The Catholic Life of the School

Our School Virtues and Catholic Social Teaching Principles

Each class along with our Chaplaincy and Mini-Vinnies team have one of our virtues and a catholic social teaching principle to focus on each year. This year (2024/2025) the virtues and CST principles for each class can be seen below.

At the beginning of our school year, we all undertook art work and other activities linked to our virtues and CST principle.
We hope that you enjoy looking at the photographs from each year group which celebrate all our work.

EYFS – Joy

We practised spreading joy to everyone by trying to give stickers of joy to other people in our class, the team who got the most stickers on to the other team and ‘spread the most joy’ won, but we all had so much fun we didn’t mind who the winner was.

Year 1 – Respect

Our school and our faith help to guide us to respect each other in what we do and say, and so does our mission statement. We show respect to everyone because we value everyone in the name of Jesus the Christ. We know that we are all made by God, in his image, and we are all loved and respected by God

A good way to show respect is to think about how you would like to be treated and then treat others that way.

We listened to the story of Creation and thought about how we can respect all of God’s creations. We made special binoculars to help us see the world how God sees it, and to help us understand how special God’s creations are.

Year 2 – Kindness

We thought about how we show kindness. We choose to be kind because we see that everybody and everything is part of God’s creation. We are all made by God, in his image and we show we value someone when we are kind to them.

We thought about the story of the sheep and the goats, and the corporal works of mercy. We made a pledge of kindness on our own sheep, to help remind us of how we can follow our mission statement.

Year 3 – Forgiveness

We acted out the story of the prodigal son, and reflected on how hard it can be to ask for forgiveness and how it can be even harder to forgive. We made paper chains of everything we wanted to say sorry for because we know when we say ‘we value all in the name of Jesus the Christ’, forgiveness is a big part of it.

Year 4 – Patience

It takes patience to listen to people and make sure that we are acting in a way which helps people who need it, not just doing what is quick and easy.

Year 5 – Honesty

If everyone was honest about what we have and what we truly need we could make sure everything is shared fairly.

Year 6 – Courage

It takes courage to stand in solidarity with someone and to stand up for what we believe is right.

Chaplaincy – Faith

How do we actively participate in our faith?

Mini Vinnies – Service

Serving others by putting their needs before our own.

2024/2025

Christmas Tree Decorating – December 2024

This week parents from our Stay and Play session were joined by their children in school to help decorate the Christmas Tree. This was a lovely thing for the families to share together whilst helping the school. Beyond their visual appeal, Christmas trees help to reduce stress and fostering a sense of connection and happiness during the festive season.

Wreath Making – November 2024

The children’s families were invited into school to make advent wreaths for the school. It was a great event that promotes partnership working between parents and the school. It gave the children the chance to have quality time with their families. The wreaths made, will be blessed by Fr. Andrew and placed in classrooms ready for the season of Advent!

Other Faiths; Judaism – Jewish Visitors – November 2024

Across the school, we were visited in our classes by two individuals from the Jewish community. They went to each class and they based their information session around what had been learnt in RE for other faiths week (see RE page) . Here is a few of the impact statements from some of the classes visited:

Reception:

The Jewish Visitors Peter and Kevan helped us embed the learning from our previous RE lesson about the Jewish festival Hanukkah. We got to look at artefacts again and ask questions. Children remembered that during the Feast of Lights festival Jewish people enjoy oily foods like doughnuts and latkes, which Peter and Kevan said they enjoy when they celebrate Hanukkah. It was interesting to find out that Hanukkah is celebrated on different days during November and December. We learnt that this year Hanukkah will start on boxing day.

Year 1;

Our Jewish visitors asked us all about the work we had been doing during our Judaism topic. They then told us, in more detail about the key people, Abraham and Moses. Our visitors sang some psalms in Hebrew. We talked about how we sing psalms at Mass. We also looked at the Torah and learnt about how important it is to the Jewish people.

Year 2;

Today the visitors came to talk to us about the Shabbat. They explained what happens from the Friday night sunset to Saturday night sunset. They sang some songs to us which were in Aramaic. This is something they do during the Shabbat, when they cannot do anything else such as watch TV or do any jobs. They brought lots of items with them and discussed them with us. They discussed the different roles during the Shabbat and what different family members can do. The eldest girl lights the candles and boys over the age of 12 can go to the Synagogue on the Saturday morning. It was a really informative session and it consolidated the learning from the week previous and also gave the children a chance to ask any questions which they had.

Remembrance Day – November 2024

We marked this special day as a school. Each year group created something linked to Remembrance Day such as poppies. We discussed in our year groups the meaning behind the day and held a service. The service saw everyone observe a 2 minutes silence at 11am and all of the children showed their upmost respect. At the end of the service, children were able to bring what they had made to the alter

All Saints Day – November 2024

Our All Saints Day celebration was lead by Deacon Stephen and supported by the Minnie Vinnies and Mrs Steeper. It was a thoroughly engaging assembly in which all children enjoyed. He discussed the meaning of All Saints Day and we discussed what it meant to be a Saint. Deacon Stephen discussed different reasons why some of the well known Saints became Saints. Each class decorated a Saints virtue and these were presented during the celebration. The mission for next year on Halloween is, no trick or treat… simply, treat or treat!

Harvest Festival – October 2024

Thank you to all of the parents and children who donated this year! The food collected went to Harbour Place. We gathered together for a liturgy led by the children and Mrs Tuff and we sang harvest songs together. It was a joyous liturgy, however, the reason of why we collect food for the harvest was not forgotten.

Beginning of Year Mass – September 2024

We gathered together as a school to celebrate the new school year. We heard in the Gospel about an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph to tell him that he will have a son that will be named Jesus. The passage reinforces to us that Jesus was not a regular human-being but was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was the son of God. We celebrated together with Father Andrew and students from across Ks2 helped to support the mass through reading, offering up the offertory and we all joined together in singing and joined in with responses.

Preparing for the Jubilee Year 2025 – September 2024

In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, 2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer by Pope Francis, with a particular focus on the Our Father.

‘Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of his disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”’  Luke 11:1

Someone once said that ‘prayer doesn’t help our relationship with God, prayer IS our relationship with God!’ and so when we become more devoted to prayer, we are building up that Divine friendship. Being Pilgrims of Hope means that we should always be growing in our love of prayer on our journey of Faith.

“I would greatly desire that we devote 2024, the year preceding the Jubilee event, to a great ‘symphony’ of prayer.’” Pope Francis

As part of the Year of Prayer, we thought deeply about our own prayer life. What we pray, how we pray and why we pray.

Each class focussed on a part of the Lord’s prayer and looked deeply into its meaning. We produced a piece of work to demonstrate its meaning which forms a display in our KS1 corridor.

Celebration of our Catholic Faith – September 2024

When we came back to school in September we spent three days focusing on catholic life within the school. We worked together in our classes to explore different areas and created work to showcase our learning.

We looked at in depth our mission statement, exploring the meaning of each word. Each class was given a virtue and catholic social teaching theme which linked to the mission statement and created pieces of work on this. We created, art work, poems and even a rap song! Each class created a prayer station that went outside in the corridor which linked to the mission statement and this gives children the chance to go and reflect on different areas.

As part of this week, we looked at the year ahead being a ‘year of prayer’ in preparation for the Jubilee year in 2025. Each class explored the prayer ‘Our Father’ and for each line of the prayer each class created a piece of work which has been put together to create a display.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the three days and it has created a deeper understanding of what we believe in, in school (Valuing all in the name of Jesus the Christ). It also gave the chance for students to showcase their talents and learning in different ways such as through art and rap.

2023/2024

Briars – July 2024

The Briars is a residential retreat centre based in Crich in the Derbyshire Dales. They work with young people from all across the diocese as they embark on retreat experiences.. For between 3 and 5 days we offer our young people the opportunity to step out of their everyday life, to focus on their relationship with themselves, each other and with God through days packed with team building, teaching, prayer and fun.

Year 6 enjoyed themselves, making new friendships, enjoying new games and even had breakfast with Father Andrew Cole.

Thank you Staff – Mrs Ballard, Mrs Shaw and Mrs Szlapankska for supporting the children on the trip.

Word on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Pupils from the chaplaincy team worked together with pupils from St Joseph’s chaplaincy team to lead a celebration of the Word on the Sacred Heart of Jesus in each school. This was a great opportunity for pupils to begin to get to know each other ahead of their joint retreat to the Briars. We were asked to consider all the ways we show love to others and the ways we are loved by God, before making a promise to love like Jesus loves and making our own thumbprint heart surrounding the image of the Sacred heart of Jesus. These hearts will be displayed in each school as a reminder of that promise

The Crowning of Mary

Mary is our school’s patron saint. May is the month of Mary.

Each year, during the month of May, we crown a statue of Mary. The children who have made their First Holy Communion (usually Year 3 children) lead us all on a procession around our school before we place flowers at the feet of the statue. We sing songs about Mary and Mrs Tuff lead us in a litany to Mary. It was a beautiful occasion.

Mini Vinnie

Here are the photos of Mini Vinnie’s leading collective worship based on catholic Social teaching. They explained the principles to all of the children. Each class now have a principle to focus on and will be involved in different activities linked to these.

Please find the link to Catholic Social Teaching

https://cafod.org.uk/pray/catholic-social-teaching

All Saints

Pupils from FS2 to year 6 attended the Parish Mass in St Mary on the Sea Church. Pupils from each class led the readings, brought up the offertory gifts, altar served, and helped to steward Communion.  Members of the parish commented on how well the children behaved and and how beautifully they sang.

COF Training with Hanna Leach Lead Chaplin

Visit to Lincoln – Synod

This Synod is intended as a Synodal Process. The aim of this synodal process is not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of synodality, but rather to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term.

Pope Francis is inviting all the baptised to participate in this Synodal Process that begins at the diocesan level.

Three children represented our school brilliantly at The Synod for our diocesan schools which took place the week before half term and truly were excellent examples of the living voice of the People of God.

Harvest Festival

The Chaplaincy team led the Harvest Festival celebration based on the feeding of the 5000, and invited us to think about how we can live out our school mission statement by valuing all in the name of Jesus the Christ. The school donated non perishable items to Habour Place in Grimsby. They work with people who are homeless and those at risk of homelessness. Please click on link below to visit the website. And thank you  the families who kindly donated.

Harbour Place Grimsby

Wreath Making

We invited all parents and carers to come to school to make classroom wreaths. What a lovely afternoon all was had.

2022/2023

We gathered as a school, with members of the local parish to celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. We heard in the gospel of Matthew about the visit of the Wise Men, who journeyed from the East to come and worship Jesus. They were led to worship him by a star which they followed as it rose in the east and settled over the place where the infant Christ-child was born.

The visit of the three Kings came some time after Jesus was born which is why we celebrate it 12 days after Christmas Day. This Epiphany of Jesus shows that he came for all humankind, not just God’s chosen people, the Jews. The gifts are also significant. Gold to show Jesus’s kingship, the King of Kings. Frankincense to show his royal priesthood, the most High Priest, and Myrrh to show how important his death would be and how that would bring salvation to all!

Fr Andrew blessed the entrances of the school with the traditional chalk blessing, usually done on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord.

Chalk is blessed with holy water, which can then be taken and used to bless dwelling places. The blessing is done by marking 20+C+M+B+23. The 20 and 23 represent the year (2023). C M and B have 2 meanings. Firstly, the names of the wise men, Casper, Melchior and Balthazar, who visited the toddler Jesus on the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord.  The letters also stand for ‘Christus Mansionem Benedicat’ the Latin for ‘may Christ bless this home’.

Joint Mass with the other schools in Grimsby