Month: January 2022

We were delighted to host a virtual talk from the EU council at CTK Aquinas recently. The talk was well attended by students from a range of A Level subjects including Modern Foreign Languages, Politics, Geography and Sociology. 

Mr Bonello, a Lawyer and Linguist gave us an insightful presentation on the role of the European Union and where the European Council sits amongst the other various European institutions. 

The session was very informative and students left with a deeper knowledge into EU policy-making, including how laws are voted upon and the difference between the EU Council and the Council of Europe.  

Events such as these are part of the CTK initiative to further motivate our students to participate in the wider curriculum as well as their chosen subjects. It is very rewarding to see that this encouragement has resulted in so many students formulating opinions on political matters and broadening their scope of knowledge outside of their studies. 

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is marked each year on 27th January – the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. On this day, schools, communities and faith groups across the UK join together in national and local events to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and of even more recent genocides. 

Deacon Javier, our Lay Chaplin, led a Holocaust Memorial service at each site which staff and students attended.  The service was extremely moving and highlighted the Nazi Persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide. 

We were privileged enough to host a talk with two holocaust survivors, Paul Sved and Ivan Shaw, who both have fascinating stories about their experiences as young children living in cities under Nazi control. Both speakers, now in their 80’s, gave up their time to speak to CTK lower sixth students as part of the Sixth Forms 10:10 programme. Their stories were extremely moving and highlighted the sadness in their childhood and their victimisation of Nazi persecution. The pair went on to give a recap of their oppression, the time spent away from their families as young children, the day they finally managed to escape Nazi occupation and how they remarkably went on to lead normal happy lives. 

Our students were fascinated by their stories and amazed by the bravery of the survivors. One student said “The testimonies gave me a very harsh yet interesting insight into life during the Holocaust. We’ve heard from historians but not often the survivors and it allowed me to understand the atrocities that were taken upon the people of that time and helped me understand the misfortune they went through. Even with all his discomfort he prevailed and taught a valuable lesson on how two very different views can affect the whole of human history.” – Kanye Cross-Gordon, CTK student. 

We would like to say a big thank you to the Holocaust Educational Trust for arranging this session with us and to the incredible guest speakers for sharing their memorable stories with us at this time. 

The work of our CTK Eco Group continues to go from strength to strength. The Eco committee meet regularly to take forward the Sixth Form’s Green agenda. In a recent meeting they discussed changes they could make to reduce our impact on the environment. Recently, the group have been looking at the impact of meat farming and the damage that such heavily laboured factories can do to the environment. 

The outcome of these meetings has inspired students to consider eating alternative foods that have little-to-no impact on the environment, as it helps reduce the impact too much meat consumption has on both the human body and the environment. 

The reps launched a competition across the three CTK sites, which looked at identifying meat free dishes that each site wanted to take forward. Entrants had to plan a recipe for their tastiest meat-free dish which would be cooked in the canteen. We await to hear the outcome, but recipes included: vegetarian Pizza, meat free chilly, cauliflower curry along with Quorn based alternatives to traditional meat-based recipes. 

The sixth form also received a visit from the Education and Engagement Officer for the Big City Butterfly Project. This is an exciting new project that aims to inspire Londoners to discover butterflies and moths, and connect them with nature and their local green spaces. As well as offering habitat management advice, they have also offered to run a butterfly ID workshop for staff and students. This is an opportunity to gain skills and knowledge to help increase butterfly monitoring across the project area. 

CTK Aquinas were delighted to host Lewisham University Challenge’s “Meet the Oxbridge students” event earlier this month.   

Facilitated by university representatives of Queen’s College (Oxford) and Gonville & Caius College (Cambridge), two CTK alumnae, Lorena and Temi, along with other Oxbridge students, shared their experiences of studying at Oxbridge with Year 12 students from CTK and across the Lewisham borough.   

They spoke about their experiences of the application and interview process, managing the academic workload once they started their course, life in college – both academic and social, and the many opportunities offered through clubs and societies at Oxford and Cambridge.     

These open talks enabled students to get an insight into what everyday life is like at Oxford and Cambridge as well as finding out useful information to help with their applications. The event was very inspiring for our Year 12 students that are considering applying to Oxbridge. The success of this event is testament to our strong relationships with our alumni students and our ongoing efforts to encourage current learners to aim high. 

Thanks to the Jack Petchey Achievement Award received by year 13 French student Emmanuella Owusu Ansah, the entire A Level French cohort were invited to a day out Ice Skating at the Queen’s House in Greenwich followed by lunch at Café Rouge. The Jack Petchey Achievement Award was created to celebrate the achievements of young people across London and Essex and to reward such achievements.

Set in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the rink was surrounded by iconic architecture and some of the best views in London.

The Ice Skating was thoroughly enjoyed by the students. They relished in being outdoors, in each others company with lots of laughs and no broken bones! Some of our students were beginners but showed excellent progress in mastering their new skills. Others were professionals and took the opportunity to display their hidden talent.

Congratulations to Emmanuella on her award and thank you for sharing the award with your fellow French students!