Sacred Heart Catholic High School (Newcastle Upon Tyne) - Traditions and Recent Developments

Traditions and Recent Developments

The school's prayer reads;

"This is our school, let peace dwell here, let the rooms be full of joy, let love abide here, love of learning, love of one another, love of all people, love of life itself, and love of God, let us remember that as many hands build a house, so many hearts make a school."

The school is well known for staying open throughout adverse weather conditions. However, due to heavy snowfall on the 29th and 30 November 2010, the school shut for the second time in roughly five years. It was regarded as a sensible decision owing to the wide catchment area of the school and the city-wide cancellation and irregularities of bus timetabling which would have inhibited many students from reaching the school safely.

Another Sacred Heart tradition is the Christmas pantomime. The pantomime is an annual phenomenon, headed by Year 13 pupils with much encouragement from teachers (both teachers within the drama department and outside of it). The pantomime is traditionally written in verse and inevitably features male teachers in dresses, water guns which are fired at students and festive music. It is looked upon with much joviality. Examples of staff-enhanced performance include the science department's rendition of 'Ghostbusters' and more recently 'YMCA', all in suitable attire.

In past years, the highlight of any Year Sevens' year was the counting up of Merit stickers received throughout the scholastic year and the distribution of corresponding reward certificates. Recently, however, this long-considered defunct system was replaced, thanks to innovative breakthroughs in merit technology, with an online system which allowed, for the first time in Sacred Heart history, for Concerns to be awarded for detrimental behaviour, thus allowing interested parents to be fully kept up to date with their children's development.

The VLE of Sacred Heart recently underwent a makeover, making it more accessible and more utilisable. The VLE of each student and teacher contains a "classroom" section which allows a connection between pupils and teachers at times where exchange is otherwise difficult. An example of such an occasion is the aforementioned snow days of Sacred Heart, where it was felt that the introduction of "snow tasks" would aid learning progression. These were then accessed though the VLE. The VLE is further student-friendly in that it contains what is amiably nicknamed by students as "tartan Facebook", owing to the interactive nature of the page, much like popular social networking site "Facebook", as well the tartan pattern which decorates said page.

As well as the maintenance of high educational standards, Sacred Heart has also played a major role in supporting local businesses through times of recession and indeed continues to do so. Examples of such businesses include the "Retro Sweet Shop" situated on Fenham Hall Drive, as well as the "Butty Box" and several corner shops. "Butty Box" provides feeding services for hungry students and is also a popular meeting spot owing to its immediate proximity with the school premises. The sweet shop sells vintage-esque sweetened goods, including lollies of flavours such as "cream soda" and "tutti frutti".