Faith at School
“Jesus light our way on our faith journey. Be our guide, our joy, and our hope, as we learn, live, love, and pray together”.
Our school mission statement sets out the fundamental principles which underpin everything that we do at St Joseph’s. Christ is at the centre of our school. We follow the ways of Jesus and this ensures that we treat everyone with respect.
Gospel values are at the centre of our ethos and our policies, and run throughout every aspect of our curriculum to encourage our children to be kind, caring, forgiving and respectful.
In the entrance area, we have our mission statement displayed, along with a statue of St Joseph. This makes sure that everyone who comes into our school knows that our faith is very important to us here at St Joseph’s.
We have daily acts of collective worship, assemblies, hymn practices, and prayer services. Prayer is a central part of our school day. Apart from praying in our classrooms four times a day, we also share circle time and prayer services. At breaktime we have a daily private prayer session, where we open up our chapel, so pupils and staff can come and pray. At certain points in the Church’s calendar, we might do group prayer, where we pray the Rosary or other traditional prayers. Every classroom has a dedicated prayer area which includes words from scripture, liturgical images, artefacts and prayers.
There are certain prayers that the children are expected to learn in each year group.
These can be found below in our school prayer book:
Each class has a Patron Saint, and the children learn all about their Saint with a display in each classroom. Classes also spend time in our beautiful prayer garden which is used for quiet reflection. We have a shrine to St Joseph outside the school, which children sometimes visit for quiet prayer.
Central to our school week, is the celebration of Mass every Wednesday afternoon. This takes place in our school hall and is attended by families and members of the parish. We also have regular school masses at St. Joseph’s Church. Father Solomon and Sister Catherine are regular visitors to school and enjoy spending time with the children.
We are honoured at St. Joseph’s, to be one of only a few schools that have the permission of the Archbishop to keep the Blessed Sacrament on site. We have a beautiful chapel in our school hall in which the tabernacle is kept. One of the children said: “I like having the chapel because when I pray, I look at the tabernacle to remind me that Jesus is always with me”.
