Year 7s at St Joseph’s College

The first term at St Joseph’s College is always an action-packed welcome to our school, our
ethos and our community.

The term began with Commencement Day, Y7s special day as they are
the only students in the school. They had time to spend with their tutor
and to find their way around the school by completing a huge treasure
hunt to find their classrooms and locations for extracurricular activities.
During the Commencement Day students had time to reflect about
their place at St Joseph’s College, being a single thread in our vast
tapestry. Each student completed a small reflection before piecing it
together to form our school badge.

In the first week at St Joseph’s our students are encouraged to get to
know their form family and the characters and strengths within that.

Our form day trip to Alton Castle was a great experience for all forms. They spent the day
with their form tutors completing a vast array of team building activities
including making a buggy from barrels, constructing a catapult and team
building races such as ski boards and drainpipe relays. The event closed with
a reflection on the scripture from Corinthians ‘The body is a unit, though it is made up of
many parts’. Students reflected on their role within the body of their form.
Our focus then changed to our global community and our links in Sierra Leone and India. On
a very wet Friday afternoon Y7, along with whole school, walked over 8 miles around
Trentham and the surrounding area to raise funds for our immersion projects. The Y7s
battled the wind and the rain to reach the summit of what felt like a mountain in Trentham,
they then burst back with energy after been refueled at the donut stand ran by the Y13
students going on immersion.

The following week the students truly embraced what it means to be an Edmund Rice
school, they were able to show off their knowledge to Ann and Roisin and demonstrate
their understanding what it means to be one of Edmund’s people.

The final week of the term saw two events for the Y7 students. The first session was ran by
the Talk the Talk foundation, they worked without young people to develop their oracy
skills, giving them techniques to exude confidence, even when they are not necessarily
feeling it inside. A firm favourite was the ‘Ooba Wooba’ competition where students had to
communicate using the tone of their voice by only using the words Oaba and Wooba. The Y7
were then able to showcase their oracy skills the following day at the family mass.
The family mass marks the end of the first half term at St Joseph’s, having spent a long time
helping the students with their transition, the family mass is a celebration of all that the Y7s
have achieved. All students worked with a member of staff to promote one of the eight
essentials. There were activities in foreign languages, drama, dance and sign language as
well as creative activities such as cake making and artwork. At the end of the day families
were invited to celebrate in mass with the students and staff. It was a thoroughly enjoyable
evening that was the pinnacle of the welcome to our St Joseph’s Community.