Carmel Celebrates

Students, parents, staff and invited guests gathered at Carmel College in Darlington for the annual presentation and prize giving. This event is the College’s celebration of students’ achievements during the previous academic year. Many of the students had travelled back to Carmel during their Christmas break from over 25 different Universities covering the length and breadth of the country including many of the top Russell Group Universities.

This year, once again, saw the best ever GCSE results at Carmel. 89% of students achieved the governments quality benchmark of 5A* to C grades including maths and English and the pass rate at A level was 99.4%, placing Carmel in the very top percentage of schools nationally.

Guest of honour on the evening was local businessman Dr Allan Mitchell who retired as chair of governors at the College this summer having been involved with the school for over 30 years, 16 of which he spent on the governing body which he chaired for the last 7 years.

Principal Maura Regan congratulated all the students on their achievements and asked them to reflect on everything else they had gained as a result of their time spent at the College. She said that it was important that they continue to be successful and make their mark in the world but above all they should ‘strive for happiness’ measured, she believes, by righteous deeds and through the ‘pursuit of the common good’.

A full list of the prizewinners on the evening were:

all the prize-winners with (centre L-R) Chair of Governors, Mr Gerard Wiper, Principal Maura Regan and guest of honour Dr Allan Mitchell

Movember – A Hairy Scary Month!

November saw some strange sights at Carmel College in Darlington - a large number of men, both staff and VI Form students, sporting facial hair in aid of an international charity to raise awareness of men’s health issues, and funds for research into testicular and prostate cancer.

“Movember” (an amalgamation of “November” and “Moustache”) began some years ago in Australia, and has very quickly become a worldwide phenomenon. The Carmel “Mo-Bros” have gathered donations from many generous people, the majority were significant others paying in the hope of the moustache being removed quickly!

The team at Carmel was made up of over 120 members which included the “Mo-Sistas” – a team of female students and staff dedicated to giving support through further fundraising and generally not pointing and laughing at the strange hairy sights. They baked edible treats which they sold at the “Mo-cake” and “Munchtash” stall every Friday in Movember which proved a great success. A calendar has also been produced featuring staff and their moustaches representing all the departments in the College. The proceeds from the sale of this will also contribute to the Movember appeal.

At the end of the month the College held a grand shave off in the John Caden Hall in front of a packed audience. The highlight of this was the shaving of Mr Ryder, the College’s Site supervisor’s, famous 44 year old moustache, and special thanks must go to him for such a gesture!

To date the total raised by the Movember team at Carmel is over £3000 and money is still coming in.

L-R Tim Madeley (Director of 6th Form), Michael Holder (Head Boy) and Rob Young (Teacher of RE)
removing their moustaches at the Grand shave off

Site Supervisor Frank Ryder removes the moustache he has worn for 44 years.

Mr Graham (Curriculum Leader Science) spends the last few minutes with his moustache prior to the shave off.

Winter Newsletter 2011

Click the image below to view the November 2011 Newsletter

Sister Helen Prejean Conference at Carmel

On Monday 19th September 2011, Sister Helen Prejean, the internationally acclaimed author and leading advocate for the abolishment of the death penalty, visited Carmel RC College to recount her fascinating and inspirational story to over 300 Year 11 and sixth form students. Her thought provoking and powerful story was extremely well received by both staff and students, who felt inspired and challenged by her message of forgiveness, hope and peace. Sister Helen, who has counselled a total of 6 men on death row, recounted her conversations and experiences with these men, some of whom she believed to be innocent. All students were gripped and remained silent for an hour.

Before the arrival of Sister Helen, our Director of Sixth Form, Tim Madeley and Michael Hughes prepared students by discussing the reality of capital punishment through a series of hard hitting facts from around the world. Tim broached many ethical issues surrounding capital punishment and challenged students to think about the issue in a rational and considerate manner. Sixth Form students were then given the opportunity to watch “Dead Man Walking” in the afternoon, which brought the reality of Sister Helen’s talk to life.

Overall this was certainly a challenging and worthwhile conference for our students and they left feeling very inspired and enlightened.

By Michael Hughes

Sr Helen Prejean with members of the RE Department at Carmel and Fr Dermot Donnelly.

News Flash

Summer Newsletter 2011

Click the image below to view the June 2011 Newsletter

Spring Newsletter 2011

Carmel Confucius Classroom Officially Launched

The Confucius Classroom was launched officially on Friday 11th February during the Chinese Spring Festival. This evening celebration was attended by Head teachers, local councillors, College Governors, parents and students. Ms Zhu Xiaoming, from the SSAT, and Ms Liu Xiuqin, Chinese Director of all the Hanban Chinese teachers in England, both came up from London to join in the celebrations.

The evening was a showcase for all of the wonderful work that has been done with the young people at Carmel with the support of their superb Chinese teacher, Ms Chen Huanghuang. She has inspired the students, not only in Carmel but also in local primary schools, to learn Mandarin, to practise the pentatonic scale on Chinese instruments, to use the abacus in maths lessons, to sing in Chinese, to learn Tai Chi and above all to become curious about Chinese traditions, Chinese culture and life in China today.

A highpoint of the evening was the award of prizes to the winners of the China Competition, which involved students creating a three minute video to introduce Chinese culture. The winners of the first prize, Eve Knowlson and Millie Dryden, were delighted to receive books and a Chinese banquet for their family at the Eastern Bamboo Restaurant.

The future of Chinese at Carmel is looking bright, with students regularly greeting each other in Chinese in the corridors! The College is now looking forward to hosting students from its partner school, The Phoenix International School in Guangzhou, this summer and further developing the work of the Confucius Classroom in years to come.

Carmel students perform Traditional Chinese Tai Chi

Carmel Tai Chi students with Carmel Principal Maura Regan (Centre front left) with Chinese teacher Huanghuang Chen (Centre front right) and back row centre L-R Nicola Hickman (Curriculum Leader for Modern Foreign Languages), Tom Read Assistant Principal, Ms Liu Xiuqin and Ms Zhu Xiaoming, from the SSAT.