Christ our way
It was a special week in worship as we looked ahead to the 5th Sunday of Easter (Year A). Jesus is preparing his disciples to realise that he won't always be with them physically but that his life will be an example for them to follow the way to salvation. He says to them, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the father except through me."
For the children, we describe how following Jesus' way means allowing him to capture our hearts - influencing our words and actions. To discover his truth means being ready to let his awe and wonder inspire our minds - motivating us to work with diligence and enthusiasm. To embrace his life means being open to the work of his spirit awakening our souls - saying, "Yes!" to every opportunity that comes our way. In this way, together, we will build his kingdom here at St Joseph's.
Year 4 Explore
Year 4 had a wonderful (albeit wet) couple of days on their first residential trip to Henley Fort. They enjoyed a combination of group activities including a rope course, orienteering, archery, climbing and woodland skills. A favourite was making a fire during woodland skills! They enjoyed sleeping with their friends in yurts and particularly liked the cooked and continental breakfast! It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to explore new experiences, develop their independence, collaborate with others and test their resilience. A big thank you to all staff who helped make the few so enjoyable for the children.
Stars in Year 2
This week in Year 2 we have continued looking at the story ‘Stardust’. The children are particularly enjoying this one as it is encouraging them to remember all the fantastic talents and gifts that they have, and why they are each special. The children each thought of one positive phrase about someone else in the class and wrote it down to create a class poem about why we are all stars.
Debating in Year 6
As part of our unit on Witness within the Catholic faith, Year 6 have been learning about some of the early Christian witnesses. As part of this, we debated which of the early Christian witnesses demonstrated the greatest faith and sacrifice and why. We talked about Stephen, Saul (who became St Paul) and Lydia, thinking about their lives and sacrifices.
-Why might each person have been happy to make the sacrifices they did?
-What sacrifice/risk did they take for their faith?
-What were the links between the witness and any other religious beliefs, sources or scriptures?
The children made some incredibly insightful links to other scripture - such as Daniel H’s link between Stephen’s death and an earlier stoning that Jesus prevented - and presented their thoughts eloquently and respectfully. The pupils were asked to show whether they had a new point, were contesting a point or building upon a previous point by raising their hands in different ways. Scarlett made the point that, although someone had the most happen to them, it would not mean that they, themselves, had sacrificed the most. Whilst others went on further, to say that, although one witness may have been the most faithful, they may not have sacrificed the most.
A tree for all seasons
In Science this week, Year 1 have been continuing their learning about the different seasons and seasonal changes. With a quick bit of Geography about how the Earth moves around the Sun, we were equipped with extensive knowledge of why we have seasons and the weather that is expected in each season (although whether we get that weather is whole different story!) We then explored how deciduous trees change throughout the seasons. We created Seasons Trees to show the trees throughout the different seasons.
Next week, we will be linking our learning from this week to the following questions:
Why wouldn't you wear a wooly hat in Summer?
Why might you wear a raincoat in Spring?
What might you wear in Autumn?
Hopefully our learning about the weather in different seasons will help us with this!
Nursery Kings & Queens
This week, the nursery children have been celebrating King Charles III's upcoming coronation with afternoon tea parties complete with scones, jam and strawberries. They have also been making crowns, flags, and a variety of other accessories to take home.
Active Learning!
Year 3 were blessed with a gloriously sunny afternoon during P.E. on Wednesday. It was a fantastic opportunity for each class to showcase all they had learnt in the final lesson of their Summer Sport units before moving on to the next!
3I enjoyed a carousel of Athletics skills, practising their throwing, sprinting, relays and more! This will prepare them well for Sports Day, which will be held later in the term.
Having built on their rounders skills throughout this term, 3M had their first experience of a full rounders match. Each class will get the opportunity to do this throughout the Summer Term, culminating in a House Rounders competition at the end of the year, which is always a highlight of the Summer.
3V have been working hard on their tennis skills, and were continuing to build on these during their final tennis lesson of the term. They began the lesson throwing and catching the ball, looking for spaces on the mini tennis court. The tennis balls were then replaced with large, bouncy balls, which the children could try to hit into a space using the palm of their hand. Finally the children played some one on one matches, using rackets and tennis balls.
It has been wonderful to see the progression across the whole of Year 3 across these three sports, and we are excited to see how well they do when they swap and try something new next week!
A different angle
This week in Maths we have been starting to learn about angles in Year 5. Today, we learnt how to measure angles using a protractor and what better way to do this than by measuring angles on our desks and writing the measurements down on the desk! The children enjoyed measuring angles in a more practical way and this will help them to retain the skills needed to accurately measure with a protractor.
Space man!
We were lucky enough to have Dr Gualandris in with the Reception classes this week. She spoke to us about space and our Milky Way. The children loved learning that the Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits Earth! We also learned that meteors are just rocks and we live on a very safe planet. Thank you so much Dr Gualandris!
The 1K Way
St Kolbe's Class treated us to a wonderful worship this morning, teaching us about what the Way, the Truth and the Life of Christ means to them. They invited us to learn more about the person of Jesus and to recognise that we have a choice. Like Peter, we can choose to deny Jesus and turn away from his love. Or, we can choose to embrace his invitation and do our bit to make the world a better place.
Witnesses to our mission
Congratulations to this fantastic collection of young people who have embraced our school's mission this week. They have all demonstrated in their words and actions that they want to follow Christ's way, seek his truth and embrace life to the full. May God bless you all!
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