Catholic Life

St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy, Grantham

Mission Statement

Christ is at the centre of St. Mary’s as we strive to nurture and care for all our community members by encouraging them to Believe, Succeed and Soar within God’s love, to achieve the very best that they can, in all areas.

Our Vision

We are disciples who put our faith into action in all that we do.

We are role models who encourage others to shine and be the best version of themselves that they can be.

We are investigators who ask questions about the past, the present and the future.

We are artists who show our creativity and talents with flair and imagination.

We are storytellers who have a passion for reading and are able to communicate in many ways.

We are problem solvers who tackle tasks with an open mind and a positive approach.

We are team players who work together to achieve our goals.

We are explorers who learn new skills, embrace other cultures and value our locality and the wider world.

We Believe. We Succeed. We Soar.

Our Gospel Virtues

To achieve our full Christian potential, we all need to live out our Gospel Virtues: -

Love

A Christ-like love respects the talent of each person in our school.

Faith

Faith helps us to do God’s will in this world.

Hope

Hope helps us to see a new life beyond our present one.

Peace

We know that if we love one another, peace will be all around us.

Mercy

We believe that mercy will be shown by the way we forgive others.

Community

We believe our community here unites us all as followers of Jesus.

PSHE

Our PSHE curriculum is underpinned by our Statements To Live By. This resource is rooted in nine guiding principles which support the distinctive nature of Catholic schools. The statements make the Catholic values of the school explicit, promote a positive and caring Christian ethos that is understood and communicated to everyone, promote emotional literacy and contribute towards community cohesion and the common good. They ensure that children and young people are given opportunities to:

• Hear the Christian story and encounter the person of Jesus;
• Understand their uniqueness as made in the image and likeness of God;
• Experience a sense of belonging within a range of communities, including the local Eucharistic community;
• Know, appreciate and understand the importance of social justice;
• Know that our limitations are also opportunities for growth;
• Understand the connection between knowledge and living;
• Know that everything has the opportunity to reveal God’s presence to us, i.e. to see the divine in the ordinary;
• Forgive and be forgiven, to reconcile and be reconcile;
• Experience fun, humour, imagination, creativity, play and excitement in life.

The statements allow us to explore how we live out our school ethos and promote living our faith, celebrating equality and diversity and promoting British Values. We live out our school ethos and mission statement in all that we do.

Each week a different statement such as ‘I try to be just and fair’ is displayed in every classroom and introduced and explained to the children. This statement is then explored and discussed for the next two weeks. Children are encouraged to think about the statement at the beginning of the lesson, it is reinforced throughout the day, explored in circle times (written specifically for each statement) and reflected upon.

The statements support the ‘Come and See’ RE curriculum and provide material and suggestions to involve parents and the wider community. CAFOD have also provided material which explores the statements and we have an external agency ‘Life Base’ who visit annually to provide workshops for the children. This also supports the work we do in PSHE.

Bishop Patrick's Spiritual Themes

In November 2018, Bishop Patrick wrote a letter to be read out at all Masses.  In his letter, Bishop Patrick outlined his three-fold vision for the next three years:  ENCOUNTER, DISCIPLESHIP and MSSIONARY DISCIPLESHIP. 

ENCOUNTER: Bishop Patrick would like to ‘ensure that all people in our parishes, schools, and chaplaincies are helped to discover, or discover more deeply, the importance of a personal ENCOUNTER with Christ; so that they can become convinced that they are each loved by God and are invited to grow in their relationship with him.’ 

DISCIPLESHIP: With the personal encounter with Christ, Bishop Patrick would like to encourage each of us to hear and respond to his invitation to be his DISCIPLES, to follow him more closely, and to seek to serve him generously in our daily lives. A disciple of Christ is to become like Christ in all that we say and do. Being a disciple means we have to take the time to get to know Jesus through prayer, action, reaction and interaction.

MISSIONARY DISCIPLESHIP:  With a greater recognition of, and openness to, the help, guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we can all become MISSIONARY DISCIPLES; faith-filled, joyful and outward-looking Christians who are growing in confidence to speak humbly of the difference that knowing Christ makes to our lives, and who bear witness to His love in our service of our brothers and sisters, especially those most in need. The service to which Christ calls us is always the action of the Holy Spirit working in us.  

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have designated 2020 as 'The God Who Speaks': A Year of the Word to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Verbum Domini - Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation on ‘The Word of the Lord’, and the 1600th anniversary of death of St Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin.’  In keeping with the Church’s three-year cycle there will also be a specific focus on St Matthew’s Gospel.

The aim of the God Who Speaks – A Year of the Word is ‘Celebrating, Living and Sharing God’s Word.’ It will be an opportunity for us at St Mary’s to develop and explore new ways of responding to the Bible. 

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The CMAT schools have produced The Stations of the Cross video liturgy, it can be found here: https://seedsthatgrow.co.uk/stations-of-the-cross-video-liturgy/

Please see the link to the new church website https://stmaryscatholicchurch.co.uk/

If you would like to attend mass at church you will need to book your attendance beforehand. This can be booked via the above link. 

Please see the photograph above of the children at St Mary's Church for the Living Rosary

The picture above is the Mini Vinnies collection where they have made gift bags for Afghan Children being housed locally.