St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

“As a Catholic family we welcome all and value Christ in everyone, whilst seeking the highest possible achievements.”

With our loving St. Joseph and St Teresa of Calcutta and Christ as their role models, the children of St Joseph's:

Welcome, Care and Work Hard.

'You are greater than you know.'

Mother Teresa

 Our vision is central to everything that we do. It inspires our curriculum design, is the basis for policy decisions and underpins our whole school culture and ethos; something which we are extremely proud of. As the children develop and mature they are encouraged to put their faith into practice in their own lives, through their interactions with others and kindness and generosity to those less fortunate, both within our local community and further afield.

Below are some examples of our Catholic life and mission, how the children at St Joseph's put their FAITH INTO ACTION

Please see below our RE inspection report from the Catholic Schools Inspectorate which took place on 17^th and 18^th May 2023. This is the new national framework for all Catholic schools in England and Wales.

The school has been judged to be outstanding in all areas: Catholic life and mission, Religious education and Collective worship. We were the first school to be judged outstanding in the Diocese of Portsmouth under the new Catholic Schools Inspectorate.

Inspectors commented:

“From the moment you enter St Joseph’s a welcoming and inclusive Catholic culture is evident. The school’s vision statement, ‘As a Catholic family we welcome all and value Christ in everyone, whilst seeking the highest possible achievements’, lies at the heart of the school community and is known, lived and experienced by all. Pupils are joyful ambassadors for their school; they have a clear understanding of the school’s vision and they work hard to maintain excellent relationships with each other and with adults.”

Thank you to all staff for their commitment to our school’s vision and the religious education of the children of St Joseph’s. Particular thanks must go to Mrs Biggs, Mrs Geen (our RE co-ordinators) and Mrs McLaren (our RE governor) who lead the subject exceptionally well, keeping Christ at the heart of all we do. Thank you also to our parents for their support and help.

Our children are amazing and truly live out our vision- they welcome, care and work hard.

“Pupils demonstrate a deep sense of belonging to this welcoming, inclusive community. They are engaged and passionate about all aspects of school life.”

Catholic School Inspectorate Report 2023

Catholic Social Teaching is very important to the staff, children and governors of St Joseph's. At the core of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) are a number of key concepts and principles. At St Joseph's CST is embedded in our curriculum and beyond. Please see below.

• Human Dignity
• Community and Participation
• Rights and Responsibility
• Help the Poor and Vulnerable
• Dignitiy and Rights for Workers
• Solidarity
• Stewardship

Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador in El Salvador.  He spent his life as ‘the voice of the voiceless’ working for the poor and forgotten and continually encouraged people to ‘aspire not to have more, but to be more.’  On the 24th March 1980, he was assassinated for continually speaking out for the poor.

 The Romero Award is a charitable award to help Catholic schools and colleges put Catholic Social Teaching in to action.

It recognises, celebrates and encourages schools to:

• Live out the message of Jesus
• Care for our neighbours
• Make the world a fairer place
• Tell people about how and why we should care for others
• Raise money to help those in need
• Make a real difference to the world we live in

St Joseph’s is proud to say that we have achieved the first level of the award. We are currently working on the Developer level with our Eco Committee steering this.

The School Committee and the ECO Committee get together to see how they fulfil the Catholic Social Teachings.  They are always looking for ways to do more for others and God's Creation.  As  a school, we are thankful for all their hard work. 

Eden, Hector, Amelia, James, Ava-Mary, Miguel, Nympha, Oscar, Isabel and Zachary would like to say a massive THANK YOU to all of the generous donations received during our Make a Wish coffee morning last week.  We raised an incredible £170! A special thanks goes to Mrs Rocco for her delicious lemon drizzle cake and Mrs Webber for her scrumptious shortbread. Mrs Morten would also like to say a huge thank you to the committee, they were absolutely fantastic!

CAFOD Lenten Family Fast Day     

On CAFOD’s Family Fast Day, we were tasked with instead of bringing in a snack for break or lunchtime, to ‘give it up’ for the day and donated the cost of our snack to CAFOD. Every penny donated was to help our brothers and sisters around the world.  Thank you for your continued support.

CAFOD - ‘Walk A Mile Against Hunger’

Everyone at St Joseph’s, ‘Walked A Mile Against Hunger’ in solidarity with the 200 million children whose lives are at risk because of malnutrition. 

The children dressed up or down, whatever they wished.  Some wore Superhero costumes, some wore pyjamas and dance outfits. They were lots of bright clothes, wigs, painted faces and nails. As long as they could walk in it, they could wear it!! They all looked amazing and raised a huge amount for CAFOD.

They walked, skipped, hula-hooped, bean bag balanced around the 3G pitch and dribbled a basketball around the playground, and covered at least 1 mile each.

Well done and thank you all! 

Thank you to our Year 6 parents who donated Easter Eggs for the Kite Family Hub Team.  They were gratefully received.

The School Committee, along with Mrs Morten, hosted a Fairtrade Coffee Morning, raising money for the Fairtrade Foundation.

“I will point to the intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet, that everything is connected and the proposal of a new lifestyle”.
– (Laudato Si’ #16).

Laudato Si’
A renewed commitment to hear the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth

In his encyclical letter, Pope Francis calls the Church, decision-makers and all people of goodwill to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenge. The poorer areas of the world are particularly vulnerable to environmental degradation and their populations bear the brunt of its effects.

Caritas recognises some of the biggest social and environmental problems facing us: widespread pollution, climate change, migration, food insecurity, poverty and inequality and an over-reliance on technological change for solutions.

Catholic Social Teaching instills in us a need to do more for those in the world which we share.  It is for this reason that we now have an Eco Committee here at school. 

Our Eco Committee are committed to doing their bit and in turn educating those around them. Thus far, they have shared their ideas and aspirations for the school, some of which we have already implemented. The council provided us with some food bins, which the children now take in turns in emptying. The committee set up and run 'free fruit and milk Friday's', which is proving popular with our parents. The committee take it in turns to spend time on the infant playground and in infant classes, educating them on the need to recycle. Looking forward, the committee are looking forward to helping the Early Years children plant their bulbs and meeting a member of the Caritas team to discuss how we can further improve our school. 

The school committee met with Zach Herford, the Project Officer at Caritas, to discuss what we are already achieving here at school and how Caritas can support us on what is yet to come.  Watch this space!

Our school family have a clear understanding that we are committed to following the teaching and example of Jesus as expressed in the Gospels, the social teaching of the Church and the school's own charism.  Our children gladly embrace their personal responsibility to care for our common home, pursue the common good and serve those in need.  Together, our school family support CAFOD , Trussel Trust and Jigsaw.

This year, our Year 6 children made cards for 'people alone at Christmas', a charity set up through the Princess Hall.  Councillor Austin met with the children to thank them and to take the cards to those who would appreciate them.