‘Open Evening’ showcases school

We held our annual Open Evening on Wednesday 22 September for all local Primary pupils and their parents/carers to come along and visit our school, be able to go into classrooms, meet present pupils and talk to them about their learning and general experience of the school.

Open Evenings help tremendously when parents are deciding which school to apply for and our invitation gave families, especially future pupils, the chance to get a sense of what is so special about our school.

The evening provided opportunities for families to listen to an address by our Headteacher, Mr Hankin and experience many programmed events/displays taking place in every department throughout the school.

Mr Hankin gave a warm welcome, which was followed by a prayer. He then went on to explain to our guests about the expectations of our school, in particular with regard to the future pupil/parent commitment that our school expects. Furthermore, emphasising that our school expects good discipline, the wearing our of uniform correctly and for pupils to always display good manners. Importantly he stressed that he expected future pupils to personally commit themselves to work hard and to the best of their ability in lessons.

Head Girl Megan Wareing and Deputy Head Girls Lucy Hollinshead and Gracjana Pawalec then presented accounts of their four-year personal experiences of attending our school, which was followed by a screening of an array of photographs of our school and Ofsted observational quotes.

Each department had specifically organised displays and events throughout the evening lasting until 8.30pm, adequately giving plenty of time for each family to visit each subject and to journey and familiarise themselves with the school.

Creative writing and murder were the themes in the English department for visitors to join in with reading and writing descriptively. Meanwhile there was a body and the ‘Mystery of the Bloodstained Room’ to solve using language clues and extracts from texts. Trying to solve the mystery had Elouise and Jack Murtha from St Clair’s scrutinising the facts of the case. Paige Ellander from St James’, Leyland, who loves reading, was trying to solve the puzzle.

In the Food and Nutrition department there was a hive of activity with Stasiu and mum, from St Gregory’s, getting totally immersed in our new department and finding the biscuits delicious!

Mathematics presented a range of puzzling activities and exciting challenges that had many pupils totally determined to top the leaderboard and beat the teachers in the challenges.

For Creative Arts our visitors had the chance to explore the ‘Mexican Day of the Dead’ and also make their own Calavera using mixed media techniques. The Music classroom was fully set up with a variety of instruments including drums, keyboards and ukuleles for visitors to try out. Shelby Lambert from Ribbleton Avenue certainly enjoyed her drumming lesson.

Visiting the Science department visitors were amazed by the interesting experiments and investigations being shown by our pupils and staff. In each classroom they were able to learn something different to correspond with one of the three science subjects: Physics – surviving on Mars; Chemistry- colourful reactions; and Biology – looking at the cells of an onion skin.

The History department provided their visitors with an opportunity to see the work completed by pupils and also to take part in history themed games and activities.

Design and Technology with subject areas including Graphics, Resistant Materials and Textiles, provided presentations and displays of pupils’ work to showcase. The displays were greatly admired by many of our visitors including Molly Barker from Sherwood, admiring the textile displays and Demi Leigh Hutchinson from Ribbleton Avenue, was really impressed with a pupil’s bird house that was constructed in our D&T workshop for GCSE coursework.

‘Guten Abend’ were the words used to welcome you when you visited the Modern Foreign Languages department by going through Passport Control. Visitors could play Quizlet Live – a collaborative but very engaging language learning game that has helped drive up reading results in the department. There was also an opportunity to complete an Ausweis, with help from some of our pupil ambassadors and to try out various learning technologies used in the department and view many samples of pupils’ work on display that were greatly admired by Reece Hamill from Blessed Sacrament.

Our PE department in St Vincent’s Hall had table tennis with regular opportunities for children to have a go and beat the pupils and staff! There were also basketball practice and badminton taking place in the adjacent half of the sports hall and the Fitness Suite was also open for viewing.

There were opportunities for visitors to visit our Library and take a look at the facilities provided. Additionally, there was Pastoral and academic support from the Learning Support Department.

Religious Education invited visitors into room 36 and 37 to see masterpieces of art found in Churches, Chapels and Basilicas from around Europe.

We have again received a great deal of very positive feedback from those who came to look round our school during the Open Evening. Prospective parents commented in particular on the impressive displays and facilities our school provides. The excellent attitude and good manners of pupils who were guides and assisted in many of the evening’s activities were also praised; being a credit to themselves and to their parents.