Junior Missions Teams
Our Junior Mission Teams strive to Believe, Belong and Become.
Believe
We believe in God's love and in the unique gifts He has given each one of us. Through involvement in the Junior Mission Teams we want to help ourselves and others grow in faith and develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
Belong
We believe that everyone is a valued member of God's family. Our school is a welcoming community where children, staff and families support one another with kindness, respect and compassion, ensuring that everyone feels safe, included and loved. Through our Junior Mission Teams extend this to our Parishes and wider community so that we and they can feel connected with a sense of belonging to our common world.
Become
We encourage every child to become the person God created them to be. By helping each other recognise the unique gifts God has given to us, we become more involved in using these gifts for Catholic Social Action.
The Junior Mission Teams work for the least, lost and lonely of our community to build bridges of connection in our common world so that others may feel they Belong and know we are Christians through our actions.
There are several Junior Mission Teams and all children are in at least two:
Our Chaplaincy Team
Our Mini Vinnies
Cafod Club
Our Houses
Our Classes
Our Chaplaincy Team
The Chaplaincy Team support the school in growing in faith: emphasising its spirituality and Catholicity, promoting, planning and organising the celebration of liturgies and developing an awareness of God in our everyday lives.
They link with the Parish to share and inspire Faith with others.
The Chaplaincy Team particularly focus on Believe, Belong Become for the Lost and Lonely
How we do this?
- Leading prayer in classes throughout the school
- Leading the Angelus daily in classrooms through October and May
- Preparing the communal prayer tables and assembly prayer table
- Monitoring the 4 prayer boxes (where children in the whole school can write prayers they would like to be shared at an assembly. The boxes each have a prayer area: Ask, Thanks, Praise and Sorry)
- Cards for the lonely of the parishes
- Preparing and organising the Travelling Rosary, the Travelling Cribs and The Easter Mystery
- Sharing Advent prayer in classes
- Leading assemblies
- Leading Stations of the Cross and writing their own reflections and prayers for this
- Links with other schools Chaplaincy Teams
- Preparing for school Mass
- Cards for our Priests
- Attending special Masses and services as representatives of our school e.g. St Bernadette's Relic Mass
- Make prayer cards for parishioners
Our Mini Vinnies
Pupils joining Mini Vinnies do so to support our local community. Their work includes, prayer, fundraising and support.
The Mini Vinnies particularly focus on Believe, Belong Become for the Least and Lonely
Recent work has included:
Food bank drives
Litter collection around Church
Brighten up bands for Dolphin ward
Clothes collection for Streets to Homes
Cake sale for our local new SVP
Visits to local Care Home and Day centre
Learning about the Miraculous Medal and prayer
Participating in Stations of the Cross as readers
Christmas collections for BCCS
Our CAFOD Club
CAFOD club have a mission to care for our common world, including those abroad.
They particularly focus on Believe, Belong Become for the Lost (lost focus of our common world) and Least
Recent work has included:
Making Brighten Up bands for children in Dolphin ward at the Hospital over the Summer.
Glasses sent to Zimbabwe children
Christmas and Easter card exchange abroad
Cake sale for new SVP
World Gifts bought
Drive to reduce plastic waste in school
Leading Assemblies termly to share awareness of CAFOD
Share a Prayer project
Share Lent activities daily with whole school
Prayer group
Our Houses
We have six Houses, each with a Patron Saint
Each House celebrates their Saint’s Feast Day by raising awareness of the work of a charity linked to/active in Brentwood Diocese:
St Anne Line – Brentwood Catholic Youth Service
St Bernadette – Mary’s Meals and Young Carers
St Francis - Catholic Concern for Animals
St Therese – The Little Way Association
St Thomas More – The Apostleship of the Sea
St Paul – SVP
Our Classes
Each class has a weekly prayer service.
They have their own individual prayer books and class Celebration of the Word books.
Each class has a termly Class Assembly.
yN and yR have a Christmas Nativity, as do year 1 and 2 - shared with other classes and with parents.
KS2 share Carols and Readings for Christmas with parents.
The Whole school make Christmas cards for the Hospital wards.
Year 3 & 4 share the Easter Story with the whole school and parents.
Year 5 lead the Rosary in October and May.
KS2 have reconciliation services twice a year.
The whole school go to Masses both at Church and in school - at least termly - more often in Summer when there are more Feast Days.
In May the whole school visit the Parish prayer garden for the Crowning of Mary and may make flowers to add to our ceiling while saying prayers for Mary.
We celebrate with our First Holy Communion Children from y3-6 with a Going Forth Mass at School.
Year 6 take part in a retreat lead by St Mark's Chaplain and VIth formers after this they are involved in making a display or other 'legacy'.
The classes focus on particular aspects of our Catholic life during the year which is shown in our Hall displays.
Recent learning and displays have included:
School values
Words of Carols
The Bible
Dear Santa book (HoS read to whole school) - gifts of food, hard work, water, technology, survival, sight, learning, peace
Caritas: giving of food; time; care of our world: animals, care of our world: water conservation, noticing others, rights and responsibilities, peace makers
Do also see the page about our Live Simply Award