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St Augustine's Catholic College

Extra Curricular

Extending opportunities and improving teaching & learning

At St Augustine’s we believe in developing the whole student. What happens to students outside the classroom is as important as what happens inside it and we aim to provide our young people with as wide a range of opportunities as is possible. All students have access to an excellent variety of enriching experiences – visits overseas to New York, Barcelona and Paris; to the West End and Cadbury’s World as well as challenges such as Duke of Edinburgh.

Learning beyond the classroom enables students to build their self-confidence and broaden their social and academic horizons, allowing them to discover hidden talents, build new friendships and be a part of our college community. Clubs and activities within the College allow students to participate in sports, culture and the arts, helping them to grow academically and to become fully-rounded individuals.

For a full list of all our clubs please visit our Clubs page.

Sport

At St Augustine’s we recognise the important role that Sport and Extra Curricular activities can make to the individual and our Christian Community. The PE Department is supported by other College staff, parents, volunteers and a range of specialist coaches in providing a broad range of sporting opportunities and competition.

PE Extra Curricular Activities Term 3 & 4 2022

Netball Fixtures Term 4

Instrumental Tuition

Tuition is available at St Augustine’s for the following: Brass Cello, Clarinet/Saxophone, Double Bass, Flute, Guitar, Piano, Percussion, Viola, Violin, Voice

The scheme has been organised with peripatetic teachers visiting the College throughout each week. Students have half-hour individual lessons. Unfortunately, musical instruments are not loaned by the College but information can be provided on current rental schemes which enable a musical instrument to be hired termly. Further information regarding instrumental tuition will be given to all interested students in September. Meetings will be held by the Head of Music and the peripatetic teachers.

Students should be aware that, if they have music lessons they are required when at the appropriate standard, to participate in the College’s musical ensembles. Students will also be obliged to purchase an Instrumental Diary from the College (£2.00). Instrumental music lessons are normally on a rotational basis and students are expected to copy up work missed from classroom lessons. Mr O’Mahony, Head of Music, will be happy to answer any queries beforehand if you contact him directly at the College. Signing up to lessons takes place in the second half of the lunch hour in the first week of term. If any student already receives instrumental tuition this will, hopefully, continue during his/her time at St Augustine’s.

The College can accept no responsibility for the safety of students’ musical instruments on-site and appropriate insurance cover should be arranged in case of loss or damage.

Young Musician of the Year

Each year this evening promises to be just as exciting as in previous years with a wonderfully varied programme and such a sense of anticipation, community and support for all involved.

The competition is totally all-inclusive and the department encourages any student who is brave enough to audition to have a go! It has been run the same way for the last couple of years with just one week of auditions consisting of over 90 enjoyable performances. We were delighted that James Otto, a previous finalist and runner up in 2008, was able to adjudicate the piano auditions.

We are very proud of students who have performed in the final stages of this competition and who have studied, or are currently studying music at the following institutions: The Royal College of Music, London; Trinity College of Music, London; Universities of Durham, Leeds, Birmingham, Southampton, Sheffield, Cardiff and Bristol; Birmingham Conservatoire; Leeds College of Music; The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff and the Paris Conservatoire.

A number of finalists are now making a career in music either by teaching or performing, or both. Ten years ago Dominic Irving won Young Musician. Dominic has written the following thoughts about his experience of the competition:

“The competition is a wonderful opportunity to get some 'real-life' performance experience in a large venue, playing on a Steinway grand to a large audience, instead of in a practice room with just a few people. It gives you the motivation and discipline to learn a brand new piece or polish an existing one, and learn about all the etiquette of concerts such as dressing smartly, bowing, etc. The hall is always packed with an enthusiastically supportive audience, which calms any nerves players might have. The most useful part is the constructive and positive feedback from the judges, audience, and fellow pupils, which gives you the drive to never stop improving and enjoying your musical performances.”

Duke of Edinburgh

A journey of self-discovery and development

A Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is so much more than a ‘pat on the back’ for completing a programme of activities. It is recognition of a young person’s successful journey of self-discovery and development, renowned by employers and universities for the qualities young people have who've achieved a DofE Award develop.

Its balanced programme develops the whole person - mind, body and soul, in an environment of social interaction and team working.

There are three progressive levels of DofE programmes which, when successfully completed, lead to Bronze, Silver or Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

At St Augustine’s the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Scheme is run for students in Year 10. Enrolment on the scheme takes place in the Autumn term, followed up with weekly drop in sessions. The scheme is growing in popularity and this year we have 48 students working towards their Bronze Award. Students have included a diverse range of activities to complete their award including developing language, knitting, sewing, cooking, sailing and model building skills .They have volunteered in scouting, children’s liturgy, sports coaching and a wide range of charity shops and have taking part in physical activities ranging from swimming and football to dance.

The final strand to their award is an expedition where they have to learn map reading, camping and cooking skills. It is a physical challenge for many and their satisfaction on completion is an honour to witness.

See all DofE documents here

Model United Nations

The MUN Club mimics the procedures of the United Nations, and meets every Tuesday in BE2 at 1.50pm

The MUN Club currently meets on a Tuesday in BE2 starting at 1.50pm. It is a student led club with two designated Secretary-Generals. Students are welcomed from Year 10 to Year 13, but there can be exceptions for interested and mature students lower down the school.

The MUN Club mimics the procedures of the United Nations, and club members can participate in debates that cover world issues from a designated country’s point of view. This enables them to access and broaden their analytical skills, as well as their knowledge in current affairs. A recent addition has been the introduction of informal debating on UK political issues. Research and preparation skills are essential in order to access the debates on offer.

The Club attends the large International MUN conference held at Kingswood in Bath and members have had the chance to attend a less informal conference held at St Augustine’s over the past two academic years.

STEM

STEM at St Augustine’s is an exciting part of the students educational experience by reaching outside their own classroom, teachers and lecturers collaborate across subjects, enhance and enrich the school curriculum, make links with the world of work. It is important to help young people relate school STEM subjects with their real-world experience. The College recognises the importance of STEM in students' future employability.

We work closely with Bath University to provide opportunities for our students to explore STEM. We run activities in line with the British Science Association such as the annual Science and Engineering Week. This is an exciting week where students explore and investigate inventions that changed the world. Other STEM activities have included a star gazing evening, when parents and students were able to learn and observe the solar system. STEM is an integral part of Year 10’s Applied Learning Week when students participate in numerous workshops.

Our challenge for STEM teaching is to help young people recognise how the science, design & technology, computer science, engineering and mathematics that they study at St Augustine’s can lead to rich and varied career pathways. This complexity is a challenge – but also offers an enormous opportunity for STEM to engage young people with these strategically important subjects. At St Augustine’s we are committed to making this challenge a reality.

Drama, Dance and Tech

There is never a dull moment in the Drama Department and our black box Theatre with full sound desk and lighting rig is busy most lunch times with clubs and rehearsals. We offer a Year 7 Drama Club, a Year 8-9 Drama Club, a Tech Club and a Dance Club. We aim to produce a whole school or upper/lower school production annually and most recent productions include 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' (lower school), 'The Memory of Water' (upper school), 'Wendy & Peter Pan' (lower school), 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (whole school) and 'Arabian Nights' (lower school). We are currently rehearsing a whole school production of 'Grease' for October 2023!

 We run regular theatre visits to see award-winning and cutting-edge theatre by companies such as Wise Children, Frantic Assembly and Theatre Complicite in places as diverse as Bristol, Bath, Southampton, Cheltenham and London and we frequently welcome professional actor workshops in school to widen the theatrical horizons of our actors and designers. Throughout the school year one can see devised and scripted theatre performed by GCSE and A-level students in our Theatre and we offer some theatre in education sessions each year for primary school students in conjunction with our productions. We love to include dance in our productions and we run an extremely popular Dance Club. We are lucky to have a Dance Studio and students love to rehearse their own work there as well as rehearse for our shows. Cross-curricular collaborations with the English Department have included a recent Shakespeare Festival, with each Year 7 class performing their own Shakespearean extract. We love performing in many genres and for many types of audience so we are always open to ideas from students about what they would like to do next! We are fortunate to have Mrs. Hollie Pike, our expert LAMDA teacher, working in school each week tutoring pupils in LAMDA Drama for grades, festivals, competitions and auditions. Our LAMDA students gain consistently excellent results. Please enquire if you would like a letter about this opportunity to extend your child's learning and build their confidence in Drama. 

Book Groups

Reading for pleasure is an important aspect of a student’s development. It helps with reading fluency, comprehension and writing skills but the positive effects also reach across the curriculum: helping students with problem solving skills, improving general knowledge, increasing empathy and greater understanding of other cultures.

Extra Curricular groups that help promote reading include a Staff Reading Group, two KS3 reading groups that complete reading challenges and ‘shadow’ book competitions such as the CILIP Carnegie Medal and Red House Book Awards and a reading group for Years 10/11 to encourage students to read challenging literature.

Those who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence’ or ‘reading will make them smarter'
— Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998