Common Good - helping others and our community participation

St Teresa's we support a number of local and national charities by fundraising and collections:

Borehamwood Foodbank Macmillan Cancer Support

Caritas Food Collective - Westminster Sports Relief

Catholic Children's Society Watford Peace Hospice

Children In Need Young Minds Mental Health Charity for young people

Catholic Social Teaching (CST)

Catholic Social Teaching underpins the essence of our daily school life.

As members of the Catholic Church, we are all called upon to preserve the dignity of all human beings, to care for creation, and to reach out to our sisters and brothers in need.

These principles form part of Catholic Social Teaching, a body of work developed by Church leaders over the centuries. Pope Francis emphasises that it is our duty to work together to bring about a more just and peaceful world: to put love into action.

It is vital that our children can articulate the connection between Jesus' teaching and doing good deeds.

Rooted in Love: Care for Creation

Y4 Lenten Cake Sale

Well done to our to Y4 pupils who raised an impressive £200 for the Catholic Children's Society Building Bridges lenten fundraiser.

Thank you to the parents for all helping with this fundraiser

CCS Lenten Sponsored Pancake Run

On Shrove Tuesday the whole school had a sponsored Pancake Run to raise money for the Catholic Children's Society.

Congratulations we raise £145 ! Had fun and exercise running around the playground flipping pancakes and even got to eat some in class.

Advent charitable work

Pupil Parliament - Pupil Parliament met to research charities to raise money for this advent. They have decided that each class will hold their own sponsored event during the last week of term to raise money. The four charities that the pupils have researched are: Herts and Essex Air Ambulance, Herts Young Homeless in Borehamwood, Gratitude local food charity, and Caritas Food Bank. Pupil Parliament members are presenting their research on each charity to their classes and each class will vote on which charity or choice of charities to raise money for. Watch this space to find out who the children chose and what sponsored events they are running this advent.

Pupil Parliament Sponsored 'Santa Run'

Baubles - raising money for Addo

This year instead of sending class Christmas cards the whole school have been asked to design their own bauble and make a £1 donation to Father Dominic's Addo charity,

The Addo charity supplies school uniforms for children in an area of South Africa. Without these uniforms, these children are unable to attend school and receive a free school meal. This money will be donated to Fr Dominic at our end or year Mass.

The baubles will be displayed in classrooms alongside learning about Catholic Social Teaching. They will help to emphasise our responsibility to protect the poor and vulnerable and also to conserve the world's resources as requested by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si (please click here for a child friendly explanation of this).

Christmas cards for the elderly and vulnerable

This year, we are inviting all pupils to make their own Christmas card for an elderly or vulnerable person who lives in our local area. This helps our children to spread Christmas cheer and importantly to act on Jesus' call for us to be there for those who have the least.

Staff advent acts

St Teresa's staff have opted to help with the food bank or another charitable cause instead of sending each other Christmas Cards. We are also supporting each other through the financial crisis by setting up an internal food bank which staff can access for extra help.

Community Participation

International day and Evening

Celebrating our rich and diverse backgrounds of our whole school community. .The school thought about Pope Francis’ special letter, Fratelli Tutti, where he asks us to remember that we are one global family. We know we are a family at St Teresa’s and the children thought about the other neighbours we have and how we can be a good neighbour.

Our international day ended with a wonderful evening of food from around the global. It was fantastic celebration of St Teresa’s.

Helping others

Turkey Syria Earthquake Appeal

In response to the awful events taking place in Turkey and Syria we decide to hold an impromptu wear your own clothes to school day. We raised money for the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC).

We raised a massive £400.38

Y6 Advent fundraiser for Borehamwood Foodbank

On 1st December, Y6 pupils joined volunteers from the Borehamwood Foodbank at our local Tesco store for the foodbank advent drive. Our pupils worked hard to speak to customers as they arrived at the store to raise awareness of the food drive and to ask for donations. Customers donated generously and also brought food to donate. Afterwards, we went shopping in Tesco and each child chose an item from the foodbank list, we the school brought the children donated them to the drive.

The children told said they really enjoyed the experience. They said that had to use their confidence to speak out to people but they got the hang of it! They were so pleased and proud of the money and food donations they raised. Y6 said it was a great feeling to do good for our community and that this was Catholic solidarity, caring for those with the least and human dignity. Well done Y6!