St James Catholic
Primary School
In the loving peace, justice and joy of Jesus, we achieve.
Live Simply Award
We are delighted to share that we have been awarded LiveSimply Award. Saint James' was one of the first schools to achieve the Live Simply award in the archdiocese of Birmingham.
The LiveSimply award is a scheme for communities and schools who can show how they have been living:
- simply
- sustainably with creation
- in solidarity with people living in poverty.
How did we achieve our Live Simply Award?
Please watch our presentation that explains the process that we went through to achieve our important award.
We met (virtually) with Siobhan Farnell, the CAFOD LiveSimply School Coordinator, who talked with Mrs Jefferies, two members of the School Standards Committee and children from different classes. In her email, confirming that we had achieved the award, Siobhan states:
It is very clear the children have a good understanding of how faith inspires the actions they have been taking. It was beautiful to hear the children speak so warmly about the prayer garden and what prayer means to them “turning worries into hope” and “remembering how much God cares” were two comments that particularly stood out. It’s super to hear of the relationships being built with the local parishioners. The actions to live more sustainably were great to hear about. The children are clearly enjoying protecting creation in a variety of ways through litter picking, building houses for animals, saving electricity and water, to having pre-loved opportunities such as the book swop, bring & buy, and the welly swop. The posters for the Get Creative for Climate Justice campaign were artistic and meaningful, a great deal of thought had clearly gone into all the posters to amplify the voices of the world’s poorest countries being most impacted – well done to all. Your work to support refugees in your local area is excellent and raising funds to support our sisters and brothers overseas in Uganda and via CAFOD are much appreciated. It was wonderful to hear of the connection with the high schools, via two of your governors, and the future Fairtrade work you have planned. It’s clear the LiveSimply ethos is embedded within your school and is supported by all your staff team and the pupils too.
Our thanks to everyone - and it did indeed involve everyone - who worked together to attain this award. Thank you too to Ellen Dolan and Charlotte Martin, our SSC committee members, who gave up their time. Finally, a massive thank you to Mrs Jefferies who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to co-ordinate and organise the paperwork for this event.