Our Catholic faith is very important to us at Saint Norbert’s and it is at the heart of our curriculum, policies and all we do at our school.
Use the links below to find out more about our Catholic Life and Mission.
Catholic Life and Mission
Living out our Faith
We are very excited for the Jubilee Year and we are looking forward to making pledges, filming Minute of Hope videos, writing and saying prayers, singing the Jubilee hymn and living out our faith in lots of different ways.
We will have a whole school retreat based on the theme ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ during the Jubilee Year which pupils will help to plan and lead.
Here are some useful links which will direct you to more information about the Jubilee Year:
Jubilee 2025 – Pilgrim of Hope (Official website)
Jubilee Year 2025 (CAFOD)
During the Year of Prayer, we were invited to take part in a Diocesan project; to celebrate the diversity within our school community by exploring how many different languages we could pray the Our Father in between us. It was wonderful to see so many families get involved.
We also decided to explore the prayer that Jesus taught us in a creative way as a whole school. We created our own Lord’s Prayer Labyrinth on the school field and explored each line through sensory and prayerful experiences. Older and younger pupils teamed up to go around the labyrinth and it was a wonderful afternoon.
We created our own ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ display in the main corridor celebrating all of this. We also highlighted the monthly prayer themes provided by our Diocese above our ‘prayer web’ in the foyer of our school.
Each week the staff and pupils at Saint Norbert’s can all nominate their peers for this award, for those little acts of mercy and kindness. In the Advent term 2024, we introduced ’Heart that Sees’ stickers!
We began our Live Simply journey in September 2024. We are looking forward to putting our pledges into action and building on our already good links with parents, our parish and our local community.
To find out more about our Live Simply journey so far, please click here.
The principles of Catholic Social Teaching are promoted at Saint Norbert’s and both pupils and staff actively make links to these in day to day life. We recognise ways in which we already live these out and we look for new ways to put these into action for the good of our local, national and global communities too.
Within our Celebrations of the words and during our retreat days, including when thinking about our missions, we often link in Catholic Social Teaching. We also refer to Catholic Social Teaching in our weekly newsletter and link these when appropriate to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We display our own Catholic Social Teaching posters in our classrooms which helps us make links to these and recognise more independently ways in which we can live these out in our own lives.
We have an active Mini Vinnies team at Saint Norbert’s. This group of children are passionate about putting Catholic Social Teaching into action and especially Preferential Option for the Poor. In October 2024, they organised a collection for the local foodbank, Project Saint Thomas, who were very grateful for the donations which they received as a result of this.
Our school also support CAFOD. In December 2024, we raised £49.59 simply by bring in loose change as part of our Advent retreat. We also like to take part in the Big Lent Walk for CAFOD annually.
Retreat Days at Saint Norbert’s
Our retreat days are planned and led by our Lay Chaplain Mrs Wright. The themes are chosen in accordance with the liturgical year or to coincide with themes and events within our Diocese or the worldwide Church.
Our current focus during the academic year 24-25 is to increase pupil involvement in the planning and delivery of these retreat days.
Our next retreat will be in the Lent Term.
Our Advent retreat in 2023 was split into three parts: message, journey and charity. We created angel themed artwork after hearing the story of when God sent his messenger, the Angel Gabriel to tell Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of His son. We made religious themed Christmas cards, wrote Advent promises and thought about little acts of kindness that we could do during Advent to help us get ready for the coming of our saviour at Christmas.
Our Lent retreat focussed on the ‘Year of Prayer’ and we looked more at different ways to pray. Children explored the different types of prayer creatively in their classrooms and they also wrote Lenten promises. We created our own ‘Garden of Gethsemane’ in the school hall and pupils were invited down in class groups to spend time in quiet reflection after hearing the scripture of when Jesus prayed in the garden before his arrest, trial and crucifixion. We ended the day by learning the new hymn for the Jubilee.
In the Pentecost term, we explored the theme of ‘God’s Wonderful World’. We focussed our day on the story of Creation and learnt more about Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’. The children created artwork based on this theme and came down in Key Stage groups to take part in a meditation in the school hall which was all about stars. The children wrote and decorated their own prayers.
The Chaplaincy Team helped Mrs Wright to plan this Advent retreat and came up with so many wonderful ideas! We started by discussing possible themes together before settling on the theme of light and a Year 5 pupil came up with the retreat title ‘Let People See the Light’. We decided to split the retreat in half, focussing first on the coming of Jesus, the light of the world before moving on to reflect on how we can let our own light shine to help others encounter God. Through scripture, prayer, singing and artwork, we enjoyed exploring our themes and getting ready for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. The children were also invited to bring in loose change on the day which we used to make a big candle on the playground. Through this, we raised £49.59 which we will use to buy a CAFOD World Gift.
