On Wednesday evening St Julie's Catholic High School's KS3 and KS4/5 Dance Teams performed at The GREAT Big Dance Off national competition.
Key Stage 3 students performed emotive choreography entitled, 'My Sister's Keeper' whilst older students delivered an empowering message about equal rights and beauty standards in 'The Women'.
Both teams were outstanding and received wonderful feedback from the judges and audience. Unfortunately, both teams narrowly missed out on progressing to the next stage of the competition, however we are extremely proud of all the students, their talent, dedication and team spirit.
We look forward to entering both pieces into further competitions this summer term.
This week our combined Y7/8 football team played in the Quarter Finals of the Merseyside Cup against a team from Calderstones.
The match started out with both sides enjoying a fair amount of possession but not getting any shots away on target. St Julie's broke the deadlock, taking the lead from Imogen (Year 8) with a fantastic free kick outside the box lobbing the goalkeeper.
Unfortunately, Calderstones pulled it back and won the fixture with a final score of 3-1. The players were upset but displayed great sportsmanship to Calderstones at the end of the match.
Congratulations to our Player of the match, Faith in Year 8 who we celebrated for outstanding defending.
Students in Year 9 Business classes have started their course by creating some amazing new pen products.
They were given a design brief and they delivered some innovative and creative products, showing skills that may make them very successful in the future!
Following a record-breaking three-year West End residency and sold out tour, this week, 75 Performing Arts students were lucky enough to see the critically acclaimed musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie in the Liverpool Empire.
The musical tells the story of Jamie, a sixteen year old living on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in but supported by his brilliant loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the darkness into the spotlight.
Students were impressed by the fantastic chorography, catchy songs and fabulously funny moments.
Congratulations to two of our talented Sixth Form actors who have secured offers at highly prestigious destinations.
Chloe has secured a place at the Arden School of Theatre for Musical Theatre, whilst Lilla has been accepted by Italia Conti, Arts Ed and the The Arden School of Theatre, all for acting.
All three of these institutions are top Drama schools in the UK with glittering alumni, and places are both highly sought after and hugely competitive.
Well done to our performers on this fantastic achievement!
Students who have been participating in an extensive Pupil Voice project about autism support celebrated at a launch event at Liverpool Lighthouse this week.
Liverpool City Council have been partnering with the Liverpool Parent Carer Forum and Alder Hey as part of the National Autism in Schools Project.
The students have been part of a team who have developed an awareness video which was launched at the event. They also got the opportunity to meet Olympic Athelete Kiera Byland who has represented GB at the Special Olympics in Loas Angeles and Abu Dhabi, winning six gold medals, and who herself has autism and dyspraxia.
Well done to all of the students involved!
The MYA Raise team have now published their recording of the award winning performance of ‘1 in 4’ from this year’s NOW Festival.
The hard hitting performance is being toured around schools later this year, and the video is available for viewing now on YouTube.
Prior to the Easter break Jemima and Amy visited Oxford University for a residential opportunity offered by Liverpool Aspire.
The visit gives Aspire students across the city the chance to meet up and experience university life.
During their time there they attended three academic classes based on their future interests in addition to visiting the Natural History and Ashmolean Museums. Lectures presented students with an insight to life at Oxford University followed by a Q&A session and they were able to attend an admissions workshop which included tips for applying and interview practice.
They stayed within the university in St Peter's College halls to gain a true taste of university life; and spent their evenings with other students and undergraduates where they took part in quizzes and a range of other activities provided by the university and Aspire.
Former WSL and England Football Player, and former student of St Julie's, Fern Whelan, has been honoured with recognition in the Football Blacklist.
The list was conceived in 2008 by journalists Rodney Hinds and Leon Mann to recognise the most dedicated and influential individuals in Football from the black community.
Following a hugely successful career ending at Brighton after extended spells with Everton, Fern was included in the 2023 list for her work in football governance, having taken a high profile role with the Professional Footballers Association as its first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion women's football executive.
Fern's work includes developing players at both ends of their career, supporting young professionals as they take the first steps in their careers, and helping to improve diversity in coaching, management, administration and other back room roles as players hang up their boots.
Congratulations to Fern on this prestigious honour.
The timing of Easter and the school term dates this year meant that we were able to hold our end of term Easter Services during Holy Week, and on Maundy Thursday the school community joined over two services in the Sports Hall to reflect on the most important part of the Catholic calendar.
Led by our Chaplain, the services this year focussed on the Passion story as it may have been experienced by the women who followed and supported Jesus’ ministry; those women who remained with Him until the end.
Over 40 students were involved as readers, singers, bringing visual props forward or as technical support to help make the service a poignant experience. Palm crosses were available to all students at the end of the service as reminder of the meaning of this coming Easter season.
Dot-aAt Schools is an annual, online, inter-school, art competition, culminating in a public exhibition of the winning artworks and prize giving ceremony.
For their entries Year 9 art club students explored the mixed media work of Robert Kushner and created their own interpretations of natural forms using drawing, ink, print and collage.
An expert judging panel selected the top three artworks from each school. You can Vote online for your favourite shortlisted piece in now. The shortlisted entry from each school with the most votes goes through to the final and wins a place in the public exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in June.
We've had fantastic news from the U12 Liverpool Schoolgirls football team, captained by Jessie in Year 7, have reached the national final.
St Julie's is very well represented in the side, with Scarlett and Maisie in the match squad and Luella training with the side.
We wish them lots of luck in the final which is contested in May, and we'll bring you more details on that as we get them!
We welcomed staff, parents and Governors to join together for an evening of celebration, recognising and rewarding the very best of our student community.
The evening brought inspiring words, entertainment and of course lots of applause!
After a welcome from our Chair of Governors, Mrs Smith, our guests saw a performance of ‘The Women’ prepared and performed by our Key Stage 4 and 5 dancers. The powerful piece featured dramatic recitation and spoke of the struggles and challenges that women have faced in the past and continue to face today.
Following the dance we saw the awarding of our subject excellence awards and our 'named' awards, which this year featured the inaugural presentation of the 'Tim Alderman' prize, recognising inspiring students leadership, which was awarded to Sophie in Year 13.
Our audience then heard “You Will Be Found” sung beautifully by our choir, and accompanied by Haley in Year 11 on piano.
We then saw the presentation of our mission statement awards and Spirit of Francoise awards, presented to a single student in each year group who has impressed in faithfully living out all the strands of our school mission statement.
The presentation of the final awards of the evening was preceded by an address from Mrs McCourt, who reflected on her personal values and inspirations.
The final awards were the flagship 'Notre Dame Awards, inspired by the words of our patron saint. The highest accolade of the evening is the Spirit of Saint Julie award, going to the student in thought, word and action has done most to live out the charism of Saint Julie. This year saw two awards, neatly bookending the age ranges of our school community. Congratulations to Layel in Year 7 and Charlotte in Year 13 whose outstanding actions inspired us to make two awards this year.
Congratulations to all of our wonderful award winners, and thank you to all of the guests who came to support our students.
Our Music Performers in Year 13 wowed audiences this week with their exam performance which drew on hits from across the decades.
Starting in the 1950s, the set embraced rock ‘n roll, traditional jazz, disco, hard rock, metal, power ballads and much more, providing something for every musical taste. With impressive support from Mr Smith and Mr Quinn, who performed a raucous rendition of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’, the two concerts were a huge success.
Congratulations to the students and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the Performing Arts team who worked so hard in preparation.
Scientists in Year 9 have been honing their fieldwork schools by investigating biodiversity within the school grounds.
Their early work this week included some basic sampling using quadrats to help them understand and develop their sampling techniques.
Textiles students in Year 8 have been perfecting their embroidery and machine sewing skills this term.
Students took great pride in producing cushions to reflect Indian culture, using bold colours and symbolic motifs.
This week has seen the celebration of the skills and talents and neurodiverse people.
On Friday this week we changed our school bells to songs recorded by artists who identify as neurodiverse and neurodiverse students were invited to celebration event with a host of fun activities with prizes!
Thanks to everybody who participated in events this week.
Our Now Festival winners have staged a performance of their study of domestic violence for an ACE Awareness event hosted at St Julie’s this week.
The powerful piece was delivered magnificently and made a huge impact on the appreciative audience. Thank you to all of the performers for giving their time and talents.
It is always a pleasure to invite partner organisations into our school, and they were represented in force at our ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) awareness event this week.
Thank you to our colleagues at YPAS, CAMHS, Liverpool City Council, MYA and others for supporting our students and their families.
Year 13 Drama students have taken their final bow on the St. Julie's stage as they performed for the A Level Examiner this week.
Although this is their final performance at St Julie's, a number of students are currently auditioning for prestigious Drama Schools and hope to continue their studies next year.
Students in Year 7 Textiles have produced some fantastic work developing slogan based tote bags from recycled materials.
The bags creatively promote environmental awareness and all of the students crafted the bags themselves on sewing machines. Well done to them all on the some great work!
These thriving plants were planted by the gardening club. Each Friday the members of the gardening club has been busy preparing the garden for planting.
The sweetpeas have been doing well and are nearly ready to be planted in the Peace Garden. The gardeners have been sorting seeds, preparing the beds and weeding. The growth inspired Lilly Jai to write a poem about the sweet peas.
Public Health at Liverpool City Council have commissioned a survey about school nursing services and are looking for young people aged 11-19 to participate, for which they will pay a fee. This from them:
“We’re reaching out to help find young people aged 11-19 who might like to take part in a paid research project that is happening during April. The researchers are looking for people to do a confidential interview for an hour (telephone or videocall), and anyone who takes part will be given £50. The project is about the local School Nursing services, understanding the needs of young people and experiences of the services available. This research will be used understand how the services could be developed.
The interviews are being undertaken by an independent organisation called Define, who have been commissioned to understand young peoples’ needs, wants and ideas for developing the School Nursing services. Their job is only to listen to opinions and make recommendations for services based on this and they do not share details of anyone who takes part.
For anyone under the age of 16 we would need written consent from a parent or legal guardian to take part. If you are under 16 we would need to explain the project to your parent/guardian and get their permission by responding to an email.
If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 16 who you think would be interested, we’ll explain the project to you and get your permission before speaking to your child.
If you are interested in finding out more, please email LCCresearch@define.org.uk with your preferred contact number (for under 16s you must provide a parent number/name) or call Define on 0208 346 7171 and ask to speak to Julie Taylor about the Liverpool Young People project. If you contact them there is no obligation to take part but they will explain more and you can decide if you would like to.”
Fundraising continued this week to help support two Y11 students who are joining the Youth Pilgrimage to Lourdes.
A Tombola was held at breaktime with lots of prizes to be won including Easter eggs, a bluetooth speaker and beauty items. In total the tombola raised £97.90!
Thanks to everyone who supported the event.
This week marks our CSE Awareness Week and we have been working to raise awareness of the issue of Child Exploitation.
PC Patterson has been delivering assemblies to all students throughout the week which help signpost some of the recognition signs and how students can seek help.
These assemblies are followed up with a PSHE lesson to reinforce the key messages and develop further understanding. PC Patterson also offered a drop in session to all students.
During their assembly all students were given a badge to help show their solidarity and support for the campaign!
As we enter the home run for the Summer public exam season, students in Year 11 have benefitted from the expert advice of Steve Carney, a lead examiner for AQA English.
Students across the whole Year Group participated in an exam workshop with Steve in which he discussed approaches to non-fiction writing and how to generate original ideas under the pressure of exam conditions. His no-nonsense delivery helped to impart valuable practical advice but also instilled a sense of reassurance in the candidates and they enter final preparations for their final English exams.
Sixth Form students were pleased to welcome Mariama Djaura from Liverpool John Moores University who helped cast some light on student finances.
Mariama's presentation started from the basic level and really helped the students gain a working understand of how funding works and how they will need to balance the books during University Study.
St Julie’s Catholic High School, in partnership with Liverpool School Improvement, would like to invite you to a performance and marketplace event introducing ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), recognising the signs, and exploring the long-term effects ACEs can have on a young person.
With a three-year strategy launched to transform the way Liverpool City Council responds to violence against women and girls, St Julie’s have pledged to support the campaign by creating a free and informative performance tackling domestic violence.
Headlining the event will be the presentation of ‘Flowers’, a Now Festival winning performance, which shows students standing up, speaking out and vowing not to become another woman ‘silenced by flowers'.
There will also be a marketplace with representatives of organisations supporting young people in Merseyside.
This is a free event, but tickets must be purchased via ParentPay.
Venue: St Julie's High School
Time: 5pm -6pm
Date: 21/3/24
Price: FREE
We have some fantastic news to round off British Science Week 2024 which relates to a group of Year 12 students who recently applied for a scholarship application to participate in a BioGrad training programme.
BioGrad provides students with immersive laboratory and clinical training courses at their state of the art facilities in Liverpool. The aim of their scholarship programmes is to provide students with work experience, an opportunity to ‘test drive’ their chosen career and guidance towards university interviews.
It is a highly competitive application process for which students are required to select the appropriate programme from those offered and write a personal statement to outline what they hope to gain from the course; how the opportunity will support them with their plans Post 18 and their future academic and career goals. The final part of the application is comprised of a supporting statement and reference from the school.
We are delighted that Amy, Filpa, Jana, Grace, Tullula and Ella were all successful with their applications as they have received full or partial scholarships for the programmes they applied for. Each programme covers a range of topics and techniques within the exciting field of medicine, biomedical science and emergency medicine. Sessions are led by highly skilled and experienced lecturers to help students develop their understanding of emergency medicine and explore the plethora of opportunities available within the world of medicine and biomedical sciences. The courses will equip students with many transferable skills suitable for future medical studies or laboratory work.
This will be a wonderful experience for the students and we’d like to thank BioGrad for their support and for providing us with this opportunity. We’d also like to thank the students for the dedication and commitment they’ve shown to their studies so far in Year 12; and to Mr Magor for his support during the application process. We are immensely proud of the students and would like to wish them the very best of luck as they embark on this exciting next stage of their learning journey.
An Inspector called for students in Year 8 when the talented players of MANACTCO staged an adaptation of ‘An Inspector Calls’, J. B. Priestley’s celebrated morality play.
The students found the performance hugely helpful in their understanding of the plot and characterisation within the piece and this prove very useful in their ongoing studies.
We welcomed Father Simon Gore and Lauren from Animate Youth Ministries in to school to speak to all of Year 8 about the Sacrament of Confirmation. Through a game of 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' Lauren demonstrated to students how difficult it can be to make choices and deciding who to listen to. By receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, it can help guide us as we navigate our way through life and growing up. Registration for Confirmation is still open to baptised Catholics in Year 8 and above until Friday 15th March via www.liverpoolcalled.co.uk.
If you miss the deadline, contact your local parish.
Our theatre transformed into a spooky place this week as Year 11 students saw one of their exam texts brought into life in a gripping and atmospheric small cast adaptation of ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ performed by the Quantum Theatre Group.
The performance helped students to gain new insights and perspectives into the text and will provide valuable knowledge for further study and the final examination!
Students in Year 11 Drama were facing some pressure last week as they performed their final pieces for the AQA Examiner.
The performers rose to the challenge brilliantly and their hard work in preparation meant that the performances were full of energy, pathos and comedy – though not all at the same time!
Congratulations to the students for a set of performances that impressed the examiner, and thank you to the Performing Arts department for their hard work.
The 13th March is Young Carers Action Day and this year's theme is 'Fair Futures for Young Carers'. Its aim is to highlight the need for young carers' voices to be heard in order that those around them can better understand the support they need. In school, our Young Carers Champions are Miss Machin and Mrs Jones. If you or someone you know is a Young Carer, find out about some of the support The Carer's Trust can provide here.
The Carers Trust is committed to providing opportunities for young and adult carers under 25 years to achieve and develop their future aspirations and goals through their Young Carers Futures programme. The Young Carers Futures hub page can be found here.
We acknowledge that Young Carers often do not think of themselves as carers and it is important that they are recognised and get the appropriate support. Barnado's Action With Young Carers works with young carers and young adult carers who are caring for an ill or disabled adult. Some illnesses and disabilities can be seen, others cannot. Barnado's can be contacted on 0151 228 4455 and further details can be found in this leaflet.
After the long awaited letters of school place allocation went through doors at the start of the month we were thrilled to send out invitations to the families of our newest students to attend a welcome event.
This was the first time that students in our incoming Year 7 have met each other as a Year Group and it is always a highlight of our school year.
During the event parents and carers were led to the Sports Hall for a presentation from Mrs McCourt, Mrs Rooney and Student President Sophie, whilst our students gathered in the Chapel to learn some new songs, performed for parents via video link!
Thank you to everybody who came to join us.
The TravelSafe Partnership operates a text reporting line for anyone who sees or experiences unwanted attention or sexual harassment while travelling by bus.
Passengers can report it discreetly and safely to the TravelSafe Partnership by texting SAFER to 65007, providing details of the incident including the date, time, location and route number, if it’s known.
Using their extensive CCTV system on buses and at bus stations, control room staff will then be able to monitor the behaviour, identify where sexual harassment and violence is taking place, and work with the police to bring perpetrators to justice.
This text message service was specifically requested by young people, who said they felt this would be the method they would feel most comfortable using to report behaviour which made them feel unsafe.
Liverpool Mental Health Support Team and YPAS are hosting a virtual coffee morning on Wednesday the 13th of March from 9:30-11:00.
The event is hosted on Zoom and you can scan the code above to book a place.
Congratulations to Freya in Year 10 who took gold this weekend at her first competition at junior (15-17) level!
Freya has been attending national squad training on a regular basis and is really enjoying the additional work.
Her preparation paid off as she competed for the first time at junior level in the 'Ultimate Spring Championship' - a silver level British Taekwondo event held at Barnsley Metrodome in Yorkshire.
Freya found the higher age group a new challenge battled through a very tough semi-final and final to leave the competition with a gold medal. Congratulations Freya!
It was a pleasure to welcome former student and qualified nurse Jemma Riley back into St. Julie's to share her experiences with students.
Jemma was kind enough to visit, as she has in previous years, to talk about her journey into nursing and the challenges and rewards it has brought her. She was able to share insights into routes into nursing and gave inspiration to the listening students.
St. Julie's Catholic High School