A Canterbury Tale

St Thomas a Becket Catholic Secondary School in Sandal, Wakefield, is part of the Bishop Konstant Catholic Academy Trust (BKCAT). In honour of this Holy Year of Jubilee, School and Trust leaders and staff travelled as Pilgrims of Hope to Canterbury, to visit the Shrine of their Patron Saint, make a Retreat, and compose a School Prayer.

St Thomas a Becket Head Teacher, Dr Patrick Caldwell, was one of the pilgrims and has sent this account…:   

‘On Friday 7 March 2025, eleven pilgrims set out from St Thomas a Becket School in Wakefield, bound for Canterbury Cathedral, the site of our namesake’s martyrdom. Our pilgrims were picked from a wide range of staff at the school, covering teachers, leaders and support staff, and we all packed on to the St Wilfrid’s minibus which carried us on our journey: fitting transport for a Yorkshire school!

We arrived at Canterbury Cathedral and spent some time in reflection at the place where, in the twelfth century, St Thomas had given his life for his faith: defending the Church’s rights and authority from being eroded by the Crown. Following a further tour of the Cathedral, seeing the place of the once highly visited Shrine and the amazing crypts below, we set out again to where we would stay the night.

We then travelled to a retreat centre at Pinner, in the Diocese of Westminster. This retreat centre holds a relic of St Thomas, who apparently spent his last night there, before travelling to the Cathedral and to his martyrdom.

While there, we prayed and reflected on his legacy and from this produced our updated mission statement and a school prayer. Over the next few months this prayer and mission will be introduced to our school community and they will hopefully see the wonderful impact that a pilgrimage and a focus on hope can bring!

Our school motto is ‘esse quam videri’ meaning ‘to be rather than to seem to be’, and we embedded this litany to integrity and authenticity into the prayer.’

The St Thomas a Becket School Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of this day​
May we be…​
Proud of our achievements​
May we be…​
Witnesses to the Catholic Faith​
May we be…​
Thankful for the unique life that you have given us​
May we be…​
Embraced in your love to grow as one family​
May we be…​ rather than seem to be.
Through Christ Our Lord​.
Amen.