17 May 2013
Trainee Teacher Receives Outstanding New Teacher of the Year Award
Neil Ameh – a trainee teacher at St Thomas More Catholic School in Wood Green was delighted to be awarded the distinction of being a runner up in The Teaching Awards, the Outstanding New Teacher of the Year, category. Neil, who has been awarded a distinction by his University for his teaching prowess said, ‘I am very proud to have been honoured in this way. As an aspiring teacher of Physical Education, I try to make my lessons academic, but at the same time, inspirational and fun. Despite the academic reputation of St Thomas More, Physical Education is still a major part of the curriculum, as we want our pupils to excel in all areas.’ Martin Tissot, the Executive Headteacher said, ‘I am delighted for Neil. He has worked extremely hard this year and has been very thorough in his preparation for lessons and the delivery of those lessons. The fact that Neil is a past pupil of this school makes us particularly proud.’
Mr Tissot presenting the award to Neil Ameh
Please see under the BBC School Report Scheme tab in this section to read all about BBC News Day and see the students who were on BBC television. You can also see the video the students created on Thursday, 21 March 2013, BBC News Day.
Careers Event
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Future Directions for London’s Future Workforce
St Thomas More Catholic School Bursting with Aspirations
Daniel Carrall-Green from Slaughter and May talking to St Thomas More Students
On 27 February 2013 St Thomas More Catholic School, Wood Green, opened its doors to professionals from a wide range of inspiring careers. Doctors, artists, architects, lawyers, financial executives and scientists were invited to the school to talk to Year 11 and Sixth Form students about their career routes.
The school, which recently achieved the best state school GCSE exam results in its borough and is one of the most improved schools in the country, showed how determined it was to build on recent successes. Visitors, such as Matthew Gibson, an Associate from the law firm Slaughter and May commented on the “drive, determination and ambition” demonstrated by the students he spoke to. Other participants included Deloitte, Accenture, the BBC, LSE and King’s College London. Accenture have already contacted the school wishing to secure closer links in the future.
The event, driven by TeachFirst’s high flying Madeleine St Amour, was designed to raise the students’ awareness of career paths with Linda Mayisa Daniel (Year 11) commenting, “It was really good because I gained more confidence about what I want to do in the future.” Jorge Alvarez Hoyos (Year 11) commented, “It was amazing to meet such successful people and I now realise how hard I must work to gain my dream job”. This confidence was demonstrated on the evening with many students networking to secure work placements over the summer.
St Thomas More Catholic School looks forward to holding similar events in the future.
Sixth Former plays for Spurs!
Lawrence Vigouroux, who is currently in the Sixth Form at St Thomas More School, has just signed a one year deal at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Lawrence is studying for a BTEC National Diploma qualification in Sport on the Football Development Programme at the school. The football element of the programme is delivered by Academy coaches from Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.
Please click on the link to read the article on the Tottenham Hotspur website.
Please click on the link below to read an article about Lawrence from the Tottenham and Wood Green Journal:
The Fastest Improving School in London
The Chairman of Governors at St Thomas More School, Cllr Pat Egan, expressed his delight at the continuing renaissance of the only Catholic Secondary School in the London Borough of Haringey. The School that languished at the bottom of the borough’s GCSE league tables two years ago, has steadily improved its reputation and results and today sits top of the table, having achieved a 5 A*-C percentage including English and Mathematics of 76%.
Cllr Egan said ‘There is no doubt that Martin Tissot our Headteacher and his new team have put in place what parents want. Structure, discipline, values and a focus on academic achievement. The work ethic that permeates the School has resulted in our best ever A level results last week. Today’s GCSE results show we have done the double and have the accolade of being the fastest improving School in London over the past two years. To jump another 22 GCSE percentage points this year is a remarkable achievement.’
Mr Tissot paid tribute to staff, students and parents, singling out in particular the parents who supported their sons and daughters through the difficult time of examinations.
‘We depend upon those parents and primary carers to ensure that our students attend extra classes, complete work at home and complete structured revision programmes. This makes a difference as the results show!’
He added, ‘Although we have a number of pupils with A’s and A* grades, I am just as proud of those who have surpassed their targets’
An example of St Thomas More Students who did extraordinarily well are:
Howard Barugahare 8 A* and 3 A
Simone Bovell 5 A* and 6 A
Daniel Namu-Fetha 4 A* and 10 A
Karolina Zatorska 5 A* and 8 A
Aimee Duffy 2 A* and 5 A
Mr Tissot concluded by saying ‘This achievement is outstanding and St Thomas More School will continue to strive to provide the best education for all our students.’
Planting a Piece of London History
On Thursday, 26 April, students from the school along with the Mayor of Haringey, Councillor Gina Adamou, planted a special oak tree in the school grounds. The tree was grown from the acorn of an oak planted in 1890, in Much Wenlock in Shropshire, to commemorate Pierre Courbetin the founder of the modern Olympic Games. This oak is one of a 'ribbon' of forty oaks being planted through various points from Much Wenlock to the Olympic Park. Four oaks will be planted in the Olympic Village to complete the ribbon.
Pictured from left to right are Mr Rosen (Assistant Headteacher), Bernard Ntim (Year 11), Mr Rowland (Deputy Headteacher), Michael Akinbola (Year 11), Lydia Vaccaro (Year 7) the Mayor of Haringy, Cllr Gina Adamou and Daniel Adamson (Year 7).
Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, said: "I know St Thomas More has been learning about the Olympic and Paralympic values. Now St Thomas More will have its own place in London 2012 history."
Joshua Clarke - Through to the Final
The Food Technology department is proud to announce that Joshua Clarke in Year 13, is one of eight candidates in the UK who have progressed through to the final stage of the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Scholarship Award. The winner will receive £30,000 worth of funding and have the chance to work alongside Tom Aikens the youngest Chef ever to be awarded a Michelin Star - the Gold Medal of the food world!
The department is immensely proud of his achievement and would also like to extend thanks to Sergio Fernandes (Year 13), Mr Rhodes (Music Technician) and the amazing Miss Allen, all willingly gave of their time to help Joshua in his achievement.
Fingers crossed for the final !!!
Miss Mullen, Head of Faculty Art & Technology
Creative Media
The Year 10 Creative and Media group has been working with a media professional, Daniel Philpot, to produce four films to promote anti-smoking. All video productions were entered into the Cuts Films - Deborah Hutton competition. One of our short films (Peer Pressure) won the Peoples’ Choice Awards and we were very lucky to have Naomi Harris (Pirates of the Caribbean) come to visit our school in March.
A big thank you for everyone who voted!
You can check out our videos on www.cutfilms.org
Nicholas Mugeny, Felipe Placido dos Santos and Jade Kuku with Naomi Harris
Drama
AS Drama and Theatre Studies Students perform at the Millfield Theatre
As finalists of ‘The Rudolph Walker School’s Drama Award’ the AS Drama and Theatre Studies students performed ’Suicide Kidz’ a play devised with Wil Johnston at the Millfield Theatre. It was a fantastic event where the students were able to mingle with stars like Shane Richie and Diane Parish, and received acting advice from Cyril Nri and Jimmy Akingbola. The performance was a fantastic success with Priscille Omombo Winning The Best Actress Award and Kenneca Roach Winning The Role Model Award. Rehearsals for next year’s competition have already begun, so contact Mrs Rosen if you would like more information.
