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JUNE 21ST 2013

FOR PARENTS, CARERS, FAMILIES & PARISHES

ENSPIREAfter a year of planning by members of the S4 Enterprise Class, June 9th dawned sunny and warm and Enspire: Kilmarnock’s First Festival of Ideas was launched.

Over twenty speakers from a variety of backgrounds converged on St. Joseph’s Academy to talk about their work and to address the themes of the day: reinvention, transformation and inspiration.

After a series of opening addresses by Provost Todd, Cathy Jamieson MP and Fiona Lees, guests were treated to some exceptional performances from young musicians from across East Ayrshire. Then Rebecca Bunten, one of the pupil team behind Enspire, got things underway with a short introduction.

Throughout the day four speakers provided keynote talks that cut across the themes of the event. The first of these was David Cameron who provoked much debate and thought with his ideas on who is responsible for creating the future. After this, guests left for their first choice of talks

from the other speakers. These included a Life Coaching workshop, reflections on learning from an architect, a talk about the power of sport and much more. The second keynote was provided by David Ross of Keppie Design who provided a fascinating insight into the transformational power of architecture.

Having enjoyed a much-needed lunch provided by our very own Onsite Catering team, the guests continued to sample both the talks and the musical entertainment. The afternoon session saw talks on a huge range of subjects and some exciting and impromptu collaborations between some speakers. Guests commented on the diverse and surprising nature of many of the talks as they heard about, for example, raw food, the physics of plasma, James Clerk Maxwell, the Romans, the courage of inspirational people, the power of story-telling and much more.

The two keynotes in the afternoon came from Director of Learning at the National Theatre of Scotland, Simon Sharkey. Simon focussed on the NToS Transform programme and gave a fascinating look at the way communities have used theatre to contribute to leadingc change. The

day was closed by Thom Sherrington, a history teacher from Aberdeen, getting us all thinking about how young people can save us from ourselves by re-inventing rites of passage.

Enspire very much lived up to its billing and was all the more impressive for being a festival run by pupils. All the guests left having made a pledge to help young people lead change in their communities. We are already planning next year’s festival and would be delighted to hear from you if you would like to speak or if you have any more feedback regarding this year’ s event.

Our thanks to all the speakers, guests and to those who made things happen on the day.

St. Columba Day Mass

Sunday June 9th was also the Feast of St. Columba. Since he is the patron saint of our newest house, we made an extra-special effort to mark the event.

Father Martin Chambers said Mass in the Assembly Hall on Monday for all the house pupils and encouraged them to draw strength and inspiration form the example of St. Columba.

INSPIRE AND TRANSFORM

Ben Davis,Acting Headteacher

Grassyards RdKilmarnockKA3 7SL

01563 526144

www.saintjosephsacademy.co.ukTwitter: @StJoAcad

The speakers at Enspire and some of the pupil team,

IDLaunch, who ran the event on June 9th.

Culzean Castle Science Field TripLast week the new S4 Biology pupils, as part of the new National 4 and 5 courses, enjoyed a field trip to Culzean Castle. Led by Biology Principal Teacher Dr. Swan and accompanied by Mrs. Lightfoot and and Acting PT Pupil Support, Dr. Denheen, they had a fantastic day in the sunshine, looking in rock pools, exploring the flora and fauna and making the most of the great outdoors. They all returned looking better for a day in the sun and, wildlife aside, amused to have observed Dr. Swan fast asleep on the bus. Pictures below (but not Dr. Swan).

Picture round-up (clockwise from top left): cakes baked by pupils for St. Columba Day; S6 pupils Caitlin and Carly with MSP Willie Coffey at the Saltire Awards; Miss Allan and Miss McCluckie receive the Outdoor Learning Excellence Award for the school; at the Prom; Miss Blacklock’s fabulous Home Room board; Rebecca Bunten opens the Enspire Festival.

OPERA HOUSELast session three pupils worked with the Klin Group on the design of window coverings for the flagship regeneration project The Opera House on John Finnie Street.

Those pupils, Steven Bracki, Liam Gallagher and Siobhan Connelly were there last week at the official opening of the building with Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

They were delighted to present her with an original artwork by one of their own classmates, Katie Murray. Katie, you may remember also had her work presented to Sir Peter Housden when he visited St. Joseph’s last December.

GIVE MORE CHARITY

We were delighted to be one of only two Scottish schools awarded funds by British charity Give More in recognition of the amount of charitable work done by the school and pledges made by pupils to give their time to good causes.

ENTERPRISEWhat a few weeks it has been for enterprise in the school: Enspire, Sir Tom Hunter, MicroTyco and more. Read all about it here.

When we (the first years) learnt what our next task for English was to be we were very excited. Who could have known that it would have led to five of us representing the school in a prestigious Enterprise competition? Why were we excited? Simple. Our next task was to design a confectionary product, film an advert for a specific target market and then present a pitch in front of four judges. We got started in our Home Teams, which were selected according to our dates of birth.

We began by looking at adverts and assessing what techniques were being used in each one. We identified four types of idea: bandwagon, testimonial, slogan or repetition. We also learnt about three kinds of technical codes used in adverts: written, symbolic and technical.

To help us prepare for the challenge ahead we watched various episodes of Young Apprentice and segments of

Dragons’ Den. These were to show us good examples of products and pitches also plenty of examples of what NOT to do.

Full of ideas, we got to work designing original products and unique adverts that we were certain that the judges would approve of and like. There was a lot of excitement and careful planning leading up to the day on which we would film our adverts. After that, we perfected our pitches and sales posters and asked other groups questions that we thought they might be confronted with in their pitch.

After presenting to our classmates, we decided which two groups were going through to the final form each class. The judges for the final round were: Mr. Davis, Mrs. Shearer, Mr. Ritson and Miss Munro.

All of the pitches were of extremely high quality, making it a very hard decision for the judges to make. The runners-up were Fruitabulous Fancies (Kiera Ovens, Sarah Cassidy, Amy Duffy, Erin Adam and Cairragh Melaugh) and the winners were Zodiac Cupcakes (Morven Campbell, Erin Lannie, Carrie Morrison, Leah McFarland and Kieran Jones).

All-in-all the Confectionary Challenge was a huge success and very enjoyable for all participants.

The winning team said: ‘It felt absolutely fantastic to find out we had won. We never thought we would even come close, as the standard set by the others was so high. We scraped through and were told we would represent the school in the Sir Tom Hunter Challenge.’

Zodiac Cupcakes were widely praised by Sir Tom and his fellow judges on Monday, June 17th. Whilst not winners they performed brilliantly and were easily the youngest team on the night. Top honours went to Loudoun with their excellent app idea, but Zodiac Cupcakes will, as part of their prize, visit Entrepreneurial Spark in Dundonald. Well done.

Town Centre Initiative

A team of S4 pupils recently completed work with Space Unlimited on the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Initiative. They contributed significant ideas to the regeneration plans for Kilmarnock and, over two days, worked with Town Centre Manager Fiona Nicholson to plan for the exciting future of Kilmarnock.

Zodiac Cupcakes pitch to Sir Tom Hunter and the other dragons at the East Ayrshire Enterprise competition.

MICROTYCO MASTERCLASSby Scott Dipiazza, S3

MicroTyco is a worldwide multi-million pound business, as part of the WildHearts Charity Organisation, who helps millions all over the world. Following on from our Micro-Tyco success in November 2012, on 4th June, I attended a Micro-Tyco Master Class held in Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow with fellow pupils, Paul Hart and Erick Sanchis (pictured right).

The classes are designed to embed the experiential learning and expanded horizons that it inspires in participants. Its aim was to help us refine our understanding of the essential criteria and behaviours necessary for success in business and provide us with the contacts to begin to put them into practice. There was a panel of three that epitomises the WildHearts vision: an entrepreneurial founder, a corporate entrepreneur and an entrepreneurial educator.

We arrived at a very warm and busy Royal Exchange Square and found the small entrance to the ’29 Members Club’. It was like a Tardis! It may be insignificant from the outside, but it was very big and grand and exclusive inside. I felt a bit out of my depth at first!

The room where the class was held was set up very elegantly, with many entrepreneurial thinkers and alike chatting and finding their pre-assigned seats.

The debates were inspiring. Some very tricky questions were being asked to the panel, we were hearing more and more snippets of excellent

entrepreneurial advice. Paul had the opportunity to ask Tony Banks, an ex-marine who now owns a residential care business, if he took his war experience as inspiration to set up his own company. This also provoked another lengthy answer but overall he told us that he had never really had any expectations, that life is unexpected and to make the most of all opportunities as they arise.

We are currently working on designing and pitching a new product as part of the Sir Tom Hunter Challenge. So a break in the middle was the perfect opportunity for us to network, pitch our business plan and make some very useful connections. Obviously, we went straight for the main panellists.

We talked, handed out our business cards and came away with two excellent business opportunities. One of which we have working for us right now.

Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but they loved us. We had to leave early and as we got up, the host interrupted the debate to point us out and tell the room how impressed he was at our initiative and how he couldn’t believe he had ended up with our business card!

A couple of minutes after, one of the panellists Gordon Merrylees, apologised for interrupting the debate once again but he had to say goodbye to us and give us his card. He is very keen on helping us develop our entrepreneurial thinking and our business opportunity.

Overall, we had a fantastic, eye-opening evening. Thank you very much to Miss Blacklock for encouraging us to get involved.

Home Room Weekly Reflection: United Nations

Most countries are members of the United Nations. Tomorrow, 26th June, is the anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945, just before the end of the Second World War. The UN Charter is an important statement of what the United Nations commit themselves to do. The Charter includes the following words: “to maintain international peace and security”, “to develop friendly relations among nations”, “to achieve international co-operation in solving economic, social, cultural or humanitarian problems”, “encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental problems”. If justice and peace between nations start with individual people, let’s pray for ourselves, that we may commit ourselves each day to live in the same way that we hope that nations will live. Let us pray and commit ourselves that here and amongst our families, we may set out to be understanding, treating everyone fairly. Lord, in your mercy - hear our prayer. Let us pray and commit ourselves to value and respect people as individuals. Lord, in your mercy - hear our prayer. Let us pray and commit ourselves to be positive and friendly and generous towards others. Lord, in your mercy - hear our prayer. Let us pray and commit ourselves not to become prejudiced against people of other backgrounds, religions, or cultures - but may treat others in the same way that we would like them to treat us. Lord, in your mercy - hear our prayer.

PARISH MASS TIMES St. Matthewʼs: 10.00 am, Fr. Chambers ! ! St. Josephʼs: 6.00 pm (vigil), 11.00 am Fr. LathamSt. Michaelʼs: 12.00 noon, Fr. McGhee ! ! Our Lady of Mount Carmel: 9.00 am, Fr. McGheeSt. Paulʼs: 9.30 am, Fr. Lawson ! ! ! Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Patrick: 6.00 pm (vigil), Fr. McGrattanSt. Sophiaʼs: 11.30 am Fr. Lawson ! ! St. Thomas the Apostle: 9.00 am, Fr. McGrattanOur Lady & St. John: 6.00 pm (vigil), Fr. Chambers !St. John the Evangelist: 10.45 am, Fr. McGrattan

Quick News Round-up

Pupils have enjoyed two Science themed trips to major firms in the last two weeks. They have visited both GE Caledonian and BAE Systems to learn more about the practical applications of their learning.

There continues to be a great deal of fund-raising for our Ecuador campaign. Pupils and staff recently completed and 10 mile sponsored walk and a Race Night in Kirkintilloch.

We were delighted to be selected as best Secondary School for Outdoor Learning in East Ayrshire at the recent O-Factor event (picture on previous page).

Up-and-coming band Little Eye visited us and played a set, as well as discussing substance and alcohol issues with pupils. Informative and entertaining.

S5/6 pupils enjoyed Othello in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens, while S4 recently visited Kilmarnock’s Global Market.