Education In Faith
At St Peter’s School, parents are the prime faith educators and our Holy Trinity Parish Sacramental Program is Parent Initiated, Parish Based and School Supported. Children in Year 3 receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation; children in Year 4 receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist while Year 6 children receive the Sacrament of Confirmation from the Archbishop at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Children are introduced to our Catholic tradition through daily prayer, Bible stories that are retold in simple language, Liturgies as well as participation within special masses. The children are able to retell stories about Jesus and why these stories relate to their lives today.
Our Catholic teachings impact on the way our students live out their daily lives showing care, respect and uniqueness for each other in the classroom and in the playground.
When rich and powerful learning experiences are provided students take responsibility for themselves as they engage in authentic and just action for the common good of all, with consideration for the most vulnerable. At St Peter’s we seek to create a Spirit filled community of students, parents and staff as all of us engage in a life long journey of faith development depending on our individual narrative. Our curriculum links drawn from Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament), and Christian Scripture (New Testament), assist our students to make links and contextualise this information for life in today's world. As Catholic Primary teachers we continually work at further developing a sound understanding of Hebrew and Christian scripture links that further enhance our Catholic tradition. The origin of Catholic Social Teaching principles together with Religious Education becomes a meaningful springboard for many other subject areas where Religious Education sits at the core.
As this method of teaching is inductive, it works well with our contemporary inquiry process. Engaging students within the Religious Education Curriculum requires to also acknowledge the many distractions confronting students. As technology plays a major part in the lives of young people today it is important to use relevant, provocative and engaging resources when planning our curriculum units.
Students are invited to work within a group, with a partner during sharing sessions. This is especially important during Religious Education sessions as there needs to be time to share experiences of the topic/subject, then to listen to others' experiences and make sense of what one hears.
St Peter’s Primary School has “Our Sacred Spaces”. It involves the practice of Christian Meditation as a form of prayer and as a means of enhancing a sense of community connectedness and improving social and emotional wellbeing for all.
Each morning at the beginning of the school day, between 8.50am and 8.55am the school community takes part in Christian Meditation. This practice promotes a sense of calm, silence and reverence.
The time spent meditating depends on the age of the students. Prep students currently meditate for two minutes and Year 6 students for up to five minutes. The time is then extended as the students become more experienced. The main features of “Our Sacred Space” are silence, stillness, simplicity, focus on natural breathing, upright comfortable posture, eyes closed or slightly open, and importantly, praying with a silent mantra, “Maranatha” which means “Come Lord, Jesus”.