ST. JOSEPH’S ACADEMY Weekly Newsletter
ISSUE 7.2 OCTOBER 28TH
INSPIRE AND TRANSFORM: classroom assistants in Employee Excellence Award last week
2013 FOR PARENTS, CARERS, FAMILIES & PARISHES
Ben Davis, Acting Headteacher Grassyards Rd Kilmarnock KA3 7SL 01563 526144 www.saintjosephsacademy.co.uk Twitter: @StJoAcad
Classroom Assistants are recognised in East Ayrshire Excellence Awards We have always known that we are lucky to have our Classroom Assistants. Just how lucky was emphasised last week when they were presented with the prestigious Chief Executive’s Award at the East Ayrshire Employee Excellence Awards. Pictured above are five of the 283 East Ayrshire classroom assistants honoured. In the middle of the picture is our very own Mrs. Wright who represented the school at the awards along with Mr. Davis. The nine classroom assistants had been nominated as a team earlier in the session and it was only on returning from the October Week holiday that we discovered that they, and the other assistants from other schools, had been successful. However, we had to keep the whole thing a secret from our Classroom Assistants and managed to dupe Mrs. Wright into attending the ceremony which took place at Grange Academy on Thursday night. It is fair to say that Mrs. Wright’s face was quite a picture when Chief Executive of the Council, Fiona Lees, read out the award and provided some context by relating amazing stories of the often unrecognised work that Classroom Assistants do in our schools. In the St. Joseph’s nomination the stories spoke of the extraordinary lengths to which the nine assistants go every day to support young people, many of whom face significant challenges, but who because of their care and nurture go on to achieve and take a full part in school life. We feel the award to all the Classroom Assistants is richly deserved. Well done to our team at St. Joseph’s: Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Lightfoot, Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Reid, Mrs. Fitzsimmons, Mrs. Gardiner, Mrs. Murray and Mrs. Miller. No Knives, Better Lives Event On the 10th October a selection of our S1 pupils were among 150 S1 pupils from secondary schools across East Ayrshire taking part in a fantastic football tournament at Grange Academy, writes PE teacher Mr. Howson. The initiative was set up to enable sporting youngsters who took part to learn about the dangers of knife crime, as well as choosing to be ‘more active, more often’. We took three teams to compete and they played against all the other schools participating. They received talks from police officers, the head of police for the local area and Councillor Tom Cook, Depute Leader. They also got the opportunity to meet three of Kilmarnock Football Club’s first team players, who took the time to autograph the pupil strips, boots, bags and whatever else the kids kept asking them to sign including water bottles! The pupils had a fantastic time and were a credit to the school in terms of behaviour and effort.