Reception: Christmas
This week we have been retelling the Nativity story. We have also been thinking about why Christmas is important. The children said Christmas is important because Jesus is born on Christmas Day. We discussed how Jesus is very important to Christians and is God’s son. The children have been enjoying retelling the story using dressing up, our small world area and through our Eggsplorers too.
Year 3- NO PENS DAY - Litter picking- Brainbox games-What can you remember in just 10 seconds?
Today, Year 3 celebrated No Pens Day thanks to our Smart School Council. They combined learning by litter picking, demonstrating teamwork, communication, and a strong sense of kindness and spirituality. They even discussed how God and the community would be pleased with their efforts. In the classroom, they paired up for a fun game of BrainBox, boosting their memory, observation skills, and understanding of math and reading. Oracy skills were embedded throughout the day, as students listened attentively, took turns to talk, and engaged in thoughtful discussions.
Collective Worship: First Sunday of Advent
Today during worship, Mrs Wilkinson shared the word Advent with the children. We started by discussing what this means. The children said that it was about the countdown to the arrival of the birth of Jesus. It is a time to prepare for Christians. The first Sunday of Advent, Christians focus on hope. We discussed what hope meant and how it is a sign of good things to come. During our reflection we thought about how we can bring hope to people and how we can show love and kindness to others. Cassidy said we could donate to charity, Sonny said we could buy a present for a homeless person and Leonora said we could smile at one another. We prayed to God together and thanked him for sending Jesus at Christmas to give us the hope that the world can be a better place. We ended our worship by singing 'come and join the celebration' and 'ding dong'.
Reception - How the Church celebrates Christmas
This morning, Rev Matt visited us to share with us how the church celebrates Christmas. He explained that the retelling of the Nativity story is the most important part of the celebration as it is about the very special birth of Jesus. The singing of hymns and lighting of candles also symbolises the joy and light that was brought into the world at this time. We also talked about how we celebrate Christmas at home. Beau said ‘we decorate the house’ and Eleanor said ‘we have Christmas tea’
Rev Matt Worship
Today, Rev Matt led a fantastic worship that focused on how we can often lose sight of things that are important. He started with a challenge that involved watching a video with a focus in mind, but in doing so, we missed some other events that occurred. This linked nicely to the story ‘God Sends Fire’ as King Ahab had lost faith in God and decided to worship a false God called Baal. To show everyone that God was the true God, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. They had to build an altar and ask their God to set it on fire. The prophets of Baal danced and prayed all night, but nothing happened. Then, Elijah asked people to drench his altar with water. He prayed to God, and fire came down from heaven! It burned up the altar and all of the water. Everyone saw this and knew God was the true God. This story can help us remember to have faith in God, even when things are tough, and to always trust that He is in control.
Whole School Worship - World Toilet Day
In worship yesterday, we looked through our spirituality windows and out into the world on toilets. We were shocked and saddened to find out that around 700 children under 5 die every year due to poor sanitation. We heard about Jeremiah in Kenya who doesn’t have access to a toilet. In his community, people would mostly use a hole in the ground or a plastic bag, which some people would tie up and throw on other people’s roofs. We talked about how this affects people’s health and shared ideas of what we could do to help. The children then learned about our Toilet Twinning project for which we raised money a few years go to sponsor the building and maintenance of toilets in Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, and Afghanistan. We reflected on how we should never take our toilets for granted and thought of ways we could save loo paper and water.
Year 4 - Class Worship: How Do We Know Who We Are?
We had an extremely thought-provoking class worship today. We found out about Amur, a Muslim boy in Denmark, using Lyfta. He shared a small snapshot of his daily life and explored the question “Who am I?” The discussion which followed was the perfect opportunity for us to practise our talk tactics and listening skills as we shared our opinions on who Amir is as a person, whether or not we thought he was a good person, and how we could tell. There was a lot of agreement among the children with some building on others’ ideas, and a couple of respectful disagreements.
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Year 3- R.E- Exploring God's Story through Art
This afternoon in R.E, the children looked closely at the People of God panels in the big frieze by Emma Yarlett. They searched for words hidden among the pictures, such as "idols," "temptation," and "repent." The children discussed why these words were included in the artwork and how they relate to the stories of God's people in the Bible.
Year 1- Interfaith Week and Hinduism Workshop
To celebrate Interfaith Week, Year 1 had a special Hindu Workshop. They started off by taking part in a traditional Hindu dance before learning about Hindu worship known as Puja which involves all five of the senses. Our visitor, Prags showed us some of the important artefacts used as part of Puja such as the bell (used to make sure that the God knows the worshippers are there), a candle, incense stick, the Swastika symbol and the red paste which is used to make a mark on a a Hindu’s head as a sign of respect to their God. Prags also told us about some other Hindu practises such as offering food or flowers to their God known as arti, washing thoroughly before worship and taking their shoes off as they enter the temple. Since Year 1 have also been learning about how Hindus created the world in their creation unit, Prags gave them the opportunity to ask some of their own questions that they had. Harry asked, ‘Why does the God have lots of heads?’ Prags explained this was because the God needs to look all around the world and also because they have many different forms. She explained that we have many roles e.g. Phoebe is a daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend etc.. and the Gods do too and this is why they’re drawn and painted with many heads. Callie asked, ‘Why does the God have four arms?’ Prags explained that this was because they are powerful and need to be able to do lots of things/carry many things at the same time. Bella asked, ‘Why is the God shown as being blue?’ Prags explained that Shiva is blue to symbolise the world’s poisons that he drank in order to protect it and Vishnu is blue to represent his calming personality. However, Prags also said that by representing them as blue, we are celebrating colour and appreciating people’s differences.
Whole School Worship: Anti-Bullying and Respect
Our worship today introduced the theme of Choose Respect for Anti-bullying Week. We heard from primary school children from around the country talking about the effects of bullying, the importance of respect and how we can change the way we speak to others. Mrs Ham invited up some of our pupils to act out various scenarios so that we could identify the potential bullying problem and suggest ways to correct it that benefit everyone involved. The children had some fantastic suggestions, which we can all try to use on the playground to resolve conflict. We spent some time reflecting on the meaning of respect and on how others may feel when they are treated with disrespect.
Year 2 - Hinduism Workshop
Year 2 were very lucky to have an exciting visitor in school today. During our workshop, Prags shared her knowledge and experience of Hinduism. We discussed how Hindu’s prepare for worship and how their prayers are similar and different to Christians. We also joined in some classic Hindi dancing wearing very colourful skirts and jackets.
Year 4 - RE: Interfaith Week & Hinduism
The Year 4 class thoroughly enjoyed their Hinduism workshop on Monday. Our visitor, Prags, from Cultural Educasian, brought in a variety of artefacts in order to explain and demonstrate some Hindu beliefs and practices. The theme for the Year 4 workshop was Reincarnation. Prags gave a great, child-friendly explanation to the children about the Hindu belief that everyone has a piece of Brahman inside them, like a part of a jigsaw, and that their aim is to live a good life in order to complete the jigsaw, Brahman, and make him whole. We learned that being reincarnated signifies that the previous life was lived imperfectly and Hindus are given a chance to correct this in the next life. There was also some time for trying on some traditional Indian clothing and performing a traditional dance.