Year 3
Watch us as we grow in faith this year.
As Jesus had his disciples to help him in his ministry and serve other people, these children have been elected by their friends in Beech class to serve their school family as councillors. Meet our pupil voice team!
Meet the Year 3 Liturgy leaders!
Mission Accepted!
In our Religious Education lesson, at the start of our new school year, we reflected on our school mission.
'Christ is the centre of our school community
where we live, love and learn together.'
Busily working on how we can live our school mission...
Over the last week different groups have led us in prayer services. They decided on the theme and hymns, bible accounts and wrote prayers around the theme.
We had a class based hymn practice. Our God is a Great Big God is a firm favourite in this class.
First Holy Communion Thanksgiving Mass. What a joy to celebrate as a class. We were very proud of how you all conducted yourselves during this special celebration.
We attended Mass this morning with Father Sean via live stream. We remembered God's boundless and passionate love for Mankind as we celebrated the Sacred Heart of Jesus
We learnt about this half terms Jesuit virtues. Faith-filled and hopeful. We got into our house groups and considered how we are faith filled and hopeful. Then we started to do some research about how our house saints showed they were faith-filled and hopeful.
Pentecost - we learnt about Pentecost, we got into small groups to act the story out and wrote a poem about how The Disciples may have felt before and after the descent of The Holy Spirit
We enjoyed being able to celebrate Mass in the Church again this morning.
We had a guided meditation today in our Religious Education lesson. We were thoughtful, respectful and reverent. We were learning about the Bible account - "Breakfast on the Shore." We put ourselves on the beach at sunrise in our meditation. We considered how Peter might have felt and then we checked in how we felt about participating. All of us felt this was a positive learning experience. Children shared how they felt afterwards - "calm, relaxed, happy, joyful, spiritual, closer to Jesus, prayerful, emotionally anchored, special." Thank you Beech class for participating so openly and respectfully - it certainly was a special time we shared as a class. You must all be so proud of yourselves.
We celebrated English Martyrs Feast Day by attending mass with our school and parish community.
We attended an assembly to ponder our new virtues - Compassionate and Loving. We read the story of The Prodigal Son to help us understand these virtues better. We considered how different people in the account may have felt. We had some thoughtful responses. Father - "Even though one of his sons betrayed him, he still loved him." Older son "may have felt jealous, angry, sad, misunderstood and annoyed." Prodigal son "may have felt non- worthy, annoyed with himself, confused and anxious."
We went to assembly this morning to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. It was a great way to start our Summer term together.
We made cards for the people in our community who would appreciate an Easter blessing.
We worked in groups in our Religious Education lessons to act the Passion of Christ. We then used the photographs to help prompt us write a paragraph for each day. The days we focused on were Palm Sunday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
We attended an assembly to honour St Joseph. We wrote some prayers in our prayer journals. Some thoughtful words used Year 3, well done.
Our Walk for Water miles are totting up nicely in Year 3! Thank you for sharing. Keep on walking for water to support CAFOD this lent.
Our Easter Garden. We thank our Liturgy team and Mrs B for working so creatively on this.
What a beautiful assembly we had in Year 3 this morning. We were so calm and reflective when examining our conscience. We placed a sorry stone in our Easter Gardens. We considered how asking for forgiveness can lighten our souls. Thank you to Beech class for participating in this with such reverence. We have done work in our Religious Education lessons on Reconciliation and lots of you were able to talk about this knowledgeable today.
We have been learning about the miracles that Jesus performed and we have found this fascinating. In one of our lessons this week we learnt “The Miracle of the Widow’s Son at Nain.” We had an opportunity to act this account out using the text. We did some freeze framing to think how different people may have felt at different points. We were able to surmise thoughts and feelings sensitively.
We thought of all our gifts from God. What a very gifted group of children we are! We considered how much stronger we are together and that we can use our different talents for good.
Attentive and Discerning- we had our class assembly this morning on our Jesuit Virtues for this half term. We explored what is meant by attentive and discerning.
F and E looking extremely proud of their 91 miles walked since Ash Wednesday between them. Well done girls, a great achievement for raising awareness and money for CAFOD during lent.
We went to mass this morning to celebrate the feast day of St Chad. Beech class were reverent and prayerful this morning as they listened to Father Sean and said their prayers.
We attended assembly this morning. 1st March is when we celebrate the patron saint of Wales - St. David. I wonder will anyone complete the challenges set by Mrs David this week?
During this difficult time we considered how important kindness is and have been thinking how we can be kind everyday.
We wrote our Lenten promises and hung them on our promise tree after our assembly. Good luck Beech with your promises until Easter Sunday.
We attended an assembly and joined in Mass to celebrate The Presentation of Our Lord.
We attended a very thought provoking assembly today by CAFOD. We heard how some people have to walk miles to just get water. We reflected how lucky we are to have access to fresh water. We are GRATEFUL that we have water. We considered how we could be GENEROUS to those who do not have this necessity made freely available to them.
We attended mass today. We celebrated the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas. We learnt that he is the patron saint of students.
Our virtues this term are ‘Grateful and Generous’. After our assembly we considered ways which we are going to be grateful and generous. We pooled all our ideas together on a group brainstorm. Have you had generosity shown towards you today? Have you shown generosity towards someone else?
We attended our class assembly on Christian Unity and explored the symbol of the fish. Here are some of our own class designs.
We had our class assembly today. We lit our second candle on our Advent wreath. One of the questions we considered during our assembly was, "How can we prepare for Christmas during this season of Advent?" We had some thoughtful responses. C - "We can light a candle on our Advent wreath to help our minds focus on Jesus." L - "We can read The Nativity of Jesus." G - "We can do good deeds like donate clothes to charity." L - "We can give our time to help our families with jobs around the house like cleaning." C - "By not eating a roast dinner on Sunday. This way we will really appreciate our Christmas dinner." L - "Draw and write about The Nativity." P- "Help put up a crib scene in your house." Some great ideas from Beech class.
We attended assembly on Monday and our theme was on the virtues of Intentional and Prophetic.
We worked in our house groups this morning. We discussed what it means to be “Intentional and Prophetic.” We had some thought provoking ideas this morning. We know we have the responsibility to make good choices and can share the love of God with everyone by using positive actions and words.
We attended our Remembrance Day assembly this morning. We were respectful during this somber time of reflection. At 11:00 we were silent for 2 minutes with our Key Stage 2 family as we gave thanks to those service men and women who sacrificed their lives so we could enjoy the freedom we have today.
Mass with Father Sean
Year 3 Class Saint
St. John Vianney
The Cure of Ars (Parish Priest of Ars in France)
Our Class Saint was the parish priest of Ars in France and we learned so much about him when we listened to his story. We decided that he had many qualities which will inspire us this year.
St. John Vianney . . .
- loved God with his whole heart and had a strong faith,
- made the right choices,
- was generous and compassionate and helped many people , especially the poor,
- persevered when his work was difficult,
- was a good role model to other people.
St. John Vianney is the Patron Saint of priests.
His feast day is the 4th August.
Our Jesuit Virtues this half term are 'Curious and Active. We have been thinking about how we can show these virtues in our work and play.
Blessing Service
Beech class gathered together at the start of a new school week to ask God’s blessing on us, as we live and work together as his family and on our classroom, where we learn together. Mrs Creegan sprinkled our door with holy water and we look forward to a happy and successful year ahead.
Let us pray for Our Lady of Lourdes School. May it be a community of learning, growth and peace where each person is respected, encouraged, and celebrated as a son or daughter of God our Father...Lord, hear us
On Our Lady's birthday, we joined Deacon Tim and members of our parish family for a liturgical service via our church web cam. Do you know who Our Lady's mother is? Can you explain why this was not a mass yet the congregation received Holy Communion?
Cafod's National Assembly: The World We Want
10th September 2020
This morning we joined in with many other schools around the country to take part in Cafod's National Assembly, which reflected on the changes in our world which we have all experienced and to think about how we can work together to build a better world. We discussed as a class the small things we could each do which could make a big difference and each made a pledge to do one thing this year to build a better world.
Monday morning again and we celebrate the ‘Feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross’. This is a special day when we remember the sacrifice Jesus made dying on the cross to save us. We praise and thank Him for what he has done.
Here I am to worship...here I am to bow down...here I am to say that you're my God.
During open prayer, two beautiful prayers were offered.
God the Son,
You redeemed the world with love
and compassion. Thank you!
Eloise
God the Son,
Thank you for sacrificing yourself for us
so that our sins can be forgiven.
Amen
Layla
In our RE lesson we have been thinking about what it means to be responsible and what qualities we need to use to show responsibility.
We continued our reflections on the Exaultation of the Holy Cross. In our prayer journals we designed our own crosses and included words to praise God.
Did you know that exaulted means to raise up?
Our class prayer area reflects that we are in ordinary time. Our key vocabulary is displayed to help us with our learning.
Our prayers asking God to help us be inspired by our class saint, St John Vianny are also displayed. We use them in class prayer time.
Give me courage . Help me to follow in the footsteps of St. John Vianney as he was such a good man. Help me to help others.
In assembly this morning, we were reminded that it is still a special year of prayer and reflection on the Word of God called 'The God who Speaks'. Throughout this year we have been asked to look at how God speaks to us through the Bible, why the Bible is important to us and how we should use it to listen to God and what he wants for us. During our Sunday Masses this year, we are hearing from the Gospel of St. Matthew.
We shared this reflection. Have a read. It will really make you think!
Our Chaplaincy Team evaluated our assembly...
We gave thanks for the harvest today when we joined our parish family for Mass. It was lovely to see Father Sean again as he welcomed the children of OLOL school to the celebration of the Mass. We made a connection to yesterday's assembly and knew that the Gospel was from St. Matthew.
Did you know from the 30th September to the 6th of October it is Little Way Week? Little Way Week is run by the charity MISSIO in honour of St. Therese of Lisieux whose feast day is the 1st October.
Saint Thérèse was caring and generous, hopeful and faithful, courageous and determined, humble and grateful
Can you think of a small sacrifice you could do out of love this week?
Learning about the signs and symbols associated with the seven sacraments in RE today. Super team work from Beech class and lots of progress made. We especially enjoyed learning about Reconciliation and The Eucharist, the sacraments we will receive this year.
House groups in our class bubbles today. Let’s remind ourselves about the lives of our house saints. Super collaborative learning
How can your house saint inspire you? How did they show that they were following in the footsteps of Jesus?
Assembly time!
In our assembly we learned about the work of CAFOD and how this organisation helped a little boy called Gift and his family.
Gift is a nine year old boy from Zambia. His parents gave him this name because they weren’t expecting to have children. When he was born they believed he was a gift from God!
Gift’s life used to be quite hard. His family were poor and his mum had been quite ill. They didn’t have jobs and they had very little money. For a time, they could only afford to eat pumpkin leaves.
But soon Gift’s life began to improve.
In the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus made sure that everyone had what they needed. Jesus wants us to do all we can to make sure that everyone, whoever they are, has what they need. Jesus said to give food to all those who need it.
Jesus came for all people, he shared his love with everyone, and he wants us to do the same.
St Teresa of Calcutta said to do small things with great love! What can you donate to our harvest appeal to help feed those in need like Jesus did when he fed the 5.000?
Phew these bags are so heavy! An abundance of groceries arrived in Beech class. Thank you so much for the CAFOD Harvest Family Fast Donations.
Mass to celebrate the feast of St John Henry Newman
Today we joined Father Sean and the Parish for Mass online to celebrate the feast of St. John Henry Newman.
Did you know?
John Henry Newman was born on 21st February 1801 the eldest son of a London banker. His family were ordinary church-going members of the Church of England. John Henry was a very spiritual man and developed a love for the Bible, becoming a an Anglican vicar before converting to being a Catholic priest. He founded the Oratory school in Birmingham. St. John Henry Newman became a Cardinal in 1879 and died in 1890. He was canonised by Pope Francis in October 2019 and his feast day is celebrated on October 9th.
Year 3 Mini Vinnies
October - Month of the Holy Rosary
October is the month of the Holy Rosary and is an opportunity to reflect on the life of Jesus. Whenever Our Lady appeared like she did in Lourdes, she appeared holding rosary beads and has asked the people to pray the Rosary. We too should do as Our Lady requested at Lourdes by saying the Rosary this October.
We were delighted with our new Rosary beads which we will use to help us pray the Rosary. We learned that after we make the Sign of the Cross, we start the Rosary by offering an Our Father, 3 Hail Marys and a Glory be for the Pope’s intentions.
Religious Education homework challenge complete. What a beautiful pair of Rosary beads and all five decades included too! A big well done! .
In yesterday's assembly we reminded ourselves on how to say the Rosary and thought about one of the ‘Joyful Mysteries’. Today our class chaplains led us in saying the first Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, the Annunciation.
Hail Mary full of grace...
Learning about the Liturgy of the Word, the second part of the Mass. Very important to understand this year, as we prepare for our First Holy Communion.
Our final week of Autumn half term 1!
We have already reached the end of our first half term in Y3. In our Religious Education lessons and worship in school, we have already learned so much about our faith, prayer life and important events and people.
In our assembly this morning we learned about St. Vincent de Paul and the the work of the SVP and Mini Vinnies.
St. Vincent de Paul was a French Roman Catholic Priest who dedicated his life to serving the poor. He organised the wealthy people that he had met as a young man to collect funds for hospitals and those in poverty – particularly those who had been victims of war and slavery. He visited the houses of rich people and asked them to donate food, furniture and clothing and spread the word of God to those who were lacking faith.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) was founded in 1833 by a group of students in Paris, who were determined to serve the poor of the city and were inspired by the example of St Vincent de Paul. Mini Vinnies are part of the SVP Society for 7 to 11-year olds who are based in schools and parishes across England and Wales. Mini Vinnies meet to pray, discuss and support however they can to help make a difference in their communities.
What can you do today that will help others?
As part of our assembly, Beech class joined ‘One million children praying the Rosary’ to support change across the world.
Working hard in our groups to compare and contrast the Baptism of Jesus with a Catholic Baptism.
How many similarities and differences can you think of?
Virtues award for this half term - Curious and Active
Autumn Term 2 : Intentional and Prophetic
Our new Gospel Virtues for this half term. How can we show these virtues in our work and play?
November the month of Remembrance and the Holy Souls
Red Wednesday
Today we dressed in items of red clothing to show our support for Christians, who are persecuted because of their faith. Many Christians around the world are unable to practise their faith for fear of being arrested or even killed.
Advent
The first Sunday of Advent this year was on Sunday 29th November, when the first advent candle was lit. Our altar display shows the liturgical colour of this special season and our Advent wreath will help us focus during this time to prepare and welcome Jesus into our lives.
CAFOD Light of the World Assembly- 10th December
Today we joined many schools all over the country to watch CAFOD's special Advent assembly.
We thought about how Christmas will always be about :
-bringing hope
-sharing joy
-spreading peace.
Advent Bauble competition winners
These two members of Beech class proudly display their prizes after winning the Advent bauble competition for Year 3.
