St John Plessington Catholic College

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St. John Plessington Catholic College
Details
Location Bebington, Wirral
LEA Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Region Merseyside
Founded 20th Century
Ofsted
Type Secondary School, Sixth Form
Category Voluntary Aided
Reference 105109
Students
Total 1292
Age range 11–18
Gender Mixed
Other
Motto Always Faithful To Christ
Website St John Plessington.com

St John Plessington Catholic College (SJP) is a school in Bebington, Wirral, England. In 2006 the school was appointed a new Headteacher, Thomas Quinn and a new Deputy Headteacher, Ian Walker. The school was renamed from Plessington to Saint John Plessington Catholic College and a number of new policies have been introduced, such as a new uniform and a different school day timetable. The school was awarded 'Technology College' status in 1998.

The school has close relations with the primary school in very close proximity to SJP, St. John's Junior School. The are often referred to as sister schools. The pupils of St. John's make frequent[1] visits to SJP for mass and plays and often over 50% of the pupils at St. John's will transfer to SJP for Year 7, the first year of secondary school. The primary school and SJP make good use of The Oval a sports facility between the two school, often using it's facilities to host events such as 'sports days' and just regular use for physical education. The school is credited with the 'Sportsmark Gold', awarded by Sport England.[2]

[edit] Patron Saint

The school is named after St. John Plessington, one the forty Catholic martyrs of England and Wales. St. Plessington was born in 1637 in Lancashire. and ordained a Priest in Segovia on 25th March, 1662. A year later St. Plessington returned to England where he ministered to covert Catholics in the areas of Holywell and Cheshire. St. Plessington was arrested during the Popish Plot scare on the charge of being a Catholic Priest and then imprisoned for two months. He was then hung, drawn and quartered on 19th July, 1679. In celebration of their patron saint the school holds an annual St John Plessington day on 19th July where all students and teachers are taken off timetable and take part in a vast array or spiritual and fun activities.

[edit] Catholic Ethos

The School has a very strong Roman Catholic Ethos which can be seen throughout the corridors and classrooms with posters. There is a thrice weekly optional Mass in the School Chapel held by the School Chaplin Alison Benson. On 'Holy days' (e.g. Ash Wednesday) Masses are held for the whole school by a local Priest.

[edit] Facilities

With the recent development of the school campus in the form of new buildings, opened by Cherie Blair (QC), the school has gained six ICT rooms and a main hall/atrium. The school has a six room dedicated SEN[3] center off the dining hall staffed with 10+ teaching assistants for pupils with mental or learning disabilities. In the old building the school has three fully-equipped Art rooms with paint and ceramic facilities. The SEN center has access to lifts and disabled toilets throughout the building. A drama studio is situated next to the Dinner Hall. The school is a member of the SAMLearning online revision service, every pupil has an account and it is used to help to keep students working,[4] revising and for homework activities.

[edit] Timetable

The school keeps a traditional timetable of 5 lessons per day, but has recently introduced a new 'wind-down' type period following lunchtime, a time where students could often be very energetic and not fully focused for work, the period named 'Academic Review' (dubbed 'AR' on site) consists of 20 minutes reading time.

[edit] School Dining

Since the introduction of the new headteacher, Thomas Quinn, the school's dinner menu increased vastly in variety, the typical menu for the preceding year would have been chips on an almost daily basis and now only on Fridays for religious reasons and improving the student's diet. For example the chocolate in cookies has been replaced with raisons. The school was awarded 'Healthy School Award' in February 2007.[5] A larger quantity of sandwiches have been supplied to students to choose from. The school's lunches are managed by Aramark. In an effort to prevent bullying and stealling between pupils, cash-cards (referred to as 'dinner-cards' on-site) were introduced, with both Aramark and SJP branding. In a bid to relieve the congestion at lunch time the time is devided into to parts, with the senior year groups (10, 11, Sixth form) having acadmenic review prior to lunch which leaves time for the junior years (7, 8, 9) to lunch.

[edit] New Buildings

In 2003, the school took over twelve newly built classrooms which house the RE and English departments and in 2004 benefitted from a five million pound building programmes which gave the school twelve more new classrooms, housing the Maths and Modern Foreign Languages departments, two new DT workshops, a new library, a new main hall, a new atrium, reception and admin area and a new sixth form common room. The dining room has also been enlarged and refurbished and a new area has been designated for Special Educational Needs where the old cold servery once was. A secure cycle shelter with room for 120 bicycles has recently been constructed.

[edit] Pastoral Care

There are numerous pastoral systems in place in SJP which cares for the student's college life. The two most notable pastoral system are the form and year group systems. Each year group comprises eight forms which are each named after one of the forty catholic martyrs of England and Wales and then divided up into two half year groups named Alpha and Beta. These eight forms are:

Alpha Half Year:

St Clitherow, one of the school's patrons saints
St Clitherow, one of the school's patrons saints

Beta Half Year:

House System:

As well as the year group system, there is also a house system. Every student in the school is placed into one of six houses which are named after saints or prominent Catholic figures. These houses are:

[edit] School Events

[edit] African Children's Choir visit

In late 2006, the school received a visit from the African Children's Choir[12] during there international tour. It was regarded as a huge achievement for the school, especially crediting newly appointed head of music department J. Stott. The concert was held on a weekend at 8:00PM and was a huge success as pupils from SJP and other surrounding primary schools visited. Members of the choir stayed with locals over the 2 night visit period.

[edit] Here Comes Christmas

Here Comes Christmas was a social event held after school in December 2006. It was organised by the Parent Teacher Association and included events such as Darts, Golf, Santa's Grotto, Throwing Sponges At Teachers, Winning Cards, Used Items Sale, Basketball, Football and an event where people could come and hold an owl. Despite the school's healthy meals initive the school served chips and sweets for pupils. The event helped raise money for a new school minibus which could be used to take pupils to events such as football games.[13]

[edit] Aladdin Performance

In early 2007 the school hosted several performances of Aladin,[14] utilizing the school's newly renovated drama studio and the acting talents of numerous pupils of the school. The preformance was headed by Mr J Owen, head of the SJP Drama department. It is set to be succeeded by a performance of 'Grease' in 2007.

[edit] Choir Visit To London

The school choir was visited London during late 2006 to compete in a choir contest at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall.[15]

[edit] Eco Inniative

SJP has recently begun a school-wide inniative to become somewhat ecologically friendly, following climate change. The inniative is making recommendations to students to for example cycle or walk to school, rather than using private cars or public transport. The school has introduced recycling baskets in every classroom for paper. The initiative is headed by the Science department.[16]


[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://stjohnplessington.com/news/default.asp?storyID=4
  2. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Sportsmark+Gold+Award&sid=44
  3. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=SEN&sid=26
  4. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=VLE&sid=8
  5. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Healthy+School+Award&sid=303
  6. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Spiritual+Life&sid=5&page=Romero+House+&pid=117
  7. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Spiritual+Life&sid=5&page=Kolbe+House&pid=121
  8. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Spiritual+Life&sid=5&page=Teresa+House&pid=119
  9. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Spiritual+Life&sid=5&page=Bosco+House&pid=118
  10. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Spiritual+Life&sid=5&page=Hume+House&pid=120
  11. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/page_viewer.asp?section=Spiritual+Life&sid=5&page=Bernadette+House&pid=122
  12. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/gallery/default.asp?gallery=11
  13. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/gallery/default.asp?gallery=13
  14. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/gallery/default.asp?gallery=12
  15. ^ http://www.stjohnplessington.com/gallery/default.asp?gallery=1
  16. ^ http://ecoteamsjp.blogspot.com/
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