School Mission Week

In October 2024, the whole All Saints Community participated in our school Mission. The theme of the week was “One in Christ”, our school’s mission statement, taken from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, where he describes the members of the Church as being like parts of the body. St Paul points out that whilst each part of the body is different, in looks and in function, every part is integral to the full and proper functioning of the body.

Our school mission week welcomed the whole community to come together to revisit our values and to think about how we journey deeper into a relationship with Christ, understand our place, each persons value in the All Saints Community and work to be the person God has created us to be.

We held a series of workshops throughout the week, led by some fantastic guest speakers and we concluded the week with the school-wide celebration of our feast day Mass. The participation and reverence of our students in these liturgies was a testament to the success of the week; it was clear that they had really reflected deeply on their personal faith journey by their prayerful approach to the Mass.

Each morning began with an assembly from our student chaplaincy team, who helped to unpack 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, where St Paul describes the Church as being like a body, each with many parts, and each part being integral to the functioning and flourishing of the body. We reflected on all the themes of the assembly over the past half term, so that students could connect the themes and see that God is calling each of them individually to use their unique gifts to build up the body of Christ within our school and wider community. 

On Monday we held a vocations workshop with year 9, who are covering the topic of vocations, both religious and to married life, in their RE curriculum this year.

The day began with an introduction to our guests, who each spoke of their own vocations story; Sister Bora, Amy and Will Lambert (Catholic married couple) and Father Paschal. Each of them had unique stories, but listened to God’s voice in discerning what path in life they were being called to. After break, students had the opportunity to ask questions of our guests, including what family members thought of their particular vocations, what the religious felt about a life of celibacy and how the couple are navigating starting a family.

On Tuesday, we were thrilled to welcome the amazing One Hope Project (OHP), a praise and worship group with a heart for evangelisation, who have been part of the headlining group for FLAME at Wembley arena.

Joe, Lydia and Sean led workshops with years 8, 10 and 11. They taught new worship music, played games (which even the staff enjoyed!) and gave their own personal faith testimonies. One student said “ I learned that God is always here for us and he loves every single one of us individually and personally”.

Just before lunch, they spent some time with our year 11 GCSE music students, encouraging them with their composition work.

At the end of the school day, around 60 All Saints students voluntarily stayed behind for an hour of Praise and Worship led by OHP. This was a really special time for all involved, coming together to praise Jesus in song. One student commented “It was so lively such a powerful atmosphere to worship and have fellowship with others ”. 

On Wednesday morning we hosted Sian from Caritas, Brentwood, and a team of CAFOD volunteers, who ran a workshop with year 7 to get them thinking about why it is important as Christians to put our faith into action and to stand in solidarity with our neighbours who are suffering. Since CAFOD is the charity designated to Year 7 this year, to have volunteers who work closely with CAFOD, who could speak about the humanitarian work they are doing in developing countries, was a real blessing.

The workshop included lots of fun activities, and a challenge for groups to work together to think about how they might fundraise this year, designing some brilliant posters. Students said “We now know the different things they do to help others because and through CST -(Catholic Social Teaching)”.

We are now looking forward to seeing how Year 7 use this helpful workshop to live out their faith in our school community, and to support the work of such an important charity.

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings we were joined by Father Jean-Claude from Leigh on Sea and Father Kris from Rainham, who kindly heard confessions from a large number of students. At the same time, we held Eucharistic Adoration in our beautiful chapel, which allowed the students and staff to examine their consciences, say their penance and spend time in quiet prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

It is a real gift to have Christ truly present in our school in the Chapel, as well as to have His merciful love made known through the ministry of our priests.