Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and that you have been enjoying the school term so far.

Catholic Schools Inspection

Our first few weeks back to St. Peter’s have been full of celebration and joy. I would like to begin by saying a huge thank you to our whole school community, for your continued support throughout our Catholic Schools Inspection (CSI) at the end of the Summer Term. We were absolutely delighted to have received not only an ‘Outstanding Judgement’ overall, but to have achieved this for each of the 9 sub-categories across Religious Education, Collective Worship and Catholic Life and Mission. This would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of our school staff, governors, parents and pupils. A special thank you also goes to Father Jeremy, Father James and Mrs Semple (Oaklands chaplain) for their ongoing, active role in supporting the prayer life of our school and the spiritual development of our whole school community, throughout the Liturgical Year. Please see below for a full copy of our recent inspection report…

Worship and Prayer

To begin our new school year, we have thoroughly enjoyed opportunities to gather together in prayer, to worship Jesus and praise His Holy name. It has been wonderful to welcome so many parents and carers, to join us for year group liturgies and school Mass. Thank you to all of our school staff and Mrs Semple for the hard work that has gone into organising and preparing these services, and a very well done to our pupils for supporting these moments of prayer through carefully selected Gospel readings, bidding prayers, and taking on roles including the offertory procession and altar serving. Please see below for a list of our school prayer gatherings across the first half of the Autumn Term.

• Tuesday 17th September: Year 1 to Year 6 Mass
• Tuesday 24th September: Year 2 Liturgy
• Tuesday 8th October: Year 3 and 4 Mass
• Tuesday 15th Octber: Year 1 Liturgy
• Tuesday 15th October: Year 6 Reconciliation Service
• Sunday 20th October: School Uniform Mass, 60th Jubilee dedication

Catholic Social Teaching and Charism

This Term, we are currently learning about Catholic Social Teaching as part of our RE Curriculum from God Matters. This has given our pupils an opportunity to learn from the examples of Jesus and His followers, for how to serve the people of God throughout the world. In particular, we have taken opportunities to reflect upon our Mission and how we can live this out in our daily lives: Walking Hand in Hand with God, to make our world a better place’.

One example of this was through the recent investiture of our new school chaplains, who have made a promise and personal commitment to serve the prayer life and spiritual growth of our school, as they embark upon their journey as part of the Year 5 and 6 GIFT Team (Growing in Faith Together). Through Father Jeremy’s homily on the teachings of Pope Francis, and our recent assembly on Cafod’s World Gifts – please see images below – our children understand and appreciate our school charism, to serve others with a generous heart and therefore ‘make our world a better place’. Our pupils are very excited to work alongside the CAFOD Young Leaders at Oaklands Catholic school, in order to ‘use the gifts God gave us’ to generate ideas for fundraising, thus taking an active role in supporting local, national and global communities who need our support most.

And so, to close today’s blog post, I’d like to leave our families and friends of St. Peter’s with the a moment of reflection. It is sometimes hard to do what Jesus asks of us, and so we pray together for God’s help:

We pray for world leaders: that they may look for ways to make sure all of their people, especially those who are poor, can have their fair share.

Lord, in your mercy…

We pray for people living in poverty: that they may have the chance to share in the gifts that God gave for us all.

Lord, in your mercy…

We pray for our parish, our families and our friends: that we may have the strength to answer Jesus’s call, to share what we have, and to help make the world a fairer place for everyone.

Lord, in your mercy…

Generous God, we thank You for all the gifts that You have given us. Teach us to share these gifts with others, so all people may have enough.

Amen.

With very best wishes to you all,

Miss Honeywell