The Rosary
In the month of May we think especially about Mary during this time in the liturgical year. Our year 3 children have recorded a guide to praying the rosary which you can see here.
Stations of the Cross
Our children took part in retelling the Stations of the Cross along with children from schools across the St Thérèse of Lisieux CMAT.
Judaism Week
This week all the children are finding out about Judaism as part of our work on different faiths. In collective worship we talked about the Jewish festival of Hanukah in December, noting similarities to Advent. The theme of this festival is light, standing up for what is important and overcoming difficulty. The children discussed what they would be prepared to protect and stand up for!
Bible Story Assembly
Reverend Rush, from the Market Overton Free Church, regulary releases Bible Story assemblies on the Church Youtube channel which we share with the children on the school newsletter. You can view the Church’s Youtube channel here.
St Joseph’s Day
We celebrated St Joseph’s day in school on Friday. KS2 children participated in the remote Bishop’s schools Mass for this special feast day . EYFS and KS1 children learnt about St Joseph in class, the children in year 2 made St Joseph day cards for Father to take back to St Joseph’s and hand out to parishioners.
St Thérèse of Lisieux Feast Day
To celebrate the Feast of St Thérèse of Lisieux on the 1st October, the Nottingham Diocesan Catholic Youth Service held a Mass celebrated by Father Simon Gillespie. The children watched the Mass live from their classrooms and two of our mini chaplains, Riley and Esme, were chosen to share intentions during the Mass via a live link. They read beautifully and we were very proud.
Examples of Catholic Life at English Martyrs
English Martyrs Day
The children had a lovely day celebrating English Martyrs Day. They started the day with a liturgy centred on love, thinking especially about our trust saint, St Thérèse of Lisieux, which the mini chaplains helped to deliver. During the day, they took part in activities focussed on love, trust and hope. They all tried finger knitting as part of their hope activity, they wrote the name of somebody they love on a keyring to display in the prayer garden and participated in class trust activities. The children also competed in a quiz to test their knowledge on our house Martyrs and went on to complete knowledge organisers and fact files for their homework. Take a loo at the recording of the children explaining what love means to them.
Well being bags for families
Tha staff put together well being bags for all familes for February half term. It was a thank you for all their hard work in juggling home schooling and eveything else at such a difficult time. We were lucky to get some donations from local organisations including The Rotary Club, Gates Garden Centre and Lidl.
Well being box for Father Stephen
The children sent in cards and pictures for a special well being box we made up for Father Stephen. Father misses coming into school and seeing the children so he was thrilled when Mrs Topping dropped off his box of goodies!
Harvest Liturgy
Although we could not hold our harvest liturgy in the same way, we held a liturgy in school with different groups of children using the CAFOD resources, looking at communities in need across the world but also on our doorstep.
Children also brought in items to donate to Rutland Food Bank.
The Rutland Food Bank were extremely grateful and will continue to be able to help those in need.
Advent
The children in Y1 to 6 retold the Christmas story each day on Class Dojo, they sang carols, said readings, prayers and poems.
The children had fun making their decorations for their class Christmas trees. They also decorated their trees with their Advent promises. Thank you to the families who kindly donated trees.
Our beautiful Advent wreaths, made by our very talented Teaching Assistants, were blessed by Father in school too.
Remembrance Day
In assembly the children learnt about the importance of Remembrance Day and the significance of the poppy. On Wednesday, we held special liturgies and observed the two minute silence.
Children in Need
The children and staff had a great day on taking part in all the Children in Need fundraising activities. Thanks to all the generous donations we raised an amazing £414.20!!
