Catholic Life of the School
We live to love, learn and follow Jesus who says, "Love one another as I have loved you."
At St. Margaret Clitherow Catholic School we believe and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. We value and respect all; growing and learning together as part of God’s family, to be the best we can be. Our mission statement of “We live to Love, Learn, Respect and follow Jesus who says ‘Love One Another as I have loved you’” permeates all aspects of our school life.
The governors and staff of St. Margaret Clitherow Primary School recognise that they work to educate the children in their care in a range of ways, as the centre of this is the spiritual development of the children, particularly in the Catholic faith.
As part of the community of Catholic schools who work alongside the Catholic Church there is a clear purpose for the existence of St. Margaret Clitherow Catholic School.
It is the mission of all Catholic schools that we contribute to the ‘common good’ of our community and society as a whole in response to the Church’s teaching on social justice.
When pupils join our school they become part of this community. Every day starts with an Act of Worship, we give thanks before lunch and we end the day with a prayer. We believe that Christ is at the centre of all we do and therefore we offer each child a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum of the highest standard to meet their spiritual, emotional, moral, intellectual and physical needs and to prepare them for the responsibilities of adult life.
The programme of Religious Education we follow is in line with the Catholic Directory as specified by the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. Religious Education is taught to all children in the school for a minimum of 10% of curriculum time, not including worship. It is considered central to the whole school curriculum. We follow key teachings from Catholic traditions that are taken from the RECD (Religious Education Curriculum Directory). Through this directory, the children are taught the basics of Catholic faith and morality, with constant reference to their own life experience.
We have excellent links with our parish church, English Martyrs, and the parish priest, Fr Albert Ofere, is a regular visitor to school. The school attends mass at English Martyrs on special occasions and a class attends mass on a Friday on a regular basis. The parish priest also celebrates mass and Liturgies at the school throughout the year including the special Tie-ing in Assembly where our Reception children are officially welcomed to the school.
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT PUPIL CHAPLAINCY
For worship based on the weekly Gospel click here
For resources on saints which link with the liturgical year click here
LITURGIES/MASSES - Autumn 2nd 2024
School Dates
- Friday 8th November – Year 5 Class Assembly for Remembrance Day at 9.15am.
- Friday 15th November – Year 3 going to Mass at English Martyrs
- Monday 11th November (for 3rd November)- Year 6 Class Saint celebration for feast of St Martin de Porres and own clothes day
- Monday 2nd December - Advent Liturgies at 11am
- Thursday 5th December – Christmas Concerts as follows:
- Reception at 10am
- Year 1 and 2 at 11am
- Year 3 and 4 at 2.15pm
- Thursday 12th December - Christmas Concerts as follows:
- Year 5 and 6 at 9.30am
- Nursery at 11am
VALUES OF THE MONTH
NOVEMBER - LOVE
DECEMBER - RESPECT
PUPIL CHAPLAINS
Welcome to our New Pupil Chaplains who have been selected by the outgoing Chaplains based on an application and interview process. There was a large number of applications this year and we were very impressed with the standard of applications. Our 3 existing Year 6 Chaplains will stay in position to support the new members with their role.
Our School Chaplains
Pupil Chaplains Action Plan
Please click on the links below for websites relevant to our Catholic community.
English Martyrs https://parish.rcdow.org.uk/wembleypark/
Wednesday Word http://www.wednesdayword.org
Diocese of Westminster http://rcdow.org.uk
The Holy See. http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
Catholic Herald http://www.catholicherald.co.uk
CARITAS IN ACTION
This year we will begin to use the new “Rooted in Love” programme created by Caritas Westminster. This is a new project to support schools with their journey in Catholic Social Teaching. The programme runs on a two-year rolling programme covering the following topics:
Our first topic is “Preferential Option for the Poor”
CLASS SAINTS
Every class has their own class saint. On the feast day of their saint (or the closest day possible)- they will have a special liturgy and be allowed to wear their own clothes. You will be given further details of this nearer the time.
Reception - St George
Year 1 - St John Paul II
Year 2 - St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa)
Year 3 - St Josephine Bakhita
Year 4 - St Oscar Romero
Year 5 - St Thérèse of Lisieux
Year 6 - St Martin de Porres
IMPORTAT DATES FOR THIS HALF TERM AUTUMN 1 2024
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1st November – All Saints 2nd November – All Souls 10th November – Remembrance Day 17th November – World Day of the Poor 24th November – Christ the King 24th November - Youth Day 30th November - St Andrew 1st December – 1st Sunday of Advent 3rd December – Migrants Day 9th December – Immaculate Conception 10th December – Our Lady of Loreto |
PRAYER CYCLE
During Advent and Christmastide, we are asked to pray for these intentions: Openness to the Word of God, Migrants and Refugees, Expectant Mothers.
NOVEMBER
During November, we especially remember those who have died so if your family would like someone special remembered and prayed for during this time, please encourage your child to write their name in our book of remembrance.
CARITAS AMBASSADORS
Our Year 5 children have been participating in the Caritas Ambassadors programme. Caritas Ambassadors is a programme for both primary and secondary schools created by Caritas Westminster. It aims to equip pupils with a strong understanding of Catholic Social Teaching and how we can put it into action in our daily lives.
The programme runs through six key themes of Catholic Social Teaching and helps the trainee Ambassadors to think about social justice issues in their local community, before taking them through responding by developing and running their own social action project. It also introduces them to the work of Caritas Westminster, offering practical examples of how we use Catholic Social Teaching to influence our work.
The Caritas Ambassadors become leaders of social action in their school, and responsible for sharing what they have learnt with those around them. They can share the work of Caritas Westminster with others, but especially share their increased understanding of the issues faced by their local community, and how they and their fellow pupils can address these to create a fairer society.
The programme focuses on the group developing their own ideas, and taking responsibility for creating and running their social action projects themselves. It guides them to use the Give, Act, Share, Pray model to design their project, looking at how they can give their time and skills to act to support those in need, and sharing this work with others through awareness raising and prayer. Year 5 have focused on a project around “Care for creation”.
Year 5 recently went on a litter pick and presented an assembly to the rest of the school. We have worked with the council and Veolia to make a difference in our local area.
Eco-Schools Green Flag Accreditation
We are delighted that our children have been accredited with the Eco-Schools Green Flag. Eco-Schools is a charity passionate about engaging young people in environmental education and action. Eco-Schools operates in 70 countries and engages 19.5 million young people globally. This makes Eco-Schools the largest educational programme on the planet.
The programme:
- inspires and empowers pupils
- raises environmental awareness
- improves the school environment
- creates financial savings
- involves the whole school and wider community in environmental projects – and most importantly it engages the youth of today to protect the planet of tomorrow.
