This article is from our newsletter, The Albanian.
Please see The Albanian Newsletter for a plethora of articles!
As always, this term has been incredibly busy. We were delighted to welcome our new Year 7 students in September as well as those new to Year 12, alongside several new members of staff. Our community is extremely friendly and I know that our new members have benefited from the help and support available to ensure everyone is happy and settled as soon as possible. You will know that sadly our former Headteacher, Kevin Hoare died at the beginning of September and that his funeral was held on October 11th . Ahead of the funeral Mass, the cortege drove past school, pausing at our school entrance. Students in Year 9 alongside staff, lined the road as a Guard of Honour as can been seen in the photo. At the Mass, 12 students in Year 10 formed a Guard of Honour as Mr Hoare’s coffin was brought into the church, and as it left. His family were very appreciative of the support shown to them at this difficult time. We will be holding a memorial Mass for him in due course, when his family can join us. Parents and carers will know that we have an amazing track record of making a very positive contribution to The Common Good here at our school. Fundraising and charitable activities are an integral part of our Catholic school and are taken seriously by our young people. Thank you again to our incredibly supportive families for all you continue to do in making our endeavours successful, and so securing a real difference for our chosen charities. Students in each Year group research different charities, discussing the remit they have and then agree which one they want to support during this academic year. For 2024/25, the chosen charities are: Year 7 – North London Hospice Year 8 – St Mungo’s Homeless Charity Year 9 – Great Ormand Street Hospital Year 10 – Dementia UK Year 11 – Alzheimer’s Research UK Sixth Form – Noah’s Ark Alongside these individual Year group charitable activities, we also support whole school charitable activities, for example with CAFOD family fast day recently. Thank you again for your help and support. We held our Welcome Event for Year 7 on Thursday 17th October. This is a lovely occasion where parents and carers are invited to school with their Year 7 boys, to be part of a formal welcome to Finchley Catholic High School. All students receive a folder with a welcome letter from myself and our Chair of Governors, Jane Inzani. We hope these folders become records of students’ achievements as they collate letters and certificates of achievement. Students shared their musical talents with us, with all boys performing a song they have been practising in Music, ‘This is Me’. Our visitors also enjoyed a short film which shared images from our students’ first few weeks at our school. Thank you to everyone involved who helped to make this event so special. Thank you as always, for your support and cooperation as it is valued and appreciated. I wish you all a restful and enjoyable half term break and look forward to students returning to us on Monday, 4 th November.
With every good wish,
Niamh Arnull