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This week: Caritas Awards, Sports Day, the iPad launch and so much more from the best school in the world, located in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
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ST. JOSEPH’S ACADEMY Weekly Newsletter
Ben Davis, Acting Headteacher
Grassyards RdKilmarnock KA3 7SL
01563 526144
www.saintjosephsacademy.co.ukTwitter: @StJoAcad
ISSUE 23.3
JUNE 5TH2015
FOR PARENTS, CARERS, FAMILIES & PARISHES
INSPIRE AND TRANSFORM:
NURTURING FAITH-FILLED WORLD CLASS LEARNING
St. Joseph’s at the Caritas Awards in Glasgow
Miss Woodward and S6 pupils
raising money with a bake sale
this week.
CARITAS AWARDS IN GLASGOW
Over the past three years a highlight in the calendar for every
Catholic secondary school in Scotland has been the Caritas
Award Ceremony. This year the event took place at the Clyde
Auditorium in Glasgow with over 1000 young people from
across the country receiving an award from the Bishops’
Conference. The Caritas Award, which is also recognised by
the SQA, honours young people’s faith and service to their
school, parish and local community. This year we had 28 S6
pupils receiving the award. They were accompanied by proud
parents and family members and looked resplendent in their
uniforms as you can see from the front cover photograph. St.
Joseph’s also stole the show as one of two schools who
contributed music to the event. The Vocal Group performed a
beautiful version of Seasons of Love, complete with harmonies.
The senior instrumental group performed two pieces: Stevie
Wonder’s ‘I Wish’ and a Celtic rock arrangement of Coldplay’s
‘Fix You’ which brought the house down. You can hear all
these performances on our school Soundcloud: https://
soundcloud.com/stjoacadarts/sets/caritas-awards-2015
P7 Induction Programme
It is always a pleasure to see the young people from schools across
our Learning Community and other non-associated primary schools
when they join us for their induction days. These days represent the
culmination of a whole year of activities and have been carefully
planned and led by Mrs. Shearer, DHT. This year was no exception.
Over the two days the pupils enjoyed time in classes, got to know
their teachers better and were able to participate in Sports Day. Also,
they were led in mental health and wellbeing workshops by a team of
S5 pupils exploring ideas such as ‘what is happiness?’ and ‘how can I
help someone if they are sad?’. On Thursday evening they attended a
Mass, said by Father Chambers, and a Parents’ Information Evening at
which they shared their experiences and parents and carers were able
to meet with Pupil Support staff.
Senior Induction Day
S5 and S6 pupils returned in huge numbers on Friday to resume
courses and start new ones. They were led through a day long
induction programme that reviewed their options, provided them with a
new timetable and explored what they could expect from the school
over the next year. In addition, S6 had a special focus on servant
leadership and using their skills to contribute to the school community
through various activities.
SHAPING OUR GLOBAL FUTURES CONFERENCE
We were delighted to welcome author Derek Brown to the
school last week. Accompanied by Carol Craig from the Centre
for Confidence and Wellbeing, Derek was launching his new
book Shaping Our Global Future: A Guide for Young People.
We hosted about 50 senior pupils from schools across East
and South Ayrshire all of whom were engaged by Derek in
examining the global wonders and challenges of human
development. In this session he focussed especially on
Telecommunications with pupils learning about the impact of
new technologies and planning a campaign to address these.
FURTHER NEW APPOINTMENTS
In addition to the appointments we made two weeks ago we
have also brought more new staff into the school in the last
week, all of whom will be starting in August along with Mr.
Cardle, the new Headteacher. Mr. Davis leaves on June 26th
to take up his post at St. Ambrose Barlow RC High School.
This week we appointed Miss Lauren McCullagh, currently at
Williamwood High School, to Principal Teacher of Science and
Mr Neil Henderson (from James Hamilton Academy) to
Principal Teacher of IDL, Technologies and Enterprise.
STOP PRESS: St. Joseph’s Launches iPads
Friday afternoon saw us launch our new iPad initiative that will
see every pupil in the school issued with a device for personal
use in the new session. The special guest for the launch was
our very own Bishop Nolan of Galloway, pictured below getting
a lesson in mobile technology from S1 pupils. He was
accompanied by Allan Brown and Corri Wilson (both new
MSPs) and Fiona Lees and Alex McPhee. More next week!
Another busy week
Above left: S2
English pupils
completing their
presentations; above
right: pupils from
across East
Ayrshire with author
Derek Brown
examining future
global challenges and
opportunities; Middle
and bottom:the S5
Talk About It pupils
leading workshops
for P7 on promoting
positive mental health
and wellbeing.
Talking About Learning
Seven staff from St.
Joseph’s were among 30
teachers from across
Scotland presenting at the
Talking About Learning
conference in Livingston last
week. Mrs McIntosh, MIss
Horrey, Mr Whyte, Mrs
Fulton, Miss Ramsey, , Mrs.
Lindsay and Miss Woodward
all led discussions,
accompanied by S3 pupil
Sandra Wicik who talked
about her IDL project. You
can see some of them in
action here. The event was
organised by BOCSH/ SCEL
for teachers.
S3 Parkour Boys to speak at Learning Festival
The pupils who have been part of the Parkour project are
pictured above as part of the publicity for the Scottish
Learning Festival, 2015, at which they will be appearing.
East Ayrshire Athletics Championship
Look how many pupils took part in the EA
championships. Excellent performances and participation
all round.
East Ayrshire Relay Winner
Pictured above is Kudzai Tapatapa storming along the
track to honours in the S2 Relay competition. The full
team is pictured below.
Sports Day Winners
Pictured here are the
winners from the recent
Sports Day event. From
top left to right from top
clockwise they are: Caitlin
Kelly, Eilidh New and Laura
Jedrusiak (S1); Connor
Shaw, Kyle Anderson and
Oscar Jessop (S1); Aimee
Walker, Keira Raymond and
Skye Leitch (S3); Petra
Kurcikcova, Beth Samson
and Hildah Mtwali (S2);
Jordan Padilla, Sarin
Campbell and Michael
Murray (S3). Also
participating, but not
pictured, were teams from
the new S1 as part of their
induction days.
WEEKLY HOME ROOM REFLECTION: Day for Life
'Day for Life', which took place on Sunday, May 31st, is the day in the Church’s year dedicated to celebrating and upholding the dignity of human life. The Church teaches that life should be protected and nurtured from conception to natural death. There have been remarkable medical and technological advances so that the chronically ill can receive life-saving treatments. We can be truly thankful for such advances. And yet at some time or other we will all die. These same advances have led to more complex decision making about appropriate treatment. At the end of life, there are two thoughts which can help guide us all.
No matter how hard it may be sometimes, it is important that we try our best love life. Every person is loved by God and every life is a precious gift never to be destroyed or neglected. It is also important that we accept that everyone will die. It is important too to remember that all lives are worth living, regardless of the challenges people may face – great disability, hardship or illness does not remove a person’s right to life and they should not be made to feel that they are a burden on those around them. We all need to prepare to face life-threatening crises.
Perhaps we should ask ourselves what we would do if we knew we only had one hour left to live. Who would we speak to? What would we try to put right? What would our priorities be? Thinking like this does not need to be morbid – it can help us to better appreciate the precious gift of life that we have and all too often take for granted. Life itself is a gift from God, and we must treat it with the greatest respect.
Let us pray: O God all life is in your hands help us to cherish this so that all people live and die in dignity and love. Amen.
PARISH MASS TIMES St. Matthew’s: 9.30 am, Fr. Chambers St. Joseph’s: 6.00 pm (vigil), 11.00 am Fr. Latham St. Francis Xavier, Patna: 5.00 pm (vigil)St. John the Evangelist: 10.45 am, Fr. McGrattan Our Lady of Mount Carmel: 9.30 am, Fr. McGhee St. Michael’s: 4.30 pm (vigil)St. Paul’s: 11.30 am, Fr. Chambers Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Patrick: 6.00 pm (vigil), Fr. McGrattanSt. Sophia’s: 6.00 pm (vigil) Fr. Chambers St. Thomas the Apostle: 9.00 am, Fr. McGrattan
IMPORTANT DATES…………………………………………………
June 8th Parent Council 7 pm
June 8th S6 Leavers’ Day event & Mass
June 10th St. Columba’s Day: House Mass
June 15th Sir Tom Hunter Enterprise competition
June 16th S3 Diploma of Achievement Evening
June 18th S1 & S2 Awards Ceremonies
Jun 18th Senior Prom, Marr Hall
St. Joseph’s wows the Caritas Awards
The vocal group from the school provided a musical
interlude during the prestigious event last week.