Our Mission and Ethos

Notre Dame is a Catholic school which seeks to live out the values of Jesus Christ. We promote these values by our words and deeds, and Catholic doctrine and practice therefore permeates every aspect of the school’s activity. We provide a curriculum, which is broad and balanced, recognising that every pupil is unique and is created in the image of God (Gen 1:27).

Our daily prayer, collective worship and curriculum are all informed by six key Catholic Social Teachings. This empowers our students to:

SEE issues that are important to me, us, our world
JUDGE sources of wisdom that help us to understand more clearly
ACT on this learning to transform me, my community, our world

The Role of the Catholic Church in Education

The Church provides Catholic schools to:

Be a service to society. To serve the human person and society and enable them to develop an understanding of their communal obligations, personal aspirations and role as citizens in society and the world.
Assist in its mission of making Christ known to all people
Assist parents , who are the primary educators of their children, in the education and religious formation of their children
Be at the service of the local church – the diocese, the parish and the Christian home

As a school we make the most of opportunities to promote these values and Catholic Social Teaching (CST) within our policies, our curriculum and within whole school activities.

Our Catholic ethos provides both a depth of opportunity and a responsibility to prepare young people for life in modern Britain, to reject extremism and to promote tolerance among all communities, faiths and beliefs.

For more information visit the Catholic Education Service's website.

St Julie and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur

Our school was established by a religious order of nuns called the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1864. St Julie Billiart was the Foundress of the order. When you come into our Main Reception, you are welcomed by a statue of St Julie.

St Julie had a passion for providing all young people with an education 'for life' and that gave them 'hearts as wide as the world'.

Julie used the image of a sunflower always turning towards the sun as a metaphor for how our lives should be focussed on the goodness of God. This is why you'll find the symbol of a sunflower displayed around our school.

Once a year the Heads and Chaplains of the Notre Dame schools around England and Scotland meet together to share ideas on how to continue to develop the Charism of St Julie within our communities. Once our students found out about these meetings, they decided that they wanted to connect together too. We now hold a bi-annual conference for student representatives of our schools. Our last event was held at Buckfast Abbey near Notre Dame Plymouth.

We are now developing international links with other Notre Dame Schools. For the past two years, our students have organised their own Talent Show to raise funds for a project to provide solar electricity for a group of Notre Dame Schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For more information visit the History of our School page and the Notre Dame Schools Network page.

Useful Links:

Our Core Values

Our core values support our students, staff and parents to:

Be people of integrity, tolerance, respect and compassion
To serve the common good of society
To live out our duty as responsible citizens living in a lawful democratic community
To be people of hope and aspiration
To be confident and happy
Be people who celebrate diversity

Mutual respect for each other’s beliefs remains firmly rooted in our work as a cohesive Catholic community in preparing our young people for life in the world and in Britain today. This is expressed through the idea that every individual is unique and made in the image of God and therefore greatly treasured and loved.

British Values

British Values are embedded through a wide range of subjects. They are also explicitly referred to and explored in assemblies and form time activities. For more information visit our British Values page.

Our Daily Prayer Life

‘Scripture inspires me because it is connected to important things in my life’
Student Voice Survey 2025

Each week we follow a theme inspired by the Sunday's Gospel. Our Staff Briefings and activities in Y7-11 Form Time are based on the following routine.

Monday: Gospel Reading

Tuesday: Lectio Divina (focussing on a line from the scripture and it’s relevance to our lives)

Wednesday: A Common Prayer

Autumn 1	The Lord’s Prayer, Prayer of the Holy Cross, Prayer of St Francis	Autumn 2	Eternal Rest, St John the Baptist Trust Prayer
Spring 1	Serenity Prayer, Holocaust Memorial Day Prayer, Beatitudes Prayer	Spring 2	Prayer of St Patrick, Hail Mary
Summer 1	Come Holy Spirit	Summer 2	Glory Be

Thursday: Prayer to support and promote mental wellbeing

Friday: Informal prayers of thanksgiving and petitions provided by students

To view this week's theme visit the Latest News section of our website.

Communal Prayer for Y12-13 takes place through specially prepared resources that are delivered in their Weekly Tutor Session, Culture and Faith Studies and weekly assemblies.

Collective Worship

'Applying the advice in Gospel readings help us to lead a better life for ourselves and others’ Student Voice Survey 2025

Each Year Group has a weekly assembly based on the Gospel theme led by specially trained staff and students.

Every Thursday before school, Mass is celebrated for students and staff in our Chapel.

We start each year with a whole school Mass at St John the Baptist Cathedral. We continue through the year with whole school Masses for our Founder's Day in November and an end of year Mass in July.

Additional feast day Masses and services such as Ash Wednesday are also celebrated. Masses for specific groups of students are also celebrated, such as the outdoor Y11 and Y13 Leavers Masses in our beautiful grounds.

‘When I go to Mass, I feel that I am a member of a community’

‘Mass helps me to feel closer to God’

Student feedback on Whole School Masses 2024

Thanks to the support of the priests at St John the Baptist Cathedral, our KS3 students are offered the Sacrament of Reconciliation during Lent.

‘I felt washed clean after going to reconciliation’

Student feedback on attending Reconciliation 2025

We are blessed to have a beautiful Chapel which was originally built for the nuns that lived and worked at Notre Dame. Today, the Chapel is open to all as a space for prayer and quiet contemplation. Throughout the year, we hold special services that relate to the Liturgical Year. Our students particularly enjoy our candlelit services during Advent and Epiphany.

'The Chapel looks beautiful in candlelight’

‘I really enjoyed decorating the Chapel for the Advent Services’

Thank-you for a moment of calm before the start of our day’

Student feedback on attending Chapel 2024

A new development in the Catholic Life of our school is our Year Group Retreats. Thanks to support from the Diocesan Youth Team and St John the Baptist Cathedral, we hold retreats for Y7, Y8 and Y10.

‘It is good to spend time in the Cathedral and to understand what the different parts of it are for’

‘The Ignite Team explained how their faith supports them in a way that we can relate to’

‘See, Judge, Act is a good way to better understand a complicated idea like the refugee crisis’

‘I liked looking at the painting (of the Prodigal Son) and how it helps us to understand our relationship with God’

‘It was good to write our own prayers for something that we want to pray for like someone in my family who is sick’

Student feedback from Year 8 Retreats 2025

Finally, we hold special prayer vigils when particular events happen in the world. For example, to pay our respects to a significant person who has passed away, during the Conclave for a new Pope, or to pray for peace and hope during the Year of Jubilee.

Our Curriculum

We provide a curriculum, which is broad and balanced, recognising that every pupil is unique and is 'created in the image of God' (Gen 1:27)

Our curriculum is designed to enable every pupil to discern their vocation and to be well-equipped to follow it as active citizens in service to the world.

For more information visit the Curriculum section of our website.

PSHEE including Relationships and Sex Education

PSHEE equips our students with trustworthy and reliable values, knowledge and skills to enable them to flourish and 'live life to the full'. The subject is taught through three intertwining themes:

Health and Wellbeing
Living in the Wider World
Forming Positive Relationships

For more information about the contents of our PSHEE Curriculum and how it is delivered visit the pages for KS3 PSHEE and KS4 PSHEE

Our Relationships and Sex Education course is taught within PSHEE. It develops an understanding of the following principles:

We are uniquely created and loved by God

Valuing and understanding ourselves is the basis for personal relationships.

We are created to love others

We are created out of love and for love.
The command to love is the basis of all Christian morality.

We are created to live in community

Through our exchange with others and mutual respect we learn about ourselves and develop our society.

Our course uses carefully chosen age- appropriate resources in keeping with our school's Catholic ethos. We use reliable and trustworthy sources accredited by the Catholic Education Service, and the national PSHE Association.

‘The lesson plans are excellent - it is very informative. It covers the practicalities of it all in a helpful and accessible way, and the teachings of the Church accurately stated and explained.’ Parental Feedback Survey on RSE 2025

For more detailed information about what is covered each year visit our webpage Parent/Carer Intro to RSE.

Student Chaplaincy, Council and Social Action

Chaplaincy Crew

Our Mission is to develop 'morally informed and passionate leaders'.

In order to help achieve this, we create opportunities for students to be actively involved in the life of our community.

Any student is very welcome to become a member of our Chaplaincy Crew. All they require is the motivation to do something that enables us to grow stronger together as a community.

There is a very wide variety of activities that students can get involved in, including assisting in planning and evaluating liturgies, performing in our SHINE Band and Choir, organising charitable events and capturing media for our TV Screens, Newsletter and website.

"Being a member of the Chaplaincy Crew enabled me to learn about PA equipment. Now I am studying to be a sound and lighting engineer" Former Student 2024

During Advent our students organise a hamper appeal. The Forms in each year group create a special box of items to be given to a specific charity.

For more information visit Chaplaincy Crew & CAFOD CLUB

School Council

The School Council is a great opportunity for students to get involved in the running of the school.

Our Head Students are democratically elected by the whole school community in July each year. Y7-11 students apply to become members of our Key Stage Councils.

The Council listens and responds to matters raised by students. They are consulted on key decisions about whole school priorities. They are also involved in the appointment of key staff roles. The School Council has recently had the following impact on our community:

Allowing students to wear a Summer Uniform
Creating additional revision resources and study sessions for GCSE Students
Improving toilet facilities across the site
Providing more outdoor

Students can also get involved in the Norwich Youth Advisory Board which gives young people a voice on local services and issues that concern them. Our students have recently given speeches at Norwich Council events on the environment and public spaces.

Social Action

An important aspect of our Mission and Catholic Social Teaching is to reach out beyond the gates of our school to the local, national and global community.

Each year we organise a wide variety of activities to raise funds for local, national and international causes.

On our Founder's Day in October, the entire school community go on a sponsored walk together to raise money for local and national charities.

A local charity that we have raised funds for is St Martin's Trust. They provide support to people in the local area who are homeless and/or have addiction issues.

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For more information about our current School Council visit School Council

CAFOD CLUB

We work closely with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and are currently working towards their Live Simply Award.

CAFOD's vision and mission draws directly from Catholic Social Teaching.

Over the last five years CAFOD have been particularly inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical letter Laudato Si'. Pope Francis called us all to respond to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor in Our Common Home.

Our CAFOD CLUB organise a variety of fund raising activities through the year. In 2024-25 we raised £4187.

We also visit other schools in our Trust to explain about the importance of CAFOD and the work that they do.

For more information visit Chaplaincy Crew & CAFOD CLUB

Parish and Diocesan Links

Our school is located in the Parish of Saint John the Baptist Cathedral. In the past couple of years, we have been putting significant effort into strengthen links and finding new ways to collaborate together.

Our start of year Mass is the largest congregation that the Cathedral holds each year. This gives our students an awe-inspiring experience. This has led to us organising retreats and trips for Years 8, 10 and 11.

‘It is good to spend time in the Cathedral and to understand what the different parts of it are for’

Y8 Student feedback from retreat

We have noticed that developing links in this way has led to an increase in students becoming involved in the Parish including attending the Youth Club and Cathedral Choir. The number of students being confirmed has also risen. An exciting new development is that some of our students now help to lead the First Holy Communion and Confirmation Course. This has led to them being awarded the first Faith in Action Awards in our Diocese!

We also work closely with the Diocesan Youth Team. Our students really appreciate their presence in our community. They help to lead our retreats and provide an inspiring witness of how faith can support the lives of young people.

‘The Ignite Team explained how their faith supports them in a way that we can relate to’

Y8 Student feedback from retreat

This has led to increasing numbers of students attending the Diocesan Youth Ignite Festival and the national gathering of young Catholics at FLAME.