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Catholic Life & Mission

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; Aquaaid; Mission Together; St Mary's Hospice; Macmillan Cancer and appeals in Rwanda and Tanzania.

We also support the local Brushstrokes charity by collecting and donating food during Harvest time and Easter eggs during Lent.

Prayer

In school we pray in lots of different ways:

  • Every week children from all year groups gather together at special prayer services.
  • There are regular circle times and prayer services in classrooms.
  • All classrooms have prayer areas that include liturgical images, artefacts and prayers.
  • Children's own prayers are offered at Mass.
  • Time and opportunities are given for personal prayer time (especially during Advent and lent).
  • Children use our special prayer hand in our prayer garden for quiet reflective time to pray.
  • Lunchtime prayer groups are held for children (including Rosary groups during May and October).
  • All assemblies and gatherings in school have a religious and prayer focus for the whole community.

We also work hard to include families in the prayer life of our school. We do this by:

  • Encouraging parents and families to attend assemblies, prayer services and collective worship.
  • Holding special prayer services every term for parents to attend and join in with (these are always well attended).
  • Sending prayer bags home containing liturgical materials for families to share prayer time together.
  • Prayer books have been sent home to every family so that families can learn and use common prayers at home.

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 month where children from our school lead the collective worship for the parish.
  • Class assemblies are held on Fridays every two weeks and all members of our community are invited and encouraged to attend. These always have an RE focus.
  • Shared preparation in school and in the parish for the Sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. We also hold regular parent meetings to ensure that families are fully involved in preparations.
  • Carol singing during Christmas time in Oldbury town centre.
  • Attending and supporting Remembrance Day services at the cenotaph in Oldbury.
  • Working with Parents as partners in our Nursery and Reception classes.

We also send a copy of the Wednesday Word home to every family in our school community. The Wednesday Word is a double-sided A4 leaflet which carries the Sunday Gospel into school family homes. The children receive the leaflet in school each week for them to take home with them to read with the rest of their family. This creates a new opportunity for the Word to be present in the homes of families connected to our school. It also acts as a regular invitation to the Eucharist throughout the time that the family is connected to the life of our school.

Advent

During Advent, we held Christmas Jumper day, raising money for St Mary's Hospice and we raised money for the housebound in our Parish.  The money raised brought good bags for them, which sat under our tree in school and then were blessed at Mass by Father Joseph.