A quote from Pope Francis: "The mission of the Christian in the world is a mission for all, a mission of service, which excludes no-one; it requires great generosity and in particular the gaze and heart turned heavenward to invoke the Lord's help"
THE LITURGICAL YEAR
All through the year, the Church family celebrates the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We also celebrate feasts and saints. St Edmund’s pupils, parents, and staff enjoy a school journey through the Church’s year. Our entrance, hall, corridor, and classroom displays reflect the time of year in the Church’s calendar.
Ordinary Times
In Ordinary times we use green to represent life and growth. We continue to live each day in the presence of our Lord and follow St Edmund’s model to worship God and do our best as that reflects our Mission ‘Through Christ We Learn’.
Each child took home their own rosary beads to pray the rosary with their families. Each class prays the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous mysteries of the rosary throughout October. Mrs. Gilhooly hosts a lunch time rosary club for KS2 for the month of October. We remember we can ask Mary to pray for us.
Gospel Assembly
Every Monday morning, we begin our week together with a Gospel inspired assembly led by our ‘Peace and Justice’ society group. The assemblies are based on the Wednesday Word and the Sunday's Gospel and give the children an opportunity to apply the Gospel message to their lives and the life of our school. They leave the assembly with a question to reflect on, the word of the week and a weekly mission. This assembly is the basis for the weekly class reflection lessons and further classroom Collective Worship. All our assemblies they start using the same structure as our gospel assembly, through our ‘School’s Mission’ and Patron Saint prayer. Also we strongly encourage weekly classes in rotation to showcase their home prayer book during the assembly making in that way the link between home and school stronger.
Christian Choir
Sacred Heart Choir consists of children from Year 4-6.
Children can audition for choir in the summer term of year 3 upwards. Choir meet every Friday after school from 3:45-4:45. We practice hymns, singing, submit songs for competitions, rehearse for upcoming events and most importantly have fun!
Choir is run by Mrs Sanchez.
During the school year choir perform at many events including:
- London's 02 arena for Young Voices Concerts
- Royal Albert Hall for Barnardos
- The school playground
- Curriculum evenings
- Church events
- School fairs
- Local Christmas Markets
The structure of our Gospel Assembly:
Child-led Collective Worship
Each week, a group of children in each class lead a collective worship session with their peers. Children reflect on gospel stories as well as lead prayers, songs and other chosen activities. The children select the Bible reading that they want their session to be focused upon. They may choose a text related to the liturgical calendar, their class saint or a theme they would like their class to reflect upon e.g friendship, honesty or forgiveness.
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was an outsider and you invited me in,
I needed clothes and you clothed me,
I was sick and you looked after me.
Matthew 25: 35-6
This half-term, St. Edmund’s celebrated the annual Harvest Festival through a whole school assembly and through our RE work and within English too! We learned about the festival of Harvest and charity work, supporting those in need. From this, we created poetry and prayers thank God for Harvest and expressing how we must help others too. Everyone family gave very generously to the harvest - it was a magnificent collection and it has all been taken to the food bank of our Parish Church who are always extremely grateful to receive such a large amount of food. The food will be used to make food parcels for those who are in great need. Thank you again to everyone for being so supportive.
All students attend mass at our parish Church for All Souls Day and we remember those who sacrificed their lives during the war by taking a moment of silence on Remembrance Day. We remember that Jesus also sacrificed his life for us and that through him we have eternal life. Each class creates some arts and crafts linked to Remembrance Day. We all gather in the hall for a whole school collective worship that lead is to our glorious balloon release where children are given a card to write their own personal message to those who sacrificed their lives and the balloons are released into the sky.
Let us pray for all who suffer as a result of conflict, and ask that God may give us peace:
for the service men and women
who have died in the violence of war,
each one remembered by and known to God;
may God give peace.
God give peace.
Amen
Christ the King Sunday celebrates Christ as King and Lord of the universe.
This Feast Day is celebrated on the final Sunday of Ordinary Time, the final Sunday before Advent begins.
Jesus is a good king; he looks over us like a caring shepherd, making sure that we are safe and protecting us from harm unlike other dominant rulers. He knows everything about us, there is nothing we can hide.
Every year to celebrate we attend a church service.
The Season of Advent
Begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on December 24. Advent has a twofold character. It is the season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming is remembered, and it is the season when that remembrance directs the mind and heart to await Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, the season of Advent is a period for devout and joyful expectation. We use purple to symbolize waiting and importance.