Launching the Jubilee Year of Hope at St Mary's
Pope Francis has asked us to celebrate this year with a deep faith, lively hope and active charity. This means he wants each one of us to celebrate this year by trusting in God, looking forward with hope, and showing love to others through kind and caring actions
To mark the start of the Jubilee Year of Hope, we had a special Celebration of the Word and gave each family in our school community, a Jubilee prayer bag. Inside the prayer bag were all the symbols from the logo into a bag for families to reflect upon and use in prayer together at home. Children from all year groups were involved in making up the prayer bags and Waylands led us in reflection before handing them out to the teachers to give out..
Learning the Jubilee song 'Pilgrims of Hope'
In our weekly singing assemblies, we have been learning hymns linked to home and have learn the hymn 'Pilgrims of Hope', written by OneLife Music. We want to sing this to our local parish at the end of Mass to bring hope and joy to others.
Creating Doors of Hope around the school
Staff and children were invited to take part in creating a Door of Hope linked to CAFOD's Prayer of Hope and Catholic Social Teaching. We created a Door of Hope into the entrance of our school hall, our prayer room and classrooms. Each Door of Hope creation was made following a reflection which was planned by Mrs Fernandes, our Prayer and Liturgy Co-ordinator.
Whole School Sponsored Pilgrimage Walk
On the 25th April 2025, the whole school set out at different times during the day to travel on a pilgrimage walking around the local area. We gathered together to pray beforehand whilst taking time to reflect on our walk together.
We also asked for sponsorship donations for the Prospect Hospice and as a school, we walked 45 miles to celebrate 45 years of the Prospect Hospice care given in Swindon and the surrounding areas. We also made boxes of 'Hope' to give to the staff members to show our appreciation for the wonderful work they do.
We raised an incredible £1144 and even went on BBC Radio Wiltshire to talk about bringing hope to others during this Jubilee Year.
Bishop Bosco Visits St Mary's
Bishop Bosco made a very special visit to St Mary's to meet our children and to bless our Hive, a place of Hope for our school community. Groups of children showed the Bishop how talented they are during a special Celebration Assembly with an opportunity to ask the Bishop some questions. He then had a tour of the school led by our Head Girl and Head Boy, before coming to gether for a tea party in the Hive.