Dec 2023
Dear parents and carers,
As we near the end of a very successful term at St Anne’s, we turn our focus to preparing for the light that enters the world at Christmas. During Advent, in addition to preparing spiritually, our fantastic Sixth Form student leaders have overseen our charitable work by delivering house assemblies about our charity Advent shoebox collections for MHA and helping with the collections themselves alongside the chaplaincy student leaders. In addition, Year 10 and Sixth Form students are running our annual pensioners’ party for around 45 members of the local community on Friday 8th December.
These events embody the LSU virtues of simplicity, hospitality, openness and warm relationships that characterise the St Anne’s family and we are proud to provide our students and Sixth Form with such opportunities to make a positive impact on the world beyond the classroom. We hope that, in the busy countdown to Christmas, you and your families are able to find time to prepare to receive God’s light into your hearts and lives.
As you are already aware, we have been having some issues with one of our boilers leading to little or no heating in one of our buildings. We have been impressed with how maturely students have been dealing with this inconvenience and are pleased to say that we have managed to locate a replacement for the part that has broken and we are now working to get this delivered and fitted as soon as we possibly can. These issues have made us even more grateful for the upcoming replacement of the school's heating system which will be taking place over the next 14 months.
Other recent events have included our Year 7 tutor team welcoming new Year 7 parents onsite to hear about how their daughters have settled in to school life, Year 11 PPEs, Year 10 work experience and Year 7 receiving their free BookBuzz books which signifies the start of their reading and book swap journey here.
The last day of term, Friday 15th December, will be a home clothes day, with Christmas jumpers encouraged. We ask that jumpers don’t have dangly bits that might get caught on something and don’t have any battery-operated elements! Rules about jewellery and makeup remain the same on that day as the rest of the year. Students will spend their day with tutors, tying up loose ends and attending year group celebration assemblies as well as our Christmas Service.
We will dismiss students in years 7 to 11 from about 12.30, staggering their departure from the building. The Sixth Form will make their own arrangements for dismissal and communicate this directly with the students.
On behalf of everyone at St Anne’s, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you peace and joy this Christmas. Keep in your prayers our year 13 students, who are preparing for exams straight after the holiday. We look forward to seeing you and your daughters/sons in the New Year.
Below you will find some useful information and notices.
With every good wish.
Mr Julian Waterfield
Acting Headteacher
Useful Information for parents and carers
The Household Support Fund (SCC)
The Household Support Fund is available to offer support to those families who have found themselves to have had a recent change in their financial circumstances. This means that if you are finding it difficult to pay for your gas and/or electric, you have a white good (see the list below) which has broken and you can not replace it or you are in need of some help with groceries then the Household Support Fund may be able to help.
If this sounds like something which would help your family please complete the form below (it will only take a couple of minutes).
We will review these forms at the beginning of January and apply for the support for those families who qualify. The referrals take about 1 month to be approved so please expect this help to be with you by the end of January if successful. We will be in touch if we need any more information from you.
For help with Groceries please complete this form;
For help with buying a new White Good (Cooker, Fridge, Freezer, Fridge-freezer (new this year), Washing Machine) please complete this form;
For help with Gas and/or Electricity please complete this form;
Second hand coats and uniform
We are continuing to collect preloved warm clothing and coats so that we can donate them to families in need. For either, do just leave them at reception. If you have good quality school uniform that you would like to donate to our second-hand uniform shop, do also it at reception.
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. School must be a place of safety where anyone feels able to talk about what is going on in any aspect of their lives and to seek support.
