ST. JOSEPH’S ACADEMY Weekly Newsletter

Ben Davis, Acting Headteacher

Grassyards RdKilmarnock KA3 7SL

01563 526144

www.saintjosephsacademy.co.ukTwitter: @StJoAcad

ISSUE 16.3

FEBRUARY 26TH2015

FOR PARENTS, CARERS, FAMILIES & PARISHES

INSPIRE AND TRANSFORM:

NURTURING FAITH-FILLED WORLD CLASS LEARNING

Ash Wednesday: Fr. Chambers commissions four Caritas

pupils as Eucharistic Ministers

St Joseph's HWB @StJosephsHWB · Feb 23Great effort from our S3/4 Basketball Festival Team who unfortunately lost yesterday's EA final #onwards&upwards

S2 Spanish Projects

Pupils in S2 have been working incredibly hard to produce

exceptional projects that demonstrate their learning about

Spanish language and culture. The range of creative

approaches is fascinating and the diversity of the projects is

very exciting. There are far too many to feature here so we

have presented a selection of wonderful work.

Engaged

Learners

Ambitious

Learning

Scarfed for Life: pupils from St. Joseph’s and James

Hamiton Academy came together for a series of

workshops and performances about sectarianism.

The focus for thesewas a play called Scarfed for

Life devised the Citizen’s Theatre in collaboration

Our East Ayrshire Interaction Project Design team pictured at the final of the competition with their designs. Six S3 pupils

participated in the project to design a space for the new Ayrshire College building. Also pictured is the special guest at the event

comedian, actor and writer Hardeep Singh Kohli.

with pupils from eleven Glasgow secondary schools. Led by New Farm Loch Community

council and bringing together the parishes of St. Matthew’s and St. Kentigern’s, the anti-

sectarian project has been a powerful look at the attitudes that shape us. Pupils have

contributed to discussion and debate and, on Monday night, helped to host an workshop

for the local community in the school. Pictured left are four of the caterers for the

event, all S6 pupils from the Personal Development class and pictured above are the

pupils from the two schools collaborating at the workshops that took place over the

last week. Our thanks especially go to John Houston of New Farm Loch Community

council who has co-ordinated the event.

S1 Art Displays

These four displays are the work of

dozens of S1 pupils who have studied

the work of a particular artist and

the applied their knowledge to the

creation of a face in the style of that

artist. The artists are (clockwise

from top left): Friedensreich

Hunderstwasser, Roy Lichtenstein,

Vincent Van Gogh and Chuck Close.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK 2015

LEARNING COMMUNITY MASS

Last week we welcomed pupils from across our Learning

Community to a special Mass and lunch to celebrate

Catholic Education Week. The Mass was led by Caritas

pupils.

Scottish Book Trust Trailers

S3 pupils were hard at work over the last few weeks creating films to promote a range of books as part of the Scottish Book Trust national competition. The trailers were filmed on the school’s iPads and edited in our new Mac-driven Music and Film Technology suite. One of the groups has been highly commended by the Book Trust judges who said:

“Although your trailer didn’t quite grab the top spot, our panel loved it, and would like to the trailer to be one of our Highly Commended entries which will feature permanently as exemplars on our website. Our Highly Commended awards are given for trailers which, in our opinion, excelled in one key aspect of trailer production. We felt that the use of camera shots and editing in your trailer was particularly strong. The opening of the trailer was made absolutely chilling by the sequence of shots jumping between Patrick and the murdered man. One of the challenges of producing a low budget trailer is the lack of recourse to complex stunts, and this editing of shots was a creative and highly effective way around that problem. Also, the use of the hand held camera gave your trailer real emotional impact: the use of close ups on Patrick was done in a way we didn’t see in any other trailers, and the POV running shots were used very well.

We really hope you continue to pursue this area of interest, as the trailer showed great promise.”

Sports News

Our S4 team were unlucky not to win the East Ayrshire Basketball Festival, losing 5 - 4 in the final on Friday 20th February at Loudoun Academy. (Scott Dipiazza, Blair Gallagher, Ryan Bailey, Ross Cameron, Aileigh Anderson, Paige Scobie, Gemma McIvor (S3), Skye Leitch (S3)

Our S1/2 Athletics team (pictured below) came 3rd in the East Ayrshire Giant Hepathalon event against all East Ayrshire Secondary Schools. The team included: Ollie Hughes, Kudzai Tapatapa, Conan Mackin, Lewis Hood, Josh Rankin, Kyle Anderson, Pavol Sedliak, May Stirling, Aimee Clint, Georgia Bryden, Eilidh New, Katia Tommie, Niamh Murray, Isla Nielson. Tuesday 24th February at Ayrshire Athletics Arena.

SCIAF 50th Anniversary Events All this week pupils have been treated to assemblies celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF). Pupils have led the assemblies and prayers each day and there has also been a focus in Home Room on the work of SCIAF. As Lent progresses we will be raising funds for SCIAF through various pupil-devised initiatives, some of which are inter-class and inter-house competitions.

Well this is a happy scene.

We’re not publishing this picture

because it’s Mary’s birthday

(which she shares with Mrs.

Shearer btw). We’re publishing it

because it showcases the

excellent dress she has create

for Higher Art and Design. teh

garment is inspired by liquorice

allsorts (Mr. Davis’s favourite

sweet) and each element of the

dress has painstakingly been

made by hand. Mary celebrated

with allsorts inspired cakes

earlier this week.

General News and Information

Badminton Competition

We are currently in the thick of the heats of a badminton competition run by S4 pupils as part of their Enterprise work.

Talent Show

A team of S6 pupils are running a whole school talent show to raise money for charity. Pupils will be taking to stage this Friday afternoon and tickets cost £1.

Kezia Dugdale Visit

The Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party visits the school this Friday to give a talk to pupils about her life and experiences so far in national politics.

Law Presentation

Pupils in S3 - S6 are invited to sign-up for a talk by four local legal experts who will share stories of their careers and talk about the opportunities in the legal professions. Further information is available from Mrs. Wilson - please encourage your child to attend.

Premiership Experience

Pupils attending the Manchester City trip on March 14th must pay their deposit by March 2nd to secure a place on the trip.

School Swap Shop

Did you know that UK households send £140 million worth of clothing to land fills every year! Do your bit for the environment, and donate your unwanted clothes, toys, games, make-up etc, to St Joseph’s Big Swap Shopon

March 27th. All donated items should be handed in to the library by Monday, March 23rd.

World Book Day Tea Party

Our now legendary annual tea party, masterminded by Librarian Mrs. Kirkwood takes place on March 6th. Home-baking is strongly encouraged as is the wearing of costumes. The theme this year is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Modern Apprenticeship Opportunity

Ident Training is recruiting on behalf of a Kilmarnock based dental practice for a Modern Apprentice Dental Nurse. This is a full time position and the duration of the Modern Apprenticeship is between 12 -15 months. Entry requirements - Standard Grade to Credit level or National 5 in 3 subjects including English and one science subject. Trainee should be in place by the end of March 2015. Leave will be given for examinations. More information from Pupil Support.

Music Performance Exams

National 5 and Higher Final SQA Performance Exams will

take place on Friday 13th March and Monday 16th March.

English Department Twitter

Follow our wonderful English Department on Twitter at

@StJoAcadEng

Uniform Monitoring Week

Next week is uniform monitoring week with letters going home to every pupil commenting on their standard of dress and presentation.

WEEKLY HOME ROOM REFLECTION: SCIAF at 50 This year SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund) turns 50 and we are celebrating its world-changing work this week with different examples of the impact it has had. It’s estimated that women make up two thirds of the 1.4 billion people currently living in extreme poverty. Half of the world’s food is produced by small-scale farmers. Around 80% of these are women – but most help for small-scale farmers goes to men. The Bible teaches us to treat men and women as equals. “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. (Galatians 3:28) “God created man in His own image… male and female” (Genesis 1:27, 5:1-2). Both of them are in the likeness of God. Across Africa, SCIAF is working with local Church partners to help poor farmers by: giving them seeds, tools and training to a greater variety of crops; helping them adapt to the devastating impacts of climate change; giving them animals, like goats, chickens and pigs, and training in how to look after them; helping communities dig ponds and reservoirs, build water pumps and store precious rainwater; giving them loans so they can set up small businesses selling the food they grow.

Let us pray: Dear God, we thank you for the work SCIAF is doing to help women farmers in Africa. We pray that their voices will be heard in their communities and that those in need will be looked after. Help us to treat everyone in our own lives with the respect that they deserve. 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...................................................................

March 2nd Parent Council

7 pm

March 6th S1 and S2 Home Room

reflection sheets issued home

Week beginning March 9th: Year Group

assemblies

March 18th Vigil Mass for the Feast of St.

Joseph, 7 pm

March 19th Feast of St. Joseph

Pupil Leadership In Action

The S3 pupils pictured here have shown themselves to be outstanding leaders in recent

weeks. The top left picture is of our newest venture in the RE Department, an SSVP

(Society of St. Vincent de Paul) group. The group have been formed by S3 pupils who will,

in June, head off for a retreat with other young SSVP groups. Also pictured on the right

are two S3 pupils who led their year group’s SCIAF assembly. Finally, on the left are

Jordan and Jamie who have led a fundraising campaign for Cancer Research in their Home

Room that has raised over £130 so far. All really impressive examples of our young

people taking charge over things that really make a difference.