“No sitting on the sidelines” - Pope Francis, in Fratelli Tutti
As a school we are inspired by Pope Francis’ teaching to not sit on the sidelines by ensuring that we are constantly putting our Catholic faith into action by helping those in the greatest need on both a local, national and international level. Every student and staff member has the opportunity to live out Catholic Social Teaching’s preferential option for the poor and the marginalised by:
- Supporting our local Foodbanks – During Advent and Lent students work as a tutor group to collect food donations for our two local Foodbanks; Hebburn Helps and Bede’s Helping hands.
- Creating Care Parcels for the Elderly to deliver alongside the SVP to parishioners in the greatest need in our local area. Different year groups every Advent and Lent create care parcels containing cards and small gifts to be given to parishioners in the greatest need in the parishes of Hebburn and Jarrow alongside local care homes.
- Operation Christmas Child – On an international-level, students in years 7 and 12 create shoeboxes filled with small toys and gifts for children in the greatest poverty across the globe or who are living in warzones.
- CAFOD World Gifts – During Advent students in Year 9 work as a tutor group to come together to devise a way of fundraising to buy as many impactful World Gifts as they can. Last year we raised over £900 buying items such as herds of goats, chickens, queen bees, toilets, health centres and soup kitchens for those in the greatest need.
- The Parable of the Talents project – Students in tutor groups in Year 8,10 and 12 are challenged with growing £5.00 in a manner of their choice for a charity of their choice. Every year students go on to raise hundreds of pounds for charities that are close to their heart including MacMillan, the British Heart Foundation, local hospices, foodbanks, CAFOD, the Dogs Trust and the Ukrainian Red Cross appeal to name but a few!
Students undertaking both the Faith in Action and Pope John Paul II awards are often instrumental in running these programmes and we are grateful for the support, time and selflessness of our entire community in undertaking these social action initiatives.