Catholic Mission – Living, Feeling, Dreaming
As you enter our School, you know you are at St. Francis’, due to our stunning rural location, where we care for the environment, like our patron saint, Saint Francis. Everyone is warmly welcomed at our school, you are greeted with humility, care and compassion and respect. We hold our school values in high esteem as they have come directly from the Gospel Values.
St. Francis will greet you on your arrival, as you will be lead through past the offices you are surrounded by our beautiful station of the cross and through to our promise corridors. Our corridors are filled with Laudato Si, Care for our common home promises, along with our Season of Creation display.
Walking down the corridor to the hall, you are greeted by Mary, and our Visio Divina display to remind us of the importance Mary has in our Catholic faith. Walking into the hall the vales tree displays the New Testament wall, Bible Buddies corner is underneath the Old Testament interactive display and our links with friends in Kenya display. Each classroom has a unique RE and worship area, with resources for the children to interact with. Our school and displays demonstrate our dedication to LIVING, FEELING, DREAMING.
2026/27 YEAR OF LISTENING - GOD'S LOVE FOR THE POOR
Year of Listening: God's Love for the Poor
The Year of Listening invites us to hear God’s voice more deeply and to listen attentively to the cries, hopes, and needs of others. Throughout Scripture, God shows a special concern for the poor, the vulnerable, and those who are overlooked.
Jesus proclaimed good news to the poor and demonstrated God’s compassion through His words and actions. He listened to the marginalised, welcomed the excluded, and called His followers to do the same. When we listen to the poor, we encounter not only their struggles but also their wisdom, resilience, and dignity.
God's love for the poor challenges us to move beyond sympathy to action. True listening leads to understanding, solidarity, and justice. It encourages us to share resources, defend human dignity, and build communities where everyone can flourish.
As we journey through this Year of Listening, may we open our hearts to God's call, recognise Christ in those who are in need, and become instruments of His love and compassion in the world.
We are :
· Collecting warm clothes for the homeless
· Collecting food for the local food bank
· Visiting the local care home to spread some happiness
· Having a Macmillan Cancer Relief sponsored walk
· Raising money for CAFOD Harvest app
SEASON OF CREATION
The school hall was transformed into an art gallery, demonstrating art inspired by creation! Each class took a theme related to there BIG ETHICAL MORAL QUESTIONS. These are the big questions that inspires each classroom topic, each individually created by the staff to reflect Catholic Social Teaching and linked to a cross-curricular topics. We celebrated the Season of Creation throughout school, as each class learnt about the Genesis story of creation. We incorporated Science Week, with a focus on space and our solar system, to link with with the big questions and wonder of creation.
LAUDATO SI – LIVE SIMPLY
Proud to have been awarded the Live Simply Laudato Si Award
WORKING WITH CAFOD HEADQUARTERS
We had a visit last week, a lovely man, who works for CAFOD Headquarters in London, came to visit our school to speak specifically with the CAFOD Club. The CAFOD Club has been up and running for two years now, and we are the first official Primary School CAFOD Club in the UK. We have supported CAFOD develop resources for their website, and resources to send out to school – so that all other Catholic schools can start-up their own CAFOD Clubs. The children took the opportunity to show CAFOD what we have been learning about in school, and to show them what an assembly by the St. Francis CAFOD Club looks like! We look forward to continuing to support CAFOD, helping them get important messages out to more young people!
FEATURED IN THE CATHOLIC VOICE
Lancaster final proof Click on the link to check it out. Catholic Voice write up about the incredible ‘Open Air Mass and Creation Day’ with our catholic cluster.
St Francis appear in the Catholic Voice once again. What an incredible write up – what an incredible school we have.
Celebrating The Feast of St Francis
CALL FOR CREATION (Pope Francis)
SIGN THE PLEDGE
St Francis’ has signed up to live ‘Laudato Si’. As a school, we are going to make every effort to make sure governors, staff and children are doing their part to make the world a better place. Pope Francis wrote a letter to the world two years ago, to call for all humans to clean up their act. Two years on, Pope Francis is now calling us all to sign the pledge, spread the word and do our part. St Francis’ are proud to be a part of the LiveLaudatoSi movement. Hving already been awarded a ‘Laudato Si Award’ by CAFOD, the school will do all it can to continue to make the world a better place. The Pope has released a prayer for those who have signed the pledge ( you can find this below). The prayer will be used in school, it has been published on the website so you can use it too.
Laudato Si’ Award
We are thrilled to have recognition for our work and dedication towards ‘Care for our Common Home’. Our award was presented by a CAFOD volunteer this week. Getting the award was no mean feat. Children had to prove that they have done their part to make the earth a cleaner, healthier and better place to live. The work done by the children, both in class and the impact around school was inspected by a CAFOD volunteer to make sure standards had been achieved. This goes to show how OUTSTANDING the children are at St Francis’ and the effort they go to, to improve the world we live in.
Harvest Food Bank Collection: Feed the Hungry
More fundraising for worthy causes-Children in Need.
FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS
It is the important time of the year again whee the children of St. Francis’ Catholic Primary School, celebrate the feast day of the school’s patron saint. The children had a special Saint Francis assembly with Miss Deakin on Monday. The children have also been learning about St Francis in their classrooms. The whole school then came together on the 4th October to celebrate the feast at mass.
Open Air Mass with our small schools Catholic Cluster
What a wonderful day we had! It began at 9.30am, when six of our cluster schools arrived at St.Francis.’ This year, we hosted, organised and led a day full of workshops, followed by Open Air Mass after lunch.We used as many spaces as we could in school and the children were all mixed up into different groups so they could make lots of new friends. We wrote prayers on stars in The Millennium Walk, drew pictures of our pets or favourite animals using charcoal and laptops, collaged parts of the creation story to take up to our St.Francis icon in Mass, planted seeds to take home, cared for chickens and undertook Laudato Sii activities in The Cottage. Father Smith even arranged for helium balloons to feature in the Mass.
We have spent a lot of time this year reflecting on Pope Francis’ Encyclical and are really linking this with The Year of Mercy as we care for our common home: plants, animals, the environment and each other.
Here are some pictures of our very special day. We even learned the Peruvian Gloria!
Community Care opportunities
The children have been busily preparing to welcome residents from local care homes into school for dominoes, bingo, chatter and refreshments. Each Friday will be an opportunity to spend quality time with care home residents as we open our school hall to the community. The children have planned, prepared and written letters to publicise this new addition to our UFA time and are looking forward to learning from experienced members of the public about days past and present.
