Mental Health Awareness Whole School Worship Led by Year 4
Following on from Mental Health Awareness Week last week, Year 4 led a whole school worship this morning. The children in Year 4 have been focusing on mental health, what helps us to better our mental health and they have also delivered random acts of kindness. In the worship, the children shared a lovely video that was created by primary school children on how we can share our feelings, thinking, emotions and moods. We know how to look after our physical health but our mental health is just as important. We learnt that Year 4 like to take part in sport, get a good nights sleep, spend time with friends and family, share problems and eat healthy and drink plenty of water! The children also shared some beautiful kindness poems and buckets of how they fill them to support their mental health. We are very proud of Year 4 for sharing their experiences and it’s great to know how much we can support each other along the way!
Whole School Worship- Your Kingdom Come
During our whole school worship, we continued looking at the special Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught us. We began by imagining what our world might look like if we were in charge for a day. The children shared thoughtful and creative ideas, such as a world filled with kindness, fairness, and care for the environment. This engaging activity led naturally into our focus on the next part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” We took time to reflect on what God’s kingdom should look like—a place where love, kindness and peace are present in everything we do. Together, we discussed how we can each play a part in God’s kingdom through our actions and behaving the way He would want. We then turned our attention to the concept of heaven and how it connects to this line of the Lord's prayer. The children were encouraged to share with each other their thoughts on what heaven might be like. Their ideas were rich and varied, painting pictures of a world filled with happiness, joy and light. Jesus tells us through the Lord's prayer that God wants His Kingdom to be like heaven on earth so we reflected on how we could create heaven on earth in our school each day. We had some fantastic answers such as showing kindness, respect and generosity to each other. This worship helped deepen our understanding of the Lord’s Prayer and reminded us all of the role we can play in making our world a better place, starting with small, meaningful actions in our everyday lives.
Year 3- Year of prayer-Praying for the World
Today, as part of our Year of Prayer, Year 3 prayed for the world. We talked about how travelling helps us learn more about different people, their cultures, languages, food, and how they live and pray. The children shared stories about their holidays and family members who live in other countries. We thought about how all these experiences help us live life to the full and understand how big and beautiful the world is. We thanked God for creating such a wonderful world and prayed for peace and love for everyone, everywhere.
Reception- Year of Prayer- Class Worship
During our class worship we had a look at the word map and the children told us places they had visited and we marked it on the map and had a look at how far away it was from our country. The children then shared with us the places they would like to visit. We had a discussion about out favourite things in the world that God created and we then prayed for some of those things. We prayed for the trees, the sea, creatures, the sun and the grass.
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Reception: The Church as a Special Place
As part of our learning on special places, Reception class visited St Barnabas Church and met Rev Matt. Rev Matt asked us to explore the church to find things we wouldn't find at home. Reggie said he saw a cross, Harry said a microphone, Beau said the font, Cassius found some musical instruments and Will found a chalice. Rev Matt asked why is church special for people. Ava said we worship here and Thea said we worship Jesus here. Rev Matt shared the chalice and plate and explained that we have a special meal to remember Jesus known as communion or the Eucharist. Rev Matt explained that all churches look different and that is ok. We watched a video to explain why. For Christians, church is a place and a way to describe people who trust in Jesus. It is a place where people meet which makes it really special. Thank you so much Rev Matt for putting our learning into context, we really enjoyed our visit.
Year 1 RE- Belonging
This afternoon, Year 1 have been thinking about belonging in RE. After exploring baptism and Rev Ben explaining to us that baptism is like a badge that people wear to show that they belong to the church, we thought about other groups that we belong to, how these groups make us feel and created our own badge to represent this. We had badges to symbolise our families, after-school clubs such as Butterflies and Kidsland, our school, our church, Rainbows, Beavers, Stagecoach, swimming, dance, gymnastics, football and kickboxing. The children described these groups as making them feel special, proud, happy, excited, overjoyed and thankful and they said that if a new person was to join their family, school family, church family or club, they would make them feel welcome by learning their name, giving them a smile, giving them a high-five, handshake or hug, helping them out and showing them where things go.
Year 1 RE- Mock Baptism in Church with Rev Ben
Yesterday afternoon, Year 1 wore their celebration clothes and went to St Barnabas Church. They learnt all about baptism and welcoming babies, teenagers and adults into Christianity. Year 1 named their baby Annabelle and Rev. Ben showed them what it would be like if Annabelle was baptised. They learnt that baptism is like a badge that people wear to show they belong to the church. A sign of the cross (using oil) is drawn on the head of the person being baptised to symbolise this. They also learnt that Baptism is like a bath. They learnt about the significance of the water and how it is to symbolise cleansing and new life. They witnessed Rev. Ben pour water over baby Annabelle’s head which came from the font. To end the Baptism, Annabelle received a baptism candle and a Bible. We then came back to school for a baptism party. The children enjoyed a dance, some juice and a biscuit. Thank you Rev.Ben for creating a memorable experience for our children.
Year 3- R.E-The Story of Moses and The Ten Commandments
In today’s R.E. lesson, the children began by discussing the relevance of the Ten Commandments in today’s world. They explored whether these ancient rules still apply and why they might be important in modern life. The children unanimously agreed that the Ten Commandments are still very relevant, as without them, society would face chaos and disorder. Following this discussion, the children listened to the story of Moses and the giving of the Ten Commandments. They reflected on how these commandments, which were received by Moses on Mount Sinai, continue to influence religious and moral beliefs today. The children explored how these commandments promote values such as respect, honesty, and responsibility, and how they shape the way people live their lives according to religious teachings.
Whole School Worship - V.E. Day & The Lord’s Prayer
Our worship began with an introduction to V.E. Day. Mrs Ham gave a short explanation about the Second World War and the celebrations that took place after Europe’s victory in 1945. There will be a number of worships and activities taking place across the week to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II, including our Red, White and Blue day on Friday. Mrs Ham and Mrs Araujo then launched this week’s Year of Prayer activities. Our focus was then directed to The Lord’s Prayer. Mrs Ham spent some time explaining the first few lines to make sure everyone in our school family understands what they are praying about when they recite The Lord’s Prayer. We focused particularly on the word “hallowed” and that this means holy. We shared our ideas of how we can carry out God’s wishes and that we can all try to be like saints. The children had some extremely thoughtful ideas about welcoming people and why it is important to make others feel welcome. We finished by reciting The Lord’s Prayer once more and then singing one of our favourite worship songs, My Lighthouse.
Year 6 - Year of Prayer
Continuing our Year of Prayer activities, year 6 took part in a reflective walk along the markings on the school yard. We had to follow the lines, reflecting or praying, remembering that we can trust Jesus and ask him to help us to follow the right path.
Year 1- Year of Prayer (Follow the Lines)
This week as part of the Diocesan Year of Prayer, Year 1 went outside onto our playground and ‘followed the lines.’ Before doing so, they thought about how we try our best to lead our lives by Jesus’ example. We thought about all the amazing things that Jesus did such as sharing his power to perform miracles such as healing the sick and feeding the hungry. We thought about the Christian Values that this shows such as kindness, generosity and friendship and how we can live out these values each and everyday. Year 1 suggested that we can lead by Jesus’ example by helping each other when we fall over, holding the door open for one another, complimenting each other to spread love and joy and supporting one another with our work. We followed the various lines (the correct paths) on the playground as we thought about all of the things that we had discussed. We also thought about what we can do when we are finding things a challenge. We said that we could pray to Jesus and ask him to help us to make the right decision to take the right path.
Year 3:Year of Prayer- Where Lines Led to Prayer
The children drew chalk lines and followed them on an adventure. It was a lovely reminder, as part of our year of prayer, that just like following those lines, we can trust Jesus to guide us on the right path through prayer.