St Charles R.C. Primary School, Rishton

St Charles Parish Church and School.

120 YEARS OF WORKING & CELEBRATING TOGETHER

St Charles’ Parish, Rishton was founded in 1886, when the people of the Parish opened their first School for Catholic Children in the Hermitage on Holt Street. In 1896, our ancestors built a new Catholic School on the present site. This included a new Catholic Church for the town in what is now St. Charles’ School

Hall. In 1938, Rishton’s Catholics built the present Church, which continues to serve all who wish. Here, as in their classrooms, the school children and teachers join the rest of the Parish in the worship of God, in celebrating and preparing for the Sacraments, and in involving ourselves in the social and other activities of the town. Our worship is best when the children help to lead our prayers, singing, music and provide dramatised presentations to bring our Bible readings to life. They enjoy leading processions, in church and around Rishton. Links between St. Charles’ Church and St. Charles’ School are very close. Church users are, above all, friends who see the happiness and achievements of the children, and their families, as a most important part of the life of the whole parish. They still support the school, and its children and teachers, as well as serving the wider community in many ways:

as Prayer Friends and Catechists;

as teachers in the school,

as members of the Governing Body;

as Brownie, Guide, Cub & Scout Leaders,

as football trainers & managers and

by visiting the elderly, sick and housebound at home or in hospital.