With this first half of the Spring term already over, we are certainly looking forward to the arrival of Spring itself, and to the warmer weather which will see our Rosary garden in flower.
The colder weather has not held our pupils back in visiting some important places of interest and participating in interesting activities, these including the ‘Hay Scribblers Tour’ about which you can read more on this site. This is, in many ways, a preparation for the Hay Festival which takes place annually in the May half-term break. A number of our pupils will also visit the festival itself which is a celebration of literature, and which brings together writers – and readers – of fiction and poetry, and of books and articles on travel, religion, art, history, politics, the environment and so much more. Established in 1988, the festival was famously described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". With as much attention being devoted to designing the programme for children as is devoted to that for adult visitors, it is an excellent destination for families. Writers range from Julia Donaldson (‘The Gruffalo’) for the festival’s youngest visitors and Frank Cottrell Boyce (‘Millions’ and ‘Cosmic’) to Holly Smale (the ‘Geek Girl’ series) and Professor Robert Winston. It is certainly worth interested parents visiting the festival’s website in the coming weeks to find out if there is anything of interest to them in the programme.
This half term we also held our usual fundraiser for cystic fibrosis charities, and between non-uniform day contributions and proceeds from our bake sales, we anticipate that we will have raised over £900 for this important cause. Well done to all involved in the planning of this fundraising day and to all that contributed in any way!
We are, as always, immensely proud of the Charity Team who planned the fundraiser for this cause, their work throughout the year being exceptionally energetic. Their work sees them supporting charities from Cafod to Operation Christmas Child, the Alzheimers Society, Mind, the Welsh National Pilgrimage and other charities linked to Lourdes and numerous others. They truly embody the virtues of the Catholic pupil profile – in particular those of compassion, generosity and love – and demonstrate the Gospel values in their actions. All within the school community obviously play an important part in the charity work of the school as a whole, however should any further pupils be interested in taking a lead role in these activities, then Miss Mainwaring would be delighted to hear from them.
We wish all pupils and their families a happy and restful half term break.
Mrs Pole