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Christmas Shoe Box Appeal 

Mrs Owen Leave a comment

Christmas Shoe Box Appeal 

Parents/Guardians,  

After the success of last year, we have decided to take part in the Christmas Shoe Box Appeal again this year. We understand that creating a shoe box filled with items could work out quite expensive, so we are giving you two options. 

Option 1: If you would like to create a completed shoe box then please follow the instructions overleaf and secure the checklist to the top of the box lid.  

Option 2: Alternatively, you can donate just one or two individual items listed overleaf that can contribute to making a complete box. 

Shoeboxes will be donated via Mrs Owen’s Parish, St. Joseph’s Neath and need to be sent in by Monday 21th October. They are going to be distributed to the poorest communities in Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine amongst others.  

Also, if you have any spare, empty shoeboxes then please send them into school! 

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your support,  

Mrs Owen

Filler Ideas: Filler Ideas for Blythswood Care Shoe Box Appeal

Leaflet: https://blythswood.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Blythswood-Shoe-Box-Appeal-Leaflet-2024-1.pdf

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St Joseph’s Catholic Pupil Profile

Ms Beaumont Leave a comment

The Catholic Pupil Profile is a key instrument by which the virtues taught by the Catholic Faith are expressed in the schools of our Diocese. Based on the Jesuit Pupil Profile, they seek to help us form young people (and ourselves!) in those good ways of living by which our mind and character become ‘good’. Becoming ‘good at being human’ is a main goal of Catholic education, and our tradition helps us see that in order to achieve this we need to ‘train’ our minds, hearts, words and deeds in goodness.

Using this tool well also means we fulfil the expectations Welsh Government has for formation in the four ‘Core Purposes’ of the New Curriculum (where these apply, i.e. in our Welsh schools), as well as forming key virtues needed for fulfilling expectations of RSE in both England and Wales. The Catholic Pupil Profile is therefore a key part of ‘living and learning’ in our schools. It aims to propose a simple but challenging statement of the qualities we seek to develop in pupils in our Catholic schools.

The Catholic Pupil Profile consists of eight virtue pairs that come from the both the gospels and from the Ignatian (Jesuit) spiritual tradition. These virtues are not, of course, unique to Jesuit schools or to Catholic schools – these words come from our tradition but are fundamentally human virtues shared by all human beings. They express what it is to be a good person living a virtuous life.

At St Joseph’s, we use the Catholic Pupil Profile virtues in all areas of school life to instil positive behaviour through weekly Headteacher Awards, assembly themes, collective worship, and our pastoral behavioural system. We believe in an holistic approach to the education of our learners.

Christmas Shoebox Appeal – What a success!

Mrs Owen Leave a comment

A HUGE thank you is in order to all who contributed shoeboxes and items to our Christmas Shoebox Appeal this year!
We were thrilled to have collected 47 boxes to donate to the charity – Blytheswood Care.

The shoeboxes were safely delivered to St. Joseph’s Parish Hall in Neath where they were presented to the Blytheswood Care Charity in preparation to be distributed. Shoeboxes will be sent not only to people abroad, but to those in need around the UK.

Children will receive a special award from the SVP (Saint Vincent de Paul) Society and also from the charity Blytheswood Care.

A heartfelt thank you from myself to all for supporting this special cause.

Mrs Owen

Family Fast Day October 6th 2023

Ms Beaumont Leave a comment

Charity begins at home…

To celebrate Family Fast Day, children are invited to wear own clothes and bring in tinned food and toiletries for local Food Bank on Friday 6th October.

Family Fast Day

Family Fast Day is on Friday 6 October. 

If you would like to send in a donation you are very welcome.

Come together as a parish, so that families like Meera’s can get help from doctors and other local experts when they need it most. 

Dr Nasha’s mobile medical clinic gets life-saving help to where it’s needed most, fast – so when her team arrived in Meera’s village after it had been destroyed by flooding, she rushed to the clinic to get her children the treatment they needed.

Thank you for all your support!

Join us in praying this Harvest as we celebrate God’s gifts and seek to respond with gratitude and generosity.

Harvest prayer 2023: Seeds of hope

Generous God, we thank you
for the gifts you have given
for all people to share.
We plant seeds of hope
and nurture them as we seek
a harvest of plenty for all.

Forgive us for the times these seeds
fail to take root in our hearts.
We grieve when homes and crops
are washed away by floods,
when lives are uprooted by disaster,
or trampled by fear and greed.

Living God, you lead us
to a new way of being.
Move us to help one another
in our times of need,
to care for the earth and
to love one another,
sharing your harvest with all.

Amen.

Catherine Gorman/CAFOD

Prophetic and Intentional

Ms Beaumont Leave a comment

Our whole school assembly this week focused on Pope Francis’ call to look after our common world.

Our assembly reinforces our need to be intentional and prophetic. Pupils reflected upon how we can be good global neighbours by making right choices. We have also thought about how we can help others to make better choices.

Understanding the Virtues: Intentional & Prophetic
An intentional person is someone who lives deliberately; someone who builds up their own worldview and then tries to live by it.  To live intentionally is to march to the beat of a different drummer.The busy-ness of life can sometimes feel overwhelming.  It is no different for young people:  demands made by schoolwork and examinations, the many activities to which their parents ferry them, peer pressure and social media, and just growing up and finding their place in an increasingly complex and fractured world.  Of course there is excitement and often fulfilment in all this.  But the pressure to conform and go along with what everyone else thinks and says and does is immense.  The effect is to lose control – a feeling that this whirl of activity is not allowing me to be me.
Living intentionally is not about stepping away from the world but is rather about trying to achieve a balance where you know what is important for you and what you want to spend your time and energies doing.  Living intentionally can only happen if one is attentive to one’s experience, noticing the influences which drive us along and discerning which are good and which not so good, guided by conscience.  It means living ethically, with a set of values.Jesus Christ was a person who lived intentionally and is a model of a good human life. (CJE n.61)  His words, actions and example reflect his values.Intentional living is about the choices I make and the ethical code I live by.  But this can have a positive impact on others if I share it.Being prophetic is about being seen to do good and about speaking out for what is right.  Good news is only good news if it is announced. Being prophetic isn’t about telling the future; it is about living out God’s future for me today.However much the values of the world, the assumptions and prejudices of those around us, seem to be unassailable, Christ calls us in a different direction to a life characterized by compassion, faith, hope and, above all, love.  Trying to live in an intentional and prophetic way is what ultimately makes us human.