Budding theologians at Loreto have seen two of the world’s top scientific thinkers clash on their differing beliefs about the existence of God.

A special exhibition to remember Holocaust survivors goes on show in Loreto’s Ellis and Kennedy Building today.

Students made friends with a snake, skateboarded for the first time, mastered a circus unicycle, climbed a mountain and even went to Wales to celebrate Mary Ward Day.

Students are digging around in their wardrobes for bright pink clothes to wear on Friday for ‘Wear it Pink Day’ to support Breast Cancer Awareness.

Special scholarship awards have been given out to help Loreto students fulfil their university ambitions.

Physics students have been coming up with energy saving innovations as part of an engineering challenge at Manchester University.

After the hard work of the exam season students celebrated with a glamorous ball at one of Manchester’s top hotels.

Loreto’s showcase of artistic talent was hailed a great success as hundreds of people enjoyed a beautiful summer evening at the college.

Summer term has seen the highly successful inaugural talk for the newly established Loreto College History Society. 

The Society, created by AS students Charlotte Gleeson (ex Priestnall High School), Rosa Duffy(ex Chorlton High School) and Adam Stachniewski (ex Cheadle Hulme High School), invited Professor Peter Gatrell from the University of Manchester as its first  guest. Professor Gatrell, whose daughter is a former Loreto student, gave an enthralling talk on the Battle of Gallipoli and its meaning.  

AS Law students are celebrating winning the “Great Law Debate” at the BPP Law School in Manchester.

Last week the Loreto BTEC Performing Arts students conveyed their energy and commitment in the three groups’ performances of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedy, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. The audiences of friends, family and staff were treated to an hour-long version of this classic play of love, confusion and transformation in the new Ellis and Kennedy Theatre.

Loreto’s chemists have been using forensic techniques to identify mysterious substances in a competition to test their analytical skills.

Loreto students who will be voting for the first time in their lives have been finding out all about today’s referendum which could change the British voting system.

Loreto College has been chosen to head a scheme to help more state-educated students into Cambridge and other top universities.

Five Loreto students, Sara Kolber, Chloe Elliot, Lavin Othman, Anton Esmail-Yakas and Adam Stachnlewski , were delegates at the first Model UN conference for sixth form colleges at Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College in Birmingham earlier this month. 

The excitement is building at Loreto in the run up to Red Nose Day Tomorrow! Today saw the drama department’s contribution to Comic Relief 2011. They performed two short, dynamic performances from John Godber’s classic comedies,“ Bouncers” and “Shakers” about evenings out on the town.

Students had an opportunity to see their friends as pop stars as Ellis and Kennedy theatre today premiered an extensive array of student media work.

Students have been seeing how their studies relate to the real world with an exciting trip to Euro Disney.

The Health and Social Care students travelled to Paris to see how practices they have learnt about in the classroom are applied at the theme park.

On Saturday 29 January, the AS Music group enjoyed an evening at the Bridgewater Hall to hear the Manchester Camerata perform Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony. Students were invited to attend the concert following a project run by musicians from the Camerata earlier in the year. 

AS Music students at Loreto have recently been involved in an exciting project with musicians from Manchester Camerata. The Camerata is the chamber orchestra in residence at the Bridgewater Hall and the Royal Northern College of Music. As well as playing professionally, the musicians run a number of projects in schools across the North West to inspire creativity.

Loreto students have been learning how to communicate with people with hearing difficulties and who use sign language on a daily basis.

In the first week in December, Loreto College’s new Ellis and Kennedy Theatre hosted Cabaret, its inaugural production – the first large-scale, cross-college theatre performances in many years. The show was a sell-out over three nights, bringing together an audience of students, parents, friends and staff, who were treated to a fantastically accomplished production that highlighted the talent and enthusiasm of its cast and crew.

It’s not often that boys get encouraged to wear pink nail varnish but at Loreto it’s helped raise nearly £200 for cancer charities.

The College Charities Group ran its Pink and Blue Day to fundraise for Breast Cancer and Everyman Prostate Cancer, two very worthy causes working to help cancer sufferers around the country.

Recently all students and staff took part in Mary Ward day: a chance to try something new and different and celebrate the values of the Loreto Sisters. Each activity gave an insight into one or more of the five gospel values of freedom, justice, truth, sincerity, and joy associated with Loreto founder Mary Ward 

Loreto students have won praise and prizes for their oratory skills after taking part in the prestigious Debating Matters competition for the third year running.

Run by the Institute of Ideas the national competition encourages students to argue about controversial and important topics such medical ethics and freedom of speech.

On Wednesday the 20th October, the new Chaplaincy Area at Loreto College was officially opened by the Principal Ms. Clynch. Over seventy students and some members of staff visited the Chaplaincy during their lunch hour to enjoy complimentary food and drink and to see what the new area looks like.

Budding scientists have been undertaking real scientific research alongside top professionals in their field.

Three students from Loreto took part in this year’s Nuffield Bursary scheme to apply what they’ve learnt in the classroom to the real world.

It’s all-go for physics students at Loreto with hi-tech electronic challenges and special events to help explain big questions about the universe.

Five teams from Loreto teamed up with other Greater Manchester sixth-formers to solve various real-life problems including traffic management and managing water shortages at Manchester University.

Chemists at Loreto have been seeing how they could use their lab skills in the world of work.

Not only have they been separating and analysing the active ingredient from a pharmaceutical drug at the University of Liverpool but they have visited the world-class research labs at AstraZeneca.
 

In the chemistry master-class at Liverpool students built on the practical and theoretical skills they have learnt in AS chemistry and were introduced to new concepts relevant for their A2.
 

Students have been warming up for the next stage in their academic careers with a trip to Leeds University.

Four hundred Loreto students headed off to sample the Leeds City Centre campus in a special higher education day that will help them decide what university they want to go to and what course they should choose.
 

A stunning exhibition to show off the best of the college’s creative talent attracted more than 800 visitors from all over Manchester.
   
The exhibition of art and design was the first chance the public have had to appreciate Loreto College’s new impressive, ultra-green £20 million building.

Space may be the final frontier but students from Loreto are off to get a taste of life as an astronaut in Belgium.

Sixteen maths and physics students are off to Space Camp where as well as experiencing zero gravity they will take part in a simulated shuttle launch and be taught the skills needed to design and launch their very own rocket!

Skateboarding is helping students with learning difficulties to greater independence and a healthy lifestyle.

Sport is an important element of the Pathways to Independence Course at Loreto College. The two year course, for students aged between 16 to 21 years, promotes independence in all areas of the learner’s life in preparation for the ‘real world’.

Students are getting crafty and creative in an effort to recycle and help reduce climate change.

The Loreto Climate Change Group is working with community artist Alice Brierley to make jewellery from recycled materials and scrap. Using sustainable methods the students are also exploring traditional crafts.

A trip to a brewery meant Loreto chemistry students had the opportunity to see their subject in action.

Chemistry students from Loreto College visited the neighbouring Hyde Brewery to help in their study of the fermentation process. Fermentation is the conversion of a carbohydrate, such as sugar, into an acid or an alcohol.

Classical Civilisation students enjoyed an exciting trip to the Lowry Theatre focusing upon a Greek Tragedy.

While many of us were munching chocolate eggs Loreto students were off on an Easter trip to the Italian Alps.

During the spring term, professional theatre company Ten Ten Theatre, performed two plays to a number of upper and lower sixth R.E. groups at Loreto. The plays are written specially for teenage audiences and concern love, relationships, sex and marriage. “Chased” deals with sexual relationships and contraception and “Babies” deals with unplanned pregnancy and abortion.  The plays are very balanced, open-ended and provoke great thought and discussion. The performances took place in the Chapel and were aimed at RE groups and other subjects areas, such as Health and Social Care, Sociology and Theology and Ethics were also involved. The students found the plays interesting and thought provoking, with many contributing to the discussions afterwards. 

Geographers and would-be engineers heard the latest about wind power from well-named expert Mr Breeze.

A talented student has won first prize for her performance in a prestigious debating competition for the second time running.

Loreto held its annual Careers Fair on Monday 6^th February 2012. The Fair was mainly aimed at our Lower Sixth students to give them the chance to discover what is available in the market place, to help them make choices for the academic year ahead as well as their future careers. They certainly made very good use of the occasion, some 900 students flooding the Sports Hall at 11.45 and really taking time to talk to the various representatives. The overwhelming majority of students thought the event was very helpful.

Civil liberties barrister Gwen Henshaw (Pictured) gave more than 100 Loreto students a glimpse of life in the court room. Ms Henshaw, from Central Chambers in Manchester, was bombarded with questions from the A level students after outlining what it means to be an advocate in the criminal courts. Law teacher Mr Howells said: "We are really grateful to Gwen for providing our students with an inspirational experience."

It was a fantastic showbiz finale with students (and staff) strutting their stuff in the Loreto X Factor. Acts with enough talent to get Simon Cowell reaching for his cheque book sparkled on stage, while Loreto Drama teacher Mr. Rees kept the audience laughing as compere. A full-on blast of the blues from talented musicians, The Band, kicked off the contest, followed by beautiful singing from solo performers Chelesea and Asanda.

In November the two Lower Sixth Classical Civilisation groups attended a series of lectures in Manchester on the theme of Greek Tragedy. The four talks were from leading academics and will be of great help to the students in their summer exams. All the lectures were excellent: at the end one of the students commented that 'I'm really looking forward to reading the play Medea now'.

We have been fortunate this term to have a team of chaplains working in College. Established chaplaincy groups, such as the Justice and Peace group continue to flourish. Those involved recently launched a college-wide competition for students to design a billboard advertising the message: 'Vote: it's a privilege!' and the winning entry will go on a real life billboard in the local area.

Following an invitation from the BBC to attend the recording of the Victoria Derbyshire BBC 5 Live radio programme at the Conservative Party conference on Monday 5th October, Kate Boon and Stuart Robertson took 20 students along to the Manchester Urbis building. The morning lasted until 1.00pm and was a very fascinating experience for the students to be involved in a live audience questioning leading Conservative and shadow cabinet members on a range of policies.

Students undertaking Travel and Tourism First and National Diplomas have been experiencing tourism first hand. Their research has been greatly enhanced this term by a range of visits and preparation for Residentials. The BTEC First Travel and Tourism students got off to a flying start in the first week of term as they visited STA travel, the Visitro Information Centre and the IBIS Hotel.

Every year the History Department is given two places for students to take part in the 'Lessons From Auschwitz' project run by the Holocaust Educational Trust. This year James Franks and Natalie Saville made the day trip to Poland. The experience is a profound one for students when they visit Auschwitz and Birkenhau and see for themselves the remains of the camps and the people who passed through the gates.