St Joseph's Academy – East Ayrshire

With support from local councillor Jim McMahon and Mrs Burnett, S3 and S6 students from our school’s Mentors for Violence Prevention (MVP) group helped launch the 16 days of action campaign for White Ribbon Scotland.

The White Ribbon campaign encourages people across Scotland and the UK to speak out against domestic violence and abuse towards women.

As part of the school’s 16 days of action, MVP mentors are delivering input to all year groups. Our pupil mentors are encouraging peers and staff to sign the White Ribbon pledge and highlight local supports that can be accessed by victims of domestic violence.

Parents and carers can find our more about White Ribbon UK and sign the pledge here:

https://www.whiteribbonscotland.org.uk/make-your-pledge/

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Christmas Specials will be available via pre-order from Monday 7th December until Friday 18th December.

The menu is as follows. Please note all options listed include a drink and Christmas cupcake or biscuit.

Turkey fillet burger

Turkey fillet served in a toasted bun with crisp lettuce & tomato, topped with bacon, mozzarella & cranberry (option to remove toppings) served with wedges or onion rings (5)

Festive Nachos

Crispy corn Nachos topped with Shredded turkey, crispy lardons of bacon & melted mozzarella.

Served with a cranberry or mayonnaise dip. (Option to remove toppings & choose dip)

Festive selection box choose 3 items from + dip (salad included)

Sausage roll or Vegetarian sausage roll or Chicken Goujons (2of each)

+

Pigs in blankets or Mozzarella sticks (4 each)

+

Potato wedges or Onion rings (5)

• Cranberry dip or mayo / ketchup / brown sauce

Festive salad box

Crisp mixed salad box + choose 3 items + mayo or salad dressing

Sliced turkey

Sliced ham

Assorted cheeses (3)

Grapes

Pickled onions

Branston pickle

Assorted Crackers

Cranberry

Catholic Education Week is a significant milestone in our annual calendar. Celebrated between the feast days of St. Margaret and St. Andrew, we take time to reflect on our mission as a Catholic school. This year, our celebrations were somewhat different. As would always be the case, class groups have been praying for our deceased friends and relatives throughout November. Our Caritas group have launched our Christmas Hamper appeal and we have started to plan ahead for the visit of the NET ministry team in February. When the NET team join us we will launch a broad consultation on our vision, values and aims. Our faith will remain the most central theme of our vision, values and aims.

Pictured below are Mr Sikora and Fr. Martin with representatives of our Pupil Leadership Teams. Mass was celebrated on Thursday 26th November with as many attendees as social distancing would permit. We now look forward to the beginning of Advent and the various charitable activities that will help us prepare for the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

e-Sgoil (in collaboration with Education Scotland) is offering an initial 8-week webinar programme of real-time, interactive study support for Scottish school pupils in the Senior Phase. Please note, e-Sgoil sessions are not delivered by class teachers. e-Sgoil is a national programme designed to supplement content learned in school.

To find out more and register, please visit http://www.e-sgoil.com/ . Sessions running this week are as follows:

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please see an important letter from NHS Ayrshire and Arran. All pupils and staff identified as potential close contacts were sent home earlier today. Thereafter, NHS Ayrshire and Arran will confirm detail of isolation periods with families over the course of this weekend. All families of those sent home today are in receipt of an initial letter outlining what will happen next.

If you have not heard from us, your son/daughter has not been identified as a potential close contact.

I would like to thank colleagues at East Ayrshire Council, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, our school office staff and wider staff group for their forbearance this morning. The manner in which school staff handled matters this morning was exemplary.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane

Click to access Parent-Letter-General-COVID.pdf

Letter to Parents/Carers

Click to access letter-to-parents-carers-17.11.20.pdf

Letter to Pupils

Click to access letter-to-pupils-17.11.20.pdf

Dear Pupils and Parents/Carers,

Where a young person has been advised by NHS Test and Protect to self-isolate, school staff will endeavour to upload work to Glow. However, where a young person is absent and has not been directly asked to self-isolate, it is not possible to provide work via Glow.

For obvious reasons, staff cannot simultaneously teach classes and upload content online.

At the moment, we are aware of some confusion around the above and ask that parents/carers of those pupils currently absent from school on the advice of NHS Test and Protect email us to let us know that this is the case. Many of the messages left via voicemail do not provide clarity on the reason for isolation/absence.

Our email address is:  eastjosephs.ac@eastayrshire.org.uk

We have also received some queries as to siblings or other family members having been directed to self-isolate.

Our understanding of the guidance is that pupils should still attend school if their sibling or parent/carer is self-isolating unless the pupil of our school is symptomatic, in which case they should also isolate and seek a test. If the young person has not been told to self-isolate and has no symptoms then they should attend school.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Kind Regards

Mr Kane