Chaplaincy

Meet our Chaplaincy Team!

The Chaplaincy Team are an important and celebrated aspect of the life and mission of St Joseph's. The children who are a part of the team actively participate and contribute to helping every member of the school community feel supported in their spiritual and moral development.

The children meet throughout the year to make decisions and discuss how they are going to work towards their action plan. They also have opportunities to lead prayer in Liturgies, plan and lead charity events, monitor prayer tables and class Gweddiwns, as well as provide support and guidance. The children also support Christian meditation and Examen. They are very busy making a difference during the academic year!

Here are some of the things they have been up to...

The Prayer Garden

The Chaplaincy Team took the time to decorate the school's new prayer garden with the painted pebbles and crosses, which represented the Easter promises each child made as part of the Easter Liturgy. Every child had the opportunity to live Holy week in school, where they journeyed with Jesus and celebrated the Resurrection.

The Way of the Cross 2023

The Chaplaincy team supported our children, parents and carers, school community and members of the parish in an experience of walking 'The Way of the Cross.' This provided an opportunity for everyone to journey with Jesus, following the stations of the cross, praying and reflecting at each station. The children led the liturgy with reverence and compassion.

Mini Vinnies

The Chaplaincy Team are also the Mini Vinnies, which means the mini St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Our children are part of something that is worldwide and they come together to form a part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. This is a voluntary organisation dedicated to tackling poverty in all its forms. Mini Vinnies meet to pray, discuss and support whoever they can to help make a difference in their communities. 

Mini Vinnies truly turn concern into action as they use the simple formula of ‘see, think, do’ to find people in need and help them. 

Lent Project

One of the projects the children planned and contributed to was a Lent project to help the vulnerable people in our parish and community. They decided to collect toiletries to be given to residents of Hazelhurst Nursing Home and members of the parish who would benefit from these, working alongside the parish SVP to be able to do this. There were so many donations from our wonderful school community that toiletries were also delivered to Bethel House care home, Ty Dewi Sant care home and Sam Davies Ward at Barry Hospital.

The Mini Vinnies created art work for the residents and wrote affirmation cards and jokes to create happiness and promote wellbeing for our vulnerable members of the community.

The residents were greatly moved by the special bags the Chaplaincy Team put together and were delighted when the children visited the residents of Hazelhurst Nursing Home. The children had an opportunity to explain their work as the Mini Vinnies.

St. Richard Gwyn Cluster Joint Lent Service

The Chaplaincy Team led the Palm Sunday Liturgy as a part of our cluster work with St. Richard Gwyn and St Helen's.

Monitoring of Gweddiwn folders

The Chaplaincy Team had the chance to look at the Gweddiwn folders from each class. They were delighted to see the celebration and contribution of the children across the school with their prayer life. The children have been using the Primary Prayer toolkit as part of their Collective Worship and it is helping them to strengthen their relationship with God. The Chaplaincy Team are now going to support the children and teachers with using prayer spaces outdoors as well as using a range of responses in Gweddiwn.

Cluster Chaplaincy Work - our visit to St. Richard Gwyn

The Chaplaincy Team were invited to St. Richard Gwyn to work with their Chaplaincy Team and with the children of St Helen's. It was an opportunity to get to know each other, plan and contribute to liturgy as well as enhancing the enthusiasm they feel for the work they do for their school, living out the Gospel values and helping others.