Worship with Rev. Ben
Today, we had worship with Rev. Ben, which began with a fun yet challenging relay-style game where we had to balance ping pong balls on a paper plate while moving carefully across the hall. Rev. Ben explained that, just like in the game, life can sometimes feel unsteady or difficult, especially when we are upset or facing challenges. To help us reflect on this, Rev. Ben showed a clip about what Jesus did when he was feeling deeply sad the night before his death. The video illustrated how Jesus turned to God in prayer, seeking strength and comfort during his time of sorrow. Rev. Ben explained that, just like Jesus, we can share our worries and struggles with God, knowing that He listens and understands, and can help us through even the toughest times. He reminded us that no matter how we feel, we are never alone—God is always there to support and guide us.
Year 3- R.E-Understanding the Rich Young Man: Lessons on Wealth, Faith, and Modern Perspectives
In today's R.E. lesson, the children explored the story of The Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30), from 'The Children's Bible'. We began by reminding ourselves of the Ten Commandments and reflecting on their meaning. The children discussed why Jesus’ response saddened the rich young man and whether they believed he tried to change. They also considered the challenges of wealth and why it can be difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. As part of our discussion, we examined Jesus’ metaphor of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, debating whether it is still a relevant example today. Working in pairs, the children devised modern phrases to express a similar idea, such as: Trying to fit an elephant through a doorway, fitting all your holiday clothes into a tiny backpack or putting a football through a keyhole. They all worked incredibly well in small groups and pairs.
Year 4 - RE with Rev Ben: Prayer
One of the key experiences in the current Year 4 RE unit is to learn from a Christian visitor about what Christians believe and how this is revealed in the way they pray. Rev Ben loves coming into school to explore faith with the children, and the children, in return, always offer their own insights. This lesson offered a fantastic opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas, and we fully encourage respectful discussion of different worldviews in RE. The children loved exploring Christian belief through song, liturgy and 5 finger prayers. Thank you, Rev Ben.
Reception: Class Worship- Children's Mental Health Week
At the start of our worship we lit our candle and signed the trinity. We then burnt our Frankincense incense stick to create a calming environment. We discussed what mental health was. Mental health is all about our feelings and our emotions. We discussed how we know when we have good mental health. Eleanor said we have lots of friends, Marnie May said we will feel happy, Beau said we might feel excited and Luna said we will be able to complete lots of challenges. If we have big feelings that are negative, we might feel sad. We were reminded that it is good to talk when we feel sad. We discussed who we could talk to. The children said Mummy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandad and the teachers. We discussed what we could do to look after ourselves to make us feel good. The children said they could write, draw, colour, play football, play with our toys and play with our friends. We were reminded that feelings come and go but talking to someone we trust can help. Thank you to MHST for a wonderful worship. We finished our worship with a dance to make us feel good and then sang Who is the king of the jungle.
Reception: Year of Prayer
This week in Reception, the children have created prayer bands. They drew people who they wanted to prayer for and then spoke to God about their special person. The children chose their parents, friends, siblings and teachers. Thank you to our WOW group for delivering the paper strips to each class.
Year 1- Year of Prayer
This week’s theme for the Year of Prayer is special fingerprint prayers. In Year 1, the children made themselves using their fingerprint and said a prayer to thank God for making us special and unique. We had children saying thank you for their families including their mummy and daddy, for their special talents such as football and dance and for giving them characteristics such as perseverance and strength when things get tricky. Well done Year 1!
Reception - Chinese New Year
This week, Reception have been learning about the celebration of Chinese New Year. We have been looking at the traditions and festivities celebrated in China, but also by people all over the world too! We read the story of the great race and learned about the position the animals came to determine each year. This year is the year of the snake. We performed dragon dances and will be tasting some traditional Chinese food!
Year 5 R.E: The Good Samaritan
In R.E, Year 5 have been discussing the parable of The Good Samaritan. They thought about the lesson that this parable teaches us - to be kind, show compassion and treat all of our neighbours equally and with respect. They took part in some drama work, taking on the role of the characters and thinking about their thoughts and feelings. The children then drew upon their recent English work on diary entries and wrote eye-witness accounts about The Good Samaritan.
The W.O.W. Group: Year 4 Class Worship
Thank you to the W.O.W. group today for leading our class worships across school. The theme was online content. Our worship leads began by introducing the topic and the news story linked to the topic. They played a couple of games of ‘Follow me’ and that we have the choice not to do something that makes us feel uncomfortable. They talked about the Christian value of courage and how we can show courage in the way we protect ourselves when viewing content online. The Bible link was from St Paul’s teachings, that we should seek out what is true, pure and trustworthy. In reflection, the Year 4s were in agreement that strict rules should be in place for children accessing content online.
Year 3- Class Worship Delivered by WOW Group- Should YouTube have more rules for younger users?
Leonora, began class worship by asking the children to sign the trinity. Year 3, then discussed a news story about the UK government asking video platforms like YouTube and TikTok to feature more educational content for children. This led to a class discussion on whether YouTube should have stricter rules for younger users. We concluded with a prayer, asking for guidance in choosing positive content and for strength to support those who might be easily influenced.
Holocaust Memorial Day Worship
Our first collective worship of the week had a serious and somber tone as we held in our thoughts and prayers all of the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust. We looked out of our spirituality windows to learn how the Nazis did not show love to their Jewish neighbours like God commanded but instead treated them really badly during World War II. We watched a BBC interview with a Jewish survivor, who described some of the personal tragedies he faced at the young age of 6 when his family sent him away to save his life from the Nazi regime. He shared how he travelled on the Kindertransport and a British family showed him love and compassion and became the light in the dark. Through our spirituality mirrors we were able to reflect on how hearing of these events made us feel, and how the Jews must have felt back then. Finally, through our spirituality doors we learned of the many survivors who have worked tirelessly to make people aware of the devastation that was caused so that it would never happen again. We reflected on how we should always love our neighbours regardless of whether they look like you, pray like you, speak like you or think like you and stand up to anyone who is being mean to others.
Year 2 - The importance of the Gospels
Today we continued to look at all of the miracles Jesus had performed in his life. We looked at where many of these miracles can be found in the Bible. The gospels are where lots of these stories are told as they are the start of the New Testament which tells stories from when Jesus was alive. We discussed why Christians believe these are important and therefore why they are important to us. Next week, we will explore the teachings we can find and use in the Gospel stories.