Catholic Social Teaching
Catholic Social Teaching
with Cafod
St Thomas’ and Human Dignity
St Thomas’ work with all people, regardless of gender, disability, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, sexual orientation, political or religious belief. We celebrate diversity, and the strength it gives us, as we come together and seek justice for all. Since we believe each person is made in the image and likeness of God and has inherent dignity, we work with those living in poverty to have access to food, water, housing and other basic amenities which many of us can often take for granted.
St Thomas’ and The Common Good
St Thomas’ follows Jesus’ example of ensuring that quieter voices are heard, so that a better world is achieved together and where each and every one of us, including our mother earth, may flourish. Ultimately, no one can truly flourish if another person is hungry, lost or abandoned, nor can humankind flourish while our common home is degraded and exploited for the good of the few.
St Thomas’ and Participation Together,
At St Thomas’ we can confront the problems of our world and seek solutions that are truly effective. We listen to others as they speak for themselves, help them to participate if they need such help and speak-out boldly on their behalf when it is right to do so.
St Thomas’ and Subsidiarity
St Thomas’ believes that local individuals, communities, and local organisations are best placed to
influence changes to global, national and local policies and practices so that they benefit all. We follow Jesus’ example of ensuring that the insights and perspectives of quieter voices are heard, so that a better world is achieved together.
By inviting these groups into school for our Vocations Day we ensure that we can change our communities so that we change our world, one small step at a time.
St Thomas’ and Stewardship
Caring for the earth is integral to our task of tackling the scandal of global poverty, vulnerability, inequality, injustice and exclusion. It is neither optional nor secondary. Following an integral ecology approach, we hear the inseparable cry of the earth and cry of the poor and respond holistically.
St Thomas’ and Solidarity
By coming together in hope as individuals, families, communities, organisations and nations, we can
achieve transformative change for the common good. Together, we can expose the fault lines that drive poverty - vulnerability, inequality, injustice, exclusion -and that harm the environment, opening them to change. When we unite and make a stand for what we believe in, we can achieve remarkable things.
This year we have chosen to support our local charities, by choosing our charity we know who we are raising funds for, we know what each charity does and we (the children) are taking more responsibility for raising funds.
St Thomas’ and Preferential Option for the Poor
We work wherever the need is greatest. We refuse to accept the suffering of our brothers and sisters. No one should be beyond reach of the love and support they need.
We regularly support the foodbank, not just during Lent. Year 3 this year have chosen the foodbank as their charity.
St Thomas’ and Distributive Justice
We believe we are all part of the global food system - which means we have the power to change it.
Changing the food we buy and choosing products from Fairtrade companies is one of the ways we can help tackle poverty.
St Thomas’ and Promoting Peace
We work together as a school to build a peaceful community, we promote peace in everything we do.