Our Values
- We value the way in which all children are unique, made in the image and likeness of God, and our curriculum promotes respect for the views of each individual child, as well as for people of all cultures and faiths.
- We value the spiritual, moral, and physical development of each person, as well as their intellectual and physical growth.
- We value the importance of each person in our community. We organise our curriculum so that we promote co-operation and understanding between all members of our community.
- We value the rights enjoyed by each person in our society. We respect each child in our school for who they are, and we treat them with fairness and honesty. We aim to enable each person to be successful, and we provide equal opportunities for all the children in our school.
- We value our environment, and we aim through our curriculum, to teach respect for our world, and how we should care for it for future generations, as well as our own.
- We value the importance of each child using their God-given talents to reach their full potential.
Virtues and Values
At St Joseph’s, we have adopted a way of teaching that follows the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. All schools in the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham are following this method of learning, which is based on eight sets of words, paired together because of their complimentary and harmonising relationship to one another.
Each half term, we are focusing on a different pair of words and thinking about how we can grow more like Jesus in our daily lives:
Grateful and Generous
Attentive and Discerning
Compassionate and Loving
Faith-filled and Hopeful
Eloquent and Truthful
Learned and Wise
Curious and Active
Intentional and Prophetic
Jesuit Virtues
Attentive to our experiences and to our vocation
- Once we develop the habit of being attentive, we can begin to discern what is good for us, and what is not; and what God calls us to be, and to do.
Compassionate towards others, near and far, especially the less fortunate; and loving by their just actions and forgiving words:
- What did Jesus say was the most important of the Ten Commandments?
- What did Jesus do or say to show God Our Father was Compassionate and Loving?
- How can you show Compassion and Love?
Faith-filled in their beliefs and hopeful for the future.
- “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your hope and faith are in God.” Peter 1:21
- “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27
Eloquent and Truthful in what they say of themselves, the relations between people and the world.
- Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
- Luke 13:18-19 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
Curious about everything; and active in their engagement with the world, changing what they can for the better.
- Be curious, ask questions and look for God in all things.
- Be active in the life of the school, the church, and the wider community.
Intentional in the way we live and use the resources of the earth, guided by morality; and prophetic in the example we set to others.
- Being intentional in the way of advancing and building a better quality of life; and which is prophetic in the way it offers a Christ Centered vision of education and of our lives rooted in the gospel. Activity can easily become the distraction of being busy. Using wisdom and discernment, we can live our lives more intentionally – getting the balance right; living in the present moment rather than in the unchangeable past or an unknown future.
- Living in this way is to be prophetic – announcing the new perspective of the gospel on what it means to be human. Jesus is an example of someone who lived his life intentionally and prophetically.
Children in our school are growing to be: Grateful for their own gifts, for the gift of other people, and for the blessings of each day and generous with their gifts, now and in the future.
- Encouraging them to know and be grateful, for all their gifts, developing them to the full so that they can be generous in the service of others.
Learned, finding God in all things; and wise in the ways they use their learning for the common good.
- By the breadth and depth of the curriculum, by excellence of teaching, and the creation of opportunities to become more learned and wise.
