Faith in Action

Virtues and Values

Pupils at St. Joseph's 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, becoming men and women for others.
Attentive to their experience and to their vocation; and discerning about the choices they make and the effects of those choices.
Compassionate towards others, near and far, especially the less fortunate; and loving by their just actions and forgiving words.
Faith-filled in their beliefs and hopeful for the future.
Eloquent and truthful in what they say of themselves, the relations between people, and the world.
Learned, finding God in all things; and wise in the ways they use their learning for the common good.
Curious about everything; and active in their engagement with the world, changing what they can for the better.
Intentional in the way they live and use the resources of the earth, guided by conscience; and prophetic in the example they set to others.

Gospel Values

The values which guide and inspire us in our Christian lives are those given to us in the Gospels. They are our Gospel values.

The core Gospel values based on the Beatitudes may be summarized as follows:

• "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven"
  Values: Faithfulness and Integrity
• "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"
  Values: Dignity and Compassion
• "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"
  Values: Humility and Gentleness
• "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied"
  Values: Truth and Justice
• "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy"
  Values: Forgiveness and Mercy
• "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God"
  Values: Purity and Holiness
• "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God"
  Values: Tolerance and Peace
• "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in heaven; they persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way"
  Values: Service and Sacrifice

Gospel values "...are a guarantee of peace and of collaboration among all citizens in the shared commitment to serving the common good".

British Values

British values have evolved from these and have been most recently defined by Ofsted under four headings:

• Democracy
• The Rule of law
• Individual Liberty
• Mutual Respect and Tolerance of Those With Different Faiths and Beliefs.

Serving Our Parish and School Community

We serve our parish and local community in many ways, sharing God's message of love with others whenever we can. Some ways in which we do this are:

• Holding special, reflective services and liturgies in our church for our school and parish communities, especially during Advent and Holy Week.
• We organise regular school-parish Masses throughout the year where children from our school lead the Mass for the parish.
• Class assemblies are held on Fridays every two weeks and all members of our community are invited and encouraged to attend. These always have an RE focus.
• Shared preparation in school and in the parish for the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Confirmation. We also hold regular parent meetings to ensure that families are fully involved in preparations.
• Parishioners are invited to attend our Christmas Carol Service at Ss. Peter and Paul's Church.
• We support a local event for elderly and housebound parishioners 'Holiday at Home'.
• Parishioners are invited to attend other collective worship services held in the school hall.

We also send a copy of the 'Ten Ten' resources monthly family newsletter to every family in our school community. This creates a new opportunity for the Word to be present in the homes of families connected to our school. 

Charities

We support lots of charities throughout the year and staff, children and their families are always extremely generous in their support of others.

Money is raised through fund raising events, fairs and charitable donations from the school community. In recent years we have made donations to Cafod, St. Vincent de Paul (SVP), Mission Together, Father Hudson's, The Poppy Appeal, Samaritan's Purse, Save the Children

We also support the local Pathways Project charity and Local Foodbank by collecting and donating food during Harvest time.