Chaplaincy

Our Chaplaincy Team is made up of pupils from Year 5 and Year 6. They meet regularly with Mrs O’Leary to plan Key Stage Celebrations of the word based on the Word of the Week. In addition to this, the Chaplaincy Team also help to prepare for Mass and often read in Mass too. They get involved in fundraising activities and are good role models for others to follow.

Our Chaplaincy Team enjoyed visiting Holy Trinity Catholic Academy in Newark recently. During their visits, they took part in planning their next retreat planning day with them and then enjoyed taking part in the day itself. Following this experience, the team will now take on board everything which they have learnt and experienced and help to plan a retreat day for our own school community here in Grantham.

At Saint Mary’s, we are incredibly lucky to have our own school chaplain, Mrs O’Leary. Mrs O’Leary has worked at our school for many years as a Teaching Assistant and more recently also taking on the role of chaplain. With her wealth of experience as well as with passion and dedication, she leads our school chaplaincy team and Mini Vinnies group.

We are also fortunate to benefit from additional support provided by our Hub Lay Chaplain, Mrs Wright, who visits our school every Wednesday. Mrs Wright records a ‘Word of the Week’ video for us which is shared in classrooms each Monday, and she also leads our CAFOD Live Simply project in school.

Mrs O’Leary and Mrs Wright regularly work together on projects too and are always delighted to see how willing our pupils are to engage with a variety of activities such as fundraising efforts, prayer clubs and art projects.

It is always a joy to share in special occasions and events with our hub family and wider CMAT community. For example, we enjoyed meeting representatives from all of the schools within the Our Lady of Lourdes Multi-Academy Trust in Lincoln in October 2023 for our own Trust Synod. We took part in a day of discussion with an emphasis on listening and reflection. Pupils from our school also took part in the Bidding Prayers during the closing liturgy on the day. As a direct result of our CMAT Synod, we have pledged to introduce a break buddy system on our playground to promote inclusivity and to ensure that every child feels welcomed and valued at our school.

We are privileged to also be able to access Chaplaincy support from our Director of Chaplaincy and Lead Lay Chaplains. You can find more chaplaincy resources by clicking here.

Word of the Week

Mrs Wright creates a weekly video introducing the Word of the Week. In these videos, the word is introduced and defined and we have an opportunity to reflect on it in different ways. We also have the opportunity through these videos to come together in prayer and we are given a mission linked to the Word of the Week.

Here are our recent Word of the Week videos:

1st Week in Ordinary Time, Year C: Baptism

2nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year C: Discipleship

3rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year C: Scripture

4th Week in Ordinary Time, Year C: Humility

5th Week in Ordinary Time, Year C: Diversity

The Word of the Week is Humility.

Week beginning Monday 3rd February 2025 – Humility.

Our next Word of the Week will be Diversity

Week beginning Monday 10th February 2025 – Diversity.

See what the Chaplaincy Team have been doing!