Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is rooted in Scripture, formed by the wisdom of Church leaders, and influenced by grassroots movements. It is our moral compass, guiding us on how to live out our faith in the world.
Our faith calls us to love God and to love our neighbours in every situation, especially our sisters and brothers living in poverty. Following in the footsteps of Christ, we hope to make present in our unjust and broken world, the justice, love and peace of God.
Modern Catholic Social Teaching is said to have originated in 1891 with the encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum. Since then, a wealth of teaching continues to give new life to the Scriptures and shape the Church’s response to our modern world. Pope Francis’ continues to add to Catholic Social Teaching with his own encyclicals including Laudato Si’ (2015) and Fratelli Tutti (2020)
From these Catholic social teaching documents, at St Leo’s and Southmead, we use CAFOD’s 7 principles and introduce them through child friendly images which enables even the youngest children to understand the concept at their level.
To help us put our call into action of making the world the best possible place it can be, and as God intended it to be when He gave it to mankind as a gift, we often revisit the 7 CAFOD themes of Catholic Social Teaching.
Human Dignity
Anti Bullying Week Monday 13th November 2023
In St Leos and Southmead we follow a Restorative practice Behaviour policy. The children are taught to foster an equitable and positive school culture. Restorative practices focus on strengthening relationships and connections between individuals, both young and adults, in a school community.
World Down Syndrome Day Tuesday 21st March
World Down Syndrome Day 2024 is a worldwide event to raise awareness of Down syndrome. In St Leos and Southmead a day to acknowledge and celebrate the lives and achievements of people with Down syndrome. This day helps the children to learn about stereotypes and educate the children about the condition.
The Common Good
FREE SCHOOL TRIPS TO ALL CHILDREN
No child in our school misses out on a school trip. To help all our families and children flourish we offer FREE SCHOOL TRIPS ALL YEAR !!!! The children go on cultural visits to museums, pantomines, cinema trips, zoos and end of school whole school trip. We do this through lots of fundraising during the year including Enterprise Week were the children plan and make goods to sell to other classes and parents.
Magic Breakfast
No child goes hungry for breakfast in our school.
‘At Magic Breakfast we believe no child should ever be too hungry to learn. We support schools in England and Scotland, and work with local authorities to feed children and help end child morning hunger for good‘
Stewardship
Participation
Big Lent Walk
On Monday 25th March the children took part in the Big Lent Walk to raise money for cafod.- We raised over £1,000 by all working to together to complete over 250 miles in one day !!!
Living Simply at Home
Our Children have become home eco warriors. The children have be taking their learning home to show us how they can save the planet and do their bit with their families.
Solidarity
Pupil Leadership Team
In St Leos the children learn about voting at an early age through Our Pupil Leadership Team. All children are welcome to apply and write about why they should be elected. The children then present themselves and their ideas to their class and the classes then vote who to short list. The children get to wear special ties as part of this group of children who then meet to decided important issues throughout the school.
Promoting Peace
Ukraine
Children continued their generosity by raising funds with own clothes days and food bank collection for Ukraine.
World War II Collective Worship
The children learn about conflict and peace through our curriculum and World Word I and II collective worship. All classes contribute towards a display for school and church.
Flags for Our Families
We recognise our global family in Sl Leos and Southmead and identify them through displaying all our the nationalities flags and cultures we embrace.
Distributive Justice
Preferential treatment of the poor
School Uniform Collections
The families of St Leos and Southmead contribute generously every year to a school uniform bank that the school is part of. All uniforms are donated to the church for families to use again.
All information for parents to access help from winter coats, vouchers, energy bills, to mattress for children is signposted the school dojo for all families to see.
