Live Simply is an invitation to follow in the footsteps of Jesus who lived and preached a simple life. As a school, we will journey together, taking  meaningful action on the social and environmental crises we face today.

The Live Simply Award, supported by CAFOD, is based on 3 key principles: Live Simply, Live in Solidarity and Live Sustainably. To 'Live Simply' is to take the opportunity to slow down, spending more time in prayer and reflection, while building your relationship with God and with others. To 'Live in Solidarity' means to care for our human family, hearing “the cry of the poor” (Laudato Si’) and stand in solidarity with communities around the world who are experiencing poverty. Finally, to 'Live Sustainably' is to care for creation and the environment, hearing “the cry of the Earth” (Laudato Si’) and playing our part.

As a school, we have chosen 9 actions, which we will work towards as a whole school community.

Global Actions

CAFOD's Big Lent Walk

Through taking part in the Big Lent Walk, pupils raised almost £800 for CAFOD. Our walk included not only pupils and staff, but also family members, local parishioners and members of our wider community as we walked a local route around the Rising Sun Country Park. We also held a collective worship in school to share CAFOD’s message and help children understand the importance of living their mission to love one another.

                                

Climate Justice Campaign

Our wonderful Eco-Club created a video for our school’s Climate Justice Campaign. This was then shared with our whole school, to help our pupils understand the importance of supporting our global family and protecting God’s gift of creation. The video, which was written entirely by our pupils,  video was not only shared with our school community, but also on our social media platforms and with local councillors and politicians.

Refugee Week

It is a core Catholic teaching that every human being is created in the image of God and is therefore entitled to human dignity and respect.  During Refugee Week, we invited our local community to donate items to ‘Walking With’ (a local charity who supports refugees in Wallsend) and we were overwhelmed by the response. Throughout the week, we also held prayer services for children in school and the wider community to pray for our brothers and sisters forced to flee their homes overseas.

Local Actions

Community Soup Lunch

Helping the vulnerable and elderly in our community is at the heart of the Catholic faith and is rooted in the belief that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. Providing a soup lunch for elderly members of our community was a selfless act of giving to others without expectation of anything in return. Every family in our school community donated a vegetable to put towards our community soup lunch. The children all helped to prepare the vegetables for the soup. We invited all elderly members of our local parish community to join us for a special soup lunch, which was served by our Mini-Vinnies.

                 

Community Litter Pick

Catholic Social Teaching teaches us that our faith guides our actions. It is our moral compass, guiding us on how to live out our faith in the world. By coming together for the school litter pick, pupils not only contributed to a cleaner environment but also strengthened social bonds, lived out the value of stewardship and created a positive impact that extended beyond the physical cleanup.

Supporting The Local Food Bank

Our faith calls us to love God and to love our neighbours in every situation, especially our sisters and brothers living in poverty. For this action, we invited a member of the Walking With charity to lead an assembly in school, to help them understand the importance of their donations and the difference it makes to show kindness and compassion to those who have so little. We then asked every child in school to donate 1 item to the Walking With food bank, and our Year 6 pupils helped deliver our donations.

School Actions

Art & Photography Competition

Psalms 65:8-9  “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders”

We held a whole school art competition, whereby every phase was given a piece of scripture based on the beauty of God’s world, and they then created a piece of art to represent the message within the scripture. Once all of the work was completed, we held a whole school art gallery for families and our local community to showcase our creations. Additionally, we held a photography competition which we opened up to families, parishioners and members of our wider community.

                  

Disconnect To Reconnect Day

The Catholic Church teaches that, as stewards of God's creation, humans have a responsibility towards the environment. As stewards of creation, pupils learned about how we can all contribute to using less energy and how simpler opportunities can be just (if not more) enjoyable. For a whole day, we switched off as many Pupils took part in practical activities and teachers were encouraged to take learning outside the classroom. 

Growing Produce

Catholics have a duty to do what they can to ensure they are environmentally responsible.  Our faith teaches us that we must avoid using up the world's natural resources and ensure that the planet is cared for and preserved. As a school, we have started growing strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and herbs as well as a range of flowers to attract pollinators. We look forward to sharing our produce with our school, as well as the local community. Instead of buying new, plastic materials, we used old crates for our planters and compost bins and leaves and paper from our school to begin to create our own compost.