St Swithun Wells' Pupil Chaplaincy Team

Introducing our Pupil Chaplaincy Team. At mass, they were presented to the school and blessed by Father Paulo. They will be ambassadors of Christ and support the whole community in strengthening everyone’s relationship with God. This year they will focus on how prayer can be used to communicate with God, enabling us all to feel closer to Him and strengthen this relationship.

The SSW Pupil Chaplaincy Team;

Sara, Sienna, Jack, Billy, Tomasz and Adam

The roles of the Chaplaincy team include the following:-

• To help the school to grow as a community of faith.
• To encourage the pupils to live their faith in daily living.
• To support Liturgy, prayer and the spiritual life of the school.
• To continue to develop strong links with the Parish.
• To support the school in its Mission Statement

 The following are our five top tips to help us to be a successful and effective Chaplaincy Team:-

• Listen to each other’s ideas.
• Communicate with all team members, school and Parish.
• Encourage everyone when making decisions, to share their ideas and to try their best.
• Include everyone when making decisions.
• Lead by example, love everyone, care for everyone especially people you don’t get on with

Pupil Chaplaincy Team News.....

Our Mission

The SSW Chaplaincy team’s mission this year to develop a more prayerful community.  

Coffee Morning - the SSW Pupil Chaplaincy Team led the termly coffee morning. The children began with a prayerful reflection and then spoke to the parents about how the team can support and enrich prayer life at home and what prayer sessions parents would like to attend at school. It was lovely to meet with those parents in attendance and to share coffee/tea and cake together. Well done to the children for all their hard work and confidently leading on their initiative and ideas. Thank you to Mrs Bolton who is overseeing the Pupil Chaplaincy Team. 

Blessing of the classrooms for the start of 2026

As we begin the New Year, our Chaplaincy Team, supported by the Mini Vinnies, visited each classroom to offer a special prayer and blessing. Using blessed chalk, each classroom was marked as a sign of God’s presence, protection and guidance for the year ahead. This was a lovely opportunity to pause, reflect and ask for blessings on our pupils, staff and learning spaces. We would like to extend a big thank you to Fr Paulo for teaching us about this blessing.

Chaplaincy Prayer Tree

The Holy Father has dedicated 2024 as the Year of Prayer:-

“to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer, prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church, prayer in the world”.

We designed and created a prayer tree display and Year 4 and Year 5 were invited to write prayers linked to the Our Father and the whole school was asked to create artwork based on the Our Father

EASTER Prayer Bags- This Lent, the SSW Pupil Chaplaincy Team again organised Easter prayer bags to go home with families to help you to remember the events of Holy Week. In each bag, there is a guided prayer booklet, the Story of Easter and all the things you will need to share the liturgy at home. We have three prayer bags, which can be taken home overnight. They contain everything that you need to pray together at home. If you would like to celebrate this at home with your child, please email admin@ssw.school and we will organise this for you.

Travelling Crib

This year, the Chaplaincy team has once again organised a "Travelling Crib" to visit our school families. Each set includes a planned liturgy designed for children and parents to share, focusing on the events leading up to the birth of Jesus. As each figure is placed into the crib, special prayers and reflections highlight the importance of that person and their unique role in the Nativity story.

Chaplaincy Prayer Garden

This year St Swithun Wells introduced OPAL play.  The school chaplaincy team invited Father Paulo to bless the new prayer garden they have lovingly created in the KS2 playground. The team have worked incredibly hard to design this peaceful, reflective space, using as many recycled materials as possible. With determination and creativity, they also persuaded parents and staff to help with the more challenging tasks. A huge thank you to our chaplaincy team and to all the parents and staff who supported them along the way. The result is a beautiful, tranquil area where anyone can sit with God and enjoy a quiet moment during lunchtime.

Read our news in the weekly school Newsletters....