St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School & Sixth Form

Friday 26 May 2023 Platinum Awards Today we celebrated our first ever 4 students to receive the Platinum Award for being Committed Learners and Exceptional People. They include:

Friday 26 May 2023 Sports Results - Week Beginning 22nd May Adam has had a very successful skiing season, he has finished top three across multiple races, with a number of podium wins! Adam also achieved his aim of ending the 22/23 season and starting the 23/24 season as GB’s top ranked slalom skier (which is Adam’s strongest discipline) and is ranked second place overall across all the disciplines combined.

Friday 19 May 2023 Sports Results - Week Beginning 15th May I was absolutely delighted to hear that our Year 10 boys football team won their semi-final on Tuesday night. As a result, they will be playing their final at Villa Park! Very well done to all the boys and their committed and capable coach.

Wednesday 17 May 2023 Primary Concert - Wednesday 17th May For the past five weeks, Mrs O'Driscoll has been visiting St John Fisher and working with the children in Year 5 within their Music lessons. The children have been learning lots of different songs. On Wednesday they came into School and performed with the choir from St Thomas Aquinas to their family. The children were a credit to themselves and Stg John Fisher. Thank you to Miss Page for all of your help.

Thursday 11 May 2023 Year 7 Vocations Mass On Thursday, we hosted a Deanery Vocations Mass celebrated by Fr Gary Buckby. We were very pleased to have over 10 clergy join us for this special occasion, along with parishioners from several parishes. It was a joyful occasion and Year 7 had the chance to learn more about Vocation through a thought-provoking Homily by Fr Sean Gough, a newly ordained priest. In the Mass the theme of the readings and music was ‘Here I am Lord’ and Year 7 students prepared the opening procession, bidding prayers, and communion reflection, based on this and how they can be awake to hearGod’s call. The students were a credit to themselves and the school, and visiting Priests even commented on how wonderful the singing was. Well done Year Year 7!

Friday 5 May 2023 Year 11 Celebration Mass - May 2023

Friday 5 May 2023 SpeakOut! Workshop On Thursday, a group of Year 10 students had the opportunity to participate in a workshop run by SpeakersTrust. Many students initially were very apprehensive about the prospect of having to perform speeches in front of their peers, but after a few fun icebreakers, the group began to feel more relaxed and comfortable. The workshop even taught the students a few different breathing exercises to try and curb their feelings of anxiety, such as square and tactile breathing. By the end of the day, every student in the room had prepared and presented their own speech to express their opinion on something, and the range of breadth of topics discussed was wonderful. Speeches ranged from anti-Asian hate, racism, societal and cultural expectations of women, the pink tax, the cost of living crisis, the pressures of being a teenager, and following your dreams, amongst many others.

Wednesday 26 April 2023 Year 8 Trip to Alton Castle - April 2023 On Wednesday 19th April 65 year 8 students went to Alton Castle for 3 days on a religious retreat. Once the students got to Alton Castle, they went to a discovery centre and were welcomed warmly with an assembly where they were introduced into the religious aspect of this retreat with the them ‘Rooted in Christ’. After lunch, we did the first of our activities in our small groups: Pugin, Talbot, Kenelm, Scahill and De Verden. The main activities included: Survival, Low ropes, Trekking, and Mountain Biking and night line on the first evening. Prayer was a central part of the retreat, each day started and ended with prayer in our small groups, which made it more meaningful as it allowed us to reflect on our day together and use our journals to think about our own faith journey. The Castle taught us creative ways of praying, for example chanting to thank God for our food after every meal.

Tuesday 4 April 2023 Paris Trip 2023 This year’s trip to Paris was particularly special after 3 years missed due to Covid. Despite some delays at Dover, the students were wonderful throughout the journey, and we were soon settled into our rooms at the PGL Château de Grande Romaine, 20 miles to the east of Paris.

Saturday 1 April 2023 Skiing Trip to Austria - April 2023 Well done to all students and staff who took part in the ski trip to Austria over the Easter break.

Thursday 30 March 2023 Born for This Production Information to follow ...

Tuesday 28 March 2023 Arete - March 2023 On Monday 20th March, we took 28 adventurous year 9 students to the depths of Wales for the week. The Welsh coach company delivered us to Llanrug in good time. On the beautifully sunny journey, we got to experience the stunning scenery as we approached the mountains and arrived safe and sound to be whisked straight out for some rock climbing in the beautiful sunshine. The whole week was full of glorious sunshine and even more rain, adventures and challenging journeys up Tyrfan mountain, waterfalls and though pitch-black slate mines. The students were wonderful, and they overcame fears and problem solved their way out of some difficult situations, saw lots of lambs, got very wet in the ice-cold spring sea water.

Friday 24 March 2023 Sports Results - Week Beginning 20th March A huge well done to Erin 8-MA who represented Birmingham this weekend in the West Midlands regional finals for sports hall athletics and won all her events! A hugely impressive feat. Erin and her team are now off to the National Finals on the 1st April! Good luck Erin, we are all cheering for you!

Thursday 16 March 2023 Born for This - Stage Rehearsals Begin! Stage rehearsals for our presentation of 'Born for This' are underway. All students involved have been incredibly hard working and shown huge commitment at rehearsals.

Friday 10 March 2023 Born for This Update We are now in the final stages of rehearsals for our presentation of 'Born for This'. All students involved have been incredibly hard working and shown huge commitment at rehearsals.

Saturday 4 March 2023 Flame Youth Event at Wembley On Saturday, myself, Mrs O’ Driscoll and Miss Baker accompanied 13 students to FLAME, a Catholic Youth event with over 8000 young people from the UK in attendance at Wembley. The theme of the day was ‘Rise Up’ an echo of the scripture passage describing how Mary, after her visitation by an angel, “arose and went with haste.”

Friday 3 March 2023 World Book Day 2023 On Friday 3 March as well as STACS having their charity day, the year 7s celebrated World Book Day/Week. They welcomed the Poet With Punch - Matt Windle - into school, beginning with an assembly in which he introduced himself and talked to them about his poetry.

Friday 3 March 2023 Charity Day at STACS Today is marked as a day of prayer. As a school in this season of Lent we have come together for prayer and also to fundraise for those in need. Please see some of the activities our community have participated in:

Friday 17 February 2023 Maths Challenge at Bishop Challenor The following students attended the Maths Challenge at Bishop Challenor Catholic School:

Thursday 9 February 2023 BBC Centenary Schools Tour visit STACS On Wednesday 8 February the BBC Centenary Schools Tour visited STACS as part of our National Apprenticeship Week events. They delivered an interactive presentation to Years 10, 11 and the Sixth Form all about working in creative industries. One current and one ex-apprentice hosted the presentations with panellists, including two filmmakers who were involved in the making of the recent Marvel films, being grilled about everything from their GCSE choices to their soft skills. One of the visitors told me that the tour was the idea of the Director General himself and I can say for certain that this alone was worth the licence fee!

Wednesday 8 February 2023 Primary Concert with St Peters Year 3 Students A wonderful afternoon was spent with the STACS choir and St Peter’s year 3 children showing the work they have been doing with Mrs O’Driscoll.

Friday 3 February 2023 KS4 Debate A huge well done to the KS4 Debate Team (Jael, Coleen, Emily, Gloria and Lily-Rose) for their empowered speech last Friday as Lady Macbeth! Whilst they did not walk away the victors, the hard work they put into their performance was undeniable and they should be extremely proud of what they accomplished.

Friday 3 February 2023 Sports Results - Week Beginning 30th January Well Done ReeceA huge congratulations to Reece 13-ABA who competed in the schools’ central zone trampoline championship on 29 January. Reece finished in first place in the boys Cat 1 Elite, and has now progressed through to the national schools competition in March! Well done Reece, all your hard work has paid off and we wish you lots of luck for the finals!

Thursday 2 February 2023 Lumen Christi Day - Thursday 2nd February On Thursday, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we joined together with all our Lumen Christi Primary Schools to celebrate our first day together focusing on the light of Christ. This feast day will remain special as we plan to celebrate on 2nd February every year.

Monday 23 January 2023 Inspection Report - December 2022 T

Thursday 19 January 2023 “Movement” at the Birmingham Hippodrome Following on from their success before Christmas, on Thursday 19th January our fantastic dancers took to the stage at the Birmingham Hippodrome, to perform their dance “Movement”, choreographed by our very talented dance teacher Kerrey from Adage Dance School, at the Birmingham School Games, Secondary School Dance City Final 2023. There were eight schools there from across the city and three highly talented and expert judges giving feedback and scores on each dance. The competition level was very high, with most schools bringing KS4 performers. We placed in the top four, but just missed out on the bronze medal spot. The students performed so well, they bought a tear to my eye, especially Frankie K who took on a last-minute solo part due to an injury and performed it to perfection. We were so proud of the group and know there is so much more to come from them since the majority of them are only in year 7 and 8. A truly beautiful dance and a performance they all should be ver

Wednesday 18 January 2023 Primary STEM event with St Peters 'I was surprised how well our plane flew'' I wanted to become better at science and engineering''I wanted to spend time with STEM and learn how to engineer and build''I learnt how using teamwork can change a design''I learned how to engineer and meet new teachers'

Monday 16 January 2023 Leadership Training Day for our Student Liturgy Leaders

Monday 16 January 2023 Secondary School Level 2 Indoor Athletics Competition at Colmers School On Monday 16th January we took year 7 and 8 teams over to Colmers school to compete in the Birmingham Schools, Secondary School Level 2 Indoor Athletics Competition. At this round, we are competing against all the other schools within the Colmers partnership to win a place at the city-wide finals at the NEC in February.

Friday 6 January 2023 Year 8 Retreat On Friday last week, Year 8 had a wonderful retreat day based on ‘Living Life to the Full’. The day was led by Tim Stevens from Faith Café, and Joe Wells from One Hope Project, who led us in praise and worship throughout the Day.

News

Subscribe to our news as an RSS feed