A - Ascension

Working for Christ

We marked the feast of Ascension during Celebration of the Word this week. We heard how Jesus commanded his followers, “Go, make disciples of the nations” and we reflected on the Catholic Social Teaching principle - The Dignity of Work. Just as Jesus gives his team a mission to complete, so too are we called to complete some special work in this world.

We begin the journey of discerning our vocation by putting our everyday abilities to good use. We like to see children across the school engaged in the "work" of the school - fruit box monitors, librarians, play leaders and sports captains are great examples of the ways children begin to learn the dignity of work.

The Life of Christ

The children in Reception enjoyed a trip to the church this week for their RE lesson. They went on a hunt to find some different objects like the font and altar.

Some of the children in St Bernadette’s class were mesmerised by the Easter story statues in the St Mary’s (the Stations of the Cross) and decided to make their own church stories back in the classroom. They made scenes of an angel visiting Mary, Jesus being born in a stable, Mary and Joseph travelling, and Jesus dying on the cross. It was such beautiful independent play and made us feel so grateful for our youngest children in the school!

Brilliant branching databases...

This week, Year 3 have enjoyed coming up with questions to sort items according to different attributes (such as colour and size). We realised that, to create questions with the answers "yes" or "no", those questions would need to begin with ‘is’, ‘do’ or ‘does’. We enjoyed working on the chromebooks to create databases and planned these out first in paper form.

Recalling Ascension

In RE, Year 1 have been learning about Jesus' ascension into heaven and the promise to send the Holy Spirit. We retold the story of the ascension using paper cups and wrote Jesus' promise on the cloud. We then learnt that day of the ascension is a holy day and what this means for Catholics.

A bear's life

This week in Year 4, our Master Readers journey with The Last Bear has reached an exciting point! The children have been creating their own versions of the story, and we focused on writing from Bear’s perspective when he first meets April.

At first, the Year 4 team wondered if this would be a tricky challenge. Writing from an animal’s point of view isn’t easy, but the children rose to the occasion brilliantly. They explored Bear’s thoughts and feelings with imagination and sensitivity, bringing his world to life through detailed descriptions.

The results have been astonishing! Many children produced their best writing of the year, full of creativity, emotion, and clever use of language. It has been a joy to see their confidence grow as they experimented with perspective, vocabulary, and storytelling.

We can’t wait to see where Bear’s adventure takes us next, and we hope you enjoy their Writing as much as we have!

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5 little ducks...

Our Nursery children have been delighted by the exciting arrival of our duck eggs this week! Each class received five eggs to care for and observe, creating a wonderful hands-on learning experience for everyone involved. At the time of writing, Ladybirds class have celebrated four successful hatchings, while Butterfly class have welcomed three fluffy ducklings so far.

The children have loved watching the incredible hatching process unfold day by day — from spotting the very first tiny cracks in the shells to seeing the ducklings finally emerge. There has been great excitement, curiosity and plenty of discussion as the children learned about life cycles, growth and caring for living things.

This memorable experience has provided many opportunities for observation, conversation and discovery across the nursery. The excitement is far from over too, as there are even more special activities planned next week with our adorable little visitors!

Year 6 Explore the Holy Trinity and the “New Adam” in RE

This week, Year 6 deepened their understanding of Christianity through thoughtful and creative RE work focused on the question: Why do Christians believe that the resurrection is the work of the Holy Trinity?

To begin their learning, the children explored a range of religious artwork and carefully annotated images of the Holy Trinity. They demonstrated excellent observation skills as they identified representations of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and discussed how artists use colour, symbolism, size, shape and position.

The children then moved on to explore the teachings of Paul, focusing on the idea that Jesus is described as the “new Adam”. They considered how this links to everything they have studied in both Genesis and the Gospel of John.

Their challenge was to explain why Jesus is called the new Adam by making links to important themes including temptation, obedience and stewardship. The children were encouraged to present their understanding in a way that suited them best and it was wonderful to see such creativity across the Year group.

Some pupils chose to write detailed explanations, while others created podcasts, interviews, leaflets or pieces of artwork to communicate their ideas. Each piece showed thoughtful reflection and a growing confidence in making links between scripture and Christian beliefs.

Year 6 approached this topic with maturity, curiosity and creativity, producing some truly impressive work. We are very proud of the depth of thinking and effort shown throughout these lessons.

Saul to Paul

This week in RE, Year 2 children listened to the story of the conversion of Saul. They were very intrigued to hear about what happened to him and how he changed. One of our skills in RE is to retell different Bible stories in different ways, so the children created storyboards and diary entries about their learning. They then went on to think about all of the different ways and places they can pray.

Well Done Year 6!

This week, our amazing Year 6 children completed their Key Stage 2 SATs and we could not be prouder of them all. Throughout the week, they showed determination, resilience, positivity and maturity, approaching each test with confidence and giving their absolute best effort.

To celebrate the end of SATs week and reward the children for all of their hard work, they received their Year 6 leavers’ jumpers and looked wonderfully colourful as they proudly wore their bright new hoodies together for the first time.

It was a lovely way to mark such an important milestone in their final year at primary school and we know they will wear their leavers’ jumpers with pride as they continue to make special memories together over the coming weeks.

Well done once again, Year 6 - you have all been brilliant!

Work with 2R

St Rose's Class has been preparing all week to lead us in worship today, reflecting on the dignity of work. They shared a powerful message that 'every person matters' and showed us the important jobs we each have to build God's Kingdom. Through beautiful songs and the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, 2R showed us that doing God's work allows each and every one of us to shine. Thank you for leading us in such an inspiring worship!

Working Witnesses

Our deepest thanks and congratulations to this week's host of Witness Award winners. All children are asked to work hard every day at St Joseph's but these children have gone above and beyond in their contribution to the "work" of the school, making a positive and dignified contribution to the daily running of the community by their words and actions. What an inspiration!