Spiritual Life 2018-19

Spiritual life

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.

Vocation Day

Vocare 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 visit

On 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 liturgy

Year 8 are preparing their Vocation Day Liturgy, using the Diocesan liturgy planning sheets. See, Think, Hear, Do..

prayer time in the chapel

Every 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

On Friday 10th May 2019’ we held a special leavers liturgy for Year 11 to celebrate all that they have achieved in their time here at St Martin’s
Celebrations began with an affirmation session, this gave students an opportunity to write positive messages to their friends and form tutors. During the liturgy Year 11 were reminded that they are loved by God and how we should do our bit to live in God’s love.

EASTER LITURGIES 2019

The children in the school were led in the Way of the Cross devotions by children from the Divinity team. The spirituality of the children in our school was apparent for all to see; by their words and actions. The liturgies were accompanied by images of the Stations of the Cross and the choir sang beautifully, providing lovely harmonies.

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
Sunday 17th March 2019

Tonight we joined St Peter's Church in Earl Shilton. The parishioners responded at each station with prayers and singing. It was a very moving journey, through the last moments of Jesus' life. #Lent

Books for Africa- fundanami trust

Thank you to everyone who donated books for the Fundanami Trust. #BooksForAfrica
Richard Parker who works for the Fundanami Trust was blown away by how many books we had collected at St Martin's. #BooksForAfrica

tHE BIG SLEEP OUT 2019-RAISING MONEY FOR LAWRENCE HOUSE. Friday 8th March 2019

For one night we all gave up the luxury of our warm beds and swapped it for a sleeping on the floor. As well as it being a challenge, it was a great way to understand some of the realities that young homeless people face, while also raising money and awareness to help support Lawrence House. We raised a grand total of £3400.00

Ash Wednesday liturgies 2019

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Well done to everyone for leading us in our Ash Wednesday Liturgies. #Lent2019

CAFOD- WORLD GIFTS

We welcomed Tricia Henderson from CAFOD, who gave us insight into where our collective contributions are distributed.

Mary's meals-Lenten charity 2019

Our Lenten charity this year is Mary's Meals. This organisation raises money in order to provide children around the world with a nutritious school meal each day. It costs £13.90 to feed a child for a whole school year with Mary's Meals- with double the love you can feed TWO children for £13.90. St Martin's raised £506.60 and therefore with this being doubled it equals £1013.20. #DoubleTheLove

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.

JOINT MASS WITH sT PETER'S HINCKLEY AND ST PETER'S EARL SHILTON-SUNDAY 27TH JANUARY 2019

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.

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.

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.