"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."- 1 John 3:18 (ESV)

Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is rooted in Scripture and it guides us how we can live out our faith as followers of Christ in our local, national and global community. As head of the church, 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 recent encyclicals Laudato Si’ (2015) and Fratelli Tutti (2020). Every half term at St Joseph's School we have a CST principle. We begin with Scripture so that our pupils gain a deeper understanding to connect them with our faith. Each class works together to create a project or initiative.

Catholic Social Teaching, (such as dignity in the human person, the option for the poor, standing with those suffering injustices, and caring for creation), calls us to live our faith through our actions. The consequences of the ecological crisis compromise human life, disproportionally effecting the poor and vulnerable, those contributing the least are suffering the most. St  Joseph's School community are passionate about taking action to ensure a world where human dignity and the environment flourish.

"Love and charity, are service, helping others, serving others. There are many people who spend their lives in this way, in the service of others. … When you forget yourself and think of others, this is love! And with the washing of the feet the Lord teaches us to be servants, and above all, servants as He was a servant to us, for every one of us."

Pope Francis - Jubilee audience, March 12, 2016

We were very lucky to have David Brinn from CAFOD in school to deliver an insightful Catholic Social Teaching (CST) parent workshop. He also brought in some wonderful knitted CST characters such as Luc the Dear, Chikonde the Giraffe and Patariki the Penguin. Please see resources from this workshop below:

Catholic Social Teaching

in Action

St. Rita Orphanage Cake Sale

A big thank you to all the parents/carers who donated and bought some of the delicious cakes at our cake sale for St. Rita Orphanage. It was a fabulous way to end the half term!

CST in Action - Autumn 2

Operation Christmas Child - Shoebox Appeal

The children of St. Joseph's have put their faith in to action by participating in the Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child, Shoebox Appeal. The Mini Vinnies have done an excellent job at leading this whole school project. They made posters for the appeal and packed all the generous donations we received. This was a wonderful way for everyone to put our Catholic Social Teaching Principles into action! We were able to donate a staggering 101 boxes towards this wonderful appeal! Thank you for all your kind donations!

A huge thank you for all the donations towards our Macmillan Coffee Morning! It was such a successful event and we raised £298.36 for the charity! This is an outstanding amount! Thank you so much for your continued support. An extra thank you to the Pastoral Parent Group who came to help us. 

We held a Playground Challenge to raise money for Mary's Meals. This playground challenge was led by our wonderful Mini Vinnies who led the children through a fun and exciting obstacle course in our school playground. Thank you for all your generous donations and continued support so far we have raised £194!

Our help will make a tremendous difference to the lives of children across the globe. For more information about Mary’s Meals, please www.marysmeals.org

“Let all your things be done with charity.” 1 Corinthians 16:14

The children of St. Joseph’s have been working very hard at lunch times to reach their 200km Walk for Lent target. Each class walks around our school field twice each day! 

Cake Sale for St. Rita Orphanage, Philippines

A big thank you to all the parents/carers who donated and bought some of the delicious cakes at our Cake Sale for St. Rita Orphanage. It was an incredible turn out! Well done to the St. Joseph's Mini Vinnies who led the cake sale so well. We raised an incredible £252 for the orphanage!

St. Rita Orphanage

St. Rita Orphanage – Home for Children in Sucat Parañaque, Philippines provides residential care to abandoned, neglected and indigent children. They provide opportunities for total human development: physical, emotional, mental, intellectual, educational, economic, cultural, religious and spiritual.

At St. Joseph’s, we understand the importance of education. That is why we will be focusing our fundraising efforts this half term towards raising money for school tuition fees for some of the children at St. Rita Orphanage who wish to be educated in mainstream school.

Our RE lead has had strong links with St. Rita Orphanage for over 20 years, therefore this charity is very close to our hearts. The children of St. Joseph's look forward to this partnership. 

Mini Vinnie Crochet Project

Some members of the Mini Vinnies have been excellent ambassadors of how we can show support to those most needy. They have been crocheting booties, jumpers and stuffed toys for premature babies at Queen's Hospital, Romford. What a wonderful way to live a life in the image of Christ!

Operation Christmas Child, Shoebox Appeal

The children of St. Joseph's have put their faith in to action by participating in the Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child, Shoebox Appeal. The Mini Vinnies have done an excellent job at leading this whole school project. They made posters for the appeal and packed all the generous donations we received. This was a wonderful way for everyone to put our Catholic Social Teaching Principles into action!

"One Million Children Praying the Rosary"

Today, St. Joseph’s along with many other schools across the globe, took part in a very important worldwide prayer initiative called ‘One Million Children, Praying the Rosary’. It was organised by the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN International). The main aim of the initiative is to show that the trusting prayer of children can fly straight to the heart of God and therefore has such great power. It was wonderful to see the children of St. Joseph's meditating upon the mysteries of the Holy Rosary with such reverence.

Harvest Festival

The children at S. Joseph's have worked really hard to collect as many non-perishable food items for Barking Foodbank as part of our Harvest Festival celebrations. 

Macmillan Coffee Morning

A huge thank you to all of the donations and families who came to join us for Macmillan coffee morning. We raised over £400 for the charity, an outstanding amount. Thank you so much for your continued support. An extra thank you to all of the parents who came to help us. 

Catholic Citizenship Awards

Well done to John Ekale in Year 6 who was invited to Brentwood Cathedral to be part of the Catholic Citizenship awards. John was presented his award by Bishop Alan. John received his award for: 

'Being an outstanding role model both in and out of school. He shows great maturity, especially in regards to his younger sibling and with younger children around the school. He has an extremely caring nature. He can often be found reading with and taking care of the younger children in the school in his own free time. He demonstrates great care towards his younger sibling throughout the day, he always walks her into school and ensures she gets to her classroom safely. John is a credit to our school and our community, he is incredibly kind, caring and is selfless in his help and support towards those around him. Well done John, we are so proud of you'.

Queen's Platinum Jubilee 

In Solidarity with the rest of the country, St. Joseph's had a wonderful afternoon tea celebration outdoors for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We sang the national anthem and waved our flags as we celebrated the Queen's incredible milestone.

Chestnut Court Care Home

Thank you to all the parents/carers for your beautiful flower offerings to Mary at our May Procession on Wednesday. All the flowers were donated to Chestnut Court Care Home in Dagenham on Thursday. They wanted to extend their gratitude for all the beautiful flower offerings to the parents and children of St. Joseph's!

May Procession

The month of May is dedicated to Our Blessed Lady, Mary our Mother. During this month, Christians both in church and at home, offer up to Mary from their hearts an especially fervent and loving homage of prayer and veneration.

Today, the children, staff and parents of St. Joseph's honoured Mary our Mother during out whole school May Procession. Our Pupil Chaplains read prayers that they had written about Mary to the whole school and a crown of flowers were placed on Mary's head. During the procession, each child in the school was able to lay a flower at Mary's feet with a prayer intention attached as a way of honouring Mary. 

Laudato Si' Week

Laudato Si’ Week at St. Joseph’s has been a truly special event. This week, the children have been learning about Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’. The children have been thinking about the message Pope Francis has sent out to everyone on earth of caring for our common home. The children have been talking about the small steps they can take to play their part in caring for our planet. They have covered topics such as recycling and waste (EYFS), sustainable farming and fair trade (Year 2, 3, 4) and our responsibility towards the poor and future generations (Year 5 and 6).

Planting for our Common Home

To mark the end of Laudato Si’ week, each class planted their own plant or tree as a symbol of our pledge to care for our common home.

Easter Bunny Run

The Easter Bunny Run was a huge success! All the children from Reception - Year 6 worked hard to run several laps of our school field.  As a school, we raised a fantastic £810 for Aid to the Church in Need Foundation! Thank you parents and carers for all your generous donations and well done to all the children for running so well!

Thank you cards for members of our local community

The children of St. Joseph's made Thank You cards for the silent heroes of our local community. Like our school Saint St. Joseph, these people serve and care for our local community. 

Thursday 17th March 2022

The Mini Vinnies and the Pupil Voice representatives have made a tremendous effort to ensure our school can help those affected by the war in Ukraine. Together, they organised a fundraiser that allowed children to come to school in their own clothes and bring in a donation. They also sought out establishments that are collecting donations for those affected. As a result, our school community has raised an amazing £517.85 for our Ukraine appeal today! The money raised will go directly to those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. We have also had so many generous donations for the Thames Road Collection Point. They will be delivering these essential items to Poland to support families that have left Ukraine. Thank you for giving so generously!

Laudato Si' Pledge in action

One of our Laudato Si' school pledges is to cut down on the use of single use plastic in our school community.   The Mini Vinnies have managed to make a positive change in our school by buying re-usable plastic cups for lunch time to ensure we do not throw away plastic unnecessarily. They are making positive changes in our school! Well done Mini Vinnies!

Chestnut Court Care Home

The children of St. Joseph's made beautiful Christmas cards for the residents of Chestnut Court Care Home. 

Nativity Shoebox Project

Children across the school participated in the whole school Nativity Shoebox Project. Children created their own beautiful versions of the Christmas story using recyclable materials.