Living and sharing Lasallian Values in St. Illtyd’s
Students at St. Illtyd’s Catholic High School in Wales have been taking part in a wide variety of activities that illustrate how they live and share the Lasallian Values.
Spreading Joy at Advent
In December 2022, Year 7 pupils took part in two charity and community projects collaborating with the St Vincent De Paul Centre and our feeder primary schools St John Lloyd RC Primary School and St Peters Catholic Primary School.
In the first project they worked with pupils from St Peter’s Catholic Primary School and SVP leaders Stacy and Janine. They were challenged to fill 20 bags of essential items for the street homeless over the winter period. The Year 10 Youth Action Group successfully sold candy canes and raised enough money to make a sizeable contribution to the bags appeal.
St Peter’s also contributed a large number of items and both groups managed to fill the bags with 20 foil blankets, hats, and scarves for the homeless. This work showed the kindness and generosity of pupils working together as an example of Christian witness. They also wrote words of encouragement and season greetings on each Christmas card in the bags.
The second project was creating gift bags for the residents in Quarry Hall Care Home with pupils from St John Lloyd RC Primary School. Thanks to the success of the candy cane sale, they were able to purchase items to fill a gift bag for each of the 42 residents in the care home. St John Lloyd collected a fantastic selection of gifts that had been kindly donated by their pupils and families. SVP Ely Bridge donated selection boxes and the ladies of their craft group handmade Christmas ornaments for the residents.
Our Year 10 Youth Action Group was invited to Holy Family church by the SVP Centre to help pack over 100 Christmas Food Hampers for vulnerable families. Joining us at the workshop were volunteer parishioners from Holy Family, SVP volunteers, pupils from Mary Immaculate High School and Canon Maguire, who kindly led us in prayer. It was an incredibly efficient and successful day with 120 food hampers packed and quality checked by the pupils. In between packing the hampers, the pupils wrote personalised cards for the families.
Advent Collective Worship
In December pupils from St Albans Catholic Primary School came to the school Chapel to take part in collective worship with pupils from 8ZJ. Together they looked at the true meaning of Advent. They listened to readings and lit the advent wreath together. The Year 8 pupils did a fantastic job helping the younger pupils write and make a prayer chain for ‘Joy.’
Class Services
The winter term saw the beginning of class services for pupils in our School Chapel with Father Brian. The Year 7 classes were eager to join in with readings and prayers with each volunteer reading beautifully. The students grew in confidence with their readings and fully engaged with Father Brian.
That’s a lot of members
January saw the launch of the Youth Action Group for Year 7, and an amazing 56 pupils showed up for the initial meeting.
The 56 students were broken down into four groups, each group assigning a President and Vice President. The Youth Action Group (YAG) focuses on three key elements; SEE, THINK and DO, turning their concern into action.
The group will focus on our school community, the local community, global community, and our primary schools. This coming term will see us focus on working with our primary schools in collective worship, workshops, and charity work. They will be building up a relationship with the St Vincent De Paul Centre to encourage the already budding partnership the school has with them.
Animation Workshop
Members of the Year 7 Youth Action Group were invited to St Albans Catholic Primary School for an animation workshop with Screen Alliance. Sarah from Screen Alliance tasked the children with making a stop start animation using clay that embodied their school mission statement.
They chose to show the school mission statement by embodying what it is to work together in kindness, faith, and compassion. Their stories ranged from helping the homeless and those living in poverty to raising awareness of the necessity of guide dogs and the effects of bullying. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and created some fantastic animation videos which have been shared on our twitter page.
The Big Christmas Lunch
Just before Christmas, a group of our Eco Club members went to Rumney Chapel to help at the Living Room Big Christmas Lunch. The Big Christmas Lunch is a big lunch to which members of the community are invited to receive a free Christmas lunch.
Our pupils worked hard serving lunch and selling raffle tickets. Our pupils did St Illtyd’s very proud and received many compliments from attendees for their politeness and conduct. Mrs May and the pupils then sat down to enjoy a Christmas lunch of their own.
Then it was all hands on deck again to clear tables and serve teas and coffees. Our pupils did a fantastic job. A huge well done to all pupils involved!
We would like to thank Mike Thomas for inviting us to be a part of this event. We would also like to thank Anthony and Chloe Hall for cooking and organising the whole event.
Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator
Rewards Christmas Lunch 2022
It was wonderful to be able to put on our Rewards Christmas Lunch again this year after a two-year absence due to Covid. Pupils from across all year groups were selected based on excellent attendance and behaviour, and each pupil was able to invite a guest to the lunch.
The hall was transformed into a huge festive dining room and a wonderful lunch was enjoyed by all. We want to say a big thank you to Kerry and all the kitchen staff for cooking a delicious lunch and a big thank you to all the amazing St Illtyd’s staff and prefects for setting up the hall, serving lunch and clearing up.
