Catholic Life and Mission

“Aspire not to have more but to be more”

Prayers and Collective Worship

Every class says prayers at the start and at the end of each day, with the children offering intentions and having time for their own reflections. Classes have a prayer box and children are encouraged to write their own prayers.

Our children understand their RE lessons to be special times and these always begin with a prayer or quiet refection.

Collective worship is celebrated in classes each week where there is time for prayer, reflection and meditation.

Pupil-led worship is an important element to the collective worship at St. Augustine’s. Children actively participate in assemblies and services, including:

Leading prayers each morning during the Rosary
Children leading prayers during the weekly Gospel assembly
Children leading prayers during the weekly Rights Respecting assemblies
Children leading prayers during whole School Masses throughout the year

Once a year each KS2 class celebrates class Mass in School. These are special occasions and each Mass has a different theme focussing on their learning in RE.

Liturgies
Children participate in class liturgies and Masses throughout the liturgical year including Harvest Festival, Ash Wednesday and a remembrance service.

The children perform Nativities in EYFS and KS1 and a sung Nativity by KS2 is performed in the Church. Our Year 5 class leads the Passion Play during Lent, also in the Church. These are wonderful occasions for the children, parents and parish community and are always extremely special and very well attended.

We also have different Masses to celebrate the feast of St. Oscar Romero and a Leavers’ Mass in July.

Faith in Action
Our Year 5 children become our Mini Vinnies each year, working alongside the St. Vincent de Paul Society in our sister parish of Holy Cross. During the year the children learn about how to help those suffering in our local community. The role of the Mini Vinnies enables children to work with the wider community and recognise their responsibilities to the world outside our school. Our Year 5 Mini-Vinnies, share their Commissioning Mass with the Year 5 children from Holy Cross School and alternate celebrating at Holy Cross church or our own parish church. This is always a wonderful occasion for the two Schools to join together and share the ways in which they support different causes.
Our work with the Mini Vinnies helps our children to understand our local community more fully.

We share Lenten breakfast with the whole school community during Lent each year. We also undertake the Big Lent Walk around Beckenham Place Park where children, parents and staff join together to raise money and awareness of the special season.

We were delighted to receive the Oscar Romero Award, participator level at our Cathedral in spring 2024. We are now working towards the developer level.

Children are very aware of the importance of living their faith. Our Curriculum Drivers, our Rights Respecting Schools assemblies and our use of the CAFOD teaching resources enable and enhance their understanding of Catholic Social Teaching throughout our school.

Faith Leaders
Our RE lead organises a group of Faith Leaders from across the year groups. They look at ways to promote our faith and support others, these pupils meet weekly. The Faith Leaders have had the opportunity to attend Mass at St. George’s Cathedral to celebrate the start of the school year and the feast of St. Oscar Romero. They often lead prayers at whole school collective worship and during the Rosary each morning.

The Annunciation and St. Augustine Parish
Our Parish Priest is Father Uduak Abara. He is a wonderful supporter of our school and helps us to maintain a close relationship between the school and parish. For more information please go to
The Annunciation and St. Augustine Parish website: http://www.theannunciationandstaugustine.org.uk/

The Crowning of Mary
Each year, during the month of May, we crown Our Lady. The children place a crown of flowers on a statue of Mary, the Mother of Christ. Those who have made their First Holy Communion (usually Year 3 children) lead us all in a service in honour of The Virgin Mary and children from across the community place flowers at the feet of the statue.

Passion Play
Our Passion Play is the re-enactment of how Christ died to save humankind from sin, and bring the gift of salvation.

Lenten Breakfast

Lent allows us to remember Jesus’s fasting in the desert. It is a time of giving things up and a test of self-discipline.
It was pleasing to see so many families attend the Lenten breakfast. I was also very proud of how our Year 6 helpers served our school community.

St. George’s Cathedral, St. Oscar Romero and Faith Leaders

We attended a special Mass in honour of the Feast of St. Oscar Romero, our Federation Patron. The Faith Leaders met Bishop John Wilson, the Archbishop of Southwark who presented them with The Oscar Romero Award. The Oscar Romero Award recognises the huge impact of schools that practise Catholic Social Teaching.

KS2 Carol Concert

KS2 children to perform their Christmas Carol Concert. Their performance was splendid and delivered the message that Jesus is our greatest gift at Christmas.

Nativity Play EYFS and KS1

We thoroughly enjoyed the EYFS and KS1 Nativity Play. It was a delightful retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus. It was fabulous to see how the youngest members of our school remembered all the words and actions to all the songs.

Carols on the Green

Forty members of our choir went along to Bellingham Green to participate with other members of our local community. The choir sang so superbly as part of Carols on the Green, conducted perfectly by our amazing by Mrs Ley. Community is important to us here at St. Augustine’s, it is one of our school drivers, upon which our curriculum is based.

Harvest Festival

We had Harvest Festivals in our school hall which we normal hold in October. We thank God for nature and the food from the harvest. The children bring gifts of food to schools, that are distributed in the community.

Useful websites:

Prayer and learning resources:
CAFOD – Catholic Agency for Overseas Development

Ten different ways of praying online:
Ten Ways to Pray Online

Pray weekly with the Sunday Scripture:
Prego – Praying with Sunday Scripture

An eight-week course on the Lord’s Prayer
The Prayer Course

RE Parent’s Newsletter provided by Ten Resources
This newsletter shares some of the content children will experience in school and suggests ways for you to engage with them about it.
http://www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/

The Wednesday Word sharing Sunday’s Gospel
The Wednesday Word