Catholic Social Teaching at St Mary’s

Catholic Social Teaching underpins the work of our school and the principles are interwoven within our curriculum and wider school life.

Catholic Social Teaching is rooted in Scripture and it provides us with guidance on how we can live out our faith as followers of Christ in our local, national and global community. The Pope guides us in how we can apply the scripture to our modern day lives and how the Church can respond to the challenges we face in our modern world. Pope Francis shared his own thoughts in his encyclicals ‘Laudato Si’ (2015) and ‘Fratelli Tutti’ (2020). At St Mary’s, we work with CAFOD to develop our knowledge and understanding of how we can best engage in CST. We have also worked closely with Cardinal Newman Secondary School to align our principles.

We have ensured that the Catholic Social Teaching principles link closely to our Mission Statement and continue to develop the links with our school curriculum.

Together with our pupils we have identified how we live out each of these principles at St Mary’s and devised targets for the year on how we can improve.

To support our teaching of Catholic Social Teaching principles we have used the Rooted in Love Programme – a Religious Education resource for primary schools, developed in partnership with the Diocese of Westminster Education Service. It addresses the objectives relating to Catholic Social Teaching from the new Religious Education Directory, including prayer and liturgy ideas relating to the themes as well as suggestions for bringing this work to life in the Catholic life and mission of the school.

Each half-term the children from Early Years to year 6 learn about a different Catholic Social Teaching principle and we have carefully linked these to our Gospel Values.

St Mary's CST Principles, Gospel Values and Westminster Links

The following video is useful to watch to become familiar with the seven principles: