

The Agnus Dei  Teaching School Alliance hosted the Dove Self Esteem Project today, October 18 in Cardinal Manning Hall in a bid to encourage healthy body confidence and positive self esteem in youngsters.

Thirty nine trainee teachers, teachers and support staff from Primary and Secondary Schools across London and Essex from the alliance and beyond heard all about how body confidence affects up to 70%  of adolescents and they heard how low self esteem impacted on their well-being on a daily basis.

They discovered ways to help students gain body confidence and reach their full potential as low body confidence and anxieties over appearance prevents youngsters being the best they can be as well as affecting their health, friendships and performance at school.

Unrealistic ‘ideal’ body images are strewn across social media, television and magazines which cause distress to a lot teens. The Dove project promotes strategies to help deal with this relatively new phenomenon.

Facilitators, Charlotte and Anne-Liesse led the workshop.

Agnus Dei Director, Katie Smith, added: “At the end of the morning’s session, we hope the delegates will feel more confident addressing the important issue of self esteem. In this image conscious age, making teenagers feel better about themselves and giving them the tools to be able to feel comfortable about the way they look is very important and a skill that modern teachers will need more and more.”

The newly-formed school council met this morning to discuss their agenda for the forthcoming year.

Headboy Samuel and his councillors: Tony, Stephens, Rajiv, Chibuke, Matteo, Nathan and  James met in the Head’s office to discuss their plans along with Ms McNulty and Mr Connolly. Tommy and Kelvin were not able to make the meeting.

It promises to be a fruitful year with lots of important topics discussed.

We can’t wait to hear what they’ve got planned.

Our students streamed through the doors of the canteen this morning as voting began for the 2017 Young Mayor of Newham elections.

Our candidate Jamie has worked tirelessly speaking at assemblies and engaging with students. He can be proud of his efforts.

The results will be announced at Stratford Town Hall tomorrow, Wednesday 11 October.

Thanks you all for getting involved.

It’s in the lap of the God’s now but whoever wins we wish them the best of luck.

Nicholas Henryanto who’s in 11 Forest popped into see the Head this morning to proudly show him the medals he had won over the weekend in Barneveld in the Netherlands when he competed in the Taekwon-Do ITF Open World Championships.

15 year old Nicholas came home with three medals, a bronze for Patterns, a bronze for Team Power Breaking (board breaking) and gold for Ten Special Technique.

Well done to Nicholas. It’s always lovely when students share their success out of school with us.

Parents are reminded that school is closing early this Thursday, October 5, at 12.30pm due to our Open Evening event that night.

Students are not allowed to stay in school  and they must go home. Boys who have been asked to help out should return to school for 5.15pm. The evening should finish at 8.30pm.

A reminder that the following day, Friday October 6, is a late start for everyone with registration at 9.45am instead of the usual 8.45am.

Today our St Bonaventure’s Young Mayor of Newham hopeful, candidate Jamie Halliwell, who’s in Year 12, began his election campaign in earnest.

He spent three days last week at Building 100 and took part in workshops, a photocall and recorded his manifesto on video.

Today he took his campaign on the road as he began visiting classrooms to speak to students about why voting for him makes sense. We hope we can count on your support and vote for your school representative.

He popped into Ms Hillan’s German class this morning and chatted to some Year 7 boys about his promises to help reduce street crimes and gang crime in Newham by updating youth centres, to refurbish and revamp sports facilities as well as building new facilities and to encourage Newham’s music scene to grow.

Look out for the green posters around school. and say ‘hi’ to Jamie if you see him around school and feel free to ask him any burning questions you might have.

Voting takes place in school on October 10.

Vote well, Vote Halliwell.