Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe. On behalf of St. Peter’s Catholic primary school, I would like to wish everyone in our community a wonderful Christmas along with our very best wishes for the new year. I hope that the festive season is an enjoyable, fun, relaxing and safe time for all families and friends across our school as well as our global community.

This term has been very busy and productive, with lots of preparations taking place throughout the season of Advent. The children have thought carefully about how they can prepare their hearts, souls and minds for the birth of Jesus, our Saviour. We have been extremely fortunate to have had lots of support from our staff, parish, parents, governors and friends asociation this term, as we edge closer towards Christmas. Please see the list below for all of the fantastic celebrations and (Covid-safe) gatherings that have taken place in each year group and key stage, none of which would have been possible without the time and effort of Oaklands lay chapplain, Miss Heath, our parish priest, father Jeremy, and volunteers throughout our school community.

Advent and Christmas services:

Tuesday 30th November KS2 Advent Service at Sacred Heart
Tuesday 7th December, Year 2 Christmas Liturgy 10:00am and 1:30pm
Wednesday 8th December, Year 1 Nativity 1:30pm
Thursday 9th December, Year 1 Nativity 9:30am
Tuesday 14th December, St Peter’s Carol Service at Church, 6:30pm
Thursday 16th December, school Christmas Liturgy – details to be arranged.

Friday 10th December, Christmas Jumper Day
Friday 10th December, Year 3 & 4 Friends of St Peter’s Party
Friday 10th December, Year 5 & 6 Friends of St Peter’s Party
Saturday 11th December, Years R, 1 & 2 Friends of St Peter’s ‘Meet Santa’
Monday 13th December, EYFS and Key Stage 1 Christmas Lunch
Tuesday 14th December, Key Stage 2 Christmas Lunch
Wednesday 15th December, Panto performances

As part of our RE curriclum and worship, we would like to say a big congratulations and thank you to all of the children in Years 4 and 5 who have been working hard to prepare class and year group worships. The GIFT team created some excellent prayers and responses for our Advent Services at Sacred Heart church, whilst the Y5 pupils have collaborated with Y4 children to train and coach them in preparing classroom worships using Microsoft PowerPoint. Our students are very enthusiastic and love to partake in this special role, using the key structure of worship to support them: Gather, Listen, Reflect and Mission. Well done everybody!

We would like to thank everyone who joined the Carol Service at Sacred Heart Church on the evening of Tuesday 14th December 2021. It was wonderful to see a wide variety of performances, including drama and role play as well as group carol songs by our guitarists and recorder group. We really enjoyed celebrating all of the gifts and talents of the children at St. Peter’s, as we gathered together to worship Jesus and prepare for His birth. Once again, I would like to thank all parents, parish members, Miss Heath (Oaklands lay chapplain), St. Peter’s staff and music teachers, as well as all of the children who took part in the service.

As we all know, Christmas is a time for giving and for putting the needs of those less fortunate than us before our own. This Christmas, the children and families of St. Peter’s have given very generously to a variety of charities in order to support our local community, through the Love Christmas project. I would like to thank everyone who donated to support this project, we were absolutely delighted by the kindness and generosity shown! Please see the list below for how each year group took part and contributed…

Reception and Year 1 – Movie Night
Year 2 & Year 3 – Games Night
Year 4 & Year 5 – Pamper Packages
Year 6 & School Staff – Afternoon Tea boxes

I would like to end this term’s blog post with a final prayer:

We pray for all parents around the world: that they may be able to give their children a safe and loving home and encourage them to fulfil their dreams.

Lord, in your mercy…

We pray for all babies and children throughout the world: that they may live happy and healthy lives and have hope for a future free from poverty.

Lord, in your mercy…

We pray for our parish, family and friends: that we may be inspired to share God’s love with all people, no matter where they are in the world.

Lord, in your mercy…

I hope that you all enjoy the festive season and have a wonderful new year,

With very best wishes,

God bless,

Miss Honeywell

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe.

It has been a very busy term at St. Peter’s in terms of our religious curriculum as well as the Catholic life of our school! In our RE lessons, we have been focusing on the apostelship of St. Peter and St. Paul and we celebrated the feast day of St. Peter on Tuesday 29th June 2021. In Year 4, we celebrated Mass together in the unity building with Father Jeremy and the children made an offetory to celebrate the life, work and qualities of St. Peter, who was called ‘the rock on which the Church was built’ within the Bible. For many children, this was a very special occasion as it was also their first opportunity to parcitipate in the Eucharist and receive their Communion. Please see the images below…

We would like to say a big thank you to Father Jeremy, Mrs Farrell (Oaklands School Chaplain) and our teaching staff for all of the hard work and organisation that has gone, and will go, into the following preparations this term:

• Tuesday 4th May: Year R Liturgy
• Tuesday 25th May: Year 1 Liturgy
• Tuesday 22nd June: Year 2 Liturgy
• Tuesday 29th June: Year 4 Feast Day Mass
• Year 5 Mass on school site
• Tuesday 20th July: Year 6 Leaver’s Mass

We also have an exciting update for you all. Following our achievement of the ‘participator level’ for the Oscar Romero award, we are now able to confirm our recent pursuit of stage 2, ‘the developer level’, of this excellent school award. As a Catholic school, we continue to serve our local and school community in as many ways as possible, by following our Mission Statement and ‘using the gifts God gave us to make our world a better place’. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the leader of our GIFT team (Growing In Faith Together), Mrs Moore, who has also worked very hard with our pupil chaplains at St. Peter’s in order to organise and prepare school events including worships, Mass and liturgies.

Over the next few weeks, the children shall be exploring the final unit of their God Matters learning: The Sacraments. Thank you to children in particular year groups who have brought in items from their Holy Baptism (e.g. Baptismal candle), First Communion (rosary), etc, to share with their classes during RE lessons. Please do encourage your child to bring a copy of a photograph from any of the following Sacraments that may have been celebrated within your family: Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, etc. The children have really enjoyed sharing these experiences with one another.

I hope that you all have a wonderful rest of the school year. I would like to leave you all with a short prayer:

We pray for the Church throughout the world: that it may encourage all people to come together in peace and unity, to share and to stand up for what is right. Lord, in your mercy…

We pray for world leaders: that they may do all that they can to make sure that all people have the medical care and support that they need. Lord, in your mercy…

We pray for our parish, family and friends: that we may be moved to care for those who are unwell and support those who are caring for loved ones. Lord, in your mercy…

Christ Jesus, you healed those who asked for your help.

May we also be willing to reach out our hands to others in need.

Amen.

With very best wishes,

Miss Honeywell

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe. What a busy term it has been!

Before the Easter holidays, the children of St. Peter’s took part in a Whole School Diversity Week. After watching an interactive assembly for each of our individual class ‘pods’, the children explored the following four faiths through the use of RE sessions, Art activities, exploring treasure boxes to look at religious artefacts, as well as cross curricular learning:

• Hinduism
• Sikhism
• Islam
• Judaism

The children had a fantastic experience and they have produced an exceptional standard of learning in order to present what they had investigated and found out throughout the course of Diversity Week. Please see the following examples below:

Year 1 – Islamic Prayer Mats 

Year 2 – Holi Festival Rangoli Patterns

Year 4 – Sikh Gurdwara Dioramas 

Year 5 – Sikh Stories of Guru Nanak

Year 6 – Jewish meaning of Shalom

The children had lots of opportunities to demonstrate the behaviours that are illustrated on our St. Peter’s learning circle, throughout the course of Diversity Week. As well as being creative, the children were also able to show curiosity when exploring religious artefacts from our treasure boxes and asking questions about each item of religious worship. Please see the following selection of photos below, from RE curriclum sessions:

Islamic Prayer and Worship

Jewish Prayer and Worship

The children of St. Peter’s were fully engaged throughout the exploratory sessions during Diversity week, and it was clear to see after some pupil conferencing sessions with each year group that our students have learnt and retained a lot of key facts and information about each of the faiths of study, thanks to the interactive sessions that were carefully prepared and delivered by our teaching staff. We were delighted by the children’s high levels of respect and appreciation that they had demonstrated throughout their studies of Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism. We have created a Whole School display in the school hall, to showcase the excellent work that has been produced this term (please see the photos below). Well done everyone and a huge thank you to all of the staff for making Diversity week such a success! Please see the photos below of multicultural classroom displays that have been used to present and illustrate the work created by pupils to celebrate various religious festivals (Diwali and Holi) throughout Diversity Week:

Whole School Display in the Assembly Hall

Classroom Displays for Diversity Week

I hope that you all have enjoyed a peaceful, safe and relaxing Easter break. We very much look forward to welcoming you all back to school on Monday for the start of a new Summer Term.

With very best wishes,

Miss Honeywell

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe and that you have enjoyed your Christmas break so far.

The second half of the Autumn Term was an extremely busy one at St. Peter’s Catholic Primary school. Despite the pandemic, the children, families and staff of our school community have worked incredibly hard together in order to enable the following events to take place:

• 17 children from Year Four made took part in the sacrament of their First Holy Communion. We would like to congratulate these pupils and their families during this very special time. Another 9 children made their First Holy Communion at St. Edmund’s Church across the 12th and 13th December 2020. Congratulations and best wishes to you all.

• Our students at St. Peter’s had wonderful success in the Hampshire Interfaith Calendar competition, with 2 winners and 2 runners up from our school. We are incredibly proud of these pupils for the commitment and dedication they demonstrated in the creation of their religious art works.

• Thanks to the hard work of the teachers, support staff and children at St. Peter’s Catholic Primary school, we have been able to record and upload Christmas events on our secure, private Youtube account – these include the Year R and Year 1 Nativity plays, the Year 2 Advent Liturgy plus an alternative, socially-distanced version of the KS2 End of Term Carol assembly. 

In addition, as part of our Advent preparations, all of the children of St. Peter’s were delighted to partake in CAFOD’s Light of The World Assembly, which was streamed live online on Thursday 10th December 2020. This online event enabled our students from both Key Stages to meet people around the world who have spread light and hope to others this year. We then reflected on what it means to share the light of Jesus during Advent, and how we can make Christmas special for everyone, by writing our very own messages of hope on colourful candles for our school display (see below). We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Pearson for organising our school project, as well as to the ELSA support team who helped to create our beautiful displays of the children’s work in the assembly hall and windows of the Unity Building.

In the spirit of hope, we look forward to 2021 and all of the spiritual and learning opportunities it shall bring. In our RE curriculum, for example, we shall spend the first two weeks reflecting upon Christmas and Jesus the Messiah as the Light of the World who was sent as our promise and Saviour by God. Subsequently, we shall then begin our RE learning for Revelations – this is a time when we discover the sciptures that describe how Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of God through His miracles, healing powers and good works towards those in need. The Spring Term shall also provide an excellent opportunity for St. Peter’s Catholic Primary school to continue researching, discovering and appreciating other faiths and cultures during our Whole School Diversity Week from 22nd March – 26th March 2021. During this special week, we look forward to learning more about Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Islam, by exploring different religious artefacts and through participating in various events and workshops. We shall also be taking part in the following school events across the Spring Term:

• Year R Liturgy – Tuesday 19th January
• Year 3 and 4 Mass – Tuesday 26th January
• Year 5 and 6 Mass – Tuesday 2nd February
• Year 2 Liturgy – Tuesday 23rd February
• Year 1 Liturgy – Tuesday 2nd March
• Whole School Lenten day of Reflection – Monday 29th March

The community of St. Peter’s Catholic Primary School has shown exceptional support, compassion and love this year, not only towards one another but to the wider community that surrounds it too. I would like to say a special thank you to our family support worker, Megan Chapman, for her incredibly hard work during the collection, organisation and disctribution of home learning packs, school stationary and food parcels in order to help support families at this difficult and challenging time. I would like to conclude this month’s blog post with the following prayer:

We pray for the Church throughout the world: that it may always follow God’s word and be a place of welcome and love for all, especially for those who are poor and suffering. Lord, in your mercy…

 Hear our Prayer

We pray for all those who feel sad, sick, lonely or afraid: that together we may reach out to support and comfort them, inspired by Jesus who lived among us and shares our pain. Lord, in your mercy…

Hear our Prayer

We pray for our parish, our family and friends: that we may follow Jesus and love our neighbour in all that we do. Lord, in your mercy…

Hear our Prayer

With very best wishes to you all for the New Year,

Miss Honeywell

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe. It has been wonderful to welcome you back to St. Peter’s as we begin our new school year. We hope that your children have enjoyed their first few weeks back at St. Peter’s and that all children, staff, family and friends of our school feel settled and prepared for a fresh term…

In September, the children were welcomed back to school through socially distanced year group liturgies and masses. We were delighted to host Father Jeremy and Miss Keogh (Oaklands Chaplain) during our celebrations. On Tuesday 15th September, Year Four took part in a liturgy that was based upon coronavirus, our unsung heroes, as well as the national use of rainbows as a sign of hope and promise. Both classes presented their own class projects to one another – these consisted of ‘hopes and promises’ rainbows and ‘prayers of gratitude for our local heroes’. Please see photographs for examples below:

On Tuesday 22nd September, Year 5 celebrated together in Mass. The children listened to the Bible and learnt how we are one body in Christ, with different members of the Church community representing a listening ear, a loving heart, and following in God’s footsteps, for example. On Tuesday 29th September, Year 6 also joined together to take part in Mass. We look forward to the following, socially-distanced school events this term:

• Tuesday 13th October 2020: Year Three Liturgy.
• Tuesday 20th October 2020: Year Two Liturgy.

We are also very excited to announce that on Saturday 3rd and 10th October, there shall be 50 children from St. Peter’s Catholic Primary school who shall be receiving the Sacrament of their First Holy Communion. Congratulations and best wishes to all of the children and their families at this very special time, we hope that you have a wonderful day full of happy memories and we look forward to hearing about your Communion experience when you return to school.

As the Autumn Term progresses, we continue to enjoy daily class worship at St. Peter’s. This has taken the form of Ten Ten online resources which include daily prayers, weekly assemblies and interactive activities to engage the children in their faith and help them to consider how scriptural teachings can be put into practice to support our Mission statement of ‘using the gifts and talents God gave us to make our world a better place’. Please do feel free at home to continue using the worship resources that are regularly attached to the Headteacher’s blog posts on our school website.

As we approach October, our attention turns to Black History Month and the importance of equality and mutual respect to all of our neighbours around the world. At St. Peter’s, as part of our learning journey on Creation in our God Matters curriculum, we have regularly discussed our responsibility as stewards of God’s creation to care for and protect everyone in God’s family. In light of this, each class has worked very hard on their Multicultural and Diversity displays to consider this important message. Please see photographs for examples below:

I hope you all have a safe and peaceful weekend,

With best wishes for the new school year,

Miss Honeywell

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and keeping safe. I would just like to say a huge well done to all of our school community for the tremendous effort that has taken place in order to sustain our school life, education and ethos, during these incredible challenging and unpredictable times.

The co-work of teachers and parents in the remote education of our pupils has been phenomenal – we feel so proud of all of the families, children and staff who have demonstrated exceptional levels of resilience and commitment over the course of the last few months. We would like to thank everyone for their kindness, patience and understanding during recent weeks, which has really helped our school community to flourish regardless of distancing measures, remote learning and other significant changes to our everyday routines.

In light of this, I would like to share a short reflection with you all…

Lately, our school patronal feast day took place on Sunday 28th June. In the same way as St. Peter, we have considered how we can continue to follow God’s calling by ‘using the gifts God gave us to make our world a better place’. In particular, the children have demonstrated their awareness of the sacrifices made by St. Peter and the loyalty he had demonstrated as a follower of Jesus. Please take a look at the following Art and Religious Education activities that some of our pupils have completed as part of their home learning.

What a fantastic selection of our school logo, stained glass window paintings and models of the keys to Heaven! We hope that you all have a peaceful and restful summer holidays, with opportunities for moments of prayer, calm and quiet reflection. We send all of our prayers to those who have been affected by the Coronavirus around the world, may we continue show our support and appreciation to all key workers and those on the NHS front line who are working so hard to tackle the virus and nurse those who are suffering back to good health. I would like to end this month’s blog post with a short prayer:

Merciful God,

We entrust to your unfailing
and tender care this night
those who are ill or in pain,
knowing that whenever danger threatens
your everlasting arms are there to hold us safe.
Comfort and heal them,
and restore them to health and strength;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Please continue to access the Sunday Liturgy resources that are posted each week on the Headteacher’s blog. We look forward to seeing you all in September and hope that you have a safe and enjoyable summer holidays and feel ready and refreshed for the new term.

Best wishes,

Miss Honeywell

Hello,

I hope that you are all well and staying safe.

What a strange time we have found ourselves in – one thing that has become very clear, however, is the strength of our school community and the way in which it has continued to thrive regardless of the restrictions presented by UK lock down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each day, we have been fortunate enough to open our school doors and welcome students – albeit a much smaller group size! – to join together for the calm of Whole School worship and excitement of classroom learning. In addition, we are incredibly proud of the community spirit that has been demonstrated by our staff and pupils. For instance, the teachers of St. Peter’s have worked together to create a series of food bank collections to support those in the wider community at this difficult time. Furthermore, our staff have very gratefully received kind messages of gratitude from parents and their children, for the commitment that has been demonstrated towards securing the delivery of a rich, engaging and varied curriculum for all of the students at St. Peter’s Catholic Primary school.

Of course, despite many of our families responsibly following government guidelines to stay at home, this has not hindered the connection between school and home. For example, teachers have successfully been able to make regular phone calls home to children to ensure that they remain aware of always being the key foundation to our Catholic community. It has been lovely to hear how the children have been celebrating Easter at home with their families recently and remaining in contact with their peers through online applications including WhatsApp, FaceTime and Skype. In addition, class emails have been set up to enable the children to share work completed from home that they are proud of. Take a look at these wonderful Year Four examples of an Easter Egg design that includes symbols for New Life (left), and a  mosaic card that celebrates the love Jesus has for everyone in our world (right)…

Undoubtedly, learning for Religious Education has been delivered through alternative means during the current crisis. For instance, students from all year groups have been given access to a selection of RE tasks through posts on the class blogs that include activities for Holy Week, Easter and Other Faiths (as part of our work on diversity fortnight, which was scheduled – prior to the outbreak – to take place recently). It has also been wonderful to see the children equally engaged in their ART RE home learning, which has been set by Mrs Pearson. Take a look at the examples of an Easter stained glass window, a Gurdwara model, a station of the cross, as well as a calm prayer station for daily reflection…

Please do keep an eye on class blogs over the next few weeks, as more home learning tasks for Religious Education shall be set for Pentecost. Also, I would like to remind you all that Ten Ten school worships are available to you through a link to Daily Prayers, on the Headteacher’s school blog.

Finally, I would like to end this month’s RE blog post with the following prayer from CAFOD…

Almighty and merciful Father, who shows love to all of Your creation,

We come before You asking for support as we work to control the Coronavirus currently ravaging our world.

Hear graciously the prayers we make for those affected by the virus in various parts of the world.

Grant healing to the sick, eternal life to those who have passed away and consolation to all bereaved families.

We pray that an effective medicine to combat the sickness may soon be found.

We pray for the governments and health authorities, that they take appropriate steps for the good of all people.

Look upon us in Your mercy and forgive us our failings.

Amen.

(https://cafod.org.uk/Pray/Prayer-resources/Coronavirus-prayers)

With very best wishes to you all,

Miss Honeywell

Hello,

I hope that you have all been having a relaxing and enjoyable half term break.

As part of their RE Curriculum learning during the Spring Term, our students began to learn about the Revelation of Christ through the miracles that He performed to help others. Through these miracles and the work of Jesus, Christians believe that God had revealed His presence to those on Earth. Our children have celebrated this message through their study and exploration of key Bible stories including the Transfiguration and Baptism of Jesus, amongst other Luminous Mysteries. Another way in which this theme was celebrated was through our Year 3 and 4 Mass which took place on  Tuesday 28th January 2020. This service was led by Father Jeremy and Father Agber, and was a wonderful opportunity for our school community to join together in prayer and worship. We would like to send many thanks to all parents and parishioners who were able to attend our Mass, as well as to S. Keogh (Oaklands Catholic School Chaplain) and St. Peter’s staff for their hard work when preparing and resourcing the service.

Last half term, lots of exciting school events took place at St. Peters. For example, the Year R liturgy on Tuesday 21st January 2020 was well attended by family members and the children behaved beautifully and were fantastic role models and representatives of our school. Another key update from last term includes the introduction of S. Keogh’s pupil chaplain team at St. Peter’s Catholic school – the GIFT team (Growing In Faith Together) shall encourage the development of student voice, responsibility and involvement with regards to the Catholic life of our school and the events and celebrations that take place in our school community throughout the Liturgical Year. Next term, we look forward to celebrating our ‘Lenten Day of reflection’ on 31st March 2020. We are proud to announce that our pupil GIFT team shall play a large role in the organisation and delivery of this special day. Another school event which our team shall participate and collaborate on includes the St. Peter and St. Paul feast day Mass – this will take place on Tuesday 30th June 2020.

Upon our return to school on Monday 24th February 2020, we look forward to beginning our learning for Lent as we start preparations as a community that enable us to reflect on our faith, pray to Jesus and give to others who are less fortunate than ourselves as we continue following in God’s footsteps to make our world a better place. In particular, on Wednesday 26th February 2020, Years 2-6 shall join together for an Ash Wednesday service to begin our Lenten preparations at St. Peter’s.

May I leave you all with a prayer for strength, hope and guidance as we begin our spiritual journeys through Lent. As part of our participation across The Year of the God Who Speaks, we continuously reflect upon our deepening relationship with God through the scriptures we study and commandments we live by as God’s stewards…

Living God,

you walk alongside us and

speak to us throughout the Scriptures.

Your Son, Jesus Christ,

listens to our hopes and fears

and shows us how to live for one another.

Send us the Holy Spirit

to open our hearts and minds

so that we may be your witnesses

throughout the world.

Amen.

This is the Official Prayer for the Year of the God who speaks:

https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/get-involved/the-god-who-speaks-the-year-of-the-word/

With very best wishes to you all,

Miss Honeywell

Hello,

I hope that you are all well and that you have had a wonderful start to December, as we begin the countdown to Christmas.

To begin, I would like to congratulate one of our Y3 students, Caitlin, for winning Hampshire County Council’s 2020 Interfaith Calendar competition, this November. Her work on the parable of the Lost Sheep shall be published for the month of July. We look forward to seeing your creative illustration, well done Caitlin! Other school events that have taken place include the Y1 Liturgy on Tuesday 12th November 2019, as well as whole school collections for the Apostleship of the Sea charity.

December is always a busy yet exciting time of year. During Advent, however, we also take time to reflect, pray and consider how we may prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas time. At St. Peter’s, the children have enjoyed taking part in calm meditation sessions, to reflect upon the choices they have made towards others and how, in some cases, these choices may be improved to enable us to prepare our hearts for the second coming of Christ. Please see a copy of the Advent Calendar provided by Mr. Cunningham during our Whole School worship, which has now been sent home with all children, that shall encourage our students to take part in prayers and activities that shall enable them to put others first, this Advent. Another way in which we have prepared for Christmas has been during our Whole School Advent service at Sacred Heart Church on Tuesday 3rd December 2019. The service was a truly delightful opportunity for our whole school community to join together and reflect upon the birth of Jesus and the events which took place on the journey to Bethlehem. Well done to all of the readers and choir singers and a huge thank you to S. Keogh (Oaklands School Chaplain) and the teaching staff for organising such a beautiful service. I would like to also say thank you to our parent volunteers, who all took time from their busy schedules to accompany the children on a safe walk to and from the church. Please see the photo below from our Advent Service…

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Year R team and Reception children for all of their hard work when rehearsing for their class Nativity play, which took place this week. All of the staff, parents and friends of St. Peter’s feel extremely proud of the children for their courage and teamwork during their dress rehearsal and final performance. Well done everybody! I would also like to wish Y1 and Y2 the best of luck for their upcoming Nativity play – our school shall look forward to supporting you and watching your performance at tomorrow’s dress rehearsal.

Please note that our Whole School Carol Service shall take place at Sacred Heart Church (Waterlooville) on Tuesday 10th December 2019, from 6.30 – 7.30 pm. We very much look forward to seeing you all there!

I would like to complete this month’s blog post with a short prayer, as we prepare for the celebration of the birth of the Lord at Christmas…

In this season of expectation, we prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, the Messiah, into the bustle of our lives and the hard to find moments of solitude. We prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, the Messiah, into our homes and situations along with families and friends. May we not forget the true meaning of Christmas, but instead welcome the joy of Christ in our hearts as we continue His work on earth.

Amen.

With very best wishes to you all for Christmas and the New Year,

Kind regards,

Miss Honeywell

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all well and that you are enjoying a peaceful, safe and relaxing half term.

St. Peter’s have continued to partake in numerous events this term, which have taken place as part of the Catholic Life of our school. For example, on Tuesday 15th October 2019, Year 3 and Year 4 took part in a walk to Sacred Heart Church. At Mass, we celebrated the Extraordinary Month of Mission and how we as Christians can live out our school Mission Statement in order to help make our world a better place. As part of the offertory, the children produced a postcard for the Missio Charity and described how they would use their special qualities and talents in order to serve the people of God’s world. We would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Keogh (Oaklands chaplain) for organizing the music and resources, as well as to all teaching staff for distributing readings to children and all parent volunteers for their kindness and generosity when assisting the children on the walk to church. Thank you!

As well as being a month on Mission, we have also celebrated the Month of Mary during October. As part of our celebrations, each year group took part in a special mission set by the Pope: for one million children around the world to join together and pray the rosary, with a particular focus upon spreading peace and unity across the world. The children were reflective and respectful during each session, successfully using the beads of the rosary as a guide in supporting them to pray ‘a decade of the rosary’. Please see the photos below…

In class, we have continued to consider the significance of St. Peter’s Mission Statement in our everyday lives. As part of our God Matters RE curriculum, we have completed our learning on Creation and have started our new unit as a school on Prayers, Saints and Feasts. In this unit, we shall focus upon the key figures in the History of the people of God, as well as on the importance of prayer and how this may take place in different settings. We have particularly enjoyed exploring the Other Faiths elements within each unit, for instance Year Four have been studying Judaism and have been learning about the Torah and the symbols used in Jewish prayer before studying the Shema prayer (Hear, O Israel) and creating their own version.

To complete this month’s RE blog post, I would like to leave you all with a prayer as we reflect upon the month of Mission and how we may welcome, encourage and support others in our everyday lives.

We pray for the Church: that it may be a place where everyone is welcome and inspire a change in the lives of all those who hear its message. Lord in your mercy…

We pray for our brothers and sisters in every country: that they may have their fair share of the good things God has given for all. Lord in your mercy…

We pray for our parish, family and friends: that through God’s help we may make changes so that all people may live together in peace. Lord in your mercy…

Welcoming Lord, come and stay with us. Fill our hearts with your love. Help us to show kindness and mercy to everyone we meet. Amen

With very best wishes to you all,

Kind regards,

Miss Honeywell