Tolerant Christ

As we prepared for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B), we heard how Jesus returned to his home town to teach in the synagogue, and yet those gathered there could not believe their eyes. They were confused and resistant to his apparent transformation from carpenter's son to miracle maker. It seemed implausible to them that his preaching could be authentic.

We encouraged the children this week to reflect on their open and tolerant response to the community. Are we accepting of others and willing to recognise their value? Do we celebrate the unique nature of each person, made in the image and likeness of God? We are called to recognise that each individual is precious and that we can bear witness to this in the ways we champion each other's gifts and respond to Fundamental British Values, like tolerance.

B - 14th Ordinary

Good Shepherd

A special thanks to our Year 5 ambassadors who attended the Diocesan Good Shepherd celebration last week. Hundreds of children and staff from schools across Arundel & Brighton gathered at Worth Abbey to give thanks for the gift of Catholic Education. The children reflected on the the words of the Our Father and presented a gift of their responses to another school. We were blessed to team up with our friends from Rydes Hill Shcool, travelling and lunching together during the day.

Allotment Gold!

Congratulations to the school's Allotment Club for another exceptional year - winning a Guildford in Bloom Gold Award once again! Our thanks to Aaron and Elana who toured with the judges around the site, and to Aoife and Grace who attended the awards ceremony. Well done to all of the children across Juniors who have contributed to Allotment Club this year. Roll on harvest season to reap the edible rewards of all your hard work!

Porridge

Beware the fairytale criminals! Our Leavers' Production this year was Porridge - featuring a host of 'baduns' from the world of nursery rhymes. Our heroine, Goldilocks, helped to solve the mystery of missing Mother Hubbard's prize-winning cow and put the dastardly Daddy Bear behind bars. Much fun and laughter was had by all!

Faith in Action

A special congratulations to this courageous group of Year 6 children who have spent time this year deepening their faith and investing in their relationship with God. The children have seen how this richer relationship with the Lord has impacted the world around them through the faithful actions they have borne. In a special celebration with Bishop Richard, the children's gave thanks for their journey this year. Well done to you all!

PFSA Colour Run

What a spectacle! Our thanks to the PFSA for a wonderful summer fete. Despite the intermittent showers, we enjoyed an afternoon of live music and good food, splattered with craft stalls and raffles. In addition, we ended the afternoon with St Joseph's first ever colour run. It was as wild and wonderful as it looks!

House Music

What a day! House Music Day 2024 was an unrivalled success - a morning of musical competition as children performed their hearts out for the judges and school audience. Each house group gave a rousing rendition of their House Song and the staff even treated the children to a turn from the hit musical Annie.

Throughout the day, children continued to engage in year group activities based on some of their favourite songs. A remarkable day's musical celebration!

Music Day 2024

Yuck!

In Year 2 this week, we have been reading more of the story 'The Disgusting Sandwich'. The children started the unit by making their own sandwich at the end of last week and then started to make predictions about what would happen in the story. Each day we read a little bit more, this really helped with comprehension skills and keeping the engagement! Finally the children were able to find out what happened at the end - and there was a twist! We will now plan and write our own stories about the most disgusting sandwich we can imagine.

Polling Day

The children enjoyed their own voting on Thursday inspired by the General Election. We had our own polling station and voting cards, where the children had to choose what book we should read at the end of the day. This links beautifully with our British Value - democracy. The children were excited to count the votes and find out what book was the winner! Was it the book you would choose?

Seeing the light

In Science, Year 3 are investigating Light. This week the lesson began by retrieving learning about light sources and how we actually see objects. The children were then asked to prove the statement 'light travels in straight lines.' After some valuable discussion, the children lined up black pieces of card with holes in the centre to prove the statement. It was interesting exploring what happened when the cards were not aligned. The lesson concluded with a simple demonstration using a cardboard tube. We definitely proved light travels in straight lines. Great scientific thinking Year 3!

Potatoes!

This week Butterfly class have harvested the crop of potatoes from our garden. They then prepared the potatoes for cooking by washing and cutting them. These activities help the children to develop their fine motor skills, as well as their hand-eye coordination. It is a fun and rewarding activity for all ages.

Taking care of our wellbeing...

Emotions were all over the place on Thursday morning when the children met their new adults and classrooms for Year 2. This fitted well with our PSHE topic this term on emotions and wellbeing. The children spoke about how they were feeling a whole mixture of emotions - excitement, anxiety, sadness to name just a few. Linked to this, we discussed the importance of doing things that make us feel good to look after ourselves, especially when we are tired from feeling so many emotions! Thursday afternoon was spent exploring different things that make us feel good - parachute games, calm colouring, other games, dancing and watching a movie! Our wellbeing was fully looked after!

Tolerance in RW

Our thanks to St William's Class for a beautiful worship this morning. The children explained how we are all intentionally made different and unique, and that this is a good thing! Through song, dance and drama RW helped us to see that we can be kind, patient and supportive of each other's differences, we call this tolerance (a Fundamental British Value). Congratulations on an excellent worship children.

Tolerant Witnesses

Well done to this collection of tolerant witnesses, all of whom have been sharing peace, patience and kindness in their example around the school this week. Thank you and God bless you!

FISCH Thank you!

On Friday 12th July, the whole school embraced a Fundraising Day for the charity FISCH - Future for Iringa Street Children - in Tanzania and raised an incredible £723! Thank you very much to the whole school community for their generosity in supporting this worthy cause, providing school supplies and uniform to enable more children in Iringa access to education. We are delighted to work alongside the Gercke family to bring this outreach and fundraising project to life.