Our Chaplaincy Mission Statement 2024-25:

"Bring Jesus alive in every child".

Our Chaplaincy Team and Roles 2024-25 

Sean - Chair 

Sienna R - Vice Chair 

Bellisa - Secretary 

Jojo - Thought of the Week Lead & Charity 

Johnny - Prayer Group Lead

Cara - Prayer Group Lead

Sophie - Charity & Advertising and Marketing 

Kamsi - Advertising and Marketing & Living Prayer Wall

Sienna D - Living Prayer Wall

Aisosa - Living Prayer Wall

St Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy Trust 

Chaplaincy Prayer

Lord, God our Father,

Thank you for our school community.

Just as you inspired St Francis of Assisi,

inspire us to work together

to spread your Word within our school

and across our family of schools.

Help us to create a community

where love shines through us.

Help us to embrace God’s creation

by showing others how to love and care for

our environment as Stewards of the Earth.

Let the world grow as we follow Your path

Let us bring peace and care to one another

and listen to God’s Good News.

May you guide us and our academy

today and always,

on a path of a shared mission.

St Francis pray for us.

This is our chaplaincy Prayer; it discusses our goals and expectations, how we should behave, and how we should set examples for other children as a chaplaincy team while spreading God's word within our school.

St. Francis is an important saint mentioned in our prayer, as he is the patron saint of our academy and unites all of our trust schools.

Our First Chaplaincy Assembly - 23/09/2024 - Pupil Voice

"In this assembly, we introduced ourselves and explained all our different job roles and what they mean and our goals and missions this year as a chaplaincy team". - Sean

"Our Living Prayer Tree is about 'Caring for our Creation'. It is 'living' because a new prayer is added each day to show that we will look after our world as a school. - Sienna D

"Each assembly we have a reflection table central in our school hall for everyone to see. For our first chaplaincy assembly, we chose gold and burgundy cloth to represent our school and a candle holder representing our school community as we all love and care for one another." - Sienna R

CCS Christmas Advent Carol Service at Westminster Cathedral. 

04/12/2024

Today, we went to the Catholic Children's Society Advent Carol Service at Westminster Cathedral in London. We watched the Nativity be acted out, and we saw a real donkey that Mary and Joseph were carried on, we learnt all about the real meaning of Christmas and how it is a time of reflection to rejoice that Jesus will be born on Christmas Day. The service really got us into the Christmas spirit as we sang lots of Christmas songs!  We then lit a candle for all our loved ones we miss and may not be spending Christmas with and said a prayer for them.

We also met the Bishop, Paul McAleenan! 

Chaplaincy Afternoon Tea with the Over 60's 

16/09/2024 -

This was our first outing as a Chaplaincy Team. We went to our local parish centre and served tea, coffee and biscuits to the over 60's. Then we sang our school song and some other hymns too. Then we had a biscuit after!! - Sean

07/10/2024 - 

This week, we served tea, coffee and cake to the over 60's. We brought some games with us this week, UNO and Snap and played them with a man called Sid; he beat us every time, and we all had so much fun!! We also spoke to the others and found a lady called Hannah, whose grandchildren came to our school too! 

16/12/2024 - 

This was our last visit to the Over 60s Afternoon Tea of the year! This week, we brought some mince pies, crackers and some Christmas cards we have been making for the over 60s. Then, we sang some Christmas songs that we had been learning in hymn practice. Then we wished everyone a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year and then we were given some chocolates! 

Thought of the Week: 

Each week, two chaplaincy team members design a thought for the week. We think about important events that week, ideas, and themes that we want our school to think about and reflect on. We put our posters up around the school each week and on our Monday morning assemblies, we explain what our thought of the week is all about and we ask the children questions.

Lunchtime Prayer Groups. 

Year 1: 09/10/2024

Our Lunchtime Prayer Groups in October are all Mary, as October is the month of Mary.

We started by saying the Hail Mary and teaching the Year 1's about the Rosary Beads, and we asked them some questions about who Mary is and ways we can all be like Mary, by keeping faith in God and always trying to do the right thing even though it might be hard, then we finished off our prayer group by colouring in some pictures of Mary and saying a Prayer.

- Sean, Sophie and Sienna D

Pupil Voice:

"We sat down and talked about Mary and then did some drawings and we got a wristband for being good!". - Mattyas, Asaiah and Israel

"We did a prayer and prayed about Mary". - Sade

"We talked about Mary; Mary is Jesus' mummy!" - Tabi-Mercy

Reception: 14/10/2024

Pupil Voice:

"We prayed to Mary and coloured in a picture of Mary". - Chizaram 

"I coloured in Mary; Mary had the baby Jesus at Christmas! - Vienna

Year 2: 02/12/2024

Our Lunchtime Prayer Groups in December are all about Advent and the lead-up to Christmas.

Today we taught the Year 2 children all about the advent wreath and the different coloured candles and what they mean. We said a prayer and spoke to the children about how Christmastime is the celebration of the birth of Christ. 

On an Advent Wreath, there are five candles: three purple, one pink and one white.

Pupil Voice:

"There are five advent candles that are lit on the Sundays before Christmas, the three purple means Hope, Joy and Love, one pink means Peace and one white means Christ, that is lit on the Sunday before Christmas! - Sofia, Aria and Victor

Our Harvest Box and Collections - October 2024: 

Harvest is a time of year when we give food to those in need; it is a good thing to do as we are giving to those who are less fortunate than us. 

Our Harvest Box represents how our school shows care for those who do not have as much as we do. Collecting food for Harvest brings us closer to Jesus, as he teaches us to sacrifice things that we may take for granted, just like how Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, as a chaplaincy team, we are setting an example to the rest of the school by following in Jesus' footsteps. - Cara, Bellisa, Sienna R and Sienna D. 

Our Chaplaincy team celebrates faith across our school. 

Some of their achievements so far are as follows:

• Helping to develop our Prayer Room

• Weekly ‘Thoughts For The Week’ which are posted throughout the school

• Leading Key Stage Assemblies

• Weekly Gospel preparation

• Attending  Mass at Westminster Cathedral

• Cathedral visit

• Working in conjunction with other Chaplaincy Teams in Hertfordshire & Academy  Schools

• Organising various competitions

• Purchase of various RE resources (ie: Lent/Easter booklets)

• Supporting those children in Year 3 during their preparation for their First Holy Communion

• Various charity fund-raising events

• ‘Saints day’ celebrations

• Leading prayer services/collective acts of worship (ie: The Rosary)

•  Prayer Groups

• Leading class liturgy on Friday
• Leading Trust wide liturgies
• Visiting the Parish over 60's club monthly

• Supporting other schools in developing a Chaplaincy Team

• And much more besides!!

Pupil voice

'My role is to lead the Prayer group organisation. We discuss set up and ideas.Our role is very important sharing and developing faith'.Xhemil

 'My role is secretary,I take care of organising the group and ensuring that all actions take place.Sharing and reminding others what to do ,when. I enjoy being in charge and organising ,as I like to know everything'.Rose 

St Francis of Assisi Catholic Academy Trust 

Chaplaincy Prayer

Lord, God our Father,

Thank you for our school community.

Just as you inspired St Francis of Assisi,

inspire us to work together

to spread your Word within our school

and across our family of schools.

Help us to create a community

where love shines through us.

Help us to embrace God’s creation

by showing others how to love and care for

our environment as Stewards of the Earth.

Let the world grow as we follow Your path

Let us bring peace and care to one another

and listen to God’s Good News.

May you guide us and our academy

today and always,

on a path of a shared mission.

St Francis pray for us.

Lent Charity work 

During Lent this year we have been collecting food for Broxbourne foodbank. Thank you to our chaplaincy team for arranging this and to all our families for donating. 

We have also been supporting our Trust Charity of the year who is Westminster Catholic Children's Society. We celebrated our fundraiser day on Friday 24th March with a non uniform day,Cake sale and Easter egg raffle. The grand total will be revealed soon!Thank you to Parliament who supported this day. 

The Chaplaincy Team’s ‘Mission’ this year is:

To work together to support and enhance our religious community as Jesus wants us to.

The Chaplaincy Team’s ‘Aims’ this year are:

1. Supporting our school community

2. Working as a team

3. Developing the prayer life of the school

4. Working with our church and community

5. Helping others develop their faith

I’m sure that they will continue to do a great job in supporting and promoting the Catholic ethos of our school!