Mobile Phones in School - New Rules

December 2017

Dear Parents / Guardians,

At St George Catholic College we constantly strive to keep all your children as safe as possible.

Whilst accepting that the use of new technologies is now common place and although most of our students use their mobile phones in a sensible way, we now believe that in order to ensure that no student is subjected to any acts of cyber bullying, sexting, sending or receiving inappropriate pictures/information whilst on site, the following will now be implemented.

From Monday 8^th January 2018 the use of mobile phones / digital devices will be banned during the school day. They must be kept in the student’s school bag at all times.

 This means that all students will not be allowed to use their mobile phone / digital devices at all on the school site at any time and for any purpose. This includes break and lunchtimes.

We do understand that you may feel that your child is safer carrying a mobile phone to and from school. However, it must be switched off throughout the school day, including break time and lunchtime:

·       08:40 till 16:00.  If students needs to contact their parents within the school day, they may go to reception or talk to their Progress Leader.

Please do not ring your child during the school day. If you need to contact your child, please ring reception and a message will be passed on. 

Should a student be seen with his / her mobile phone / digital device on site, then it will be confiscated and placed in the school safe. On the first instance your son / daughter will be able to collect their phone at the end of the day from the office. If this happens again, parents will be invited to come to school to collect it at the end of the day. Should this reoccur, the device will be confiscated again and you will be invited to a meeting.

Failure to comply with this rule will fall under the refusal to follow the college’s rules and will be dealt with under the behaviour policy.

The misuse of mobile phones and other digital devices can put students at risk and can trigger interventions from the police.

We hope you will support us in our efforts to keep all our students safe and happy whilst at school.

Yours faithfully

James Habberley

Head of School

The Dragon - Latest Issue

View Dragon News Magazine

You can now read the latest edition of the Dragon, our student news magazine, by following the link above.

St George "Outstanding" by Local Authority

St George Catholic College has been graded Outstanding in all areas by the local authority following its inspection on Wednesday 22nd November 2017. 

Key findings from the report are listed below:
 

• “The school has a tremendously strong culture and ethos of support yet maintains high expectations of all its pupils”·        
• “This is a very well led school with a strong record of improvement over several years. It is now performing at a very high level in all aspects of its work”.
• “Child protection and safeguarding procedures are very good quality and they are operated rigorously”
   
• “Pupils enjoy being at school and many relish their learning and the broader opportunities they are presented with here. Staff speak of there being a great sense of family”
   
• "Overall attendance is outstanding”
• “Pupils with SEN made very good progress over their time here”
  
  The inspectors also noted:
   
• “Pupils capacity to discuss and debate work in lessons is a key factor in their very good learning
  
• “Instances of low-level disruption are rare”
  
• “Bullying is very rare but when it happens it is tackled caringly, assertively and effectively”
  
• “The overall P8 score in 2017 was an impressive +0.57”
  
• “Pupils therefore attained, on average nearly half a grade more in each GCSE than their peers nationaly.
  
• “Pupils make very good progress in mathematics by the end of KS4”
  
• “Pupils capacity to discuss and debate work in lessons is a key factor in their very good learning”



• “Pupils with English as an additional language made very good progress”

New PE Calendar

Parents and pupils can now view our after school PE activities online.

 View Calendar

 Please click the link above or visit the PE Extra Curricular page of our website

GCSE 77% grades 4-9

Revised GCSE results show that pupils at St George achieved 77% grades 4-9 in 2017 with English grades rising to 81%.  Full details of our GCSE success this year are at:

http://www.stgcc.co.uk/pages/college_information/exam-results-2017.html

Letter from Our Head of School and Executive Head Teacher

11^th September 2017  
Dear Parents

It is with great pleasure we write this introductory letter to you as the new leaders of Saint George.  We have had a really positive start to the new College year with another record breaking set of GCSE results, the best ever for the college at 76% 4-9 (A*-C) in Maths & English and on the new measure of 51% 5-9 (A*-B). An indication of the positive impact we have on our students is the stunning predicted Progress 8 score of +0.3 which in essence means on average every child did better by a third of a grade than they should have done in eight of their subjects.  The last three years have seen our results improve year on year and we continue to rank amongst the best schools nationally for progress and attainment as one of the top two performing schools in Southampton.  We would like to thank all our students, staff, parents and governors for all the hard work they put into realising this achievement against increasingly challenging criteria being set by the government each year.  Our challenge for the year ahead is to keep this positive momentum going.

This outstanding achievement is only part of our success story. The College is now oversubscribed in a number of year groups and we start the year with 800 students on roll, mixed in every year group. Two new classrooms for Geography and Languages have been built to accommodate the expansion of the College. The next phase of development will be the long awaited new Science and Technology block. We are now in the final stages of the design phase with building works due to start in January 2018. 

The College has a spring in it its step as it continues to move forward from the two “Outstanding” judgements achieved in the Local Authority inspection last year and the recent Diocesan inspection in the summer term. We have a great deal to celebrate and we are determined to continue to build on this success; a message we have given to all of our students in their first assemblies of the new school year.

 We look forward to working together to encourage our students to strive to make the most of every opportunity and achieve the very best standard possible.

Please can we ask that you help by making sure that the students have their planners signed weekly, and that the whole school agreements are also signed on page 14 & 15.  The planner has information about the topic students are studying in each lesson so that hopefully you can keep up with their lessons and have conversations at home about their learning journey.  Thanks in anticipation for your help with this initiative.

Hopefully your child will have informed you about our forthcoming Open Evening at the College on Thursday 5^th October 2017.  As usual the College will close at 12.20 pm to prepare for the evening.  A large number of students will be asked to stay through to the evening to help with the event.  The bus companies have been informed of the changes and will be available at 12.20 pm. 

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you of a number of forthcoming events:

1.     Thursday 21^st September 2017 6:30pm–Year 11 Core Intervention Evening              (English, Maths, Science & Religious Studies)

2.     Thursday 28^th September 2017 5:30pm – Year 7 Settling in Evening

3.     Thursday 5^th October 2017 12:20pm – Early Closure – Open Evening

4.     Thursday 19^th October 2017 6:30pm–Year 10 Core Information Evening & Year 10 Work

Experience Evening. (English, Maths, Science & Religious Studies)

5.     Friday 20^th October 2017 Half term

6.     Monday 30^th October 2017 – College Re-Opens

Finally, we would like to thank you and our students for their excellent start to the term.  The uniform is the best that we can remember, the attitude and atmosphere around the College is terrific, making it a real pleasure to be part of the Saint George Catholic College Community.

Best wishes for another successful year!

Yours faithfully

   

Mr J Habberley

Head of School

 Miss Lyn Bourne

Executive Head Teacher

GCSE Results Exceed Expectations

Our GCSE results this August are well above predicted levels and place us among the highest achieving secondary schools in Hampshire.

With 76% gaining 4-9 and 51% 5-9 in English and Maths, the results are our best ever and our provisional progress of +0.32 is predicted to place us in the top 5% of schools nationally.

84% of pupils achieved a grade 4 or above in Maths and 80% in English.

EBACC 30% 4 - 9
EBACC 23% 5 - 9

Congratulations to all our students!

St George Graded Outstanding

 

Our latest validation report by the Portsmouth Diocese has graded St George as outstanding.  To read the report please go to St George Sec 48 Validation 2017

Head of School

College Leadership

­19^th June 2017

Dear Parents and Guardians,

College Leadership

Further to my previous communication in March this year when I informed you that Graham Wilson, our Headteacher, was leaving St George,  I am delighted to update you on the progress to replace him whilst maintaining continuity and minimizing any upheaval during transition.

It is with great pleasure that I am able to tell you about an exciting opportunity for the future of St George and for Catholic secondary education in Southampton.

The Governors of St George and the Diocese of Portsmouth have approached the Governors and Trustees of St Anne’s Catholic School and Sixth Form College to develop a new role of Executive Headteacher in providing strategic leadership to each school through a joint partnership alliance.  We have agreed the terms of our co-operation in principal to enable us both to communicate this exciting news whilst the final details between our Governing Bodies are being drafted.

The proposal would mean that Lyn Bourne, currently Headteacher of St Anne’s would take on this role and she would therefore be sharing her time 50/50 between both school sites.  A new Head of School would be appointed internally at each school to have the day-to-day responsibility for the running of St George and St Anne’s respectively.

It is important to note that the two schools would remain separate institutions, continuing to develop their own  distinctive character with St Anne’s remaining under the Trusteeship of the LSU Community and St George, the Diocese of Portsmouth.

The final details are currently being discussed by both Governing Bodies and this will be concluded on a timely basis.  Please be assured that the best interests of our students continue to be the first consideration at all times and any decisions will be made accordingly.

If you have any questions/comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely.

Kind Regards,

Charles Marchetti

Chair of Governors

cmarchetti@stgcc.co.uk

view on website - letters page

Student Newsletter Online

Our student reporters have been out and about, interviewing and gathering news about their school. Follow the link below to see their latest edition of "The Dragon" online.

The Dragon Issue 2 (Spring 2017)

Newsletter (Spring Term)

Our latest St George Newsletter is now available to view on our website. 

Link to Newsletter Page

 

Catholic Celebrate week-end at St George College

Southampton 10th Anniversary Celebrate Weekend 2017

Saturday 30th September 2017, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. to Sunday 1st October 2017, 9 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.

The Southampton team are looking forward to welcoming you to, this, our 10th anniversary Southampton Celebrate Weekend. Following last year’s successful event, we will again be at St. George Catholic College. We have a great line-up of speakers who will challenge and enrich us, together with great Praise & Worship, daily Mass and Prayer Ministry. The wonderful Steve Murray will once again be sharing his talents with us.

The theme this year is: “Seek First His Kingdom” Matt. 6:33 (NIV)
Speakers confirmed so far are Michelle Moran, president of ICCRS (International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services), and Gary Stephens from the Prince of Peace Community.

Cost

Adults

Over 22 years

£40

Young adults

16–21 years old

£20

Children

3–15 years old

£10

Crèche

Under 3

FREE

For more information please click here go to our website

Your fee includes a hot meal on Saturday evening. All children attending groups must have a designated adult present at the main conference.

SEN Provision Letter

SEN Inspection
Please visit our Letters page to download a letter to parents concerning the inspection of Local Authority schools for SEN provision.
St. George will not be visited during the inspection, however, parents and carers can contribute their views. The attached letter provides details of the different ways that this can be done. view page

St George Pupils wins national award from the Knights of St Columba

During the Advent Mass at the end of term (2016) St George pupils were presented with prizes for the Knights of St Columba national prayer and essay competition.

The winners were: 

Prayer Competition Winner – Year 7-9 (12-14 y.o.) – Katie Bignell who was 1st at local and provincial level and 2nd Nationally.

Prayer Competition Winner – Year 10-13 (15-18 y.o.)  –  Ben Orchard who was 1st at local and provincial and National Winner.

Essay Competition Winner – Year 7-9 (12-14 y.o.) – Michael Thomson who was first at local and provincial and National Winner.

This outstanding display is the best in the College's history and is further proof of the Holy Spirit at work.

(The photo shows Katie, Ben and Michael receiving their awards from Knights Robert Corry and Local Provincial Sean Smith.)

An End of Year Message from the Headteacher

End of Year Message 2016

St George celebrated its most successful year for achievement with both our attainment and progress making us one of the most successful schools in the country.  This was further confirmed by our recent Local Authority Inspection which graded us outstanding in all areas.
 
The college continues to strengthen with more than 400 families choosing St George as a preference for admission in 2017, with over 200 being their first preference.  This has been a long term project; ten years ago first preferences were 50 students for 150 spaces. I would like to pay tribute to the governors, staff and students who have all worked hard and believed in the transformation of St George.

 Mr G Wilson
Headteacher
 

Investment Challenge 2017

Year 10 gained some knowledge of the stock exchange in our Investment Challenge activity on January 11th.  Click on the image to view photographs.

Weather Warnings and College Opening

Advisory information is posted on this page in the event of extreme weather conditions.