Catholic Life
St. Mary’s C.P. School
We are a Catholic School. Everything that happens here is informed by Gospel Values and the teachings of Jesus.
We are a loving community, where all are treated with respect, where a commitment to justice underpins all that we do and teach, and where the presence of God is reflected in our daily routine. At our school each individual grows in the knowledge and love of Christ.
St Mary’s, in partnerships with our parents and whole community provide an education that is based on the values of living life through Christ. The shared dedication of our wonderful staff team is an essential factor in maintaining our excellent standards; we want our pupils to learn, to grow and to be inspired by Gospel values, so that they can reflect God’s love in their everyday lives.
Our Mission Statement
Our school has its own distinctive mission statement which expresses our shared sense of purpose:
“At St Mary’s we grow and learn in the footsteps of Jesus”
Fundamental to this purpose is the belief that every person is made in the image and likeness of God and if we follow the gospel values we will become better people.
Our mission is to seek the ongoing development of every pupil and young person and to promote their well-being and freedom. This vision shapes the daily life of the Catholic school as a community in which faith is expressed and shared through every aspect of its activity.
We are in the process of reviewing our school Mission Statement. All stakeholders are involved and have been asked to comment on it by 1.12.2021
Candlemas
We were lucky enough to to welcome Margaret Wright, from the Diocese of Lancaster Education Service, the celebrate Candlemas day with us. Margaret led each of the classes in worship to deepen our understanding and ask questions of awe and wonder about our faith. All of the pupils and staff had a lovely day of worship with Margaret.
The Creed
To help the children learn ‘The Creed’ and to have an understanding of this special prayer, the children were asked to displa a piece of artwork that is displayed in our school hall.
Prayer and Liturgy
One of the most important tasks of Catholic schools is to lead children, through celebrating liturgies, towards an understanding and appreciation of prayer and the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist. Prayer and liturgy is an integral part of school life at St Mary’s and is central to the Catholic tradition.
Laudato Si’ for children
Pope Francis has written a letter addressed to every person on the planet, asking us all to protect the earth. Will you play your part to protect our common home?
The children at St Mary’s are trying to think of different ways that we can help in the challenge to protect our planet. Here is one example. The Reception children made planters out of Mrs Gibson’s plastic bottles. They have really brightened up the EYFS outdoor area. They are also encouraging lots of mini beasts to come and visit us.
Symbols in RE
Children across the school learn about the different symbols associated with the Catholic religion such as Lent and Easter. In Year 2 the children found out about the Holy Trinity. They created triangles to help them to remember that God is made up of three parts but is one God.
The Year of the Word
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales designated 2020 as the ‘The God Who Speaks: The Year of the Word’ to celebrate the 10th anniversary of verbum Domini- Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation on ‘The Word of the Lord’.
There was a range of activities that took place over the year based on the gospel of Matthew. Here is an example of some of the work that the children created based on the ‘Journey of Matthew.’
Holy Week
Children across school have been completing a range of activities around Holy Week. They have retold the Bible stories – such as ‘The Last Supper’, ‘Good Friday’ and ‘Easter Sunday. They have also completed art work based on the Stations of the Cross and will be taking part in Prayer and Liturgy where they will reflect upon the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
Decorated Egg Competition
We held our decorated egg competition and the entries were amazing. We have some very talented children at St. Mary’s. We talked about the symbolism of the egg. How it symbolises new life.
Father Kevan
Our head boy and head girl interviewed Father Kevan to find out a little more about him and introduce him to our school community. Father joined our parish earlier in the year and we can’t wait to work with him.
Ascension Day – Prayer and Liturgy – Year 4
The Year 4 did a whole school prayer and liturgy via zoom on Ascension Day. This was also shared to our parents on Seesaw. The children thought carefully about this important time in the churches calendar.
Ascension role play
The children listened to the story of the ‘ascension’ and we talked about how Jesus ascended into heaven to be with his daddy. We then acted out how Jesus maybe said good bye to his Disciples before he went back up into heaven to live with his father, God. The children took it in turns to be different roles and thought carefully about how the different people in the story may have felt at this time.
Fratelli Tutti – Year 2 Prayer and Liturgy
The Year 2 class did a whole school prayer and liturgy based on Pope Francis’ message in Fratelli Tutti. They explained to the children how we are all brothers and sisters and need to take care of each other. They based their liturgy on the story of ‘The Good Samaritan’. Their message was that we need to help everybody.
May is the month of Mary
This morning to celebrate the month of May and Our Lady we listened to a very special song: Immaculate Mary. We then listened to and joined in with one decade of the rosary. The children learned all about rosary beads and what they are used for. All of our Reception friends were very respectful and joined in amazingly well with the prayers.
