Catholic Social Teaching is: 

The underlying insight is that everyone has the right and responsibility to live in our world constructively, not destructively, and to ensure that we leave it in a better state than when we entered it.

At the core of Catholic Social Teaching are a number of key concepts and principles. Chief among these are: 

justice, human dignity, the common good, the principles of participation, solidarity, and subsidiarity, the universal destination of the world’s goods, and the option for the poor.
 

At St Mary's, we focus on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching as part of our RE curriculum and through projects that involve supporting charities and taking action.

Catholic Social Teaching at St Mary's

Children in Need 2024

On 15th November, our School Council arranged for us to have a non-uniform day to raise money for Children in Need.  We raised an amazing £382!

Hello Yellow World Mental Health Day 2024

On 10th October, we all wore yellow to school to raise money for Young Minds in recognition of World Mental Health Day.  With the help of our families, we raised an amazing £329!

Harvest 2024

St James Class led our Harvest Assembly to thank everybody for all the donations of food that we received and remind us all that Harvest is a time of giving to those in need.

World Day

We had an assembly about World Day and found out ways in which we can help to look after our planet.  Some of us wrote poems about looking after the world that God has made for us. 

Our Planet

The sky is blue.

The birds fly through the sky.

The sun is fun and makes me dance.

The grass and trees are all around.

By Sofia M (year 3)

Our Planet

The sky is blue

While birds fly through.

The grass is green

Right next to the stream.

Animals doze

Next to the rose.

No pollution

No rubbish

Our world must flourish!

By Hannah B (year 3)

Help our planet please.

Pick up rubbish please.

Or else you will fall with ease.

By Martha B & Delilah C-W (year 3)

Our Planet

Our planet

Cooler than a ruler.

It will never be the same if we make it polluted.

Our planet

Cooler than a ruler.

Even when it’s in a state.

Be good, don’t pollute!

You’ve got this!

By Niamh M (year 3)

In EYFS and Year 1 the children came up with some simple ideas of how we can help to look after our beautiful world.
Please help us to:
Remember bags when you go shopping.
Turn off the lights and TV when you don't need them.
Pick up rubbish.
Turn off the taps.
Recycle.

Dear Earth,
We promise that we will look after you with our hands and our hearts. 💙🙏💚
Amen

Carol Singing in the Community

This Christmas our gospel choir went along to Tralee Rest Home and the Parish Social Centre Tea to spread some Christmas cheer by singing Christmas carols.

Poppy Appeal 2023

Thank you to our families who helped us to raise an amazing £541.64 for the Royal British Legion this year!

Children in Need 2023

We had a non-uniform day to raise money for Children in Need and raised an amazing £299!  This money went towards helping many children across the UK.

Stewardship

Our parish church had a plot of land that looked very bare so they asked the Mini-Vinnies for their ideas and their help.

We dug a big hole and planted a tree.

    We planted dozens of daffodil bulbs to flower in the springtime.

Then we planted violas, pretty flowers with smiley faces just like our own.

Now we are waiting for the rain to come and water our garden to help our flowers grow.

Harvest Festival 2023

Our House Captains led a Harvest Festival for our school and our families donated food to add to the collection in church, which is distributed by the SVP.

CACOT Fundraising Day 2023

In May, our school council representatives worked together with those from our neighbouring schools in the Coastal Alliance to fundraise for struggling families in our local community.  Our School Council decided to hold a non-uniform day and ask the school to bring in an item for the SVP food bank.  Look at all of the donations that we received:

CAFOD Big Walk for Lent 2023

During the 40 days of Lent, all of our children walked laps of the playground to reach 200km to raise money for CAFOD.  We were able to raise £95 to help in the fight against global poverty.  

Playtime Project - Spring 2023

This term, our School Council representatives met with our governors to talk about their view of life at St Mary's.  From this, they identified that they would like to work together to look at how playtimes can be a happy time for all of our pupils every day.  Their meetings going forward will focus on this project and we look forward to hearing the good ideas that they come up with.

Christmas Collections 2022

At Christmas, many of our families donated presents, which we passed on to the SVP so that they could be handed out to families in our community who needed a bit of help during the festive season.

We also had a collection for Marie Curie at the end of our carol services and nativities and raised an amazing £281!

We held our school Christmas Jumper Day on 14th December and raised £86 for Save the Children UK.  The money will help to keep children safe, healthy and learning.

Children in Need 2022

We did a walk along Tankerton Slopes as a whole school to raise money for Children in Need.  We raised an amazing £511!

Coastal Alliance Pupil Forum

Our School Council representatives went along to a meeting at Swalecliffe Community Primary School held for representatives from all of the Coastal Alliance schools.  They discussed as a group what they could do as a project to help people in our local community.  They decided to work on promoting food banks to help people who have been affected by the recent financial crisis.  

Remembrance Day 2022

On 11th November, Year 6 went to All Saints Church for the Remembrance Service at the war memorial.  We laid a wreath to remember the people who had died in the war.

Year 5 led a remembrance service in the playground for the rest of the school.  We observed 2 minutes silence.

EYFS watched CBeebies First Festivals programme and made their own poppies.

We raised a huge £574.15 for the Royal British Legion for the sale of poppies.

Ukraine Appeal

Since war broke out, St Mary's families have been donating supplies to go out to Ukraine.  

'Dear Mrs Blunt,

A huge thank you to EVERYONE, we are absolutely overwhelmed with a number of donations.

I have dropped all of the bags to Christ Church University today (please see attached) and they will be leaving for Ukraine tomorrow at 1pm. They undoubtedly will really help lots of people in need.'

CAFOD World Gifts

This Christmas, we raised money to purchase some of the CAFOD World Gifts to help people in other countries.  With the money that we raised we were able to buy:

Thank you to all of our families for their kind donations!