St John Boste

The CAFOD Live Simply award is an opportunity for Catholic communities, including schools, to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation in Laudato Si’ to, “Work with generosity and tenderness in protecting this world which God has entrusted to us”.

The Live Simply award is earned by communities and schools who can show how they have been living:

· simply

· in solidarity with people in poverty

· sustainably with creation.

The award celebrates what we have already done and inspires us to do more. It helps our community to live, not just more simply, but also more fully.

Achieving our Live Simply award

We were delighted to receive our CAFOD Live Simply award in March 2022. This was a reflection on the hard work we had done in several key areas in school:

· Focusing on recycling in all areas of school. Each of our classrooms now has a dedicated recycling station, and we ensure we recycle in our staffroom and at lunchtime too.

· Eliminating single use plastic wherever possible. For example all children are encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle to school with them, and we now no longer laminate paper.

· We have a dedicated Action for the Environment group in school to share the message of Laudato Si’ and to support the children and adults in school to look after our environment, by doing simple things such as recycling and turning off lights and electronics when they are not is use.

· We have held several ‘unplugged days’ where we spend a whole day without using computers, iPads, technology or even our classroom lights!

· We have developed an outdoor learning area which includes raised beds for each class to plant, look after and harvest vegetables.

Ray and Mark from CAFOD came to talk to us and thank us for our hard work in achieving this award. Father Jim, Kath and Malcolm from the Parish also came to say well done. The children learned about the important work CAFOD do and watched a video about a little girl in Sierra Leone called Lombeh. We also found out how CAFOD can spend funds that are raised including, buying crops, medical services, providing meals and even radios.