Dear Parents / Carers
Own Clothes Days / Non-Uniform Days
Normally, pupils at St. Joseph’s raise tens of thousands of pounds for charity each year. Unfortunately, we have been limited in our efforts during the pandemic. However, we will be holding an own clothes day tomorrow (18th June 2021), and on Friday 2nd July 2021. We would ask that pupils make a voluntary contribution of £1. Money raised tomorrow will be used to support Nightingale House Hospice. Peter B from Year 9 will completing the Lockdown Hero 5km walk this weekend, and has already raised over £700 in sponsorship for the Hospice!!! Please support this worthy cause!
Year 7 Race for Life
Year 7 will participating in the national ‘Race for Life’ and completing a 5km walk or run here in school. The PE department have been arranging this to take place in lessons. Our collective worship last week focused on this theme. It is a tradition of Race for Life that people wear a banner whilst running, and our Year 7 will be no exception. Pupils’ will wear their banner on their PE tops. The banner says “I race for life for….” and the idea is that they decorate it, or dedicate it to someone by putting the name of a person. Lots of pupils put nanna, grandad etc…. It doesn’t have to be to be personal, they could write “….everyone going through cancer” or something similar. The more creative and colourful the better for these banners…they can go to town! The fundraising and event can clearly be emotional but it’s also a celebration of us being able to help these people or their memory by raising money for research. Please do help our Year 7 pupils generate some sponsorship for this worthy cause! The races will take place over two days, with 7 Dx, Kb and Kg on Tuesday 22nd June, and 7 Ro and Cd on Friday 25th June.
Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme
This week we launched the DofE award scheme. Year 9 pupils interested in taking part in the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh award scheme gathered in the social court at 3.30pm on Tuesday. Information about the award was shared with them and the various sections of the scheme were explained.
There was a great response to the meeting and many letters have been distributed. Currently, the number of responses from pupils wanting to start the scheme stands at nearly 80! Letters and sign-up sheets have been handed out.
The aim of the scheme is to get pupils to complete the skills, volunteering, and physical sections before February 2022, so that the expedition can go ahead later on in the year, through partnership with the Urdd. Let’s hope that we are back to normality by then!
It was really good to see and hear the pupils so enthusiastic about the awards, and hopefully there will many of them that sign up and start carrying out the necessary work to complete the different sections in the coming weeks. For more information on this, please contact Mr Lambert.
Sports Day
Currently, we are still unable to confirm whether our Sports Day is going to be able to go ahead – the guidance for secondary schools still requires us to keep our contact groups separate and safe. Nonetheless, our summer PE activities will allow some of the athletics events to take place within lessons, and within the pupil contact groups. As is the norm, we wouldn’t be able to welcome parents on to site to spectate.
Year 10 Extra-Maths
Extra online Maths started this week for targeted pupils’ in Year 10. The sessions will run remotely each week using Google classrooms and will normally be on a Tuesday from 6:00pm to 6:30pm (term time). The sessions are suitable for any pupils studying the intermediate course and will target a key topic each week along with a worked example of an exam question. The sessions are interactive and pupils are able to answer and ask questions using the chat facility. Sessions will be recorded but the best practice for learning is to attend at the right time. These sessions are free to pupils and could be the difference between making a grade C or above. The code for the sessions will be made available to all intermediate Year 11 pupils 10 minutes before the session starts via Google Classroom. Please contact Mr Donlon for more information.
GCSE Results
Our Year 11 pupils’ received their provisional GCSE results yesterday, and they have been able to come into school throughout the day today to meet with their Form Tutor to discuss them. We are incredibly proud of their achievements, especially given the increased challenge and adversity that a global pandemic added to their experiences! Providing provisional results is something that Welsh Government has chosen to do, and it hopefully plays a part in reducing the anxiety of waiting for the final results day in August. Our Year 10 pupils’ will receive their English Literature provisional result tomorrow in school.
Parents’ Evenings
We recently held our Year 10 online Parents’ Evening. Similar evenings are taking place with our other year groups, with Year 7 taking place on Monday 21st June 2021. If you are a Year 7 parent, you should have had an email and been able to register to book appointments. If you are having difficulty doing this, please contact the school for assistance. Parents of pupils in Year 8 and 9 will receive sign-up instructions by the end of next week.
Lateral Flow Testing
Many thanks to every family who have participated in Lateral Flow Testing. In the coming week we will be issuing additional boxes of tests to every child for whom we have permission. This supply should last the remaining weeks of this term, over the summer, and into the start of the new year.
End of the Academic Year
The last day of the summer term will be Friday 16thJuly.We are hoping to secure an ice cream van to come on site as we have in previous years – if you own an ice cream van or make ice cream, we would love to hear from you!!
Mr Wilkinson