I have come so that they may have life

and have it to the full - John 10:10

Our Mission Statement

As a Catholic school, God is at the heart of all we do. We believe that each person is made in His image, deserving to be treated with respect and dignity.

Showing respect, love and care for everyone and everything, we aim to develop harmony between pupils, parents, carers, the school and Parish and grow as a Christian community.

We aim to embed the virtues in every child to believe in themselves to be the best that they can be and leave school as well-rounded individuals who care about themselves, others, and the world.

Our Ethos & Values

At St Thomas More, we ensure that our Mission Statement is lived out every day.  This is also built with our Catholic Ethos and Values.  We ensure that St Thomas More is a school which is building God's kingdom by providing:

• A place where Jesus' actions are lived out every through asking 'What would Jesus do?'
• Giving children the opportunities to become independent learners in the whole school environment.
• Equality for all.
• Having high expectations of all staff and pupils. 
• An environment in which behaviour, self-discipline and showing respect for the rights and views of others is everyday practice and consistently kept to a high standard.
• To ensure that the curriculum gives every child an opportunity to learn through their own learning style.
• A place where everyone feels valued and respected as members of a community.
• Celebrate all the individual and collective achievements from children, staff and parents.
• A thriving community, where staff and parents can work together to ensure excellence for each child.

But most of all to ensure that every member of our community can '... have life and have it to the full.' (John 10:10)

Our School Prayer

Father,
Please guide us through our education

at school and at home.  
May Jesus, our families and our friends

inspire us to do good things for others. 
Help us to celebrate the love, kindness

and respect that we share. 
May St Thomas More guide

and protect us always.
Amen
 

To celebrate the launch of the Little Way Catholic Educational Trust each school had a "cereal dominos" challenge. This is where we lined up cereal boxes throughout the school and all the children watched the display. Familes were invited to donate a cereal box so that we could have as large a domino chain as possible. 

After the event, the boxes of cereal will be donated to the food bank to demonstrate our new trust motto:

"Little Acts - Great Love - Big Difference".

Harvest is a time where we reflect and show gratitude for the food that we have. This harvest we asked for food donations and were overwhelmed by the donations we received. All collected food will go to those in need in our local community.
 

Little Way Week - September 2023

This week is Little Way Week! Each class learnt more about St Therese. She is very important to our school as she is the inspiration behind our little way partnership. 

'With St. Thérèse  as our guide, we do little things with much love to make a big difference for everyone.'

2022 - 2023

For Arts Week this year, each class read the book by Linda Kranz. We talked about the beautiful messages depicted in the book. 

'Look for beauty wherever you are'

'No matter how you look at it, there is so much to discover'

'If you make a wrong turn, circle back'

'Appreciate art. It's all around you'

Each child then painted a stone. Some designed a unique fish, while others painted key words or messages onto their stone. 

On Thursday 22nd June, St Thomas More's Feast Day, we came together as a whole school community to create a mosaic of St Thomas More. Every single person in our school placed a tile onto a design.

On Wednesday 15th February we held a cake sale to raise money for the support appeal following the awful earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Lots of families donated cakes to our sale and even more people bought cakes. We raised: £272.42

On Wednesday 23^rd of November, everyone in school was invited to wear red. This was to show our support for the #RedWednesday campaign. The Chaplaincy Team led a Liturgical Prayer to explain the importance of RedWednesday. We learnt all about the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and the great work that they do. 

The #RedWednesday campaign recognises Catholics who cannot fully profess and practice their religion freely where they live.

We created a joint piece of artwork with Monkscroft Care Centre. We created self-portraits and then they were combined with the portraits created by residents and staff. The piece of artwork was displayed in Cheltenham Library in town until the 16^th December.

We designed and created pictures to post in our local area as a random act of kindness. We did this as part of our Well Being Week. Some of us posted them through letter boxes while others popped to see the residents at Monkscroft Care Centre.

As a school, we collected food during Harvest. This food will be donated to people across Cheltenham who need it. 

For World Mental Health Day we have joined TIC+'s 'Wear It Green' campaign by bringing in a silver coin and wearing green. TIC+ are a brilliant charity who provide counselling sessions to children and young adults.

We have raised an amazing £78.65.

2021 - 2022

We had a cake sale to raise money for a Bee Cafe to add to our Prayer Garden. Lots of families donated cakes and even more children, staff and parents bought cakes. We raised over £170. 

EYFS Sponsored Bike Ride

On Thursday 23rd of March, EYFS organised a sponsored bike ride for Barnados.  Click here to find out all about it on our class webpage.

On Wednesday 16th March we supported the charity day A Day for Ukraine to raise some money and to show our solidarity with the children of Ukraine. We wore yellow and blue to school and donated money.

Here are some snapshots of our Lent Reflective Area. After our Lent Reconciliation Service, we created Lent promises and added them to our reflective areas. 

We had a lovely, reflective pilgrimage to St Thomas More church. We looked at God’s wonderful world, reflected on our thoughts and said a personal prayer. We then said St Thomas More’s prayer together in the garden before walking back. We all feel closer to God after our inner, spiritual journey as well as our outer journey.

We helped a forest of promises take root for COP26.  Everyone wrote a promise to the environment on a leaf and a request for world leaders on the other side.

You can make change—Climate Action

During Well Being Week, we all drew pictures to make people smile. KS1 children took their pictures home to give to a family member, where as KS2 walked in the local area and posted their pictures through letter boxes. 

Year 5 Ezra went to Monkscroft Care Centre to smile and wave from outside. We dropped our pictures off to the staff and residents. We loved seeing their smiling faces when we dropped them off. 

On Friday 8th October Father Tony came into school to meet with KS2. He told us lots about his day to day role and talked about the current issues of climate change. We then asked him lots of questions and listened reallu carefully to his answers. 

We will donate our harvest collection to the local food bank. 

As a whole school we learnt about St Therese of Lisieux. St Therese, through her actions, taught us that no one is too young or too small to make a change. Each year group thought about the small things they could do to show kindness and make a change. 

The 22nd June is a very important day for everyone at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School. To celebrate this special day, each class spent the day learning about the life of our Patron Saint. We then gathered together outside to reflect on all that we had learnt. The Chaplaincy Team led us in a reflection and then each class displayed what they had created and learnt. We had a fantastic day!  

Here are some of our reflective areas from around our school. 

Each pupil has joined in the CAFOD campaign to help fight the climate crisis. Every class watched the CAFOD Eyes of the World animation and responded to it by drawing eyes. We joined the campaign to call on the Prime Minister to support the world's poorest communities affected by the climate crisis. 171 of our pupils took part and we sent this information to CAFOD. 

Keep a look out for our Eyes of the World display ...

"We come together as part of God's family"

In school, each class reflected on the key messages from the letter outlined by Pope Francis - Laudato Si'. We then created our own pledge. Here are some of our examples. 

Pope Francis has proclaimed this year ‘The Year of Joseph’ (8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021). During this time, Ten Ten will be providing resources to help us think about St Joseph and pray to Him.

‘Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.’ Pope Francis (8th December 2020)

Celebrating the life of St Joseph, and calling on him for help, is particularly relevant in this time of universal turmoil when so many are having difficulty finding employment, when we are becoming more aware of how much we owe to so many ordinary, hardworking people, and when our human frailty and mortality are so much in our minds and in the news.

Through the Year of St Joseph, the Church is reminding us that we have a powerful ally in Heaven who, having lived and worked so long in the shadows like so many unsung heroes, is working tirelessly for us and with us in the here and now.

Sunday Liturgy for Families

Please see the link below for the weekly Gospel and Prayers:

https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/sunday-liturgy-for-families

Please note that RE Curriculum Information

can be found at the RE link below