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Many congratulations to St Joseph’s Specialist Trust, which is the first school in the Diocese to be awarded the Developer Level of the Romero Award. The Award is available at three levels; Participator, Developer and Innovator. Nationally, only 26 schools have achieved the Developer level.

The Oscar Romero Award recognises a school’s commitment to Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Emulating St Oscar Romero, it asks how schools are embodying the key Christian principles that guide us in living out our love of God and neighbour.

The Award provides a framework that encourages Catholic schools to recognise and celebrate what they already do to promote CST, and challenges them to weave CST intrinsically into the culture and ethos of the school – including in strategic planning, curriculum development, and practical choices.

Across all of these strands, validators who visited St Joseph's to assess the school for the Award observed excellent practices, noting for example that:

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"In the Curriculum strand it is clear that RE provides an explicit focus for development and understanding of CST. The overview provides clear links to each principle and this is supplemented by reference to these during prayer time. During the visit it was explained how, for example, the story of the 'Feeding of the Five Thousand' is linked to other subjects such as opportunities for students to make a loaf of bread which in turn includes numeracy activities - counting/weighing as well as creating a collage to show the story which is particularly relevant for non-verbal students."

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In summarising their findings, the validators commented that:

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"The key principles of CST are reflected in all that the school does, from the way the professionals interact with colleagues and their students and indeed to the actions of the students themselves. In particular you are walking in Solidarity with those whose needs are profound. This is faith in action and to be celebrated."

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Source: St Joseph's Specialist Trust