St. Joseph's Academy Weekly Newsletter Issue 23.3

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.