Ethos
St Michael's Catholic High School is an Outstanding (Ofsted 2014 and Ofsted Section 48 2018) Catholic Comprehensive School with the mission statement 'Bringing Christ to All and All to Christ'.
Our motto, in keeping with its Dominican roots and heritage, is 'Veritas' (or 'Truth'). The school was founded by Dominican Sisters in 1955 and since then the ethos of the school has been and is distinctively religious. Our mission statement, motto and spiritual, moral, cultural and social education permeate the whole of school life.
As a Catholic school, we aim to be a sign in the local community of the person of Christ who sought excellence in all things. As a Dominican school, it is important that our community is based on prayer and preaching the Gospel by our positive example and high academic performance.
The greatest strength of the school is the people who work here and the students who study here with a genuine desire to succeed. Teachers go well beyond their terms and conditions to ensure that students achieve their potential. Support, administration, finance, site management, catering and cleaning staff are fully dedicated to work closely with teachers to ensure educational success.
Our on-going partnership with Rwanda has seen students raise a considerable sum of money for development projects around Mubuga, Ruyenzi and Kiruhura on an annual basis. These projects have included the installation of a bio-gas heating system for a school in Kiruhura, the installation of solar panels and batteries for a health centre in Ruyenzi and replacing a reservoir in Kiruhura that was in imminent danger of collapse, to identify only a few.
Since our 60th Jubilee in 2015, St Michael’s has supported a past student, Sister Mary Joachim, and her ‘Mission of Hope’ in Ethiopia. The students have raised money for a training college and a school, and are now fundraising to build a hospice. One way of raising money is on St Michael's Day, when the whole school demonstrates to the local community its commitment to social justice by parading in fancy dress in a sponsored walk of five miles, with the money raised going towards the various projects we support. In addition, during Lent, every tutor group is encouraged to identify an initiative and then implement it, again to fundraise for our various ventures.
Through these collaborative enterprises, the community of St Michael’s demonstrates its deep sense of social justice by not just wanting to ‘live life’ but to ‘change lives’.
Another important element of our ethos is the impact that the Lourdes pilgrimage for 25 of our Year 10 students has on the rest of the school. See the Lourdes page for more details.
Our school chapel of St Dominic is respected and treated with great dignity. Induction into our sacred place is paramount and we make sure that all students know the reality of the presence of The Blessed Sacrament in that space, the real presence of Christ in The Eucharist. Daily Mass, celebrated by our School Chaplain, Fr Terkura, and religious assemblies enable students and staff to celebrate the events of the life of Christ in time and space in a spirit of praise and thanksgiving.
