The Office of Faith Formation at OLGC offers an apprenticeship to the Catholic Christian life for children and youth from preschool through 8th grade.*

Our Catholic Christian Formation (CCF) for children and youth is divided into two sections:

• Elementary CCF: Grades PreK-6 
• Junior High CCF: Grades 7-8

Faith formation for high school students (grades 9-12), as well as social activities and service opportunities for junior high students (grades 7-8), is offered by OLGC’s Youth Ministry.

Please note that in order to participate in Elementary or Jr High CCF, we ask your family to be registered parishioners at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church.

• For parish registration information, click here.
• If you are parishioners at another Catholic Church, we will need a Pastor Permission Letter from your church giving you permission to participate in CCF.

Contact: Guadalupe Saenz, CCF Office Assistant, 703.896.7415

Resources:

2019-20 Parent Handbook
2019-20 Elementary Parent Meeting
2019-20 Jr High Parent Meeting
Family Life Education in FCPS

2020-21 CCF Year Update

First, thank you all for your responses to the surveys about CCF this year. They have been very helpful in guiding us as we made plans for this coming year.

Considering your responses and given the current situation, we are going to start CCF this year virtually.

Our goal will be to meet in person as soon as we can, but right now all of the classes will be online, through Zoom.

The online classes will be held at the same time that the CCF class would have met had we been able to have it on site, but will only meet for 40 minutes. Additional videos and the Diocesan Standards of Learning will help us to reach our required 30 hours of Faith Formation Instruction per year. Since grades 2 and 8 are sacramental years, the class times for both of those grades are slightly longer.

CCF Class Times: 

Saturday 8:30-9:10; Grades PreK-6

Saturday 10:30-11:10; Grades PreK-6

Sunday 6:45-7:25; Grade 7

Sacramental Year Class Times: 

Grade 2: Saturday 8:30-10, and 10:30-noon

Grade 8: Sunday 6:45-8:15

Diocesan Zoom Requirements:

Some of the requirements from the Office of Child Protection have changed since last year regarding online sessions with children (anyone under 18 is considered a child). If there is only one adult catechist (Virtus trained and background checked through the Diocese of Arlington), then the entire session has to be recorded, and a copy of the recording has to be sent to me. If there are 2 or more non-related adults (both fully compliant to volunteer) then the session does not need to be recorded—but we’re asking that they be recorded anyway and then sent to me so that if a child misses a class, it can be watched later so that child doesn’t miss out on that week’s class. We have to keep a copy of that video for one year.

Parent Meetings:

We will also have regular meetings for parents on Zoom, so I can keep you updated, so you can check in and let me know how things are going, and we can quickly address any concerns that may come up.

Supplemental Videos:

In addition to the online classes, we’ll be adding some online videos as supplements. Some of the videos will be from the Formed.org website, others will be made by us at OLGC on specific topics. Our priests, some of the teachers in the school, and some of our staff have already volunteered to make some of these short videos. If you’d like to volunteer to make one, click here to email Amy MacKinnon. The videos should be between 4 and 10 minutes long.

Diocesan Standards of Learning:

We also have the new Standards of Learning (SOL) from the Diocese of Arlington. The standards for each grade will be available, as well as online quizzes on the topics for each grade. All CCF students will be required to complete the online quizzes to ensure that the SOLs are being met.

CCF Catechists Needed:

If there is no catechist available to teach a grade or class, then parents will go through the materials at home, but also have access to the homemade and Formed.org videos, as well as the material and quizzes for the SOL. Please consider helping us with online classes this year! If you are able to assist us, please click here to email Amy MacKinnon.

Future Plans:

Throughout the year, we’ll revisit the plan as we need to. Our goal will always be to have classes on-site and in person again as soon as we can, but we need to do what we can to keep our kids and teachers safe at this time.