What is meant by a “Catholic School”?

Someone said that education is what remains after you have forgotten all that you were ever taught! A specifically Catholic model of education has developed over the centuries – and remains very popular in most countries, because of the quality of its academic and other outcomes.

A Catholic education starts with the belief that everyone is made in God’s image and likeness and deserves to be enabled to flourish and develop as a child of God. Education is thus not mainly about training in skills and the competitive gaining of qualifications. It is based on the belief that human beings naturally seek the integrity in their lives.

Catholic education is committed to helping them seek wholeness, truth and hope in their lives, and to developing the spiritual and moral dimension to people’s lives. It is committed to a worldview that promotes justice. It seeks to develop that in people through building a school community that promotes solidarity, learning and growth. As one Catholic school principal said, “We don’t teach Catholicism as dogma but as a lens through which to view the world.”