At St. Edward’s, we know that Christ is at the centre of everything we do.
Jesus is our motivation to live out our mission statement: Live, Love, Serve!
We must live a life that is centred on the sacraments.
We must love the Lord our God and our neighbours.
We must serve God and our communities.
All of our actions and decisions are underpinned by our Gospel Values: love, justice, dignity and hope. Whilst we acknowledge that these may be shared by those from all faiths and none, our foundation for these values are found in the Bible and Catholic tradition. Please see our Vision, Ethos and Values page for more detail.
We recognise that it is not simply enough to pray and to go to Mass each week; we must put our faith into action, guided by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. As outlined in Genesis 1:27, because we were all made in the image and likeness of God, each and every one of us is sacred and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Our Charity and Pupil Leadership pages (Mini Vinnies; Pupil Chaplains; Laudato Si; Leaders) outline just some of the ways that we put our faith into action.
Each day, we come together to share in prayer. This can be at a whole school, key stage or class level. We use a variety of means of worship to raise our hearts and minds to God. Please see our Prayer and Liturgy page for more information.
Every child in school belongs to a house with an assigned saint. Our house saints are Sts. Cuthbert, Oswald, Hilda and Bede. These northern saints guide and lead our children through their example.
Throughout the school, religious artefacts and displays help to educate us, focus our prayer and demonstrate our pride in our faith. Beginning with our entrance way, this continues through the corridors and flows into each classroom. Every classroom has their own displays and a prayer focus to aid with both academic and spiritual guidance. We also have a communal Prayer Room at the front of our school which is overseen and hosted by our Pupil Chaplaincy Team. See our Prayer and Liturgy page for more.
RE is at the heart of our curriculum. It is a core subject and, as such, takes 10% of teaching time. As a Catholic school, Catholic Christianity forms the foundation to our learning but we do learn about Other Faiths throughout the year too, using the Come and See programme. Whilst this is a discrete subject, faith and spirituality are embedded throughout the whole curriculum. Our RE curriculum page has additional guidance.
We are acutely aware of our duty to support the Domestic Church, advocating parents as the first educators of their children. Driven by our strong belief that our purpose as a Catholic school is to nurture the ‘whole child’ – that is the body and the soul, from our divine origins to our eternal destinies – we recognise our vocation to work together with parents and the parish in ensuring every child achieves their full potential, utilising all of their gifts given to them from God.
