“Do not be afraid”. The message delivered to the whole school during worship this week. Mrs Knight talked about some of the things that she is afraid of and gave children time to think about their fears. What can we do when we are afraid? We can place our fears in the hands of Jesus. He is always with us even when we are scared, worried or alone. How wonderful it is that we have the Lord to soothe our fears whenever we need Him.

On Thursday this week we celebrated the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul. We were joined by Father Jeremy and Father Vitalis for a whole school Mass. Children have spent their RE lessons this week learning about St. Peter with each year group focussing on a different story that we learn about in the bible. Then, as is tradition on this feast day which is particularly special to us, all children were given a celebratory ice cream! Year 6 children also organised a cake sale which the children enjoyed attending in the afternoon.

Here are some photos of our mass.

Below are some photos from the annual Diocesan School Mass at St. John’s Cathedral in Portsmouth, that I attended with five children form Year 6 last week. It was a beautiful service with wonderful contributions from children from around our diocese.

We can hardly believe that there are only three full weeks left of term! It is so lovely to look back through our blogs and see just how much that we have achieved this year.

Best wishes for your weekend ahead,

Sarah Luter

This week we heard in whole school worship how Jesus calls Himself “the bread of life” and tells people that whoever eats His bread will live forever. We know that Jesus doesn’t really mean that He is a loaf of bread! He’s making a comparison in just the same way that He compares Himself to a shepherd. Just like bread is something that helps our bodies to live and grow, Jesus is reminding us that the way to keep our spirits strong and alive (both now and forever – with God in heaven) is to follow his example. Jesus is food for our souls in the same way that real bread is food for our bodies. Children will continue to find out how Jesus can be the ‘bread’ of their lives during worship this week.

Years 5 and 6 took a very hot walk to Sacred Heart on Tuesday. Only a few took the minibus back to school! The Mass was all about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I think that Father Jeremy was impressed with the knowledge that they already had but further helped them to understand the gifts, what they meant, and how they bear ‘fruit’. Thank you to all the parents and family members who joined us.

Tomorrow 6 children form Year 6 will represent our school at the annual Schools’ Mass at St John’s Catholic Cathedral in Portsmouth. We will be taking our school banner along as will all the Catholic schools in our diocese as a symbol of our unity. It is a chance for us to gather round the table of the Lord and give thanks for God’s grace on our schools and ask for His blessing on those in need that we have been supporting through our charitable endeavours. We will present a certificate detailing the amount we raised during Lent supporting CAFOD’s Big Fish appeal.

Reuben, Edward, Jessica, Molly, Bethany and Elliott from Year 6 will be joining me at the cathedral tomorrow, selected by their teachers for consistently showing a commitment to our Catholic ethos throughout their time at St. Peter’s.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Sarah Luter

Whole school worship this week gave us the opportunity to reflect on a concept that children of primary school age find very hard to understand; The Holy Trinity. Mrs Osborne compared the concept to an apple. One God; three parts. The outer skin is like God holding everything together. The flesh of the apple was compared to Jesus – the physical part of the Trinity who came to earth to teach us how to live. The seeds or the Holy Spirit help us to grow in our everyday lives.

Every class continues their learning about Pentecost and Mission this week. The Fruits of the Spirit have been a focus in many year groups helping us to understand how we can be good Christians. Through examining the Fruits of the Holy Spirit children have been able to recognise how the Holy Spirit is working in and around us even when times are turbulent in the world and in our own lives.

Children have been writing prayers to add to our prayer tree saying how they can spread God’s message today. Our prayer tree is at the entrance of the school where children can visit during their break times.

Children have also been contributing to a British Values display in the last couple of weeks. When they have been learning about British Values in class they have then added to a whole school display to reflect learning in this vital part of social development learning which weaves throughout our RE curriculum.

Best wishes for the week ahead,

Sarah Luter

During whole school worship on our first day back of the final half of our Summer Term, Mr Cunningham delivered an important message to all staff and children. Following on from Pentecost Sunday we were reminded that the disciples had an important message for the whole world. To deliver the message of God. Of peace. Of love. Whatever the language that we speak, whatever our creed or colour; the message is the same. In light of current events in our country this was a powerful message and children were reassured that we, together as a school community will support each other.

In lessons this week children will have the opportunity to further explore the message that God wants us to spread. Children will be able to add their own ideas to our school prayer tree about how they can spread God’s message in their daily lives.

Year 5 will be looking at how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and in the wider world. Younger children will explore the story of Pentecost thinking about how the disciples may have felt and how they may have reacted if they had been in the room with the disciples.

Children in Year 2 have been examining the Hindu festival of Holi. They compared the similarities and differences to the Christian celebration of Easter. There were many similarities which surprised the children. The main difference involved the throwing of colourful paints at each other which we agreed seemed like great fun. The children especially loved the fact that this Hindu festival is a real family event where all of the family have chance to spend time together.

We hope that you all had a restful half term. It hardly seems possible that we have arrived at our final half term of 2016-2017.

Kind regards,

Sarah Luter