Hello,
I hope that you have all had an enjoyable and relaxing summer holidays. It is a pleasure to welcome you all back to St. Peter’s Catholic Primary School for the start of the Autumn term.
I would like to begin by sharing some wonderful news. Last week, our school achieved the first level of a national programme called The Romero Award. This award focuses upon Catholic Social Teaching (CST), as well as how CST may be put into action to ensure schools are promoting these values and using them to support their local community. I would like to both thank and congratulate Mrs Conlon and Mr Land for their hard work, all of which has enabled our school to receive ‘Participator Level’ status of the 3 year programme. A fantastic start to the year!
As part of their RE Curriculum learning, the children of St. Peter’s enjoyed taking part in two Mission Statement lessons per year group, to reflect upon the following words of our (updated) Mission Statement and how they and others (charities, saints, Church communities) ‘live out’ the values of our Mission – “Walking hand in hand with God, to make our world a better place”. It was excellent to see examples of role play, creative tasks and Catholic Social Teaching across each of the year groups. We now look forward to beginning our first God Matters unit this week, on Creation, whereby the children learn about the Creation story from Genesis and how we are all made in God’s image and so should respect and love one another as stewards who care for God’s world. Please see the Creation display at the school office for examples of pupil’s work so far.
This morning, we have welcomed all students, staff and governors during our Whole School Mass. We began the service with a gathering of our 60 new Reception pupils and our school council representatives from Y1-6, who joined together to attend a service of prayers and blessings for our new Unity Building. Meanwhile, Years 1-6 participated in Mass with Father Jeremy, in the school assembly hall. Towards the end of the Mass, our school council representatives joined Father Jeremy in the prayer garden for a separate blessing and prayer (which was linked via microphone to the school hall so that our entire school community could join in response to the prayers at the garden). I would like to thank the Oaklands school chaplain (S. Keogh), Father Jeremy and all staff, governors and pupils, for their hard work towards the preparation and delivery of today’s services. Please see the photos below…
Coming up, we look forward to the following worship events that are taking place in and around school:
- Tuesday 15th October 2019 – Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle Church – Y3 and 4 Mass (10.30am)
- Tuesday 22nd October 2019 – St. Peter’s Catholic Primary School – Y2 Liturgy (10.30am)
Families are more than welcome to attend these events, it would be wonderful to see you all there!
We remember that this week’s reading comes the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 15:1-32). In this Bible passage, Jesus teaches us that God is our shepherd who guides the way to goodness, whilst we are the sheep who follow Him in His footsteps…
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”.
I would like to end this month’s blog post with a short prayer, as part of a reflection on our Gospel reading…
God of lost sheep, coins and all people, help us to remember you are with us in love and forgiveness every day.
Guide us to share your love with others through all that we do.
Amen.
Wishing you all the best for the new school year,
Kind regards,
Miss Honeywell