Gospel Virtues

Gospel virtues are at the centre of our ethos and our policies, and run throughout every aspect of our curriculum to encourage our children to be kind, caring, forgiving and respectful.

We are following the new Catholic Pupil Profile, which introduces the children to two new key words every half term. This is being developed across the Diocese and it ensures we all have a shared understanding of the Gospel Virtues.

Each half term, the Headteacher or Deputy Head launches the new words in a special assembly. Classes around the school gather evidence of the children displaying these qualities and place them as leaves on a tree in their classroom.

We look at real life examples of people living out the values in prayer time or child led prayer services. We study scriptural readings or Gospel accounts of when Jesus showed or explained the virtues. Art work on the virtues is also created. It’s the importance of seeing and living these virtues in everyday life, which can incorporated through our Spiritual, Moral, Vocational, Social and Cultural (SMVSC) work in PSHE.

Pupils at St. Gerard’s Catholic Primary School 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.

Schools of Sanctuary

Romans 15:7: Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Christians welcome one another for the glory of God because Christ welcomed us for the glory of God.

At St. Gerard’s Catholic Primary School, we are proud to be a School of Sanctuary. This recognises that in our school we have passionate young people, who are following Catholic School Teaching, and are dedicated to raising awareness of the issues facing people in the asylum system, who want to challenge misconceptions and build social action.

A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for those seeking sanctuary. This could be people whose lives were in danger in their own country, who have troubles at home or are just looking for a space of safety. A School of Sanctuary is a school that helps its students, staff and wider community understand what it means to be seeking sanctuary and to extend a welcome to everyone as equal, valued members of the school community. It is a school that is proud to be a place of safety and inclusion for all.

As a school we have locally built links with St.Chad’s Sanctuary and supported their work. We have also been inspired by the work of Stories of Hope and Home and James Trewby. Our dedication and commitment to being a School of Sanctuary has also been commended by our local MP, Paulette Hamilton. We have also spread our message of welcome nationally when we showed support for people arriving at the migrant centre in Kent. Our work was recognised by the nation media. We continue to be active global citizen’s, finding ways that we can show support for refugees and asylum seekers whilst also following in Jesus’ footsteps.

“I would like to ask you all to see a ray of hope as well in the eyes and hearts of refugees”
Pope Francis