Events at St Illtyd’s reflect the Lasallian Values
The many events and initiatives taking place in St Illtyd’s Catholic High School illustrate how the Lasallian Values are being nurtured in the school, and these include, charity work, looking after the environment and helping out in the community.
ECO CLUB UPDATE
Eco Club achieve the Eco-Schools Bronze and Silver Awards
Eco Club has fantastic news to share- at the end of the Spring term as we achieved the Bronze Award of the Eco Schools programme and we are finishing the Summer term by achieving the Silver Award! This is all thanks to the hard work of our loyal and committed Eco Club members, some of whom have been members for three years! Our focus next year is to work towards our Eco Schools Green Flag Award.
St Illtyd’s Eco Code
As part of our work towards achieving the Silver Award, Eco Club members worked together to create an Eco Code - a summary of everything we are trying to achieve at St Illtyd’s.
Eco Club Visit to Wates
In May, Eco Club members had the opportunity to visit Wates housing development next door to our school - Aspen Grove - to learn about the different environmental initiatives that have been incorporated into the building of the new houses.
All the new houses have solar panels on their roofs so solar energy can be harvested from the sun and converted into electricity. This electricity is then stored in a battery within the house for the household to use. In addition, heat (for hot water and central heating) is generated via a ground source heat pump connected to deep underground boreholes.
What this means is that the carbon footprint of a new-build house in Aspen Grove is vastly lower than a typical secondhand home and a household’s energy bills are only around £90 per month!
Eco Club members enjoyed learning about how the houses were built and enjoyed looking around one of the show homes. Everything that members learnt tied in with our Eco Schools topics of energy, water, and waste minimisation.
We would like to thank Nicole Barnes, Social Value Manager at Wates, for looking after us on our visit.
Community Litter Pick with Wates and Nanny Biscuit
As part of our continuing work on litter, Eco Club members took part in a community litter pick with our business partners - Wates, and the charity Nanny Biscuit. It was a very unusual litter pick in that a dragon came along to join us! Pupils collected litter in the gulley area between the school and the new Wates housing development. Pupils collected 11 bags of litter and had lots of fun at the same time! As part of our collaboration with Nanny Biscuit, Eco Club members also spent time writing letters which will be shared with residents of nursing homes in North Wales as part of an inter-generational project. Our photo shows some of these letters.
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator and Eco Club Lead
Spirituality Page
Spring Term Round-Up
We started our Spring term off with a collaboration with the St Vincent De Paul Centre and our Year 10 Youth Action Group. Together they came up with the idea of an Easter Hamper fundraiser raising money for vulnerable families across Cardiff during school holidays. Stacy and Janine from the centre very kindly donated everything that was needed to make a hamper full of Easter treats. Thanks to the dedication of our Year 10 group and the generosity of pupils and staff we managed to raise £93 for SVP, Ely Bridge.
Our Year 7 pupils have been incredibly busy this term fundraising and working with our Catholic feeder primary schools. St Albans RC Primary School was the first to visit us in our School Chapel, taking part in a Collective Worship for Lent. Year 7 worked brilliantly with the primary pupils to help them create mosaic crosses that they could then take home with them.
Our next primary school activity would see members of our Year 7 YAG (Youth Action Group) host St John Lloyd Mini Vinnies in the first collaborative SVP conference. The session saw both schools brainstorming ideas on how they could work together for the rest of the school year, and it was decided that we as a conference would focus on collective worship and fundraising for Guide Dogs Cymru.
While members of our Year 7 YAG were working with our Catholic primary schools, other members took part in their very own collective worship. Two groups from Year 7, the Guardian Angels and the Glorious Halos, were tasked to lead their own collective worship by taking on the responsibility of reading the scripture, Gospel and responsorial psalm. After reading brilliantly they then had the mission to make a dwelling reflecting on the time Peter had offered dwellings to Jesus, Moses and Elijah when they had appeared to him in the mountain. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the activity.
March saw the launch of CAFOD’s Big Walk for Lent to help fight global poverty which coincided with its ongoing appeal for the Turkey-Syria Crisis. Both our Year 7 and Year 10 YAG wanted to do everything they could to help with both appeals and set to work to spread the word and raise as much money as possible.
Year 10 took on the responsibility for the Hunger Lunch, they worked closely with Food Tech to make a beautiful homemade soup which they prepared both in and outside of lesson time. It was wonderful to see both staff and pupils get involved to raise awareness and money with soup sales. As Year 10s focus was on the Hunger Lunch it enabled the many members of our Year 7 group to put their effort into The Big Walk for Lent. Schools across England and Wales are challenged to walk 200km over 40 days and raise £200 for CAFOD, and thanks to members of our Year 7 YAG who walked during their meetings and the hard work of our PE department it meant as a school we walked well over 400km and raised £357 for CAFOD! A huge thank you to St Cadoc’s Parish who sponsored our pupils on their walk.
Month of Mary
We were very lucky to be able to honour Mary in May with collective worships with both St Albans and St John Lloyd. St Albans very kindly invited members of our Year 7 YAG down to their school to take part in their May Procession, with two of our pupils leading the procession around the playground while carrying the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The pupils read brilliantly during the service and thoroughly enjoyed making the flowers with Foundation Phase which were used to adorn Mary.
St John Lloyd visited our School Chapel bringing with them everything needed to carry out a fantastic collective worship. Their devotion to Mary was beautiful and it was lovely for their pupils to lead the collective worship with readings, reflection and wonderful music.
Who let the dogs out?
Year 7 dedicated their time to raising money and awareness for Guide Dogs Cymru, which was also the Lord Mayor of Cardiff’s Charity of the year. Year 7 were very lucky to receive two visits from Guide Dogs Cymru, the first being an assembly to raise awareness thanks to Jane and her dog Ruby and the second was a visit from Sian and her dog Jason alongside The Honourable Lord Mayor and Mayoress of Cardiff, Graham and Anne Hinchey. The Lord Mayor of Cardiff visited our school to meet all our Youth Action Group members who took the lead with fundraising for the charity alongside St John Lloyd, St Peters and St Albans Primary Schools. It was a fantastic opportunity to host the event at St Illtyd’s and bring everyone together as a cluster to raise awareness and money for such a great cause.
Thanks to the hard work of Year 7 and the generosity of staff and pupils, St Illtyd’s was recognised and invited by the Lord Mayor to attend a celebration of thanks at Mansion House.
Celebrating Pentecost
St Alban’s Church and Primary School kindly invited us to attend a Cluster Mass to celebrate the Holy Spirit. St Alban’s organised a lovely activity after Mass, dedicated to Pentecost, where the pupils designed flames out of icing and placed them on to biscuits.
While one team dedicated their time to working with our primary schools, the other group of Year 7 pupils headed over to Mary Immaculate High School to help lead a collective worship exploring the Power of Pentecost. Our pupils led the worship with scripture and prayer along with Year 8 pupils from Mary Immaculate, followed by a moment of reflection and activity. The pupils were split into smaller groups and tasked to read through various newspapers to explore the power of voice and how it was used in the media. After they had analysed articles in their groups, they then had to display their discoveries on their boards and explain what they thought the person writing was trying to achieve and if they were using their voice for good or not.
Refugee Week
19th June marked the start of Refugee Week, and as part of the collective worship during form time pupils across the school explored what it meant to be a refugee and the challenges they face in their day to day lives. The theme of Refugee Week this year was compassion: “Where we look to show compassion to not just those in our immediate circle but to all our human neighbours and our one shared home, planet Earth.”
During Art, Miss Cosslett’s class created reflective tonal eyes; they developed emotive pupils which illustrated their interpretation of how it feels to flee your home. Year 9 pupils explored multiculturalism in English and discussed their own sense of identity. They learnt about Alem, the main character in “Refugee Boy,” and his experiences of having to move to another country to be safe. Year 7 took part in a CAFOD workshop in their RE lessons which simulated the journey of a refugee family in their search for safety. It was a thought-provoking activity that truly highlighted the compassion and empathy of our students.
St David’s Cathedral
Five of our Year 9 pupils had the honour of representing our school at The Solemn Mass with the Imposition of the Pallium in St David’s Metropolitan Cathedral in June. Pupils were invited not only to attend the Mass but also take part in welcoming attendees. His Excellency Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia presented the vestment to Archbishop Mark O’Toole in a memorable and celebratory service. It was wonderful for our pupils to witness such a prestigious event and to see so many clergy and schools in attendance from all over the diocese.
Our Head Boy, Head Girl and two Prefects had the privilege of attending the Year 6 Leavers Mass at St David’s Cathedral. It was a great opportunity for our pupils to see the Archbishop again and to see all the excited faces of our soon to be Year 7 pupils.
Victoria Wonnacott, School Chaplain
Transition at St Illtyd’s
During June, all pupils who are due to start with us in September came up to St Illtyd’s for enrichment days. The day gave them the opportunity to have a tour of the school, learn about the school day and to meet their new Head of Year, Mrs Hobbs, and their Assistant Head of Year, Mrs Shanahan. These enrichment days were followed by a transition day on Wednesday 5th July in which pupils followed a typical school day with a timetable of different lessons.
We hope that these days have given pupils a great insight into life at St Illtyd’s and that any nerves have been minimised. We look forward to welcoming all our new Year 7 pupils to St Illtyd’s on their first day on Wednesday 6th September.
Paul Moriarty, Deputy Headteacher
