St Gregory's Catholic School

Our Year 7 students have been making an indicator from red cabbage by boiling it in water for five minutes and allowing it to cool down. They filtered the mixture through filter paper so the purple liquid dripped into a conical flask. The students then took a couple of drops of the indicator they had made and used it to test two liquids. These were sulfuric acid (indicator went bright pink) and sodium hydroxide (indicator went yellow/green).

Year 7 were very lucky in their Sikhism unit of work, to have a visit from Mrs McCann who volunteered to come in and chat about her religion; Sikhism.

Sikhism is one of the newest religions in the world, founded around 500 years ago by Guru Nanak in the Punjab Region of India. They talked about the 5 K's of Sikhism; The Golden Temple, Sewa and how a Sikh bride traditionally wears red when she gets married. Some students even had a chance to meditate, like you would in a real Gurdwara!

We are excited to be able to take 20 students from years 10, 11 and sixth form to this year’s FLAME conference at Wembley Arena on Saturday 4 March. Information has been sent to parents regarding the event, which is open to Christians from across the UK. You do not need to be Catholic to attend.
There will be inspirational talks from Robert Bilott and rap artist Guvna B, as well as music from One Hope Project.
The closing date is 29 January and there are only 20 places, so don’t miss your chance to attend the event.
For more information please contact the school chaplain [email protected].

Our students have been given the opportunity for an extra-curricular activity exploring the possibilities of creative translation.
The programme, organised by Oxford University, will culminate in a national translation competition which will be judged by a team of Oxford undergraduates and professional translators to select regional and national winners.

In preparation for the competition, each week our students will be bringing translation to life by focusing on translating poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. This week, they spent time translating a recipe for the Epiphany - El Roscon for Spanish and La Galette des Rois for French.

Welcome Back.

We are looking forward to welcoming all students back to school tomorrow (Tuesday 3 January). The day will start as normal with tutor time at 8.40am.

We hope you have all had a lovely Christmas holiday, and a Happy New Year

Our Sixth Form artists spent a day in November drawing from a professional life model.
Their hard work and intense concentration was evident, each creating a lively and
skillful collection of figure drawings.

Well done to all who took part!

On Tuesday 6 December, an induction Mass was held for Fr Graziano, the new Parish
Priest of St Augustine's Catholic Church in Tunbridge Wells. Mr Byrne and other
members of staff attended the special event along with one of our students who read the Bidding prayers. The Mass was followed by a reception in the hall afterwards.

Fr Graziano's letter of thanks to Mr Byrne, included the following message:

"It is important for our church that our schools and parishes work closely together, so that we can grow as a Catholic community in a world where our younger people face challenges and influences that are new to us.

I am keen to work with you and your staff to promote Catholic teaching in St Gregory's School. I hope too that more students and their families will become involved in the life of the parish too. I am sure that the collaboration between our parish and the school will benefit us and the church now and, in the future, and I look forward to working with you."

We congratulate Fr Graziano on his induction and we look forward to working closely with him in the years to come.

We are pleased to announce that St Gregory's has won the KCSP Christmas Card Competition for 2022.

Well done to our Year 9 students - Gabrielle who created the winning design and Alicia who was shortlisted. This follows on from our previous Christmas card success in 2020 and our win in the KCSP Summer Art Competition earlier this year.

Congratulations also go to Rosie and Millie in Year 9, whose seasonal designs featured on the St Gregory's Christmas card and the Carol Service invite for this year.

Pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 have taken part in the MFL 12 Tasks of Christmas challenge. As part of our world class opportunities to increase the cultural capital of our pupils at St Gregory's, the pupils have been investigating Christmas customs and traditions in the French and Spanish speaking world, such as translating Christmas carols, writing Christmas cards, lists and poems in French or Spanish, and much more.

Our Year 7s have been doing various activities and experiments including a Mars Egg Drop Challenge and an onion experiment. They have also been looking at iconic British places where they designed British banknotes for King Charles III inspired by artist Grayson Perry.