B - All Saints

Happiness in Christ

We looked back in worship this week to the feast of All Saints, celebrated during the half term holiday on 1st November. During this special celebration, we reflect on the example of the women and men who have been beatified and are recognised as Saints. In the Gospel reading for the day, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shares with us his beatitudes - a list of values or attitudes that will help to make us happier and to build God's Kingdom.

We have been supporting the children this week to consider that true happiness comes from the generous willingness to look outside of ourselves and beyond our own wants, to consider the needs of our neighbour. In doing this we not only help to build God's Kingdom but we make our own and other's worlds immensely happier.

The Great Fire

This week saw 1666 come to St Joseph's! The children dressed up for the day on Tuesday and got involved in various activities including art, music, bread making and games. There was great excitement around the school as the children learned to sing 'London's Burning', ran around the playground filling up buckets of water and filled the corridors with the smell of freshly baked bread. The day ended with a great fire on the field as the beautiful houses that the children made were set alight. The children were a credit to us all as they involved themselves in all activities and watched safely as the fire took over. It was a great way to end this topic that the children have loved learning about.

GFoL day.mov

Artistic Flair

CONGRATULATIONS to Hanna, who won second prize in a national painting competition conducted by Catholic Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain at Portsmouth last weekend.

Bits and Pieces

In Maths this week, Year 6 have been finding common denominators of non-related and related fractions. Next week, we will build on this skill and use it to order and compare fractions. Take a look at some of our beautifully presented work from Emmanuel, Darcie, Bella and Aoife.

Light in the Darkness

Reception are exploring light and dark currently and just at the right time of year! Lots of the children told us about their experience with fireworks and then we had a go at making class firework displays...

Livin' on a Prayer

This week, in Music, Year 5 began learning Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. We started by listening and appraising, defining musical vocabulary and learning the lyrics and then we had such fun singing our hearts out! We look forward to incorporating the ukulele to our performances soon!

Out and About...

This half term, Year 1 are learning all about our local area in our Geography lessons. To start this learning, we went for a walk around our local area spotting the different features including the church, Co-op, park, woods, hill and cathedral in the distance! The children thoroughly enjoyed the walk and we are looking forward to reviewing the route we took on Google Earth next week.

Wise Owls

Our English lessons in Year 3 are focusing on the well-known story ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’, so on Wednesday the children enjoyed a fascinating talk from Angela and Xanthe about different owls. They showed us two different owls: Bamu - an African Spotted Eagle Owl and Chuzzlewit, a Barn Owl. They gave us many facts about an owl’s habitat, appearance and behaviour. The visitors were very impressed with the children’s interesting questions and how well they listened to the answers. One owl was a little nervous and kept trying to spread his wings! Another owl tried to mark his territory and kept making hooting noises!

The Barn Owl’s tummy and chest colour help it to blend into the clouds so mice can’t see it.
Barn owls are nocturnal, can turn their heads 270 degrees and are native to the UK. They hunt using their hearing. Nocturnal owls have brown eyes.
African spotted Eagle Owls are daytime owls. They have yellow eyes. Their claws are double jointed allowing them to adjust their grip according to their prey.

A trip to Greece...

Year 4 have had a fabulous start to their new History topic of Ancient Greece. The children looked at a map of Greece, recognising its topographical features and thought about where they would like to settle. The children raised excellent points such as although living near the water would have benefits, such as trade through harbours, it may also pose dangers such as flooding. Mountainous areas were unanimously agreed as being an inappropriate place to settle due to the tricky terrain and the lack of opportunity to trade and travel. They also thought about proximity to neighbouring countries and the risk of invasion. Later in the lesson, children then built their own timeline by examining events and looking carefully at the time periods within Ancient Greece.

Bonfire Traditions

We have been learning about Bonfire Night, the children have celebrated this through many different activities such as making firework pictures on black card using paint, chalk and sand. As an extra treat everyone got the opportunity to make their own edible sparkler using breadsticks, chocolate, icing sugar and sprinkles.

We also found out about Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light. The children listened to stories about Diwali, the meaning of the festival and learnt why diya lights are important for showing the way home. We had various crafts and games on offer to support this learning about different festivals in the world.

Happiness in 3J

St John's Class treated us to a very happy class worship this week, where they shared with us again the beatitudes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. We heard how true happiness lies in gentleness, peacefulness and self-sacrifice. We were even treated to a special rendition of Ken Dodd's "Happiness" - such fun!

The children helped us to understand that happiness isn't something that happens to us, it is something that we make happen through the words and actions that we are in control of, especially when these are influenced by God.

Well done and God bless you 3J!

Happy Witnesses

Our thanks to Bella, George and Jimmy-Ray this week who have all been especially chosen as witnesses who have helped to achieve a greater degree of happiness across our school community this week. An incredible achievement children - thank you and well done!

What's on locally?

Calling all musical young people with a connection to Worplesdon! - Even if you don’t live in Worplesdon, our school counts as your connection.

You are invited to be part of the Worplesdon Young Musician of the Year 2025 Competition. It’s easy to enter and there’s a chance to win great prizes. All the information you need is here: https://www.worplesdonparish.com/worplesdon-young-musician-of-the-year-2025/

Deadline for entries is December 9th 2024

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