We are a family of schools growing and working together to ensure provision of high-quality Catholic education that is inclusive and equitable for all children in our schools, as well as nurturing and developing the leaders, teachers and all staff in our communities to ensure outstanding teaching and learning at all times, and strong leadership teams.
Following the example of St Francis of Assisi, we strive to serve all with care and love. We acknowledge each individual as created by God and deserving of respect and ensuring all have what they need to flourish and reach their full potential in God’s love.
St Joseph's joined the St Francis CMAT on 1st September 2022
Our Catholic schools are a vital part of the Diocese of Hallam’s mission. Our schools are crucial to the life of the Diocese in announcing the Gospel to the world and are able to do this in ways that parishes alone cannot. They are places where everyone is valued as a child of God, where every individual is enabled to mature towards their full growth in Christ and achieve their full potential. They teach an holistic understanding of the human person and society in which all are included so that humanity can flourish. Our schools enable each pupil to develop their God-given gifts in order to engage in building a better society which is characterised by justice, truth and love.’
Siobhan Kent - Chief Operating Officer and Accounting Officer skent@hallam-diocese.com
Sarah Graham - Chief Finance Officer sgraham@hallam-diocese.com
Lisa Hartley - Finance Director lhartley@hallam-diocese.com
Michelle Wild Executive PA mwild@hallam-diocese.com
Website - St Francis CMAT (stfcmat.com) see the webiste for infomration of Trust board members Board Members – St Francis CMAT (stfcmat.com) and the Trusts financial reports Accounts – St Francis CMAT (stfcmat.com)
St Francis CMAT,
HartShaw Chartered Accountants,
Business Park,
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Tinsley,
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S9 1XU
office@stfcmat.com
St Francis’ Multi-Academy Trust: Catholic Life and Vision
Preface:
The Bishop’s Vision for Catholic Education in Hallam
The Mission of the Diocese
To love one another as Christ loves us
The Bishop’s Vision for Our Diocese
The diocese is an extended family whose members care for one another with love that reflects the love of our heavenly Father revealed to us in the ministry, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, His Son, and which we manifest through the power of the Holy Spirit present in the world.
Each member of the family moves towards their salvation by caring for those around them, through prayer, sacrifice and works of charity, living the Beatitudes (Mt 5, 1-11), while acknowledging their own need for the help of others and the transforming power of forgiveness and reconciliation.
The Mission of Our Schools
“That they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn. 10, 10b)
To work together for the benefit of all, so that all our children are empowered to strive to fulfil their full potential as children of God.
The Bishop’s Vision for Our Schools
That Christ be present to everyone in our school-communities.
That every individual is cherished.
That prayer and worship be central in every school’s life.
That our schools work together seeking the excellence of all and the Common Good.
That all children feel safe and, as far as possible, happy in our schools.
That all staff be fulfilled in their work, and appropriately rewarded.
That parents / carers are heard as partners in the education of their child/ren.
That our young people will look back at their time in school with gratitude, having known that they were valued, and their lives enriched.
That they have a clear sense of hope for this world and for the life to come.
Introduction
Assisi.
There is a mysticism here which makes the visitor want to return; an atmosphere of peace amid the hustle and bustle of the tourists, a sense of tranquillity which exudes from the pink stones that glow in the sunshine. Francis and Clare remain here -Francis the crypt of the great three storied basilica and monastery which is an extension of the hill to the West; and Clare in the crypt of Santa Chiara on the other side of the town. Their presence abides.
On the plain below Assis is the large but uninspiring basilica dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli. It is an earthen vessel that contains a treasure – the tiny chapel, the Portiuncula, (=’little potion) a gift from the Benedictines to the new order. It was here in 1986 that Pope St John Paul II invited religious leaders of many traditions to meet to pray together for peace. A similar event took place with Pope Francis in 2016.
An earthquake in September 1997 wrought much destruction, particularly to the Basilica, from which Assisi has recovered, renewing itself, and making it a rich symbol of regeneration and hope.
Assisi represents much that we seek to achieve in our schools, working together in our MATs:
To be communities
Francis and Clare, Saints to inspire the young of every age
St Francis of Assisi (d. 1226)
Francis’ personality has attracted young people to him down the centuries. Firstly, his joy in living, expressed in his constant singing, and his irrepressible good humour. He was fun to be with.
He was, however, not one to compromise on matters he believed were crucial to his mission. Famously he stripped in the main square of Assisi – the local Bishop gave him use of a cloak to maintain his modesty – to renounce his father and his property. He declared that henceforth God was ‘His Father in heaven’.
He loved nature, all elements of which he saw as his kinsfolk. As he sang in The Canticle of the Creatures,
“Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day and through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour;
and bears a likeness of You, Most High One.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather,
through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us,
and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs.
He has been recognised as an early environmentalist, not least by Pope Francis, named after this saint of Assisi, whose encyclical on the environment is titled ‘Laudate Si’ – Praise to you – from this Canticle.
This song was composed, it is said, when Francis was recovering from illness at the Church of San Damiano, just down the hill from the town of Assisi. It was here that Francis heard the Christ on the cross instruct him to ‘Repair (or renovate) my Church’. Francis took the command literally and sold some of his merchant-father’s goods to assist in the repair-, prompting the show-down in the town square.
The Church of San Damiano would be the first home of Clare and her community. The renewal of the Church would be Francis’ mission throughout his life.
Francis’ Way was a path of poverty. His Friars Minor were to have no possessions, and depend on charity for their food. It was a radical interpretation of the Gospel text – “Give up all your possessions to the poor and follow me” [Mt.19,21]. In so many ways this was unrealistic idealism. Francis remained both unrealistic and an idealist, true to his calling to the end. He could not end poverty so he embraced it. He became a poor man (il poverello) to live with the poor as Jesus emptied himself to come among us as a slave [Phil.2,7]
Francis meditated deeply on the love of God expressed in Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. He was given the painful grace of bearing the marks of Jesus’ death on his own body – the stigmata. The earliest representation of Francis with these wounds is reproduced in the first picture above. For Francis there was no contradiction in his chosen life of poverty, pain, and with the joy and humour with which he lived his life. Everything was an expression of God’s love, whose ultimate goal was happiness in heaven. So even death is ‘Sister death’, and ‘in dying we are born to eternal life’.
“Fa di me un’instrumento della tua pace” – ‘Make me an agent for your peace’, sang Francis. His most spectacular attempt at achieving peace was to visit the Holy Land and speak to the Sultan. He failed but it was a glorious endeavour to find some areas of dialogue to end the bloodshed of the Crusades.
Concern for the environment, working for peace through dialogue and reconciliation with justice, ending poverty, these are the concerns of young people which must be reflected in the way we pray and the way we teach in our schools, with Francis as our model.