Charity fundraising
At St Bede’s we place the teaching of Christ to show love for others through our charity fundraising. Pupils reflect the Gospel values of love and compassion as part of our school mission by their action to help people in need. Every term there is a charity fundraising fortnight where pupils from each Year Group have their own charities that they raise donations for. This is often a charity that is personal and has special resonance to members of the Year group community.
Our school community comes together during Advent and Lent to fundraise for Caritas and CAFOD. Throughout the year, our school family collects donations for a local homeless charity in Blackburn, Nightsafe, and also food donations for our local foodbank.
Social Justice Group
St Bede’s have a thriving social justice group who live out Catholic Social Teachings by following Pope Francis’s teaching, Fratelli Tutti, focusing on fraternity and social friendship. Highlights of their work so far are planning charity cake sales to raise money for CAFOD during Lent, contributing to Caritas Salford Diocese ‘Lenten and Advent thought of the day’, supporting the school ‘Spring Stalls’ event raising money for our school garden project and getting involved in school recycling projects.
Charity visits
During the year, pupils live out their faith by connecting to those in need within our local community. Visits are made to the local care home where our pupils use their God-given talents through dance, drama and music. Our pupils through their English lessons, connect with the residents writing to each other through the pen pals project. Visits have been made to the local homeless charity, Nightsafe, and the local foodbanks to deliver the generous donations from our school community.
CAFOD
Our school community supports CAFOD through many projects such as ‘The Big Lent Walk’. Representatives from CAFOD visit school and speak with our pupils and teaching staff about our responsibility as a faith community to look after those in need and uphold the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
Caritas
Our school community supports Caritas within Salford Diocese and during Advent, donate much needed hats, gloves, socks and toiletries for the Caritas Cornerstone Day Centre for the Homeless in Manchester.
A representative from Caritas has also visited school and spoken with our pupils and teaching staff about the core values and principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
Each term we celebrate pupils living out their faith through Gospel values. The Caritas Love for Others Award is given to the pupil or group who have demonstrated love for others and is awarded by the Head Teacher in assemblies. This award has pride of place in our school reception and is a reminder of the important work that our school community strives to carry out.
Laudato Si
St Bede’s has an active Pupil Ecology Group who act out Pope Francis’s message about our role to care for our common home, through his teaching, Laudato Si. Pupils in this group have also visited Salford Diocese’ Laudato Si centre where they took part in planting and environmental activities.
Our pupils have been in involved in the ‘Guardians of Creation’ project run by St Mary’s University and Salford Diocese. Some of the initiatives from the project have been incorporated into the daily life of the school such as ‘bringing the outside in’. This allows each Prep group to be guardians of creation taking responsibility for growing herbs and seeds in their own Prep planter.
Currently our school community is developing a school garden area to reflect our role as guardians and stewards of God’s beautiful creation. Sensory planting areas, flowering planters and a small outdoor seating area are under construction.