New Beginnings 

We held our first whole class collective worship today; it was a beautiful service of welcome and new beginnings.

Service of Blessing and Commitment

Today, we had our first assembly in class.  We listened to the Word of God and prayed for our school during this year ahead. We made a commitment today to do our best and try our hardest to use the gifts and talent God has given us, especially when times get tough. 

Exaltation of the Cross 

On Monday, our assembly was on 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. Afterwards, we designed a cross in our Prayer Journals to show how thankful we are for the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. 

Liturgy Leaders

We would like to introduce you to our new Liturgy Leaders. They carried out their first task today: monitoring our Prayer Table.

Year Five’s ‘Pinky Promises’

We have been considering where we can use our gifts and talents in the service of other people. Each of us wrote a promise to use our gifts/talents to help someone and placed it in our ‘pinky-promise’ basket in our prayer corner.

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

We recreated a section of the famous painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam: Adam’s hand reaching to touch the mighty right hand of our Lord. We used the grid method to ensure our drawings were precise. Then, we used flesh tones to add colour; we focused on highlighting the areas where the light touches the hands and using a darker shadow to deepen the darkest areas making sure that the whole illustration was blended perfectly.

Saint Michael the Archangel

We celebrated our Class Saint on Thursday as it was his feast day. We learnt all about him at the start of term and enjoyed completing a fact file about the chief of all the angels and of the army of God.

Celebration Liturgy: Creation and Diversity

We held a celebration liturgy in class to conclude our topic. We focused on the diversity of people and creation and our understanding of God as the Creator. Megan, Aoife and Teddy led our service. We all wrote reflections, which we attached to our prayer tree.

Freeze Frames - Miracles

After using Bible references to find different Miracle stories, we worked in groups to create a freeze-frame for a chosen one. We explored the use of expression and the possible thoughts of the characters. We considered what the onlookers might have said about Jesus after the miracles took place and how the lives of those involved, either witnessing or experiencing, were changed after what Jesus did.

Sacrament of the Sick

First, we looked at photographs of the Sacrament of the Sick being administered. We explored the gestures of laying on of hands and anointing with the Oil of the Sick. We heard the words that are said to the sick person as they are anointed with the oil on their forehead and hands: “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy strengthen you by the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin, save you and raise you up.” We wrote prayers for the sick to give to Fr Sean to take to the sick when he next visits them.

Laudato Si

We looked at the Laudato Si prayer and discussed the meaning. We thought about the water crisis and pollution in Flint, Michigan, USA and wrote a prayer for the people who live there.

Baptism of Jesus

As part of our Baptism unit, we looked at a stunning piece of artwork based on the baptism of Jesus and recreated our own version using watercolour paint.

Red Wednesday

Linden class wore red to show their support for persecuted Christians around the world.

Advent Promises

We all made an Advent promise to show what we are going to do during this season to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

Advent Assembly

At the beginning of our collective worship, we lit the second Advent candle. After singing ‘Stay Awake’ at the end of our assembly, we discussed how we can prepare for Jesus, the light of the world, this Christmas.

Prayer Journals

Today, we took a moment of silent reflection to express our thoughts and feelings about Advent in our prayer journals through art, poems or prayers.

Advent Art

This afternoon, we created a piece of art using oil pastels and then took part in Advent meditation. We thought about the hope felt by Elizabeth and Mary as they awaited the birth of their children: John, who prepare the way for the Messiah; and Jesus, who would be the light to dispel the darkness.

Christmas Nativity Scene

We visited the crib scene in the church and discussed the celebration of the Epiphany.

Collective worship

To end our Christmas unit in RE, we held a class liturgy. After thinking about the Nativity of Jesus and how some people in today’s world have nowhere warm to stay, we wrote prayers for the homeless, refugees and asylum seekers. We all shared our reflections during open prayer.

Jesuit Virtues: Grateful and Generous

In our assembly, we discussed what it means to be grateful and generous: grateful for our own gifts, for the gift of other people, and for the blessings of each day; and generous with our gifts, now and in the future. Then, in house groups, we researched how our house saint showed elements of being grateful and generous.

Christian Unity

This week’s assembly was all about Christian Unity. We learned that there are many different Christian Churches that all have the same belief in Jesus Christ. We designed our own ICHTHUS fish (a secret symbol of Christianity) to remind us that when the Christian Church began, many Christians were persecuted for their beliefs.

Conversion of St. Paul Feast Day

During our assembly for the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul on the road to Damascus, we thought about why he is such an important Saint for Christians. Mrs David has given us two RE challenges that we will share once we have completed them. Our Liturgy Leader completed the assembly reflection with the help of a friend.

CAFOD assembly: Water is Life

Today, we joined CAFOD's latest national assembly. We traveled to a place called Afar in Ethiopia, one of the hottest regions on earth, to meet people who make long journeys to collect water because it is so scarce. We then explored how the steps we take and the actions we make can make a difference to communities without water this term.  We all completed a water droplet to stick in our windows at home so that we can join the CAFOD Water Droplet Trail. 

The Rosary

One of our liturgy leads led the rosary for us this morning to celebrate Mary, our Mother. We prayed the 4^th Glorious Mystery ‘Coronation of Our Lady Queen of Heaven’.

Our Lady

We started our celebration of the Feast of our Patron (Our Lady of Lourdes) with an assembly. We thought about the special name for Mary that reminds us of her 18 visits to St Bernadette at the Grotto in Lourdes and how this changed St Bernadette’s life forever, but also created for us a place of prayer and pilgrimage where God’s healing love can be experienced in many ways. During our RE lessons, we researched the other places where Mary appeared and then explored why Mary is a source of devotion in our Catholic faith.

Lenten Promises

We started our new term with our Lent assembly. We thought about how we are preparing: praying, fasting and giving. Afterwards, we made our Lenten promises and displayed them on our prayer table.

Feast of St David

Today, we celebrated the feast of St David who reminded us to ‘do small things’. Mrs David gave us two RE challenges (to find out about modern monastic life and to explore the traditions Welsh people have for St David’s Day) that we will tweet once we have completed them.

Jesuit Virtues: Attentive and Discerning

After our assembly, we held house meetings where we explored how our house saint showed us how to be attentive and discerning. Then, we thought about how we can live like our house saints and show that we are attentive (paying attention to the world around us – at home, school and in the wider world) and discerning in our faith (making the best decisions we can for the greater glory of God)

Pope Francis’ Five Finger Prayer

After our assembly all about Reconciliation, we completed ‘Pope Francis’ Five Finger Prayer’ in our prayer journals thinking about the people who we will show love to this lent.

Year of St Joseph

Our focus for yesterday’s assembly was St Joseph and the role model he provides to us all of what family life can look like. Pope Francis declared this the Year of St Joseph as he reflected on the pandemic and what sacrifices people have made because of it. Mrs David challenged us to create a prayer to celebrate this Year of St Joseph in our prayer journals.

Palm Sunday Prayer Service

“I tell you,” he replied, 

“if they keep quiet,

tstones will cry out”.

Each of us painted a palm branch on a stone and explored some of the praises called out to Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem. We held a prayer service asking Jesus to show us how to welcome Him into our lives. We placed our stones on our prayer table as an offering. During our service, we reflected on some questions: How would you welcome Jesus if he arrived here today? How can we welcome Jesus into our lives?

The Stations of the Cross

After watching Year 4 lead us in the Stations of the Cross for Holy Week, we explored some of the key Stations in more detail: the condemnation of Jesus to death, a fall of Jesus, Simon of Cyrene, Veronica, and Jesus meets his Mother. Working in groups, we created freeze-frames for our chosen station. We explored the use of expression and the possible thoughts of the characters. We talked about what the figures of Simon of Cyrene and Veronica teach us, and explored the meaning of the words ‘service’ and ‘compassion’.

CAFOD assembly: Eyes of the World

We joined the live CAFOD assembly to find out how we can come together to look after and care for the world which is crying out for our help, and tackle the climate crisis.  The eyes of the world are on us this year as Britain hosts world leaders for the United Nations' climate change talks – COP26 so we created our own 'Eyes of the World' posters. 

Jesuit Virtues: Loving and Compassionate

During our assembly, we listened to the parable of the Prodigal Son and considered how it is relevant for this term's virtues. We revisited the Ignatian motto (Ad majorem Dei gloriam) and understand that our application of the virtues is so that we can do more, and be more for the Greater Glory of God. After our assembly, we held house meetings where we explored how our house saint showed us how to be loving and compassionate and how we can live like our house saint. 

Papal Intention

After Pope Francis opened the Marathon of Prayer for an end to the pandemic on Saturday from St Peter’s Basilica, our liturgy leaders led us in the Holy Rosary this week.

Maisy Milk's Rosary for Peace

This week, we are joining the ACN Schools Team in praying one decade of the Rosary each day for one week in May. We offer our prayers for peace in our world and ask for Our Lady’s intercession and protection on behalf of Syrian families and Nigerian widows and orphans. During our assembly this morning, our liturgy leads led us in 'The First Joyful Mystery'. 

Pentecost Artwork

In preparation for Pentecost Sunday this weekend, we explored a range of Pentecost art and then recreated our own artwork in the same style using oil pastels.

Laudato Si’

#ShowTheLove

Today, we talked about Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' that remains a profound invitation to everyone on the planet to care for our common home. We explored how climate change is affecting the people, places and things we love – and what we want to do about it. We know that 2021 is a really important year for action on climate change. Later this year, the UK is hosting the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow - also known as COP26. We decided to show the love for everything we want to protect from the climate crisis by designing our own green hearts to stick in our windows.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

This morning, we joined together as a class for ‘The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus’ assembly. June is the month dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. During this month, we take time to reflect on what God’s love really means to us: ‘God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son so that we might have life in him’ (John 3:16) After our assembly, we created our own image of the Sacred Heart. We had to label it: explaining the meaning of the different symbols. We then explored some questions: why do you think people have a devotion to the Sacred Heart? How can you reflect the love of Jesus in your life?

End of Year Prayer Service

We ended our eventful year with a beautiful class prayer service: reflecting on the difficult yet rewarding year we have all had.