Children at St. Peter’s School are very familiar with this week’s Gospel reading. The Good Shepherd is definitely one of our favourites. We know that sheep follow each other and their shepherd and we know that Jesus called Himself The Good Shepherd because He wants us to follow Him. A bit like sheep would! In class worship this week we will be thinking about how we can be part of Jesus’s flock. How do we choose the right thing and follow Him? Sometimes this is hard and we don’t follow Him. How can we put this right?

On Tuesday 1st May at 10.45, Years 3 and 4 will be celebrating mass at Church with Father Jeremy. This will be our first joint year group mass at Church this Year and we are very much looking forward to it. As it is the first day of a very special month in Church we will of course be dedicating the mass to Mary and our own Mothers. It would be great to welcome parishioners, friends and family.

 

Kind wishes for the week ahead,

Sarah Luter

Happy Easter to all our friends and families.

Always a busy week at St.Peter’s with this year no exception!

Very well done to all the children who completed their Lenten passport. Children were challenged to attend as many Sunday masses as possible during Lent and ‘collect’ the Gospel reading for each week. They received a small religious momentum in our Golden Leaf assemblies this week which celebrate children’s commitment to our school mission statement.

Also very well done to the winners of our Real Easter Egg competition. One winner from each year group received a Real Easter Egg which tells the true story of Easter.

On Maundy Thursday every child took part in a Stations of the Cross service. Thank you to the Year 2 children who acted out each Station not only to KS1 but KS2 as well! (The weather prevented our usual pilgrimage around the school.)

This Monday we gathered for our last whole school worship of the term. Mr Cunningham talked about the amazing welcome that Jesus received into Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover. The children agreed that they would feel really special if the were welcomed somewhere in such a way and thought about how they welcome other people. We were then encouraged to think about how this welcome turned to betrayal for Jesus and how we feel if we are betrayed.

Year 5 have been analysing the story about when Jesus drove the traders out of the temple. After much discussion we had lots of ‘Oh I understand now’ – Jesus knew that he would die and told the chief priests that if they destroyed the temple (his body) that he would rebuild it in three days. He would come back to life! This was the miracle that He said would be performed to show that He was worthy of behaving the way He did.

We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday. Hopefully this weather will turn soon!
Once again a very happy, blessed, peaceful Easter to you!

Best wishes,

Sarah Luter

This week my Year 3 class wrote the St. Peter’s section for the Church newsletter as I had a rare Monday morning away from school. They rather enjoyed the opportunity to ‘talk’ to the parishioners of Sacred Heart and St. Edmunds. Here is their contribution….

“This week Mrs. Osbourne brought in some daffodils to illustrate the Gospel. When plants die more seeds sprout out like Jesus giving out the Holy Spirit when he rose again. Mrs. Osbourne gave each class a copy of the Gospel reading to display on our prayer tables. Jesus says that unless a grain of wheat dies and falls to the ground it will stay just as one grain. If it goes into the ground it will produce many grains of wheat. Jesus died to save us all. By dying something amazing happened for us.”

In other news Key Stage 2 had their Penitential Service this week in school with Father Jeremy. It was a wonderful way to prepare ourselves ready for Easter. Year R also had their Year group liturgy on Tuesday. Once again it was lovely to see so many friends and family.

Year 5 met with our Bishop on Thursday. They have been involved in the Portsmouth Diocese Caritas Schools Dragons’ Den project. For weeks Year 5 have been asking staff and children what they would like as part of a prayer garden that they would like to create in the central court yard at school. Designs were created and submitted using PowerPoints to persuade their teachers. Mrs Turner then chose some children in Year 5 to represent the school. They travelled to Basingstoke yesterday to present their design ideas. They were an absolute credit to themselves, their teachers and the whole of St. Peter’s School. When Bishop Philip asked the children how the design reflected St. Peter himself Cecilia answered “well we would like to use rocks as part of our design because St. Peter is the rock of our church”.

We are exceptionally proud to announce that the children secured £400 towards our prayer garden! We are very excited to have a new prayer garden which we will use as part of our daily prayer. Particular congratulations go to our pupil representatives….

Alicia

Kristopher

Nicolas

Yohan

Millie

Tia

Lily,

Lilli

Cecilia

Samuel

Sigciniwe

Lillie

This afternoon I was able to visit every class whilst RE was being taught. It was so lovely to see how engaged every child in the school was in their learning. Children were applying so much of their recent learning to their own lives. Children were writing their own prayers and reflecting on their behaviour and actions during Lent with particular focus on the very difficult queston ‘is it always easy to forgive?’

Next week is Holy Week … please visit next Thursday to see some photos of our Stations of the Cross pilgimmages.

Best wishes,

Sarah Luter

Whole school worship had a very simple message this week; God loves each and every one of us. He loves us so much that He sent His only Son to save us. This week in St. Peter’s we will be making an extra effort to show those around us how much we love them. We have turned our thoughts to people that we don’t always find easy to get on with.  God loves that person and so we too can show love and kindness to them. Even if that love comes through as a simple smile.

Year 2 had their year group liturgy this week where they reflected upon their journey through Lent and the difficulties that Jesus was faced with. It was lovely to see so many friends and family once again. Thank you for joining us Father Jeremy.

We continue to see that tempting box of Roses chocolates on our school prayer table. By leaving them alone we are showing how much we love our brothers and sisters around the world as each chocolate is worth £2 to CAFOD.

Hopefully your child or children are busy collecting the Gospel readings for their Lenten passports – we look forward to sharing this in the last week of term along with the winners of the Real Egg Palm Sunday competition.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Luter

Mr. Cunningham led our first whole school worship of Lent on Monday. He told the children about the time that Jesus spent in the desert. He was tempted to test God’s love but Jesus did not listen. Mr. Cunningham explained that we need to be like Jesus during Lent and resist temptations. On our school prayer table this Lent is a box of 30 chocolate Roses and £30. If the 30 Roses are still there at the end of Lent the £30 will go to CAFOD. Each chocolate is worth £1. Will there be 30 left?

In class each prayer table has a bag of  beans. This is to remind us that some people in the world do not have the same amount of food as us. Do we need a chocolate from the Roses box as much as people less fortunate than us need the £30 to help them to grow their own crops?

In class time all children have been thinking about how they can fast, give and pray this Lent. If you would like to read about some of their ideas there are some examples on the front entrance display board.

We also had a CAFOD assembly today to launch our fundraising activities that will take place during Lent. The campaign is simply ‘Give It Up’ this year and more information can be found on the CAFOD website. The children will be bringing home a little collection box soon. It would be great if children could make a small contribution – perhaps earning some pennies to do some jobs around your home or for their grandparents.

Year 1 had their year group liturgy this week it was lovely to see so many parents! Thank you Father Jeremy for celebrating with us once again!

Have a restful weekend and a great start to the second week of Lent.

Best wishes,

Mrs. Luter

Mrs. Edge led whole school worship this week. The message was perfectly simple. Jesus helped people and so should we. We thought about the impact that helping and being kind can have on people around us. So this week we will be focussing on what we can do to show kindness to each other at St. Peter’s.

Years 3 and 4 will be thinking about Lent ahead of time this week so that they can prepare a display for the school. As Ash Wednesday is during half term this year, Years 3 and 4 will be gathering ideas about how they can pray, fast and give this Lent. We will look forward to sharing this with the rest of the school when they return from the half term break.

We have a new Lenten challenge this year which children will be bringing home with them tomorrow. You can view the passport here…..

Lenten passport

Have a wonderful half term holiday. Hopefully the temperatures will have risen a little by the time we return to school!

Best wishes,

Sarah Luter

How do we follow Jesus in our daily lives? This question was the focus of our whole school worship on Monday. Jesus asks us to ‘follow’ Him but unlike Simon, Andrew, James and John in the Gospel reading we cannot see Jesus and go with Him as he travels round the country! So what does Jesus want us to do? Following worship we will be helping the children to reflect on various bible stories and find the message within them about how we can follow Jesus.

All classes have begun a unit in the RE curriculum called Revelations. This is all about how God is revealed to us in our daily lives and to those in the bible. How do we become closer to God? Year 3 are learning about how Samuel responded to God’s call but also thinking about how we can respond to God. We looked back at our learning about creation to help us with this.

Who are the characters in this painting? What are they talking about?

Best wishes for the week,

Mrs. Luter

Today Year 3 and 4 gathered today for a Mass celebrating our families. The Mass was dedicated to Lenny and Stanley’s sister Robyn who sadly passed away at the beginning of this new year. We pray for Robyn and her family. Thank you for joining us Lenny (Year 6).

It was lovely to welcome so many families. Some children enjoyed a cuddle with their older siblings!

Standing for the Our Father.

Bidding Prayers.

Father Jeremy reads the Gospel.

Listening to the Homily.

Thank you everyone for joining us it was a lovely service. Thank you Father Jeremy.