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 - Summer 1st 2024
School Dates
Tuesday 23rd April - Year 4 Class Liturgy and own clothes for the Feast of St George
Friday 26th April - Year 5 going to Mass at English Martyrs
Thursday 9th May - Feast of Ascension
Friday 10th May - Year 2 going to Mass at English Martyrs
Tuesday 21st May - Year 5 going to Westminster Cathedral for the Caritas Ambassadors' Mass
Friday 24th May - Year 4 going to Mass at English Martyrs
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
Pupil Chaplains Rota Summer 2024
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:
This term we will study the theme “Dignity of Workers”
The Church has long been a supporter of the right of people to work. Work is more than simply being able to earn money. It is about being able to support oneself, and one’s family. It is about finding a role and place within society, finding fulfilment and a sense of purpose and worth. It is also about people being paid a just wage and having adequate facilities to do the work they are tasked with, which is why the Church supports both the Living Wage and Fair -Trade movements.
This topic aims to introduce the children to the concept of having dignity in one’s work – what that means and how it should be maintained. It is important that the children understand being treated with dignity at one’s place of work should be a universal constant across all industries and sectors; there is no ‘minimum threshold’ of responsibility or wage that ‘entitles’ one to dignity at work.
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 Francis of Assisi
Year 1 - St Patrick
Year 2 - St David
Year 3 - St Andrew
Year 4 - St George
Year 5 - St Vincent De Paul
Year 6 - St Martin de Porres
IMPORTAT DATES FOR THIS HALF TERM SPRING 2 2024
|
21st April |
World Day of Prayer for Vocations |
| 23rd April | St George |
| 25th April | St Mark |
| 1st May | St Joseph the Worker |
| 4th May | English Martyrs |
| 9th May | Ascension |
| 12th May | St Pancras (Martyr) |
| 13th May | Our Lady Fatima |
| 19th May | Pentecost |
| 23rd May | Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest |
| 26th May | The Most Holy Trinity |
| 26th May | Most Holy Trinity |
PRAYER CYCLE
During Easter we are asked to pray for these intentions:
New Members of the Church; Vocations; The Right Use of the Media; the Church; Human Work.
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.
