Catholic Life of St Joseph's

Class Saints

This year, each year group has been assigned a Saint to study. The children must find out about their Saint, particularly in relation to what it is that made them so special. They will consider what we can learn from each Saint in our mission to live out God’s Word. Year groups will deliver assemblies about their Saint and celebrate their Saints’ feast days.

Class Charity

This year we have chosen two charities to focus on – The Good Life Orphanage (in Kenya) as a Global charity and Re:dish, as our local charity.

All classes will carry out some research around these charities and we have invited representatives from these charities to come into school to tell us about what they do and what we can do to help.

At some point throughout the year, each year group will carry out some fundraising activities to aid these charities and make changes to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Y4 have already raised an amazing amount of £2,000! They did a sponsored run around the astro

Y5 collected 200 plastic bags for the staff at Re:dish to use to bag up items at the food bank.

Reception collected 100 toiletries to be donated to Re:dish to go to people who visit the food bank.

Living out our School Mission Statement

Our School’s Mission Statement of ‘Inspired by joy, we grow together as members of a unique family who respect, love and forgive each other’, is not just something that is displayed around the school, but it is a statement that is brought to life within our close-knit family.

The children have spent time unpicking this statement and thinking about what it means to them. Each class has produced work about this and reflected on how we can live out our mission each day.

Catholic Life Big Books

Our year group Big Books are quickly filling up! These giant books contain photographs, drawings and writing by our children in relation to activities or celebrations outside of RE lessons which are part of the Catholic life of our school. Reflections from assemblies, photographs of special masses, work around our class saints and year group charities and celebrations throughout the Liturgical Year, are all displayed proudly in these beautiful books. Here are some examples of the front of our books and work from the EYFS Big Books below.

Caritas

As part of our Caritas work, which means living out our Faith, we have a special learning focus each half term. Last half term we had a special day focusing on Stewardship. This involves teaching the children about caring for the gifts that God has given to us, including the environment, our own personal talents and other resources. We talked about our interdependence with all living creatures and how we should use God's gifts responsibly to meet the needs of everyone, now and in the future.

The Nursery children were learning about friendship and made each other bracelets. Reception focused on love in their family.

Year 1 talked about how we can look after our environment by walking to school, picking up rubbish and growing plants. Some children also visited the Parish garden to see how the plants have grown.

Year 3 discussed the different ways we show community at St Joseph's. While Year 5 wrote about the gifts they have and Year 6 researched how people matter more than possessions.

Learning about Other Faiths

We instil in the children at St Joseph's how important it is to respect and understand others, regardless of differences in appearance or beliefs. Each year group is designated a different faith and every half term the children learn more about that faith and add this information to their 'Other Faiths Big Book', which will go through the school with them.

In the Summer, we had a range of visitors to talk to children about different faiths. The Year 1 children were fascinated to learn about the story of the Buddha and how Buddhists pray.

You can also see Nursery children making Divali candles and decorating handprints with Henna patterns, Year 3 work on Hinduism, Year 5 work on Islam and Year 6 work on Judaism.