6th Form Chaplaincy Team Support Shoe Box Appeal

25th November 2016Mrs D Curtis

6th Form Chaplaincy Team have been working alongside Mrs Ferris, Lay Chaplain, this year and are delighted to announce 57 boxes were donated to Operation Christmas Child Shoe Box Appeal.

Members of the Chaplaincy Team worked tirelessly wrapping shoe boxes, collecting money and donating goods.  Many of the tutor groups idonated a box or some items for the shoe boxes.  Lots of staff help fund postage by giving a £ 3 donation for every box.
The School Caretaker and the Lay Chaplain delivered the shoe boxes on their next journey to a warehouse in Fordhouses and felt humbled to see the many volunteers checking and sorting the boxes.
Some of the students and parents from Uplands School also made donations so a special thank you to all concerned for such kindness.

 

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From left to right……
Henna Devi, Logane Stanley, Sahibpreet Singh, Isobel Casey
Juliet Ebot, Niamh Young and Rajbir Singh

YMCA Interfaith Workshop

25th November 2016Mrs D Curtis

On Thursday 17th November 6 of our students, accompanied by Mr Katumba, were invited by Beverley Momenabadi, Participation Co-Ordinator for YMCA Black Country, to a YMCA Interfaith Workshop at St Peters Café.

The event was to celebrate Interfaith Week, which is part of an initiative called ‘Love thy Neighbour’. Students took part in games and activities whilst learning about different faiths.  A question and answer session also took place and they ended the evening with foods linked to different faith groups.

Leah James, Year 9, said she really enjoyed it and was delighted to have her picture taken with the Lord Mayor, Councillor Barry Findlay.

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Featured on the photograph are Leah James, Year 9 with the Mayor and Mayoress of Wolverhampton.

 

 

Wolverhampton and Dudley 5 A Side Tournament

25th November 2016Mrs D Curtis

On Saturday 5th November many of the students from St Edmund’s took part in the Wolverhampton and Dudley 5 A Side Tournament organised by Kenelm Trust. It was held at St Edmund’s  in the Kristian Thomas Sports Centre.

Vicki Chatten, Youth Ministry Development Worker from Birmingham Catholic Youth Service, sent certificates  for all our students and said, ‘ The boys are a credit to you’.

Well done to all the students who took part.

By Debbie Ferris

The Year of Mercy Mass at St Peter and St Paul’s Church

27th June 2016S Huynh

On Friday 11th March 15 pupils from St Edmund’s Catholic Academy were chosen to take part in the Year of Mercy Mass, which was held at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Wolverhampton. We were joined by other schools such as The Giffard and St Mary’s and St John’s Catholic School.

As it is The Year of Mercy, Pope Francis chose St Peter and St Paul’s Church to have a special door. When walking through the door, you are encouraged to pray for three virtues.

After the service had ended students were led by Fr Mark Crisp to walk through the door again. However, this time Fr. Mark told students to pray for three special things.  The experience was made more special for students as the Pope chose SSPP Church for this occasion.

St Edmund’s student Leah James in Year 8 was very honoured to walk through the door, especially in this Year of Mercy.

Fr Mark said: “The door is always going to be open and anyone is welcome to come and sit inside the church and pray.”

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Euro 2016 – Students hold a charity cake sale

16th June 2016S Huynh

In support of the Euro 2016 and to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday, students at St Edmund’s Catholic Academy have been selling ‘football’ and ‘birthday’ cupcakes in aid of raising money for charity.

Quxah in Year 12 said: “As a Sixth Form we decided to do a fundraiser where we did a cake sale.

Half of the cupcakes were a celebration of the Queen’s 90th and the other half were for the Euros. It was great to see students getting excited for the game as well as remembering the Queen’s Birthday. This was for a good cause and all money raised will go to The Haven charity In Wolverhampton.”

Pupils and students are all getting into the football spirit here at St Edmund’s this afternoon by watching the match on the big screens!

Come on England!

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“Laudato Si” inspires St Edmund’s to make some exciting changes

13th June 2016S Huynh

Jess Bradley (year 9) has recently delivered a series of assemblies to groups of students at St Edmund’s motivated by the Holy Father’s encyclical letter “Laudato Si” on care for our common home. Pope Francis invites us all to take seriously how we protect and nurture our planet and to act more responsibly to preserve the earth’s resources for generations to come. St Edmund’s students and staff are looking closely at how we use resources and how we can avoid waste.

One way we can make a significant saving is if we move across from a printed newsletter to a more eco-friendly e-newspaper – available on our website. We will be launching our new e-paper in July and not only will this be more environmentally friendly, it will be run by the students of St Edmund’s Academy! We are very excited about this new initiative and hope it will “engage” students of all ages as well as their families. We will be looking for budding writers, editors and photographers soon but to get us started…..we need a name!

Look out for the competition to name our new paper – posters in tutor groups are coming soon and there are great prizes to be won!

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Maundy Thursday

19th May 2016S Huynh

On Maundy Thursday the whole school attended a Solemn Liturgy depicting the story of the Last Supper and Jesus washing the Disciples feet.

Mrs Ferris the Lay Chaplain told the story and introduced each Disciple in turn, explaining the parts the disciples had played in serving Jesus.
Students including the 6th form acted the story. Washed the Disciples feet which (John 13:1–17) occurred in the upper room, just prior to the Last Supper and has significance in three ways. For Jesus, it was the display of his humility and his servant hood. For the disciples, the washing of their feet was in direct contrast to their heart attitudes at that time.
For us, washing feet is symbolic of our role in the body of Christ.
Fr Mark explained more about the Easter message and gave the whole community an Easter Blessing.

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Students Swap their Beds for Cardboard Boxes

By S Huynh17th March 2016

A number of enthusiastic Wolverhampton students braved the cold weather and took part in the ‘Sleep Easy’ campaign last Friday night, to raise money in changing the lives of young homeless people in the Black Country.

Sleep Easy is a national event which sees hundreds of people from up and down the country giving up their TOG rated duvets to help change the lives of homeless young people in their communities. Sixth Form students at St Edmund’s Catholic Academy in Wolverhampton prepared themselves to spend their Friday night sleeping in a cardboard box.

Every night, YMCA Black Country Group provides support and shelter for over 300 homeless young people across the Black Country and Staffordshire border area in addition to family mediation, substance misuse support and other services in order to prevent homelessness occurring in the first place.

St Edmund’s Catholic Academy are hoping to raise around £200 for the Moving Forward Fund which enables these young people to move on in their lives, by providing not only the practical things that make a house a home but also accessing employment and training opportunities, as well as providing them with much needed emotional support.

The campaign took place at St Edmund’s Catholic Academy, on Friday 11th March from 6pm – 6am, with a soup kitchen provided by the YMCA and an inspirational speech from  ‘Chedene’, who was previously homeless but had her life turned around with the help of the charity.

St Edmund’s would like to say a very big thank you to all the students who took part in such a worthy cause, Wolf Mountain for entertaining our students for part of the night and most importantly to Mr Bentley, Mrs Wrenshall-Jones and Mr Auger, for giving up their well-earned, comfortable Friday night to accompany the students. This type of event just couldn’t go ahead without the good will and support of our fantastic staff.

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Archbishop Bernard Longley’s visit to St Edmund’s

By S Huynh26th January 2016

On Friday the 22nd January St Edmund’s Catholic Academy was delighted to receive a visit from Archbishop Bernard Longley.

We are the first school in Wolverhampton to celebrate Mass with Archbishop Longley within the ‘Year of the Mercy’. He spoke of many things during his Homily and reminded those present that in life there are many doors that lead to opportunities, one being the door to the Academy Chapel, which would always be open for them.

Archbishop Bernard Longley commented: “I want to thank everyone involved for making this Mass a very special one. The choir sang splendidly and were very uplifting.”

After the Mass 34 students, 1 class representative from every tutor group, together with some visitors, made their way to our new Chapel where Archbishop Longley blessed the Chapel and the students.

After the blessing of the Chapel, Archbishop Longley kindly had his photographs taken with some of the students, a few of the students took ‘selfie’s’ and he also signed some of the students’ Mass booklets.

He then had lunch with Principal, Mrs Hughes and guests in the boardroom.

Lay Chaplain, Deb Ferris of St Edmund’s said: “It was a great day, emotional and enjoyed by all the community. We feel very blessed, our Academy is now complete.”

You can read Archbishop Bernard Longley’s Letter of thanks by clicking the link ‘Letter of thanks’ below.

Letter of thanks

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