Faith is the Curriculum
A Catholic School, All the Way Through
St. Edward is a Catholic school in practice, not just on paper. Faith anchors our week, and the rest of the schedule revolves around it. Twice a week, classes pause so our students can worship at St. Edward Church alongside our parishioners.
Faith formation begins in the Atrium at age three, where preschoolers meet the language of the liturgy through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. It continues through sacramental preparation in the elementary grades, and it finishes in junior high with sixty hours of annual service and a faith students own and practice. By graduation, they leave Thompson Lane ready to carry that faith into Catholic and public high schools across Nashville.
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Faith is a staff role at St. Edward, not an add-on. A coordinator oversees liturgical living across the school, which is why faith is not confined to a religion class. It is woven through the day, from the youngest students learning to see Christ in others to eighth graders living their faith through service and example.
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We are a parish school, not a campus. Church and school share the property, the calendar, and the people. That is the simplest and truest thing to say about who we are.
As Catholic Christians holding fast to the Gospel message of openness and love, we welcome students and families of all faith backgrounds.
Worship at the center of the week
Mass & Sacraments
Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:00 AM, the whole school worships at St. Edward Church. Worship is the foundation of the week, and everything else moves around it. Students who pray together every week learn the Mass not as a lesson but as a habit.
School Mass
All grades attend together, and families and parishioners are welcome to join. The school also keeps seasonal penance services, daily prayer as a school, classroom visits to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, a parish tradition.
Sacramental Preparation
Second grade prepares for First Reconciliation and First Communion. Eighth grade prepares for Confirmation. Preparation is shared with families and the parish.
Beginning in the Atrium
Long before a child receives a sacrament, he meets its language. In the Atrium, our youngest students handle a model altar and the vessels they will later recognize at the real one. A preschooler who has handled a model of the altar watches the real one differently.
Living the year the Church keeps
Liturgical Living
At St. Edward, the Catholic calendar is not background. It shapes the school year. Liturgical living is a staff role here, not an add-on, which means the seasons and feasts of the Church are taught, marked, and celebrated as part of school life.​
Through The Year
The school keeps the rhythms of the liturgical year alongside the academic one. On All Saints Day, students present the saints they studied in our annual “Saints go Marching In” presentation. First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart, a parish tradition, is kept by the school, and classes visit Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament through the year.
Why It Matters Today
A child who lives the Church’s year, and not just reads about it, grows up at home in it. That is the point of a Catholic school: faith formed in practice, season by season, until it belongs to the student.
Gabrielle Nordone
Learning Specialist & Liturgical Living Coordinator
(615) 833-5770
