Catholic Life Team
Mrs A Lennon
Assistant Headteacher / Designated Safeguarding Lead
Miss L Cooper
Director of Religious Education
Mr A Hall
Spiritual Wellbeing Lead
Mr S Millington
Head of Music
We are the senior team involved in enhancing the Catholic life of the school. We are proud to hold this responsibility and we have ensured that our Mission and Ethos have remained at the heart of everything that we have achieved this year. Mrs Lennon is a senior leader, RE teacher, and experienced professional who has helped to shape Catholic life in a number of local schools. We also have Fr. Nicholas Angel from Just Youth who works supporting pupils through prayer, guidance and pastoral care while helping our students to grow in faith and live out the Gospel each day.
Our annual priorities have been to:
- Set a clear vision for Catholic life in our school
- Develop the RE and RSHE curriculum content to meet Government and Diocesan requirements.
- Enhance worship and Spirituality.
- Engage more members of our community.
- Enhance parental involvement in our Catholic life.
- To improve communication through the use of technology.
- Continuous evaluation and Improvement.
Miss Cooper oversees Religious Education at St Matthew’s and plays a key role in the development of the RE curriculum. She also contributes to Celebrations of the Word and documentation relating to the Catholic Life of the school.
In addition to teaching religious education, Mr Hall has also coordinated our daily acts of prayer and annual themes for each week following the Sunday Gospel.
“Let your light shine before others” Matthew’s Gospel
Mr Millington leads on music for our liturgical events, Celebrations of the Word, and reflective activities that take place in school. He also leads on supporting local schools and our trust when music is required in their forms of worship and celebration.
The school has developed a strong and valued relationship with our local parish, enabling us to use St John Vianney’s church to celebrate whole-school Masses together with both pupils and staff, strengthening our sense of faith and community.
Prayer at St. Matthew's
Our weekly themes are designed to incorporate the weekly Gospel message, key themes identified via our safeguarding knowledge and aspects of personal development that we aim to revisit throughout the year. We link themes to fundamental British Values and we ensure that key days of celebration in a variety of faiths are remembered and respected.
We often use the maxim of; “If I was a student at St. Matthew’s, when would I pray?”
- Each morning in form with your tutor and peers.
- At the start of every lesson with your subject teachers.
- At assembly on your allotted day.
- At “Celebrations of the Word” or liturgical events.
- At “chaplaincy club”.
- At daily Islamic prayer sessions facilitated by staff and resourced by school.
- Before examinations.
- At the start of family events with the senior leadership team.
What our students say about prayer
- We use daily slides in form time to guide us through prayers. I enjoy it when I have a part to read.
- Our form have written prayers for people in need during Advent. These went off with our hamper appeal.
- All teachers start lessons with a prayer. This gives us chance to stop, be calm and to prepare for our lesson.
- At daily Islamic prayer sessions facilitated by staff and resourced by school.
- Form time prayer is inclusive and considers different cultures and religions
- We pray in assembly. Sometimes a form leads the prayer and makes up the words to the prayer. I like it when we sing hymns.