Charities
We support lots of charities throughout the year and staff, children and their families are always extremely generous in their support of others. Money is raised through fund raising events, fairs and charitable donations from the school community. In recent years we have made donations to: Cafod; Mission Together; Good Shepherd Appeal Fund and Help a Hallam Child Appeal .
We have also supported local care homes by visiting and chatting with residents with dementia and have entertained Christmas shoppers in the local supermarket with our singing and bag packing skills. We regularly collect for the local food bank (usually during Harvest, Advent and Lent).
Prayer
In school we pray in lots of different ways:
- Every week children from all year groups gather together for collective worship, which prayer plays an important part.
- There are regular child-led liturgies and prayer services in all classrooms.
- All classrooms have prayer areas that include liturgical images, artefacts and prayers.
- Children’s own prayers are offered at Mass.
- Creative prayer is an important part of every classroom and every child has a creative prayer journal which is their own personal reflective space.
- Time and opportunities are given for personal prayer time (especially during Advent and Lent).
- All assemblies and gatherings in school have a religious and prayer focus for the whole community.
- We also work hard to include families and the parish in the prayer life of our school. We do this by encouraging parents and families to attend assemblies, prayer services and collective worship.
Serving our parish and school community
We serve our parish and local community in many ways, sharing God’s message of love with others whenever we can. Some ways in which we do this are:
- Holding special, reflective services and liturgies in our church for our school and parish communities, especially during Advent and Holy Week.
- We organise a school-parish Mass at least once every term where children from our school lead the collective worship for the parish.
- Carol singing during Christmas time at a learning community carol service.
- Working with Parents as partners in our Nursery and Reception classes and throughout the school.
“Together, we pledge our commitment to raising awareness about the stewardship of creation.” Pope Francis.
Children reflect on events around the world
Children often offer reflections and say prayers for people caught up in events around the world
We continue to offer prayers for people in the Middle East torn apart by conflict in Gaza and Israel. We pray especially for those who have died, those who are grieving, the injured and those now without food, shelter or medical supplies. We pray for strength and support for all the relief organisations.
We continue to pray for Ukraine and all those affected. Children were asked to paint and draw sunflowers to be displayed in Downing Street along with writing prayers for Ukraine at the start of the war in Ukraine and have continued to pray for everyone involved.
The flooding in England and Wales was another focus of class prayers as children felt the impact locally but saw on the news the far reaching impact it had further afield.
Working together with our friends at Mission together and Cafod we provide opportunities for our children to learn about the world around them and also about the hardships others face in the world as we work together to raise awareness for God’s planet and people everywhere.
