Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador. He spent his life as ‘the voice of the voiceless’ working for the poor and forgotten and continually encouraged people to ‘aspire not to have more, but to be more.’ On the 24th March 1980, he was assassinated for continually speaking out for the poor.

The Romero Award is a charitable award to help Catholic schools and colleges put Catholic Social Teaching in to action.

It recognises, celebrates and encourages schools to:

• Live out the message of Jesus

• Care for our neighbours

• Make the world a fairer place

• Tell people about how and why we should care for others

• Raise money to help those in need

• Make a real difference to world we live in

As a pilot school for the award, St John’s are currently at the participator level and working on the developer level. We are using every opportunity to learn about injustice in the world, raise money for those in need and…to put our faith in to action!

Antonio, Madiba and Judith from Big Voices have arranged an International session for each year group. The children gathered resources from CAFOD and distributed them to each teacher.

Nessi, Graca and Erik worked hard to organise and run our 'Film Night' for the homeless.

They raised £119.50 to buy vouchers for the homeless of Portsmouth. Thank you to all involved.

Big Voices pledged to go out in to the community and make a difference.

On St Valentine's day, they went to the Cathedral social group and led an activity to make Valentine's cards. Not only did they do a great job of leading the activity but they made so many new friends and everyone left smiling!

The children from St John's were delighted to support the diocese in the Mass of thanksgiving for the canonisation of Oscar Romero. Over the past eighteen months, we have really been inspired by the work of Oscar Romero and are trying to be more like him by putting our faith in to action.

A group of children from the choir were delighted to sing at the Cathedral Christmas meal for the older people. They sang beautifully and then enjoyed a good old chat with their new friends.

Big Voice for Good

Big Voice for good is a group of junior children who make pledges to help live out the vision of Oscar Romero in our school.

These are some of the pledges that the members have already achieved.

To help create a display in the prayer area.

To help younger children with their learning.

To lead prayer in the school.