St Benedict's
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
A prayer by St Benedict:
Gracious and Holy Father,
give us the wisdom to discover You,
the intelligence to understand You,
the diligence to seek after You,
the patience to wait for You,
eyes to behold You,
a heart to meditate upon You,
and a life to proclaim You,
through the power of the Spirit of Jesus, our Lord.
Amen.
INSPECTION REPORT
Our last Section 48 inspection (Nov 2015) graded our school outstanding in all areas. We were delighted with this outcome and thank Father Bart, governors, all staff and children in their efforts to achieve this.
Since then our focus has been in the following two areas:
- Continue to build on the current good practice in developing the role of pupils in promoting and developing the Catholic life of the school.
- Continue to develop the use of meditation to enhance pupils’ spiritual development.
For the full report please go to the home page ‘Our School’ and select Ofsted and RE reports.
PRAYER LIFE
St Benedict’s welcome you to join us every day for morning prayer at 8.35am in the quiet area.
Each class has an assembly weekly in addition to assemblies around Liturgical or world events.
Key Stage 2 also take part in termly reconciliation.
SCHOOL CHAPLAINS AND MINI VINNIES
In developing the role of pupils in promoting and developing the Catholic life of the school we have formed a chaplaincy group who meet regularly and plan events. For more information, see the Pupil Chaplaincy area of our website.
RE LESSONS
The majority of RE teaching across the school is led by ‘The Way The Truth and The Life’ schemes of work. Although this is enhanced through drama, dance, art, forest school and current world events. All major world religions are taught across key stage 2 and through assemblies to the whole school.
Synagogue Visit
Year 3 spent a fantastic morning at the Synagogue in Rochester. The children had a tour of the synagogue and learnt about the history of the building and the special features inside the synagogue. In the teaching room they interacted with the artefacts, browsed the Torah and sacred scrolls – written in Hebrew and dressed up in traditional clothing. At the end of our session, we shared Jewish special bread and listened to some Jewish prayers spoken in Hebrew. The lady said that our children were ‘delightful’ and had ‘behaved impeccably’. Such great feedback for our children.
Gurdwara Temple Visit
Children in Year 4 enjoyed a very informative visit to Medway Gurdwara. The children were very respectful and learnt all about Sikh beliefs and values, as well as exploring the features of a Gurdwara. We then enjoyed refreshments in the Langar Hall, whilst having a question-and-answer session with members of the Sikh community.
St. Simon Stock Church Visit
Years 1 and 2 had a great morning at our parish church, St. Simon Stock. Fr. Pawel explained all the key features of the church: the bell to signal the start of Mass, how the altar had been anointed as well as parts of the church walls, the paintings and statues. Fr. opened the tabernacle so we could see the Blessed Sacrament, he showed us his vestments and how he puts them on and we got to peer inside the confessional box as we left. The children were wonderful and they had so many questions! Whilst we were there, we said a prayer for you – our school family.
R.E. in Forest School
Year R, St. Joseph’s, have been finding and making gifts for baby Jesus in Forest School to celebrate Epiphany. They made rattles, toy planes and cooked food. Some found precious treasures, seeds to plant and even pets to look after.
Year 1, St. Michael’s, showed great resilience when testing if their Noah’s Ark rafts would float and be able to carry two animals safely when launched into water. They persevered and changed their designs until the challenge was achieved.
The Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 08176019 at registered address: Barham Court, Teston, Maidstone, Kent, ME18 5BZ