RE at St. Mary's -

Christ at the centre of everything we do

At St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) education is embedded within our

overarching curriculum that prepares our children for many different aspects of their lives.  

Our overall goal is to help our children to become well-rounded individuals with strong character, who will eventually go out into the world of adults and be actively and positively involved in society.   In order to do this, we are striving to create a conducive environment around the school and this year we have created our own specific Personal Development Curriculum that is entwined with our academic curriculum.

Our curriculum aims to provide engagement and enrichment and through this, we aim for all children to have equal opportunities to thrive together.  

Catholic Life at St. Mary's

The Catholic life of St. Mary's is rich in opportunities for children to encounter God and to deepen their relationship with Him as a loving, compassionate Father. Below, we aim to share with you and celebrate many of the elements which make our Catholic school so special. Here you will find information and that we have been up to as we work together with our families, the Parish and the school work together in supporting the development of our children’s faith.

Above, you can select from one of the star options to find more about what else we have been doing in Curriculum RE and Prayer and Liturgy.

Pope Francis has decreed that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee, a holy year which happens every 25 years in the Catholic Church. The Holy Door in Rome has opened and will remain open until 6th January 2026.

In a world that is growing more unjust and unequal, we are inviting our children in school as well as their parents to experience the joy and strength in coming together as we respond to God’s call for a reset, a renewal of faith and a recommitment to a just world.

We'll be doing lots of activities over the year related to this...watch this space!

Piano Class thoroughly enjoyed their visit to Emmanuel Church learning about how to make a Christingle and what each part symbolises as well as having time to reflect on why we call Jesus the Light of the World.

Such beautiful words from Helen from BSYW who came and worked with our Year 4/5 and Year 5/6 classes over 5 weeks during Autumn 1. We can't wait to get more involved and have Helen and her team in school again.

As part of our tradition at St. Mary's, during Advent each class sends home their own posada box which contains prayers, a candle and figurines of Mary and Joseph, which they take out and provide a home for, for the night, as they make their journey to Bethlehem.

Well done KS1 and EYFS for sharing your nativity full of songs and sharing the story of the coming of baby Jesus.

Congratulations to all of KS2 for their superb Carol Service that they shared with the staff, parents and friends of St Mary's in church on Tuesday 17th December. The children worked incredibly hard and did themselves and us proud.

The children used role-play to re-tell the story of the Annunciation, they thought about how Mary felt when she received the message from God and why she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus.

We celebrate whole school mass to celebrate Harvest Festival with Fr Stephen. Maria was excellent completing her first alter serving for school (she's been serving on Sundays for a couple of months) and the Year 6s read beautifully, which was all finished off with our school choir, singing Make me a Channel of your Peace during Communion.

Fr Stephen, our new priest in charge at St. Mary's, came in to introduce himself to the children in Bodhran class.

Fr Stephen has been into school to visit Year 2/3 (Flute Class), introduce himself, give the children the opportunity to ask questions and share some reflection time. 

All of KS2 have taken part in the first class mass of the year. We have have sadly said goodbye to Fr Alf who looked after St. Mary's for the last few months and we have now welcomed Fr Stephen, who is the priest in charge at St. Mary's.

2023-2024

Congratulations and Thank You to our fantastic Year 6 of 2024 - you read beautifully at Mass as we celebrated the end of your time at St. Mary's.

Over the last term, Fr Alf has come and spent time with each class, talking to them about who he is, his role and sharing their learning. The children have thoroughly enjoyed it.

On Thursday 9th May, as a school we visited church to celebrate Mass with Fr Alf for the Ascension - when Jesus returns to sit at the right hand side of his Father. The Year 6 children read beautifully and the children's singing, responses and reverence was comment on by Fr Alf.

A lovely on the last day of the term before finishing for Easter. Year 4 (Blake Class) had a lovely couple of hours at the Emmanuel Church to join them in retelling the story of Holy Week, concentrating on what happened on Good Friday and what it means for us. The children also made their own tomb representation out of biscuits.

On Wednesday 27th March, we held our our Stations of the Cross, which has become a St. Mary's tradition. Each class created two representations for the stations, involving the children in their class. Each class visited the hall and retold and reflected on the events Jesus experienced on Good Friday. During lunchtime, parishioners joined our Way of the Cross team for the service, using our stations, and then came for tea and biscuits in the staffroom.

During Lent, each class from Year 1 - Year 6 had their own Easter Mystery Box which went home and engaged the children with reflecting on the true meaning of Easter. They could share the story, light a candle and share a prayer with their family.

Six children were selected to join Mrs Halloran in visiting church, during their lunch on Friday 15th March, for church's Lenten Lunch. They children enjoyed the company of parishioners and tucked into some lovely soup made by Mr Lynch.

Each half term, KS2 classes have the opportunity to visit church to participate in the celebration of Mass.

Throughout Lent we are hosting cake stalls, one per class to raise money to support CAFOD, a Christian charity that works to help people in underdeveloped countries.

The children represented our school brilliantly at Remembrance Sunday service in the Memorial Park. They were dressed smart in their uniforms, participated in the service and lay a wreath from our school.

Justice

Today, we started talking about what justice was and what are human rights are.  We then worked as a group to gather ideas for a debate about refugees.  The children came up with some very interesting points and it gave us lots of discussion points. 

Breaking News from the Sky Newsroom 

Warning - contains miracles!  Our children reporting live from the scenes of Jesus' miracles.

Catholic Life at St. Mary's 

2022 - 2023

Bible Studies 

Shelly Woods class enjoyed an RE lesson with a difference today. We were lucky enough to enjoy a lesson devoted to exploring the Bible. This involved actions, dress-up and some class discussion about certain aspects and stories within the Bible. It was fun and informative, the children were engrossed. 

In Daley Class we contributed to the wonderful Stations of the Cross display in the hall. We talked about our faith and what each station represents.

Eid al-Fitr

To celebrate Eid, the celebration to mark the end of Ramadan, Shelly Woods class enjoyed some special treats.