Believe, Achieve, Succeed

Under Saint Joseph’s guardianship and protection, we will be supported to achieve and succeed in the things the Lord wants us to do.

We at St. Joseph’s ensure our children receive a firm foundation to their faith. Our mission statement is displayed throughout the school. This makes sure that everyone who comes into our school knows that our faith is very important to us here at St. Joseph’s.

The mission statement is said before whole collective worship as part of our gathering prayer. The children are encouraged to explain how we live our mission through our day to day lives.

We have daily acts of collective worship, sessions of Catholic meditation which we call Silent Listening, assemblies, hymn practices and celebrations of mass.

As part of our collective worship we incorporate Lectio Divina, life Stories of a Saints and Old Testament stories. A weekly ‘mission’ is given to the children on Monday and reviewed on Friday.

Prayer is a central part of our school day. We pray in our classrooms at least four times a day. Every classroom has a dedicated prayer area which includes words from Scripture, Liturgical images, artefacts and prayers.

The children also design and carry out their own acts of collective worship within their class once a week.

Come and See

‘and spend the rest of the day with Him.’

In response to the question ‘Where do you live?’ which was asked by the disciples, Jesus invited them to ‘Come and See.’ (John 1:39). The disciple went with Jesus ‘and spent the rest of that day with him.’

Using the ‘Come and See’ programme, we teach RE through three processes, Search, Revelation and Response. It follows the pattern of: The human search for meaning, God’s initiative in revelation and the response in faith.

‘Teaching in Religious Education… should help people be attentive to the meaning of their experiences, illumined by the light of the Gospel, so that they may respond to God more fully. Experience can also make the Christian message more intelligible. (Curriculum Directory p11)

Three topics are studied each term, with each topic lasting approximately four weeks. These topics fall under the same three themes every term; these are:

• Church
• Sacramental
• Christian Living

Each class studies a different topic specific to their year group. However, the theme of the topics remains the same across the year groups. These topics/themes are also developed through different ‘understandings’ each term.

• The three autumn topics are developed in the light of an understanding of Creation.
• The three spring topics are developed in the light of an understanding of Incarnation.
• The three summer topics are developed in the light of an understanding of Redemption – the work of the Holy Spirit.

Other Faiths

Two other faiths are taught every year following the programme of study in ‘Come and See’. One week teaching and learning time per year is given to each religion taught.