A - 11th Ordinary

Christ's Generosity

In this week's Gospel, Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus takes pity on the crowd who are in desperate need of hope and compassion. He sends out his disciples to cure them, preach to them and bring them the Good News of salvation.

Jesus explains to his disciples that they must be generous with their gifts, "You received without charge. Give without charge." If we can acknowledge the many beauties and blessings in our lives, and see the enormous evidence of God's love in our world, then we will be even better equipped to give that same love back to the world with a generous heart.

We have been encouraging the children this week to make the most of every small opportunity to be generous in sharing God's love: opening doors, sharing stationery, choosing to be at the back of the lunch queue. Small but generous acts that make our school a better place.

Biscuit Business

In DT, Year 3 were set the task to 'Banish Broken Biscuits'. We agreed that no one wants to buy a box of biscuits to find them all broken! After looking at a selection of cardboard food packaging, children concluded their packaging must contain, protect and preserve the biscuits. Next, the children investigated different nets and designed their own box. When making the container in the following lesson, children demonstrated skills such as measuring, cutting, folding and assembling. The final stage involved the children testing their box with a real biscuit and evaluating their finished product. Of course children were delighted when they were told they could eat the biscuit afterwards!

Nursery goes to Wellington

Last Friday, Nursery had a wonderful trip to Wellington Country Park. One of the children said, "This is the best day ever!" It was a great place to engage their young minds by exploring what was on offer, experiencing the woodland atmosphere and having fun with our friends. The eye-spy game on the miniature railway was a big hit, as were the playgrounds, the farm and the giant jumping pillow. Many children finished off the hot day with a play in the splash zone. "It was a lovely place, we are going to go back soon." "They haven't stopped talking about it. They loved it!" - Just some of the comments from our parents.

Growing with God

This week Year 5 have been exploring the emotional, physical and spiritual changes that happen to us as we grow and develop. We were luckily enough to have a visit from Scott to talk to each class about how we can grow closer to God through the Sacraments as we get older. It was wonderful to hear some personal recounts of Scott's journey with God and he left us pondering about how our journey with God will be as we grow.

Unusual Visitors

This week Reception had some exciting visitors! They were pretty small and they did not have a backbone.... Do you know what came to visit us? - Minibeasts!

ZooLab brought along a giant African land snail, cockroach, tarantula and giant millipede. We were taught that all of these animals were minibeasts because they did not have a backbone...they are invertebrates! When touching the cockroach and millipede the children were surprised how tough they felt. This is because they have an exoskeleton, meaning their skeleton is on the outside of their body. One vertebrate also slid in for a visit... a snake! He was called William Snakespear!

Bridge Building in Year 4

It has been a reflective week in RE for Year 4. We have now completed the unit on Building Bridges which involved looking in detail at Reconciliation and how to build relationships ("bridges") with those around us. Over the last few weeks, we have considered words and actions which build and break down relationships with our friends, family and God. We then looked at how the Catholic Church approaches reconciliation which is especially appropriate for our children who are making their First Holy Communion very soon. In the most beautiful culmination of learning, the children planned and carried out their own reconciliation liturgy, complete with their own interpretations of the different parts of the service: Examination of Conscience, Act of Contrition, Absolution and Penance. They welcomed everyone and even had a choir. As one child wrote in her book afterwards, "This really helped me understand the different parts of the service better". Well done, Year 4. Next week, we will start to build more bridges by learning more about Islam.

Safe in the Sun

As the weather has been getting hotter, Nursery have been learning about how to keep safe in the sun! The children have learnt about the importance of wearing a sun hat, sun cream, playing in the shaded areas and staying hydrated by drinking water. In addition, we played a game to understand what clothes we should wear in the summer and the winter.

Blossoming in Year 1

This week in Science, Year 1 are continuing to learn about plants and use visual clues to recognise common flowers. The children have enjoyed using parts of flowering plants to make their own new flower, complete with their own name, too! We've had everything from a 'Strawberry Rose' to a 'Daisy-Doo'! It was also a good opportunity for them to show they can identify the important parts of all flowers. This leads us nicely into next week when we move on from flowers to trees. We wonder if they will have the same parts to them?

Delightful Devon!

This week has seen year 6 venture off to the depths of Devon for their much anticipated residential. The sun has shone gloriously all week and our days have been packed full of high energy, adrenaline-inducing activities ranging from abseiling to paddle boarding, laser tag to survival skills. We have eaten well, made new friendships and discovered so much about ourselves. It has been a week to remember!

Signing is hot stuff!

This week in Sign Language Club we were so hot, we decided to learn how to sign some common summer signs. Knowing how to sign ‘ice cream’ is definitely a must-know this summer!

Some exciting news this week as it is announced that British Sign Language will now be taught as a GCSE subject by 2025! This is such a key skill for inclusive communication so thank you for your passion to sign St. Joseph’s!

Summer signs.mov

Tennis Champs!

Year 4 sent a determined team to the Shalford Inspire Tennis Festival this year. In blazing 30 degree heat, the children battled their way around a carousel of tennis-related activities, with only a couple of minutes in between each one for a quick drink.

Their perseverance paid off and they emerged victorious, placing first across the entire festival! The coaches commented on how impressed they were with the progress of the children throughout the afternoon, and they were fantastic representatives for the school. It was wonderful to see them demonstrating the Gospel value of the week, sharing the gifts that God has given them, which helped them to earn extra points through their demonstration of the School Games Values: teamwork, self-belief, passion, honesty, respect and determination.

Well done, Year 4, and a big thank you to your parents for making the afternoon possible!

The Embers of History

In Year 2, we have been learning about the Great Fire of London. The children have been immersed in this since day one, enjoying the facts about what life was like back then. It is important that children can learn about events beyond living memory that are still significant and understand how life has changed as a result of this. We don’t have houses nowadays built in the same way as they did back then! This week we have been sequencing the events of the fire, understanding how it happened. They are looking forward to making houses next week.

Generosity with St George

Our thanks to RG for a beautiful worship this morning, exploring the many ways that God has been generous to us. The children helped us to see that our world, our gifts and our talents are all free given by God and that we can make the world a better place by offering them back to Him. We do this by serving other people generously. The children shared their storytelling, singing and acting with us so generously, inspiring us to share our talents with the world too.

Generous Witnesses

Congratulations to this incredible host of witnesses who have impressed the community this week with their remarkable capacity to serve others generously. It is a blessing on our school to see such kindness in action.

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