Saint Philip's understands the importance of faith in our lives and in our local community.

The school arranges visits to other places of worship in our school and local community so children can learn about the beliefs of others in our community.

We serve our parish and local community in many ways, sharing God's message of love with others whenever we can. Some ways in which we do this are:

• Holding special, reflective services and liturgies in our church for our school and parish communities, especially during Advent and Holy Week.
• We organise a school-parish Mass throughout the year where children from our school lead the collective worship for the parish.
• Class assemblies are held on Fridays every two weeks and all members of our community are invited and encouraged to attend. These always have an RE focus.
• Shared preparation in school and in the parish for the Sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation. We also hold regular parent meetings to ensure that families are fully involved in preparations.
• Attending and supporting Remembrance Day services at Victoria Park.
• Working with Parents as partners in our Nursery and Reception classes.

We also send a copy of the Wednesday Word home to every family in our school community. This is a double-sided A4 leaflet which carries the Sunday Gospel into school family homes. The children receive the leaflet in school each week for them to take home with them to read with the rest of their family. This creates a new opportunity for the Word to be present in the homes of families connected to our school. It also acts as a regular invitation to the Eucharist throughout the time that the family is connected to the life of our school.

We support lots of charities throughout the year and staff, children and their families are always extremely generous in their support of others.

Money is raised through fund raising events, fairs and charitable donations from the school community. In recent years we have made donations to Cafod, Aquaaid, Mission Together and appeals in Rwanda and Tanzania.

We also support the local Brushstrokes charity by collecting and donating food during Harvest time and Easter eggs during Lent.

Pope Francis has declared 2020 the year of ‘The God Who Speaks’ with a focus on the bible and in particular Matthew’s Gospel.

At St Philip’s, we will be celebrating, living and sharing God’s word throughout this exciting new scripture initiative in a variety of ways, such as our Gospel assemblies, The Wednesday Word, Collective Worship and prayer times in school, guided meditation groups and many more.

Please ask your children for how we are celebrating The Year of the Word.

For more ideas and further information which can support you to also focus on the God Who Speaks at home, see the Archdiocese of Birmingham's The God Who Speaks web page (external link).