St Catherine of Siena

Start being brave about everything.

St Catherine of Siena

St Catherine of Siena, our school Patron Saint, is our guiding light and inspiration. Everything we do is based around her call to, ‘Be who God created you to be and you will set the world on fire!’ In 2017, we changed our Mission Statement from, ‘Live, love and learn joyfully together through Jesus and His Church,’ to St Catherine of Siena’s famous quote. This was a shared enterprise, involving consultation with all stakeholders. Our new Mission Statement really encapsulates our Vision for the school:

The two elements to our Mission Statement are the twin pillars which underpin every aspect of school-life at St Catherine’s. We want our children to discover exactly who they are – to come to the full appreciation of their God-given gifts, talents and skills and to gain an awareness of themselves as a child of God – a true human flourishing. Once they have a realisation of who God created them to be, we want them to go out and set the world on fire – we aim to kindle in our children a commitment to the Common Good and Social Justice, combined with a desire to be agents for change.

St Catherine of Siena in Everyday Life

At the start of every year, the first two weeks are dedicated to revisiting our Patron Saint, Class Saint and our school Motto ‘Veritas’. At the end of every prayer, we say “Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint [Class Saint] and St Michael pray for us.” This reminds the children of the influence of the Saints within their lives, as well as the importance of St Michael, the Patron Saint of our nearest DOWAT School – also founded by the same Dominican Sisters.

St Catherine of Siena Feast Day

This year we celebrated or Feast Day Mass at school as we also bid a fond farewell to Mrs McHugh, after 20 years dedicated service to St Cath’s.

Thank you to Father Paul for celebrating such a beautiful Mass and giving Mrs McHugh a special blessing. The Mass was made even more special by Mr Marseglia returning to play our bespoke St Catherine hymns!

During the rest of the day, the children completed work inspired by St Catherine of Siena.

During lockdown, our pupils still celebrated our Feast Day from afar! We came together virtually as a school community, attended Mass and the pupils completed work. Below are examples of what they produced:

Finally, the day is one of celebration – own clothes, games and parties!

St Catherine of Siena, a Dominican

We are proud to be part of a rich, Dominican tradition. Staff and Governors have attended retreats and Insets at Rosary Priory, learning from Sister Marie-Henry, Sister Ann, Sister Karen and others about the life of St Catherine of Siena and the work of Sister Rose Niland, the founder of their order.