The winter term is one of my favourites, with so many
wonderful festive activities taking place across the season,
from the Christmas Fayre to the Carol Service, and all the
excitement of Advent in between. Pupils are able to get into
the spirit of things with our two form assemblies run by 8F
and 8L, as well as the Christmas Jumper ‘mufti day’ in aid of
Surviving Christmas, where Year 8 pupils were encouraged
to bring a £1 and non-perishable sweets and chocolates to
help support struggling families this December.
Charity and Catholic Social Teaching
The seven key principles of Catholic Social Teaching are:
Preferential Options for the Poor, The Common Good, Care
for Creation, The Sanctity of Life, Solidarity, Rights and
Responsibilities and Dignity of Work. These values appear
across the curriculum at St. Richards and are often focused
on during form time and assemblies. In light of this and our
commitment and dedication to charity, I am so excited for
8H’s charity event taking place this term, which will hopefully
involve a Christmas sale! This will be the first form-led
charity event of Year 8 and I am certain they will set the bar
high.
Parent Support
Thank you so much for the consistent, wonderful support
we receive from parents regarding attendance, attainment
and behaviour. We had a number of truly excellent progress
reports and I am so proud of all of our pupils - particularly
those who received a certificate for having so many ‘Good’
and ‘Excellent’ grades. The home-school agreement is
invaluable in ensuring all our pupils are supported in a fair
and safe environment, with consistent expectations across
their day. In light of this, thank you also to the numerous
parents who completed the form for extra house points
and a Christmas bottle of prosecco! I am so pleased to
announce that a winner has been chosen, so please look
out for contact home in the next few days.
Pupils of note
Huge congratulations to Emilia for performing at the ‘Music
for Youth’ Proms at the Royal Albert Hall - what an incredible
achievement! We also have some pupils who have been
awarded their ‘bronze badge’ for house points, gaining
over 200 already: Cyril, Layla, Lottie and Ava. Keep up the
brilliant work! As a year group, we have over 20,000 house
points! 8F and 8L are our form leaders with over 3,000
each, whilst 8S continues to have the best attendance, with
a class average of over 98%.
A fantastic year so far - well done and enjoy the rest with
your families.
As we approach the end of another very successful term,
I wanted to highlight why I feel that Year 7 continues to
flourish here at St Richard’s. Every morning I have a
constant stream of pupils at my door wanting to collect
their rewards for reaching a House Point milestone. What
is wonderful is that they are rarely by themselves, bringing
their friends to share their achievements. In these moments
I am blessed as I get to hear first hand of their successes
and see big smiles. It is a great way to start the school day!
Engagement in clubs is always a great indicator to see how
much pupils value their school. The percentage of pupils
attending one or more clubs weekly is at an all time high.
The Year 7s also show resilience and a real purpose daily
and I am extremely proud of them all! They are all great!
Thank you to everyone who attended the Parents’/Carers’
Consultation Evening. I hope it was informative. The results
from your parental survey will be shared with you via my
pastoral emails. Hopefully, you have found the pastoral
emails useful. I now aim to send them fortnightly, rather
than weekly.
Assemblies this term have focused on different Catholic
Social Teachings and we have been exploring how we can
put ideas into action. This term we have linked the ideas
of solidarity, rights and responsibilities, the common good
and care for creation. We also had the ‘Good News for
Everyone’ (formerly Gideons Society) deliver an assembly
about their mission and pupils received their copies of The
New Testament from them.
In PSHEe next term, the pupils will be exploring the
following themes: Wellbeing and approaches to staying
healthy; Social Media with a focus of sharing images, and
visits from our Police Liaison ofÏcer on staying safe.
Thank you for your continued support and please don’t
hesitate to get in touch with either myself or your child’s
tutor if you have any worries. Have a restful festive break.
Pastoral Reports
Year 8
Year 7
Page 2
Newsletter 3 - December 2024
Mr Bligh
Pastoral Leader Year 7
mrblighj@strichardscc.com
As always, I like to share achievements in our newsletter and I want to congratulate Joana on
reaching her black belt in karate. An awesome achievement!
Mrs Murphy
Pastoral Leader Year 8
mrsmurphyj@strichardscc.com