St. Paul's Rc Academy Gillburn Road
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ST. PAUL’S RC ACADEMY PARENT COUNCIL DATES Chairperson - Richard White GILLBURN ROAD Secretary - Mandy McKenzie Treasurer - Natalie McKaig Parental Newsletter No. 22 - Christmas 2013 Website Address: http://st-pauls.ea.dundeecity.sch.uk/ Should you wish to raise anything with the Parent Council please contact the school or email: [email protected] ONE COMMUNITY MANY GIFTS Parent Council meetings are open to all parents and guardians/carers and Dear Parent/Carer we would encourage you to come along and support the school and our children’s education. Thank you once again for taking the time to read this term’s newsletter. As you will see from the contents of this Christmas issue that St Paul’s continues to go from strength to strength offering a modern and progressive experience to our pupils. We are very proud that our Wednesday 12th February 2014 pupils continue to excel and live up to our motto, developing their gifts for their own benefit and that of our community. GEOGRAPHERS ‘OUT AND ABOUT’ Wednesday 14th May 2014 S3 –S6 pupils enjoyed a field trip to Pitlochry in November. Pupils visit- During Advent in preparation for the Feast of Christmas our senior pupils have prepared and presented assemblies for Anti Bullying week, Wednesday 17th September 2014(AGM) ed Blair Atholl Distillery, the Queens View, Pitlochry Dam and the tourist Advent and Christmas. Many of you will also have attended our very successful and well received pantomime ”A Kirkton Carol” and our experience (gift shops!). CAREERS ADVISER THURSDAY LUNCH TIME DROP IN excellent Christmas Concert which went ahead despite Mrs Bromage losing her voice. Through these events and a number of other activities you can read about in our newsletter we have raised money for local and international charities. The school career adviser is available for quick questions or help related to St. Paul’s opened its doors to pupils in January 2009 making 2014 the 5th Anniversary of the new St. Paul’s building here being opened to careers and leaving school options for S4, 5 and 6 pupils. receive pupils. We intend to mark this occasion in 2014 in a number of ways including a Family Mass on 23rd January and an alternative MADRIGAL GROUP Located in the Careers Office in the Library from 1pm - 1:35pm every timetable for pupils on 24th January. This coincides with the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Once again, the Madrigal Thursday starting from 07/11/13. No appointment required, just drop in. Group received prolonged Available on a first come, first served basis - 10 minutes max per pupil. In the new session we hope to establish a St. Paul’s Community association. The purpose of this association is to celebrate and recognise applause after its perfor- the contribution made by past and present, St. Paul’s Academy and previously St. Saviour’s High School and Lawside Academy, in serving mance in the Caird Hall at PHYSICAL EDUCATION KIT our community. We hope the association will involve past pupils and others associated with St. Paul’s, St .Saviour’s and Lawside. There the CLIC Sargent concert As of August 2014 St. Paul’s RC Academy will be using a new PE kit for all will be a launch event during the last week in February where we hope to invite and involve as many past pupils and other friends associat- on Thursday evening 5th years, boys and girls. The kit will still be available from the school wear ed with our school. December. shop at the same price but it will be dri-fit material and the colours will be The pupils decided that I hope you enjoy reading about the many pupils achievements this term. Remember that you can keep up to date with what is happening in the same for boys and girls, black shorts with t-shirt with green and white St . Paul’s on our website (http://st-pauls.ea.dundeecity.sch.uk) where you will find a good deal of useful information including our calendar they would like to do- piping. The old kit will be in the school wear shop until April 2014 but they and daily notices. Our website also has a full colour version of this newsletter. For a regular update on events and achievements you can nate their 'fee' of £150 back will no longer be selling the old PE kit after this time. also follow us on Twitter @stpaulsdundee. into the CLIC fund which is I wish you and your family a happy and peaceful Christmas and a happy new year when it comes. a fund to support children with cancer and their families. What a wonderful gesture from the pupils after they enjoyed a wonder- S1 CEILIDH John L Carroll Head Teacher ful evening of Christmas music! The PE Department held a Christmas Ceilidh for all S1 pupils. They participated in ST. PAUL’S ACADEMY DUNDEE STEM GAMEMAKER FINAL MSP VISIT various Scottish and modern HAS TALENT - FINAL Congratulations to our two GameMaker teams; Virus Games and Jenny Marra MSP visited S1 dances, games and a raffle. A huge thank you and Laser Games Modern Studies pupils in All pupils took part with excel- congratulations on a job who won first and December. Pupils have lent spirit and made it a very well done to all pupils and second place in been learning all about de- enjoyable afternoon for eve- staff who contributed their the Dundee mocracy in Scotland. Pupils ryone with some brilliant time and talent (onstage, S T E M G a - asked Jenny a range of tartan and Christmas outfits. backstage and Front of meMaker final on questions about her life as House) and made ‘St Friday. Over the an MSP which may have Paul's Academy Has Tal- past two months even inspired some of our STUDY CLUBS AND SPORTS CLUBS ent Final’ such a success. our teams were young people to pursue a http://st-pauls.ea.dundeecity.sch.uk/ Please visit St. Paul’s website for information on the various clubs we run in the The fact that there are too busy designing, creating, testing and marketing their own computer career in politics. school. There are Study Support Clubs and Sports Clubs . We encourage our many names to mention proves once again that St Paul's is games during lunch and interval. The teams competed against pupils to become involved in a range of school based extra-curricular activities. indeed a community of "many gifts". schools from across the city. The three finalists were chosen last Thanks also to all of you who bought a ticket and turned up week and were invited to pitch their games to a panel of judges at HEALTH DROP-IN to support our talented finalists and to raise money for our the riverside HQ of YoYo Games. Our teams produced animations, The Health Drop-In is up and running in the Library Resource Centre. All Details of school uniform can be found on school website Mangamanuthu projects. business cards, badges, models, display boards and photostories to welcome to attend. Come along, speak to the health professionals about a And, of course, congratulations to our 2013 Winner, Annie convince the judges that their games were the best in the city. The variety of topics and get some free fruit. SCHOOL SKIRTS SHOULD BE KNEE LENGTH Petrie! teams won personal licences for professional game production soft- Look out for the posters advertising the Health Drop-In. Coming soon. http://st-pauls.ea.dundeecity.sch.uk EXPEDITION SUCCESS ware worth hundreds of pounds each, goody bags of gadgets and DIARY DATES Punctuality On September 28 S3 pupils successfully completed practice books for the school. The teams worked extremely hard and were a 20 December 2013 - End of term 2 The school day starts with registration at 8.50 am. Please ensure your expeditions towards their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. credit to the school, well done! 6 January 2014 - Pupils return for term 3 son/daughter is on time in the morning and also for afternoon classes This involved navigating a 15 mile circular walk over some 13-17 January 2014 - S3 Exam Week which begin at 1.35 pm. very challenging terrain in the Grampian mountains north of CONCERT 16 January 2014 - S2 Parent Information Evening Braemar with an St. Paul’s held a 3:30—4 pm & 6—6:30 pm and HOLIDAYS DURING TERM TIME overnight ’wild’ fantastic Christmas S2 Parents’ Evening 4—6 pm Any pupil taken out of school to go on holiday during term time will be camp. Valuable Concert on Monday 27 January 2014 - S4 Prelims start marked as an unauthorised absence. Providing a letter from your employer l e s s o n s w e r e 16 December which 12 February 2014 - S3 Information Evening 3:30 to in advance of any holiday stating that this holiday cannot be taken at any learned about navi- was attended by our 4pm & 6 pm to 6:30 pm other time of year or is fixed to a certain time of year is required to mark a S3 Parents’ Evening 4—6 pm holiday absence as authorised. gation, camp-craft new Bishop, Bishop 26 February 2014 - S4 Parents’ Evening 4—6 pm All absences require parent/carer to make a call to the school and the group is Robson. Everyone with reason for absence on each morning of absence now gearing up for had a wonderful the assessed expe- evening. Well done Bishop Robson, Mr Carroll ditions next Spring.