The principles of Catholic Social Teaching are prominent within school both throughout the curriculum and in the school environment (school hall and each classroom). The design of our curriculum means that each learning block focuses on two specific principles. This offers the opportunity for the children to link their learning to the principles and living out their Catholic faith in the modern world. Please see our curriculum overviews on the curriculum page.
CAFOD Workshops
LOOKING AFTER OUR PLANET
Our Laudato Si Leaders have been busy today creating their ‘Don’t drop litter’ posters, which they have displayed around the school for all to see. Thank you to the team for reminding us all that we have a duty to look after our world – God’s wonderful creation! #cststewardship #catholiclifestm
GOD’S CREATURES
Today our Laudato Si Leaders have been very busy. They have been enjoying looking God’s creatures. They have made Cheerio bird feeders for all of the birds that visit our school gardens. Thank you to the leaders for taking the time to notice the small creatures around us.
CLEAN AIR DAY !
Year 3 took part in a Clean Air Day for their Catholic Life Pledge. they looked at how they could raise awareness to reduce air pollution, in particularly tackling the issue of ‘car idling’. The children all made their own pledge in how we they and we can reduce air pollution with the aim of taking greater care of God’s planet.
Pollution
PEACFULLY PROTESTING TO PROTECT GOD’S PLANET
What a fabulous day Year 1 had today. All of the children took part in a variety of activities to help them to understand God’s creation. The day was kickstarted with a scavenger tree hunt and the children collected a variety of leaves to create some beautiful nature inspired art work. The children made rain catchers and sorted objects, deciding upon whether they could be recycled or not. The children then made peaceful protester poster to promote the protection of the our beautiful planet.
PROTECTING OUR LOCAL AREA
Year 5 have taken the time to focus on our local area. For one of their Catholic Life Pledges, the visited Queen Elizabeth Park, and tidied up the public space. They carried out a litter pick, they held a debate about renewable energy resources and took the opportunity to act out part of their English class text. They ended their visit with a prayer and liturgy session.
Thank you year 5 for looking after our local environment.
EARTH DAY
To celebrate our planet and to give thanks to our creation, our Year 3, dressed in blue and green. As part of our their Catholic Life Pledge, they carried out a ‘tidy up’ throughout the local area. They composed their own poetry and created posters to advise people on how to care for our planet!
BLACKOUT DAY
As one of our Catholic Life Pledges, Year 5 and Year 6 decided to take part in a ‘Blackout Day’. The day involved learning in many different ways…without using energy! The purpose of the day and indeed our pledge was to support us and raise awareness towards becoming better stewards of God’s creation in line with our CST principle of Stewardship.
SUSTAINABILITY
As part of a Catholic Life pledge, the children combined ‘pleasure for reading’ with recycling. Staff at the charity shops, the library and members of the public enjoyed hearing about our Catholic Life pledge and our sustainable approach to stocking our Reading for Pleasure areas. We bought a total of 230 books for the school! Book shopping was certainly thIRsty work so the children were treated to a well-earned hot chocolate! Thank you to the PTFA for supporting our pledge.
YEAR 6 UNIFORM REUSE
The Year 6 children have been helping to recycle school uniform ahead of the new academic year. Thank you to everyone in our school community who kindly donated items of their used school uniform.
WELLY RECYCLING
Today, our Laudato Si leaders have been busy gathering all of the old wellies that our school community kindly donated. They have recycled the wellies into plant pots to help to plant our new seeds. What a a good use for old wellies!
THE BIG LENT WALK
The children have been busy getting ready for The Big Lent walk!
Thank you to everyone who sponsored us to participate in The Big Lent Walk. We raised an amazing £186 for CAFOD – such an amazing charity! Well done everybody for getting those feet moving for such a great cause!
CONFIRMATION
Congratulations to all of our confirmands who received the sacrament this evening. It was fantastic seeing you grow into your faith even further. We are very proud of you. Please keep our children in your prayers.
Fr HUDSON’S GOOD SHEPHERD MASS
Thank you to all our children who attended the annual Good Shepherd mass today. It was a wonderful opportunity for our children to serve, read bidding prayers and process our school banner. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our families who have very generously contributed to Father Hudson’s Good Shepherd appeal!
PRAYER STONES
Year 5 spent the afternoon considering and compiling their own prayers; prayers to praise, prayers to ask, prayers to say sorry, prayers of thanks and prayers of adoration. Everyone created a prayer stone and placed the stone in the prayer garden for all to visit and learn about the prayer intentions.
YEAR OF PRAYER
What beautiful artwork has been displayed in the KS2 corridor following on from our work on the first petition in the Our Father. The children looked at and listened to the Lord’s Prayer and then created a piece of artwork which encapsulated how it made them feel. Thank you Y6!
To celebrate the Year of Prayer our Year one children have baked bread and explored the meaning of “Give us this day our daily bread. “ The children understand that when we celebrate the Eucharist , God changes the bread so that it becomes the body of Jesus
To mark this month’s Year of Prayer – ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ – Year 5 took a closer look at the purpose and meaning of the Eucharist. As the Eucharist is the body of Christ, we looked at Jesus’ qualities and how to embody his qualities in a recipe for the Eucharist. Later on, the children read their recipes during our weekly Prayer and Liturgy which focused on how we can remember Jesus when we take the bread.
Whole School Christ the King Liturgy
Today, our head boys and girls led a liturgy for the whole school which centred around Christ the King. The children reflected on times when they were truly sorry and allowing Jesus to teach us to to earn our way into His kingdom. Afterwards, parents and parishioners joined us for some coffee and cake and reflected on the liturgy.
CIVIC MASS BIDDING PRAYERS
Thank you to our Year 6 children who read beautifully at the annual civic mass this morning. It was fantastic to be part of this tradition, with the mayor, for the first time in four years since lockdown.
FATHER MARCO’S MASS
What a fantastic celebration tonight at Father Marco’s Mass. We were especially proud of our Year 6 children who participated in the mass. As a school, we would like to personally thank him for all of the support and spiritual guidance that he has provided for both our children and staff. We wish him all the best in his new parish. They are very lucky to be having such a dedicated and kind-hearted Parish Priest. We will miss you.
PRAYER NOTES
Following on from learning about the Good Samaritan in our RE lessons, the children decided as one of their Catholic Life Pledges to send prayer notes to our school neighbours, to live out being a good samaritan. The children walked around the local area and posted their prayer notes.
LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
Year 1 have completed their second Catholic Life pledge ‘Love Thy Neighbour’. From our recent work on the story of The Good Samaritan, the children decided to help their neighbours, To spread some love, the children made Valentine day cards for the residents of Rowan Court Care Home. We hope that the residents enjoyed receiving the cards as much as the children enjoyed sending them.
As part of our Catholic Life Pledge, year 2 have written letters to our local elderly residents to show acts of kindness. We hope that the residents enjoyed reading their letter and we look forward to seeing if we get any responses!
PRAYING AT HOME
Thank you to all of the children and their families who have taken home the school prayer bags. Thank you for sharing your prayer intentions with us and for enthusiastically explaining how you have prepared a special area for prayer, using the prayer cloth, crucifix, holy water and calming music.
Hailey’s Home Liturgy
CLASS LITURGY
Year 6 hosted a parent liturgy this afternoon
The children prepared and delivered a short liturgy about the upcoming Racial Justice Sunday. We thought about how racial discrimination had been too big a part of our history and what hopes they have for their future. We created a paper chain containing these wishes and offered them up to God. The different colours of paper represented the wonderful array of skin tones that we have in our world.
Staff Soup Lunch
Thank you to all of the members of staff who made home soup today. A big thank you too to all of the members of staff who gave a donation for a bowl of soup. All of the proceeds will be send to CAFOD.
GOOD SHEPHERD APPEAL
St Mary’s were lucky enough to be part of an assembly all about the Good Shepherd Apeal! Jo talked to us about how we can help those less fortunate than us and even if we donate 1p, it would make a huge difference! After the assembly, Jo chatted with the Minnie Vinnies about how they can help to fundraise to support the Good Shepherd Appeal.
DOUGIE MAC
A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Dougie Mac breakfast morning today including all of the staff who helped to set up! We hope that you had a fabulous breakfast and thank you for your generous donations to the charity!
Mini Vinnies
Our Mini Vinnies put out the call for non perishable foods to be distributed within the school community. All donations were gratefully received, thank you to our donators. Well done to our Mini Vinnies who created food hamper form the donations and and to distributed them out to our local community.
