Spiritual life
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Saint Martin's was founded in 1948 by the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena based in King William's Town, South Africa. Our Catholic heritage is the foundation of our school and influences all aspects of school life. As such, supporting our pupils to develop spiritually and morally is of fundamental importance. Prayer is a normal part of school life as is a focus on kindness, charity and religious development. Divinity (Religious Education) is a core subject alongside Maths, English and Science. All pupils sit GCSE RE.
The Briars Retreat-Year 7On 4th November a collection of our year 7 children began their three-day retreat at the Briars Catholic retreat centre in the Archdiocese of Nottingham. The retreat began with team introductions and room allocations, we then began to look into the love God has for us, and the love we should have for ourselves. The next day we delved deeper into the themes of the retreat, as well as going for a walk and celebrating mass together. In the evening the Briars team hosted a disco, which our pupils really enjoyed. We had a wonderful time.
All saints' dayThe Solemnity of All Saints was celebrated by the whole school, on Friday 1st November 2019. We celebrated with a liturgy of the Word and two Masses.
Saints were people just like us. They felt hungry, tired, angry, and disappointed sometimes, just as we do. But the saints did difficult things even when they didn’t want to because they loved God. pupil led act of worship- 'saints'As a Catholic school collective worship plays a fundamental part of daily school life and enables us all to join together as one in prayer and worship. Each week, different children in each form group prepare and lead their Act of Worship.
Remembrance prayer treeNovember is a month of remembrance for all who have died and we are encouraged to pray for them. Throughout November a remembrance tree will be on display in reception. We would like to fill our tree full of people our school is praying for.
singing at saffron House-wednesday 23rd octoberA group of children from our school choir had a delightful afternoon at Saffron House Care Home today. The residents and the children had a fantastic time chatting and singing. We had the pleasure to sing Happy Birthday to two residents.
CAFOD BRIGHTEN UP day- Friday 11TH OCTOBERThank you everyone for your wonderful generosity as we brightened up the world this harvest. We raised £735.00 by being bright and beautiful. A big thank you to Tricia Henderson from CAFOD who delivered assemblies to all year groups .
faith in action-cymfedFaith in Action (The CYMFed National Catholic Award Scheme). The Faith in Action scheme helps identify and celebrate what is really important and to formally achieve recognition for the many different ways the children contribute positively to the community and the catholic life of the school. Pupils will be encouraged to take ownership of projects and develop them according to their own talents and interests. Meet this years team.
MACMILLAN CAKE SALE-FRIDAY 27TH SEPTEMBERA total of £777.15 was raised for Macmillan Cancer research with our bake sale today. We'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who baked or purchased cakes and donated them to the school.
NEW EUCHARISTIC MINISTERSCongratulations to Holly, Hannah and Ryan who completed their formation and training in order to be commissioned as ministers of Holy Communion. #NDCYS
Year 7 welcome Mass- SEPTEMBER 2019Today Fr Frank celebrated Mass with Year 7 students and staff in our first opportunity to all gather together. This was the perfect way for the students to begin their journey here at St Martin's. The students and staff prayed and sang with great enthusiasm creating a prayerful and celebratory atmosphere.
Vocation DayVocare is the Latin word for 'to call'- and as a Catholic school we believe the biggest calling we hear is from God. We are called to be holy, called to follow God in our lives, called to use our gifts at work. A big thank you to all our visitors who joined us for our Year 8 retreat day. #VocationsDay 2019
SAffron house visitOn Wednesday 12th June we visited Saffron House. The session consisted of a little exercise class (throwing and catching the ball) and some quality one on one talking and sharing stories. Another heart warming visit.
Year 8 planning their liturgyYear 8 are preparing their Vocation Day Liturgy, using the Diocesan liturgy planning sheets. See, Think, Hear, Do..
prayer time in the chapelEvery form group from Year 7-10 will visit our beautiful chapel over the few weeks. All form groups will have the opportunity to reflect and pray. Some images from Year 7 - our theme was 'community'
CAFOD- Step into the gap
On Thursday 23rd May 2019, we invited in Niamh from NDCYS. Niamh is spending her year volunteering at The Briars Youth Retreat Centre with CAFOD’s ‘Step Into The Gap’ programme, working with young people and encouraging them to get involved with CAFOD.
Niamh joined us here for the day, leading sessions outside in the beautiful sunshine. It was a fantastic opportunity to think about ways we could encourage other young people to support CAFOD. I think this has helped inspire us as a school community to raise even more money for CAFOD! It was a brilliant day spending time thinking about our responsibility and our power in the world in a fun and interactive way. Year 11 leavers liturgy
Lenten almsgiving
A big thank you to everyone who donated food items for Hinckley Food Bank. We donated 205.5kg which was worth £359.62. #LentenCharity
big sleep out newspaper article-Hinckley times
community and outreach
Another heart warming visit to Saffron House. Bringing old and young together.
SG10 TEAM
SG10 prepared and led the Act of Worship for lower school. #PositiveThinking #RandomActsOfKindness
Lent Prayer stations 2019
During Lent we have had an opportunity to pray, reflect and prepare for Easter. Some images from our Lenten prayer stations.
Stations of the cross-st peter's church
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CMAT Launch- MONDAY 28TH JANUARY 2019
Members of our Divinity Team had a fantastic day at Morningsdale Arena, as we celebrated the official launch of our new St Thomas Aquinas CMAT.
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JOINT MASS WITH sT PETER'S HINCKLEY AND ST PETER'S EARL SHILTON-SUNDAY 27TH JANUARY 2019
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cafod world gifts
As a result of our Christmas fundraising, we raised over £300 for CAFOD World Gifts! World Gifts is CAFOD’S alternative charity gifts that transform lives. Each form group from Year 7-11 took part in raising money for CAFOD.
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End of Term Christmas Masses
Advent Food Bank Donations
Advent Lituries
During Advent we reflect on the coming of Christ into the world and prepare for the Christmas season. These are some images from our Advent Liturgies...
Advent 2018
Saffron House
Pupils on our weekly visit to Saffron House in Barwell. Having a lovely afternoon getting creative with the residents.#WorkingWithTheCommunity #CatholicLife #PreparingForAdvent
Advent 2018 & Encounter
What is meant by Encounter?
As Bishop Patrick reminded us in his recent Pastoral Letter, it is about a change of heart
and minds, of having personally encountered Christ and responded to his call in our lives. It is an invitation for each of us to encounter afresh, or even for the first time, the personal love that God has for each of us, to respond and grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and to become faith-filled, joyful and outward-looking missionary disciples through an
openness to the Holy Spirit. Beginning with ‘Encounter’, Bishop Patrick hopes that this ‘Advent and Christmas will be a time, when we all encounter afresh the amazing love of God our Father in sending us his Son and ponder again on Mary’s openness to receiving that love’. (Pastoral Letter, November 2018).
The Gospels are full of occasions of Encounter. Jesus meets people with love. In various
ways, he meets people who are in need of him; in him, they find the love of God made man. Jesus suddenly and dramatically breaks through their situations and they are changed by this meeting, he not only offers his friendship and love, he desires their friendship and love. They are met with a choice: to follow him or to return to the life they had before. Encounters with Jesus lead to becoming a disciple, an intentional follower of Jesus, who is seeking to grow in holiness and likeness of him.
As Bishop Patrick reminded us in his recent Pastoral Letter, it is about a change of heart
and minds, of having personally encountered Christ and responded to his call in our lives. It is an invitation for each of us to encounter afresh, or even for the first time, the personal love that God has for each of us, to respond and grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and to become faith-filled, joyful and outward-looking missionary disciples through an
openness to the Holy Spirit. Beginning with ‘Encounter’, Bishop Patrick hopes that this ‘Advent and Christmas will be a time, when we all encounter afresh the amazing love of God our Father in sending us his Son and ponder again on Mary’s openness to receiving that love’. (Pastoral Letter, November 2018).
The Gospels are full of occasions of Encounter. Jesus meets people with love. In various
ways, he meets people who are in need of him; in him, they find the love of God made man. Jesus suddenly and dramatically breaks through their situations and they are changed by this meeting, he not only offers his friendship and love, he desires their friendship and love. They are met with a choice: to follow him or to return to the life they had before. Encounters with Jesus lead to becoming a disciple, an intentional follower of Jesus, who is seeking to grow in holiness and likeness of him.
The Divinity Team
The Saint Martin's Divinity Team, discussing CAFOD world gifts and The Food bank in preparation for our Advent charities.
The Year 10 Rome Pilgrimage 2018
In November 2018 we have our annual Year 10 Pilgrimage to Rome where we visited great works of Christian Art, had an audience with the Pope, visited the main Basilicas of Rome, has Mass at the English College and much more.
Mass for the commissioning of Eucharistic Ministers
MASS FOR THE COMMISSIONING OF EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS AT SAINT MARTIN'S (WITH SOME NICE PHOTOS OF ST BARNABAS CATHEDRAL IN NOTTINGHAM) with three of our Year 11 Students.
The year 7 Briars Retreat 2018
70 of our Year 7 pupils went on the annual retreat to the Briars Residential retreat Centre in Derbyshire. Here are some photos from the week.....
All Saint's Mass
All Saints' Day is a solemn holy day of the Catholic Church celebrated annually on November 1. The day is dedicated to the saints of the Church.
Hymn Practice - LEARNING some new songs for masses this year
The Group with no name!!!!
The group with no name will eventually have a name! However, at the moment this group looks at the Catholic life of the school, planning what we would like to do as a community to develop the spiritual and moral life of the school (PS Now called the Divinity Group)
Welcome to Lucy Chapman
We are delighted to have appointed Lucy Chapman as our new school Lay Chaplain. Most secondary schools have a lay Chaplain to support the Catholic life of the school and support the work of the Priest Chaplain. Lucy worked has a lay Chaplain in Birmingham for 16 years and has happily now moved to Earl Shilton so we have managed to recruit her to Saint Martin's. Lucy also worked at Alton Castle, the Birmingham Diocesan Catholic Youth Retreat Center for a year.
MacMillan Coffee Morning
Thank you to everyone who supported our Macmillan Coffee Morning, especially Mrs Orton who came in to organised the event and all the pupil helpers.
The blessing of our new school Chapel
To mark this anniversary, we will be having various events and other things to mark the occasion. One of the first is the creation of our new school chapel which was be opened by the Bishop on September 21st 2018.
The Year 7 Mass of Welcome
Well done to all our new Year 7 pupils who were so superb on their first day at Saint Martin's
Eucharist Ministers
Will Wright, our Head Boy and Head Girl, Kay-Leigh Pereira and two other Year 11 Students Tallia Jamelynec and Oliver Morgan attended the Adoremus National Eucharistic Congress and Pilgrimage in Liverpool and they have all been commissioned as Eucharistic Ministers.
The creation of our new school chapel
As part of our celebrations to mark the 70th Year of St Martin's school, we have created a new school Chapel. These are some photos showing the transformation from Mr Dixon's RE class to the Chapel. The Bishop of Nottingham will be coming to consecrate it in September.
