Oscar Romero Award

Archbishop Oscar Romero is a 20th century martyr of the Church. Born on 15 August 1917 in humble circumstances, which he never forgot, Romero was ordained priest in April 1942. He gave his life for his people. He died a martyr, a martyr to the social teaching of the Church, the option for the poor, which he proclaimed and lived with absolute fidelity to his very last breath. 

Our school was recently awarded the Participator Level 1 Oscar Romero Award and we are very proud to be able to share this news with our community. 

This Award supports Catholic schools to recognise and celebrate what they do to promote Catholic social teaching principles and challenge them to weave these into the culture and ethos of the school and in the local and wider community. We take pride in this at St James’. 

The Oscar Romero Award supports schools in realising and living the unique calling of a Catholic school to become an evangelising centre by empowering young people and staff to become true agents of the change they want to see in the world by putting their faith into action.

We look forward to continuing our Catholic Social Teaching and work towards achieving the Developer Level 2 of the Oscar Romero Award.

Our actions might not change the world right away, but it is a start and the start of our pupil’s journey through life with faith to guide them.

Oscar Romero once said, "We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.”