In February, the Faith Council carried out a bake sale to raise money for Marie Curie. Cakes were brought in by members of St David's house. We will update the total when the money has been counted.

In January, the Faith Council met to discuss the upcoming Lent season. We spoke about why we alms give and what we could do as a school. The Faith Council were tasked to go back to their classes and discuss possible fundraisers that we could carry out during Lent. All proceeds will be donated to CAFOD.

During December, the Faith Council met to discuss how we could improve Prayer and Liturgy more within our schools. We discussed how we carry out Prayer and Liturgy in our classes and what we should do more of to get children's voices heard during our Prayer and Liturgy times.

In the month of November, the Faith Council planned and carried out a charity bake sale. The children of St Andrew's house were asked to donate cakes for our bake sale to raise funds for the National Animal Welfare Trust Thurrock. The Faith Council carried out the bake sale and we raised a grand total of £148.50.

In October, we celebrated Father Debrabant Day. Father Debrabant is an important part of our school's history as he founded the LSU and the LSU sisters have played a big part in our school's history also.

As part of our celebration, the school held an assembly and every child in the school either wrote a prayer or decorated a cross showing our gratitude to the LSU and Father Debrabant. The Faith Council were in charge of delivering the task to the classes and ensuring that each class knew how much of an important day it is to our school.

In September, we welcomed our new members to the Faith Council. As a group, we have planned out four separate fundraisers for our for houses. Each house is going to fundraise for a different charity before their feast day mass.

The four chosen charities are:

St Andrew's house: National Animal Welfare Trust Thurrock

St David's house: Marie Curie

St Patrick's house: Crisis Homelessness Charity

St George's house: Cancer Research UK

We will hold a bake sale before our house's feast day mass and all the proceeds will be donated to our chosen charities

The Faith Council planned and led the May Procession for the whole school. They chose which hymns to include and what prayers to say. The choir also helped with singing our opening hymn and the whole school participated in laying flowers at Mary's feet.

We have been working on planning our own liturgies this year and they are becoming more confident in planning these.

Our CAFOD fundraisers for Lent were a success. The whole school took part in their own fundraising activities. We have raised a significant amount of money that will be totaled by CAFOD in the near future.

Over the next month we will be thinking about what we can do more to help the less fortunate and we will be planning our May Procession.

After discussing with the classes what fundraisers they would like to do, we asked each child to donate a minimum of £1 if they can. Each class will carry out their fundraiser before the end of term. Hopefully we can beat last year's total!

The Faith Council also led our Stations of the Cross service to the whole school. We prayed, reflected and sang after we heard each station.

The Faith Council met and had a think about what fundraisers we could carry out for the upcoming Lenten period. They decided that they would go back to their classes and discuss what they would like to do.

We have helped a number of children this month achieve their prayer awards across the school. Each day at lunch, a different group of us lead prayer sessions and help children achieve their prayer awards. These children have receieved their prayer awards in achievement assembly each Friday.

This month we helped set up some Advent prayer tables and we discussed the use of the prayer garden in the new term.

During November we met to talk about the upcoming season of Advent and how we can raise money for CAFOD in future fundraising events.

As a school this month we have been praying the rosary during the Month of The Rosary. We also collected in food for the Thurrock Food bank and did a collection for CAFOD family fast day!

The Faith Council have had a discussion about what type of fundraising we should do during the upcoming season of Advent. The faith council will have a discussion with each class to find out their classes think.

We have returned for a new school year and we have welcomed our new members of the Faith council! All Faith Council members have been presented with a new badge so they are easily spotted around the school. We have had some discussions about what we could do this year to help those around us. 

We are so pleased to share the amount we raised during Lent. Our fundraisers were clearly very successful! Thank you so much to all the people who donated. The amount raised will be a big help to the work that CAFOD do. 

This month, the Faith Council lead the May procession for the whole school. With the support of the choir, we sang Hymns about Mary and reflected on pictures of Mary throughout her life. We also said The Rosary as a whole school and laid flowers at her feet.

During April, in the last week of the Spring Term, we carried out our Lenten Fundraisers for CAFOD. It was great to see all the children participate in a range of different activities for a great cause. We have sent our donations off and are waiting for the grand total from CAFOD - there was so much to count and lots of envelopes handed in! We hope to post our total in May. 

In the month of March, the Faith Council supported their classes with planning their CAFOD Lent fundraisers. We also lead The Stations of The Cross to the whole school which included sharing each station, reflecting on them and listening to the Choir sing some beautiful Hymns.

During the month of February, we focused on the upcoming season of Lent. We spoke about the three pillars of Lent (Prayer, Fasting and Alms Giving) and how we can focus on these three things during this time.

After lots of discussion as a group, we went and spoke to our classes and the younger children of the school to find out what fundraisers they would like to carry out to raise money for CAFOD. We had a great response and all classes were eager to share their ideas. We can't wait to take part in our fundraisers and see how much money we raise for CAFOD during this season of Lent!

When we returned after Christmas, we reminded the classes that the Faith Council are still carrying out prayer sessions in the prayer garden and listening to all year groups for their prayer awards. We also talked about how we can include more pupil voice within our RE lessons and we aim to develop this further during this term.

During December, the Faith Council met regularly to discuss what we can do to 'Spread the Good News'. We delivered an assembly to KS2 on Catholic Social Teaching, that explained what it was and we shared stories and prayers. We also shared a picture of our display and discussed what tasks we have already carried out this term as a school.

In November, the Faith Council discussed the use of our prayer garden. We made a timetable for the whole school for prayer and reflection times and time for children to receive their prayer awards. The Faith Council are now in charge of awarding children their prayer awards.

The month of the rosary

During the month of October, we have been talking about the month of the rosary. The Faith Council sorted rosary beads for each class so that every child can follow along with the rosary with their own rosary beads. We delivered these to each class and they are in everybody's prayer area. Each class has also been given a guide on how to pray the rosary.

The use of our prayer garden

We have also been discussing how we can use the prayer garden more during lunch times and within our RE lessons. We aim to implement the use of the prayer garden in the next half term after finalising the details.

This month, the Faith Council made pledges to listen and respond to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

The children pledged to:

• Donate to charities throughout the year.
• Ensure that we don't waste food. 
• Recycle more to save our planet.
• Bring food in for the Harvest Festival next month.
• Fundraise for CAFOD.
• Spread the Good News to our families and friends.