Catholic Life & Community

Our Parish links

The Christian ethos of our school is strongly enhanced through close links with our Parish in Richmond, St Joseph and St Francis Xavier. The Parish Priest is Canon Michael, our assistant priest is Father Richard, both are closely involved with the spiritual life of the school.

Canon Michael, Father Richard, staff and the Governors ensure that our children are actively involved in preparing for school Mass. The children help to prepare for the Welcome Mass at the beginning of the year and the Leaver’s Mass and End of Year Mass in the Summer term. These masses take place in the school hall or the Church. Additional Masses, such as morning mass with the Parishioners, seasonal feast days or other special occasions are also celebrated either in the church or school hall. Our children participate enthusiastically as servers, readers and offertory helpers; and their singing and reverence is a credit to themselves and their families.

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Collective Worship

Our school embraces Collective Worship and to ensure that this is of the highest possible standard, we provide ongoing liturgy planning support for staff & pupils alike; this is monitored and reviewed regularly to ensure we continually strive to improve our practice.

Acts of Worship include:

Monday whole school Act of Worship based on the Statement to Live by led by our Collective Worship group (CWs).
Tuesday class worship planned and led by Class Liturgy Teams. This is timetabled throughout the year to enable family and friends to attend.
Wednesday Key stage school story assembly
Thursday Hymnal Praise. This enables our children to deepen their faith through hymn singing; including a range of traditional and contemporary music, notable the work of John Burland, which we also use to complement our teaching of the Come and See programme of study. Hymnal Praise is led by our Music Lead Mrs Tucker
Fun Friday Assembly which provides pupils, staff and parents with the opportunity to celebrate the mission of our school to ‘learn with fun, friends, family and faith’. Achievements are celebrated both within and out of school.

Class Worship

Children are supported in planning and leading liturgies in their class. They are encouraged to think about how they will gather together, they listen carefully to the Word and think about their mission in carrying out the gospel message within their daily lives at both school and home. They develop a wonderful sense of awe and wonder about the small things they can do to help make a big difference. They recognise that praying is one of those things.

Our class liturgies show clear progression in terms of leadership and as the children reach KS2 they become liturgy leaders; leading independently in small groups.

Our prayer life in school

Prayer is central to the life of St Mary’s.

We pray regularly during the day, including: Our Morning Offering, Lunchtime & End of the Day prayers.

We hold sessions called “Be Spirited” sessions throughout the year where the children can participate in prayer and reflection in different and creative ways. These sessions are open to family and friends to attend.

A statement to live by

To further develop our children’s spiritual development, we also share weekly ‘Statements of Belief’. The thirty six statements based on nine guiding principles, are rooted in our Catholic Christian Faith. As well as promoting Catholic Life around school on daily basis they ensure that children and young people are given opportunities to:

Hear the Christian story and encounter the person of Jesus. Understand their uniqueness as made in the image and likeness of God.
Experience a sense of belonging within a range of communities, including the local Eucharistic community.
Know, appreciate and understand the importance of social justice.
Know that our limitations are also opportunities for growth.
Understand the connection (wisdom) between knowledge and living.
Know that everything has the opportunity to reveal God’s presence to us i.e. to see the divine in the ordinary.
Forgive and be forgiven, to reconcile and be reconciled.
Experience fun, humour, imagination, creativity, play and excitement in life.

The statements are shared with the children during Collective worship on a Monday which is led by our Year 6 Collective Worship Group. They are referred to and reflected upon during the week in each class.

Mini Vinnies

The Mini Vinnies at St Mary’s RC Primary have an important role in the spiritual life of the school, and are supported by the Mini Vinnie Co-ordinator Mrs Brown.

Our Mission is to seek and find those in need, to help them in a spirit of justice and to tackle the causes of poverty where we can.

Section 48

The most recent Diocesan Inspection of the school took place in July 2018.

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