During this term, students from the Faith in Action Award have attended two Ecumenical Services. The first trip was in January, where the students visited Rowton Methodist Church and joined the “Prayer for Christian Unity” service. This has been a great experience for the students to join Christians from different denominations to pray to God for Christian unity, understanding and tolerance between people. They all enjoyed soft drinks and cakes after the service, and they had the opportunity to talk to people from difference churches about ways of promoting unity between Christians.
The second trip was to the English Presbyterian Church of Wales to celebrate “World Day of Prayer”, a service prepared by women of Taiwan. The service was attended by people from different Christian denominations. Everyone enjoyed a cup of tea and cake after the service, and the students had the opportunity to chat to parishioners and hear stories about communities in Taiwan. They were delighted to see young people attending the service.
This year, for the first time, The Catholic High School hosted the first interschool conference “Together 4 the Common Good” led by Tom Murray, Chaplain at St. Ambrose’s and St. Anselm’s College in collaboration with Ben Gilchrist, Chief Executive Officer at Caritas Shrewsbury. Representatives from ten Catholic 6th Forms/colleges from the Diocese of Shrewsbury met in the Lyceum to learn about Catholic Social Teachings, with the focus on the Care for our Common Good. It has been an extremely successful event. The students and the school received positive feedback. We look forward to seeing the next steps…
For the first time since COVID, the school took part in the Fairtrade Fortnight. During this time, the Faith in Action students have been selling chocolates every day at break over two weeks in the Social Area. By selling FT chocolates, the students have been raising awareness of the importance of shopping products with the FT logo. There was a quiz competition open to everyone, intended for the students to learn more about Fairtrade. Students were invited to complete it and enter the competition for the chance to win a box of Fairtrade chocolates. The winner of this competition is Jarvis in Y9. We have raised £64.56. Thank you to the students who supported Fairtrade by buying chocolates; some of the students were even regular customers!
The Faith in Action students also took part in the ‘Families Together’ Campaign, calling authorities to review the UK’s Immigration rules so families may be reunited.
A group of 6th Form students were delighted to host the spring ‘SVP Afternoon Tea’. Residents who attended the event enjoyed playing bingo, a cup of tea/coffee and delicious cakes whilst having the opportunity to socialise and chat to our students. The event started with a quite time of prayer and Lenten reflection followed by the first game of Bingo. During the break, Mrs. McKeagney shared a personal reflection on Lent, and this was followed by a second game of Bingo. The gathering was concluded with a raffle. Thank you to everyone involved that made this afternoon so entertaining. We had lovely emails from SVP praising our students and giving us positive feedback.
The ‘National Day of Reflection’ was on 23rd March. The school paused at 12pm to reflect and remember three years since the first lockdown. The students and staff observed a minute of silence followed by a remembrance prayer. A representative of each class gathered outside the school to tie a yellow ribbon on the school railings, a symbol to remember those who lost their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During Lent the students learnt about the meaning of this season and the importance of personal preparation for the biggest celebration of the Catholic Church, being Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. The Church tells us about good practices during this season, such as prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The school and the students responded positively by taking part in devotions and services, fundraising events, and giving up something of their choice during 40 days as a way of fasting.
Thanks to the generosity of students and staff members, we have collected non-perishable food items and we have prepared hampers for families in our school community.
On Friday 24th of March, the school took part in the CAFOD Big Lent Walk. This has been a wonderful event and experience for our students. Thank you to our Sixth Form volunteer marshals! The weather was ideal for the walk! Once more, thanks to the generosity of the school families, we managed to raise the amazing sum of £542.39.
During the last week of the term, we have held Reconciliation Services and Living Stations of the Cross devotions for every year group.
During the Reconciliation Services, the students had the opportunity to reflect on their personal relationship with God whilst experiencing his merciful love and forgiveness of all sins. At the start of the service each student held a small pebble as a symbol of the sins they wanted to say sorry for, and with a contrite heart and sorrow, we all asked God for forgiveness. At the end of the service, the students placed the pebble in a bowl as a symbol of God’s forgiveness, leaving the sinful ways behind, and representing new beginnings. Followed the service, Brother Jinson from St. Francis’ Parish and Fr. Emeka from St. Clare’s Parish have been hearing confessions. We are very grateful to them for their time.
The Stations of the Cross if a beautiful devotion during Lent where we pray and reflect on the last few hours of Jesus’ life on earth. There are 14 stations, and each of them describes key moments of Jesus from his condemnation to his crucifixion. The drama group and Y7 choir have worked together to recreate these stations. The whole school enjoyed watching the Living Stations of the Cross. A big congratulation to all the students involved and the staff who worked so hard to have this production ready. The school Chair of Governors was delighted with the representation and praised the students for their incredible talent.
