Saints Not Celebrities

We have been learning about how Pope Benedict XVI invited us all to become saints!  We learnt that he said, 'if we enter into a friendship with God, everything in our life would begin to change.' As part of our exploration of this, we created artwork to illustrate what will happen if we enter into a friendship with God.  We discussed how our eyes would be opened to others' needs and we would have a new understanding of our purpose and meaning. Have a look at some of our super pieces below! 

The Beatitudes

Inspirational People

Our new topic is called 'Inspirational People.' We begin our topic thinking about Jesus and his immense love for each one of us! We discussed how he is the most inspirational person the world has ever known. During our first lesson, we looked at some 'inspirational people' we have already studied in our English, History and RE lessons. From this, we deduced a firm understanding of what it means to be an 'inspirational person!'

We agreed on this Definition.

An inspirational person is someone whose words or actions challenge us to reflect on our own lives. We may even change something we do or the way we behave because of the example they gave us.

We have been exploring the New Covenant and the New Commandment. We have learnt that our part in the New Covenant is to be closely united with Jesus and to live out his New Commandment:

"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself" (Lk 10:27) 

We have discussed how the New Covenant is replaced by the New Covenant of love. We have discussed how the New Commandment is focused on love and have made a hand signal to help us remember this important message.

We have explored CAFOD's Love in Action video and written our own versions, as we know that in order to fulfil the New Covenant we need to put our LOVE INTO ACTION.  

Some of us felt just like Moses at the beginning of this activity. We felt unsure, we doubted ourselves and doubted our leader but as time went on and we  got overcame challenges we grew in confidence-just like Moses! 

Some of us were more similar to Abraham and entered into the blindfold activity with great trust in ourselves and our partners! 

Our 'Unique and Valued' virtual retreat with Dan and Emily from One

Virtual Retreat.

It's been a strange few months and a very busy time in school for everyone since returning in September. We are so proud of our children; their hard work, resilience and care and support for one another. We therefore thought that Anti-bullying week was the perfect time to join together (but still in our bubbles!) to celebrate a retreat; time to be still, reflect and to spend time focused in the presence of God. Time to appreciate how utterly loved we are by God and how precious and unique we are to him. 

We absolutely loved the music, reflections, prayers and activities the morning brought. 

As a class we have explored the Laudato Si’ written by Pope Francis. We learned that the Laudato Si’ discusses the damage being inflicted on the Earth by humans and calls on ‘every person living on this planet’ to make urgent changes to our lifestyles and how we consume energy in order to protect the planet.

As part of our RE topic, we have been looking at the wonders of creation and how we can upset the balance. 

We learned that in his letter Pope Francis implores us to work together to create a better world for future generations and asks us to make the necessary changes in our lives in order to take care of, respect and value our ‘common home’. We discussed what changes we could make personally and in our wider communities and came up with our own Laudato Si’ style poster slogans.