Values & Virtues

Values & Virtues at St Anne’s

Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of Birmingham must ensure that as part of their Catholic teachings from Learning and Growing as the People of God, Values & Virtues are a key focus. These values and virtues show how pupils are growing in their faith as well as how schools help children to grow. Every half term there will be a different focus. It is intended that all of the Catholic schools across the diocese are looking at the same value and virtue which will help strengthen our common bond.

Pupils at St. Anne’s Catholic Primary School are growing to be:

Grateful for their own gifts, for the gift of other people, and for the blessings of each day; and generous with their gifts, becoming men and women for others.

Attentive to their experience and to their vocation; and discerning about the choices they make and the effects of those choices.

Compassionate towards others, near and far, especially the less fortunate; and loving by their just actions and forgiving words.

Faith-filled in their beliefs and hopeful for the future.

Eloquent and truthful in what they say of themselves, the relations between people, and the world.

Learned, finding God in all things; and wise in the ways they use their learning for the common good.

Curious about everything; and active in their engagement with the world, changing what they can for the better.

Intentional in the way they live and use the resources of the earth, guided by conscience; and prophetic in the example they set to others.

Curious & Active

Curious: Exploring God’s creation and asking questions to find out more. Everything around us was created by God. Being curious about these things – from tiny insects to enormous planets, from the languages of the Earth to the patterns made by numbers – brings us closer to God.

Active: Working to make things better where we can. Making the right choices to how to act. As we use our curiosity to explore, we find things that could be better: a friend is unhappy; a neighbour is lonely; there is litter in the playground; the whiteboard needs wiping. Some of these problems we can fix. By being active we take responsibility for these tasks and look after God’s creation.

Share this Prayer with your child

Help me Jesus

Know your ways

Through the night

Through the days

Give me love

To show a friend

You’re always there

You never end

Amen

The parable of 'The Good Samaritan' is an example of someone who was curious and active.  Watch this video to learn about this parable:

Intentional & Prophetic

Intentional: Planning our actions and choosing to live how God wants us to. Every action we make has an impact on other people and the world around us. We think about the choices we make and care for God’s creation.

Prophetic: Spreading the word of God through how we live our lives. As we choose to act intentionally and make good decisions, we encourage others to do the same. We set a good example and try to be role models for others.

Share this Prayer with your child

Dear God,

Thank you for loving us and letting us make our own choices.

Help us to remember that our choices have consequences.

Please help us to make good choices

and make decisions that are helpful to others.

Amen

What are good choices?

How are you going to make good choice?

How are you going to be a role model?

Attentive & Discerning

Attentive: We are attentive when we listen to our calling from God to love and serve one another in all that we do. We are attentive to our experiences and can see where they will take us in our future vocations.

Discerning: We are discerning when we decide to do the right thing in the interest of the needs of others because we know the positive impact that will have on their lives.

Are you listening to God?

What is He calling you to do?

What is your vocation in life?

Why is being attentive so important?

How could you use your gifts to be attentive to others?

Could you be a good listener?

Could you help your friends?

Could you give money to charity?

Share this Prayer for Attentiveness with your child

Lord God,

Give us a spirit of attentiveness to turn our attention

to those who we can help with the gifts and talents you have given us.

Show us how, with your assistance, we can learn to draw them closer to you, day by day, through kind acts of service.

Amen

Faith-filled & Hopeful

Faith-filled: We are faith-filled when we are living life as God inspires us to live it, putting the Gospel into action through our actions and deeds. Faith gives us trust in God and in other people. We have to build on it every day through prayer, being part of the faith community of St Anne's and living out the Gospel values. Fait gives us hope. 

Hopeful: We are hopeful when we are optimistic about the future, we trust ourselves and others, and we don’t give up. Our faith teaches us that God is hope – that Christ walks before us and gives us the courage to follow. Hope makes us unafraid to step into the unknown and face challenges. Hope can deepen or restore our faith.

Perhaps you could be more faith-filled by sharing this prayer with your child at home.

Share this evening prayer with your child

Thank you, God, for a lovely day,

for sun and rain, for work and play.

For all my family and my friends,

and for your love, which never ends.

Amen

Who do you have faith in?

Which prayers do you know by heart?

How can you be faith-filled at home?

What are you hopeful for?

How can we help others have hope for the future?

Compassionate & Loving

Compassionate: We are compassionate when we feel sympathy and concern for other people who are in difficulty, whether they are near to us or far away.

Loving: We are loving when we show our sympathy and concern for other people by our actions and by our words.

A Bible reading about LOVE:

The characteristics of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Love is patient; love is kind;

love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

Share this Prayer for Compassion with your child

(St Teresa of Calcutta)

Lord, open our eyes that we may see you in our brothers and sisters.

Lord, open our ears that we may hear the cries of the hungry,

the cold, the frightened, the oppressed.

Lord, open our hearts that we may love each other as you love us.

Renew in us your spirit.

Lord, free us and make us one.

Amen

How are you going to show that you are loving towards your friends and family?

Why is compassion important?

How can you show compassion to others?

Find out about those who show compassion towards others.

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

In the sixth station of the cross, Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. Veronica was an ordinary
woman, watching with many others as Jesus passed through the city of Jerusalem on that first Good Friday, carrying his cross and making his painful way to the hill where he was to die. Watch the video below and then think.......
 

How did Veronica feel as she watched Jesus pass by?

What prompted her to rush out from her place in the crowd and wipe Jesus’ face?

Do you think she had planned to do this, or was it an impulsive action?
 

In Veronica’s actions we see both compassion and love demonstrated perfectly. She must have felt sorry for Jesus who was weak and suffering so much already, with blood and sweat pouring down his face. She must have felt she needed to do something – anything – to help, no matter how small.

Grateful & Generous

Grateful: We are grateful for the gifts God has given to us, for the gifts of other people and the blessings of each new day. We are thankful for what we have and for the people around us.

Generous: We are generous with our gifts and use them in the service of others. We are generous with our time and give of ourselves to serve others as God wants us to. We are generous with our actions, doing things to help other people and make a difference in the world.

We thank God our Father for His gifts through Creation. We thank God for our God Given talents. 

Share this Prayer of Gratitude with your child

Dear God,

Thank you for the blessings you have bestowed upon me today.

Help me share your generosity and love with those I meet.

Amen

What are you thankful for?

How can you use your God given gifts and talents to help others?

How are you going to be generous towards others?

What are you thankful for?

How can you use your God given gifts and talents to help others?

How are you going to be generous towards others?

Use the links below to find out how you can be generous and help others in our local area:

Learned & Wise

Learned: learning how God wants us to live our lives Whether we are young or old, we should never stop learning about what God wants of us. We learn many new things each day. By reading the Bible, listening to our teachers and listening to our hearts, we learn more of what God wants.
 

Wise: knowing how God wants us to live our lives and putting it into practice. God is always with us and hoping that we will live our lives in the right way, following the teachings of Jesus.

Share this prayer with your child

Help me love, help me care, help me smile, help me share.

Help me give, help me grow, help me laugh, help me know.

Amen

Have you read the Bible?

What story can you remember?

What qualities does God want us to show in our everyday lives?

How can you be kind, loving, respectful and trustworthy? 

How can you be like Jesus?

What have you learned in school?

What have you learned at home?

Eloquent & Truthful

Eloquent: the ability to speak or write fluently, persuasively and appropriately. We are eloquent when we use language to express our ideas or opinions clearly and with conviction. When we choose our words, we should do so carefully so they are kind and compassionate, and don’t hurt others. Eloquence isn’t limited to speaking and writing. We can express ourselves in other ways like music, drama, painting or dance. We should use our creative gifts to say things in a way that is interesting, truthful, memorable and faithful.

Truthful: God wants us to be truthful in all we do. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’, so being honest and truthful means we are following in his footsteps and living life the way God wants us to. Being truthful is being faithful to ourselves and to Jesus. We should stand up for the truth.

Where we hear about this in the Bible?

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Lord, help me to use my words to encourage others and build them up far more than critiquing or criticizing them.

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Proverbs 24:26

Dear God, teach me to speak the truth always. Help me to be honest at all times.