Whole School Catholic Life

1JD- Rosary

On Thursday 18th April, 1JD welcomed Rita to pray the Rosary as a class. Together we prayed the glorious mystery. The children thought carefully about who they wanted to pray for and the children gave thoughtful responses. 

As part of our Year 3 RE lessons, we were exploring the scripture story of the road to Emmaus where Jesus appeared to his followers. We had to read the piece of scripture ourselves and discuss what it was telling us, we then had to look for different words and phrases where it shows the thoughts and feelings of the followers and finding evidence of how the disciples didn’t recognise him and the point where Jesus’ identity became clear and he revealed himself. In our own words we then had to explain how we can meet Jesus today and how it would make us feel and would it change us in anyway.

As Easter is one of the most important liturgical seasons, we spent our week using the TenTen prayer resources exploring the story of the Risen Jesus. We ended one of our times of prayer with reflection and meditation. As we finished our time of prayer the story of the resurrection had a new meaning and we started to talk about how we can see Jesus being present in our daily lives.

As so many of our friends were celebrating Eid with their families, we decided we would learn a little bit about this special day and some of the customs, beliefs and traditions of the Muslim faith.

Miss McTiernan took all of the donations for the Lenten food bank collection to the B30 Foodbank centre today. They were very grateful for the generosity the children and families of St Edward's had shown.

The whole school gather together today to remember the journey that Jesus took when carrying his cross and preparing to die. Mrs Kennett and the Liturgy Leaders led the whole school in scripture, song and prayer.

The whole school were out in force for our Rudolph Run for Birmingham Hospice. Every child was out to run, walk and jog and we have raised nearly £1000 already.

We were filled with passion after hearing that Pope Francis had written a letter about how we have been treating God’s creation we listened to his message and were shocked by some of the images we saw. We then decided to think of 5 ways in which we can protect and try and save the planet. We realised that even though they may be small changes, if everyone does them we can make a big difference. We then joined a live lesson about the effects of humans on forests and woodland. We used this information to write our live simply pledge, to show we we could live simply, sustainably and in solidarity. We then decided we were going to ‘step up to the plate’ and create posters with the messages we wanted people to hear, but we did them on plates.

We then explored a new Catholic Social Teaching about Stewardship and how God has trusted us with this gift of creation. We even decided to reply to Pope Francis’ letter about how we are going to help.

The children in Year 3 have been learning the Act of Contrition, the children had a copy of the prayer that they could find the words that spoke to them. We discussed these words and their meaning and then the children wrote their own Act of Contrition. They were then able to reflect and spend some time with God in prayer.

On Wednesday 29th November, 2PW held a prayer service celebrating the feast of St Andrew. Thank you to all of the parents who joined us for the service. The children enjoyed planning all aspects of the service, from music to prayers. 

Faith Friends Advent Craft

To mark the start of Advent Year 3 and Year 6 joined with their Faith Friends to make an Advent Wreath. They then joined with other pairs to create a team to work together. Once they were completed, we delivered to them to people around school so that they could see that Advent has started and we need to prepare for Jesus coming.

The children in Year 1 looked at the Live Simply assembly and wrote their promises. Some of the children said: ‘ I will look go on a walk and look at God’s creation. I will say a prayer before bed each night.’ 

In Year One on Friday 24th November, we enjoyed World Youth Funday. The children listened to the Daughters of Divine Charity and sang along to ‘Rejoice in the Lord’ with body percussion. The children also followed along with the World Youth Dance Crew and learnt a dance routine. 

The Liturgy Leaders

The Liturgy Leaders have had a busy couple of weeks. We have welcomed some new members and joined our first meeting with other schools to find out how they are trying to make God’s world a better place, they then led their first whole school assembly to tell the school community about our Live Simply plans, they then stayed after school for their weekly meeting and created posters to promote and encourage everyone to support our Toy Appeal to donate toys for children who may not receive many at Christmas and it didn’t stop there we joined the school councillors the protect God’ s planet and God’ s children in our Road Safety protests. We made leaflets and prayers and have them out asking our parents to help us in our mission.

We had another visit this week from John from Birmingham hospice but this time he brought a special guest…. Nettie! They came to support St John’s house in motivating the whole school in their fundraising for the Rudolph run. Hettie even showed us some of her running skills to help. We found out lots of facts about the hospice and the vulnerable people who live there who our fundraising will go to support.

Faith in Action- Option for the Poor and Vulnerable.

CAFOD Family Fast Day

Our Liturgy Leaders were out in force on the gates to raise money for Cafod Family Fast day. Parents and children all gave generously so that the poor and vulnerable could benefit from out generosity. We were able to raise £200 to donate. Well done and thank you everybody.

St Edward’s Feast Day- Year 2

In Year 2, we celebrated the feast of St Edward, through role play of his life and making crowns.

Bug Hotel Workshop

We were thinking about how we can be Stewards of God's creation and we worked with Phil to make a bug hotel so that we can look after the wonderful creatures God has given us. Mr Evans now just has to find the best place to put them.

Year 3 Catholic Social Teaching

We have been exploring the themes of Catholic Social Teaching in all that we do. In our English texts, we have found many ways that authors teach us about these themes. So far in 'The Tunnel' we saw how people need to live in solidarity and we need to consider the way we treat each other as we never know when we might need someone's help. In 'Into the Forest' it showed us how important family and community are if we are going to live a full and happy life and finally in 'Hansel and Gretel' we explored option for the poor and vulnerable as that characters had nothing due to a terrible famine and we could see that the step mother was quite selfish.

Year 3 Parent Workshop- Belonging

As we are settling into our new year group, we invited the parents in to her some key messages about what they could expect from Year 3 and also to explore the idea of belonging and how important it is to belong. We explored ways that we can show belonging before discussing the different groups that we belong to. The children and parents, then produced a piece of art work demonstrating all of the different groups that they belong to.

Year 3 class saint

Year 3 have been inspired by the work of St Thérèse our class Saint. They were full of questions about her life and were shocked at how young she was when she decided to dedicate her life to God. They then completed a task where they reflected on their own behaviour and actions to see how they could be a faith hero like St Thérèse. Each day when we say our prayers we now pray to St Thérèse.

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Liturgy Leaders led us in a whole school prayer service to celebrate Mary’s birthday. We listened to stories where Mary played an important role, we took part in a litany and we sang songs to praise Mary. It was a very reverent occasion to mark the birthday of Jesus’ mother and the special lady that God chose.

Academic Year 2022/ 23

The children in Year 1 were given the special role of crowning Mary in the month of May. We lay fresh flowers on the altar and placed a flower crown on Mary’s head. 

Year 5 Outdoor Day - Reflection

Year 5 spent some time reflecting on the ‘Eternal Rest’ prayer and it’s significance to people who have lost a loved one. The children were mature and respectful toward one another throughout the activity. 

Reception Prayer Service 17.5.23

This week Reception held a prayer service focussing on the life of Saint Paschal Baylon and the Feast of the Ascension. Saint Paschal Baylon teaches us how to be kind to others and to think about how we can help others to have Jesus at the heart of all that we do. 

6EB Aspirations Day 
We celebrated Vocations Sunday by holding an Aspirations Day on Thursday. The children came into class dressed as somebody they aspired to be. Everyone looked fabulous. We had a range of costumes, from teachers and artists to doctors and professional sports players. We discussed what the word aspiration means and thought about the qualities that we need to demonstrate in order to aim high and reach our full potential. The children were able to visualise who or how they wanted to be when they are older. Well done for all of your efforts with this 6EB! 

On Thursday the 4th of May the children celebrated Aspirations Day by dressing up as people/occupations we aspire to be. The children shared why the person inspires them and discussed why they would like to be like that person when they grow older. In the afternoon Reception shared their aspirations with their Year 5 buddy and had fun visiting the Year 5 classrooms. 

Year 4 have created artwork to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection. They used masking tape to mark three crosses, to symbolise the three crosses that stood on Good Friday, and then painted the background using blending and shading techniques. They then carefully peeled off the masking tape to reveal the crosses. Finally, they wrote ‘Christ is Risen’ to show that after he was condemned to die by crucifixion, Jesus was resurrected so that we can all receive eternal life after death.

Year 6 - Easter

During our RE lessons and Prayer & Liturgy sessions this week, we have been learning about the Easter story. We have explored the four Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and tried to find similarities and differences between them.

We have thought carefully about how the apostles and Mary Magdalene might have felt when they discovered that Jesus had risen. Throughout or prayer and liturgy sessions, we prayed that we would have the courage and faith to believe in things we cannot see. We also learned about doubting Thomas and discussed how he might have felt. We thought about how we would persuade a non-believer to believe in Jesus’ resurrection. 

In our final lesson of the week, we learned the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) prayer. Our liturgy leaders will lead this prayer every day until the end of the Easter season to celebrate that Jesus is risen. The children produced beautiful crosses to add colour to our prayer area. 

The whole school gathered together to remember the journey Jesus took to his crucifixion, the staff read the reflection for each station and the children sang a response. It was a beautiful way to remember how Jesus suffered and died for us.

Year 3 - Easter

This week the children participated in role-plays, creative activities and read Bible stories from 'The Journey to Emmaus' and 'Breakfast on the Shore'. The children made links between these Bible stories and their upcoming sacrament of Holy Communion. There was a lot of excitement and questions that were raised by the children when they were learning these stories. Below you can see some of the questions they were wondering about.

• Why did God choose Jesus to live out in Jerusalem? Why didn't he live and travel around Birmingham in England? Why someplace so far away?
• I don't understand why the disciple Thomas had to see Jesus' hands to believe. Why didn't he just believe? We believe and haven't seen Jesus' hands?
• There are lots of stories after Jesus had Risen where people close to Jesus didn't recognise him. Why was this? My Granny died and I will never forget what she looked like!
• Will I feel the same way when I receive the Eucharist as the two men in Emmaus when Jesus broke the bread with them? I think I might; I am excited now!

Another child said...

My favourite story is 'Breakfast on the Shore' because again the disciples didn't recognise Jesus but He gave them a clue as to who He was by providing them with a miracle where loads of fish appeared! Then He made breakfast for the disciples and said, 'Feed my Lambs' but I don't think Jesus was talking about real lambs. I think He was asking the disciples to spread God's word to fill people's hearts with love!

A wonderful week learning about Jesus in the Year 3 classrooms!

Today, we had a class liturgy focusing on the events of Holy Week. We listening to the poem ‘Hang it on the cross’ and as part of our respond all of the children made a clay cross that they can take home. Our go forth task was that whenever we are worried or sad we can hold our cross, talk to God and hang it on the cross.

Lots of the staff (including Mrs Kennett) have been good sports and have allowed children to throw wet sponges at them to raise even more money for our Lenten charities.

We celebrated a class liturgy together, where we looked at lots of different saints and how we can be inspired by them. As many children in year 6 will be making their Confirmation soon, therefore taking a saint's name, it was lovely to share this experience together, as a whole class, and involve everyone. 

The children also looked afterward at the different parts of planning, preparing and presenting a class liturgy session. Every child had a go at planning their own session and we're all very excited to experience all of these together!

Spring 2, Week 3- St Patrick’s Day

In Year 5, we celebrated St Patrick’s Day (who is also our Year group Saint) with a fantastic 

presentation by Nancy. She researched facts about the life of Saint Patrick, the origins of the parade and even showed us a video of a parade at Canon Hill Park. Thank you Nancy!

Spring 2, Week 2 

Year 5 led a lively, and informative, assembly this week about the Parables of Jesus. It was wonderful to see so many parents supporting the children. We have attached a copy of the script so you can act out your favourite part!

Praying the Rosary Together

In 1JW this week we prayed the rosary together. The children each had their own rosary beads to guide them in their prayer. We use prayer as way of developing our relationship with God. It was so wonderful to pray together as a class family. 

2SM Lent Mass

Lent

Over the past few weeks there has been such a buzz around school. We asked the children which charities they would like to support and which activities they would like to run to raise money. The children have been very conscientious giving up their own time to run some of these activities and also supporting the events that were for the whole school. We look forward to seeing the final amount raised. We have been going out to get some extra steps in to add to our total for the Big Lent Walk, please sponsor us.

Our class prayer areas are now reflecting the season of Lent and we have made promises which we will be trying to stick during this liturgical season.

Year 3 and 6 Reconciliation

During our unit in RE we have been learning about all of the messages Jesus gives us through his miracles and parables. He teaches us to have faith, to forgive, to share our gifts and talents and to listen and spread the Word of God.

Year 4; role play and posters

2SB mass; St David

Before Lent begins, we were lucky to have Sr Eleanor from CAFOD come and lead an assembly all about how CAFOD helps those overseas. As some of the money we raise during Lent will go towards this charity it was very inspiring. 
She also led workshops with EYFS and KS1 to help us understand the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

Year 3

Charity Fundraising

As it is Lent we have been raising money for the children's chosen charities which are Cafod, Stroke Association and British Red Cross. The children in Year 3 decided they wanted to raise funds by playing 'Soak the teacher.' This seemed to go down really well and there was a lot of excitement. We have even had a request for the parents to join this event also!

St. Patrick's Day

On the 17th March we learnt all about St. Patrick. He is the patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick has a bit of an upsetting history whereby he was kidnapped from his native home of Wales and taken to Ireland to work as a slave as a young child. He stayed here for a number of years until he escaped back to Britain. He became a priest and in later years a Bishop. At this point he returned to Ireland to help Irish natives turn to Christianity. St. Patrick wrote a book about his life before he died and in parts it is said that he embellished some parts. An example of this is when the book said he sent all the snakes in Ireland out into the sea and they never returned. The children in Year 3 thought about this and some deep thought was put into and discussed about these stories. One child said, 'I think St. Patrick didn't mean snakes. I think he used snakes as an example for the bad choices people made and St. Patrick was able to get people to turn away from bad choices and follow Jesus.' 

Reception - Baptism 

The children have been learning about the sacrament of Baptism by taking part in a role play. We learnt that at Baptism we are welcomed into God’s family and we are given a Christian name. We decorated our Christian names to show how special they are.

2SB Mass; St Brigid

Spring 1, Week 6
To mark World Day of the Sick, every one in school made cards, wrote letters and prayers or made pictures. Some of our Liturgy Leaders then went out to deliver them. We went to a local nursing home, St Mary’s Hospice and St Paul’s Convent. We also delivered some to St Edward’s church. The residents were all so touched we were invited back to see a very special letter displayed in the hospice and have been invited back to the convent to do some activities with the Srs there.

Reception Mass- St Josephine Bakhita

On Wednesday Reception and their Year 5 buddies celebrated Mass in the school Hall. During our Mass we celebrated, and gave thanks for the life of Saint Josephine Bakhita. Saint Josephine was a nun who tried her best to help others and always had a smile on her face. We enjoyed learning the hymn 'Share the Light of Jesus' and thought about how we could make others smile too.

Year 1- Catholic Life 

The Epiphany 

In 1JW, the children have been displaying our new gospel virtues 'eloquent and truthful'. They sang and responded in our mass which celebrated The Epiphany. 

As we a school, we take every opportunity to go out into God’s creation and see what new things there are to learn and what new parts we can explore. Every term each year group has at least one day off timetable to go out and explore this wonderful gift. We explore natural habitats, we see how we can make our school environment better for the creatures God has placed there. We start each session in prayer and end each session in prayer.

Year 5 prayer and liturgy

Our school Nativity was once again held outside. The parents were invited to follow Mary and Joseph on a journey to Bethlehem, they had some stops to make along the way where they could listen to the story being told through words, prayer and song. We all gathered as a school community at the end to sing our final carols together to celebrate the Birth of the new born King… Jesus.

This week THE WHOLE SCHOOL went out onto the junior playground to complete the Rudolph Run for St Mary’s Hospice. Many of our families sponsored us and all of the money went to a great cause right beside our school.

In Year 2, we used our computing day to learn about the Nativity. We each created our own animations based on the Nativity scene and the people who came to visit Baby Jesus.

Advent

We have entered into this special time of preparation in school. We have been lighting our candles as we count down to Christmas and the birth of Jesus. 

In school, all of our altar clothes are purple to show that we are preparing and we are following our Walk with me calendar each day to see what message it gives us.

We began the week with the children being able to wear something purple to mark the start of Advent.  The children had an afternoon of Advent craft to make things representing their countdown to Christmas. 

This year, instead of asking for donations for our reverse Advent calendar we have joined with other schools in our cluster for the Toy Appeal. We would like to thank all those for their donations to this cause and for thinking of those less fortunate than ourselves.

It has been a pleasure to see the children's enthusiasm and compassion to others outside of their family.

Year 5 Creation Prayer Service

We have prayed out loud, we have prayed through song, we have prayed in silence, we have prayed in colour and meditated.

Children enjoyed the chance to chat and make a piece of art to take home with them.  The children also wrote the name of the person they thought about most during the session onto a small heart that we will use to display in school. In classes, we made poppies to put around our classroom as well as many other activities to remember those who have gone before us and gave their lives for us.

Today, KS1 had a visit from the animal man. We were fascinated by all of the creatures in God’s world that we have never seen.

Today was an amazing day! Dan and Emily came to lead a retreat for our whole school. We sang, we prayed, we completed activities and we learned about all of the wonderful gifts God has given us in creation.

St Luke’s Feast Day

Year 1 learnt all about our class saint St Francis of Assisi. The children recorded facts about him and his life and drew pictures of him. The children were inspired by his love of animals and God's creation. 

Year 1 have learnt about St Therese of Liseux as we celebrated 'Little Way Week'.

Little Way Week is inspired by St Thérèse of Lisieux, patron of mission. As a child St Thérèse dreamed of being a missionary. With age she understood that very few of us are called to make big and radical gestures, but that through small, loving actions we too can deliver God’s love to the world.

St. Edward's Feast day

Today, we celebrated the feast day of the patron saint of our school. In each class we learned about him and why he was made a saint. There was a mixture of activities such as 'Happy Feast Day' cards, crowns and lots of other creative activities to celebrate this special day for our school. We were very lucky this year and would like to say thank you to the parents who helped mark this day by decorating our playgrounds with balloons.

This week, Year 2 have been learning about our class Saint; Saint Anthony. We read books about him, watched short films and we even became a  little St Anthony. Did you know he is the patron Saint of lost things? We had to find lots of religious objects in pictures that had been lost and then we had to go out into God’s creation to see what we could find. At the end, we each got a little prayer card to take home so that we can parse to him every night. Every day when we say our prayers in class we finish with ‘St Anthony… pray for us.’

Little Way Week

Each class had an artist to learn about, we then had to explore all of the ways that God has made each of us unique and all of the things that we think make us special.We then created self portraits to celebrate these reasons in the style of that artist.

Reception - Unit A- Creation

We after learning about the Creation story, we went outside to look for evidence of God's wonderful creation around our school.

Year 1 St Francis of Assisi

Mary's Birthday

As it was Mary's birthday on the 8th September, each class prepared a Mary altar and held a special prayer service dedicated to her. It focused on the stories about Mary from the Bible and why she is so special to us. After this each child created a piece of art wok for display to show anyone who could see into our classrooms how special Mary is to us.