Diocese of Arundel and Brighton
Diocesan Schools
Vision Statement
MISSION IN EDUCATION
What is our Diocese’s MISSION in Catholic education?
Conscious of the Lord’s command to teach all nations, the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton is committed to presenting the Good News to all, in its work of education at all levels.
Catholic schools play an integral part in that mission. They not only teach the Catholic faith to the young, they also model the Church’s deep concern for the whole human, spiritual and educational development of young people, their families and all involved in education.
OUR SCHOOLS
Who are our schools for?
Our schools aim to support committed Catholic parents in the task of offering the best education in the faith to their children. They also aim to support other Catholic parents who are at different stages on their own faith journey in their task of educating their children to the faith. They also welcome children of other Christian families, who seek an explicitly Christian education. They also serve other children whose families seek a religious based education though they are of other faiths or none. At the same time they recognise our commitment to the poor and disadvantaged young who want to come to our schools.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
What are the main distinctive features of a Catholic school in our Diocese?
While we see all education as fundamentally part of a spiritual quest, and in common with every other school we aim for the highest standards of teaching and learning for all our pupils. We try to offer them all the skills that will enable them to make a significant contribution to our society. But above all we EDUCATE TO THE FAITH. We offer them the experience of being educated as part of a living Catholic community. We profess our belief in Jesus Christ, God made Man and in the Church He founded, the sign and bearer of God’s Good News for all. Our schools seek to be signs of His creative inspiration, His forgiving love and His communion with the Father, in our creativity, our shared endeavour to learn from our mistakes and in our shared life of prayer and community.
What is the role and place of the Catholic school in the context of the Church and wider society in our Diocese?
Our Schools enable the Church to reach out to a new generation often unsure what to believe, sometimes from families whose links to the Church are tenuous. We offer a witness to God’s love for the young by educating them to become architects of their own freedom and agents for a better world. We try to build inclusive educating communities where prejudice, bullying and discrimination are overcome by an appeal to a common Faith and the exercise of Charity. We also embrace the brokenness and fragility of our own society and bring into the Church community the cares, concerns and the struggles of our pupils and staff and their families and friends. We strive to nurture their faith and build up their hope by the exercise of an active charity in the complex context in which we live.
In the society in which we live, what are the most significant challenges and opportunities that Catholic schools face?
Catholic schools are both challenged by and challenge the culture in which we live. Where society is fragmented and has no overarching structures of meaning, or truth, Catholic schools are committed to proclaiming the inner consistency of goodness, truth and beauty. We see in our pupils both challenge and opportunity. They challenge us to live out the Gospel values our schools proclaim and they offer our schools the opportunity to re-interpret that Gospel in terms that they can understand. We are challenged by the tension that can develop between the increasing popularity of our schools and the variable levels of involvement and commitment to the local parishes and the consequent questions about finance and the best use of limited resources that can arise.
