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Our Mission Statement:
'Guided by Jesus Christ, our teacher, we journey together, learning to dream, believe and achieve'
Our school is named after St Clare: she is the patron saint of our school. She was a follower of St Francis of Assisi. To find out all about St Clare and her life, please click on her image below:
We also have four house saints - St Francis, St Josephine, St Patrick and St Therese. All of our pupils belong to one of our saints' houses and earn tokens each week for a variety of reasons including friendship, kindness, good manners, resilience and good work. The tokens are used to determine which house will receive the half-termly treat. To find out more about our house saints, please click on their images below.
St Francis of Assisi St Josephine Bakhita St Patrick St Therese of Lisieux
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT CATHOLIC SCHOOLS?
Please read the attached document to find out how we are different to non-denominational schools and why St Clare's school is so special - apart from having the most amazing pupils and dedicated staff!
ST CLARE'S CHAPEL
Our school chapel is open for private prayers every Tuesday morning before school.
It gives everyone the opportunity to have a quiet moment with God before the busyness of the day kicks in.
Staff, pupils and parents are very welcome to come and start your day with God at the centre of it.
ST FRANCIS PRAYER GARDEN
We decided that we wanted to renovate our St Francis prayer garden in key stage 2. Our Mini Clares came up with a host of ideas that they would like incorporating into the garden. We are absolutely delighted with the finished result. We still have plenty more ideas to make our prayer area even better, but we need to wait for the better weather to complete them. We hope that you like the transformation!
Ash Wednesday Mass 14th February 2024
Today, pupils from key stage 2 all went to Mass to receive their ashes. Ash Wednesday marks the start of our season of Lent. Father Jeremiah came into school to give the pupils from EYFS and KS1 their ashes.
LENTEN ACTS OF KINDNESS
The season of Lent is very important to us as Catholics. It is the time when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the death and Resurrection of Christ. During Lent, we are invited to pray more, to fast (or do something extra) and to give to those in need. Each child has been given a calendar for Lent which details various actions that your child can complete during this holy season. If your child carries out an act of kindness on 20 separate days, they will receive a gold cross badge. The badge symbolises that, by being kind, they are following in Jesus's footsteps.
Lenten Calendar 2024
Parish Food Bank February 2024
As part of helping people within our community, we held an own clothes day. Each class was asked to bring in different food items which were then donated to the parish foodbank. As always, you were incredibly kind and generous, so thank you!
Baptism of Our Lord - Monday 8th January 2024
We started off 2024 with a whole school mass celebrating the Baptism of Our Lord. Baptism is a cleansing process where we become members of God’s family and are absolved of our sins. Just like the New Year, it is time for a fresh start. We reflected on how we can be like Jesus this year as we thought of New Year Resolutions.
Thursday 14th December
Advent Stations
Today, our Mini-Clares led the key stage 2 children in prayer and liturgy. They set up six prayer stations linked to the Christmas story - Mary, the manger, the Advent wreath, the journey, the homeless and the animals. At each station, the children reflected and prayed for different people including the homeless, new born babies, Our Lady and the rejected. The children considered how they will shine during Advent like the star that shone over the stable in Bethlehem.
Teeny Tiny Nativity
During the season of Advent, we asked families to make teeny, tiny nativities which we could display on our class altars and around our school. The nativities were to be made from re-cycled objects and materials that families had in their homes. Creating the nativities would give our families chance to talk about the Christmas Story and the importance of Jesus's birth to the world. As always, we had some great creations - the children (and stafff) were so proud of what they had made.
CARITAS ADVENT APPEAL
24th November 2023
I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes. Matthew 25:35
Today we held an own clothes day to support the work of Caritas in Salford Diocese. In order to support the valuable work they do in caring for others, our pupils brought in a wide selection of toiletries which will be donated to Caritas. The response from all of our parents and pupils was overwhelming. The love and compassion shown to others within our school community truly is amazing.
Waste not, want not
Our gardening after school club decided to re-cycle conkers and twigs that had fallen from trees to make a set of Rosary Beads which can be used in our prayers.
They worked as a team to make a beautiful beads and they have taken pride of place on one of our altars.
Year 5 Rosary Beads
5G have enjoyed making their own Rosary Beads to enable them to say a decade of the Rosary. Our Chair of Governors has now requested that we make some to share with the orphanage in Uganda. He will take them over to the children ready for the month of May.
Harvest Festival Service 17th October 2023
Today, we came together as a community to celebrate our Harvest Festival. We gave thanks to God for the food that we have and we prayed for those who do not have the same access to food as we do. We asked God to ensure that everyone has enough to eat and drink and that the world shares its food equally between all nations. In order to offer our support to others, we brought in food which we donated to our parish food bank to help the local community.
CAFOD Brighten Up Assembly - 11th October 2023
Today, we welcomed Jacquie, a CAFOD representative, to lead our assembly about how we can reach out to support our global neighbours. She spoke about the floods in Pakistan and how they affected families living there. She showed us what our fundraising could do to help support the people living there with medical aid. Jacquie linked this to the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church and our mission of helping the poor and vulnerable in our society as one family belonging to God.
We will be thinking about ways in which we can support this worthy charity over the coming weeks.
African Dancing - October 2023
This month is Black History Month and two dancers led or children in African dance. We want our children to know that God loves us all equally regardless of what we look like. We are unique and made in God’s image. We are all different for a reason, as God has a different plan for each of us, but we are all one body in Christ. No one is more or less important than anyone else. Just like a body is made up of many parts, so too is our school and our world. We need all the parts to function well.
St Francis Feast Day Mass - 4th October 2023
Today, we celebrated St Francis's feast day with a whole school Mass. It was a joyous occasion. We also remembered St Clare at the Mass who was a close follower of St Francis and is the patron saint of our school. St Clare's feast day is 11th August and we are not in school to celebrate it separately.
Our choir led us in our singing and our Mini Clares helped to prepare the church for Mass and did our readings. We also have a dedicated team of altar servers who serve at each Mass. We are very grateful to them all!
During today's Mass, Father Jeremiah commissioned our Mini Clares into their role. They know that they have an important part to play in leading the faith life of our school. Each of our pupils were given a special San Damiano cross from Father. This cross was one that St Francis used to pray in front of.
Hope in the Future - 3rd October 2023
Some of our Mini Clares joined other schools in the diocese to celebrate our faith. It was a day of reflection and prayer where we were reminded of the call to be Ambassadors of Christ. We are Christ’s body on earth and as such should promote Jesus’s teaching by our words and actions. Bishop John also led a liturgy reminding us of the need to care for our common home as requested by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si. All the children made a pledge stating how they could contribute to caring for our common home which are going to be displayed in St Peter's Square.
MacMillan Coffee Morning - 29th September 2023
Our Year 6 pupils hosted our annual MacMillan Coffee Morning today. At St Clare's we all know how important it is to show love and support to everyone. Today's event was our way of showing that we care for people with cancer and we want to help them as best we can. As always, our families were very generous in bringing in cakes for us to sell and then very kindly buying them back again! We have raised £741.30 for the charity. This simple act was an action prayer in which we demonstrated our love for others
Welcome Back to School Mass - 12th September
Today we celebrated Mass as a school community. It was so lovely to be together in church. We prayed that God is with us throughout this school year; that we always do our best and use our God given talents to the full; and that we always follow Christ's example of how we should live our life.
There was beautiful, lively singing and reverent praying throughout the Mass.
This is what some of our pupils thought of the Mass:
I loved singing the hymns. My favourite was 'Shine Jesus Shine' - Nylah Year 3.
When I was at Mass today, I prayed for my uncle who has died - Nova Year 4.
God is the greatest treasure because he made the world for us - Jagger Year 5.
Mass made me feel happy. I love singing. I prayed for everyone in the world. The best hymn was 'Our God is a great big God.' - Cora Year 5.
Holy Communion
Our first group of children received the Sacrament of Holy Communion for the first time yesterday. The day marked another important step on their faith journey. They shared a beautiful celebration in church with Father Jeremiah, their families and friends and staff from school. The sun even shone down on them to mark this special occasion. May God continue to bless the children every day of their lives. We are incredibly proud of them all.
Ugandan Orphanage
On 4th April, our Chair of Governors (Mr Collins) is visiting an orphanage in Uganda. It is the first time that he has been back there since the Covid pandemic. We decided that we would like to support the children in the orphanage as part of our mission during the season of Lent. We held an own clothes day and in return our pupils brought in soap and toothpaste as a gift to their friends in Uganda. We were amazed at the generosity and kindness shown by the families and pupils in our school. Mr Collins is going to need a very big suitcase to transport them.
The children in the orphanage in Kampala, Uganda were delighted to receive our toiletry gifts and Father Joseph Ssali has written a letter of thanks to our school community.
Harvest Service
On Tuesday 18th October, we came together as a school community to thank God for all the food we have. Part of our mission as a Catholic school is to reach out and support those people who are less fortunate than ourselves, just as Jesus did. We collected a vast amount of non-perishable food which we gave to our parish food bank to support others. The food was gratefully received.
MacMillan coffee morning
On Friday 30th September, we joined thousands of other people in the country who held a coffee morning in support of MacMillan Cancer support. The morning was organised by our Year 6 pupils and it was a huge success due to the genorosity of our parents. We raised an amazing £688.04 for the charity.