St. Aidan’s Catholic Primary School wholly believes that Religious Education is the foundation of all our teaching and the entire educational process. The Christian Catholic beliefs and values inspire and unify every aspect of our school life. The Gospel values underpin everything we do here and effectively, are the basis and spiritual influence on our school curriculum.

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Our Religious Education curriculum, whilst aligned to the Religious Education Curriculum Directory, is organised so that units of learning are delivered through specific liturgical themes. The school follows the Come and See Catholic Primary Education Programme from Nursery to Year 4.

What the school does well

• St Aidan’s is a very warm and welcoming school where everyone shares the clear vision promoted by the school leaders. The mission and ethos of Catholic education is at the heart of this community.

• The quality of Religious Education is good because pupils enjoy their Religious Education lessons, can explain their value and are keen to do well, leading to good progress in most lessons. Behaviour is exemplary.

• The Catholic Life of the school is outstanding because the wellbeing of all pupils alongside their spiritual and personal development underpins all that the school does. Pupils are actively involved in a range of activities which support their community and beyond, contributing significantly to their moral, social and emotional development.

• The quality of Collective Worship is outstanding. It is central to the life of the school. Pupils, guided by skilled staff, demonstrate the skills necessary to deliver high quality acts of worship.

'In the Love and Truth of Jesus We Grow'

At St Aidan's our faith and belief in Christ is at the centre of everything we do. We promote our school values by our words and deeds, and Catholic doctrine and practice therefore permeates every aspect of the school's activity. We challenge ourselves to live by gospel values and ensure that we serve one another. We provide a Catholic curriculum, which is broad and balanced, recognising that every pupil is unique and is created in the image of God (Gen 1:27).

Throughout the year we support a range of charities and organisations who on our behalf can offer help and support to those in need, particularly during Advent and Lenten fundraising activities. We support the following organisations:

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• Wansbeck Valley Food Bank

• Children In Need

• Salvation Army

• BHF

• Operation Christmas Child

• CAFOD

• Youth Ministry Team

• LEPRA

• Mary's Meals

• Macmillan Cancer Support - Biggest Coffee Morning

We are incredibly grateful and humbled by the generous support of our families throughout the year.

Prayer of Saint Aidan

Prayer of Saint Aidan - Patron of our School

Leave me alone with God as much as may be.
As the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore,
Make me an island, set apart,
alone with you, God, holy to you.

Then with the turning of the tide
prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world beyond,
the world that rushes in on me
till the waters come again and fold me back to you

In schools with a designated religious character, like Catholic schools, collective worship is far more than a statutory requirement. It is crucial to the spiritual life of the school and to pupils’ moral and spiritual development. Collective worship is an important part of St Aidan's distinctive ethos.

Taking part in daily collective worship helps build community cohesion by creating a consistent structure around the core values and symbols of Christianity. At St Aidan's, pupil participation and engagement in worship are important criteria in the diocesan inspection of Catholic education, not least during the daily act of collective worship. From Reception to Year 6, pupils are invited to play an active part in collective worship.

Throughout the year, our community come together to celebrate important events in the Church’s calendar, such as Lent and Advent, as well as the start and end of the academic year. Through regular prayer and worship, including Mass, the rhythm of the Church’s year becomes a normal part of school life and each pupil’s life.

At St Aidan's, we come together for a whole school Collective Worship on a Monday, which normally focusses on the Sunday Gospel reading from the day before, or an important liturgical event or feast day that enables our pupils to reflect on the Catholic faith.

For the remainder of the week, we use Ten:Ten's daily prayers to support our classroom worship as well as developing adult-led and pupil-led collective worship sessions across the school. This resource also helps us to reflect in our weekly celebration assembly on a Friday.

We have strong relationships with the parishioners of St. Aidan’s Church. We invite members of our parish to events throughout the year. Masses are celebrated in school every month and parishioners and family members are invited to celebrate with us. Each class has their own Mass. Key Stage two pupils attend Church Masses throughout the year.

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Children have time to visit St Aidan's Church to learn about what happens there and the roles within it.

Our School Council are elected democratically each year and have two representatives per year group from Reception up to Year 6. Our School Council are lead by the Year 6 Representatives who are Head Boy and Head Girl. They work to improve the school for their peers and make it a better place.

Our new School Council were elected in the first week of September.

For the academic year 25-26, their aims are as follows:

• Be good role models for everyone in our school in what we say and do, living out our school values

• Respect everyone's opinions and listen to everyone's ideas

• To be tolerant of everyone who is in our school or visiting

• To make our school environment more enjoyable and improve the conditions

• To ensure all children feel happy and safe in school

St. Aidan’s Mini Vinnies are part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society England and Wales, a voluntary organisation dedicated to tackling poverty in all its forms.

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Our representatives from Year 6 meet to pray, discuss and support how we can to help make a difference in our local community.

In school we turn concern into action as we use the Mini Vinnie formula of ‘see, think, do’ to find people in need and help them.

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In 2022 – 2024 we have:

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• fundraised for CAFOD Brighten Up Appeal

• collected items for the Apostleship of the Sea

• ‘Happy for a hundred’ fundraising for the Salvation Army and BHF

• Raised funds for Cancer Research

• Held parish Christmas dinner

• Collected for local food bank

Sacramental Preparation

The preparation of our children to enable them to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion is an important time in the life of St. Aidan’s Catholic Primary School and St. Aidan’s Parish. It presents a special opportunity for developing their relationship with God, each other and society. The sacramental preparation is led by catechists in St. Aidan’s Parish.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

This is the Sacrament of forgiveness, of God’s loving mercy and of conversion. As with the other sacraments it was instituted by Jesus Christ himself. It was on Easter Sunday when Christ first appeared to the Apostles after his Resurrection. Breathing on them, he said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained”. After a period of preparation, our children receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation during Autumn term.

Sacrament of First Holy Communion

During First Holy Communion children receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time. The Holy Eucharist refers to Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity truly present in the consecrated host and wine (now called the Body and Blood of Christ). For Catholics, there is nothing greater than to receive Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist at Mass.

Catholic social teaching (CST) is rooted in Scripture, formed by the wisdom of Church leaders, and influenced by grassroots movements. It is our moral compass, guiding us on how to live out our faith in the world.

Jesus’ instruction to "love your neighbour as yourself" (Mark 12:31) is at the heart of how Catholics believe they should participate in their community and the wider world.

Our faith calls us to love God and to love our neighbours in every situation, especially our sisters and brothers living in poverty. Following in the footsteps of Christ, we hope to make present in our unjust and broken world, the justice, love and peace of God.

Modern Catholic Social Teaching is said to have originated in 1891 with the encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum. Since then, a wealth of teaching continues to give new life to the Scriptures and shape the Church’s response to our modern world. Pope Francis’ continued to add to Catholic Social Teaching with his own encyclicals including Laudato Si’ (2015) and Fratelli Tutti (2020)

Catholic social teaching is used in many subjects, history, geography and English, it is not taught just in RE.  Many of our assemblies feature Catholic Social Teaching, we discuss world events and how our faith challenges us to respond in a particular way.

We teach our children to be thoughtful about and challenging of the world's organisations and communities, we must work together to build a better world for the future.

Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching is based on the belief that God has a plan for creation, a plan to build his kingdom of peace, love and justice.

It holds that God has a special plan for every single one of us, whoever we are. Our part in this plan isn’t just limited to things ‘spiritual’, or times when we do “religious things.” It involves every aspect of our lives, from the things we pray about, to how we live as a responsible global citizen.

Our part in this story is a kind-of vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as our brothers and sisters.  It is something that we all share.

The Catholic Church has seven principles of social teaching that we share with our children through all that we do, through the curriculum, special events and activity and through our ordinary actions in school.

At St Aidan's, Catholic Social Teaching is incorporated into our curriculum. Children are asked to put their faith into action and reflect on how their learning enables them to do so. Each collective worship refers to Catholic Social Teaching which helps make the worship relevant to our lives today.

Catholic Social Teaching underpins the essence of our daily school life. As members of the Catholic Church, we are all called upon to preserve the dignity of all human beings, to care for creation, and to reach out to our sisters and brothers in need. Pope Francis emphasised that it is our duty to work together to bring about a more just and peaceful world: to put love into action. It is vital that our children can articulate the connection between Jesus' teaching and doing good deeds.