Our Community
"Whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters , you do for me"
Matthew 25:40
Pope Francis' 'Fratelli Tutti' moves us to respond to our sister or brother in need, whoever they are, wherever they may come from (FT, 72). We are challenged to turn outwards, to act as neighbours, and to reach out to all those who are in need.
At St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, we are proud to play a central role within our community. Our children are regularly involved in events that are held in aid of both our local and wider global communities. As a Catholic school we have a duty to ensure that all our pupils understand how to care for and respect our local and global communities; becoming confident, caring, helpful stewards of God's creation.
Our children and families are always keen to support us in helping others who are perhaps less fortunate than ourselves; together we act for a better tomorrow for everyone.
The Corporal works of Mercy are found in the teachings of both the Old and New Testaments (Matthew 25:34-37 & Isaiah 58:6-10) and give us a model for how we should treat others. These are the charitable actions which we at St Patrick's always endeavour to incorporate into our lives so that we can actively help our neighbours.
Recent Charitable Actions
Annual Christmas treat donations to CAAS
This year the Mini Vinnies were delighted to donate their fundraising money to CAAS. They purchased lots of treats and packaged these up to make little treat hampers! We hope they brightened someone’s day!
Spreading Christmas joy. An emotional and wonderful visit to R&R Day Care Services. It was a privilege. ❤️❤️❤️
We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.
Christmas Carol Service 2023 ⛪️
Thank you to our children for another beautiful carol service for our community.
“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” Psalm127:3
Donations to support Ukraine - March 2022
Today some of our Year Four children walked to the Civic Hall with donations of items to support those people who are in need as a result of the recent conflicts in Ukraine. We could not have been happier to make a donation on behalf our school. We hope that a peaceful resolution can be found very soon.
Choir Visit - Memory Cafe (CAAS)
Our wonderful choir visited the CAAS memory cafe in Whitehaven to perform some songs they have been learning. They had a great time entertaining everyone! We are very proud of them! They thoroughly enjoyed singing to the group, going round and having a chat with the community and really enjoyed the juice and crispy cakes!
Thank you so much for having us and we would love to return one day to sing again.
St Patrick's Day Coffee Afternoon - Support for Ukraine
As part of our St Patrick's Day celebrations we hosted a coffee afternoon for our families, our Mini Vinnies organised two of these stalls - which were very popular!! We hope everyone enjoyed the event! Thank you to everyone who came along. We are delighted that as a result, we will be able to make a donation to support families affected by the recent conflicts in Ukraine.
Global call to Prayer
Pope Francis has invited the faithful and all people of goodwill to unite together in prayer for the people of Ukraine. Each of our classes wrote their own prayers and shared these during our Ash Wednesday service. We have also had the opportunity to share these with our community when we all came together for a twilight vigil of prayer, reflection and silence for the people of Ukraine.
"Goodness is stronger than evil.
Love is stronger than hate.
Light is stronger than darkness.
Life is stronger than death."
Desmond Tutu
CAFOD Walk Against Hunger Challenge 2022
Message from our Mini Vinnie President, Melvin Thomas: "Please help our school raise money for CAFOD by walking through Lent for the poor and unfortunate. While you're out about join the Lent challenge; Lent through a lens. This is where you can take pictures of symbols you think represents Lent"
For the past three years we have teamed up with CAAS, a local charity that provides support to the older generations in our communities. We have helped them to spread some Christmas cheer to those who may be lonely or facing difficulties. This would not have been possible without the generosity of our fantastic families; who donated hundreds of treats to enable us to make Christmas hampers. Every hamper included a handmade Christmas card and an Advent Crib.
Although we were not able to hold this years Carol Service as a live event with our families and friends. We were grateful to be, once again, celebrating this special time in our Church. Our video was posted on Facebook on Christmas Eve for everyone to enjoy.
Carol Service 2021 Follow this link to watch in full.
Every year we visit our local care home residents and supermarket to spread the message and meaning of Christmas through song. Giving humbles us. It allows us to see the beauty of Christ and how blessed that we are. Also, giving our time allows us to connect with others and spread the love of God.
Well done to our fantastic choir who sang beautifully at the blessing of the crib. We are very proud of you xxx
Enjoy our 2021 celebration photos and video clips.
On 24th November we joined with others across the globe for Red Wednesday to stand up for things a lot of us take for granted – faith and freedom. We wore something red to raise awareness of those persecuted for their faith and wrote prayers to unite us in love and solidarity with our brothers and sisters across the world who suffer and are persecuted for their love of Jesus. We all took home our prayers and a red candle to light, so that we could share this day with our families.
For many years, we have been involved in a local charity's shoebox project, 'Boxes of Hope'. Thank you to our generous families for supporting this local charity. These donations enable the charity to support deprived children in Eastern Europe. Our 'Boxes of Hope' may well be the first gifts some children have ever received.
Our Mini Vinnies Community Council were very excited to announce this years Children in Need Fundraising Event. They wanted to involve our school community and so organised an event that would encourage our pupils and families to work together at home, focusing on this terms Living and Learning Statement; 'Hopeful for the future and each other'. They invited us all to take part in a pyjama day and a cake baking competition. They were hopeful that encouraging our school community to pull together that we could help raise money to support changing the lives of the children and young people of the United Kingdom that need us most.
Climate Change Crisis 2021
As newly appointed members of our ‘Mini Vinnies Community Council’ two of our year 4 children wanted to do something positive for our world during the ‘Season of Creation’! What better way to do this than to organise a scavenger hunt to be completed in and around our local area, surrounded by all of God’s amazing creation. They enlisted the help of their classmates and created a number of activities for everyone in our school to complete. All monies raised were donated to CAFOD. Well done to Grace, Marnie and Class 6 for creating this and to all who completed this.
Cleator Moor Food Pantry
Whilst studying about Christian Mission work, Y5 pupils had a visit from our local support group. The pupils explored the following scriptures found in Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-17, 21-27. They thought about God's call to Christians to use their God-given qualities to carry out his mission work for each of us. They devised their own questions to ask a representative from our local community support group about the work they do to provide food for those in need within our community. Previous to this lesson, our pupils read a newspaper report about one of their heroes, Marcus Rashford, about his campaign to help feed children during the pandemic and school holidays. Below are examples of our work.
As we knew we could not come together as a school during Holy Week, we decided to appreciate it in a different way. We sang our way through Holy Week. Each Year group commemorated one of the special days by choosing a hymn that reflected their focus day. We wanted to share these with our community and so each day of Holy Week a new hymn was added, along with a reflection. We feel that sharing our journey with the rest of the community, and engaging in reflection has brought us closer to each other and to God.
Palm Sunday - Reception
Whilst visiting the Stations of the Cross at our local church, St. Mary’s, Reception sang a beautiful hymn to celebrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey.
“Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path.
The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting: Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!”
Monday of Holy Week - Year One
On the Monday of Holy Week, our Year 1 children wanted to share a hymn with everyone – to help them keep this especially important week at the forefront of their minds! They practised the hymn, ‘Freely, Freely’ a lot…and when it was finally performed, we all agreed that they sounded like angels! We felt the Psalm for this day was particularly meaningful, so we shared it along with the hymn.
"I am sure I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart.
Hope in the Lord!
The Lord is my light and my help."
Tuesday of Holy Week - Year Two
It was Year 2’s turn to sing us into the Tuesday of Holy Week through their performance of ‘The Servant King’. This hymn was chosen as we felt that it helped us to think about Jesus’ role as a servant for us, and to consider how we too can be servants for all those around us. We have used the Scripture from John’s Gospel to help us reflect:
“Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
Maundy Thursday - Year Three
Maundy Thursday, the day when Jesus had the Last Supper and was then betrayed, is a day when we think of Jesus’ humility and service. A day when we think of the words,
"This is my body, which is given for you"
and what it means to us and to the world. Year 3 sung the hymn, “This is My Body” to support our reflection on this special day.
Good Friday - Year Four
Whilst visiting the Stations of the Cross, our Year 4 children performed “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” for Good Friday; the day when we commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. As this is a day for us to fully contemplate the significance of this sacrifice, we wanted to share the following Scripture:
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
The Easter Vigil - Year Five
The Easter Vigil hymn was sung by our Year 5 children through their rendition of “This little light of mine”. We felt this hymn allowed us to focus on light and the Resurrection; how Jesus is our Light, particularly during this last year.
Easter Sunday - Year Six
“He is Risen!”
Our Holy Week journey of singing and reflection concludes with the Resurrection. Our Year 6 pupils celebrated this occasion through a very hearty performance of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!”