Celebration of the Word
Welcome to our school year 2024-2025
"Learning together with God"
We are a Catholic school. The Chapel is at the heart of our school in a spiritual sense. We try to encourage in our pupils a sense of their spiritual relationship with God which informs their daily lives.
We meet as a whole school every Monday and Friday to pray and we sing hymns together on a Wednesday, to celebrate and share in each other’s successes; to offer the new day to God. We also meet together in Key Stages once a week – EYFS and KS1 meet on a Tuesday/Thursday, and KS2 meet on a Thursday.
Our pupils and staff all contribute to the life and worship of our school in a variety of ways; serving, reading, and Eucharistic ministry for the whole school Masses.
Class and phase Masses are also celebrated, giving the children the opportunity for worship in a more informal setting. Pupils are encouraged and expected to participate in planning and leading these services.
In both whole-school and Key Stage Celebration of the Word, children often prepare and lead worship. In Years 5 & 6, the school Chaplaincy Team will take on this role. This can also include, reflecting on the life of a saint whose feast day the church is celebrating, to a dramatic presentation of the teachings of the prophets. Staff too, across the curriculum, lead whole-school prayers and collective worship, demonstrating the rich traditions and styles present in the St Patrick's community.
Please click on the boxes below to see our school and community in prayer.
Whole-School Celebration of the Word - Ten Ten Resources
Monday 14th October
Mrs Roy shared this Gospel with us this week - Mark 10:13-16 - "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
We have all been encouraged to be more like children and be in awe of God's Creations. The links closely with our CST values this term, Participation and Stewardship. Our responses can be found in our floor books!
Monday 7th October
In this week’s Gospel, Jesus welcomed children despite others trying to keep them away. Jesus commends the open-heartedness of children, which is explored in this assembly through an interactive film about how trusting God can lead to peaceful, loving decisions.
Monday 30th September
Mr Henley taught us that, in this week’s Gospel, we learn how the disciples' jealously wanted to keep the power to heal to themselves. We explored Jesus’ response to our envious tendencies and challenged pupils to celebrate the abilities and character of others. Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48.
Monday 16th September
This week, Mrs Roy and Miss Priddle launched the new Values assembly for this year. We are focusing on the Catholic Social Teaching Principles; KS1 are working on 'Participation' and KS2 are working on 'Stewardship'. We shared ideas from Corinthians about the importance of Love being the golden thread that ties us all together.
Monday 9th September
Miss Priddle led the children in reading Mark 7:31-37 this week. In the Gospel this week, Jesus spoke the ordinary words, ‘Be opened’, with extraordinary power, healing a deaf man who couldn’t stop telling everyone about it! Children learned what it means to allow Jesus to open their ears and mouths so they can hear and share the Good News.
Tuesday 3rd September
Mrs Marshall welcomed us all back to school for the start of the new school year. We reflected on Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23, thinking about the Rule of Love and how Jesus taught that true holiness comes from the inside out
Termly Gospel Values Assemblies
This year, we are especially focusing on the 9 Principles of Catholic Social Teaching with resources shared by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD). In this work, we look at the encyclical letters written by Pope Francis. An encyclical is a letter circulated by the Pope to Catholic churches worldwide. It is sent directly from our Holy Father in Rome to Catholics all over the world and is often addressed to all people of good will, namely non-Catholics who may also want to read the document. Each term, we will share our focus values and our 'Love in Action' awards each Friday will be given to those children who have shown they are demonstrating actions linked to those values.
Term 1 - Participation and Stewardship
Miss Priddle and Mrs Roy launched our new format of Values assemblies on 16th September. WE started off by reminding ourselves what CAFOD volunteers, Kathy and Rose, taught us last year by watching this CAFOD video: https://youtu.be/dLHvosRUfQc .
We then shared our thoughts on the reading from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 'Love is...' and how Love is such an important value that is our important Golden Thread that ties the other values together.
This term, KS1 are focusing on 'Participation' and KS2 are focusing on 'Stewardship'. As we are all learning about Creation in RE, these values perfectly sum up what we are called by God to do: Be stewards of creation and participate in looking after each other.
Whole-School Masses
Wednesday 11th September 2024
Today was our Missioning Mass, led by the pupils in Year 5 and 6 who read the liturgy and took up the Offertory.
Thursday 9th May 2024
Today, our wonderful pupils with Canon Gregory, Father Antonio and Deacon Rob led us in worship as we celebrated The Feast of the Ascension. Our Key Stage 1 pupils processed with beautiful flowers behind 4 of our Year 6 pupils who came in with Our Lady, Mary. Our Key Stage Two pupils, along with Mrs Wring, sang fantastically well.
We thank all the parents for their kind donations of flowers.
Class and Phase Masses
Wednesday 23rd October - Year 5 and 6 Mass