Why choose a Catholic education for your child?
The Department of Education will be conducting a survey of parents in Ireland in 2024/2025 regarding school patronage choice. We believe that a Catholic education has the following attributes to offer your child:
Catholic Christian values of respect, generosity, hard work, compassion, honesty, love of God and neighbour, treating others as you would like to be treated etc. are fostered in Catholic schools because we are trying to follow Christ who embodied all these values and invites us to do the same.
A Catholic education provides a holistic education for the whole child – not only providing for children’s intellectual, physical, emotional and social needs but also their spiritual needs and moral formation. It’s an education of mind and heart.
Children learn the fundamentals of their Catholic faith (prayers, songs, stories about Jesus, Catholic beliefs etc). Catholic education links faith and life together to help create a living faith.
Children make the Sacraments with their classmates, it’s a focal point for a family, school and parish celebration. The child experiences a sense of belonging to the local community, a large community of believers which encourages and supports them in their personal faith journey. Making their First Communion with their class reinforces the importance of the Sacrament and the sense of belonging for these pupils. Sacramental preparation is done during school time.
Participating in school Masses, assemblies and Sacraments provides a connection with the local community of faith, rooting the children in the local parish life and community.
Catholic beliefs help to provide meaning to this life and hope is fostered in the understanding of everlasting life beyond death.
A Catholic education provides children with the opportunity to see Jesus as their friend who is always with them and who helps them throughout their life.
Religious practice which Catholic education helps to foster, is proven to improve health outcomes.
Meditation and prayer help improve children's wellbeing and reduces stress.
Understanding Catholic beliefs helps your child develop an awareness of their cultural and religious heritage that dates back centuries, it gives them the context for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, St. Brigid’s Day, Christmas, Easter, novenas, ‘lighting a candle’ etc. It also provides an understanding of the faith and belief system of older generations in our children’s lives.
Catholic schools provide one type of school patronage model, in a pluralistic culture it is important to offer school patronage choice to parents, one being a Catholic school option. We need to support Catholic schools if we want them to exist in the future.
As part of the Grow in Love program, children learn about the beliefs of other religions.
For children not of the Catholic faith, there needs to be proper provision of faith formation/ethics classes that will take place for children of different faiths and no faith during religion time in Catholic schools. The answer to children of other faiths being “left out” is not the withdrawal of Catholic religious education from Catholic schools but the provision of faith formation for each child in the tradition their parents have chosen, for everyone in the school. Religious education has traditionally taken place from 12.00pm-12.30pm in Catholic schools. Liaising with other local ministers/chaplains to come in during that time to take children of other faiths for faith formation/ethics classes needs to be rolled out as a matter of urgency.
