Catholic Social Teaching 

“Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is the official teaching of the Church on the social order, impacting on all dimensions of society, including the economic and the political. It is an essential part of the Catholic faith.” 

Catholic Parliamentary Office 

Catholic Social Teaching is about the good of the community, it is about the common good. St Augustine described the common good as ‘one which is not diminished by being shared with others’.  

As a Catholic school, Our Lady & St. Joseph’s endeavours to embed Catholic Social Teaching into the everyday life of our school and the pupils and staff, by actively promoting the goodness of Catholic Social Teaching and the values. We do this in a variety of ways throughout our curriculum and the liturgical year. The pupils and staff at St. Joseph’s understand the importance of helping others in our parish and local community and following the teachings of Jesus Christ.  

We fully embrace the Church’s teaching’s on social justice and do everything we can to raise awareness and funds for the needy in society both locally, nationally and globally. We raise money during the important liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent by the children, staff and school community coming together for various events. The school has a long-standing history of raising awareness and money for CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) and Catholic Children’s Society.  

At Our Lady & St. Joseph’s, we use CAFOD’s mascots to introduce our pupils to the 9 principles of Catholic Social Teaching. These mascots, which are displayed around the school, are memorable and engaging, and aim to provide a visual connection with the principle.