Working with Christ

In worship this week we focused on the Ascension of the Lord. It is the moment where Jesus ascends to heaven and is no longer physically accompanying his disciples in person. However, they quickly come to realise that throughout their ministries, "The Lord was working with them."

We can return again to the beautiful concept of the invisible string that connects us all. Even when people we know and love are not physically present with us, we can still feel their influence on our thoughts, words and actions. If we can build a relationship with Christ and get to know his teachings well, then we too can feel the influence of his presents on our lives - just like the disciples.

B - Ascension

Choir of Angels

On Wednesday afternoon a group of children from 3N and 4M attended a Choral Festival at Jesus Christ Redeemer of Mankind Church in Cranleigh with three other Catholic schools in the diocese. The festival was a culmination of many weeks of work delivered in the schools by Choral Director, Fraser Ellson. A repertoire of liturgical music was rehearsed, with parents invited to attend the performance later in the afternoon. All the children worked together exceptionally well and sang beautifully.

Personal Prayer

In RE this week, we have been thinking about Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension. Knowing that Jesus no longer walks among us in human form, we have been thinking about how else Catholics can encounter Jesus. We delved into the power of prayer and explored the different ways that we can use prayer to connect with Jesus. We remembered that prayer is when we lift our hearts to God and speak to Him and that Christians can speak to God through prayer in many different ways. It could be a conversation, like chatting to a friend; it could be a traditional prayer like the Our Father. We took some time out to visit places around the school and enjoyed our own unique and personal prayer session.

Cross Country Champs

Here's a snap of our Year 3 & 4 Cross Country team. In a recent fixture they performed remarkably well - showing impressive levels of perseverance and determination. They were fantastic sports people; cheering each other on across the grueling long distance race. Well done children - we are so proud of you all!

Listen, what do you see?

As part of Music, Year 1 have enjoyed listening and appraising some different styles of music this term, including "Babatunde Otalunji - Gin-Go-Lo-Ba" which means 'drums of passion' and is a Columbian song composed in 1963.

After moving to the music, identifying the different instruments that they could hear and sharing their own opinions on whether they liked or disliked the song and why, children were given some paper and asked to draw or write whatever came to their minds when listening to the music.

Some thought it felt African because of the drums they could hear, others felt it reminded them of being on safari! There were a whole mixture of different ideas and it opened the children's eyes to the different styles of music that are around.

To me, to you...

Year 3’s DT project began with an exploration of different mechanisms and learning new terminology such as levers, linkages, fixed pivots, loose pivots, inputs and outputs. We then looked at how we could use these mechanisms to create a moving picture with labels. The children had some lovely ideas, including Wonka waving a chocolate bar, a dragon breathing fire, fish swimming in the sea and Robin Hood shooting an arrow. It was great to see children develop their skills of investigating, designing, creating and evaluating in this unit of work.

Colour Monster mix!

This week the Nursery children have been looking at colour mixing. The children also found out how we could make colours lighter, by adding white paint in addition to finding out how to make colours darker by adding black. The children had a great time painting each of their hands a different colour and then rubbing them together to mix them. A few woollen colour monster were also made!

More XC Success!

Year 2 children were invited to their first ever XC event - a new event for Guildford schools. The children all were fantastic and ran incredibly fast! A special congratulations to Isabelle and Stanley who came 1st and 2nd in their races!

A ewe-nique experience!

Reception children were lucky enough to meet two adorable lambs earlier this week. It was truly wonderful to be able to get up close and personal with them with some children choosing to stroke and hold them. One of them was born at Easter and the other just the day before! I wonder if you can guess which is which?

Stardust!

In Year 2, we have started reading a story called 'Stardust'. It is the wonderful story about a little girl who always felt that her sister was a star. She goes through various emotions including feeling sad and jealous of her sister's achievements. The children have had the opportunity to explore these feelings, by identifying their own times of feeling jealous, as well as understanding a bit more about what it means to be empathetic. We then thought about why each member of the class is a star!

One England

Year 5 have been learning about the key dates and actions which led up to the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror's reign and beyond. Their task today was to complete a timeline of the event from King Edward the Confessor's death to the Battle of Hastings. They were intrigued to find out how the Normans tricked Harold's Army and that this all came about because of the Battle at Stamford Bridge, near York (not the football stadium in SW6!)

Their next step is to explain how England became England and united under William the Conqueror's reign from the divided country under the local rulers.

Year 4 at Henley Fort

Last Thursday, we embarked on a journey to Henley Fort. We hiked through Surrey Hills, a view that oversees the horizon. As we entered the site, everyone bolted towards the colossal tent which we gathered in. As we settled, a leader announced a safety briefing and shortly after we began the activities.

First, some of us ventured deep into the woodlands where our instructor guided us to the venue. They told us all about shelter building and we began to create our dens. Some groups collected items to trade for the rope and tarpaulin that we needed to create the dens. After that, we made fires, got charcoal face paints and made popcorn to eat.

Additionally, we did archery, orienteering, team tasks, a challenge course and climbing. In archery, only a few of us hit the bullseye; everybody else got it in the most inconvenient places! During orienteering, we read maps to find out different locations where we found letters. We then had to unmuddle the letters, which were anagrams for words about the trip.

After we finished our first day of activities, we helped ourselves to a delicious dinner of pasta, jelly, ice cream and fruit. Whilst the boys did this, the girls got told who they were sharing a yurt with and set up their beds quickly before dinner. We then swapped round. Once everyone had made their beds and got ready, we were read a story and then were told to go to bed.

On our superb, second day, we did our other activities, had lunch and went home. It was an amazing time full of activity and adventure. Keep an eye on Google Classroom shortly to see all of the photos from our exciting trip!

- Eva, Theo, Lilian and Nevin

Did you know that this week is Deaf Awareness Week?

At St Joseph's, we are lucky to have deaf children within our community. Nevin, in Year 4, has given his time to teach the class what it is like to be partially deaf. We thought you might be interested to hear a first-hand account about Nevin's day-to-day life. How different is it from yours?

A Day in the Life of Me

I wake up and I have this neat, little trick to wake me up fully rested. Your alarm or somebody has to wake you up slightly about thirty minutes before you have to get up. After those thirty minutes, you are fully rested and ready for the day! Sometimes, when people talk to me, they have to repeat the sentence or entire paragraph over and over and over again. Luckily, I have these little gadgets you stick in your ears called Hearing Aids that help me hear. This is because of my hearing condition (called cookie-bite condition) but there are many ways people could have hearing aids, cochlear implants and deafness.

Me, my Dad and my friend normally walk to the school since it's not that far away from our homes. We talk a lot on the way so it is sometimes annoying that I can't hear that well. I also sometimes get confused with words. I once muddled up "I ate cereal in one of these fancy, china bowls" with "my goldfish died in a cranky, old goal"! When we arrive at school, we get our stuff from our bags and then sit at our desks. Then, I connect my hearing aids with this tiny multi-task microphone called a Roger which makes my teacher's voice louder so I can understand the lesson better. But it also means I can hear when my teacher coughs, sneezes and clears her throat and, most of all, the noise of thirty people talking over each other when the class are talking. After lunch, we have PE or more lessons - it is especially noisy in Music when I can hear 31 people strumming ukuleles!

After school, we go home to my Mum, Grandmother and brother. Then I change into my home clothes and eat some delicious food. After eating, I sit down and rest (maybe watch some TV). Then I study/read books and play for a bit and take a nice, calming shower and afterwards, I'll sit down and talk with my Grandmother. I watch a bit of TV while my Dad is picking up my Mum, then eat a great dinner and pray, sing hymns and read verses from the Bible for about an hour. I take my medicine then go to a well-earned sleep and the entire process starts again!

I would like to thank my family and friends for being so supportive, my teacher for being super calm and patient, the people around me for being so accepting and everyone at St Joseph's who is reading my story.

Loving one another

A wonderful assembly by St Patrick's Class today all about loving one another. They showed us some excellent acting and singing with such confidence and enthusiasm. They had beautiful suggestions about how we can show love to others and reminded us all that, just like at the Last Supper, we all do things for the ones we love.

Our wonderful witnesses

Our thanks and praise to these wonderful witnesses, all of whom have shared the love this week in their friendships and relationships with other members of the school community. Thank you so much for living out this week's Gospel message. God bless you!

What's on locally?

Kids School Club Flyer (1).pdf

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