Our Faith Journey at St Paul's
"Pupils have roles and responsibilities that they enjoy. Pupils selected to be Mini Vinnies help to promote the Catholic life and values of the school. Leaders prioritise and promote virtues, such as hope , forgiveness, tolerance and respect. As a result, all pupils value and celebrate difference. One pupil told inspectors, 'St Paul's is a kind school. People look after one another. We respect each other.' "(Ofsted Section 5 Inspection November 2021)
Our Lenten Journey 2022
We have tried our best to observe a reflective Lenten season in school.
We started Lent by visiting church for the Ash Wednesday Mass, with Reception and KS1 receiving their ashes in a service in school. The staff also had a reflective session with Father Dennis for their first staff meeting of the half term, along with staff from Christ the King Catholic Primary.
Charity/Almsgiving
Each week, different year groups organised events to raise money for charity the Good Shepherd Appeal and CAFOD.
Year 4 sold prepared and toast each breaktime.
Year 6 and Reception had a 'Name the Teddy' competition and also organised games lunchtime.
Year 5 and Year 1 had a 'Guess How Many Packs of Sweets in the Jar' competition and held a bun and biscuit sale each playtime.
Year 3 and Year 2 organised games for the children to play at breaktimes.
Some children did some extra work for charity - Angus chose to raise money for the people of Ukraine, by cycling a total of 117 miles in a week!
Fasting
At our family mass on March 6th, Father Dennis Mrs Norwood spoke to us about Family Fast Day on March 11th to encourage us to abstain during Lent but especially on Family Fast Day. All the children made a Lenten Promise to try to give something up or make an extre special effort to do something.
Prayer
Prayer helps us to become mindful of God and to awaken our love for God. Throughout the whole of the term, a different class has attended the parish mass at church on Wednesday morning. Throughout Lent, it has been the turn of Reception and Key Stage One. We have been using the Mark 10 Mission as part of our whole school and class worship and, as the weather briefly became more Spring-like, held some child-led worship in the prayer garden.
Passion Play
26th March 2022
First Reconciliation
After completing the 'Heart Speaks to the Heart: the Gift of Reconciliation' course and booklet, with Mrs Gaffey, Year 3 made the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Saturday 26th March.
25th March 2022
Fundraiser and service for the people of Ukraine at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School
Year 3 went to Cardinal Heenan, along with other schools in our Trust, to join in a service for the people of Ukraine. The school community have been very supportive in bringing in donations for refugees.
13th March 2022
St Patrick's Day Parade
Some of the staff, parents and children took part in the St Patrick's Day Parade in Leeds, along with our friends from Christ the King Catholic Primary School. We had great fun on our float and some of the children did some amazing Irish dancing and tin whistle playing at the event.
6th March 2022
Family Mass
7th February 2022
Sylvia Wright Trust Visit
We had some special visitors to our assembly from the Sylvia Wright Trust today, who came to talk to us about all the amazing work they do and how we help them by sponsoring a child.
25th January 2022
Feast of the Conversion of St Paul
We took time out of our normal lessons to think about St Paul on this special. The children created beautiful artwork, wrote factfiles and even shared what they knew about St Paul in a 'Just a Minute' activity. All of this work has been used to create a lovely display in our hall.
January 6th 2022
The Feast of the Epiphany
Classes celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany in different ways throughout school.
Our Advent Journey 2021
We enjoyed many celebrations during Advent in school.
We started our journey with a wonderful Advent Garden led by Year 5 and classes spending time preparing their classrooms for the season of Advent.
Reception led a lovely Advent class assembly.
Key Stage One led their 'Lights, Camel, Action' nativity and also took home a 'travelling crib'.
Key Stage Two led us in a prayerful service in church.
We also celebrated Mass with Father Henry on the last day of term and enjoyed an outdoor carol service.
We were delighted that so many of our parents could join us for some of these events.
Supporting the local community during Advent
Our choir and our Mini-Vinnies walked to a local residential home during the last week of term to sing in the courtyard for the elderly residents and to deliver some mince pies. The staff and the residents all enjoyed it so much and were so grateful that we could visit them for Christmas.
FOSP led a 'Feed a Family' campaign and created 28 hampers to donate to families from St Paul's and Christ the King who may have otherwise struggled to feed their families during the holidays. Our families were extremely generous and we had extra boxes full of food to donate to SVP to be distributed city wide to those in need.
Some of our Autumn Collective Worship
October 21st 2021
Harvest Festival Mass
The Mini Vinnies helped to collect and sort all the generous contributions from our school community. Sheena Eastwood, from the St Vincent de Paul Society, joined us at our Harvest Festival celebration in church before taking all the harvest offerings to be shared amongst families in need.
October 18th 2021
One Million Children Praying the Rosary
This morning, the whole school joined ‘One Million Children Praying the Rosary’ to pray for peace and unity. St Paul’s were proud to be involved in this worldwide campaign.
15th October 2021
Mini Vinnies Commissioned
We are very proud of our new 2021 Mini Vinnies. We know they will do some great work for the parish and local community.
5th October 2021
We were very proud to donate a minibus full of clothing, shoes and equipment to the Clothing Bank at Brotherton. Our families are very kind and generous.
