Oct 2023
Dear parents and carers
We cannot believe that we are already at October half term! It has been a busy and successful half term, full of events at which our students have continued to impress with their willingness to embody our LSU values of simplicity, hospitality, openness and warm relationships.
We were proud, but unsurprised, that our over 350 student volunteers were the most praised aspect of our busy Year 4, 5 and 6 open evening. As usual our students did us proud welcoming families, giving tours, making speeches and answering questions about our school. It was lovely to introduce so many new faces to the St Anne's family, but also to welcome many younger sisters of present pupils, and indeed daughters of past pupils as well! If you or a friend/family member were unable to attend, or missed the speeches on the night, these will be available very shortly. A link will be shared by social media and on the 'Joining us as a pupil' page of our beautiful new website.
We opened our doors again last week to welcome Year 10 and 11 students from within St Anne's, across the other city secondaries and beyond to our Sixth Form open evening. Again, our brilliant students were out in force to support their school and give up their time voluntarily, which speaks volumes about the young people we have the privilege to educate every day. Our current Sixth Form have been getting stuck in to their post-16 and benefitted from a mock interview day (Year 13) and a team-building treasure hunt (Year 12) on the recent curriculum enrichment day, and the fun continues within our close-knit community with an ongoing Taskmaster-inspired competition. The lower school also participated in curriculum enrichment day, taking part in activities such as reflection day with a visit to church, exploring important PSHE topics and Year 11 had workshops to support them in preparing for this important year by working on motivation and resilience.
Other events this term have included our busy lunchtime co-curricular fair and the 50+ clubs have been up and running for a few weeks now. It is great to see students making the most of all of the opportunities they have at St Anne's and really living life to the full! It is never to late to join a club or activity so if your daughter hasn't done so yet or would like to join another, she is very welcome to do so. The co-curricular timetables for the Autumn term can be found below.
Year 7 have made a successful start to their St Anne's journey and enjoyed long-standing traditions this half term such as their Welcome Mass at St Edmund's where it was lovely to be joined by some of their families and the joyous Year 7 welcome party run by our Sixth Form house captains and heads girls, and Mrs Langford, Head of Year 7.
On Debrabant Day, we celebrated with a special assembly and morning prayers with messages form the other LSU schools and the Sisters, and lollipops, as well as lunchtime craft activities and a charity bake sale raising money for the LSU Matumaini centre for disabled children in Tanzania. Year 7 also managed to cram in their welcome Mass.
Our partnership with St Edmund's Church is highly valued. We have been blessed by the ministry of Fr Vincent Harvey since 2010 as our Parish Priest. As you may well know, he is retiring in the next few days and he goes with the gratitude of the governors and staff but also many young people. His work has been particularly important to us as a multi-faith community because of his leadership of the Southampton Council of Faith. His warmth and welcome to non-Catholic members of our community shows what it really means to be a Catholic!
Below you will find some useful information and notices. Please do have a restful half term. Sunday's New Testament reading has St Paul telling the Thessalonians: 'We always mention you in our prayers and thank God for you all'. That we do!
Your sincerely
Mr Julian Waterfield
Acting Headteacher
Useful Information for Parents:
Second hand coats and uniform
If you have coats you no longer need, would you consider passing them on to us so that we can donate them to families in need? Also, as always, we are happy to receive used uniform to pass on. For either, do just leave them at reception.
Free School Meal vouchers
Southampton City Council have been able to provide supermarket vouchers for families who receive Free School Meals for the half term. These have been emailed to you. Please look for an email from Julian Waterfield on 19 October around 7.30am with the subject: Half term voucher.
Koolskools - PE kit (trousers)
Due to a genuine misunderstanding between Koolskools and St Anne’s, Koolskools had been offering parents the incorrect PE training trousers in recent months. This problem has now been rectified, and Koolskools are now selling the correct training trousers in their shop (Koolskools, 387 Shirley Rd, SO15 3TS) and online here: https://www.koolskools4u.co.uk/shop/st-annes-catholic-school-southampton/st-annes-school-navy-pe-training-trousers/.
Those students that are wearing the incorrect training trousers will be allowed, in these exceptional circumstances, to continue wearing them in the interests of not asking parents to have to make a further purchase.
Worried about something? Worried about your young person or are they worried about themselves or someone else?
Since re-launching our website, we have had a few students or parents looking for our well-used support page for families. It can be found via the link below and contains is lots of information on the page below from our website about support for families as well as links via which students can report any of their worries or concerns about others.
Worried about something? | St Anne's Catholic School Southampton (st-annes.uk.com)
The safe@st-annes.uk.com email address continues to be well-used.
Local Community Events:
I'm Mark
To be performed in St Edmund’s, Southampton, at 7pm on Friday, 24th November (£5 per person: any ‘profit’ will go towards the Organ Fund).
Listening to a gospel in its entirety in one sitting enables us to grasp the whole picture and message. It is certainly beneficial for us to hear it in one sitting before we begin to listen to it little by little. Rt Rev Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury said: “Sometimes it takes a living voice to make you hear the Bible for the first time - a voice that presents some saying or episode not as a stray fragment but as part of the rhythm and pace of a story that goes on gathering momentum. Mark's gospel has just that kind of momentum, and this performance gives a memorably strong sense of it.”
Watch an extract: https://youtu.be/tg5-eW-W-xc (The Last Supper).
The Eventbrite link to book is: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i-am-mark-tickets-711430175807?aff=oddtdtcreator
