The Common Good

As a Catholic school we are committed to contributing towards the common good. We strive to be witnesses to Christ in the world, and service to others is promoted as a key dimension of our Catholic living.

Jeans for Genes Day

Our Head teacher Deirdre Finan held a special assembly where she explained to the children the effects genetic disorders can have on children’s lives. Then on Friday 17^th September, we wore our jeans to school and donated £1 to support children affected by genetic disorders.

MacMillan Coffee Morning

On the 24^th September once again our school staff took part in the ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ to raise money for MacMillan cancer nurses.

CAFOD – Go Green Harvest

This year Brighten Up goes green to support Amazon communities protecting the rainforest.  The children attended a special assembly whereby they heard how CAFOD is working with communities around the world to help people who protect the planet and communities affected by climate change.  We also supported our local charity RISE 365 by donating tins of food, pasta, rice or toiletry items to help support our local families.

Roald Dahl – Day

On Friday 15^th October,  children and staff made a great effort to dress up as their favourite Roald Dahl character or wear yellow, his favourite colour, as we celebrated Dahlicious Day. Pupil’s donated £1 and with the additional funds raised through a cake sale at break we raised just under £300.

The money raised was donated to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity to help make lives better for seriously ill children in the U.K.

Odd Socks Day: Beautifully Different, Wonderfully the Same. Odd Socks Day is part of Anti-Bullying Week, whose theme is ‘One Kind Word’.

To celebrate that we are all unique, the children and staff were asked to wear odd socks to school. Last year over 13,000 schools took part in Odd Socks Day.

The day sends an important message to pupils that they should be allowed to be themselves free from bullying and helps us celebrate Anti-Bullying week in a fun and positive way. LET’S SOCK IT TO THEM!

Children in Need

The BBC’s Children in Need event takes place on Friday 19th November.

We asked the children to donate £1.00 to wear their pyjamas or onesie’s and enjoy the Ultimate Feelgood Friday and kindness day! In addition, our school sold wristbands and Budsey pin badges and held a cake sale with cakes and biscuits priced from 50p.

Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day

On Friday 13^th December children and staff raised money for Save the Children by donating £1 and came to school dressed in their Christmas Jumpers. There were lots of wonderful designs and some children were extremely creative, decorating their own jumpers.

Little Princess Trust

On 11th February 2020 our year 6 teacher Mr Purvis shaved his head to raise money for The Little Princess Trust charity, who make wigs for children with cancer.

Mr Purvis asked his hairdresser to support him as children donated to chop his hair!

Tensions were high as we watched Mr Purvis lose all his “Samson” locks and was shaved down to a number 1. St Dominic’s managed to raise a whopping £350 for this worthwhile cause!

Eyes of the World

The Eyes of the World are on us.

“Climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.”
Pope Francis

At St Dominic’s, we put our faith into action by supporting CAFOD’s The Eyes of the World campaign.

We watched an assembly about the Eyes of the World campaign for primary schools, and we found out why COP 26 is important and how we can join the campaign calling on our government to keep the poorest people at the heart of their talks.

We put our faith into action by joining the Eyes of the World and creating a vision of a fairer world by designing our own ‘Eyes of the World’ poster to share with CAFOD.

Rise 365

We put our faith into action by supporting one of our local charities in our school community called RISE 365. One of our Teaching Assistants worked for RISE 365 throughout the COVID lockdown, and our pupils were keen to support their local community. Our pupils donated dried food and tins in a small bid to support the call to human flourishing.

Caritas Ambassadors

Promoting social action in the Diocese of Westminster

At St Dominic’s Primary School, all pupils are encouraged to actively participate in our school’s Catholic life. The children show great enthusiasm for promoting the Mission of our school and are always keen to suggest ideas and organise activities that benefit other pupils and members of the local community that are in need.

Sister Silvana and Nigel P. Enguin visited our school to speak to our pupils about the Caritas Ambassadors programme for primary schools, which aims to equip pupils with a strong understanding of Catholic Social Teaching and how to put it into action in our daily lives.

From Sister Silvana visit, our pupils at St Dominic’s have been invited to apply to become leaders of social action in our school and are responsible for sharing what they have learnt with those around them.

Edna’s 101st Birthday Celebrations

Card plea to give Edna 101st birthday to remember

We listened to a story about Edna Clayton, who spent her milestone 100th birthday alone with no visitors and no celebration. Hector House, where Edna lives, appealed to ask anyone to send a birthday card to make her day special and make up for the birthday she never had. So, at St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School, we put our faith into action and made birthday cards for Edna to make it a birthday to remember!

Thank you message from Edna!

Good Afternoon
We would like to thank you for the beautiful cards sent to Edna. Edna is overwhelmed and has asked me to thank you and tell you she has had a wonderful day.

Thank you meesage from CAFOD

Catholic Children’s Society
The Catholic Children’s Society visited our school on Wednesday 23rd of February to speak about their Lent Appeal 2022: One Community.

Emily spoke to us about the Catholic Children’s Society (CCS), and she talked about being one community to help support those who are in need. She spoke to Reception, KS1 and KS2 children about the importance of putting our faith into action and how we can help those who are in need.

We also learnt about the five services CCS provide:

1. Stay and Play
2. St Francis
3. Connect Ed
4. Rainbows
5. Crisis Fund

Emily told us about a little girl called Ellie who was diagnosed with a long term illness. Her mother had to work three jobs, and their boiler broke down in October. Emily told us the of CCS; they were able to help Ellie and her family by providing her with a new boiler.

Catholic Children’s Society

The Catholic Children’s Society aims to raise money for local families who have fallen on financial hardship. In the past, funds raised have been used to help families within our own school community. Children received their Lenten Boxes which they can fill with small change, and make a BIG difference to families in our community.

We also put our faith into action by holding a non-uniform day and a cake sale to raise funds for the Catholic Children’s Society.

‘Slava Ukraine Day’ – ‘Glory to Ukraine Day’!

As Lent begins, we’re all shocked by the situation unfolding in Ukraine. People are separating from their loved ones and fleeing the country, simply to survive.

We have Ukrainian staff and pupils in our school community and we wanted to put our faith into action by showing our support by holding a ‘Slava Ukraine Day!’ – Glory to Ukraine Day’!

On Friday 11^th of March our school supported the efforts of Caritas Ukraine and CAFOD to help the people of Ukraine affected by the terrible situation there. The staff and pupils of St Dominic’s donated £1.00 and wore blue and yellow clothes and enjoyed a delicious cake sale. We also sold blue and yellow ribbon badges.

We also had a visit from The Speaker of Hackney, Cllr Michael Desmond and the Deputy Mayor, Cllr Antoinette Bramble who attended our special assembly and were very impressed by all our fund raising efforts.

Thanks to everyone’s generous actions we were able to send a cheque to CAFOD for £818.

Each year group wrote a prayer for Ukraine.

Red Nose Day

We asked the children and staff for Red Nose Day to do whatever they can, no matter how small, to help people live free from poverty, violence and discrimination.

It also included helping to fund organisations that were supporting people in Ukraine, and those attempting to cross the border.  The children dressed as their favourite Super Hero or wore RED and donated £1.00. We also had a cake sale.

St. George’s Day

We celebrated St. George’s Day. The children came to school dressed in red and white and held a cake sale at break time with cakes and biscuits for 50p. All the money raised was donated to the Royal British Legion which we also supported during November for Remembrance.

Called to Serve

We established a retreat programme with our feeder secondary school Cardinal Pole to deliver retreats for years 5 and 6. This year both year groups participated in “Called to Serve”.

Catholic Social Teaching

We had two visitors from CAFOD, Edwina and Martin, who spoke to us about Catholic Social Teaching.

We listened to three stories about the three principles of Catholic Social Teaching. The three different characters were ‘Luc the Deer’ who focused on solidarity, ‘Shristi the Sun Bear’ focused on ‘Human Dignity and ‘Patariki the Penguin’, who focused on participation. Edwina and Martin spoke about how ‘Luc the Deer’ has a gentle way of reminding everyone that they are made in Gods image. They also told us that ‘Shristi the Sun Bear’ is very big and kind. We must recognise others as our brothers and sisters. Lastly ‘Patriki the Penguin’ shows us we live in one community, with others, growing together. It is important that we join in.

Once we finished listening to the three stories, we were given worksheets to complete about making the world a better place.