The Role of Service in Shaping Catholic Education

After a recent Year 5 visit to a local care home, one comment from a pupil stopped me in my tracks. He simply said, “Mr Marston, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be kind.”

Just two hours earlier, sixteen children had been busy making Christmas cards to share with residents. For many, spending time with older people was unfamiliar territory: they approached the trip with a mix of curiosity and nervousness. When we arrived, we were kindly welcomed into the lounge and invited to give an impromptu performance of Christmas carols - thankfully, we’d held our Carol Service the day before! After singing, the children handed out their cards. That shared moment brought intergenerational joy and stood as a beautiful example of service in action.

In Religious Education lessons, when pupils encounter “respond” objectives, I often find they can only imagine service in broad or distant terms: giving money to charities, helping the homeless, or supporting food banks. While these are all worthy ideas that we should encourage, children can’t simply set up standing orders, nor are they able to volunteer independently at a soup kitchen or take someone into their home.

What they can do – and what this care-home visit gave them the chance to experience – is meaningful, real-world service rooted in kindness, compassion and human encounter. When service is connected to tangible experience and reflection, it becomes a living expression of faith. Research in Catholic education shows that when students engage in service, they develop empathy, responsibility, moral agency and an understanding of real-world challenges - all essential to both their personal growth and their Catholic identity.Catholic International University

For many pupils, grasping how to live out their faith can seem abstract until they have lived it in a real context. Service-learning opportunities like this help bridge that gap between classroom teaching and lived Catholic witness. They show children that faith isn’t just something to learn about - it’s something to live out in everyday encounters.

That simple phrase from the child - “thank you for giving me the opportunity to be kind” - made me reflect on what it means to form pupils in service, compassion and love, rather than simply tell them how to do so. Perhaps, for him, this was the first time he truly felt able to respond to his faith in action.

Next time he’s asked how he might live out his faith, maybe his answer will be: “To visit a care home.”