Catholic Life
Love God, Love One Another
St Aidan’s Catholic School Vision
St Aidan’s School, together with Parents, Governors Parish and the wider school community provides a high quality, broad and balanced education for all children, so that they develop their full uniqueness and potential. We have high expectations for all children in all areas of school life.
The vision at St Aidan’s Catholic School is inspired by the Spirit of Christ, so that we continue to build on our strengths and seek ways in which we enrich every child’s experiences and achievements through our positive and caring ethos, rooted in Gospel Values. We will endeavour to provide the best and most memorable learning experiences to help the children we serve achieve their potential and aspire to ever greater heights: to give them skills to build on and expand their knowledge and understanding of a rapidly changing world; to prepare them for life in modern Britain and the global society beyond: to inspire a lifelong love of learning; to foster in them imagination, independence, confidence and resilience to deal with life in a positive and productive way: to help them grow and learn together in their love of God.
We foster a real family atmosphere which has deep foundations within a strong and caring Christian Community. The Catholic Faith is central to the day-to-day life of our school and to all aspects of the curriculum which regularly features Mass and Collective Worship in all its forms.
The school caters mainly for Baptised Catholic children but we also welcome families of other faiths in our school.
We place great importance upon prayer and living out the gospel values in the spirit of charity as well as RE lessons, attending the celebration of Mass, acts of worship and assemblies.
Our Catholic faith can be witnessed all around us, from the songs and hymns we sing to the colourful displays on our walls celebrating every aspect of school life. At the heart of our faith is our love of God and each other. Our children learn a strong moral code which supports high expectations of them in all areas and provides well rounded citizens of the future. Our work is enhanced through a broad, balanced and enriched curriculum, our very positive attitudes, excellent relationships and high-quality learning and teaching.
The following quote from our Pope Francis on World Youth day 2013 epitomises our ambitions for our children on their life’s journey through faith:
We need saints without cassocks, without veils –
We need saints with jeans and tennis shoes.
We need saints that go to the movies,
that listen to music,
that hang out with their friends.
We need saints that look for time to pray every day
and who know how to be in love with all good things.
We need saints – saints for the 21st century
with a spirituality appropriate to our new time.
We need saints to live in the world, to sanctify the world
and to not be afraid of living in the world by their presence in it.
We need saints that are open sociable normal happy companions.
We need saints that have a commitment to helping the poor and making the needed social change.
We need saints who are in this world
and who know how to enjoy the best of this world
without being callous or mundane.
We need saints.
Pope Francis World Youth day 2013.
Reviewed January 2022