St Marie's Catholic Primary School

Catholic Social Teaching tells us how our Catholic faith guides our actions. It comes from scripture; letters written by popes and holy people; and the examples set by Christians through history. Jesus tells us to love God and to love our neighbour… every neighbour! By living out Catholic Social Teaching we can build a world of justice, love and peace, where everyone has what they need. Pope Francis says “Each of us has a part to play,”

 

Our part in this story is a kind-of vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as our brothers and sisters.  It is something that we all share.

 

The Catholic Church has seven principles of social teaching that we share with our children through all that we do, through the curriculum, special events and activity and through our ordinary actions in school.

 

Catholic Social Teaching underpins the essence of our daily school life. As members of the Catholic Church, we are all called upon to preserve the dignity of all human beings, to care for creation, and to reach out to our sisters and brothers in need.

 

Pope Francis emphasises that it is our duty to work together to bring about a more just and peaceful world: to put love into action. It is vital that our children can articulate the connection between Jesus’ teaching and doing good deeds. We are called to uphold the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, which are:

 

• Dignity of the Human Person 

• Family and Community 

• Solidarity and the Common Good 

• Dignity of Work 

• Rights and Responsibilities 

• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable 

• Stewardship 

 

At St Marie’s, Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is incorporated into our curriculum. Children are asked to put their faith into action and reflect on how their learning enables them to do so. Each collective worship links to Catholic Social Teaching which helps make the worship relevant to our lives today.

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CST themes were discussed at the beginning of the year and every child across school produced artwork for our hall – the heart of our school. We use keys as a symbol to link with each theme to help the children remember each theme. Golden book awards/Headteacher awards are given to children that go on to demonstrate the Catholic Social Teaching themes in the week. Furthermore, our children participate in ‘Faith In Action’ award; our CAFOD representatives reinforce these messages every visit and the GIFT team are instrumental in spreading the message of CST to the school.