CATHOLIC CITIZENSHIP AWARD

History of the Citizenship Awards

On 23 May 2002, Catholic schools in the Diocese were invited to nominate pupils who had displayed outstanding awareness of good citizenship. Recipients were to be presented with an award in St Helen’s Cathedral Brentwood by Professor Lord Alton. The initiative was inspired by Lord Alton, a former pupil of this Diocese, and supported strongly by the Brentwood Religious Education Service to encourage schools to respond to Government requirements that Citizenship be included in the curriculum.

Brentwood Diocese is committed, as is Lord Alton, to the idea that to be a good Catholic involves being a good citizen, ‘the Gospel of Jesus Christ requires us to “love our neighbour as ourselves” and that is at the heart of the Christian interpretation of citizenship’.

Each year at Holy Family all staff are asked to nominate children who live out the Gospel Values in their everyday life.  From the short-list a winner is voted for. The overall winner and their family attend the service at Brentwood Cathedral.  To be nominated for this award is a wonderful achievement in itself, and all the nominees receive a certificate of acknowledgement and a medal in a special assembly in school.