Hello everyone,
I hope that you are all well and enjoying the bank holiday weekend.
This term has been an extremely busy one, filled with lots of exciting opportunities for our pupils, staff and visitors to develop their own spirituality and enjoy moments of calm, still and purposeful reflection. Many thanks to Father Jeremy, Mrs Semple (Oaklands chaplain), our St. Peter’s staff, children, parents and carers, for their ongoing participation and support across our school Liturgies, Masses and Celebrations of the Word this term:
- Tuesday 23rd April 2024: Year 1 Liturgy.
- Tuesday 30th April 2024: Year 3, 4 and 5 Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Waterlooville.
- Tuesday 7th May 2024: EYFS Liturgy.
- Thursday 9th May 2024: KS2 Feast of the Ascension Liturgy
- Tuesday 11th June 2024: Year 2 Liturgy.
- Tuesday 25th June 2024: Whole School Feast Day Mass.
- Tuesday 15th July 2024: Year 6 Leavers’ Mass.
We have been very fortunate to have so many opportunities to gather together in prayer and worship as part of a whole school community this term. Following on from my previous blog post at the beginning of the Spring Term, we took part in a journey though Holy Week and Easter which included a Lenten Day of Reflection, Stations of the Cross and Easter Liturgy. Please see the images below…
Pupil Spirituality and Reflection
Towards the end of the Spring Term, our children enjoyed learning about Hinduism, Judaism, Sikhism and Islam as part of their exploration of other faiths and cultures. Please refer to our school Art blog for a fantastic selection of images from the wonderful Diversity Art projects that have been produced by each year group. You will also find examples of the ‘other faiths’ learning each class has enjoyed throughout our whole school annual event, on our individual year group blog pages. Furthermore, throughout our use of Catholic Social Teaching challenges that have been embedded across our RE curriculum, we have worked very hard as a school to provide our students with regular opportunities to reflect upon their learning and consider how this may impact upon our future actions, behaviours and choices as followers of God. Please see below for a KS2 example of a child’s key learning points from their experiences across Diversity Week…
Pupil spirituality – progression of Liturgical Roles and pupil ministry
As well as through Religious Education, our pupils have shown how they have used their gifts and talents to demonstrate how they ‘live out’ our school charism of ‘Walking hand in hand with God’, whilst promoting our school Vision of ‘Making our world a better place’. We are very fortunate to have so many pupils with gifts to share, e.g. our talented Y4 violinist who played our opening hymns, KS2 pupils who shared the Gospel, those who sang the ‘alleluia’ and responses to welcome and celebrate the Gospel message, our Altar Servers who demonstrate their Mission to support the prayer life of our school along with our Parish priest during the delivery of Mass. Please see the images below for lots of examples of these from our recent Y3, 4 and 5 Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Waterlooville. We would like to thank everyone who was able to attend and join our celebration.
I’d like to close today’s blog post with a prayer, as an opportunity to reflect upon our school Mission to support our global neighbours throughout the world, as we ‘Walk hand in hand with God, to make our world a better place’…
We pray for the Church all over the world: that it may continue God’s work, reaching out to those who are afraid.
Lord in your mercy…
We pray for people who are in wars all over the world: that they may feel strong inside and one day find peace and happiness.
Lord in your mercy…
We pray for our parish, family and friends: that we may have courage and show our faith in Jesus in all that we do.
Lord in your mercy…
Loving Jesus, you came to your friends when they had lost hope. Help us always to believe in you and to spread your hope and peace wherever we go. We pray for your guidance through Christ our Lord,
Amen.
I wish you all a wonderful week, as we look towards May as a celebration of the Month of Mary.
With very best wishes,
Miss Honeywell