The pupils have certainly made an excellent start to the academic year! Prior to them beginning the term on Wednesday 4th, staff had two days of INSET training, the first of which was shared with our cluster primary schools and this began with a liturgy focused upon the Catholic Church’s ‘Education Sunday’. In this, we asked for God’s blessing upon our work and our school community for the year ahead.
The early days of the term saw our pupils settling swiftly back into routines, and we are impressed to see their focus in lessons as well as the level of engagement in extra-curricular activities. As is now an established feature of the academic year, we held an Enrichment Fair in our Main Hall, with stalls advertising each of the dozens of clubs, teams and activities that our pupils can sign up for. These are already thriving, with good numbers attending the lunchtime and after-school optional activities. The Production Project group (our Performing Arts extra-curricular group) is larger than ever, and the choir has already begun rehearsing for the Presentation Evening in October and for the Carol Service. In this, pupils from all of our cluster primary schools will join together with our own choir to sing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah as this year’s ‘special item’. If it is even half as lovely as last year's Vivaldi Gloria, it will be very special indeed!
Another well-established feature of our academic year is, of course, our Festival of Peace, about which you can read more here. Our pupils look forward to this with great anticipation! It is always a vibrant and joyful occasion, and one which is pivotal to celebrating what we stand for as a school! With the hall once more packed with pupils representing the many different nationalities that make up our school, and stalls with beautiful displays about the cultural backgrounds and histories, our pupil guides (many of them in cultural dress) told the visitors to the exhibition very articulately about what it means to them and about how it is now a significant highlight in their year. It was genuinely heart-warming to either overhear these conversations or to have them recounted to us by the guests before they left. Those guests included representatives from the Local Authority, the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive of Qualifications Wales, the High Sheriff, the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant, Bishop Vaughan Society members and many more!
On the note of the Bishop Vaughan Society, this is the new name for the ‘Friends of Bishop Vaughan’ group established last year, re-named to avoid confusion with the Facebook group of the same name, which is for alumni to share memories and which is independent of the school. For families new to the school and interested in joining this, details can be found here. The group has already raised a considerable amount to benefit our pupils, it has donated items to families in need as well as resources for pupils, and it is in the process of organising some exciting events. Please do consider becoming involved if you have the time. Grandparents, alumni and community members are welcomed as well as parents and carers!
In addition to the lovely ‘results’ news this summer, as referenced in the August blog, it has been pleasing too to look at these in light of the local and national comparative data, which is now available to us. This further confirms that our pupils have truly excelled in terms, for example of the percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more A* and A grades, in terms of the capped points scores and many other measures. As also referenced in the last blog, the results are important to us not as statistics, but as they have the capacity to change the courses of lives and to break down barriers to a pupil’s chosen career or ‘destination.’ We know, as educators, that in doing so, those achievements by our pupils really do have a ripple effect down the generations, perhaps changing the opportunities available to their own children in the future too, so it is always a very genuine joy to see our pupils collect results which mean so much to them and their families.
We were delighted that, following his visit to this year’s Festival of Peace, the Leader of the Council, Councillor Rob Stewart, was so very complimentary of our pupils’ work in curating the exhibition and their maturity and articulate conversation when showing him around. He felt that the Festival was something that deserved the recognition of full Council and to that end he has invited pupil representatives and the choir to the next Council Chamber Meeting, where they will be invited to give a short description of the Festival and to sing items from the programme for the full Council, and he will offer an official vote of thanks to them and to the school. Our pupils were absolutely thrilled to hear of this and to receive this invitation; they look forward to attending the meeting next week!
The new Prefect Team has been appointed this month, and it was a tough choice for the interviewers involved in the selection process due to the proliferation of outstanding candidates! Our newly-appointed Head Prefects, Justine Afante and Aaron Thomas, lead an exceptional team of Deputy Head Prefects and Sixth Form Ambassadors; the full School Council appointments process will be concluded shortly, adding dozens of pupils to their team from across all year groups.
Many of those already appointed – or likely to be appointed as this process continues – have already been helping enormously with school events, these including the transition days and the Year 6 Open Evening! Both went very well indeed, thanks to committed pupil helpers acting as guides, buddies, subject ambassadors and proving generally indispensable to Mrs. Dorrell and Mr. McHugh, who organised these events. Very many thanks to each and every one of them!
So many pupils are, in fact, giving of their time and their talents to support the different aspects of school life here at Bishop Vaughan that my office is packed, to say the least, on Hot Chocolate Fridays! We may well have to de-camp to the Main Hall at this rate! Logistics aside, it is lovely to see so many young people so thoroughly engaged, enthusiastic and supportive of others. With attitudes and dispositions like this, their future is bright, as will be the lives of those with whom they connect.
Our School Chaplain, Father John, has celebrated two beautiful Welcome Masses this week. These continue into next week. The readings and the choir items – indeed all elements of the Mass were beautifully-planned and delivered, thanks to the hard work of the Faith Councillors. This month has, of course, also seen the creation of the new Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia about which you can read more here, and this too has been the focus of our prayers as a community as we embark on this new chapter as a one Diocese.
As you can see then, it has been a most positive, rewarding and energising start to this new school year! We look forward to seeing the ways in which our pupils will continue to use the opportunities, gifts and talents that they have over the course of the coming year, and – as always – we hold them, their families and all in our school community in our prayers, asking for God’s blessing on the lives and work of all in our school community in the year ahead.
Mrs Pole
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