Oscar Romero Awards 2023
On Tuesday 28 March, in a Mass to celebrate the Feast Day of St Oscar Romero, Archbishop John Wilson presented certificates to schools that have achieved the Participator Level of the Oscar Romero Award. This is the second time we have held this celebration at St George's Cathedral and the Archdiocese has been pleased to be able to host the awards
The Oscar Romero Awards organisers were pleased to announce that 84 diocesan schools are now engaged in the Oscar Romero Award. Last year, 17 certificates were presented to schools that had achieved the Participator Level of the Oscar Romero Award, and this year an additional 20 schools have achieved this first level of the Award. The Archdiocese of Southwark is pleased to report that a couple of schools are on brink of achieving the second level (the Developer Level). There are now 47 schools that have registered and are working towards the first level.
The aim of the Oscar Romero Award is twofold: to help schools recognise and celebrate what they do that enables others to have life to the full and enjoy life as God’s children; and to challenge schools to find other ways to ensure that all in their community and beyond enjoy being alive and human. In other words, the Oscar Romero Award asks schools how they are putting Catholic Social Teaching principles into action in their schools.
The schools receiving their certificates in 2023 have shown that
- they are incorporating Catholic Social Teaching Principles in their decision-making;
- these principles are beginning to be embedded in what the children learn in the classroom;
- these schools have shown that they are taking action against injustice through the charities they support.
These schools have demonstrated that for a Catholic school, education is not just academic formation; it is about enabling all in the school community to experience God’s love, through putting Catholic Social Teaching principles into action. This is the aim of the Oscar Romero Award,
Archbishop John, who is also the Patron of the Oscar Romero Award, presented Participator Level Certificates to the following schools:
- Bonus Pastor Catholic College – Bromley
- Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School – New Malden
- Holy Innocents Catholic Primary School – Orpington
- St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School – Dulwich
- La Retraite RC Girls School – Clapham Park
- St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School – Tunbridge Wells
- St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School – Hythe
- St Edward’s Catholic Primary School – Sheerness
- St Francis Catholic Primary School – Peckham
- St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School – Gravesend
- St Mary’s Catholic Primary School – Whitstable
- St Matthew Academy – Blackheath
- St Michael’s Catholic College – Barmondsey
- St Thomas Catholic Primary School – Sevenoaks
- St Thomas of Canterbury School – Gillingham
- St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic Primary School – Gillingham
- St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School – Welling
- St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School – Canterbury
- The Federation of St Elphege’s Schools – Wallington
- St Catherine’s Catholic School - Bexleyheath
We thank and congratulate the schools that have embraced the Oscar Romero Awards for choosing to imbue Catholic Social Teaching into the ethos and culture of their learning community.
