Oscar Romero Award

At OLOG Juniors, we have been inspired by the work of Archbishop Oscar Romero to act in way which puts our faith into action. We are the recipients of both The Participator Award and The Developer Award. Our most recent validation report included: "The pupils are very secure with the principles and understood their meaning. They talked about making waste products into something new e.g. one child made a trainer. They described a debate on whether a statue of homeless Jesus should be on display outside churches to show Jesus had a connection with the homeless. They are well aware of global warming and the importance of finding new technologies to replace fossil fuels. “The school makes us aware of global warming,” and “Small changes can make a big difference.” and "It is evident from your self-assessment that your school is well placed to move on in further developing the principles of CST across all the strands at the Innovator Level."

 The Oscar Romero Award supported us in realising and living the unique calling of a Catholic school to become an evangelising centre by empowering our pupils and staff to become true agents of the change they want to see in the world by putting their faith into action.

For us, Oscar Romero is the model of a gospel-inspired teacher and practitioner, who seamlessly combined his deep prayer life with a courageous commitment to the poor. For the Romero Award, he guides us on our way as we strive to develop an authentic spirituality of justice and to become, in the words of Pope Francis, ‘a poor Church for the poor’.

Harvest Collection

During our Harvest celebration, we thought about those who have less than us. We put our faith into action and decided to support a local charity.

We collected different types of food and goods for Ashford Place, a local support centre in Cricklewood. Each house team had a different list of items that they needed to bring in. The Mini Vinnie Chaplaincy Team helped to pack up all of the goods and distribute them.

Thanks everyone!

Fairtrade Fortnight

 As part of our Catholic Social Teaching and to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, the children in Year Four learned about the importance of Fairtrade. They learned about how buying Fairtrade makes a difference to the lives of people around the world, helping them to earn a living off of the products they make and sell. The children also learned about how Fairtrade can help in the ongoing battle to fight climate change. With the mindset of helping others and being stewards of the earth, the pupils bought Fairtrade items, took part in a Fairtrade inspired Collective Worship and presented an assembly to raise awareness across the school.

Our school community is concerned about the environment. Our pupils live in urban London with many unable to access the enriching experiences the outdoors can provide. Therefore, our curriculum aims to ensure our pupils understand the impact of our way of life in the world we live in. As such, we undertake to support Pope Francis’s message in his encyclical – ‘Laudato Si’ which found inspiration in Saint Francis of Assisi's ‘Canticle of the Sun;' a beautiful prayer to celebrate God’s creation. We see our children as stewards of the earth; therefore, our curriculum explores big questions about the environment and Pope Francis's call for action.

We are an Eco School and have held the Green Flag Award for many years. Our latest Green Flag for 24/25 was awarded with distinction! We run many energy saving campaigns throughout each academic year. We have solar panels on our roof as an example to all the community of our ongoing call to action. This installation was funded by the pupils and families through a community wide campaign and we have saved both money and resources over the intervening years. 

Our curriculum is intrinsically linked to the school’s beautiful Eco Garden, our concern with the local and global environments and our responsibility to ensure our pupils and the school community understand that we are being called to raise awareness and take action towards healing our world. Therefore, we learn about climate change and the impact of our actions and way of life on our world. We think about what God is calling us to say and do and what our responsibility is as disciples. We fulfil our call to serve by taking action and claiming the healthy world our pupils have the right to grow up in, we pray for hope and possibility, we ask God for blessings, and wish for a better world.

Dialogue and Encounter

Here at OLOG Juniors, we are a Catholic school and the majority of our RE curriculum time is focused on developing the knowledge and understanding of our faith and how we can live out its teachings in a way that is inspired by Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

We recognise that we live in a multi-cultural and multi-faith world and we wish to unite with our neighbours who follow different faiths and no faith, thus understanding and respecting their journey. We encounter these faiths as a discrete study. 

The order that pupils learn about world faiths is directed by Pope St Paul VI in his encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam, which centres our understanding of our own Catholic faith as the core and initially moves to the Abrahamic faiths, then Dharmic faiths and other traditions. 
 

We have close dialogue with our Christian brothers and sisters as we seek to build links with other Christians first. 

We also spend time every year learning about three world faiths: Judaism- which is the root of our faith and subsequently, of particular importance to us, Islam and Hinduism. By the time pupils have left OLOG Juniors and Infants, they will have visited two synagogues (Reform and Orthodox), a local mosque and The Neasden Temple.