Charity
There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.
(Acts 20:35)
It is not God's will for some to have everything and others to have nothing.
(St Oscar Romero)
Charity is the cement which binds communities to God and persons to one another.
(St Vincent de Paul)
As a school, we are committed to following the example of Jesus and loving our neighbour. Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus identify himself with the poorest of the poor and acknowledge and restore their dignity as a child of God.
We support a number of charities at local, national and international level. Here are a few examples:
As a school, we believe it is important to reach out and support those within our local community. We have a strong link, through the Mini Vinnies, with our local food bank. We collect for the food bank at various points throughout the school year.
At Christmas, the Mini Vinnies collect toys, stationery items, hygiene items and many other ideas for shoeboxes. The Mini Vinnies work with the local Rotary Club to provide gifts at Christmas for those who are not as fortunate as we are.
Caritas Salford is the home charity of the Diocese of Salford. We support the Mother and Baby residential homes run by Caritas Salford with our Gifts for a Baby collections. During Lent, we collect for Saint Joseph's Penny.
A number of representatives from Caritas Salford have visited the school: Amir to speak about his experiences as a refugee, Anthony who has worked with the Mini Vinnies, and Kathryn who has worked with the older children.
Mission Together is the Pope’s charity for world mission. As a school, we remember and pray for the work of Mission Together. Claire, from the charity, has visited our school to speak to the children about how we help children through prayer and sharing. She helped us see the universality of God's family and the call Jesus left all his children - to share His love and friendship with the world.
We are excited to work with Claire in the future. As a school, we are going to be working with Claire to develop resources on St Oscar Romero as well as raising money for Missio in El Salvador.
We are proud to have developed a strong relationship with CAFOD. We are the first organisation in the Diocese of Salford to have achieved the Live Simply Award.
Last school year, we raised over £650 for CAFOD World Gifts.
Both Jo and Jacquie have visited the school on several occasions to deliver assemblies, worships and collective worship.
We support Aid to the Church in Need and their commitment to speaking out to say that is unacceptable that anyone should be mistreated simply because of their religious belief.
We support Red Wednesday in November and complete a number of activities around our whole school Red Wednesday Mass to raise awareness of religious persecution and the work of ACN.
We have met Bridget from ACN who has visited the school. She shared the fundamental belief of ACN that each person is a child of God so each person should have the things they need to live a good, happy and free life. There are some parts of the world where people cannot live in this way and ACN reaches out to help them.
The children particularly enjoy writing postcards of hope for other children that ACN deliver to communities they support.
We support many other charities throughout the school year such as Macmillan, Jesuit Services in Cambodia, Save the Children, Children in Need and many more.
