Catholic Social Teaching
Catholic Social Teaching is based on the belief that God has a plan for creation, a plan to build his kingdom of peace, love and justice. It holds that God has a special place in this story for each of us, whoever we are. Our part in this plan isn’t just limited to things ‘spiritual’, or things we might do on Sundays, but that it involves every aspect of our lives, from the things we pray about, to how we live as a responsible global citizens. Our part in this story is a kind-of vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as your brothers and sisters and is something that we all share.
The nine principles of Catholic Social teaching are:
Human Dignity Common Good Participation
Subsidarity Stewardship Option for the Poor
Solidarity Distributive Justice Promotion of Peace
Building the Kingdom
Here at St Thomas Aquinas, we are very proud to be a part of the Building the Kingdom programme. The main message of Building the Kingdom is that 'we want pupils in our school to become leaders who transform the world, through independent thinking, creative thinking, pro-activeness, and deep understanding of others, we hope the curriculum that is taught, will make the world a better place'.
Through Building the Kingdom, we explore the big questions of purpose and meaning that arise throughout the Liturgical year, and then create lessons and events which engage students with the skills needed to be agents for a Spirit fuelled transformation of society.
We worked with Sister Judith Russi SSMN to consider approaches that will promote critical and higher order thinking skills across the curriculum. We work alongside other schools in our MAC sharing our ideas, forming a professional network.
Mardi Gras
The whole school has been learning about Mardi Gras celebrations over the world. We thought about how this festival marks the season of Lent and the three Catholic traditions: - Praying, Fasting and Almsgiving. Each class took part in a Collective worship to prepare ourselves for the season of Lent.
Celebrating Our Lady's Birthday
Our initial project was a whole school initiative where we worked on a tribute to Our Mother Mary, celebrating her birthday on September 8th. Each phase looked at Mary from a different perspective, FS & KS1 made birthday cards, wrote prayers and poems about Mary. LKS2 researched and made posters about great women of the past and present. UKS2 researched the situation of women in the UK today. Everyone has learned so much about Our Lady’s unconditional love for God and about her many life challenges. We pray that each day we can become more like Our Mother Mary.
Celebrating the Season of Advent
On the First of December the whole school celebrated the beginning of the season of Advent. We learned about dual meaning of Advent: the countdown to Jesus’ birthday but also the anticipation of his second coming. We talked about how we need to be ready in our hearts and minds for when this day comes and therefore need to spend time this Advent strengthening our relationships with ourselves, each other and God through prayer and kindness. We took part in various activities writing prayers and poems, creating Advent wreaths and calendars. We all had a wonderful day.!
The True Meaning of Christmas
During the Christmas season, we can easily find ourselves lost in the hustle and bustle of life. There is the possibility that the true meaning of Christmas could be missed. As part of our Christmas celebrations, each class learned about different Christmas traditions and practices and how they came to be part of the celebrations we have today. Some of the traditions we learned about were ‘The Candy Cane, The Christmas Tree, St. Nicholas, The Twelve Days of Christmas and the Christmas Pudding’. This was a fabulous morning and we hope that learning about these will become a tradition each Christmas here at St. Thomas Aquinas.
Celebrating the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas
The whole school had a wonderful day celebrating the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. We looked at some quotes from our patron saint and discussed what they mean to us we took part in fun activities, outdoor adventures, awe and wonder reflections. We ended our day by having a Mass in our school hall. It was wonderful to have Fr. Michael come to celebrate Mass with us on this glorious occasion. He helped us reflect on how we, as pupils of St Thomas Aquinas and children of God, can follow in the footsteps of St Thomas Aquinas. Thank you Fr. Michael, we hope you will come and visit us again soon.
St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.
