On Sunday, the First Holy Communion children celebrated their ‘Going Forth’ Mass, where they received their certificates from Fr Bill.
Here they are together, and collecting their certificates.
Some of our Year 4 children made their first Holy Communion on Saturday June 14th. It was a wonderful mass – the church was filled with families, friends and staff to support the children, the children read beautifully and looked amazing! Everyone was so proud of them!
After Mass, the children headed down to the church hall which was decorated with beautiful artwork, prayers, poems and cards made by their St Bede’s family. The children then tucked into their First Holy Communion breakfast before continuing the celebrations at home with their families.
Our Eco Club have been busy sowing seeds to create a beautiful wildflower garden this week. This project will help attract and support local wildlife, especially important pollinators like bees and butterflies. As the flowers grow and bloom, they will provide food and shelter for these vital insects, helping to strengthen our local ecosystem.
We are proud to be making a positive difference for local nature and can’t wait to watch our garden come to life!
More than two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day. The cost to the taxpayers for street cleaning is over £1 billion a year.
Litter is anything from a crisp packet or empty bottle to a bag of rubbish. All litter is unsightly and makes our local areas look untidy and uncared for. It can take years to degrade, causing harm to wildlife and habitats. This has a harmful effect on our environment.
In an effort to reduce the impact of littering in our local area, we took to the streets to pick up all the litter we could find. We aim to become stewards of creation and care for our common home for the good of everyone in our local community.
We are very excited to be having a new garden area built in our school. This area is designed for children to visit for some quiet prayer and reflection time.
We teamed up with the Mini Vinnies and children from Years 5 & 6 to prepare for our new Outdoor Prayer & Reflection Area.
Linking with our Jubilee Year of Hope, we painted beautiful faith stones with words, symbols, and colours to inspire others. These stones will be placed in the garden and around our outdoor spaces to bring comfort and peace to anyone who visits. We hope they will be used during prayer and help others feel close to God.
This week, we took an exciting step in creating our outdoor prayer and reflection area. We are excited to be building a new garden in our school grounds. This will be a quiet, outdoor space for children to pray, reflect and spend time with God in the natural environment.
We sowed seeds of hope for our new garden, choosing special plants and herbs with lovely scents to make it a calming, sensory space. These plants will remind everyone of the beauty of God’s natural world and create new habitats for insects. We will carefully nurture them as they grow, ready to plant in our garden in the summer.
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We explored our school grounds and used a special map to record all the plants and habitats we could find. We talked about how important it is to care for God’s creation and how looking after nature shows love and respect for the world He made.
This map will help us to track the positive changes we make as we help more wildlife feel at home here and improve the natural environment in our school.
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In 2015, Pope Francis wrote a letter addressed to every person on the planet, asking us all to listen to the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”.
Laudato Si’ discusses the damage being inflicted on the Earth by humans. Pope Francis called for all people to take action to tackle the global issues we face.
It deals with many environmental issues including:
• pollution
• climate change
• water
• loss of biodiversity
• decline in the quality of human life.
In his letter, Pope Francis asked us to work together to create a better world for future generations and to make the necessary changes in our lives in order to take care of, respect and value our ‘common home’.
At St Bede’s, we have decided to start our Eco Club in response to Laudato Si’. We hope to make many positive changes, rooted in our faith in Christ, in our school, and in our local and global communities.
In our first session, we watched CAFOD’s Laudato Si’ animation and reflected on what we could do to become stewards of God’s creation. We created posters with inspiring messages to encourage others in our school to get involved in our mission.
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By kmcvittie
Durham Cathedral Choir is looking for the next generation of Boy and Girl Choristers. We would like to invite children from your school, and their parents/guardians, to attend our free Chorister Experience event on Saturday 10 May at Durham Cathedral.
This is a unique opportunity for any child in school years 2-6 to sing with the Choristers in the Cathedral.
Please note: We are especially keen to hear from girls in Year 3 and 4 and boys in Year 3. There are currently no spaces for girls in Year 5 in the Cathedral Choir as that year is full – children in that year are welcome to attend this event but won’t be able to audition.
Here is an outline timetable:
12.30pm Registration in the Cathedral’s Chapter House
12.50pm Welcome
1.10pm Choir Practice
2.00pm Craft activity, tour of the Cathedral and organ playing activity
3.30pm Break (with a snack provided)
4.15pm Choir Practice in the Cathedral
5.30pm Evensong
Parents and guardians are encouraged to take part, and follow their own schedule of events, culminating in seeing their children singing as part of the Choir at Evensong.
More information can be found here: Choristers and Durham Cathedral Schools Foundation – Durham Cathedral
Registration Form (Click Here)
By kmcvittie
We were thrilled to welcome Bishop Stephen to our school yesterday. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the parents and community members who supported us and joined in our beautiful Lenten walk – the weather was absolutely perfect! Bishop Stephen was especially impressed by our amazing choir, who entertained everyone during afternoon tea. Both Bishop Stephen and Father Bill were delighted with the thoughtful gifts from our Nursery, which captured their likenesses perfectly. Everyone at St Bede’s had a wonderful, prayerful day, making it the perfect conclusion to a very busy half term.
© 2025 Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.