Autumn 1 Update 2024
At St. George's School, we are proud of our Christian Values. In our collective worship assemblies. We think and talk about Gospel Values. Gospel Values are what Jesus said, what Jesus did and what he wants us to do. We try to embody these values in all areas of our school life.
We began the term, as always ,with a start of term Mass in church on the 5th September which always sets the tone for our term ahead.
This year, we have chosen to start our monitoring process with RE as our subject focus. As a result, we had an RE Wow on Monday 16th September. The focus of the WOW was Child Led Prayer as 2024 has been The Year of Prayer. It was a very special event which saw the whole gather together singing Bernadette Farrel's 'Come and Join the Circle' , with everyone holding a prayer artefact in order to take part in a whole school prayer event led by the school's Chaplaincy Team. We completed the event by leading out to an echo Our Father. It was a very interactive way for staff and children to see how child led prayer could be run in classes.
Children already take part in daily acts of worship in each classroom , the focus for which is the prayer area, which the children themselves proudly help to maintain.
Tuesday is child led prayer day and , in response to our prayer WOW, children from Upper Key Stage Two have been leading prayer groups for Key Stage One so that as many children as possible had a chance to lead prayer in the first half term. Mrs Earp has been meeting with prayer leaders on Tuesday afternoons to help them to select resources for their sessions and to provide prayer training. This will continue throughout the year. Next half term, as we expand our Chaplaincy Team to Lower Key Stage Two, Classes Three and Four will be given the chance to lead prayer with Reception and Class One. We hope that this will inspire even more children to become a part of our Chaplaincy Team.
We often sing when we pray. Our recent Lunch Bunch meeting was in October and, in line with our RE focus, was on the topic of Child Led Prayer. A number of classes expressed a wish to sing whilst praying and so we have responded to this with increasing the number of classes who sing their lunchtime prayer and with singing the echo Our Father when we gather together.
We are also increasingly incorporating silent prayer and reflection into lessons as this was also a desire expressed at the Lunch Bunch pupil voice meeting.
On Friday 18th October 2024, as an exit event for the half term's RE focus, we took part in the 'One Million Children Pray the Rosary' Event. Father Tom visited the school and 160 children prayed the Rosary with him. We invited children to pray The Rosary at lunchtimes with us the following week. Altogether, 18 children chose to pray the Rosary during their lunch breaks after the event.
This term, we are hoping to set up a prayer area outside so that children can find a place to pray at any time of the day if they so wish. This is in response to our pupil voice meeting.
Our Key Stage Liturgies are based on Catholic Social Teaching and Inspirational leaders of faith in the community each week so that our children can see how they can live out their faith. We made our Harvest Message closely link to Catholic Social Teaching this year and the message will stay displayed in the hall as a link to our weekly Key Stage Liturgies.
We link our learning in RE to other areas of the curriculum so that children can see how faith can link to the world around them.
Each class has helped to lead a Mass in church this term.
Every Thursday , Mrs Mc Donnell and Mrs Earp take children to the 12:30 pm Mass. They usually take 14- 18 children with them and parishoners alsways comment on how they brighten The Mass with their presence. All children from KS 2 welcome.
This year, Mrs McDonnell and Mrs Earp will be helping to run the First Holy Communion Retreat Days in the Catholic Centre. The first of these is on Saturday 16th November. They look forward to spending the day with children wishing to take their First Communion later this year.
We pride ourselves on our work for charity and this term has been no exception. Please see our Catholic Social Teaching Page for full details.
We are looking forward to using a book and craft sale to raise money for Emmaus during Advent.
We are also getting excited about preparing for our Key Stage One Nativity and our Key Stage Two Carol Service.
Our School Choir have been invited to sing for the community in Taunton Library where we will also share a Christmas message from scripture. We will also sing for the elderly in the residential homes which surround our school site. Our School Chaplains will also be making and delivering cards and decorations to local residential homes to spread our fingers of compassion and solidarity to our local community. We very much hope to bring back our Community Christmas Lunch where we invite members of the local community in for a meal with us.