Headteacher’s Blog 08/10/2021

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I was so happy to see students competing and supporting one another at Sports Day last week. I have always loved the way that students give their best for their house, whether they are a talented athlete or whether it is not their strength. It is also great to see and hear the students enjoying themselves and getting behind one another. Though it pains me to say it as a long-time member of St Julie’s, congratulations to Compiegne who won the overall competition at the EIS and to Cuvilly who won the Y7 competition back at school.

At the end of the week I was lucky to join other head teachers along with staff and volunteers from the St Wilfrid’s centre on the annual Bishop’s walk. We were very lucky with the weather which was much better than expected as we completed an 11 mile walk round the Hope Valley and surrounding peaks. It was particularly good to see Tim Murray who many will remember as our long-time head of Geography. Tim now volunteers with St Wilfrid’s and he led us on our walk. Thank you in advance for your support of the centre through fundraising in response to the walk. Thank you too for those who kindly contributed to the just giving page for the half marathon which my wife and I completed on the Sunday before. I particularly appreciated the shouts of support I heard on my way round.

There was a final highlight at the end of the week when I attended Sunday Mass at St Vincent’s parish where a number of our students were being confirmed. It was a real joy and privilege to be there and to see those young people making a commitment to their faith, supported by friends and family. I am sure you will join me in prayers for those young people and all members of our community who will be confirmed or take other significant steps in their faith journey this year.

I am also delighted to share that one of our Y12 students has just learned that they have been accepted onto the prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarship Programme. Arkwright Engineering Scholarships are designed to inspire students to pursue their dreams and change the world as a future leader in engineering. The Scholarships are awarded to hard-working 16 year old students through a rigorous selection process, supporting them through their A levels. Every Scholarship is sponsored. This means that support is offered in various different ways, for example, valuable hands-on work experience, support for your curriculum project and a personal mentor who can help you with aspects of your studies and career planning.

I finish by drawing your attention to a survey running to help inform decision making about local services. It will be relevant to some of our parents and students so I have included the link at the end of the page, below the upcoming events.

God Bless
Mr Davies

 

Upcoming events

Enrichment Day and last day of half term – Friday 22nd October

Start to new half term – Monday 1st November

Training Day – School closed to students Friday 12th November

6th Form Open Morning – Saturday 13th November
We are planning that this will be a ‘live’ event in school, where students in current Y11 who are considering joining our 6th form in September will have an opportunity to find out about the courses on offer and our overall 6th form programme. More details coming soon.

Y12 Parents’ Evening – Thursday 25th November

Y7 Parents’ Evenings – Tuesday 30th November
Parents evenings will again be happening via our remote system as last year. You will receive information about how to access the system nearer to the parents’ evening(s) that involve your child(ren).

 

Local Area Committee Survey

The South West Local Area Committee are running a Citizen Space survey until 31st October. The purpose is to consult with communities and members of the public as part of the ongoing work that the Local Area Committees are undertaking. The survey can be found here – https://sheffield.citizenspace.com/chief-executives/lac-community-survey/

More information about Local Area Committees can be found here, which also contains website links to the LAC webpages and the LAC contact details for the seven LACs across the city – https://sheffnews.com/news/lacs-survey-tell-us-about-your-local-area

We would really love to hear from parents of school age children and young adults who may be in education, as well as Parents and Teachers Associations. Gaining a wide range and variety of views across the SW is an integral part of our work in listening to communities and help us work towards sharing a Community Plan for the area.