Month: July 2019

This week, three Christ the King sixth form students have been awarded a scholarship from Private capital fund management firm, Metric Capital worth £15,000 each.

Each successful student was carefully selected according to their academic performance and formal interview process.  Christ the King students Veronica Marafini, who hopes to study Translation and Interpreting with Modern Languages at the University of East Anglia, Kafilat Alogba who hopes to study Law and Sociology at the University of Warwick and Chanin Peart who hopes to study Business Management at the University of Westminster, all successfully received a scholarship worth £15,000 over the course of their University degree.

The Metric Capital scholarship programme with Christ the King is in its eighth year and to date has awarded £300,000 in scholarships to hardworking, ambitious Christ the King students.  Metric Capital, worked in conjunction with Our Turn Global, a charitable organisation that uses social media to raise awareness about initiatives that have a positive impact on society to award the scholarship.

The scheme is led by Metric Capital’s Managing Partner, John Sinik.  John was first introduced to Christ the King by one of his mentees, and he was inspired to create the Metric Scholarship Programme after meeting high performing, aspirational students at Christ the King, who dreamt of going on to University, but couldn’t afford it.

Metric Capital Managing Partner John Sinik says:  “Tuition fees are only a part of the expense of going to University. There are living expenses that can be overwhelming for people and ultimately drive their decision not to go.  The scholarship plays a key role in allowing the students to pursue their dream of obtaining a University degree”.

Collegiate Principal Shireen Razey says:   “We are delighted to continue working in partnership with Metric Capital with this fantastic venture. We are so proud of our hardworking students at Christ the King and it is a great opportunity to support them in their university aspirations.”

This month, we held the Christ the King Evening of Celebration at all three sites. Our annual Evening of Celebration provides our students with the opportunity to reflect on the friendships, knowledge and skills that they have developed whilst studying at Christ the King. The event allows us to honour all their hard work and academic and extra-curricular achievements.  

CEO of Dynamic Planner, Ben Goss spoke with great eloquence about the skillset he has developed that has allowed him to excel in his career. Ben is former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also a previous winner of the Deloitte UK Fast 50 – an award that recognises the 50 fastest growing UK tech companies. In 2017, Ben wrote ‘Catching the FinTech Wave’ – a guide to adopting FinTech and transforming financial planning firms.

It was a great privilege to have all our guest speakers join us in celebrating the achievements of our students and Christ the King would like to extend its sincere thanks to them all for taking time out of their busy schedules to honour the occasion. The College would also like to commend all of the 2019 leavers on their tenacity and hard work and looks forward to welcoming them back on results day in August 2019. 

On Thursday 20^th June, Miss Orlowski, Ms Tapper and Mrs Geisler took a selection of Lower A level Psychology students to London Zoo.

Whilst there, the students took part in an observational behaviour study using squirrel monkeys. They were able to track the monkeys and record their behaviour using time sampling on iPads.

This links in with the Research Methods module of their course, but they were also able to strengthen their knowledge of Biopsychology and other modules through discussion in the seminar. Students also had time to explore the zoo and learn about the animals there. It was a great day!

Over 800 students from the three Christ the King sites in South East London took part in supporting their local communities, across London.

 Students took part in activities such as helping feed the homeless at Brixton soup kitchen and taking part in the pay it forward initiative, helping to support the homeless at Second Shot Coffee in Bethnal Green. Students from Christ the King St Mary’s in Sidcup, Aquinas in Brockley and Emmanuel in Lewisham, gave their time to help out at foodbanks in Greenwich, Eltham and Lewisham and visited a care home in Deptford to take part in activities with the residents. Students also worked in ‘The Charity Shop’ in Sidcup, which raises funds for the Canterbury Oast Trust, which supports people with learning disabilities in education and work.

The Christ the King motto is ‘Ut Vitam Habeant’ which means ‘that they may have life’ and every student in encouraged to develop as a whole person and to be actively involved in both the college and in their local community.

This year students have taken part in a number of charity events. They have donated goods and volunteered time at local food banks, taken part in sponsored walks to raise money for Second Shot coffee. At Christmas, Christ the King students created Christmas boxes, filling them with goods to donate to the Samaritan’s ‘Operation Christmas Child’ appeal’.  At Easter, students created Easter baskets, filled with treats and messages of hope for the children of local Delmelza hospice, and refugee children, who have no access to benefits, through the Revive charity.

Although the initiative is called Acts of Charity, it is not only about charity work.  Christ the King students also actively get involved in community work.  Christ the King students have taken part in litter collections in local parks, worked in care homes and primary schools and got involved in recruiting new shops to join Lewisham’s water bottle refilling scheme, which allows people to refill plastic water bottles on their premises to reduce plastic waste.

Co-Collegiate Principal Rob McAuliffe said “At Christ the King we aim for all of our students to develop into young people that will go on to make a positive contribution to society, and the charity and community work, is an important part of this.  Helping the local community helps our students to make a positive contribution to their area they live and study in.  Students find getting involved in the activities really rewarding, as well as building confidence, team building and leadership skills, which they will use to help them as they progress onto University or employment”. 

Last week of June students of Spanish from CTK St. Mary´s and Emmanuel traveled to Seville, Spain. This was an opportunity to support them in their academic studies but also to increase their cultural appreciation in a city where Muslims, Christians and Jews left their marks.

Upon arrival, they enjoyed a night of tapas in the busy streets of Seville. Next morning, they headed to Parque Maria Luisa to explore the beautiful gardens and buildings that hosted the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.

Our students participated in a gymkhana contest. Congratulations to the winners!!

At lunch time we visited the Mercado de Abastos to cook our own paella and after some well deserved break we attended a student exchange in Centro Mundo Lengua. Our students had the opportunity to put their Spanish to the test and make some new friends while practicing the language.

On Tuesday, they visited the amazing Royal Alcázar Palace with its gardens, the Cathedral and the astonishing Giralda, the bell tower from which top they could see Seville from a bird´s eye view. In the afternoon, they joined a flamenco class and continued with a flamenco live show in an 18th century sevillian palace. On Friday, they enjoyed a guided tour through the Sevilla Mudéjar, the architectural pos-Islamic style that remained in Spain after the Christian  reconquest. Our final stop was the Baroque Revival church of La Macarena that gives name to many Sevillian girls and to a very famous song.