Saints help us to face challenges with courage
“The memory of the Saints leads us to raise our eyes to Heaven: not to forget the realities of the earth, but to face them with greater courage, with more hope.”
As we began the new academic year in Autumn 2023, we challenged the children in each class to collectively select an inspirational class saint to reflect their unique classroom community.
As Catholics, saints are role models for us and inspire us to live a life of holiness and give us the strength to be what God created us to be.
As a Catholic school, our class saints serve as spiritual role models for our students, embodying virtues and values that align with our school's unique faith-based education. These inspiration Church figures offers a tangible example of living a life of faith and service, which we hope will inspire our students in both their personal and academic growth. Our class saints also foster a sense of unity and identity within each classroom, providing a shared patron for communal prayer, reflection, and religious activities.
Selecting our Class Saints
As a school, we wanted our Saints to reflect the diverse nature of our school community – in gender and ethnicity. It was also important to us that we choose Church figureheads who were relatable to young children. As such, we deliberately included Saints who demonstrate ways of dealing with very current challenges, such as modern slavery and homelessness. We also wanted to use this as an opportunity to extend our pupils’ knowledge of sainthood beyond the traditional Saints that they may already know about.
As with all aspect of our school life, we wanted our pupils’ voices to be heard. Each class took time to research and learn about a selection of Saints before collectively agreeing as a classroom community on a patron Saint whom they felt is a role model for their common values and ideals.
Each class will take inspiration from their saint, learn about their life throughout the year, celebrate their feast day and talk to them during classroom collective worship.
As a school community we really resonate with Pope Francis quote:
Saints are not superman
“The saints are not superman, nor were they born perfect. They are like us, like each one of us. They are people who, before reaching the glory of heaven, lived normal lives with joys and sorrows, struggles and hopes. What changed their lives? When they recognized God’s love, they followed it with all their heart without reserve or hypocrisy. They spent their lives serving others, they endured suffering and adversity without hatred and responded to evil with good, spreading joy and peace. This is the life of a Saint.”
Pope Francis, Angelus, 1st November 2013
The class saints which each class have selected are as follows: