Art & Design
In your Art and Design lessons, you will learn how to draw with more detail and how to use tonal shading. You will also learn about colour mixing, paints, chalk and oil pastels as well as learning how to draw yourself. You will study Artists and try out computer graphics.
Art and Design classrooms can be found on the Ground Floor in A101, A102 & A103.
Teachers of Art and Design include Mrs Longbone, Miss Timney and Mrs Williams.
In your computer science lessons, you will learn how to keep yourself safe online, how to program and build your own apps in addition to exploring the hardware and software components that make up a computer system. You will also learn about the history of computing, and how technology has evolved over the years.
Computer Science classrooms can be found upstairs on Second Floor in C103, C206, C301 & C302.
Teachers of computer science include Mr Redhead, Mr McGeehin, Mr Etisoy and Mr Charlton.
DT or ‘Design Technology’ involves both textiles work and woodwork. It is very much a practical subject where you get to design and make many cool things such as photo frames, trinket boxes and a soft toy. One of the first things that you are taught is the safety rules, as the workshops can be a dangerous place if you do not know how to behave appropriately. You get to learn new skills and how to use interesting tools.
DT classrooms can be found on the First Floor in rooms A201, A202 and A203.
Teachers of DT include Mr Scally, Mrs Collins and Mr Jackson.
In your English lessons, you will develop a wide range of skills from creative writing to analysing poetry, understanding non-fiction to reading novels and plays. The English department ‘takeaway homework’ is a fun system, which allows you to pick the homework tasks that you do throughout the year.
English classrooms can be found on the First Floor in rooms B202, B203, B204, B205, B206, B207, B301, and B303.
Teachers of English include Mrs Bishop, Mrs Young, Mrs Fox, Mrs Bragg, Mrs Whelan, Miss Starkie, Miss Penrice and Mrs Freestone.
In this lesson, you will learn how to bake and cook as well as develop an understanding of hygiene rules and nutrition. The best thing about Food lessons is that you can take what you make in practical lessons home and enjoy it with your family. You will be given a list of ingredients to bring with you in the next lesson and it is important that you are organised and bring in what you need, or you will not be able to participate.
Food classrooms can be found on the Ground Floor in rooms A104 & A105.
Teachers of Food include Mr Boal and Mr Scally.
French is one of the languages available for students to learn at St Benedict’s. You will learn how to read, write, speak and understand French and will cover a number of different topics including how to say basic phrases and how to tell someone about yourself.
Languages classrooms can be found on the Second Floor in rooms C309 & C308.
Teachers of Languages include Mr Arins, Mrs Hannan, Mrs Savage and Mrs Hurst.
Geography lessons will cover a wide range of topics Africa to pollution and poverty. You will learn all about the earth and the impact that humans have on it. Homework in this lesson is always varied and fun, but also helps us to revise all the information we learn throughout the year.
Geography classrooms can be found on the First Floor in rooms B105, B106 & B302.
Teachers of Geography include Mrs Lee, Mrs Dawson and Mr Hamilton.
Travel back through time in your History lessons and learn all about the Medieval period, the Tudors, Whitehaven’s past and the impact of the two World Wars. Homework set in this subject is often fun and can often involve making things.
History classrooms can be found on First Floor in rooms B107, B108 & B109.
Teachers of History include Miss Coan, Mrs Kar, Mrs Muncaster, Mrs Bridgman and Mr Irving.
In your Maths lessons, you will cover a wide range of topics from area, angles and shapes to equations, fractions and percentages. You must ensure that you bring the correct school equipment to this lesson including a scientific calculator. Scientific calculators can be purchased in school from members of the Maths department with the entry level calculator, the Aurora AX595, costing £5 and the more advanced calculator, the Casio FX83GTX, costing £10 and coming with a free geometry set and pencil case.
Maths classrooms can be found on B floor in rooms B101 to B104 and B304 to B307.
Teachers of Maths include Mrs Mulrain, Miss Tremble, Mr Bridgman, Mrs Warneford, Mrs Wainwright, Miss Hunter, Mr Humphries, Mr Sale and Mr Arins.
This lesson is made up of three different subjects; Music, Drama and Dance. You will get the opportunity to experience all three of these throughout your time here. In Music, you will learn to play the keyboard, the ukulele and work on music technology. In Drama, you will create scenes linked to WW1 and the fantasy world of Harry Potter. In addition, in Dance you will look at ‘football dance’ and even create a dance out of car parts… you have to see it to believe it!
The Theatre can be found on the Ground Floor, with the PA room next door in A302.
Teachers of Performing Arts include Mr Davies and Miss Scott.
PE lessons are taught in gender groups, so there will be two girls’ classes and two boys’ classes doing PE at any one time. You will experience a great number of different sports, some of which you may have tried before and some which you do not know much about. You will experience things such as Football, Rugby, Netball, Tennis, Badminton and Athletics, to name a few. PE lessons can take place both outside and inside. We have brilliant sports facilities and excellent changing facilities.
The Sports Hall can be found on the Ground Floor through past the Dining Hall, with further facilities outside.
Teachers of PE include Miss Powe, Mrs Woodcock, Mr Harrison, Miss Scott and Mrs Murray.
As a faith school, you will experience three lessons of RE a week. You will look deeper into the Catholic religion and develop your sense of faith. You will also learn about other religions from around the world to help develop compassion and understanding of others.
RE classrooms can be found on the Second Floor of the school near the chapel, in rooms C303, C304, C306, and C307.
Teachers of RE include Mrs Rush, Mrs Little, Mr Peck, Miss Tomkinson and Mr Leightell.
In your science lessons you will experience three different areas of science; Physics, Biology and Chemistry. You will study each of these throughout the year, which keeps it really interesting. You will learn though both theory and practical work so be prepared for some fun experiments! Understanding and following the lab rules is very important to ensure the safety of you and those around you.
Science classrooms can be found on the Second Floor, in rooms C101, C102, C104, C105, C106, C202, C203, C204, C205, and C206.
Teachers of Science include Mrs Kelso, Mrs Thomason, Dr Payne, Mr James, Mr Kerr, Mrs Kirkup, Mrs Burnup, Miss O’Fee, Mrs Ashbridge, Mr Poddington, and Mrs Webb-Shirley