Dear St Joseph,
Help us to love and care,
To be gentle and fair.
Help us to work and play together,
Help us to live and grow together,
To be always glad to help each other,
Happy in your loving care.
Amen

 
DIOCESE OF NORTHAMPTON

Please see below for links to prayers, messages from the Diocese and The Northampton Cathedral Live Streaming Service:

Please click here for a link to Bishop David Oakley (Bishop of Northampton)'s address to schools for the end of the year of St Joseph. 

Please click here for a link to the Live and recorded streaming of Catholic services at The Northampton Cathedral. 

Please click here for the link to The Catholic Diocese of Northampton website for more diocesan information, links to Live streamed Masses and to sign up for the Diocesan e-newsletter.

THE CATHOLIC NATURE OF THE SCHOOL

The Catholic faith is central to our school and permeates all that we do.  We aim to provide all the children with an environment and a programme of Religious Education, which will help the children to become aware of God’s presence in their lives. The environment of the school helps children to develop their relationship with God, to experience Christian community, and to develop their own sense of belonging and community.

Mass is celebrated in school at least once a term by (Fr. John Beirne, Parish Priest for St Joseph’s Church) and sets the seal on the special Catholic atmosphere of the school. In addition, there are many other opportunities for special liturgical celebrations led by the children.

PRAYER TIME AT ST JOSEPH'S

Prayer time at St Joseph’s provide opportunities for spiritual growth and development through participation in a variety of forms of worship and all forms of prayer – formal, informal, spontaneous, private, shared, petitionary and meditative.

We aim to help the children value and respect the power of prayer and to use it to help strengthen the children’s relationship with God.

We want to be a praying community.  It is important for children to know the ‘formal’ prayers of the church which we may all pray together and which we all hear and say with the parish / family communities outside school.

We also value ‘formal’ prayers which have been written especially for children and which hold meaning for them.  With these two aspects in mind, we aim to teach particular prayers to the children.

Children are encouraged to develop their individual prayer life through daily participation in collective worship, grace before meals and afternoon prayer.

Prayer does not only mean ‘formal’ prayers.  We do hope to help each other to listen to God speaking to us and to respond in our hearts and minds during moments or stillness, reflection and silence.

We also encourage prayer writing by the children themselves.

Each class has a prayer area which provides a focus for prayer in the classroom.  Opportunities for prayer arise often from the ‘Come and See’ scheme, but particularly during the ‘Respect’ and ‘Rejoice’ sections. 

At St Joseph’s, the children are taught to know by heart the following prayers:

• The Sign of The Cross

• The Lord’s Prayer

• The Hail Mary

• Grace Before Meals

• Afternoon Prayer

 
During Year 2, children become familiar with and are encouraged to learn:

• Praying of the Rosary

• Responses to the Mass

• The Guardian Angel Prayer
  
  

Please click on the link below to see our handbook for parents "Helping your Child to know God".

Helping your Child to know God

St Joseph Pray for Us