Christ our Shepherd

We looked ahead to the Fourth Sunday of Easter this week - Good Shepherd Sunday. We are reminded that danger, fear and anxiety are very normal experiences (in one form or another) in all of our lives. We cannot escape the challenges and worries that human life brings. However, we can look to our Good Shepherd for support, guidance and leadership.

One of the hallmarks of the Christian life is the ability to put our trust in Jesus as our guide and saviour, whatever troubles may befall us on the way. Whilst faith does not remove the obstacles along the path, it does help us to face them with calm confidence that our Good Shepherd is knowingly ahead of us. We can learn to take comfort from the knowledge that, where God leads us, he wants the best for us (even if that can be difficult for us to see from our perspective).

B - 4th Easter

Waves of enthusiasm

On Tuesday, the children listened to 'The Rainbow Fish' story then immersed themselves in underwater activities. Cool sock fish were created - every one of them entirely unique. Shark puppets came to life with their googly eyes. The children made jellyfish with life-like tentacles and translucent sticky fish. They enjoyed gathering information to find which were the most popular sea creatures and impressed us with their super writing about underwater scenes. A real wave of enthusiasm for our new topic was felt in Year 1 this week which we hope will inspire our wonderful writers in the coming days.

Angles and tables!

This week in Maths, Year 5 have started a new unit on angles and the children have been learning to measure angles using a protractor. They were very excited to come in this week to discover that we were going to be allowing them to write on the tables in one lesson! We created a range of angles on their tables using masking tape and then the children measured them using a protractor and wrote their answers on the tables.

Spectacular Science!

This week, we hosted our annual Science Festival. The now well-established event, aimed at igniting curiosity and fostering a love for science among our children, captivated everyone with a day filled with guest speakers, hands-on experiments, and engaging demonstrations.

From the wonders of the solar system to the marvels of the robotic world, the children had the opportunity to delve into diverse scientific topics, much of which was only made possible thanks to the generosity of so many members of our community who gave up their time to come and share their passions and experiences. Highlights of the festival included a live demonstration of chemical reactions (resulting in exploding coke bottles!), an assembly about our universe and a hands-on workshop run by willing and enthusiastic Year 6 volunteers.

The Science Festival not only enriched children's understanding of scientific concepts but also encouraged curiosity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. We hope that our day created a buzz and inspired a new generation of scientists and innovators. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the guest speakers who generously shared their expertise and enthusiasm with our children. Their contributions were invaluable in making the Science Festival a memorable and enriching experience for everyone.

RHS Garden Wisley

The sun shone for Year 3's trip to Wisley Gardens this week where they learned all about edible plants. Each class took part in a workshop and explored the Vegetable Garden, trying to identify a range of smells from different herbs. Our Wisley guide showed the children how to grow pea shoots and each child sowed seeds in pots to take home. It was then off to the World Food Garden for a challenge: find edible plants in different categories: leaves, stems and roots. The children also had the opportunity to explore the many other delights of the gardens, sketching plants that captured their interest and collecting fallen petals and leaves in matchboxes. A quick run around the playground and it was time to board the coach back to school! We look forward to hearing how the pea shoots do!

Unicorn Experience!

This week Year 2 have continued our exciting unit of work on unicorns. The children were delighted to come in to school on Wednesday along with all their unicorn collections from home. We had notebooks, toys, pens, rubbers, bags and even onesies! We spent time looking at each item and writing down some descriptive language. This will serve as great inspiration for when we write our non-chronological reports on unicorns later on. These English experience lessons are an important part of children's learning and engagement, especially when it comes to writing.

Orchestra Concert in London: ‘Sound Out’

Mattias writes: I got the opportunity to go to London’s concert ‘Sound Out’ with Rydes Hill School’s orchestra and I was very pleased. I could also bring a friend with me to enjoy the experience with. After 1 and a half hours of travelling, we made it to the Royal Festival Hall in Southbank London where the concert took place. Since we were early, I took a look around and I tell you it was HUMONGOUS, probably bigger than the school! The lights were amazing, the stage was amazing, everything was amazing. I was really excited. The concert started soon after 10:55 and was 1 hour long and very full of music. The songs they played were songs that had been newly produced, what I mean is that people make compositions for the orchestra. Some were made by children, adults or both. Out of their imagination they just make a musical jingle and the orchestra performs it to us using a violin, cello, piano, flute, percussion, clarinet and their voice but mostly those 6 instruments. One song needed us to sing about a monster cake! I saw some really cool techniques with the violin where you hit the bow gently on the strings with the other side and it sounds kind of like plucking the strings lightly without your fingers and it sounds very vibrant. There was also another technique where you would just tap the violin’s face and it sounded very funky due to the song's tempo. I saw a technique with the flute where it would make different pitches, making it sound unusual and clunky which was really interesting for the piece they were playing. The music was really amusing as I got to experience different techniques (which I never knew), how you can still play a piece with barely any people and all those other things. The time flew by and we returned to Guildford after a quick lunch at the Royal Festival Hall. It was a very good musical experience indeed.

Parent Power!

Children in Reception loved having some visitors in on Thursday for the Science festival! In the morning we learnt about genetics, and how we are all different. We looked at how the heart pumps blood around our body and this can affect our blood pressure. Later that day we found out about vortexes and even made our own vortex cannons. The children loved feeling the air come out and watching it knock things over. We also got to use a thermal camera and understand how firefighters use them to help them locate fire. Thank you so much to Helen and Angela for giving up their time to teach us science! We have some budding new scientists at St Joseph’s now!

To Know You More Clearly - new RE curriculum

As we begin the Summer Term in Year 6, we continue our focus on John's Gospel. We are becoming proficient now at uncovering the deeper meaning and symbolism that John includes in his Gospel, and spent our time this week focusing on John's account of Jesus' resurrection. We considered what John was signposting us to and how we can use the key moments in the story to help us live our lives today in the way that Christ would want us to. Through discussion, we were able to imagine what those close to Jesus may have been feeling and how the death and resurrection of Jesus impacted them. We were able to explain the deeper meaning and how this relates to us today. We each picked one key moment which particularly spoke to us and wrote our reflections on what it means and how it can help us.

Gut Garden!

Year 4 began their new term with a gruesome and gory gut-themed lesson in both English and Science this week. The classes were introduced to their digestive system through the wonderful Explanation text, "Gut Garden" written by Katie Brosnan. During these first lessons, the children were amazed to learn about the good (and bad!) bacteria that live inside us and were disgusted at the fact that our mouths are the perfect breeding ground for bad bacteria during the night. Hopefully, any reluctant tooth brushers have learnt the importance of keeping the bad bacteria at bay with a good brushing in the morning and the evening!

This was complemented by our Science lesson, during which we began our topic on the digestive system. In an equally disgusting lesson, the children had a lot of fun marvelling at the incredibly gross (but important!) process of digestion, using banana, weetabix and some other household items to re-enact the process of digestion, all the way from breakfast to the inevitable ending! I wonder if the children can remember the different parts of the body our food passes through if you asked them? After this overview of the entire digestive system, we will move on to looking at each body part in greater detail next week! Hope you're not squeamish, Year 4!

Colour Monster

The week has started with an explosion of colour, the children in the Nursery have been learning about the Colour Monster. We have learnt that we can identify our feelings and link them to a colour. From feeling yellow - happy, to feeling a bit blue - sad and sometimes feeling red - angry. To incorporate and help the children understand their feelings, we have read the colour monster story, used felt tip pens and pencils to make our own colour monsters and learnt lots of new language related to our feelings. It has been lovely to hear the children have their own conversations relating to how they feel.

Resurrection with Reception

Our thanks to the colourful Reception cohort for their beautiful resurrection celebration this afternoon. The children sang, danced and signed to the glory of God in honour of the Good News of Easter. They lifted our spirits and helped us to feel the joy of the resurrection again this Easter season. God bless you all!