The 5Ws – A Model for
Authentic Catholic Schools
Kevin Quigley
Director of Education
January 2015
1
Based on the 5 Ministries of the
Early Christian Church

A Welcoming Community

A Welfare Community

A Witnessing Community

A Word of God Community

A Worshipping Community
2
Model applicable to any Christian
Community…
school, parish, diocese, religious
order/community, the Church etc
3
Perennial value of the Model? It goes back to the Roots of Christianity to
Recover, Rediscover and Reenergise us with
the vitality and attraction of the original
dream of Jesus Christ, of the Reign of God,
of the Kingdom for the 21st Century.
4
The Model in Education speak
Song
5W’s
Ministry
Leading/Teaching
Come
Welcome
Koinonia
Build Community
Walk
Welfare
Diakonia
Serve
Work
Witness
Marturia
Being and Doing
Talk
Word
Kerygma
Teach
Pray
Worship
Leitourgia
Celebrate
5
Welcome
Luke 9:11…the Model…again!
Romans 15:7 – the challenge
of the Model!
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Welcome
Welcome – In Early Christian communities –
of ALL!
Neither Greeks, nor Romans, slaves nor
freeman.
As a Community of EQUAL DISCIPLES.
Key elements of Hospitality, Greeting and
Welcome.
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Welcome
Catholic – meaning – Kata houlus i.e.
Welcoming EACH and ALL
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Welcome
Implication of each  The absolute value of
the person
As made in the image and likeness of God
- Unconditionally loved by God
- Reverence for the person
-
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Welcome
Implication of All - ?
‘Here comes everybody’ - James Joyce
…A radical inclusivity…at best!
Who is my neighbour?
Native American Story
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Welcome
Implications of Welcome for Teachers ?
–
e.g. What is the climate I feel of your
class(es)?
What type of learning space do you
create for welcome?
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Welcome
A
space with
openness, boundaries
and hospitality? ?
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Welcome
What would openess look like? E.g.
Removing barriers and blockages
 Removing fears and inadequacies
 Inspiring imagination and creativity
 Inspiring confidence and capability

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Welcome
Saint Augustine said one meaning of
Catholic was
‘To be OPEN to the TRUTH whenever it can
be found!’
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Welcome
What about boundaries? E.g.
That give security and structure
 That give safety and self worth
 That value trial and error and starting
again!
 That nourish a zest for learning

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Welcome
Not repressive boundaries that breed –
Compliance and docility
 Shallow learning and rote performance
 A reductionist acquisitive ‘banking’ concept
of education – ‘the vessel to be filled’
mentality.

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Welcome
What of Hospitality?
i.e. To create learning spaces that are
Receptive to the voice of the learner
 Based on an ‘ethic of critique, care and
justice’ RJ Starrett

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Welcome
Over to you …
In pairs discuss some/all
of the following
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Welcome
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Pupils learn best when …
The climate for learning in my lessons is …
My daily welcome to my pupils is …
What I want most for my pupils is …
When I am teaching at my best I am like …
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Welfare
Early Christian communities were
committed to
- Welfare and service of human needs –
e.g. Acts of Apostles – care of the poor,
the widow and the orphan etc.
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Welfare
What does service to human needs mean in an
educational context ? E.g.
Intellectual
 Social
 Emotional
 Physical
 Psychological
 Spiritual

A BIG ask!
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Welfare
How do I meet these needs
as a teacher?
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Welfare
-
By addressing 3 Questions
o “What
is it to be human?”
o “How did we become so?”
o “How can we become more so?”
[Jerome Bruner]
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Welfare
Remember! – to go back to our Anthropology
i.e. our understanding of what it is to be a
person?
Made in God’s image and likeness
- With a divine origin and an eternal destiny
- Image of the Trinity posits the person as a
relational being
-
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Welfare
-
Or put it in a different non – theological
way as a question
“What are the foundational qualities of a
person?”
- that can inform a teacher’s approach to
meeting the needs of pupils?
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Welfare
R.J Starrett suggests the following
qualities –
Transcendence
Autonomy
Connectedness
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Welfare
How to teach for Transcendence ?
 By
inspiring and encouraging the search
for excellence
 By going beyond the ordinary, beyond
expectation
 By raising pupils to distinction
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Welfare
 By
nurturing and developing a sense of
being part of
something bigger
something greater
By eliciting a sense of otherness, of
mystery, of beyondness in the pupil.
- Of a God who is the BACKDROP to and
Foreground of all life
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Welfare
How to teach for Autonomy ?
-
Through time and opportunities
With your support and challenge
Within a community of learners
To enable pupils to CLAIM their own lives.
To be the person they were born to be – a life
time’s journey.
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Welfare
Autonomy –
“Each person has only one vocation…to find
the way to oneself”
Herman Hesse German Author
Task of the teacher is for a time to
accompany someone on their “journey to
wholeness”.
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Welfare
How to teach for Connectedness ?
To foster, encourage and develop positive
relationships
- To nurture relational ways of learning and
of learning as a social process
- To encourage pupils to go beyond self
absorption, self indulgence, narcissism and
self-obsession.
-
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Welfare
Connectedness Rather to encourage pupils in recognising
and valuing that
“I am part of every living thing
And everything is part of me
We are all created of this sacred earth
So everything’s our sacred family”
[Kevin Gilbert, Aboriginal Poet]
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Welfare

Connectedness –
Connectedness ultimately has to do with –
living a spiritual life i.e. a life connected to
and integrated within the very ground of our
Being, within Ultimate Reality.
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Welfare
Connectedness –
Hence to vital importance of teachers
taking pupils’ spirituality seriously as
pivotal to Welfare and addressing
their needs for formation as persons.
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Welfare
And Formation –
Welfare in a Catholic educational
context is about “forming people who
will be lovers of true freedom, who will
make their judgements in The light
and Truth”
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Welfare
Formation as
“A lifelong process of seeking, clarifying,
deepening and raising awareness of what it
means To Be Truly Human”
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Welfare
The role of the Teacher therefore is
-
-
To accompany, to journey alongside
the pupil for a time, on their journey
to wholeness.
To be a companion
To be the Creator of a space in which
a community of Truth is practised.
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Welfare
To be a model of humanity evidencing all
that is best in being human
- To seek to meet their needs by giving of our
BEST SELVES! – In “turning the soul of the
learner to the good, the true and the
Beautiful” [Plato].
-
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Welfare
Over to you!
In pairs please discuss some of the following
How do you try to overcome barriers to
learning in your pupils? Examples?
- How do you discourage an individualistic “I,
Me, Mine” mentality and encourage a “we,
together, mutuality”
-
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Welfare
- How do you build community in your class,
in your lessons ? Examples ?
- How do you nurture an outward-facing
mentality, broadening horizons and raising
expectations ?
- How do you take children’s spirituality
seriously ? Be specific!
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Witness
Witness – What we stand for ?
School/College as a Witnessing Community
to a Catholic Vision and Mission for
Education as integral to the Church's
overall Pastoral and Evangelising Mission
(To proclaim the Good News of Jesus
Christ, as did the Early Church).
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Witness
To a God centred Way of Life
 To God’s Unconditional Love for All of
Creation
 To the Life, Story, Vision, Teaching and
Tradition of the Risen Jesus Christ and of
those who follow Him.

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Witness




To God as the backdrop and foreground of a
Curriculum for Life and as the Author of Truth
To a ‘God-in-all-things’ approach to education
To a “God in the bits and pieces of everyday”
approach to everything in school/college.
To learning about God’s world and our
stewardship of it with a “Reality is Sacred and the
Sacred is Real” approach to learning.
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Witness

“All branches of knowledge are connected
together, because the subject matter of
knowledge is intimately united in itself, as
being The Acts and Works of The Creator”
Blessed John Henry Newman
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Witness
To a deeper way of seeing, being, doing and
knowing
 To developing “a holy curiosity” [Albert
Einstein] in our pupils/students

i.e. …
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Witness
“Not only to question
But to question the questioning
Not only to intellectualize
But to ponder the intellectualising
Not only to learn
But to move to what lies both within and
behind the learning”
[Derek Webster]
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Witness
As a challenge to a secular perspective on
Education
 As a challenge to dualism within some
versions of Christian Education

“We must learn to penetrate things and find
God there”
[Meiser Erckhart 13th Century Dominican Mystic]
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Witness

To Values for Life – Gospel Values
e.g. Justice
Compassion
Service
Community
Forgiveness
Freedom
Peace
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Witness
 Values
for Life informing and
permeating all policies and
procedures and are central to the
LIVED EXPERIENCE of the
school community.
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Witness
Key Words/Phrases –
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Deeply humanizing Values – for Life
God as backdrop and foreground
Unconditional love
Reality as Sacred, Sacred is Real
Learning about God’s World
Deeper ways of knowing
Mission Statement
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Witness
How well we are doing as a Witnessing
Community ?
In pairs discuss some of the following:
1. Does a God centred view of life permeate
our curriculum and all our provision ?
2. How do we portray Christ at the Centre of
your school community ?
3. If you were asked ‘What does this school
stand for’ … How would you reply ?

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Witness
What are the dominant values within the
school community ? … Explain please ?
What does the school witness to the outside
community ? How do you know ?
How does the school witness to the beliefs
and values of Catholicism befitting its 21st
Century context ?
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Word

The Early Christian communities taught
and preached the Word of God, the Good
News of Salvation through the Risen Christ
They EVANGELISED
- They DIALOGUED
- They Enculturized the Gospel in the
Societies they inhabited.
-
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Word
-
But they were the Word of God
They lived the Word in everyday life
They were Models, Icons of Good
News
They were Living Logos!
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Word
4 Big Questions for Teachers
How does God’s Word express itself
today?
2. How does God communicate with us
today?
3. How does God reveal Godself to us today?
4. What does this mean for my Teaching in a
Catholic School?
1.
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Word
Word – to help answer these
God’s Living Word and Self expression is
revealed through
The ordinariness of Life…yours and mine.
2. Creation and the Mysteries of Life and of
the Universe
3. Human history and Cultures
4. The major World Faiths
1.
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Word
Word of God revealed through:
 The Person of Jesus Christ, the Word
Incarnate
 The history and Traditions of the Christian
communities
 Sacred Scripture and Church Tradition and
Teaching
 Knowledge, the Pursuit of Truth and the
Search for Wisdom.
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Word
Word of God – for Teachers to consider:
“All branches of knowledge are connected
together because the subject matter of
knowledge is intimately united in itself as
being the Acts and Works of the Creator”
-offers a Catholic perspective on the
Curriculum that a Catholic School should
promote
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Word
Word and Wisdom
The Search for Wisdom? – the ultimate aim
of Education?
Wisdom as a “deeper way of knowing; the art
of living in rhythm with your soul, your live
and the divine”
John O’Donohue
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Word
Wisdom – as the original and highest
purpose of education in both Hebrew and
Christian traditions.
• A 2000 year old Christian Tradition of
Education
• Relevance and Appropriateness Today ?
• A Curriculum for Life – i.e. Learning what it
is to be Human and about one’s place in
the world.
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Word
Word and Wisdom
“Stewards of the Mysteries of God” [Cor 4:1]
Bigger Picture Education verses a narrow
mechanistic one.
“Knowledge without Wisdom
Is a load of b…ooks
On the back of an ass” [Japanese Proverb]
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Word
“Education is not the filling of a bucket but
the lighting of a fire!” [W.B. Yeats]
“the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire
to be ignited” [Plutarch]
You and Your school as a Resource if Wisdom
in our current context ?
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Word
A Challenge to the School
…to embody the Word of God?
…to be Living Logos? i.e. The Word in action
through us?
…to be icons of Christ?
…to model the Vision and Values of being a
Catholic Christian Community?
…to witness to a God-centred education in
the very ordinariness of school life?
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Word
An important reflection
Our being part of a Bigger Narrative viz
“We are each a letter in God’s Book
Like a letter we have no meaning on our own
But joined together in families, communities
and nations
We form sentences and paragraphs
And become part of God’s Story”
[Jonathan Sachs, Times Sept 24th 2011]
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Word
Over to you – please discuss some of the following 
How well are we doing as a Word of God community?
1. Does our curriculum present God as the backdrop and
foreground of all learning?
2. Is there a coherent rationale that does justice to a Word of
perspective on the curriculum?
3. Do we encourage a spirit of search and enquiry, creativity
and imagination in addressing the Big Questions across the
Curriculum?
4. What does high quality R.E. look like and how reflective is it
of an informed up to date Catholic approach?
5. How does the school/college community witness to a Word
of God approach to its everyday realities and lived
experiences?
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Word
6. How do you encourage the Pupils to be
self reflective?
7. What priority do you give to e.g.
mindfulness, meditation or quiet prayer for
your pupils?
8. What place, if any, does wisdom, play in
your approach to Teaching and Learning?
66
Worship

Early Christian Church originally in small
groups in household prayed and ritualised
the presence of the Risen Christ amongst
them in the Breaking of Bread and prayers,
readings, psalms.
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Worship
Their Eucharist and Christian Liturgy were
inextricably linked to JUSTICE, concern for
the poor
Theirs was a Worship in Action, a Faith in
Action
Not Holy Joes or Josephine's!
Nor withdrew as hermits etc
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Worship
Worship explained as:
A genuine disposition to Worship sees the
World
- As Holy as the Book of God
- As a Healing Mystery
- Full of Divine Messages
- And responds to this Awareness and
Awakening in a Spirit of Worship
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Worship
A Worshipping Community
As one in which the Centrality of God is
given its proper status in various forms of
Worship e.g. Praise, Petition, Thanksgiving,
Adoration, Meditation, Contemplation.
In a School setting the following need to be
kept in mind in offering Worship of
Quality..
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Worship
Worship – Guidelines
Appropriate, Relevant and Inclusive
2. Planned prepared and resourced drawing
on a variety of media and materials
3. Given due time, space, opportunity,
status and proper conditions
4. Emphasis also on Community and
Belonging
1.
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Worship
Worship – Guidelines
Key Words/Phrases
1. Prayer not Performance
2. Participation not Passivity
3. Creative not Constrained
4. Flexible not Flippant
5. Tradition not Traditionalism
6. Languaged not Mumbojumbo
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Worship
Worship – Guidelines
Key Words/Phrases
1. Reverence not Restraint
2. Living not Laden
3. God-graced not Goddamawful
4. Enriching not Emasculating
5. Silent not Sullen
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Worship
How are we doing as a Worshipping
Community in school?
 Do we review our policy on prayer and
worship on a regular basis and evaluate its
impact and effectiveness throughout the
school?
 Do we have a prayer core at the heart of the
school?

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Worship
How are we doing as a Worshipping
Community in school?
 Are our opportunities for worship well
planned and led, pupil centred, creative
and relevant?
 Are our staff well trained and supported in
furthering the prayer and worship life of
the school.

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Worship
How are we doing as a Worshipping Community in
school?
Do we actively encourage support and develop our
pupils to take leadership roles in prayer and
worship?
Do we allocated dedicated funding and resourcing in
order to develop prayer and worship?
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Worship
How are we doing as a Worshipping
community in school?
Are pupils introduced throughout their time
in school to the various traditions and
forms of prayer within the Catholic
Christian traditions?
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Concluding Remarks
5W’s Framework:
Welcome, Witness,
Welfare, Word, Worship
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Concluding Remarks
The 5Ws Framework touches
the very heart of Catholic
Christian Tradition as a vital
evolving source of God’s
ongoing Self Disclosure and
Love
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Concluding Remarks

The 5Ws Framework gives:
Identity, Meaning, Purpose, Direction,
Coherence and living to all we do in Catholic
Education as part of our tradition as befits
the needs and demands of an authentic
Catholic Education at the service of the
Church’s Mission to the world.
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Concluding Remarks
A Tradition to:
 Cherish
 Critique
 Contribute to
 Communicate
 Celebrate
“A treasure of truth and a peace to share”
[Jean Vanier]
A Resource of Wisdom for our 21st Century World
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Concluding Remarks
The ultimate aim of Catholic Education and
the role of the teacher within it is that
children and young people
“Attain the fullness of Being, the fullness of
God Himself”
Ephesians 3:19
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