Wonderful Christ

We looked ahead in worship this week to the 2nd Sunday in Lent (Year B) where we heard the remarkable account of the transfiguration.  Jesus takes three of the apostles up a high mountain and there, in front of their eyes, he is transformed.  His clothes gleam as white as light and the prophets Moses and Elijah are seen standing with him.  Peter is astounded, saying, "It is wonderful to be here!"

In the busy-ness of our everyday school lives, it is very easy to miss or overlook the astounding moments that take place: the "light-bulb" moment when we understand something for the first time, the joy of sharing healthy fun with friends, the exhilaration of trying something new or different on a school trip or at a club.  We have hoped to open the children's eyes this week to the many wonderful moments that can be seen and celebrated each day in school - it should be wonderful to be here too! 

A question of slime

We began a new topic in Year 4 Science this week and started by playing with slime. The question the children were thinking about was "Is this a liquid or a solid?" There was much discussion about the properties of slime - "I can pour it so it must be a liquid", "I can pick it up like a solid," and "It can change shape but I can hold it so it is both!" We were impressed with the children's prior knowledge and they knew that water can be in three different states; solid, liquid or gas and some could even talk about how matter can change by adding heat to cause evaporation or by cooling to change steam into condensation. Most children could link the topic to a dance unit we completed earlier in the year about States of Matter. We have lots of different experiments to perform as we progress through the unit which will consolidate existing learning and correct some misconceptions. 

The Season of Lent

This week in Nursery among many other things we have been learning all about Lent. The children learnt that Lent is a period of time that leads up to Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for 40 days (not including Sundays). We spoke about why it lasts this long and learnt that this was because it was the amount of time Jesus spent in the desert to be with God. We spoke about Lent being a time when many people give things up. Some of the suggestions from the children were chocolate, unicorns, sweets and tv. One child told us about their colouring, “A church, you have to be quiet.”  

Money, money, money!

In Maths, Year 1 have been exploring different coins. First we looked at what the coins actually looked like and spotted similarities between them, including shape (on some), the queen's face, dates, heads and tails. Then we started to look at the differences - colours, shapes (20p and 50p) and value. We explored the value of different coins by representing them on tens frames using 1p coins. Children were then challenged to think about how they could represent a 50p coin on just one tens frame. After some careful thinking, we found that using five 10p coins on our tens frame could be an accurate representation!

Rights Respected

Our recent PSHE unit in Year 3 focused on 'Rights, Responsibilities and Citizenship'. We began by recalling as many UNICEF rights as we could, for example: We all have the right to a name, We have the right to clean water and We have the right to an education.  This led into an interesting discussion about how we all have a responsibility to respect these rights. Our final PSHE session focused on the theme of the environment and how it is everybody's responsibility to respect our wonderful world. The children created inspiring posters to remind people of this message. 

Athletic Ambitions

The Year 6 Sportshall Team were absolutely inspirational at Spectrum in our final week of the half-term, competing in various relays and field events against twelve other teams.   Coming fifth overall, the team also scored many individual heat wins, including the Boys' 4 x 1 and Over/Under relays, the Girls' 2 x 2 relays and the Boys' and Girls' Javelin events. We were incredibly proud, not only of their amazing athletic ability but mostly of the way they worked together, cheering each other on and congratulating the efforts of the entire team. 

Many of the team were disappointed when they realised this would be the last time they would be representing St Joseph's at this event and shared aspirations of attending the event next time as a Young Leader, helping those in younger year groups enjoy the event in the same way that they have during their time at St Joseph's. We think they would all do an incredible job!

All of the participants earned an Award in assembly on the last day before our half-term break, showing themselves as true witnesses for that week's Gospel theme of Helping. We were so impressed with the way they helped each other with their encouragement and also for being able to recognise during our training sessions that they sometimes need to ask for help themselves, as they corrected and perfected their form for each event.

Pancake Kindness

This week in RE, Reception started their new topic Desert to Garden. We read a wonderful story called 'Mama Panya’s Pancakes', in the story Mama Panya and Adika were very welcoming and generous. We thought about how we can be welcoming and generous too and made a kindness recipe with words, the children suggested we could: smile, listen, be inviting, take turns and even give to others too. We then reflected on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday and how the children celebrated at home. We ended our session by trying one of Mama Panya's pancakes that she made in the book. 

This lesson inspired the children to be kind to others, we have lots of invitations to parties by the end of the day! 

Take Aim

With the exciting introduction of lacrosse to our PE curriculum, Year 6 have really enjoyed honing their throwing and catching skills in this new sport. This week, the focus was on aim. We started the lesson with throwing and catching with a partner and then moved onto a game where the children had to get the ball through a hoop. Each time they successfully scored, they got a point - Xander in 6C managed an incredible score of 56 points with Grayson not far behind. Now that the children have developed the skills to play lacrosse, we can start to think about matches and how to think on our feet using these skills in a fast-paced game.

The Wonders of 3R

Our thanks to St Rose's Class for today's beautiful worship on the theme of wonder.  The children explained to us the special feeling of awe that we can recognise when we see God's hand at work in the world around us - from the magic of creation to the kindness of our friends.  We are very blessed to have shared this special time with you 3R - thank you.  

Wonderful Witnesses

Congratulations to these remarkable young people who have sevred as witnesses this week, teaching the community about the wonderful moments of God's work in action all around us.  You are an inspiration!  Well done and God bless you.