St Paul's Catholic Primary School

At St Paul's we support local, national and international charities throughout the year. Some of the charities that we support include:

https://www.cathchild.org.uk/

https://cafod.org.uk/

https://broxbourne.foodbank.org.uk/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/

https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/

As Catholics, we are committed to contributing positively to our society; being of service to others – particularly those that have less and are more vulnerable. 

At St Paul's we have a mission as part of the wider Catholic Church, and to be able to live this out, we aim to serve the common good in our localities and in our wider world. Our School Mission statement states, ‘Our school is a place of learning, a place of love’ Our pupils and staff aim to share their love by going out to do good in our community, by inviting community members into school and by using our God given skills and talents to help and support those in need.

We seek to embrace and contribute to the Mission of Church, to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and to bring each person closer to our loving Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. By recognising the dignity of all, finding opportunities to imitate Christ and striving to love and serve others, we aim to encourage one another to give in service, in as much as we give of our resources through charity fundraising. This means we try to be giving of our time to charities and to others, and as a school community, we organise events throughout the year to raise awareness of charities and contribute to their cause.

Matthew 6: 24 – Jesus says: ‘You cannot serve both God and money’. Here, Jesus was teaching us about the common good; how we should seek what’s best for everyone – beginning with the last, the least, the most forgotten in our society.

We strive to be witnesses to Christ in the world through our words and actions.

"The dignity of each human person and the pursuit of the common good are concerns which ought to shape all economic policies" Pope Francis

We had a visit from a CAFOD representative on Monday 24th February to tell us about their CAFOD Lent appeal which we are supporting. 

The CAFOD representative shared with us information about all their work they do to help people around the world and especially in the Amazon rainforest. Children in year 3, 4, 5 and 6 had an extra workshop during the morning to look at the work of CAFOD in more depth by caring for our common home.

The Amazon rainforest is crucial to the planet’s climate. But people are not caring for our common home, caring for the Amazon region, and both the rainforest and the climate are in a critical state. More than one football pitch of rainforest in the Amazon is being lost every minute. This cannot go on. CAFOD are asking us to help defend the rainforest and to help communities in the Amazon defend the rainforest this Lent. The theme of the appeal is ‘what’s your goal’ which is based on a football fundraising activity.

This Lent we are supporting CAFOD to help people living in the Amazon. Our actions will make a really big difference to people living in poverty.

To support this appeal, we will be asking children to come dressed in a sports kit with trainers on Friday 6^th March. The Chaplaincy Team will be arranging some fun sports activities for the children to take part in during the afternoon. We are asking for children to bring a donation of at least £1 so that we can try to raise our target of £250.

Please join with us this Lent to make a big difference, helping communities in the Amazon to defend their land and save their homes.

Have a look at our photos from our Ash Wednesday Services. Each class made and presented a prayer wall with individual prayers and reflections on about what they are going to do during Lent to prepare for Easter. These are displayed in our classrooms.

On Wednesday 4th March Year 5 attended Mass at St Paul's Church with the parishioners. The children prepared and led the bidding prayers during the Mass and also took part in the rosary before Mass with the parishioners.

Thank you to our Chaplaincy Team who organised lots of fun sporting activities for the children to take part in today to raise money for CAFOD. All pupils are taking part in CAFODs Lenten Appeal of ‘What’s Your Goal?’ In addition to highlighting the struggle of communities trying to protect the Amazon rainforest, CAFOD is also raising funds to supports thousands of local healthcare experts who are working to keep their communities healthy and to save lives. CAFOD will be working with local experts to reach thousands more families to help defend and protect the precious rivers, forest and animals of the Amazon.On behalf of CAFOD we thank you for all your generous donations, we raised £131.20. 

On Thursday 17th September our new house captains prepared an introduction assembly for us which they led virtually. They also shared some key facts about each of the house saints. Have a look below at the PowerPoint that they shared

Our house captains, Poppy and Lorenzo, prepared a short service followed by a celebration with cakes for St Matthew's feast day. All children who are in St Matthew's house were invited to join us. 

Our newly appointed scripture champions led our September monthly focus assembly for the Year of the Word. This months theme is creation and caring for our environment. Watch the video to find out more information. Each child was tasked with the mission to do something this month to care for our common home. These will be recorded in our class Year of the Word books on our prayer tables.

On Wednesday 23rd September, Fr Clement joined us to celebrate our start of year welcome service. Each class took part in the service and led a part. Each class also shared their class reflection on how they can become closer to Jesus just like the little children wanted to be closer to him in our Gospel reading. 

October is the month of the Rosary. Our Chaplaincy team have been busy making each child their own rosary pack to take home to help them pray the rosary. Please watch the video from the Chaplaincy team to find out more. You will also resources below for saying the Rosary at home. 

Year 5 led our Harvest Service and were joined by Fr Clement. Each child brought in food to donate to Broxbourne Food Bank and also a donation for CAFOD. We had a visit from Jeremy from Broxbourne Food Bank who shared with us how our donations support those in need. We also heard about the fantasic work of CAFOD who help our global family. This is our calling from our faith, to help others and serve the common good. Please watch our Harvest Festival Service below.

'Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.'  Proverbs 19:17

On Monday 12th October our new Chaplaincy Team prepared and led an assembly for the whole school on the work of CAFOD. This is one of the areas on their development plan that they want to work on this year. Please see the PowerPoint below for more information. 

Our house captains, Francesca and Albie , prepared a short service followed by a celebration with cakes for St Luke's feast day. All children who are in St Luke's house were invited to join us. 

Each class has chosen a class saint to learn about and pray to this year. To develop our understanding of our class saints, each class is leading an assembly on their class saint this term for the rest of the school community. During the assemblies we look at the lives of the saint, what they did and how we can learn from them. We have also made stain glass windows of our saints to develop our spiritual creativity and these are displayed in our front entrance. We are very proud of these. We have a diverse range of class saints chosen this year, please see our class saints pages for further information. 

We are delighted to be supporting Children in Need by having a Pyjama/Onesie Day on Friday 13th November 2020. To make the day even more exciting we are asking the children to come into school wearing either their Pyjamas or a Onesie. Children must wear appropriate pyjamas and suitable footwear, no slippers. We are asking for a suggested minimum donation of £1 and would love everyone in the school to take part in this special event. Please bring your donation in on the day and give to your class teacher

We are learning about Judaism this week at school as part of our other faiths week. Miss Armitage led our whole school assembly and shared with us pictures from her synagogue. Rabbi Adam kindly filmed a tour for us. Please have a look below

Each child was given a template of a poppy to decorate and write a reflection or prayer on at home with their families.  We then used these to create a whole school display out in our playground to show how we are remembering those who gave their life on the front line for our country.

We were joined by Fr Clement for our Remembrance day service. Each class in KS2 prepared a poem to share to help us reflect on this special day. All classes also wrote their own bidding prayer and shared this as part of our service. The video is in 2 parts, there may be a short delay whilst it loads

Bibles for Children have kindly donated Bibles for all of our children in year 2 to year 6. Bibles for Children is a charity and was founded by Ted Hudson in July 1997. It's purpose is to help develop the understanding of the Christian Faith through the provision of Children’s Bibles in Primary Schools. Since its establishment the charity has provided Bibles to well over half a million children in over 2,000 schools throughout the United Kingdom. 

Fr Clement joined us via teams for a blessing of the Bibles. These will help us to carry on living out the mission of the Church and spreading the Good News to those we meet. We keep Bibles for Children in our prayers and thank them for their support.

The children were all so excited to receive their Bibles

World Day of the Poor was established by Pope Francis in 2016 at the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. He said WDOTP is: 'a day to help communities ... to reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel and that, as long as Lazarus lies at the door of our homes (cf. Lk 16:19-21), there can be no justice or social peace.' For Caritas Westminster the day is emblematic of our mission.

The theme for this years' WDOTP is 'Stretch forth your hand to the poor', which is a line taken from the book of Sirach in the Old Testament.

For the past two years Mitzvah Day, the SVP and Caritas Westminster have worked together with Jewish and Catholic schools so that children can get involved with putting together ‘Vinnie Packs’ for the homeless.

Vinnie Packs are an initiative of the St Vincent de Paul Society. Each year, over 10,000 Vinnie Packs are distributed across the UK.

Each pack contains cold weather essentials including a hat, gloves and socks which are all thermal, toothpaste, toothbrush, pen and information card.

The Chaplaincy Team and Scripture Champions made these packs and then they were collected for distribution

How might you mark Mitzvah Day/World Day of the Poor?

The work of the children made it into the Independent Catholic Newspaper and on the Diocese of Westminster website, see below for the full story

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/40972

https://rcdow.org.uk/news/school-children-make-essential-vinnie-packs-for-homeless/

There has also been a podcast made about the Vinnie project which can be listened to here:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/helping-the-homeless-this-christmas/id483089387?i=1000502565982

We have sent home resources for making your own Jesse Tree at home. Please find further information below.

Fr Clement joined us for our start of Advent service. In his homily he spoke to us about preparing during Advent and how we can do this. Each class also thought about what they could do during Advent to prepare and then every child wrote their Advent promise on a leaf template to put on our whole school Advent Wreath.

Some of our children in school have been taking part in the Catholic Children Society Advent carol service. Have a look a the video on the CCS website

www.cathchild.org.uk/advent

We have been thinking about who we can help and support in our local community. We are taking part in the Hearts for Homes and sending messeges to our local care homes. Please see pictures of some of these below. 

Even though we can't all be together in school, it is important to come together in Jesus' name to keep us strong during this challenging time. Each week on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday we will be having whole school assembly in school virtually. This will then be shared and put on the website so children at home can also join in. We will still be having our start of the New Year service with Fr Clement and this will also be shared on the school website.

https://stpauls-herts.secure-dbprimary.com/herts/primary/stpauls/site/pages/children/workfromhome/assembliesjan21 

The Diocese of Westminster has asked us to join together and pray the Novena each day from tomorrow, please see below.  

While we face the coronavirus pandemic, let us turn to the face of God in prayer and ask for his healing, his help and his protection. We will pray for all who are affected, for all who are sick and suffering, for all those who work in the medical profession, and for those who have died as well as for their grieving family members.

What is a Novena?

The word novena is taken from “novem,” the Latin word for nine. A novena is made up of nine days of prayer and meditation usually to ask God for special prayer requests or petitions.

More info can be found at https://www.praymorenovenas.com/how-to-pray-a-novena

Loving God of peace,

Strengthen my determination to work for a world of peace and justice; My conviction that, whatever our nationality or race, we are all global citizens, one in Christ; My courage to challenge the powerful with the values of the gospel; My commitment to find nonviolent ways of resolving conflict—personal, local, national and international; My efforts to forgive injuries and to love those I find it hard to love. Amen ‘Peace alone is holy. Peace alone is holy. Not war.’

(Pope Francis)

Thank you to those have had sent in their Racial Justice prayer cards. These have been sent to the Diocese and will be part of the Diocese project. Please send any more cards to the school office

This Year is dedicated to the Year of St Joseph, we are asked to join the St Joseph Novena from 11th March until 19th March (his feast day). 

St Joseph Novena

Bring yourself into the presence of Our Lord and St Joseph ..............

Joseph, a man of faith,

open to God's will, loving and tender, a courageous protector,

and a man who knows the joys and challenges

that we face in our daily lives. 

Let us turn to him in all our needs,

as we celebrate

nine-days of prayer in this Year of St Joseph.

Day 1 - Joseph, Father of Jesus  

Day 2 - Joseph, a Man of Patience

Day 3 - Joseph, Tender and Loving

Day 4 - Joseph, Patron of Workers

Day 5 - Joseph, a Man of Perseverance

Day 6 - Joseph, Obedient to God’s Will

Day 7 - Joseph, Guide of Pilgrims & Migrants

Day 8 - Joseph, Courageous in Life

Day 9 - Joseph, a Man in the Shadows

Please visit https://rcdow.org.uk/faith/evangelisation/st-joseph-novena/ for further information 

To complete our Feeling Good Week, Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day is on Friday 19/03/2021. In discussion with the children, they would like to donate money for a Film afternoon with a snack and drink and of course they are welcome to wear their noses. The school will be providing popcorn for the children. Please inform the school office via email or text if your child is unable to have or does not like popcorn.

We have set up a Just Giving Page and you can donate by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stpaulscheshunt?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=stpaulscheshunt&utm_campaign=pfpemail&utm_term=1d1dc382fb6f4b709e3cb6557cdfda58.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to Comic Relief: Red Nose Day, so it's the most efficient way to give - saving time and cutting costs for the charity. Cash donations will still be accepted on the day.

Today, Friday 19th March, marks St Joseph's feast day and our Chaplaincy Team led a special prayer service to celebrate this.

Pope Francis has declared a special Year of St Joseph to mark the 150^th anniversary of Bl Pius IX’s proclamation of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.

The Year of St Joseph will run from Tuesday, 8 December 2020, to Wednesday, 8 December 2021.

In an Apostolic Letter, Patris corde – With a father’s heart – Pope Francis describes the guardian of Our Lord as beloved, tender and loving, obedient, accepting father; one, who is both courageous and industrious, content to live and work “in the shadows” while he protected and provided for our Lord and Our Lady.

“His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expressions of trust,” Pope Francis wrote in the Letter. “Our world today needs fathers,” he said. “It has no use for tyrants who would domineer others as a means of compensating for their own needs,” and “rejects those who confuse authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, discussion with oppression, charity with a welfare mentality, power with destruction.”

Vatican News explains that Pope Francis wrote the letter “against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic” and seeks to articulate some of the manifold ways in which the global emergency has laid bare to us out interdependence and our common humanity.

“Each of us,” Pope Francis wrote, “can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

“A word of recognition and of gratitude,” Pope Francis wrote, “is due to them all.”

The Letter concludes with a prayer to St Joseph, reproduced here below in its official English translation:

Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.

Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil.  Amen.

The Chaplainy Team will be continuing their work by helping us to find out more about St Joseph during this special year.

St John's feast day is celebrated on 27th December but unfortuantly we have only just been able to celebrate it now we are back as a community in school again. Our house captains, Michael and Mia, prepared a short service followed by a celebration with cakes for St John's feast day. All children who are in St John's house were invited to join us on the KS1 playground to join in with prayers, reading and reflections. 

This year we will once again be supporting the Catholic Children Society (CCS) Lent Appeal. This year’s appeal is titled:

“Will we bend down and help another to get up?”

In his recent encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’, Pope Francis sets us a challenge:

      “Each day we have to decide whether to be Good Samaritans or indifferent bystanders . . .   Will we bend down and help another get up? This is today’s challenge, and we should not be afraid to face it.”

This Lent the CCS are asking schools to take up Pope Francis’ challenge and help local disadvantaged children and families in their time of need.

You will receive a collection box in your child’s book bag which you might like to use to collect any donations of small change over Holy Week next week in the lead up to Easter.

Today in school, the children all took part in learning about the station of the cross and the important events of Holy Week and a presentation from our Chaplaincy Team about the work of the Catholic Children Society.

If you are able to collection any donations in the collection boxes over Holy Week, then please send them in to school when we return after Easter.

Find out more by watching our Chaplaincy Team video below or visiting https://www.cathchild.org.uk/lent/

Thank you for your kind donations, we raise £276.36!! 

On Monday 26th April we celebrated St Mark's feast day. His feast day is on 25th April. Our house captains prepared a short service which included a prayer to St Mark, a reading from his Gospel and reflection and how we can learn from St Mark's. We finished the celebration with cakes.

Fr Clement joined us for our Easter service in which we heard the Gospel story about the Good Shepherd and reflected on how we can be like and learn from the Good Shepherd.

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. Our Year 5 children are currently taking part in this and led an assembly for the rest of the children to share what they have done so far.

Our Chaplaincy Team led our Summer Spirituality Day for us based on the Year of the Word and women in the Bible. Please see our video for more information

We finished our half term with a crowning of Mary service. Each class made a flower crown to present to Mary in our prayer garden. Our Chaplaincy Team did a wonderful job of organising this. It was lovely to come together outside as a whole school community.

We were really lucky to have a virtual assembly with Emily from the Catholic Children Society. Over the past few years we have raised lots of money for the CCS and they have also helped some of our families through their crisis fund. Emily explained how the CCS use the Catholic Social Teaching principles to underpin their work. We found out more about Catholic Social Teaching and helping to make the world a better place. There are 7 prinicples of Catholic Social Teaching that Emily helped to us to learn more about. 

This week is our whole school Hinduism Week. We had a special assembly this morning which helped us understand more about the Hindu faith. Our RE lessons with be linked to this throughout the next few weeks.