Chaplaincy at St. Bede’s
At St Bede’s we believe our chaplains support and guide us in building the strong foundations of our faith. They help us to see God in our daily lives and remind us that Christ is at the centre of all that we do.
School chaplaincy is vitally important to the life of our school, this is why we have such a dedicated team of children as well as teaching staff, parishioners, clergy and governors to support us in our chaplaincy mission. They meet half termly to discuss ways in which to enhance, promote and support faith.
Our chaplaincy team contributes to our catholic life in a variety of ways. They take the ‘head, heart, hands’ approach whereby they work to ensure we have the opportunity to learn more about our faith, develop our own personal relationship with God and serve others as God asks us to. They take a leading role in planning and preparing a variety of prayer and liturgy opportunities. This can take many different forms from attending mass as a whole school to class liturgy or individual prayer time as well as sacramental preparation.
Pastoral care for all stakeholders is extremely important at St Bede’s and our chaplains support our pastoral programme throughout the year. As well as engaging in pastoral support for our pupils, chaplains work with staff to offer formation and opportunity to develop prayer life.
Our chaplaincy team also supports us in serving our school community as well as our parish and local community. We are always looking for opportunities to serve others in practical ways such as raising money for local, national or global charities or providing much needed resources for those in need.
Links between school, parish and local community are strengthened as a result of our chaplaincy team. They actively seek and organise opportunities where we can work together to share our faith and to support each other in fulfilling our catholic mission of making sure Christ is known and loved to all.
‘Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.’
(Francis of Assisi)
Mini Vinnies
At St Bede’s we have a very active Mini Vinnies group who work together to ‘turn concern into action.’
The Mini Vinnies are the youngest members of the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), an international Christian voluntary organisation dedicated to tackling poverty in all its forms by providing practical assistance to people in need.
Our Mini Vinnies are led by Miss Richardson, they meet every Friday to discuss what they can ‘see’ in the school, local and global community that needs changing for the better. They ‘think’ about ways to make each situation better, then they ‘do’ something about it – they turn their concerns into actions and have a positive impact on our world as a result!
Some of the ways our Mini Vinnies have turned concern into action are:
Championing our CAUSE hamper campaign at Christmas
Organising a school collection of crisp packets to make sleeping bags for the homeless
Making holding crosses for each class to support with prayer time
Helping our younger children to spread love by making cards to take home to parents and guardians
