Catholic Life
Catholic Life
At St Bartholomew’s we do really live out our Mission Statement ‘We are a loving family, growing and learning together with Jesus. ’We have a clear vision of God, people and life. We have gospel values at the centre of everything that we do. Christ truly is at the centre of all that we do in our school.
We actively participate in a variety of action groups to show our respect and care for one another. We extend our concern to the needy through our charitable service and prayer.
Year Six enjoy ‘Faith in Action’ with Sam the Chaplain from De La Salle High School. They also enjoy an annual Faith retreat with Animate at Lowe House.
Mini Vinnies are very busy working with different charities like, ‘Mary’s Meals,’ ‘Teardrops’ food bank, Angel starfish charity, CAFOD and Our Warm Welcome in St Helens.
Collectively, as a community, we have achieved the ‘Live Simply’ award from CAFOD. Through recycling uniform, gardening club, class and family pledges to ‘Live Simply’ ensuring that we are all stewards for our common home.
Mini Vinnies
Our Mini Vinnies are Mini St Vincent de Pauls. From Y3 to Y6, Mini Vinnies meet each week and they are very enthusiastic and motivated. They really do want to make a difference, they try to tackle poverty in all forms. Mini Vinnies are very active, they meet to pray, discuss and support all those in need. They come up with ways in which they can make a real difference to their communities and the wider world, becoming global citizens. They work with Anna Mary’s Meals, supporting all the amazing work that they do. They collect unloved clothing for the Angel Starfish Charity and recycle uniforms for our school community. They are organising our CAFOD Lent fundraiser, The Big Walk. The deliver Collective Worship in class and to the school. They are the driving force for Catholic Life and Mission in our school.
CAFOD
We actively support CAFOD, it is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales. They work with partners across the world, wherever the need is. It is greater to bring hope and compassion to poor communities, standing side by side with them to end poverty and injustice. CAFOD volunteers visit school to deliver assemblies, sharing new campaigns with us. We watch the national assemblies and actively support all their new initiatives helping to make the world a better place for all our global brothers and sisters.
Mary’s Meals
Mary’s Meals is a movement that will not accept that a child should go hungry in the world of plenty. They serve nutritious meals in some of the world’s poorest countries. They provide school meals, meeting the needs of hungry children whilst encouraging them to gain an education. We actively collect pennies to pay for these meals, 8p feeds a child each day.
Angel Starfish Charity
Angel Starfish Charity was started in 2005 by four Headteachers who attended a conference in South Africa. They were saddened by what they observed for the children. It is a UK based charity that supports the day to day running of the Angel Starfish Educare. This provides high quality, affordable care and education for many vulnerable children. We recycled preloved clothing and help to raise funds to support their work. We enjoyed a Zoom call with the pupils and staff.
Teardrops
Teardrops is a local charity which supports our local community. They provide a vast range of advice, support and activities helping to support the homeless and vulnerable in St Helens. They have worked with the children to develop empathy and help them to understand these issues in a child friendly way, through workshops and assemblies. We collect food and toiletries to support this charity.
Our Warm Welcome
Our Warm Welcome is a charity that works to prevent and relieve poverty amongst those seeking asylum and those granted refugee status and their families living temporarily or permanently in St Helens. It offers friendship and practical support to new asylum seekers and refugees by helping them to integrate into our community. We made Living Advent calendars and supported their initiatives to help to make a difference for all.
Live Simply
We made an action plan, outlining how, as a school community, achieved the ‘Live Simply’ CAFOD award. We Love simply, Live sustainably, Live in solidarity. We want to make an impact globally, locally and in our school. Globally, we support CAFOD and their work. Locally, we are working with ‘Teardrops’ to support the homeless and vulnerable in our local area. In school, we are recycling unwanted uniform, each class has a pledge about how they will ‘Live Simply’ and we are encouraging our families to share their family pledges too!
The Sisters of Charity in Seel Street.
To end our period of Advent in school we support our local homeless charity providing the homeless with donations of clothing and household items. Mini Vinnie's support the collection of these items to share with the charity.
