SEPTEMBER

A Blessing for the New School Year

Beech class were delighted to welcome Deacon Tim to their class to celebrate the start of our new school year. It was a really reverent and special occasion when we  gathered to ask God’s blessing on

• us, as we live together as his family
• on our classroom, where we learn together
• on our prayer table, where we show our love together

and all the time remembering that Jesus is at the heart of all that we do.

On this class your blessing, Lord, on this class your grace bestow.
On this class your blessing, Lord, may it come and never go.

Deacon Tim also blessed our holy book, The Bible and we will remember the importance of treating the Word of God with respect every time we use it in our Religious Education lessons. 

Let us pray...

At the start of our new school year Beech class wrote petition prayers asking for God's help with the challenges that lay ahead and what they wanted to improve. All our prayers are displayed in our prayer area and we share them when we pray together. Our hands made the petals of the flower and reminds us that we all work together as children of God. 

Dear Lord,

Help me to improve my attendance this year and to

persevere with my handwriting because it is messy.

Help me to get closer to your Son Jesus

by praying more often.

God is our Saviour!

Lord hear us

Our Mission in Beech Class!

In our Religious Education lesson we reflected on our school mission, 'Christ is the centre of our school community where we live, love and learn together.'

We thought of so many ways our class family can live, love and learn together and displayed them on our 'Mission Tree'.

Are you cooperative, kind, responsible, forgiving, supportive, respectful, compassionate, faithful and patient? These were only a few of our choices. 

Each day we choose a mission word and a pupil selects someone who has demonstrated this quality during the day. 

We are trying to live by following in the footsteps of Jesus. 

How can you do this today? 

Would you be a fisher of men? 

In our Religious Education lessons we read the story of the 'Call of the Disciples' and thought about reasons for and against answering Jesus's call. After careful consideration and much debating, the majority of Beech class decided that the answer was YES but it would be difficult to leave your family, friends and home!

‘I believe that I can be a follower of Jesus and be eloquent by spreading the Word of God.

The word of God is how God teaches us to live good lives. It is found in the Bible.’

'Jesus is tired and needs me to help him and I will.

Also he is the Son of God; who wouldn’t?’

‘I believe that I can be a disciple on earth

and must tell people that Jesus is loving and forgiving.’

What would you do?

OCTOBER 

The Month of the Rosary

Beech class led our school Mass to reflect on October being the month of the Rosary and especially on Our Lady of Fatima. It was lovely to celebrate together in our school hall, with so many parents and members of our parish church family. Lots of confident reading and prayer and praising to God. Thank you to all!

NOVEMBER

Month of the Holy Souls 

During the month of November we remember those people we love who have died. We also remember those who have no one to pray for them. 

In class we wrote our own prayers and will share them during class prayer time. 

Share this prayer together as a family at home. 

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace 

Amen 

'Learned and Wise'

St. Vincent de Paul House had many good ideas to explain how they can be 'Learned and Wise.'

We are all working hard to demonstrate these

Jesuit Virtues every day. 

Let us pray...

Beech class are continuing to remember loved ones in their prayers. Our class prayer area helps us to focus. Each day we choose a person from our 'Remembrance Tree' to pray for. The poppies we made really make our prayer area look special. 

Living the Jesuit Virtues in Beech class!

Our excellent role models who won certificates

for being 'Eloquent and Truthful'

Pupils in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School

are growing to be...

'Eloquent  and truthful  in what they say of themselves,

the relations between people, and the world.'

Sacramental Preparation begins...

No where better to start than with the Seven Sacraments; all stationed around our beautiful church for children and parents to explore and discuss. 

DECEMBER

...and it was our first Sacramental preparation Mass

Children and family gathered to celebrate Mass together on the first Sunday of Advent.

Father Sean reminded us in all the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations, let us not forget to put Jesus first in our lives and remember the true meaning of Christmas. 

Getting ready...

Beech class have been busy making Chinese lanterns for the school carol concert.

Advent - a time of preparation!

Our class altar reflects the Holy Season of Advent. Purple is the Liturgical colour for Advent. Look around school and in church. Where is the colour purple being used? 

Advent Retreat with Dan and Emily from One Life Music

'Waiting with Mary'

What a wonderful day of music, reflection, activities and prayer we had! Like Mary, we are also waiting for Jesus and our retreat day definitely helped us to prepare for this special time, which we celebrate at Christmas. 

We began by lighting our Advent wreath. We thought about how much Mary loved Jesus when he was born and also how much she loved God because she said yes to him. We prayed that we would be filled with God's love also. 

Our last week of term!

As always, we remember that Jesus is at the heart of our Christmas preparations in school. We have been practising hard for our carol service on Friday and had a lovely afternoon watching the Infant Nativity. It was really wonderful and definitely helped us to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. 

Look at the lovely Christmas card I made! 

The O Antiphons!

What are they? I hear you cry! Even Mrs Creegan learned something in Assembly this morning. 

In the third week of Advent we focus on a set of prayers called the O Antiphons. The O Antiphons are a very old part of our liturgy and there is one every day until Christmas Eve. The antiphons use the 7 great titles given to Jesus and also refer to the prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, telling us about the coming of the Messiah.

Each O Antiphon focuses on a prophetic title of Jesus, describing him before he was ever born and asking for him to come. 

Yesterday the title given to Jesus was 'O Wisdom'.

Today it was 'O Lord of Israel'. 

I wonder what tomorrow's O Antiphon will be!

O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel

Who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush

Who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain

Come stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.

See what you can find out about the O Antiphons on the internet. I'm off to do my research for tomorrow!

Praising God through song...

Beech 'Choir of Angels' helped lead us in singing 'The Magnificat' in our school assembly. 

Carol concert rehearsals continue...

The hard work continues as Beech class  prepare for our carol concert. 

Congratulations Father Sean

Father Sean celebrated 45 years as an ordained Priest this week. Wow! A long time in service to God and others. We are so grateful to him for all the hard work he does with Beech class and the children of Our Lady of Lourdes school.

The O Antiphons continued!

Mrs Creegan did her research! Today we prayed the 4th O Antiphon 'O Key of David.' Beech class have become really good at naming the O Antiphon's we have learned so far. 

December 20

O Key of David,

opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:

come and free the prisoners of darkness

Come stretch out your mighty hand to set us free

Living the Jesuit Virtues in Beech class!

Our excellent role models who won certificates

for being 'Learned and Wise.'

Pupils in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School

are growing to be...

'Learned, by finding God in all things; and wise in the ways they use their learning for the common good.'

JANUARY ... and a happy 2018!

Our class prayer area reflects that we are in Ordinary time once more in our Liturgical year. Beech class have begun their work on Reconciliation and their display shows what they have been learning about a little man with a big problem! Yes Zacchaeus! His big problem? He was a sinner. 

We know the story

of a greedy, little man called Zacchaeus!

Today Beech class worked in groups to write a poem with a repeating line all about Zacchaeus! We used lots of adjectives and adverbs to help improve our writing.

Did you know Zacchaeus hastily climbed a towering sycamore tree? Well he did! I would too if I wanted to see Jesus and I was too small! 

We imagined we were Zacchaeus before and after he met Jesus. What did he think? How did he feel? Wow! Our ideas flowed and were incredibly learned, wise and discerning! Look at all the Virtues we used.  

• 'He felt alone and had no friends. He was hated because he stole too much tax from the people of Jericho.'
• 'He thought I feel ashamed of myself having to talk to Jesus about my sins.'
• 'He felt happy again when he confessed his sins and Jesus showed him his love and forgiveness.
• 'He thought I must tell others that God is a forgiving God and he will forgive you if you repent.'
• 'He thought I must show other people forgiveness like Jesus showed it to me!'

Impressed? Mrs Creegan was!

Not only were we active in our learning, we were very curious too!

We wanted to know 

1. Did Jesus ever meet Zacchaeus again?
2. Did Zacchaeus continue to be a tax collector but an honest one?
3. Did he make new friends so he was not lonely anymore?
4. Did he proclaim the good news that God is forgiving and loving?
5. Did he become a forgiving person to others?
6. Did he ever sin again?

What is the message of this Gospel story for us today? Well someone was so pleased with her explanation that she thought an A + was deserved! Off she went to show Mrs McLoughlin who had the deciding vote and an A + was awarded!!!!  LOL 

Big 'Learned' Virtue merits too!

Living the Jesuit Virtues in Beech class!

This half term pupils in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School are growing to be..

'Curious about everything; and active in their engagement with the world, changing what they can for the better.'

Beech class are certainly being 'Curious and Active'.

Look at all our post its reflecting our thoughts!

FEBRUARY

Celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes!

What a day of celebrating we had! 

Our day began with an assembly led by Year 1, which taught us all about the story of Our Lady appearing to St. Bernadette. We also wrote prayer petitions which Mrs Anthony is going to take to Lourdes for us at Easter.

We enjoyed our special feast day treat of croissants and hot chocolate! Yum!

Visited the grotto and offered flowers to our Lady.

Lent 2018

A time to change and put others before ourselves!

Our class altar reflects the Holy Season of Lent. We put our Lenten promises on our 'Lenten Promise Tree' and are going to work hard to keep them.

How will you give alms, pray and fast this Lent?

March

Reconciliation 2018

Beech class have been working hard preparing for their celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. They can't wait to receive the love and forgiveness of God. 

Treasures of Reconciliation

We are very proud of our 'Treasures of Reconciliation'. They reflect our thoughts on what the Sacrament of Reconciliation means to us. 

'Makes me feel cleansed.'

'Reminds me to make the right choices.'

'Makes me feel closer to God.'

'Reconciles me with the person I have hurt'

'Makes me feel relieved I have confessed.'

'Helps me to change and begin again.'

'I feel happy. I have been shown mercy'

'Reconciles me with God.'

And that was only a few reflections we wrote

on our jewels.

What does Reconciliation mean to you?

The Sacrament of Reconciliation 2018

Our special day finally arrived!

How many adjectives can be used to describe our Reconciliation service today? 

prayerful, reverent, peaceful, respectful, sincere, joyful...it was just perfect!

So proud of Beech class and their immense commitment to their preparation for today. 

Holy Week 2018

Today we reflected on how much we could remember about Holy Week.

With our partner, we independently ordered all the important events from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. We found all the different things that Jesus experienced on the day we know as Holy (Maundy) Thursday a little difficult to order, but after discussion and perseverance we made progress. 

Did you know that holy means 'set apart.' Christians (that’s us) set apart a whole week when we remember with sadness all the things that happened which led to the crucifixion of Jesus.

On Easter Sunday morning, sadness is turned to joy as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. 

The 'Ground Force' gardening Team are in Beech class!

As always, the wonderful Ms Browning and her team make Mrs Creegan's vision become a reality! 

Just look at the amazing Easter garden we created! Hopefully our parishioners will enjoy looking at it in church and that it will help them reflect on Holy Week and Easter!

 Thank you so much 'Ground Force'! Absolutely love it!

Interpreting and understanding Leonardo de Vinci's

'The Last Supper'

Mrs C had never taught this lesson before. Would it be too difficult? Would the children enjoy it? Would it help us understand more about how the Apostles reacted to Jesus telling them that Judas was to betray him?

Needn't have worried! Beech class were so engaged and had ideas in abundance! Accurate links made to later events in Holy Week too! Awesome progress today!

The painting reflects the instant that Jesus said to the disciples, “In truth I tell you, one of you will betray me” (Matthew 26:21).

Some of our answers

"Peter has a knife to remind us that he cut off the Roman soldier's ear in the garden."

"John looks like he is fainting because he cannot believe that someone who had the honour of being chosen as a disciple, was now going to betray the man who chose him!"

"John is near Jesus because he is very special to Jesus. Jesus chose him to look after his mother when he was in heaven with God."

"Andrew looks like his hand is saying stop because he does not want to hear Jesus's words. They are too upsetting."

"Bartholomew's has stood up so suddenly in shock that his legs are still crossed."

Impressed? Mrs C was!

Google 'The Last Supper' images.

Can you find the symbols of the Trinity in the painting?

End of term Mass

We carried palms in the entrance procession at our end of term Mass, when our whole school reflected on the events of Holy Week. 

Living the Jesuit Virtues in Beech class!

Our excellent role models who won certificates

for being 'Curious and Active.' 

Pupils in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School

are growing to be...

Curious about everything;

and active in their engagement with the world,

changing what they can for the better.

April ...

and the start of the Summer Term!

At our first school Mass of the new term, certificates were

presented to some proud Beech children!

Living the Jesuit Virtues in Beech class!

Our excellent role models who won certificates

for being 'Intentional and Prophetic.' 

Pupils in Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School

are growing to be...

Intentional in the way they live and use the resources of the earth, guided by conscience;

and prophetic in the example they set to others.

Year 3 Retreat Day with Dan Callow

Dan Callow, a Catholic musician and song writer from One Life Music, visited Beech class to help them prepare for their First Holy Communion. The children really embraced the day and thoroughly enjoyed the songs, games, reflections and prayer time. The day definitely helped them with their First Holy Communion preparation. 

First Holy Communion 

On Tuesday, Father Sean led our First Holy Communion Sacramental meeting. He celebrated Mass with us and guided us through the structure of each part. 

First Holy Communion is getting closer

and Beech class can't wait!

Easter 2018

Our class altar reflects the Holy Season of Easter. White and gold are the Liturgical colours for Easter. Look around school and in church. Where are the colours white and gold being used?

It's May!

First Holy Communion has finally arrived! Yeah!

The sun shone! Beautiful girls wore beautiful dresses and handsome boys sported new hair cuts. Group 1 and group 2 knew exactly what they had to do and couldn't wait for their special celebration.

We have been so proud of the way the children in Year 3 have prepared for their First Holy Communion. They have shown immense commitment and sincerity and were supported throughout by their families. It was a privilege to be a part of their faith journey.

May is the Month of Mary

The sun shone as the whole school celebrated Our Lady's special month. We started with a beautiful mass and Year 3 were particularly excited as it was the first time some of them received the Risen Jesus since their First Holy Communion day. The children then took part in a Marian procession in honour of Mary and presented flowers at the grotto. It was a lovely celebration!

June 

First Holy Communion Thanksgiving Mass!

Great excitement filled the air once more, as we gathered, this time, as a whole class to thank God for coming to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The sun shone down and dressed in our finery we processed, sang and read once more.

We're on our way to our

Retreat Day at the Columban Fathers!

Vocations and Aspirations Day