As we move through the month of May, whole school acts of worship are thankfully part of school life. Across the school we are working towards developing pupil voice and in this context children help plan the celebrations in many ways including leading us in prayer and reflection, organising the weekly altars, guiding us through the different parts of worship and providing ideas on how we can live out the Word of God.
The children and staff in Year 2 have been working extremely hard over the past month to put together our Easter Service. Traditionally this takes place in our Parish and we look forward to when this can resume in the future.
Click the link below to watch our performance, with support from Reception and Year 1 children. We hope you enjoy!
Leave a comment below!
Year 2 celebrated a wonderful St. David’s Day Mass on Tuesday with Father Andrzej.
It was a special Mass where were able to take part by reading the Bidding Prayers.
We look forward to returning to Mass in Church in the future! We are very grateful that Father Andrzej brought the Mass to us in our classroom. What a special celebration to mark the Feast of Saint David.
Missio Groups are now up and running in Year 2. Most pupils have chosen to be part of 4 groups:
| Missio
St Joseph’s |
Missio Prayer Partners | Missio Prayer
Leaders |
Missio World |
| Our local community, St Joseph’s and Our Lady of Margam & Briton Ferry | Setting up and helping to lead prayer partnerships | Leading and helping to collective worship in school | Working with the wider world |
Missio World Update: Our charities for this term are Sheler Cymru and Food Bank Port Talbot. Missio members chose potential charities and all classes voted. Missio St Joseph’s met with Mike Newell to share their imaginative ideas for a new prayer area in the school grounds. They will be organising an art competition open to all in the new year. Watch this space. Missio Prayer Leaders have shared a prayer inspired by Pope Francis
.
Dear Parents/Carers,
As we move into the season of Advent, we remember the four candles on the Advent wreath. Please take a moment to talk about the first candle, the first Sunday of Advent when we focus on Hope. This seems very fitting in these challenging times. Mark’s Gospel reminds us, ‘Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come.’
As a whole school community we have revisited our school values. We want our children to be loving and to love God and the wider world.
The Birth of Jesus Please help your child make links in their learning and become faith filled. How? Take some time to read the nativity story with your child. Start with Mary’s good news and read the journey and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Find time to pray. For traditional prayers, focus on one prayer at a time. Start with the sign of the cross, then the Hail Mary, Our Father and Glory Be. Prayers from the heart. At bedtime and first thing in the morning try to find some space to talk to Jesus with your child. In Advent, maybe think about a prayer of thanks, of love, of joy of peace.
Meet our Missio Prayer Leaders
Today we would like to share our Missio prayer with you.
It is taken from one of our assemblies when we thought about ‘How we can care for God’s world?’
Our whole school has been working on how we can be well.
We had lots of fun during our Wellbeing Day.
We took time to reflect on our God given gifts from God and time to thank God for our talents during collective worship.
Come have a go at our Rainbow Breathing
Breathe in for a count of 4, and say “Live wisely”
Breathe out for a count of 4, and say “Love generously”
Our Pupil Profile: Our Values and Virtues
As a Catholic School in the Diocese of Menevia, we have embraced the Catholic Schools’ Pupil Profile, which teaches the children a set of eight pairs of virtues to be internalised and cultivated –
enabling them to grow in wholeness as fully rounded individuals in the image of God.
The pairs of virtues are:
At St Joseph’s Infant School, the children are growing to be:
Grateful for their own gifts, for the gift of other people, and for the blessings of each day; and generous with their gifts, now and in the future.
Attentive to their experience and to their vocation; and discerning about the choices they make and the effects of those choices.
Compassionate towards others, near and far, especially the less fortunate; and loving by their just actions and forgiving words.
Faith-filled in their beliefs and hopeful for the future.
Eloquent and truthful in what they say of themselves, the relations between people, and the world.
Learned, finding God in all things; and wise in the ways they use their learning for the common good.
Curious about everything; and active in their engagement with the world, changing what they can for the better
Intentional in the way they live and use the resources of the earth, guided by conscience and prophetic in the example they set to others.
Each half Term we explore ways in which we can develop in our virtues and values.
