Visiting the relics of St Bernadette

The Catholic Life of our School

 Christ and his teachings are very much at the heart of all that we do at St Bernadette's primary school. Together with parents and parish we seek to develop and nurture the Catholic faith of our children and bring them to a fuller understanding and knowledge of Catholic teaching and tradition. The school is aware of the important role that parents have in developing and nurturing their child's faith. We seek to involve parents in our religious life through invitations to Masses, assemblies and liturgies.

Our newsletters offer opportunities for children to share their learning in classroom and also in the termly Religion newsletter. We recognise that the vital partnership of home, school and parish provides the context for the child's lifelong religious formation.

The Catholic life of our school is rich in opportunities for children to encounter God and to deepen their relationship with Him as a loving, compassionate Father.

Through prayer, both traditional and informal liturgies and Religious Education lessons children receive direct teaching of the faith. It is through the relationships and support for each other that children, staff and parents enjoy within the school community, we enable children to come to know and experience God's love.

Religious symbols can be found throughout the school, often created by the children themselves. Each class has a class prayer space with a liturgical cloth in the appropriate colour and with symbols to match the season. Statues or crucifixes are present in every room in the school, highlighting our underlying belief that everything that we do at our school is founded on our Catholic faith.

The Gospel values at the heart of our Catholic faith ensure that we do everything that we can to further each child's sense of commitment and responsibility to themselves, to others and to the wider world. Our Mini Vinnies group lead and encourage us to support a numerous charities e.g. CAFOD, Cardiff Food Bank and local charities. Children learn about other World Religions and visit places of worship as part of their religious education programme. Our school pupil profile also offers the children opportunities to explore, learn and develop a set of virtues and values enabling them to grow in wholeness as fully rounded individuals in the image of God.

Prayer and Worship are central to the daily life of the daily life of the school. We provide opportunities for children's spiritual growth and development through participation in a variety of forms of worship and through experiencing all forms of prayer: formal, informal, spontaneous, private, shared, petitionary and meditative. Children are encouraged to write prayers and this is a skill that we explicitly teach using our Archdiocesan prayer toolkit. This supports children's understanding of different forms of prayer. In this way we aim to help the children to come to value and respect the power of prayer and its place in their relationship with God.

The Key events of our liturgical year are celebrated in many forms such as whole school Masses, Class Masses, attending Mass with our Parish on Holy Days, Advent Carol Services, Nativity performances, Lent liturgies, Holy Week liturgies, Stations of the Cross, the Rosary and Penitential Services with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Pupils are actively involved in planning and leading worship both in class groups and whole school settings (Class Assemblies.) Shared acts of worship take place in an atmosphere of reflection and stillness, where we encourage each other to listen to God speaking to us and to respond.

All staff, led by the Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and Governing Body are aware that the school's foundations are built on the Catholic faith and beliefs and that it is our shared responsibility to give witness to and teach the Catholic faith to the children in our care. All staff receive regular Training as part of their continuous professional development. Staff pray and work together to support each other in providing the very best Religious Education possible for the children.

St Bernadette's Pupil Profile: Our Values and Virtues

As a Catholic School in the Archdiocese of Cardiff, we have embraced the Catholic Schools’ Pupil Profile, which teaches the children a set of eight pairs of virtues to be internalised and cultivated -enabling them to grow in wholeness as fully rounded individuals in the image of God. These virtues create a vision of a good and virtuous person, deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The pairs of virtues are:

1. Grateful and generous                                                
2. Attentive and discerning
3. Compassionate and loving
4. Faith-filled and hopeful
5. Eloquent and truthful
6. Learned and wise
7. Curious and active
8. Intentional and prophetic

At St Bernadette's, the children 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, now and in the future.

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.

Each half Term we explore ways in which we can develop in our virtues and values.