Sacraments
Preparing our Year 4 children to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion is primarily the responsibility of our parish and our parents.
We have good links with our parish community and this is vital to the successful running of the First Holy Communion programme. Photographs of the children are displayed in church so that members of the parish know who they are praying for.
Although the children are prepared in Year 4, we build on the knowledge and understanding gained in the earlier years as well as the child’s faith from home. The children take part in a catechetical programme run by the parish. Preparation Masses leading up to receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist are also enjoyed.
Reconciliation is a special occasion whereby children are supported by our staff, parents and the parish. On the day of Holy Communion, a great emphasis is placed on the child and their family receiving the sacrament together. The rest of the school and parish community support them by preparing and taking part in the special mass.
Mini Vinnies
The Society of St Vincent de Paul has been engaging with young people and education since its earliest days. Today the SVP England & Wales is pleased to highlight its continuing strong links with young people, through the development of its new ‘Mini Vinnies’ programme – a ground-breaking Primary Schools initiative, based on good work done in Australia, piloted in the Diocese of Shrewsbury, and which is seen as having, “the potential to significantly contribute to the future of our Society.”
‘Mini Vinnies’ are children aged between 4 to 11 in our school who are encouraged to embark on their first steps as possible ‘Vincentians for life’.
As Mini Vinnies, the children have their own ‘treasured’ Prayer, Pledge and Badge, a dedicated website and a range of bright and colourful documents which guide them in their formative steps – helping and enabling them to become in every sense, young Vincentians – or ‘Mini Vinnies’.
The Mini Vinnies have strong links with our local Food Bank and prepare the CAFOD Harvest Fast Day Liturgical Prayer or Mass with CAFOD Club members.
CAFOD Club
CAFOD Club helps us to put our Catholic Social Teaching into action. This Club is run over lunchtime by the School Council and is open to all children. The children enjoy planned activities throughout the term to help build a brighter world for all.
You can find out more about CAFOD Clubs here CAFOD Clubs for primary schools | CAFOD
Prayer Group
Prayer Group is open to all children and is run by older members of the School Council. Prayer Group members organise and leading class prayer times with other pupils. They lead prayer opportunities throughout the year eg: Rosary, Stations of the Cross. They ensure that Class focus tables are tidy and reflect the season.
Catholic Social Teaching
Jesus calls us to love one another, and in answering this call, we are linked together as one family and we build up the Kingdom of God here on Earth. Our Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is a response to that call. Rooted in the Hebrew prophets who announced God’s special love for the poor and called God’s people to a covenant of love and justice, it is a teaching founded on the life and words of Jesus, who came “to bring glad tidings to the poor . . . liberty to captives . . . recovery of sight to the blind”(Luke 4:18-19), and who identified Himself with “the least of these,” the hungry and the stranger ( Matthew 25:45). CST is built on a commitment to the poor that we find in the Gospel.
- There are seven themes in CST. Each theme is linked to an animal from CAFOD’s Catholic Social Teaching pack (reproduced with kind permission from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.) The animals’ pictures are displayed in school and shown during assemblies.
- Life and Dignity of the Human Person – Luc the deer
- Call to Family, Community, and Participation – Chikondi the Giraffe
- Rights and Responsibilities – Sid the Sheep
- Preferential Option for the Poor – Poppy the Pōpokotea
- The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers – DJ the Dolphin
- Solidarity – Shristi the Sun Bear
- Care for God’s Creation -Sofia the Sloth
Life and Dignity of the Human Person
We believe each person is made in the image and likeness of God and has inherent dignity, regardless of gender, disability, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, sexual orientation or economic standing. We celebrate diversity and the strength it gives us, as we come together and seek justice for all. We believe those living in poverty should have access to food, water, housing and other basic amenities which many of us can often take for granted.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum including the Fratelli Tutti Encyclical, World Toilet Day, Elimination of Racial Discrimination Assembly, via fundraising for CAFOD’s Virtual Village and donations to the Durham Foodbank, through the work of our Mini Vinnies, through our RE and RSE curriculum as well as through our structured, discrete teaching of the Protected Characteristics.
Call To Family, Community and Participation
We believe that the human person is not only sacred, but social. Every person has a right to participate in society and a corresponding duty to work for the advancement of the common good and the well-being of all.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum and through our RE and RSE curriculum.
Rights and Responsibilities
We believe that every person has a fundamental right to life — the right that makes all other rights possible. Each person also has a right to the conditions for living a decent life — food, health care, housing, education and employment. We listen to others as they speak for themselves, help them to participate if they need such help and speak-out boldly on their behalf when it is right to do so.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum including the Fratelli Tutti Encyclical, through our Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) work, the OutRight campaign and through our RE and RSE curriculum.
The Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
We believe this preferential option for the poor and vulnerable should be reflected in both our daily lives and public policies. A fundamental measure of our society is how we care for and stand with our poor and vulnerable brothers and sisters.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum, our Liturgical Prayer programme, fundraising for CAFOD’s Virtual Village, collections for the Durham Foodbank, the work of our Mini Vinnies and through our RE curriculum.
Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
We believe that work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. To uphold the dignity of work, the basic rights of workers must be respected — the right to productive work, to fair and liveable wages, and to organize and join a union.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum, our status as a Fairtrade School at FairAchiever level, and through our RE curriculum.
Solidarity
We believe we are one human family. Loving our neighbour has global dimensions. At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Our love for all our brothers and sisters calls us to seek a peaceful and just society where goods are distributed fairly, opportunity is promoted equally and the dignity of all is respected.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum especially World Refugee Day, via fundraising for CAFOD’s Virtual Village, the work of our Mini Vinnies and CAFOD club members, through our status as a Fairtrade school at FairAchiever level, through our RRSA work, through the OutRight campaign, through our Liturgical Prayer programme and through our RE curriculum.
Care for God’s Creation
We believe that the world that God created has been entrusted to all of us. Our stewardship of the earth is a form of participation in God’s act of creating and sustaining the world. In our use of creation, we must be guided by a concern for generations to come. We show our respect for the Creator by our care for creation.
In school, this strand is promoted via our PWD curriculum including the Laudato Sii Encyclical, Earth Hour, Go Green Recycle Week, Car Free Day and Walk to School Day, our Liturgical Prayer programme, through the work of our Eco- Club, through our RE curriculum and through our Prayer Group – prayers for peace and an end to war and conflict.
Fundraising
Throughout the year we support many different charities. These include Macmillan Cancer Care, CAFOD, Youth Mission Team and Mission Together.
At different times of the year we increase our efforts into thinking about and helping others. The seasons of Advent and Lent lend themselves to charitable work but throughout the year we support others locally, nationally and internationally.
Staff, pupils and families are always extremely generous in their support of others. Money is raised through fundraising events and charitable donations from the whole school community.
Rights Respecting Schools
We work with The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured and they are able to thrive. Our Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) embeds these values in daily school life and gives children the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens. The RRSA programme unifies a range of educational priorities through a global dimension – social and emotional aspects of learning, community cohesion and sustainable development.
We are A Rights Respecting School at Silver level (Rights Aware). The Award is based on principles of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation. This Award recognises our school’s achievement in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into practice within our school and beyond. The Convention sets outs the rights of the child in the form of articles. Each article promotes a specific right. There are 54 articles: Articles 1-41 relate specifically to children’s rights, the remaining 13 are all about how Governments and adults should work together to make sure children and young people can access and enjoy these rights.
The Award has 3 strands: Strand A: Teaching and learning about rights, Strand B: Teaching and learning through rights-ethos and relationships and Strand C: Teaching and learning for rights – participation, empowerment and action.
Strand A: Teaching and learning about rights
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is made known to children and adults, who use this shared understanding to work for improved child wellbeing, school improvement, global justice and sustainable living.
Strand B: Teaching and learning through rights – ethos and relationships
Actions and decisions affecting children are rooted in, reviewed and resolved through rights. Children and adults collaborate to develop and maintain a school community based on equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation; this includes learning and teaching in a way that respects the rights of both educators and learners and promotes wellbeing.
Strand C: Teaching and learning for rights – participation, empowerment and action
Children are empowered to enjoy and exercise their rights and to promote the rights of others locally and globally. Duty bearers are accountable for ensuring that children experience their rights.
In our school we teach and learn about rights through specific Rights Respecting Assemblies, displays which all carry a label stating which article is being promoted and through focus days and topics. We teach and learn through rights by modelling rights respecting language and attitudes and making strategic decisions that involve students. This is primarily through our peer-elected School Council with representatives from R to Year 6 who monitor the suggestion boxes in school. We are ambassadors for the rights of others: developing as rights respecting citizens through our participation in OutRight. OutRight is a youth campaign run by UNICEF UK that helps children and young people to speak out about children’s rights in the UK and abroad. It is a campaign by children, for children.
The RRSA is fundamental to our quality of education because at the heart of the Award is a vision of education founded on Article 29 of the Convention which says personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures and that education must develop every child’s the environment. Our implementation promotes equity, inclusion and the voice of children and young people which are fundamental to a rights-based approach to education. Success and achievement for all is at the heart of the Right to Education and the principle of Non-Discrimination (Article 2) underpins all that we do to accelerate the progress of all and minimise gaps in attainment. This is our intent.
We strive for a shared understanding of everyone’s rights and a commitment to respect our own and other people’s rights. High expectations, fairness and mutual respect underpin this shared understanding. Our children have an effective say in the life of their school and play a meaningful part in decision making.
All 9 outcomes of the RRSA programme relate to the development of talents, building of resilience and confidence, empowerment around physical and mental health, valuing diversity and the promotion of active citizenship. We are collaborators with our children in the educational enterprise and we always take action ‘in the best interests’ (Article 3) of our children.
