The pupils and staff of St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, Coventry, have received the LiveSimply Schools Award, having shown that they know how to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with poor communities across the world.
It took them quite a long time, and they had a lot of help from many people, so they decided to invite them into school to say “Thank you” for all the help they had been given. This was celebrated at a special assembly on Friday 2nd February.
Their MP, Colleen Fletcher, attended. Many pupils had written to her before COP 28 to ask her to read the letter from Pope Francis that CAFOD had published, which outlined the work that politicians could do to address the current Climate Emergency. She replied to them all, promising to read the letter and to write to The Prime Minister about it. She also said she would like to come into the school to meet them, so she did.
Another important visitor was Catherine Evans, community representative from the Co-op, as the local Co-op branch had worked with the children on litter-picking, providing pickers for them. She also told the children about the benefits of Fairtrade products to communities in the developing world, and helping them to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight.
The children learnt about food poverty in their local area, working with the parish SVP, who were represented by John and Mary Davey, the Halo Food Bank represented by Dee Ward, and Miss Kaur from Langar Aid, all of whom thanked the children for their help and support. Elaine Horsley from Myton Hospice thanked the choir for coming to sing to the residents and their friends and families and said how much everyone there appreciated it. Stuart Giddings from Team Recycle showed the children one of the thousands of medals that had been made for the Oslo marathon from the plastic bottles and tops that they had brought into school for recycling.
Finally, CAFOD volunteer Jane Lavery thanked the children for the money they had raised for CAFOD, mentioned the pop-up recycling school uniform shops, and spoke about prayers that had been said in the prayer garden. She also said how delighted she was to hear that they were going to continue to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor. She presented the GIFT (Grow in Faith Team) with the LiveSimply plaque.
The assembly finished with the choir leading the whole school in singing “I am the Earth” – a very appropriate end to a wonderful celebration.