Chaplaincy at St John Fisher

When a child accepts a place at St John Fisher Catholic High School, you and your family become part of a very special community, which has Christ at its’ centre.

The Chaplaincy is here to enrich this community by ensuring faith, hope and love are experienced at the centre of all our relationships and activities.

We are incredibly blessed with our facilities and in addition to our beautiful gothic style Chapel, we also have a beautiful prayer room at the back of our Chapel for groups and quiet reflection both available for students and staff.

What is Chaplaincy?

The work of Chaplaincy is very varied and spreads across every aspect of school life. Here are just a few examples of what we do:

An open door

Our Chaplaincy Team is always available to welcome any member of the school community needs to be listened to or have space. A space has been created at the back of our Chapel for quiet reflection, group discussions, prayers and fellowship.

Wellspring of prayer

The Chaplaincy Team are always praying for our whole school community, through the toughness and normality of everyday life. We endeavour to lead by example, equipping everyone to bring prayer into our forms, classrooms, assemblies, sports fixtures and beyond, confident that God hears and answers all our prayers.

Retreats, prayer sessions and other activities

We see it as vitally important that students get the opportunity to encounter faith and prayer from a different perspective through a retreat experience. Each year, we run a retreat for every year group. In Year 7 every form has a day retreat exploring the theme ‘belonging to a community’.  Year  7 are also given an opportunity to lead and animate their own class mass.

Perhaps our ‘flagship retreat’ is the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes which is for students in Years 10 and 12.

Role of the Priest Chaplain

Our Priest Chaplain is Fr. David Murray. He works together with the Chaplaincy Team to support and develop the Catholic ethos of the school.

An essential part of this role is in providing Sacramental Ministry to the school community. He says a weekly Mass on Wednesdays at 8.20am in the Chapel which the whole school community, including Staff, Students and Parents are warmly invited to.

Fr. David actively supports the worship and prayer life of the school throughout the liturgical year.

In particular during the seasons of Advent and Lent he and other local clergy are dedicated to offering every student the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Fr. David likes playing football and enjoys an occasional game of rugby.

St Robert’s Parish Youth Minister

Joy O’Brien who is the Youth Minister at St Robert’s Catholic Church in Harrogate, works in school and organises, and assists Chaplaincy events and initiatives, especially working with regular RE classes, groups and retreats.

It’s a wonderful addition to the Chaplaincy Team to have this contact with the parish church and it strengthens the witness that we are one family, and the spiritual life of the school is something that reaches beyond our walls.