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Welcome to
St Joseph's Catholic
Primary School, Withnell
We work We care We Pray We share
Catholic life of the school
Below you will find some pictures giving a glimpse of the 'Catholic Life of our School'. Please follow the links below to see more of what we do.
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School Mission
'We Work, We Care, We Pray, We Share'
Every two years we revisit our Mission statement with children, governors and parents. The piece of art work was created in response to the updated School Motto which we feel encapsulates our core Catholic Values. The mural takes pride of place in the centre of school and serves as a timely reminder of our core Mission.
More detail of what this means to us in our school can be found on the link below...
Catholic Values - our Catholic life
We have looked at our Catholic values and thought, what does this mean in our world today. The children agreed that in order to be a Catholic Missionary we must look outside of our own four walls and seek to change the world in which we live for the better. The children in each class spent time learning about someone who we agreed had taken on a Mission to change our world for the better - Catholic values alive.
Below is a long term plan which we follow mapping our liturgical celebrations and school events,
Fraternity - we are all In God's family
As a Catholic School it is important that we learn about people who have a different faith to our own. Learning about other faiths allows to better understand our own faith; when we understand other we will soon find often we have more in common with those who have a different faith to us than we at first may realise. Finally we want to be Catholics who fully understand that Our Lord called us to love everyone. Here the children learnt about Ramadan from the Y6 pupil in the Valley Community School in Bolton. To act upon Pope Francis' call for fraternity, our children sent cards to our Muslim brother in the Middle East. The cards were send to wish the children in Palestine a Happy Eid from all of us at St Joseph's.
What did you do for other people?
In addition to our School Mission Day, over Advent the children prepared shoe boxes full of gifts for children less fortuntate than themselves. We joined forces with the parishioners and in total we sent over 200 shoe boxes - a superb effort when you consider than there are only 98 children in our school.
Zero to Hero CAFOD Climate Change Campaign
The children welcome Mrs Dewhurst into school from CAFOD to deliver an assembly and lessons on the CAFOD 'ZERO to HERO' campaign. This really captured the children's imagination. They learn more about the environmental impact of our actions and the implications for the poorest in our world. The children in class have taken on a challenge to reduce wast in school and increase the amount we recycle. The children have also written to Lyndsey Hoyle, our local MP to request that our leaders do more to address this in Parliament.
Sacramental Programme
Our prayers are with our children in Year 4 who completed the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist in June. The children have been guided on their journey by Jane and their families. As ever the day in Church was a special one.
Month of the Precious Blood
The children have been busy completing their art work for the Month of the Precious Blood in school. The standard was high - some pieces were highly imaginative and these were shared with our parishioners in school after Mass on Sunday.
KIDSAFE - part of our PSHE and RSE curriculum in school
At St Joseph's we follow a carefully planned Personal Social Health and Emotional development curriculum in school. This curriculum is carefully designed to meet the needs of OUR children in school. It takes into account what we know about our children, their lives and what they need to know in order to grow up knowing how to keep themselves safe and have respect for he dignity of the human body. Above are examples of the children engaged in a KIDSAFE discussion in Year 6 and examples of children work in their Journey in Love lessons from class 3. Margaret France is our Governor who oversees the delivery of this curriculum and she will visit the school regularly to speak with children, staff and watch lessons.
Fraternity - Valley Community School Bolton Picasso Art Day Visit
As part of our continued link with the Valley Community School in Bolton, 15 children from Y4, 5 and 6 at the Valley came to enjoy a morning of Picasso inspired art work. This is the second time that children from the Valley have visited out school and we know that this relationship will continue to grow in the future.
New Families - stay and play
As a Catholic school, we know that parents are the very first educators. Primary schools work most effectively when both school and the home work in tandem. Parents are invited into school at frequent intervals in all classes. Here are our new parents and their children are enjoying a 'stay and play' afternoon with our current Reception class. Every year in our final assembly there is a handover, where one of our new Reception children present the final award to our departing Year 6.
We work We care We Pray We share