Huge well done and thank you to everyone who contributed towards our Harvest offerings this autumn. Today, our new School Councillors sorted all the gifts before setting off to King’s Foodbank in Kendal to deliver a boot full of food and drinks.
We walked down to St John’s Church in the glorious sunshine on Thursday to take part in Experience God’s Goodness in Creation. Members of St John’s congregation lead stations for us to visit focused on Harvest and the wonders of the natural world.
Harvest of the earth, the soil, the grain, the oceans and the animals involved us in drawing, using our sense of touch, spotting things in pictures and thinking about where things come from that we might take for granted!
Many thanks to all the volunteers from St John’s who made this experience so engaging and especially to Pam whose thorough organisation ensured a smooth and successful morning.
Back at school we have made pledges about how we could make a difference and these are on our tree in the library. They are really worth a read as there are good ideas for us all. If we can each do a little bit, those little bits add up to a big bit! What might you pledge?
This morning we celebrated Harvest at St John’s Church, The children led the service which included contributions from every class in songs, poems, prayers and reflections on the importance of saying thank you and making extra efforts to not waste the wonderful food we have. Our school councillors will be taking all our gifts along to Kendal Food Bank so our neighbours in need in our local area will benefit from our kind donations. Thank you all for your contributions and to Rev Bryan and all at St John’s for helping us mark this important time in the church year.
Scafell have been asking big questions this week!
Our topic in RE this term has involved exploring creation stories from different religions and cultures; and comparing them to the Christian story of Creation found in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis. We have also looked at the findings of great scientists, including: David Attenborough, Stephen Hawkings and Charles Darwin.
We invited Sarah from NISCU into school. Sarah is a scientist and a Christian. She talked to us about how it is possible to believe in the scientific theories explaining the beginning of the world whilst also believing that God began this sequence of events. She really got us to think about these big questions and ideas in more detail with some fantastic props and activities that included: dominoes, party poppers, mystery feely bags and an animation showing the theory of evolution of millions of years.
We were so lucky with the weather this morning as members of St John’s Church community delivered a completely outdoor Experience Easter. First our younger children, then the older children travelled round 4 stations that took us through the story of Holy Week.
During the story telling, the children were engaged in different activities to encourage thoughtful contemplation. We held stones, made crosses, placed sticks on a fire and planted seeds. These nasturtium seed pots will be coming home for children to care for and continue to reflect on the importance of Easter to Christians all around the world today.
Thank you very much to all at St John’s who helped prepare and deliver today’s memorable experience.
Reception and Year One had a busy day yesterday, making hot cross buns with Mrs Mason. In the morning, they mixed, kneaded and left the dough to rise. In the afternoon the mixture was kneaded again, shaped into buns and left to rise further before being topped with a cross or shape of our choice. They were even professionally finished with a glaze. The children all took one home and enjoyed tasting all their hard work in school this afternoon!
Skiddaw class have been learning about the benefits of Fairtrade and Mrs Mason has baked with every member of the class this week using Fairtrade items of bananas, sugar and chocolate. We held a Fairtrade tea and coffee afternoon on Friday and the canteen was bursting at the seams with takers for cups of Fairtrade tea or coffee along with slices of our baking. Shopper also purchased things from Pam and Eco team’s Fairtrade stall which sold £131.45 worth of goods. Thank you to everyone who queued so patiently and came along to raise awareness of this important issue.
Last week, Reception and Year one enjoyed a visit to St John’s church to listen to Canon Thompson talk to them about baptism. They have been learning what is involved during a Christian Baptism and what it means to be baptised. Canon Thompson then baptised a doll, some of the children were parents and godparents. He talked about what happens, some of the words which are spoken and the promises that are made. The children enjoyed their visit and shared all that they had learnt at our celebration assembly on Friday.
We began with some Y6 musicians playing the festive pieces before the service even started. Then our Christmas service was led and written by Scafell this year. They chose one aspect of Christmas then in pairs wrote their own pieces to say in the service. They made comparisons between how we celebrate Christmas today and the first Christmas. We hope you enjoy reading their messages and thoughts about Christmas.
On Friday we invited friends, family members and the community to join us for our special service of Remembrance. Each class contributed to part of the service. Scafell performed dramatic freeze-frames based on the book ‘War Game’ by Michael Foreman; Bowfell retold their version of the story ‘The little Hen and the Great War’; and Skiddaw led us in prayer and read out the names of all the service men killed in action at or since the First World War.
Our service also involved every child placing their own poppy onto the central display piece on view in our school hall.