St Joseph'sCatholic Primary & Nursery School
Prayer Life and Links with the Parish
Parents and Parishioners joined us for our Stations of the Cross reflection in school today 27.3.24
OLEM Mass and Service times March 2024
We led the 'Stations of the cross' in the church, with the parishioners joining in.
We celebrated two special Saints Days this week. Mrs Williams taught us all about St Patrick and we learnt about our school history and the life of St Joseph! Father Paul also visited us to tell us more about St Joseph
Public Speaking Team present their speech on Stewardship to members of the Parish at Tea at 2!
Lent calendar challenge 2024
Useful links to use at home during Lent:
The Cafod website has daily links to prayers and reflections which offer the opportunity to pause, reflect and pray as we prepare for Easter.
https://cafod.org.uk/pray/lent-calendar
The Mark 10 Mission website shares weekly videos to watch at home - this week as we begin our journey through Lent their little liturgy is entitled "Let's begin Lent" whilst their KS2 video explores "The meaning of Lent" as the season to turn back to God.
https://www.themark10mission.co.uk/
Wednesday 14th February 2024 is Ash Wednesday. Mrs Williams led a special liturgy in school before we broke up for half-term as this special day falls within our half-term break. Please see attached a special guide to Lent to use at home.
What our pupils say about prayer and how to prayer garden (and prayer group) help them:
- Joseph - when you colour you are learning about his teachings (Jesus)
- Ivy - It is teaching us by learning new things without a teacher and being independent in our prayer
- Alice - you get to do new things that are fun and it gives you more things to pray about
- Caylie - So you can speak to God
- Ayat - You can understand more about Jesus's stories and parables
- Elsie - It helps by being part of God's family and he cares for us
- Joshua - It helps me pray for my Dad
- George - you can show love towards Jesus
- Isla - We can make up our own prayers using the cubes
January 2024 - pupils using the weekly reflection and prayer group resources at lunchtime!
Thursday 14th December 2023 - Today Fr Paul came into school to celebrate our end of term Advent Mass. He was assisted by John the Sacristan and Sanae and Sarah our Altar Servers.
Friday 8th December 2023 - In recognition of the Holy Day of Obligation, we learnt about how Mary was free from sin from the moment of her conception. We also thought about how we can be more like Mary in our thoughts, words and actions
Advent reflection service 4th December 2023. Today our Chaplaincy team led an Advent reflection to help the school community understand the meaning of Advent and how we can prepare during this special time. We were delighted that Father Paul and Jane could join us. Miss Cooper has also transformed our prayer garden for Advent!
As a school community and alongside the parish and Fr Paul, we celebrated All Saints Day. Father Paul asked us to tell him about all the Saints that we knew and reminded us that the Saints thought that Jesus was their "Hero" and he is our "Hero" too!
We used the CAFOD prayer for peace in Israel this week (17th October) to remember all those who are suffering:
Let us pray for the many people whose lives have been torn apart by conflict in Gaza and Israel.
We remember especially those who have died, those who are grieving, the injured and those now without food, shelter or medical supplies.
We pray also for those who have the power to bring peace. May they be touched by a spirit of compassion and kindness.
Lord hear us.
A wonderful gift to our school - A very special Lectionary!
A Lectionary is a Bible that can be used for readings, for instance, when we go over to the church we use the Bible at the front, also known as a lectionary to see and read all the readings that church would do. Why do we need a Lectionary? Well, we need this as without one we cannot remember all the readings for 365 days of the year! This is extremely important to our parish and its why we are so very lucky with being able to read in the church so that you very much to Mary Nicholson.
Mary Nicholson has kindly given the school a Lectionary as a gift for being a wonderful school. Mary is a parishioner who helps out in the parish community. Many generations of Mary's family have attended (and still do currently) St Joseph's and she has given us the Lectionary to help us prepare for readings when we go to church so that we can do the best job we can.
(Sarah and Sanae)
Our start of term Mass with Fr Paul was beautiful! Our theme was friendship and our pupils helped to lead the Mass by altar serving, delivering the readings and supporting with communion.
Quilt Exhibition in the Church. We took part in a Quilt exhibition which was held today 29th Sept in the church. Our theme was 'God's Wonderful World' which links with Creation & Stewardship. Pat Nicholls one of the parishioners came into school and worked with the children to produce this amazing Quilt.
Yr 2 Visited the church to practice saying their bidding prayers. This is what they said about it.......Emi...... I felt a little bit nervous but once I started, I was ok. Freya.. I was scared and a bit nervous. Lily... I felt shy but its good to practice for when I go to Church in Year 3. Isla.... I felt excited to be able to stand on the Altar. Arlo... I was embarrassed to start with but then I was ok. Leon...I was excited and felt very calm. Victoria..I felt a little nervous because I've never read in a church before. Grayson...I felt happy because I liked reading my prayer out loud in the Church..
Coronation Memories 1953 - 2023 The children from St Joseph's and the parishioners from Our Lady and the English Martyrs came together at 'Tea at Two' to share memories of both the Queen's Coronation and the King's Coronation. Recounts were read aloud by both the children and parishioners sharing some lovely memories. This is what the children had to say... Millie- 'I thought it was really special to listen to something that happened before I was alive' . Isla 'I found it interesting how similar yet different both coronations were. I thought it was amazing that the Parishioners could remember so much detail, even the size of the TV which was 12inches, very small. Xanthe 'Everyone was so welcoming, and the cake tasted really good. It was different back then, they had to travel to watch TV as they might not have had their own. Their TV was in black and white. Now we are lucky as we could watch the King's coronation in colour on a big screen. Sarah I found it fascinating to hear about the Coronation back then. There were lot's of similar things like the crown and orb that were passed down through the generations. Elsie 'I found the parishioners opinions really interesting about how things were in 1953. Daisy ' I found it really interesting on how they remembered so much information from over 50 years ago. Layla 'It was so good that everyone had different memories' Effie 'I was surprised at how much detail the parishioner remembered and everything they did to celebrate. Amelia 'When Layla and I sat down everyone was very welcoming. They told us their names and memories which were interesting. Ruby I liked the cake and tea and how everyone was so supportive, clapping and saying how well we did. They gave us lots of compliments.
May is the Month of Mary. This afternoon we held a special prayer service in the playground to crown our statue of Mary with flowers. This service was led by our 'First Communion Children' with the rest of the school joining in. Fortunately the sun shone on us! A special 'thank you' to Mrs Stickels for making Mary's beautiful crown at such short notice! This is what the children said about the service.... 'It made me feel very proud being part of the Crowning Mary service' (Isla) 'I felt very special to have had the chance to do this for the whole school' (Millie) 'Mary is special because she is the mother of Jesus' (Alex) 'It was hard for Mary to be Jesus' mother because she had to travel to Bethlehem and then give birth in a Stable. Then she had to watch her son be crucified and die. That must have been so hard as his mother to watch. Mary must have been very resilient. (Isla & Millie ) We are lucky to have a statue of Mary in our prayer garden. It always makes me feel very calm when I go in there. (Millie).
Bishop Declan visited our school to bless our ‘Prayer Garden’ today (March 2023). We were also joined by many of the people who are a valuable part of our school community; Mrs Taylor (our CEO), Mrs Christie (Our Director), Mrs Powell (Our Governor), representatives from the Friends of St Joseph’s and members of the parish who all give up their time to support us. This prayer garden was originally designed in memory of Father Barry our previous parish priest. Representatives from each class joined us and laid a potted plant in front of the statue of Mary. Following a tour of the school, Bishop Declan blessed our prayer garden and then joined us for a celebratory cup of tea and cake. It was a memorable occasion and I’m sure one that the children will always remember.
Pupil's comments about the prayer garden:
"You can regulate your mind if you are feeling het up" (Isla)
"If you want to say a prayer or have some time with friends, you come here" (Elsie)
"It helps me calm down as its a quiet space" (Xanthe)
"It's a great place to relax with the younger ones" (Yasmin)
Stations of the Cross: in the last week of the half-term (of Spring) Year 6 read aloud to each year group ‘The Stations of the Cross’ a form of prayer used traditionally in Lent. Each of the 14 Stations retells part of Jesus’ Passion (his suffering and death) through images and words. The stations were carried out with great reverence and all of the children were a credit to the school. It was lovely that some of the parishioners were able to attend; strengthening the links within our community.
Our new Prayer Garden - a quiet space for us to reflect!
Every month we join members of the parish for their "Tea at 2" afternoon. We share a cup of tea and cake and tell them all about our work as a Chaplaincy Team!
Pupil Led Liturgical Prayer
"We really enjoy planning the liturgy for our class, we try and include different things each week for them to think about and reflect on in a enjoyable way". (Gracie and Theo)