This week a team of Sixth Form volunteers met with Malka Livingstone from ML Domestic Abuse to take part in a domestic abuse awareness workshop.

The workshop aimed to highlight recognisable indications and signs of domestic abuse, equippng the students with the knowledge and skills to recognise when someone around them may be in a problematic relationship and signpost them to available support.

The programme, which consists of three workshops, will be a valuable asset to the students in supporting their peers both now and in future life.

Students in the MVP programme completed their filming last Friday with the visiting crew to raise awareness about different forms of sexual harassment.

They decided to create a 'podcast' style video to inform the audience about different types of harassment.

The gstudents involved, both in front of and behind camera, were commended for their professional conduct and enthusiasm throughout the day. The video will be released soon in the next fortnight. Well done MVP mentors! 

Well done to the Year 7, 8 and 9 netball teams who competed against teams from St. Hilda's on Monday evening. 

All three teams showed great determination but narrowly missed out on wins. Congratulations to their worthy opponents who took the honours this time. 

Congratulations to all of the athletes who participated in the Indoor Athletics competition at Greenbank on Wednesday. 

After a rigorous round of track events and field events our year 8 team took home a fantastic third place, securing a place in the Merseyside finals!

We'd also like to offer a massive well done to the Year 7 team who also had a great competition, only narrowly missing out on a place in the final. 

Last week our U15 football team faced Chesterfield in the Merseyside school cup. They won the match 3-1 displaying a brilliant performance!

They have now reached the Quarter Finals against West Kirkby with the fixture having to be played before March.

Well done to all those involved: Faith, Faye, Savannah, Ella, Amelia, Lois, Grace, Katie, Mia, Jessie, Paige, Imogen, Yasmin and Libby.

This week saw the start of this year's Now Festival rehearsals. In just 3 weeks time, St Julie's students will be performing in the 10th annual festival that focusses on raising mental health awareness. 

This year, St Julie’s will be performing, ‘Wrong Place, Wrong Time’, a hard hitting and powerful drama that tackles violence in our city and challenges the culture of keeping quiet and not being 'a grass'. 

The original drama showcases how ‘Real Men Don’t Carry Guns’, and promotes young people to use the most powerful weapon they have, their voice!

We wish the company lots of success in developing their performance and spreading their important message.

This week saw a team of Year 10 students joining a host of other regional schools at the University of Liverpool to pit their wits in the Ethics Cup regional tournament.

This competition sees teams discussing ethical issues of public concern, and isn’t a conventional debate.

The St Julie’s team faced students from Broughton Hall and Belvedere, winning one of those matches convincingly. The topics debated included saviour children, nuclear weapons, school strikes and charity donations. 

It wasn’t quite enough to secure a place in the next round, but we congratulate Libby, Yasmin, Imogen, Olivia, Martha and Georgie on a great performance!

On Wednesday this week our new cohort for the Scholar’s Programme met in the Chapel for the programme launch event!

Delivered in partnership with the Brilliant Club, the programme sees students working in University style learning with PhD researchers at a very high level.

Dear Parent/Carers,

As you are aware, we have managed to keep the school open over the past three days despite adverse weather conditions. Our site team and staff have worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the school remains safe and warm for students to access. However, after reviewing the weather forecast for tonight, I note that a yellow weather warning is still in effect, with temperatures expected to remain below freezing from 8 PM onwards and not increase above -5 until 10am tomorrow.

In light of this, I have made the difficult decision to close the school tomorrow on health and safety grounds. The road conditions in the surrounding area remain very icy and this will be exacerbated further by the falling temperatures tonight. I am announcing this decision now to give families time to arrange childcare or make alternative plans.

Homework will be set via the apps (Sparx Maths, Seneca, Educake etc) for students to complete at home.

Please note that all planned public examinations (Year 12 and 13) for BTEC Sport (AM exam, 9am), BTEC Health & Social Care (PM exam, 1.30pm) and Criminology (all day – 9-3pm) will still take place on Friday 10th January at the scheduled times. School will be open for public examinations only and staff will be on site to support the students with their exams.

School will be fully open to all students from 8:00am on Monday 13th January.

I sincerely apologise for any disruption this may cause and thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Best wishes,
Kate McCourt
Headteacher

On Thursday our Sixth Form centre saw a vibrant change of dress from the usual black uniforms as students enjoyed the annual fancy dress competition! 

Participation was excellent this year and the costume parade delighted students in lower school!

The standard was so high this year and there was such a variety of fab looks to choose from it was difficult for the judges to arrive at a decision.  We'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who took part!

 Our deserving prize winners are:

PA department lookalikes - almost impossible to separate the copycats from the original icons

I'm a Celeb - a popular choice and both groups looked equally great, so both deserve a prize

Bruno Mars - not only did they bring the looks and attitude, they also performed throughout the day to some lucky listeners

Nativity Boy Band - what a collection of dazzling performers and questionable goatees

Tangled - for their excellent representation of a Disney Classic

The Wizard of Oz - complete with witch, lion and dyed trainers/ruby slippers

NYC - for bringing a bite of the Big Apple to St Julie's

Step Brothers - for their startlingly uncanny portrayal of Brennan Huff and Dale Doback

Throughout this week students have been celebrating success in Merit Cup Assemblies, and once again our form group winners have joined together in the dining room to enjoy a winners’ breakfast banquet.

Our catering team worked hard to prepare a huge breakfast with options for everybody. Congratulations to our winners!

To mark the end of a long but hugely successful team a troupe of our dancers surprised their classmates with an unannounced  breaktime flashmob, breaking out into a carefully choreographed dance routine to Mariah Carey’s ‘Oh Santa!’

Well done to the dancers for a great performance and for keeping the secret so well!

Congratulations to Charlotte in Year 11 and Leah in Year 8 who were the lucky winners of our Liverpool shirts.

All students who were in school today were entered into a prize draw for the prizes which were generously donated by the LFC Foundation.

Scarlett, Jessie and Maisie in Year 8 have been sharing their footballing expertise in a structured lesson with their class.

The players prepared some great teaching resources with diagrammatic illustrations and rounded off with a quiz.

Well done on delivering a great lesson!

Volunteers from Micah foodbank have gratefully received our donation for the foodbank this year, much of which has been collected by our Sixth Form students.

This year's collection saw a twist as it co-incided with Sixth Form fancy dress day, and so our donations were handed over by three Hello Kitties and two Scooby Doos! 

Thank you to everyone who has supported the food bank this Christmas with a donation.

Lilly Jai in Year 8  has been working hard collecting selection boxes for Fans Supporting Food Banks.

The organisation was set up to help provide food to communities across our city and over the years has grown nationwide.

They rely on donations from lots of organisations, and they have the support from Liverpool & Everton FC, where volunteers do match day collections of food provided by the generosity of fans attending the football games.

The food is then distributed to members of the public every day through their food pantries. We have seen how much this charity helps families within our city and the difference it makes. Well done to Lilly Jai for her hard work!

Throughout the week we have been celebrating the excellent conduct and attendance of our students in the end of term Merit Cup Assembly!

Each day a different year group has been tallying up the points for merits, attendance and punctuality, celebrating both individual successes and achievements made as a form group. 

The assemblies see students receiving applause, acclaim and lots and lots of confectionery! 

Congratulations to all of our students for their excellent achievements since September. Our form winners in each year group will be taking part in our cup winners' breakfast banquet on the last day of term.

This week students have celebrated Advent in services with their Year Groups in our Chapel.

In a departure from previous years, students celebrated in services led by members of their own year groups, who used readings, reflection and prayer to liken the story of the nativity to chocolate, with a suitable smattering of confectionery products throughout their words!

Students enjoyed a live music performance from Year 13 student Cai, who was also a key member of our Sixth Form team who filmed and edited our Christmas video!

Thank you to all of the students who respectfully engaged so well in the many services that place throughout the day, and to Mrs Rainey for her hard work in co-ordinating everybody.

On Wednesday this week our catering team worked incredibly hard to create a traditional Christmas roast dinner for students to enjoy!

Students were able to celebrate in style with a turkey roast dinner and all the usual trimmings along with Christmas crackers and hats!

The annual meal takes a huge amount of preparation and Mrs Mitchell and the team delivered a fantastic occasion with a healthy portion of Christmas spirit. 

Thank you to the entire team!

We were delighted to receive some lovely letters from Students at Woolton Primary School who told us how much they enjoyed seeing the Christmas production of 'Grease'!

The beautifully written letter to our staff read as follows:

"Dear St Julie's Staff,

Woolton Primary's Year Six have recently visited your production of Grease. On behalf of all of the pupils and staff here we would like to share that it was fantastic and clever. 

The dancing and singing was beautifully taught, you should be very proud. The music was perfect and timed excellently. You have made an amazing production that people will talk about for years to come. The props and stage design was impeccable and must have been hard to make so beautifully and well. 

The jackets of the 'T' Birds were designed just like the movie in our opinion. Keep up the good work and we hope you invite us again next year and for many years to come.

Yours sincerely,

Woolton Year Six Pupils and Staff'

And the lovely letter to our cast said:

"Dear Actors,

I really enjoyed the play. It had loads of songs and the only was to predict what you were going to watch is to have watched Grease the film version.

I liked how all the charactesr worked well together and they didn't have stage fright. My favourite part is the songs and my favourite character was Danny Zuko. There was little to no things I disliked because I think it went perfectly.

This play was absolutely brilliant and I hope it went well for the other performances. I hope everything went well and everyone liked it.

Yours sincerely,

James"

We're thrilled that everyone enjoyed the show so much and we loved reading the letters. Hopefully some of the Year 6 students from Woolton Primary can return the favour next year by being part of our Christmas production themselves!

Congratulations to Libby in Year 13 who has been selected to represent England in the Futsal U19 team!

Libby's selection can be attributed to her skill, dedication and passion for the sport, and we hope this international cap cap will be the first of many!

Students working in our Stars room have been working to support a local initiative distributing Christmas cards to older members of our community.

Age Concern Liverpool & Sefton along with New Mersey Shopping Park have launched the 'Merry Mailbox' initiative which aims to gather heartfelt Christmas cards to be distributed to older members of the community who may be feeling isolated over the festive period.

On Friday our U15 football team faced Hartford CoE High School in their latest round of the English Schools' Cup.

Unfortunately, St Julie's lost the game 5-1 but kept their heads held high throughout. Even though the bruising score line did not reflect it, the game was a good battle with Hartford just getting a few good runs in behind. The students have shown great resilience and are determined to come back into the competition next year more fiercely competitive than ever.

Well done to Katie, Faye, Yasmin, Amelia, Lois, Annabelle, Paige, Savannah, Mia, Hollie and Grace

Last Thursday, over 30 pupils in Year 9 attended a Spanish reward breakfast. This was held to celebrate the consistent effort that these students have shown with classwork and homework.

They were all served “churros con chocolate” a typical Spanish breakfast, and then Señora Muñoz led a few games of Spanish bingo, where lots of prizes were won!

Congratulations to all those who qualified for the breakfast, and we hope to have a bigger breakfast with more successful students in the New Year!

Congratulations to Freya in Year 11 who at the end of last month competed in her first overseas Taekwondo tournament at G1/E1 level. This level of competition holds status for World Taekwondo ranking, and attracts a very high level of competition.

Representing Liverpool Elite, Freya's Taewkondo club, she competed in the under 59kg category at the Bosnia and Herzegovina Open 2024, against 26 competitors from across the globe.

Freya was slightly unfortunate in her draw, facing a first round opponent from Korea, the birthplace of Taekwondo.

Undaunted, Freya fought valiantly but was unable to overcome the depth of experience that her opponent was able to draw on, leading to an early exit from the competition. Freya nevertheless drew a huge amount from her experience, not least some great strategies for future competitions at this level.

Well done Freya!

Knowsley Health Visitors/School Health Team, along with Home-Start Knowsley run an on-going SEND Drop-in service, as listed below. This is for any parents/carers of Knowsley children/young people (aged 0-25 years) who have potential or confirmed additional needs. Just pop in for a coffee and a chat and we can advise and link you in with the local support/make appropriate referrals that your child might benefit from at this time. No appointment necessary.

George Howard Centre, Lickers Lane, Whiston, L35 3SR Every 1st Thursday of the month 9.30am-12noon

Thursday 6th February
Thursday 6th March
Thursday 3rd April

Northwood Family Hub at The Pride, 2 Simonswood Lane, Northwood, L33 5YP Every 2nd Thursday of the month 9.30am-12noon

Thursday 9th January
Thursday 13th February
Thursday 13th March
Thursday 10th April

Hilltop Children’s Centre, Bedford Close, Huyton, L36 1XH Every 3rd Wednesday of the month 9.30am-12noon

Wednesday 15th January
Wednesday 19th February
Wednesday 19th March
Wednesday 16th April

New Hutte Children & Family Hub, Litchfield Road, Halewood, L26 1TT Every 4th Wednesday of the month 9.30am-12noon

Wednesday 22nd January
Wednesday 26th February
Wednesday 26th March
Wednesday 23rd April

For any further information please call Knowsley School Health and Health Visiting Team: 0151 514 2666 or Knowsley Homestart: 0151 480 3910

On Wednesday evening we drew the curtains on our spectacular production of Grease: The Musical! Months of hard work in preparation saw the company deliver five breathtaking performances, including our traditional matinee performances for students in Year 7 and another for guests from our local primary schools. 

This year's show was technically challenging, with a huge array of costume changes, complicated staging, double the number of radio microphones that we typically use and live music throughout from our house band, as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers!

Staff and students worked tirelessly to ensure that the performances were polished and professional, and audiences responded with generous enthusiasm!

Congratulations to every member of the Performing Arts team, the facilities team and every staff member who helped to give our talented actors, singers, dancers, musicians and technical crew the opportunity to showcase their amazing skills. You can relive the feel of the show in the wonderful photos from Mrs Mannings. Grease is the word!

We've another round of stylish designs from our latest tranche of Year 9 textiles students!

The group have rustled up some designs from paper, exploring how they can work with the material creatively to replicate some of the ideas that can be executed in cloth.

Well done to all of them on some splendid work!

Congratulations to Emmie in Year 7 who has netted a new personal best at the Bolton Counties Christmas Countdown swim meet.

Among her chest full of medals she achieved a race time in the 50m butterfly which is the fastest age group time in the North West, the second fastest time in England and the third fastest time in the UK!

Our school choir have once again been honoured by an invitation to sing at the Marie Curie 'Lights to Remember' service, held at Liverpool Cathedral last Sunday.

The annual service is a chance for families who have been bereaved to unite in memory of their loved ones. Our singers rose to the emotional occasion beautifully, and as well as their beautiful choral song, accompanied expertly by Year 12 pianist Hayley, those in the congregation heard readings from Ava and Emily and a solo performance from Lilly Jai. 

Thank you to all the students for giving their time and talents so willingly, particularly as many of the choir performers had been in rehearsals all day for our Christmas production.

Congratulations to five of our talented performers who have shine in Trio Entertainment's production of Cinderella at Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park!

Well done to Millie and Jasmine in Year 7, Amelia in Year 8, Charlotte in Year 10 and Keira in Year 12 for great performances on the professional stage!

We’d like to congratulate four of our Year 12 students this week: Hannah, Pembah, Keira and Lily have been accepted onto this prestigious programme offered by the University of Liverpool.

On successful completion of the programme, students will receive additional consideration when applying to study at the University of Liverpool.

This is dependent on the student meeting all other admissions criteria (for example, interview performance, subject specific requirements and GCSE grades) however, the additional consideration will include:

• A guaranteed conditional offer of a place at the University of Liverpool*
• An offer reduced by up to 2 A Level grades or equivalent.

This is an excellent opportunity for our four successful applicants and we look forward to hearing about the launch event on January 25th!

On Thursday this week, every student in Year 7 joined with other students from across the City at the Advent Carol Service at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. The service, celebrated by the Cathedral Dean, Mgr Anthony O’Brien, followed a theme of ‘Let Your Light Shine’.

Well done to all of our students for their exemplary conduct during both the service and the travelling!

Year 12 Business Students have been part of a project hosted by Kirsty Doyle from The KD Club, helping to  launch a Christmas pop-up shop in the Met Quarter.

The project was split into two halves, the first half required students to think of ideas for the shop and discuss appropriate branding techniques and create a professional press release.

Kirsty then invited students to help with the launch of the shop. The students got to work as part of a team and apply the theory they have learnt in the classroom to a real-life event. We are really grateful to Kirsty for this opportunity and the students now have first-hand business and networking experience. T

he shop will be open on Saturday 7^th December, please feel free to pop down and see the work the students have put in to helping with the launch of it.'

Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 footballers who reached the final of the Liverpool Schools' tournament last week!

The team had a fantastic tournament and blew their opponents away in every match ultimately reaching the final. St Julie's played and beat teams from Calderstones, Blue Coat and Archbishop Blanch on their journey to the final.

The team dominated possession against Calderstones in the final, with the ball hardly entering our half of the pitch, but we were not able to put the ball in the back of the net. The final went to penalties with Calderstones just edging the win. It was a fantastic performance from all of our students from start to finish with an unfortunate result.

Well done to:

Scarlett, Jessie, Freya, Peggy, Annabelle, Sharnie, Heidi, Ava, Luella and Maisie.

Congrastulations to Emmie in Year 7 who has recently had a fantastic swim at the Percey Mason Memorial Meet!

Emmie swam in 14 races and achieved a staggering 5 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes! She is training hard for the forthcoming Regional Northwest Meet in April 2025.

Well done Emmie for fantastic dedication to her swimming!

Our school community has once again dug deep and shown great generosity supporting women’s refuges in South Liverpool and Knowsley.

The refuges support women and children escaping domestic violence, and awareness of their work is a part of our white ribbon campaign. The centres are constantly in need of toiletries and supplies, as well as toys and entertainment for women and their children, from babies to teenagers, who often arrive at the refuges with nothing.

Thank you for your generous donations, which will help support centres in our communities, and to Sixth Form students Phoebe, Freya, Libby and Grace  for their help in supporting and promoting the collection.

Congratulations to Mrs Chisam and Miss Knisz who have successfully completed a development programme to become SEND and Inclusion advocates.

This course, running over several months, was led by School Improvement Liverpool to support improved attendance and engagement in school. Well done to our new advocates!

On Friday, 29th November, Sixth Form Politics students had the privilege of meeting Baroness Lister of Burtersett, a member of the House of Lords.

During the session, Baroness Lister provided an insightful introduction to Parliament and detailed her role as a peer. Students then engaged in an interactive Q&A session, posing 20 thoughtful and challenging questions that impressed the Baroness.

This experience enriched the students' understanding of the House of Lords and offered a fascinating glimpse into Baroness Lister's perspectives on various issues, enhancing their knowledge of British politics.

14 students from our school community took part in the very first Resonate Youth Collective Symphony Orchestra 100 on Wednesday 27th November.

They had a variety of  workshops throughout the day teaching them how to work in small sections as well as working as part of the larger ensemble. They also had the opportunity to improvise as part of their own large composition piece based on a few notes.

Students enjoyed every minute and were joined by pupils from Notre Dame, St Hilda's, St John Bosco, St Margaret's, Dixons Broadgreen and North Liverpool Academy.

Pupils were exemplary and loved hearing the sounds come together. Seven students received awards at the end of the day at the concert which parents attended. Abigail in Year 9 received the award for the lower strings section!

Congratulations to all of the students involved!