Laudato Si’ is an encyclical written by Pope Francis, it was published on the 18th June 2015. Encyclicals are open letters written by the pope.
Laudato Si’ discusses the damage being inflicted on the Earth by humans and calls on ‘every person living on this planet’ to make urgent changes to our lifestyles and how we consume energy in order to protect the planet.
It deals with many environmental issues including:
In his letter Pope Francis implores us to work together to create a better world for future generations and asks us to make the necessary changes in our lives in order to take care of, respect and value our ‘common home’.
At St John the Baptist RC, we are always thinking of ways to look after our common home and show love to God’s creation.
The children use their floor books to display their learning when answering Big Questions based on the environment.
Early Years love to explore the wonders of our Common Home in their continuous provision.
Year 5 and 6 learned about the importance of recycling your waste. The children were amazed at how much we can re-use and take care of God’s creation by thinking carefully about our own actions.
We were very lucky to have Bishop John Arnold visit us and St John the Baptist RC and bless our Laudato Si centre.
The centre is a quiet, peaceful place where children can be close with nature. The space provides children the opportunity flourish by learning all about gardening and how to grow your own fruit and vegetables. We love distributing what we have grown with our neighbours at Rochdale Soup Kitchen.
We have been working hard in our outdoor learning area. We have learnt lots of new skills and are looking forward to harvesting our crops, which we will share with Rochdale soup kitchen.We follow the RHS School gardening 65 ‘I can’ statements to learn new skills and track our progress. As well as gaining new knowledge, we have applied our maths, science and literacy skills to help us. The children have used their maths, gardening and teamwork skills to build a poly tunnel to protect the vegetables from the frost.
