The Angel Gabriel

To end our Christmas unit, we created an abstract piece of artwork of Angel Gabriel using oil pastels. We explored Angel Gabriel’s role in the Christmas story and considered how different the story may have been if the angels were not there to deliver messages of good news and warnings. We considered how we can be messengers of Jesus like the angels.

House Team Meetings – Participation

This morning, we all met with our house teams to explore the CST principle ‘Participation’. We understand that this means everyone has a right and duty to be an active, contributing member of society. We know we must work with our school community, family and parish to make sure everyone is happy and safe, especially the poor and vulnerable.  We discussed key questions with the members of our house teams to ensure that we understand how we participate in seeking the common good.

Pupil Prepared Prayer

This morning, A and C led us in a beautiful, reverent pupil prepared prayer service. They prepared a liturgy with the theme 'Gifts from the Wise Men'. We listened to 'We Three Kings' while writing down a gift we would like to give to God with A and C linking this response to scripture to the CST principle The Common Good as they asked the class to considerate how all gifts to those in need are gifts to God.  A and C left us with a key message to take away from their prayer service: All that we do is a gift to God so gift Him today through the service of others. 

Advent Workshop 

Sycamore were joined by parents and family members for their Advent workshop. As this took place in the second week of Advent, we explored how our family members bring peace to our lives and how we can spread peace to others during this important season. We also designed ornaments displaying key symbols and scripture references to add to our class Jesse Tree. 

Bambinelli

Our Bambinellas are ready for Fr Sean to bless them at Sunday Mass on Gaudete ‘Bambinelli’ Sunday. What a creative bunch!

Advent Fundraising

CAFOD World Gifts

Sycamore held their fundraising event for our Advent Almsgiving. We decided to hold a bake-sale to raise money for CAFOD World Gifts. We are hoping to use the money we’ve raised to buy our specially chosen World Gifts to support our global Catholic family: Christmas Stockings, ‘Back to School’ package and ‘Forest School’ package. Thank you to all of our families who supported our event by donating sweet treats and for helping us to bake such delicious, delectable cakes.

Advent Retreat

We joined Dan, Emily and the rest of the school for an Advent retreat. It was lovely morning of prayer, singing and reflection time as we begin this beautiful season of Advent, preparing and getting ready for the birth of Jesus.

O Antiphons

Today, we explored the O Antiphons. We learned that each Antiphon calls the Messiah to come and fulfil the prophecy and the first letter of each Latin name spells our Ero Cras which means “I will be here tomorrow”. We created our own artistic version of one of the O Antiphons. We know that we pray the O Antiphons during the week before Christmas Eve and we are preparing the study the O Antiphons in more detail during the final week of term.

House Team Meetings

This morning, we all met with our house teams to explore the CST principle ‘Human Dignity’. We understand that everyone is special because we were all created in the image of God; this means that we should treat everyone with respect and compassion regardless of their circumstances. We wrote pledges about what we will do with our house teams to ensure that we uphold human dignity.  

Red Wednesday

We all wore red to show our support for persecuted Christians around the world. As a class we thought about all the Christians around the world who don’t have access to a bible and aren’t allowed to gather together to celebrate God’s Word. We joined the ACN Red Wednesday Live Stream with Primary Schools around the country this morning to pray for, and on behalf of, those who do not have the freedom to pray in church themselves. We prayed that God gives persecuted Christians comfort, hope and the right words to say to stand up for their beliefs.

Celebration of the Word

Today, we shared the Celebration of the Word. We reflected on Sunday’s Gospel where Jesus reminds us of the importance of being to be faithful to Him, the reward will be eternal life and His everlasting faithful to us. During our time of reflection, we prayed for someone who has died. Throughout the month of November, we pray for the Holy Souls to be with God in Heaven. On our prayer slips, we wrote a prayer for someone who we wish to remember this November. These prayers will be offered up at our next school Mass and placed before the altar in the parish remembrance box.

Remembrance and Armistice Day

On Remembrance and Armistice Day, we gathered together in prayer, thanksgiving and reflection to remember the fallen of war and conflict, to say thank you and pay respect for the sacrifice of many that came before us so that we could live in a country that is free and strong and to pray for peace in our world. As our ‘Go Forth’, Mrs David asked us to create a display of poppies for our classroom to remember the sacrifice of all those who have died in wars: a sea of red like Flanders Field.

Non-uniform and Disco Fundraising Event

We had a great time at the disco this afternoon. We love to support people in our community who need our help – especially when we get to have a dance too! Thank you to all our families who generously donated money towards Mrs Walsh-Fanning’s Go Fund Me appeal. What a lovely way to end our first half-term!

Harvest Mass

Today, we led a whole school Mass celebrating the wonder of God’s Creation. We gathered together to thank God for all he provides for us so we can enjoy his world. During Mass, we reminded everyone that we have a responsibility to be stewards of his creation but also to provide an option for the poor so that all God’s people are treated with human dignity.

Harvest Hamper

Our Harvest Hamper is filling up nicely. We have been collecting donations for our Harvest Hamper and we're incredibly grateful to all of our families for their generosity. OLOL will be delivering all of our hampers to St Chad's Sanctuary and we hope that our donations will go some way to helping those in need.

One Life Autumn Livestream

Today, we joined Dan and Emily for their OneLife Autumn livestream. It was a joyful way to end our week joining Catholic schools across the country to celebrate, sing and pray together. 

Liturgy

This morning, D and C led us in a beautiful, prayerful liturgy. They prepared a liturgy with the theme Mother Mary where we sang Immaculate Mary, prayed Hail Holy Queen together before they asked the children to write a prayer to Mary, our Mother. D and C left us with a key message to take away from their prayer service: Trust in God’s Word and be a servant of God like Mary. 

Pilgrims of Hope Champions

Our Pilgrims of Hope Champions completed their first task with our class this week. In their meeting, they discussed Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and her commitment to honesty and integrity. With St Thérèse’s quote ‘I can nourish myself on nothing but truth’ in the centre of the page, D and C asked the class to note down how they will be honest and truthful this week at school, at home and out in our wider community.

One Life Music

We have been joining Dan, Emily and the rest of the school for the ‘Open for Creation’ daily prayer since the start of term. It has been a lovely way for us all to come together virtually to give thanks to God for creating us through prayer, song and reflection time.

Reconciliation

This week, we were exploring the meaning of reconciliation and its importance in our lives. We made a connection between our learning and the story of Joseph meeting his brothers in Egypt. Then, we created our own artistic representation of our reconciliation feels to us.

CAFOD’s Family Fast Day

This morning, two members of CAFOD club led us in our class assembly all about their new role and Family Fast Day. We discussed how we can show solidarity with those who do not have as much as we do and give something up on Friday. We wrote pledges and promise to give the money to charity that we would usually spend on our chosen treat.

Cancel Debt, Choose Hope

We were delighted to receive a letter from Al Carns recognising all the work we did on the ‘Cancel Debt, Choose Hope’ campaign last year. He was very impressed with our work and said he firmly believes the younger generations should have say in the future. We understand our role in God’s world to inspire others and stand with our Catholic community to help those in need.

Classroom Blessing

This morning, Deacon Tim visited Sycamore to bless our prayer area, all the pupils and the teachers. Deacon Tim talked to us all about the coming year ahead and asked God to watch over us as we take on the new challenges that Year 4 will bring. 

House Team Meetings

This morning, we all met with our house teams to complete a very important task. We explored the CST principle stewardship. We understand that humanity has a responsibility to act as guardians of God's creation; this means we must care for the environment and its resources as well as our talents and gifts. We wrote pledges about what we will do with our house teams to 'Care for Creation'. 

The Saints of Catholic Social Teaching...

To end Mission Week, we all created artwork focusing on two saints who demonstrated the CST principle of solidarity in their life and mission: St Alban and St Damian of Molokai. We talked about their lives and the great actions they took which are an example to us on our own journey of faith in Catholic Social Teaching actions.

Our Class Saints:

St Philip Neri and St John Henry Newman

We enjoyed learning all about St Philip Neri and St John Henry Newman. Reflecting on St John Henry Newman’s prayer, we thought about what our ‘definite service’ might be and what mission in life God created us for knowing that we can use our Catholic Social Teaching principles to make our acts of service gifts for the global community.

Our School Mission

We started our new year at OLOL reminding ourselves of our school Mission Statement. We created our own artistic interpretation of the key elements of the statement and explored how this mission will affect our actions and faith this year.

New Beginnings 

To end our first day back at OLOL, we held our first whole class liturgy, led by our newly appointed liturgy leads; it was a beautiful service of welcome and new beginnings.