Our Catholic life
Whole school and Class assemblies
The headteacher, who is also the religious education lead, leads the children in whole school worship on a Monday morning, which are usually based on the Gospel from the Sunday before or have themes, which focus on our school ethos and Catholic identity.
On Tuesday morning the headteacher leads Come and Sing, in which the children worship through the singing of hymns.
On Wednesdays there is a liturgy for each keystage, planned and delivered by the children themselves.
Thursday is the day for class worship if they are not at church or involved in the class assembly. Once again, they are planned and delivered by the children. Keystage 1 base theirs on a parable whilst keystage 2 choose their own theme.
On a Friday afternoon we have our ‘Star of the Week’ assembly. It is a beautiful celebration of the children and their many gifts, talents and achievements.
Vocation and Mission
Our children are encouraged to lead the school in acts of charity and mission that supports others.
Celebration of Mass
We celebrate Mass in church at the beginning and end of every school year; on all special feast days if we are in school and special times in the liturgical year of the church. Each class takes it in turn to join in mass on Thursday morning, with the parishioners.
The Chaplaincy Team
The chaplaincy team spend one lunchtime per week reading bible stories, discussing the message and engaging in fun activities associated with the story. This takes place in the Rainbow room. This room is also available during other lunchtimes for prayer and quiet reflection if the children wish.
Statements To Live By
Each week, one of the statements to live by is distributed to each class at the end of Monday worship. They are then discussed within each class and annotated with all the ways in which the children plan to live out those statements in their daily life.
St. Mary's CVA New Mills is now a Livesimply registered school.
Thank you to Mrs Reynolds for all her work in helping school to achieve this award. Mrs Reynolds has been teaching Global Learning to kS2 pupils which evidences this award. We are also in the process of undertaking other awards to support our understanding of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Maria Elena Arana
Livesimply Award Coordinator
CAFOD
Fundraising
Class 3 cake sale
A fantastic £204.53 was raised by the Class 3 cake sale. Class 3 have chosen to donate it to CAFOD, Manchester children’s hospital, the RSPCA and the charity C-R-Y in memory of Charlie Craig from Hayfield, in equal parts. Please see the photo's from the sale below.
Harvest
Our Harvest donations were very gratefully received by the local foodbank. A huge thank you to everyone who kindly donated gifts of food.
C-R-Y
We are pleased to report that £95.14 of the money raised from our enterprise project last term has been donated to the charity C-R-Y, in memory of Charlie Craig from Hayfield.
Children in need ramble
On Friday 19th October 109 children from the ages of 4-11 went on a ramble to Mousley Bottom Woods to raise money for Children in Need.
It was a beautiful sunny autumnal day when we set off on our walk. Reception children walked with their year 6 special friends. The children waved their flags and chatted happily with each other as we rambled one and a half miles through the woods and back to school.
It was wonderful to see all ages of children enjoying walking in the country side whilst reaping the benefits of fresh air and exercise whilst raising money for this great cause. Thank you for all your kind donations. To date we have raised £111.67.
CAFOD
Thank you very much for your generosity, witnessed in all the CAFOD boxes returned so far. We will let you know the total as soon as we have it. If you still have your box at home, do not worry- there is still time to return it.
Joe’s retreat
On Thursday we were lucky enough to have our lay chaplain spend the day with us. He shared a Liturgy with Key stage 1, held a retreat on vocations with Class 4 and did some training with the Chaplaincy team and year 2 Liturgy leaders. Everyone enjoyed the day, especially singing new hymns accompanied by Joe on his guitar.