Charities
At Our Lady of Grace, we are called to live out our faith by putting Catholic Social Teaching into action. As a school community, we recognise the dignity of every person and our responsibility to care for others, particularly those who are vulnerable or in need. Through a variety of fundraising activities, charitable initiatives and acts of service, our staff, parents and children work together to support a number of different charities and make a positive difference in the lives of others. You can read more about how our school community lives out these important principles below.
CAFOD Harvest Family Fast Day - Thanks from Fr Sebastian
Dear Teachers, Children, and Parents
Greetings and prayers from Our Lady of Grace Church
To my dear children of Our Lady of Grace Primary School, Charlton: thank you so much. Whenever you come here on Fridays for Mass, you come not only with your prayers, but also with generous hearts, bringing food for our food bank. You have collected so much food for the poor and the needy, and this is a beautiful act of love.
A very big and heartfelt thank you to your headteacher, deputy head, and all the staff. Thank you for leading by example and for forming our children in faith and generosity.
Thank you, dear children, for learning so early what it means to share and to care for others. And a big, big thank you to all our wonderful parents. Dear parents, thank you for encouraging your children, for supporting this beautiful initiative, and for teaching kindness at home. Thank you for forming your children not just by words, but by deeds of love and compassion. What you all do together is truly the Gospel in action "for whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
May the good Lord, who sees your generosity, bless you, your families, and your school abundantly, and may Our Lady of Grace continue to watch over you all.
Keeping you all in my prayers
Fr. Sebastian
Parish Priest, Our Lady of Grace Church, Charlton
CAFOD Harvest Family Fast Day
A huge thank you to all the parents and families who generously donated to our CAFOD Family Fast Day. Your kindness and generosity are helping to support our brothers and sisters around the world, reminding us that every person is made in the image and likeness of God and has a dignity that is precious and deserving of respect. This links beautifully with our Catholic Social Teaching principle of Human Dignity, which is our focus this half term. By giving to CAFOD, we are putting our faith into action and showing that we recognise the value of every human life, especially those who may be facing poverty or hardship. Thank you for helping our school community to live out the Gospel call to love and care for one another.
Macmillan coffee morning
Our Lady of Grace organised a coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. Pupils across the school generously brought in cakes to donate, and our Year 6 pupils took on the responsibility of hosting the coffee morning for parents, serving tea, coffee, cake and other tasty treats. The remaining cakes were then sold after school, giving even more members of our school community the opportunity to contribute.
We are incredibly proud to have raised £1,041. This was a wonderful example of our school community coming together to support others and to uphold the dignity of every person, particularly those facing the challenges of cancer. Through their generosity, kindness and willingness to serve others, our pupils demonstrated that every individual is valued, cared for and deserving of compassion and support.
This special event reflected our commitment to human dignity and showed how small acts of kindness can make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. We are extremely proud of the compassion, generosity and sense of responsibility shown by our whole school community.
Demelza Hospice
We are Our Lady of Grace Primary School in Charlton. Our Mini Vinnies are children who meet to pray, discuss and support however they can help to make a difference in their communities. Please accept these cards and letters from our Mini Vinnies to the children and families in your care.
Royal British Legion
On the 10th of November just after 11am, the school fell silent to remember those military personnel both past and present who lost their lives in wars and conflicts. As a school, from Reception to Year 6 we gathered on the playground for the two minute silence where we had time to reflect and have a conversation with God. In the days prior to remembrance day our wonderful Head Boy and Head Girl sold poppies to members of our school community in the playground. It was a solemn day and we are very grateful for the sacrifice made by our armed forces.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn them. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.
Charlton Community Foodbank
Thank you to all for your support and generous food donations. Father thanks all the parents and families for your kind contributions which are greatly appreciated by those in our community who are in need. In addition we managed to raise £246.45 for CAFOD.
St Mungo's
Thank you to all those who donated non-perishable foods or money to the charity St Mungo's in support of the homeless.
The foodstuff was taken to the charity and we sent the sum of £145.90 to the charity's headquarters. It was a while before we could bank the money due to COVID and the local bank closing but they have the funds and have sent us their thanks.
Demelza Hospice
Our children made some wonderful Easter cards for Demelza and we received a lovely email of thanks:
Good afternoon,
I just wanted to say a massive thank you on behalf of everyone at Demelza Hospice Care for Children for the wonderful cards which you sent in a few weeks ago. I am happy to make you aware they arrived safe and sound so thank you for thinking of our children and their loved ones.
I also wanted to call to let you know that I passed these on to our care co-ordinator, Karen Russell. From here, the care team have created a little message board with all the cards displayed for our families to see. We are putting together a social media post to thank you for this, so please do look out for it as we are so grateful for thinking of Demelza.
Kindest regards,
Hannah
Demelza Support Team
CAFOD
The CAFOD focus this year was ‘Thinking of Others’.
As we started our Lenten journey, we all witnessed the terrible events in Ukraine.
Thank you for your generosity of clothes, equipment and vital essentials for the people and children of Ukraine. This together with money raised from the Running club, Singing Club and your donations raised £669 - a tremendous amount for CAFOD and their Ukrainian appeal.
Royal British Legion
Thank you to all those who helped raise funds for the Royal British Legion. We sold traditional poppies and items of stationary decorated with poppies to support Remembrance Day totalling £243.75 - thank you all again.
CAFOD
This year we were unable to send home collection boxes for Lent, so instead we held an own clothes day and raised £300.55 to support CAFOD's work around the world.
MACMILLAN COFFEE MORNING
What a great turn out we had in support of the Macmillan Cancer coffee morning and what a wonderful selecion of home made cakes were donated too!
This was a great opportunity for parents and carers to meet up and have a chat while supporting a really worthy cause. Thank you to everyone who donated cakes and came along to help raise a fantastic £368.82 for Macmillan Cancer.
British Heart Foundation
Thank you to you all for supporting the British Heart Foundation Skipathon.
The children had great fun using different skipping techniques and cheering each other on - even the teachers got involved to see who could skip the most! Everyone really enjoyed taking part.
Royal British Legion
Thank you to all those who helped raise funds for the Royal British Legion. We sold traditional poppies and items of stationary decorated with poppies to support Remembrance Day totalling £307.45.
CAFOD
This Lent we asked children to collect money in their boxes for the CAFOD campaign ‘Give it Up’.
Our children were asked to give something up for a day, a week or the whole of Lent, then make regular donations in their CAFOD boxes, so our small change can make a BIG change.
Thank you to everyone who helped raise £332.95.
St Christophers and St Mungos
Thank you to all the parents, carers and friends who kindly gave donations donated following our Christmas Performances for St Christopher's Hospice and St Mungo's Homeless Charity - a total of £469.28 was collected.
CAFOD
As part of Harvest, children at OLOG came into school in bright clothes to support CAFOD's Brighten Up Day.
They wore some very colourful outfits and raised £134.96 to help the people CAFOD work with around the world. Thank you!
Greenwich Food Bank
What really generous donations our parents have given for our Food Bank collection. This will go to the Greenwich Food Bank which provides support for local people, like ourselves, who may be finding things hard at the moment. Thank you!
Macmillan Cancer Support
Dear Parents, What a wonderful turn out at our Macmillan 'Coffee and Cake' morning which we held on Friday 28th September. You are always so supportive and we thank you so much for your time and generosity. Together we raised £359.40. Many, many thanks.
NSPCC
The NSPCC carried out an assembly as part of their 'Speak Out, Stay Safe' programme. As part of this, the children took part in sponsored sports events and raised £367.67 to support the NSPCC in their fight against child abuse.
British Heart Foundation
What a fun morning the children had taking part in the Skipathon for the British Heart Foundation - we raised a staggering £834.81.
The children used different skipping techniques and cheered each other on and even the teachers got involved to see who could skip the most. Everyone really enjoyed the event. Well done!
CAFOD - Lenten Appeal
A huge thank you to everyone who raised money for CAFOD during Lent - your donations totalled £636.11.
With these funds families are being supported in all sorts of amazing ways like being able to access clean water and somewhere safe to go to the toilet or being trained to set up and maintain their own nutritious vegetable gardens.
St Mungo's
After the Christmas performances, parents kindly donated money to help St Mungo's charity for the Homeless. Thank you to everyone who contributed towards this - we raised £326.62 for this very worthy cause.
Royal British Legion
Thank you to all parents and children who helped raise vital funds for the Royal British Legion. We sold traditional poppies, wrist bands, bracelets and many more lovely items to support Remembrance Day. We raised a staggering £232.86 - thank you all again.
Harvest Food Bank
Thank you Parents for your very generous donations to our Food Bank collection. This will go to the Greenwich Food Bank which provides support for local people, like ourselves, who may be finding things hard at the moment.
MacMillan Coffee Morning
Once again parents, you have been so generous with your donations of cakes for our Macmillan Coffee Morning. Thank you.
What a fantastic selection of yummy home-made cakes that the children enjoyed too at the cake sale to raise more funds for cancer support - £395.16 in fact!
We are very grateful for all your support you always offer.
CAFOD - Lenten Appeal
Thank you to all the children and parents who collected money in their boxes for the CAFOD campaign 'Turn Little Fish into Big Fish' because little actions will make a really big difference.
You raised a wonderful amount of £602.09 for which we received a letter of thanks and certificate from CAFOD. Thank you again for your support.
British Heart Foundation
Both young and old(er) took part in this years annual Skipathon at OLOG, to show our support for the British Heart Foundation.
On Friday afternoon the boys and girls showed off their cross-cross, twister and toe tapping skills in our newly painted MUGA.
This year it wasn't only the children who got a chance to jump rope for heart. The KS1 and EYFS adults were narrowly defeated by the adults in KS2 in a competition thoroughly enjoyed by the children!
Thank you for your generous donations - we raised £505.60 for BHF.
Royal British Legion
Thank you to all those who helped raise funds for the Royal British Legion. We sold traditional poppies and items of stationary decorated with poppies to support Remembrance Day totalling £308.33 - thank you all again.
BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
London to Brighton Bike Ride
What a great day our staff had taking part in the London to Brighton annual bike ride. Not only did they support the British Heart Foundation but they also raised £231 for the School. Thanks to all the parents who kindly sponsored them.
Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice
Children were asked to wear something yellow in exchange for donating money to help the Hospice - as well as brightening up the day with such a lovely sunny colour, they also raised £180.90.
Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice - Carolthon
Year 5 sang their hearts out in support of Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice on 2nd December in Eltham High Street. A group of passers by commented they were the best carols they'd heard sung that morning! Even Dave our Lollipop man came down - 'looking at those smiling faces and listening to the lovely songs made me feel like Christmas was today - well done OLOG!'
Royal British Legion
Thank you to all those who helped raise funds for the Royal British Legion. We sold traditional poppies and items of stationary decorated with poppies to support Remembrance Day. We raised a great amount of £209.34 - thank you all again.
