Pastoral Team

Our Lady’s RC Primary School has a wonderful and dedicated Pastoral team which promotes the Catholic Ethos of our school.  The Pastoral team has a high profile in our school and are a key part of being the missionary disciples who are helping to rebuild our school community. Each one of the team has to apply for this important role and express how they will help to be witnesses to the faith and mission of our school and parish life.

 At the beginning of the school year our Pastoral team are commissioned by our Parish Priest during our Welcome Mass with the whole school and parents are invited in to witness the acceptance to work with all children in school to develop and enhance the religious life. They create prayers as a promise to God to help them on their journey as a member of the Pastoral Team and how we all work to be Missionary Disciples and how we can be like Jesus in all that we do.

The Pastoral Team have a very important job to spread the Word of God throughout our school and the school community. It is our mission to interpret scripture so that children can better understand stories from the Bible and relate them to their own lives. They also look for how they can support and pray with the younger members of the school to help them to learn our school prayers and hymns alongside how they can encourage and help children to pray in the outdoor area and to reflect upon how they can be more like Jesus and follow God’s word.

Our mission is to continue to build an awareness of the Common World and an understanding of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si and to reflect on how we can answer the call to help our world. The links with Bishop’s John work on climate change and building awareness of how to protect our world is a key part of the role to promote how we can pray for the world, recycle more, reuse and reduce. The children are key leaders on our annual march in our local area where they think of prayers, chants and information to share with the local community on how they can make changes in our world.

The children on the Pastoral Team are key ambassadors to promote the rights to respect and help to discuss the rights with staff and children making links to their own lives and the religious life in our school community. The rights are shared through prayer, worship and in the work on developing our awareness of the Common World and how we can pray for those in the world in need of water, food and a place to live.

As members of the Pastoral Team we are called to lead our school by following in the footsteps of Jesus. Every day we live by the gospel values and show others how they can do the same. Being a member of the Pastoral Team is a challenging but very rewarding task. We are working to achieve the Faith in Action award from the Diocese for the commitment and time given to help with planning assemblies, prayer and liturgy, Masses and in the work to develop the religious life in school.

The aims of the Our Lady’s  Gift Team are:

• To welcome visitors into our school
• To work hard to promote the Catholic faith in our school
• To be responsible for class worship spaces
• To help the school to grow as a community of faith
• To encourage the pupils to live their faith in daily living
• To support Liturgy, prayer and the spiritual life of the school
• To involve pupils in fundraising for charities
• To continue to develop strong links with the Parish
• To support the school in its Mission Statement
• To plan and support our outdoor prayer and liturgy
• To lead the mission in how we can answer the call to help to take care of our common home.

Our Pastoral team are a very dedicated team who have a vital role in enhancing the Religious Life of our school. Their roles include delivering class Prayer and Worship, leading prayers and reflections in assemblies and Liturgical events, supporting charities and fundraising events. They are good role models for all the pupils in our school.

We are very proud of our Pupil Chaplains.

The Pastoral team have a very high profile in school leading the prayers in our own classrooms, helping deliver whole school liturgy, Praise and collective worship, welcoming visitors and new pupils to our school and organising liturgical events. 

We work hard to promote our Catholic faith in school and to encourage children to be like Jesus in all that they do and to grow in their faith every day and to think about how to reflect and give thanks for all they have and all that they do in their lives both in school and at home.

Our Pastoral team are led by Miss McIver and are supported by all the staff here at Our Lady’s but if you have any questions or would like to know more about us please contact the office.

Charitable Acts:

Our Pastoral team are great ambassadors for leading the drive and focus in fundraising opportunities. They support the work of Caritas and CAFOD to raise money and food for those who are less fortunate.

During the year they plan and deliver opportunities to help our School to complete charitable acts such as:

Advent food drive – creating posters and promoting the food drive in assemblies and in class. All the Pastoral team created posters to help each class to know what foods could be brought in.

Lent – St Joseph Penny – how we can give to help others during the season of Lent – giving information of what children and their families can do during the season of Lent to raise money. Providing information leaflets for school and the Parish community.

Rosary – Praying the Rosary during the month of October and May for those who need prayers in our school and Parish communities.