MFL European Day – cake sale

To celebrate European Day of Languages, our Modern Foreign Languages Club hosted an MFL European Day of Languages Bake Off, to raise money for charity CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young). We had an array of fantastic and colourful entries! Thanks to our Sixth Formers for helping run the busy cake sale, we managed to raise £250 for CRY. Congratulations to winner, Martha L (Year 7) for her German, Italian and French cupcakes, the flavours were inspired by each country. Well done to Lottie D (Year 7) who won second place, for her French flag cake, and to our joint third place; Jack S (Year 7) for his Irish flag cake and Evelyn J (Year 7) for her Slovakia goodies hamper.

Our Year 7s joined us at the beginning of September for their first day at the school; full of photographs, new timetables, new faces and friendships. Settling in with our new Lower Sixth students, both year groups enjoyed a first day with their year ahead of the rest of the school joining them the next day.

At the end of their first full week at the College, they joined the rest of the school, for a whole school pilgrimage down the road to our local school parish, St Peter and St Paul’s. It gave both pupils and staff time for quiet reflection after a busy few days settling back as a whole school.

After a few weeks of settling into the new regime of college life with the rest of the school family, the year, split over two days, headed to “Animate”, the Liverpool Archdiocesan youth team at Lowe House in St Helens. The day was all about New Beginnings, joining a new community and what it means to be part of the St Mary’s community. Activities throughout the day involved dressing up as superheroes, a game of “The Floor is Lava”, a quiz, a throwing competition and more. All of these activities helped build greater bonds within the year, their communication skills and teamwork. In between the two days of the retreat, we welcomed our Year 7 students and their parents to Mass with Father Simon Gore at our O’ Halloran Hall. Our Year 7 pupils helped with the readings and Offertory gifts. The evening also involved informing parents of updates and key information, where our new families had the chance to meet the Year 7 Form Tutors and key staff.

It has been a fantastic couple of weeks for our Year 7s so far and we cannot wait to see our new students flourish within the school.

Guardians.

At St Mary’s our Guardian scheme involves our Year 7 students being paired with Lower Sixth students, to ensure our new-starters settle in quickly and have someone to talk to. Each week the paired Form Group meet to catch up with each other. Recently they did a “getting to know each other” session. Students asked each other questions like, What’s your favourite subject? to learn more about each other. The Lower Sixth students also shared revision techniques and advice with the Year 7 students. Our Guardian scheme is a great initiative which benefits everyone involved.