Enriching visit to Kintbury for St Illtyd’s students

Students from St Illtyd’s had the honour of attending the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of St Cassian’s, Kintbury, and it proved to be a very enriching experience for all. Three students reflected on a weekend of fun, learning and sharing.

Paschal, Dani, Giovanni, Oscar, Dom and I travelled with Mr Thomas and Mrs Wonnacott on a Saturday to Kintbury, the St Cassian's Centre. The visit allowed us to access a range of activities giving us time to connect with others and learn about God.
First, we were put into small groups with other schools and created leaves out of wool which we hung up on a tree during the celebration liturgy, to remind us of our journey with the community. We then came together with the other groups, took a walk together around the fields and stopped to play a game called ‘red light green light’. After, we gathered in the marquee to sing hymns together; Paschal, Dani, Giovanni, Oscar, Dom and I gathered in the stables to plan a small presentation to present to the rest of the schools. Our Lasallian team leader then told us we could have a break, so we decided to make use of the facilities and played sports such as tennis, football and basketball.
We later sat down in the dining hall with the other schools, staff and volunteers to eat before heading back into the marquee to watch all the other schools present about their Kintbury experience through the use of songs, videos, drawings and speeches. We took to the stage and presented our speech, talking about our experience at St Cassian’s and gratitude for the friendships we made that day and the guidance enriching our faith. The trip ended with a wide range of cakes that we enjoyed on the journey home. We are thankful and feel fortunate that we were able to go to the St Cassian's Centre.
I think it is so inspiring and incredible for the people who make places like St Cassian’s possible thanks to their work and effort to make it the best retreat possible for people in our age group.
- Honey (Year 11)

The Kintbury Experience was a very interesting personal experience for me. Upon arriving at St Cassian’s, I was immediately mesmerised by the grounds and beautiful environment. We were quickly introduced to everyone and delved into a wholesome and exciting environment. The happy atmosphere, fun tasks and chance to meet new people and make new friends. I particularly enjoyed hanging the leaves we made on the Cassian tree to signify unity within our community. I would like to give special thanks to St. Cassian’s, The De La Salle Brothers, the volunteers, the De La Salle schools, and everyone involved in providing such a perfect experience. Diolch yn fawr!!!
- Dani (Year 11)

My experience in Kintbury is one to be remembered. I, as a student, knew about the De La Salle Brothers but I never realised that there was such a huge community that gathers at St. Cassian's Centre. They meet frequently in order to make friends, share experiences and opinions, learn about our faith and be welcomed at home as members of a great community. The De La Salle Brothers have been kind enough to create something so wonderful for the younger generation to experience and enjoy. I want to personally say thank you to all the members of the De La Salle community as they were so kind to welcome us as a school to their group and the volunteers that we met and talked to. Diolch yn fawr De La Salle.
– Paschal (Year 11)

Collective Worship

We were blessed to be able to hold a Teacher’s Mass for our school community again this year. It is always a pleasure to come together and celebrate Mass at the start of the year, preparing us for the journey ahead. Thank you to all those who attended the Mass and assisted throughout.

Our goal last year was to establish and maintain regular Mass and for the most part we have been successful. We are grateful to Fr Brian, Fr Alexander, Fr Sebastian and Fr Laurence who generously give their time to us where possible. Thanks to the support of our priests we have been able to hold a Year 7 Welcome Mass, St Illtyd’s Day Mass and Chapel Mass for Years 7 and 8.

As a school we had a wonderful time celebrating our Patron Saint, St Illtyd. The Feast of St Illtyd is celebrated on November 6th, and we marked the occasion by inviting pupils across the school to celebrate Mass with Fr Laurence in the Chapel. As well as Mass, pupils took part in the St Illtyd’s Day Quiz during form time and received FREE DONUTS during break time. Needless to say, the donuts were a hit!

Virtues Logo

Congratulations to the winner of the School Virtue Logo Competition, Nazneen in Year 10, for designing the logo for Active and Curious. Nazneen chose to represent active by drawing “muscles and weights to represent strength, tree for nature and to be healthy and the headphones for music for when anyone is doing something active.” For curious, “there is a brain representing to think, and a lightbulb for ideas. There is also a heart to show love, so they have a healthy brain.”

CAFOD Escape Room

Members of the YAG helped to promote as well as take part in the CAFOD: Escape Poverty Fundraiser. Tickets to the escape room were sold during break by members of the RE department and all year groups were invited. The escape room was made up of four tasks: Quiz, Memory, Puzzle and Obstacle course. Pupils needed to work together as a team to escape each room, in order to win each task which needed to be completed as quickly and correctly as possible! The goal was to raise £150 for CAFOD World Gifts in order to enable St Illtyd’s to start building a CAFOD Village and we are happy to say we achieved that goal. With the money raised we have purchased:

1. Super Soup Kitchen

2. The goat that gives

3. Emergency Shelter

4. Fantastic Fisherfolk

Chaplaincy Team

The chaplaincy team have had a busy year so far. Outside of all the work they do in their weekly meetings they have also taken part in fundraising, collaborating with our feeder primary schools, volunteering at Rumney Forum and visiting the local Cenotaph for Remembrance Day.

Pupils visited Rumney Forum to help organise their costume selection and prepare the venue for a Halloween half term event. They thoroughly enjoyed painting the window with glass paints and making the room look Spooktacular, by organising the costumes it meant that members of the community were able to obtain a full costume with ease. We look forward to coming back to help set up for Christmas.

We have a very active chaplaincy group, their enthusiasm for social action doesn’t go un-noticed. We were recently invited to an SVP Family Day in Bridgend; it is a day dedicated to gathering schools across South Wales who are part of the SVP ‘family’. We started the morning by attending a Mass in St Mary’s Church, Bridgend, which was a great opportunity to look at how their newer church differed to that of our chapel. In the church hall there was a mix of high school and primary school pupils in attendance, SVP staff and volunteers led the pupils through team activities and written tasks, celebrating the SVP community.

Some of the newer members of the Year 8 chaplaincy team visited the local Cenotaph on Remembrance Day, to lay a wreath on behalf of the school and to pay their respects to all those who have fallen due to war. It was an opportunity to pray for all those who are impacted by wars across the world, both past and current and to see all the wreaths from the local community.

The Holy Rosary

We dedicated form time across school to the devotion of the Holy Rosary during October. Pupils across the school explored what a rosary is made up of and how to pray it. One task was to draw and design their own rosaries as a form, it was wonderful to see the effort everyone made. One form went as far as to make their own classroom rosary, with each pupil decorating a bead and it looked fantastic!

We enjoyed creating rosaries so much so that we invited St Albans Primary School up to join us in making a collaborative one. Members of the Year 8 chaplaincy team worked well with the younger pupils to help them cut and create their designs and transfer them to the board so we could enjoy the result. Our pupils always enjoy working with the primary schools and look forward to future activities.

Year 7 Enrichment- All Saints Day

This November, Year 7 took part in a curriculum enrichment session in RE to celebrate All Saints Day. Year 7 learnt about what it means to be a saint and investigated some of the 'coolest' saints in Catholic canon. Learners used their investigations to create 'Top Trump' cards about their chosen saints, from the heroic St. Joan of Arc to former bandit St. Moses the Black and battled it out against their friends to see who would win the title of 'Top Saint'! An enjoyable experience for all involved, where all were able to expand their knowledge and deepen their understanding of the Catholic faith.

Year 10 Enrichment - Our Lady

Year 10 took part in a Curriculum Enrichment Activity in October based on the study of Our Lady. October is a month dedicated to Mary and pupils studied how she is a Role Model for Catholics. They looked at three events in Mary's life that show her as a role model - The Annunciation, the Wedding at Cana and the Crucifixion. Mary is seen as a role model of Faith, Discipleship and Charity. In groups the pupils discussed how they could be role models for younger students and those in the wider community and wrote their ideas down on a special sheet. To finish their experience, each pupil was given a set of rosary beads and were given the opportunity to reflect in the Chapel.

Brothers join St Illtyd’s for centenary dinner

Brothers from the District of Ireland, Great Britain and Malta were the special guests of St Illtyd’s Catholic High School for the school's centenary dinner at the Presidents lounge at the Principality stadium.

Over a hundred guests attended to celebrate this landmark in the school's history. Brothers Michael and Ben represented the De La Salle Order and were joined by Father Alexander and Father Sebastian, of the Oratory. Father Sebastian, himself an Old Illtydian, led us in prayer.

Nearly every decade was represented either through staff or pupils and it was wonderful to hear them recount their schooldays - from the time of the Brothers to the merger with Heathfield House and beyond. Mr Phil Steele was asking the questions and compèred the evening expertly. Our thanks to him.

A special mention to the 59’ers who turned up en masse and also to Michael Worthington, Josephine Affley, Ken Poole and John Manders for organising and making the night such a success. Thank you as well to all who attended. It was a great evening full of laughter with much to celebrate - here's to the next hundred!