Fr. Adrian has been a priest in our diocese for 36 years and reflected with students about his life, his calling, the highlights and challenges of being a priest and his ministry in schools and in the local community. Students posed excellent, thought-provoking questions to him ranging from exploring his views on the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels and questions ranging from what are his hobbies, interests, favourite football team and favourite colour. We are very blessed to have the support of Fr. Adrian who does so much to support our students.

Mrs. Lewis-Dale’s CORE RE group also had a vocation talk from Paul Waugh from the Newcastle Street pastors too on Monday 18th December. Paul works in a multi-denominational group of Christians who patrol the streets of Newcastle on a Friday and Saturday evening being the face of Christ and ‘loving thy neighbour’ by supporting party-goers through practical help such as space blankets, chocolate bars for energy, flip flops and first-aid support when people are most in need. Thank you to Paul for his fantastic support too.

 

This Advent students, staff and parents across the school have collected an amazing 647 tins, packets, boxes and items for the food bank and sixth formers and Pope John Paul II students parceled these up and delivered them to Hebburn Helps on Wednesday 20th December.

At St. Joseph’s we believe in living out our Catholic Social Teaching and following Jesus’ call to ‘love thy neighbour’ in anyway we can and we love supporting Hebburn Helps who do phenomenal work in our local community. Thank you for all your constant support.

God bless and have a lovely Christmas.

Over the past two weeks, Fr. Adrian Dixon has been into school to offer our students and staff the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Reconciliation is the opportunity for us to wipe the slate clean, unburden our soul and receive forgiveness and a fresh start with Jesus. Over 40 students ranging from Years 7 to 13, plus staff attended the sessions in our beautiful school chapel and enjoyed the opportunity to start afresh as we journey together through Advent.

In the new year, we will be offering students the opportunity to attend the sacrament of reconciliation monthly.
God bless and we hope you are having a cracking Advent.

Mr, Mather and the Law Department were delighted to welcome back to St Joseph’s our friends from Clifford Chance Law Firm: Claire Pearce, Paralegal Apprentice Manager, Katie McWilliams, Talent Acquisition and HR Co-Ordinator and Chloe Storey, Supervisory Paralegal. They spoke to our Year 13 Law students and those who wish to pursue a career in the law.

Claire began by explaining the work of Clifford Chance, the number one Magic Circle law firm and by introducing the paralegal apprenticeship. Chloe explained to us that the role is extremely rewarding and provides an excellent route into the law and also allows for career progression too. Katie ran through the procedure for applying for the paralegal apprenticeship and answered all the questions that the students had.

We have a number of our former students who work at Clifford Chance and are progressing their careers there. We are very proud of them and hope that some of this year’s cohort can follow them into the firm too.

Mr. Mather and the students are, as always, very grateful to Claire, Katie and Chloe for their time and we look forward to continuing to work closely with them in the future, including visiting their fantastic offices during the summer for their insight days.

Visit from Irwin Mitchell Solicitors

Mr. Mather and the Law Department were delighted to welcome one of our former students, Rosie O’Brien, and her colleague Rebecca Bell, from Irwin Mitchell Solicitors in Newcastle, to speak to our students in Year 12 and 13 who have ambitions to study law in their career.

Rosie has recently embarked on a solicitor apprenticeship at the firm having left St Joseph’s two years ago, and Rebecca recently started her Training Contract at the firm, having joined them as a paralegal after gaining a First Class Honours degree from Northumbria University.

Rosie and Rebecca explained their routes into law and made it clear that law is now an accessible career for anyone to get involved in. They encouraged our students to aim high and go for their career aspirations, just as they have.

They described the work of Irwin Mitchell and the different careers that exist in the law and told us how rewarding their careers have been so far.

Mr. Mather and the students would like to once again thank Rosie and Rebecca for coming into school and we are very much looking forward to working with them and Irwin Mitchell more in the future.

This half-term, tutor groups in Year 8 have been working hard to live out our Catholic Social Teaching to ‘love thy neighbour’ by choosing charities and causes that are important to them and raising money in a variety of exciting ways to support these causes.

Each tutor group was given £5.00 to grow and had to work together to make a difference in their community. Tutor groups did raffles, sold sweets, cake sales, sports lunch times and guess the name of the bear competitions to name but a few and tutor groups raised a staggering £442.04 for charity.

The charities that students chose to support included Brysons Animal Shelter, The People’s Kitchen, CAFOD, the Salvation Army, Cancer Care, Hebburn Helps, Cancer Connections and the Alan Shearer Foundation. We are also still taking in care parcels for the elderly and food for Hebburn Helps so if you would like to donate, please send your donations in to your tutor groups.

God bless and thanks for all your support.

The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle have produced a series of reflections to help us spiritually journey through Advent.

Each reflection takes about two minutes to read and reflects upon the Gospel reading for each day. As a school we are passionate about supporting you spiritually and it would be great if you could read as a family each day’s diocesan reflection as we prepare for the coming of the greatest gift that the world has ever seen, Jesus Christ.

Here is the link attached: https://diocesehn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Advent-Reflections-2023-FINAL.pdf

God bless and happy Advent.

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