Two Loreto students are hoping to make the grade playing top level football in America. Full back Jake Williams will fly out to Nebraska in July, where he will play for the Bellevue University team, whilst continuing his studies in Media.

He is highly thought of by the University soccer coach who comments: “We couldn’t be happier to sign Jake. He has all the qualities that a modern day full back needs, such as an appetite to join in when going forward, whilst also remembering his defensive responsibilities. We are looking forward to having Jake join us for the 2013 season.”

This year Easter falls half way through the Year of Faith inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

Those of us who remember this time recall, amongst other things, excitement, curiosity, and a nervous hope for change in the Church. But we did not want change at the expense of our rich heritage and tradition. That was the challenge.

To mark Fairtrade fortnight 2013, General RE classes have been involved actively in thinking about how farmers and workers in developing countries are often disadvantaged.

This year students have thoroughly enjoyed ‘going bananas’, trading in teams to identify with countries and families around the world who are not all part of the Fairtrade system. It has been important for students to reflect on how a variety of factors, including natural resources, the cost of living and trading prices, contribute to poor living conditions in a variety of countries.

MANCEP Day on the last Friday of the spring half term saw artists Helen Hallows and Alan Birch visit Loreto’s Art and Design department to work with the MANCEP schools’ art teachers. This is an annual event designed to promote the sharing of good practice.

Recently the History Society welcomed Professor Charles Esdaile from Liverpool University. Kate Walklate describes the presentation:  Professor Esdaile challenged the legend attached to the dominance and downfall of Napoleon, considering Napoleon as an ‘engineer of his own destruction’, removing the idealised representation often brought forward in other historical accounts.

In addition to the recent highly successful performances by Loreto’s Chamber Choir and String Ensemble, a number of individual students have recently made their mark in the music world.

We are delighted by the news that second year music student Oliver Vibrans has been offered a place to study Music at the prestigious University of Cambridge next year.

Catering at Loreto is now in the hands of Catering Academy, an organisation committed to providing a range of fresh foods at affordable prices.

The process of awarding a new catering contract saw the opinions of students and staff canvassed from the outset.

Loreto’s debating team won the Cheshire qualifying round of the Debating Matters competition, held at Congleton High School. This is the second time Loreto has reached the regional finals in the five years in which we have been participating.

This prestigious annual competition for sixth formers is run by the Institute of Ideas and is in its tenth anniversary year. 192 schools and colleges take part, and teams are challenged to research controversial issues facing society and then defend them under pressure from both the opposing team and an expert panel of judges.

New Year at Loreto and the examination season is upon us again. Students have been working hard during the Christmas break (yes, really) and are now focused on achieving the best possible set of results in the January AS and A2 examinations.

The AoC, the Association of Colleges, holds an annual student photography competition. This is a national competition, attracting entries from all over the country. The theme for this year was ‘Being a Student, ’encouraging entrants to capture the many facets of being a college student.

The competition was judged by professional photographer David Weston. Over 700 entries were received, the winners being announced at the AoC Annual Conference gala dinner in Birmingham.

There is no doubt that a baby gives a different perspective on things- life is changed radically and forever.  Expectations fluctuate from the simple hope that the baby will be healthy, to speculation about the future and what this child might become. A baby is a blessing and brings great joy both to the immediate and extended family. In some of the poorest countries in the world children are at the centre of life in a way that is challenging and utterly unselfish. In the midst of hardship and suffering the new baby is welcomed with delight and there are moments, at least, when desperation and fear are forgotten.

Loreto students once again showed that they have not forgotten those less fortunate than themselves as Christmas, and the cold winter weather, approaches.

We support a number of charities throughout the year and a harvest/winter collection for Cornerstone Day Centre - a day centre for homeless people less than a mile from college - was organised.

We’re noting the season of Advent with an exciting video Advent Calendar. Each day students and staff can watch a short reflection on Advent from all sorts of different members of our community. It’s followed then by a short snippet of the Christmas story told through modern animations. As well as this we have Mary and Joseph travelling through the college as part of our Travelling Nativity! The college takes the form of the holy land, and Mary (on the donkey) and Joseph travel from the heights of one building, through the classrooms of others to the Chaplaincy on the last day of term!

As part of the Mary Ward Week celebrations in October students were invited by Chris, the college Chaplain, to write poems and design posters that reflected some, or all, of the Mary Ward values, which are at the heart of the college mission.

Loreto’s contribution to an international charity initiative has been recognised by Independent Catholic News. Toilet Twinning is a partnership between development agencies Cord and Tearfund to raise funds for poverty alleviation around the world, including improving water and sanitation in some of the world’s poorest countries. It is estimated that more than 433 million school days are lost each year because of water-borne disease. Every 20 seconds a child dies from diarrhoeal diseases and 60% of all rural illnesses are caused by poor hygiene and sanitation. For £60 people can twin a toilet at home, work or college with a latrine in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh or Cambodia.

AS textile design students were joined in their classroom recently by some rather strange guests: six large birds of prey!

The magnificent owls, falcons and eagles were `sitting’ as life models, helping the students with their initial research into developing textile work based on the patterns, forms and structures found in birds and their feathers.

Loreto’s History Society is proving so popular with students it has had to move from a classroom to Ball Theatre in order to accommodate everyone who wants to sit in on the series of fascinating lectures.

A group of Loreto students certainly made an impact at the Labour Party conference held recently at the G-Mex in Manchester. As part of the Manchester based charitable project Reclaim, Alieh Amuntung, Jaimeel Fenton and Hollyn Barnett, were invited to close proceedings with a rousing a cappello rendition of the Red Flag, followed by a setting of William Blake’s famous poem Jerusalem. Performing for an audience of over three thousand delegates the girls were nervous but excited and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The chicken and the egg – Loreto students work with the University of Manchester on science project!

A group of fifty AS science students has been involved in a Royal Society Partnership project, working with scientists from the University of Manchester on experiments aimed at increasing understanding of gene structure, genome organisation and gene expression.

Ex Loreto student, Laurie Williams, has represented Team GB in the Paralympics, narrowly missing out on the opportunity of playing for a medal in the semi finals. Laurie played as part of the Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team, who narrowly lost to the World Silver medallists Germany in the quarter finals.

Loreto has bucked the national trend of declining grades -High Grades at Loreto have significantly increased and are above national averages.

Loreto continues to excel at vocational, AS and A2 level, with students achieving the highest grades across a wide range of subjects.

Some Highlights

Loreto students and staff have achieved another year of record breaking results. Pass rates at A*/A, A*-B and A*-E are all above national average. This continued success in both A level and BTEC vocational qualifications have ensured Loreto students are able to take up their first choice university place.

Seen here looking really pleased with their newly arrived books, sixteen of our lower sixth students have recently been enrolled as Open University members.  They will be completing their chosen modules as extra studies during their summer holidays.

English students have been visiting Stratford to visit the birthplace of Shakespeare and see a dynamic performance of Taming of the Shrew.  The 40 students went to the Royal Shakespeare Company to see the acclaimed production directed by Lucy Bailey.

Aspiring Loreto medics gave up part of their Easter holidays to improve their chances to achieve their dream of becoming a doctor.  The dedicated students came into college to hear from medical students from the Fastbleep organisation about going into medicine and how to make a successful university application. 

Loreto have twinned a college toilet with one in the developing world to raise money to give the world’s poorest people decent sanitation.

One of Loreto’s talented footballers has been selected for the England Schoolboy Football Team and will soon be playing international matches on TV.

Loreto’s ‘monster’ sell-out production of a ‘Little shop of Horrors’ has been hailed a great success.

Loreto student Chris Filsell competed in the English Taekwondo Championships in Coventry on the 19th November and finished third in the overall championship.

Chris who is studying A Level English Literature, History, Government and Politics and Music Technology is a 2nd degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.

While many students use their leisure time to chill out and relax one Loreto student is bouncing her way to sporting success.

Students at Loreto are remembering all those who have lost their lives in conflicts on Friday. Students and staff across college as part of the Charities Group, Chaplaincy and RE departments are working to further knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding this important date in addition to raising funds to help ex-servicemen and women.

Prospective students and their parents have been flocking to Loreto College in two special weekend open days.

A top Loreto College footballer has been signed up by a team in the Portuguese Premier League and has already scored his first goal.

Fabio Abreu has been given a three year deal with the Maritimo team based in Funchal Madeira.

The 18-year-old has already had considerable success as an English schoolboy international by scoring twice in three international appearances last season. Fabio also played for the college, Greater Manchester County team where he was a top goal scorer.

Loreto student Leyla Sudbury is celebrating as she has secured an offer to read Engineering at Queen’s College, Cambridge. Leyla studied A levels in Chemistry, Maths, Further Maths and Physics at Loreto and achieved A* grades in them all.

Congratulations to the students and staff of Loreto College: they have once again produced outstanding results in the advanced level examinations this summer.

This follows on a remarkable year when the college has been highly ranked in terms of student progression to higher education. The Government funded Sutton Trust has published for the first time in 2011 research focusing on students’ progression rates to the Russell Group universities. This data notes Loreto College, Manchester sends more students to university and more of those go to the Russell Group, including Oxford and Cambridge, than other  state post-16 providers in the city.

While many students are finishing off their exams and contemplating their summer holidays members of Loreto Debate Club are still hotly contesting the big issues of the day.

Loreto’s Pathways department has won high praise from The National Autistic Society for the innovative and valuable work they do to help students on the autistic spectrum

Over 80 students from all over the college enjoyed an entertaining and enthusiastic presentation by Rotary Ambassadorial scholar Ryan Zoradi. Ryan, from California, is studying for a Masters degree at Manchester University on a scholarship which is supported by the Rotary Club.

Students and staff alike have been whipped up into a frenzy of baking today as a charity cake sale kicks off this week’s fundraising events for Comic Relief.

High flying students aiming for a career in medicine took tips from the experts at a special conference at Christie Hospital.

Byline: Sinead Doherty: Loreto Journalism Club

The Fairtrade Foundation has granted an award to recognise Loreto College's enthusiastic, energetic commitment towards helping Fairtrade.

A new state-of-the-art testing lab is helping Loreto’s Sports students to maximise their grades and could help create the elite athletes of the future. 

Loreto wishes all its Students, Parents and Staff a happy, healthy and successful 2011. Loreto College is open as normal and all lessons are restarting today 4^th January 2011. Students and staff have arrived back this morning to a beautiful snow covered campus.

Cheerful students have been helping Asda shoppers to pack their bags to ensure children around the world have access to the clean water they need.

The Loreto students and staff raised over £600 for the charity Water for Kids which provides safe water, sanitation and health education for children and communities in developing countries.

Theology students have been thinking big with an essay competition challenging the existence of God.

The AS students had to tackle the question: ‘There are no convincing reasons to believe in God.’ Discuss. Head of Theology Mr Vaughan said the competition was set up as the question of God’s existence is such a major theme in the AS Theology course.

Loreto students will soon be ready for take-off after the college landed it’s very own plane.

The college has invested more than £5,000 in the specialised plane cabin which is totally realistic and has all the equipment usually found on-board an aircraft

A Loreto athlete is celebrating success after winning a gold medal at the International Catholic Youth Games in France.

Josh McHugh,who is in the A2 year at Loreto College, travelled to Tours in France to take part in the international competition organised by FISEC.

In 2009 Josh came away from the Portugal games with a silver medal in the relay race, this year he went one better and won gold in the 800 metres.

Loreto’s high-flyers are gearing up to start their university careers at Oxford and Cambridge while hundreds of others are heading to the country’s best institutions.

After an excellent performance in their A levels Loreto’s leavers are heading off to the next stage in their lives.

Loreto Sixth Form College has once again produced outstanding results. Both staff and students are delighted by the excellent pass rates, the very impressive “high grades” profile and the continuing high rates of student progression to universities. The college’s vocational results continue to be deeply impressive as are the AS pass rate and individual course performance at that level.

Loreto College is launching a new logo to reflect its academic heritage at a time of innovation and growth.

“We have gone through a period of transition as in the last six years most of the college has been rebuilt,” said Assistant Principal Ms Pritchard.

Deserving Loreto students have been awarded bursaries of £1000 each to help them meet the cost of their University studies, thanks to the generosity of The Dick Camplin Educational Trust, which was established by David Camplin in memory of his father. 

The Dick Camplin Education Trust presents these bursaries to students as they progress from Loreto College to university. 

An extravaganza of art and design will give the people of Manchester the first opportunity to see Loreto College’s new £20 million building.

More than 1000 people have been invited to the exhibition on Thursday (24th June) which will showcase the college’s thriving work in the arts.

Guests will also get the chance to see the new Ellis and Kennedy building which is the greenest and most energy efficient in Manchester.

A keen historian has won a prestigious essay writing award for his insights into Barack Obama and the American dream.

Jonathan Paito, who is studying AS history at Loreto College, came first in the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) Schools' Essay Prize. As well as a certificate to mark the achievement Jonathan was also given £250 by the BAAS which promotes the study of the US in schools, colleges and universities.

Like the rest of the country students at Loreto are gearing up for the election day - but with a difference.

Nationally there is a massive power struggle between Labour and the Conservatives but for the Loreto college mock election there is no candidate standing for either party…

Loreto Chorlton was relaunched in September 2007 and was incorporated into the Loreto family of schools.

Loreto college student, Suzanne Duffy, has won first prize at the Catenian Public Speaking competition. Suzanne has written her own account of preparing for the competition below:

"When I was first told about the Catenian Public Speaking Competition I decided that I had nothing to lose by entering. I had competed in similar contests at high school, and the lure of £100 prize money eclipsed any reservations I had about travelling to Stockport on a Sunday. From the list of topics I chose ‘modern technology is killing the art of conversation.’

Staff and students at Loreto Sixth Form College are celebrating a double win at the Association of Colleges Award Ceremony. Loreto had been awarded the new and prestigious Beacon Award from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for the Successful Delivery of Advanced Level Qualifications. The Award recognises Loreto's outstanding delivery of Advanced Level qualifications to 16-19 year olds. The Awards celebrate 16 years of outstanding teaching and learning in further education Colleges.

Through advice, sustained support and careful monitoring of their progress, Loreto Sixth Form College has helped students to achieve higher grades than the national average in their A-levels. These results have placed the College at the top of the Government league table for value-added. It also noted that 85% of Loreto students go on to higher education.

Loreto College swept the boards with Ofsted inspectors after being declared outstanding in all areas - a feat no other sixth form has achieved.