Update from Chaplain Kate - Autumn Half Term

Dear families,

Our themes for Collective Worship this half term have been allowing us to explore our sense of community and interconnectedness, in terms of who we are as individuals, as a school community and a global community, through the themes of Courage and Wisdom, Respect, and Care for Creation; within these and the themes of Education and Mission we have also been able to reflect on what we have learned about ourselves and our place in the world, our unique purpose, as we have been living through the challenges the pandemic has brought to us.

This week's theme is CAFOD/Harvest due to the fact that Friday 9th October is CAFOD's annual Harvest Fast day.  This is a day that we are encouraged to act in solidarity with those across the world who are living without access to the very basics such as access to clean, fresh water or nourishing food by perhaps going without a meal, part of a meal, or a treat and donating the equivalent money 'saved' to CAFOD's Harvest appeal.

We are acutely aware that this community has felt the impact of the pandemic in so many ways and know that everyone's circumstances are different - I read a phrase recently that so very accurately summed this up when the author said, "we are all experiencing the same storm but each in our boats", and so, whilst we know that some families may be able to unite to 'give something' up for the day and make an online donation to CAFOD (cafod.org.uk) others simply aren't in that position.

In school we have asked this week that our students consider what is appropriate for them in their circumstances and to talk about this at home to help them to decide how they/you can act in solidarity:

• It might be that donating to the Harvest appeal to help our global family is appropriate,
• or instead, to help locally, that adding an extra item to the weekly shop and donating it to the supermarket's Foodbank collection is more appropriate.
• For others it might be that an act of solidarity - a show of interconnectedness - could be being more aware of the water we use and the food we have and working hard to cut out wasting them.
• If non of the above apply then we are all called to a fresh appreciation of the blessing that access to clean running water is.  At a time when we are all washing our hands far more regularly if, each time we washed our hands this week, we thought about those for whom this isn't an option we would take what comes out of our taps for granted that little bit less and that's no bad thing.

We will complete the half term reflecting on the second of the school's core values - Compassion - and One World Week which this year has for its theme "It's Our World - Let's Make It Better".  I am sure the pandemic has taught each of us some important lessons (and will continue to do so) but I've been praying since March that if we hold on to just one thing from all of this it's that we are all connected, all one, all important and valued, and we can all play our part in helping to make our communities and our world a better place.  It seems to me that this year's One World Week theme is, therefore, perfect!

Building on the time I was able to spend with the newest members of our community at the end of August in their induction sessions I am looking forward to ending the half term on a high by visiting each of our Y7 forms again to invite them to reflect on 'the courage of St Peter' and how we can gain great gifts when we find it within ourselves to be courageous.

We've all been called, like St Peter, to acts of great personal courage in recent months and we are so proud to see our students rising to the challenge, daily, to be courageous in small ways.  As the end first half term of the year approaches may we continue to find the courage we need every day to be the people we have been called to be.

Blessings

Kate x