Welcome to our page on The Catholic Life of the School .

Mrs Dawson is our R.E.,  Chaplaincy , Sacramental , RSE and PSHE Lead in school .

The Catholic Life of the School

Welcome to our page on The Catholic Life of the School . You can also find other information on Religion through our Mission statement, our Sacramental Page , our Gift Chaplaincy Page and the detail on the Religious Education Curriculum can be found on the Curruculum section of the Website along with the PSHE Curriculum which also incorporates RSE .

As a faith school the Catholic nature and ethos permeates all our teaching as we are a school led by God’s message of love . 

At Saint Teresa’s RC Primary School, love is placed at the heart of all we do because “God is love”.

Our school mission is:

“Loving to Learn, Learning to Love”

Saint Teresa of Lisieux centred her whole life around love. Her motto was to “Live in Love”. We are all trying to follow Saint Teresa’s 'Little Way' and want to grow in God’s love.
 

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” (Saint Teresa)

From the moment the children and their families enter Saint Teresa’s we celebrate them becoming a part of the Saint Teresa’s school family.
 

Our Chaplaincy Team welcomes new families by leading us in prayer at our new parents meetings, by giving a welcome card and a packet of sunflower seeds. We believe that we are a nurturing school where love lies at the heart of all we do.  

As our children leave our school they all give their parents a rose. Just as Saint Teresa sent roses down from Heaven, we too will always be part of the St Teresa’s school family. They also receive a crucifix as a sign that God will be always with them and that Jesus will journey with them on their path.

Living the 5 Ws at Saint Teresa's
 

We follow the 5 Ws at Saint Teresa’s School as recommended by the Salford Diocese - Welcome, Word, Welfare, Worship and Witness.

Welcome

Welcome of all is at the heart of our school community. We respect the rights and dignity of every individual as a child of God made in His likeness. We recognise each individual child as a child of God. We want to enable every child and adult to be fulfilled in their roles at school cultivating an attitude of respect for each other among the whole community. We follow Gospel Values such as forgiveness and kindness . We recognise that  the values of love, respect, passion and care are key elements in the life of our school. We all have a responsibility to follow Jesus and help and support each other in our community.

Through our WELCOME we show that we celebrate our uniqueness that we are all welcome in God’s name, as God’s children. Jesus said “Let the little children come to me for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” . We embrace that welcome and work hard to foster Gospel values with all our children . At Saint Teresa’s we are part of a special school family. We embrace our whole school community and offer the hand of friendship. We do our best to include all within our community and we celebrate our diversity. We are a family school who try hard to follow Saint Teresa’s “little way” through kindly words and a welcome that is centred around love ; Love of God, love of one another and love of life itself. We have a secure and stable staff who are very happy in their jobs and love our special school. Staff join St Teresa’s and find that it is a school that many want to stay at as their “forever” school partly because the welcome at the school is so warm. Many supply teachers, students and visitors comment on the warm welcome and support they receive.

Word
 

Through our WORD we celebrate the word of God through our Religious Education Programme. Our curriculum uses the Come and See Scheme for Religious Education and our RSE programme follows a scheme validated by Salford Diocese called “ Life to the Full “ our teaching and learning is inspired by the Word of God. We learn from Scripture about who Jesus was and how he acted. We learn how God wants us to be and how we should follow his message of love. The children are encouraged to reflect on the 'Big Questions' of our faith. We are starting to use the H.E.A.R model to enable us to reflect upon scripture and respond to it. We hear God through “the voice of his word".
 

H - His word- what stands out to you ?

E - Examine – what does it mean to you ?

A -  Apply it- respond to God’s word by applying it in your own lives.

R - Respond in prayer to the scripture.
 

We celebrate the Word of God in many other ways in our school not just through the RE curriculum. We celebrate WORD through our collective worship, through whole school, Key Stage and class assemblies, reflection days, plays, Masses in school and Masses at Saint John’s. We join up with our buddy classes to celebrate God’s word in varying ways such as class liturgies and prayer reflection stations. We also actively follow God’s example through our school motto “Loving to Learn and Learning to love” We think carefully about our school mission statement and what it means to us as a staff and to us as pupils too. Our PSHE teaching celebrates the various milestones in the school year such as Black History Month , Anti- Bullying Week , Science Week , Healthy Lifestyles , Young Voices etc . We aim to develop in our children a “ love of learning and love of life itself “.

Welfare

Our WELFARE we show concern for each other, we try to help each other and those less fortunate than ourselves within and beyond our school community. We ensure our children feel safe, nurtured and loved. We pride ourselves in our care for all- pupils, staff, parents, governors, parishioners and the wider community. We work with a wide variety of outside agencies to support our children. Our wonderful learning mentor supports many children who staff may have concerns or worries about this could be from a child who is very shy, a child with attachment difficulties or a child who has personal circumstances which they need support with such as bereavement, divorce etc. Our SENDCO is highly skilled in supporting SEN programmes in school. We take on board many initiatives to enable our children to succeed in school such as speech and language programmes, lunch time clubs, after school clubs which include Sport, Choir Science clubs and Mini Vinnies .   Training is undertaken regularly in terms of First Aid, Epi Pen Training etc and we actively seek out the support of professionals for children with additional health needs. The welfare and happiness of the children in our care is pivotal in the teaching at St Teresa’s. We are a small school who work hard to nurture the children in our care. We are an open and honest staff who also support each other well in what is an ultimately rewarding job but one which offers challenges too.

Worship

Through our WORSHIP we develop our relationship with God and with each other. We nurture and deepen our love of God. We celebrate through song, through dance, through prayer, through mass, through assemblies, collective worship and through reflections throughout the year. We learn to know and love God and to recognise and respond to the person of Christ in others. Our worship is wide and varied from reflective / quiet prayer areas to the use of engaging music to arouse the children’s emotions and provide moments of epiphany and oneness with God. Through WORSHIP opportunities we reflect on spiritual, moral social and cultural issues. At St Teresa’s we encourage active participation in Liturgy, Collective Worship and personal reflection . At St. Teresa’s our prayer can be traditional prayer of the Church, prayers such as our school prayer, prayers before and after meals, or a more philosophical approach where we ask the BIG questions or reflection on the Word of God. We aim to provide as many worship opportunities for our community as possible throughout the school including small groups, year groups, the whole school, parents and parishioners. We hope that this develops, nurtures and deepens our relationship with God and with each other. Our GIFT Chaplaincy are active leaders of worship in our school and develop varied ways to worship, for example through craft workshops, reflection stations, active participation on the playground eg Ash Wednesday Sorry activity. There are many opportunities for children to reflect in prayer such as prayer boxes, prayer walls, prayer chains and prayer books.

Witness

Through our WITNESS we are all “learning to love” and are all witnesses to Gospel Values of love, respect, forgiveness, justice and peace.

We are all witnesses to God’s word through our deeds and our behaviour. We nurture, support and challenge the children to live out and to give witness to the Gospel values in their everyday experience of school life and by developing their sense of responsibility to play their part in caring activities for good causes in the wider community. We are witnesses to our environment and all God's world by being good stewards of Creation. As a staff we try hard to lead by example in our witness and strive to be good role models for the children in our care.

We believe that at Saint Teresa’s through our mission statement and school prayer we are fostering a love of learning and that we teach our children how to love through the example of Jesus Christ. We believe that “God is love”and therefore our mission statement “Loving to learn, learning to love “ is at the heart of our school. We aim to develop within our school a love of one another, love of learning, love of life itself and most importantly a love of life itself within an atmosphere of care and nuture. Love is at the heart of our school “So many hearts make our school".

Religious Education at Saint Teresa's

At Saint Teresa's we use the 'Come and See' Programme of Religious Education as recommended by the Salford Diocese. The aim of this programme is to explore the religious dimension of questions about life, dignity and purpose within the Catholic Tradition. Links are made with the pupil's own experiences and with universal experience. Links are also made with the experience of other faith traditions. The programme is therefore both 'objective' and 'subjective'.
 

For all children the programme will raise questions and provide materials for reflecting on their own experience. It will help them to explore the beliefs, values and way of life of the Catholic tradition and where appropriate, of other faith traditions

Each term a question is explored about a mystery of life and the Christian belief, which answers it.

Autumn Term Where did I come from? Life - Creation

Spring Term Who am I? Dignity - Incarnation

Summer Term Why am I here? Purpose – Redemption

The question is explored through three areas. A different dimension explored each term.

AREA:- Faith community - The Church

Autumn Term Family - Domestic Church

Spring Term Community - Local Church

Summer Term World - Universal Church

AREA:- The Celebration in ritual - The Sacraments

Autumn Term Belonging - Baptism, Confirmation

Spring Term Relating - Eucharist

Summer Term Inter-relating - Reconciliation

AREA:- Way of Life - Christian living

Autumn Term Loving - Advent, Christmas

Spring Term Giving - Lent, Easter

Summer Term Serving - Pentecost

RELATING THE TOPICS TO THE THEMES

Community of Faith - Church Themes

Celebration of Ritual - Sacramental Themes

Way of Living - Christian Living Themes

The programme follows the liturgical year 

Autumn Domestic Church, Baptism/Confirmation, Advent/ Christmas

Spring Local Church, Eucharist, Lent/Easter

Summer Pentecost, Reconciliation, Universal Church

Study of other Religions 

Judaism 

Islam/Hinduism/Sikhism

Other faiths

Vatican II was a major step forward in openness of attitude and relationships with believers of other faiths. Catholics are called to be committed to respecting people of other faiths and to recognise that God is at work in them. In the multi-faith society of today, RE should introduce children to the background and beliefs of people of other faiths so that prejudice and misunderstanding can be overcome from an early age.

We follow the recommended approach and teaching material for other faiths provided in ‘Come and See’, using other resources to supplement this.

Our Chaplains led our Service using dance , drama and music to convey the message of The Easter Story . A former pupil led us in Lord of the Dance as Jesus .

Marist Centre Visits

Year Three and Year Six visit the Marist centre. The Year Three Children are given the opportunity to reflect upon their Sacramental Journey.  Year Six focus on Transition. The Chaplaincy team also visit the Marist Centre for training.

Robinwood residentials /Training

The Year Six children visit Robinwood each year. 

Gift Chaplaincy training from Cafod

Gift Chaplaincy training in house

Attending Diocesan planning meetings for Gift Chaplaincy Celebrations 

Reflection stations led by Chaplaincy team during Advent and Lent

Chaplaincy led Assemblies throughout the year 

Craft Based Religious activities led by Chaplaincy Team in Summer term.

Crucial Crew Year 6

Mini Vinnies Club after school 

Cycling Proficiency Year 6

Regular Staff Liturgies

Regular RE training for Staff

Outside Agencies 

Cafod and Caritas representatives often visit to lead assemblies in school. Training of Chaplains by the Cafod team. Training of Staff in delivering Mini Vinnies. Working with the diocese on GIFT chaplaincy training and diocescan planning meetings and celebrations.

Charities

We support  many charities throughout the year including CAFOD, St Joseph's Penny, Macmillan, Wood Street Mission, Francis House, Cornerstones and other charities which we as a school may want to focus on eg Alzheimer's.  Classes organise sponsored events during Lent to raise money for Cafod and Caritas . We also hold an Easter egg raffle which goes towards St Joseph's Penny.   Our Race for Life event takes place during Healthy Lifestyles week to raise money for worthwhile cancer charities. Our Chaplaincy team and School Council often come up with ideas to raise money for charities close to their own hearts .   Our Christmas and Summer fairs raise money for our school with the wonderful support of FROSTY ‘s . 

Sacramental Preparation 

Children in Year 3 receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion. Preparation is carried out in class with the class teacher. Meetings are held in the parish centre and parents attend with their children. School supports this process by encouraging participation and reminding families of the dates and times of the meetings. The teachers go through booklets with the children on the day of the meetings  and celebrate mass with Father Anthony and their families.