St Francis’ Day Celebration – 4th October
Many Catholics throughout the world celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 4 each year. The feast honours the life of St Francis, who was born in the 12th century and later on founded the Catholic Church’s Franciscan order. He is remembered for his generosity to the poor and for his love for animals and nature. In fact, he is the patron saint of animals and the environment.
This year marked the first time that our school celebrated the life of St Francis on his actual feast day and so we decided to celebrate this occasion with a day full of activities, fun and happiness. We started off with a special assembly, where Sr Carmen, our Head of School, talked about the life of our school’s patron saint. Afterwards, everyone joined the school choir in singing joyful songs to praise our Lord for the life of St Francis. When assembly was over, we surprised our students with a shower of colourful balloons that fell on the assembled rows from the balconies above. The overjoyed and happy shrieks of the students signalled their delight at this unusual occurrence!
Later in the day, students in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6s assembled in our school chapel to participate in an animated mass. Fr Joe Vella celebrated Mass and reminded the students about the life of St Francis and how we should imitate this saint in our lives.
After lunch break, everyone was asked to assemble in the school yard since further activities were planned for our students. In fact, the first activity involved the re-opening of our compost bin. Sr Carmen, cut the ribbon and threw in the first green material. The second activity was the planting of an olive tree that marked the first occasion that our school was celebrating this special day. Once again, Sr Carmen threw in the first shovel of earth into the pot. 
Next, 13 students, each representing their respective classes, from grade 1 to grade 6, threw in a shovel of earth as well. This olive tree now takes place of pride in front of our school entrance. To end this day of activities, we gave out a croissant to each and every person in school which was gladly received by young and adults alike. When these activities where over, the students went back into their classrooms to finish off the crafts that their teachers had planned for them.
Needless to say that the students were all happy to celebrate our school’s patron saint and we were all glad that our first St Francis celebration went off without a hitch!
St Nicholas’ Day Celebration – 7th December
On December 7th, St Francis School Msida celebrated the feast of St Nicholas with a special mass in the school chapel. The children offered something of their own which MOAS then passed on to migrant children. We were also reminded of St Lucy’s message that we can all be a light for one another. At the end of the celebration, the children were given a gingerbread figure of St Nicholas which was placed in their sock.