Reception Collective Worship - Gifts and Talents

Reception delivered their first whole-school Collective Worship. We thought carefully about our gifts and talents, and how we can share these with everyone in our school. 

Year 3 lead us beautifully in prayer and reflection on our Lady. As Catholics we have a special devotion to Mary and we dedicate the month of May to celebrating and honouring her. This morning, each child in school laid a flower they had designed at the feet of the statue and we sang traditional Marian hymns.

Key Stage 2 children attended St Joseph's day mass at St Peter's church. The children read beautifully and enjoyed celebrating this very special day with Father Polland and members of our parish. 

Lenten Reconciliation Liturgy for Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3

There was a beautifully prayerful atmosphere in our reconciliation liturgy which was led by readers from Year 3.  In preparation for our liturgy, the children had thought about something that they felt sorry for - something they had said or done, or not said or not done and had recorded this on their cross.  We listened to the Word of God and reflected on how God is always ready and waiting to forgive us, indeed he sent Jesus into the world so that our sins would be forgiven.  The children exchanged their crosses for a bulb.  The sadness of their mistakes was swapped for the beauty of new life which will grow in the form a flower from their bulb.  Just like we see the beauty of Jesus' new life when he rises on Easter Sunday. 

Conversion of Paul

Today, we gathered to celebrate Mass. We heard in the reading about the conversion of St. Paul, who listened to Jesus and changed his ways from killing the followers of Christ, to himself becoming one of His greatest followers. Through his teaching and his many letters, St Paul ensured that the Good News of Jesus Christ was spread throughout the world.

Preparation for Christmas Mass 

We gathered as a school community to celebrate Mass in preparation for Christmas. Thank you to Father Polland and Deacon Gerry in leading up in worship and as always our readers who spoke so clearly as we pieced together our nativity scene!

Christingle 

Year 6 led the school beautifully in our Christingle Worship. We gathered as a whole school to pray and sang carols, at all times reminding us that Jesus is here with us, born in the manger as a baby but truly God, who loves us immeasurably. 

St Andrew's Day Collective Worship

Thank you Year 5 for leading us in prayers this morning, where we celebrated the Feast of St. Andrew, the first Apostle and one of our House saints! Saint Andrew, a humble fisherman, was chosen by Jesus to be a “fisher of men”. We learn from his example every day, when he followed Jesus without question. St Andrew, Pray for Us!

Leavers' Mass 

Beautiful Leavers' Mass yesterday with Father Polland and Deacon Gerry (our Chair of Governors). May all the departing Y6 children carry the light of Christ out with them into the world, as they continue their journey. God Bless.

Year 5 class collective worship

As May is the month of Our Lady, Mary, our Year 5s dedicated their class collective worship to the mother of Jesus.  Our children chose a reading and prayer connected to Mary. They also played Ave Maria and concluded their worship with a decade of the Rosary.  It was a beautiful, prayerful celebration.

Mass in Celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord 

We gathered as a school, with members of the local parish to celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. We heard in the gospel of Matthew about the visit of the Wise Men, who journeyed from the East to come and worship Jesus. They were led to worship him by a star which they followed as it rose in the east and settled over the place where the infant Christ-child was born.

The visit of the three Kings came some time after Jesus was born which is why we celebrate it 12 days after Christmas Day. This Epiphany of Jesus… this Revelation of Jesus… shows that he came for all humankind, not just God’s chosen people, the Jews. The gifts are also significant. Gold to show Jesus’s kingship… the King of Kings. Frankincense to show his royal priesthood…the most High Priest… and Myrrh to show how important his death would be and how that would bring salvation to all!

Death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

We hold in our prayers Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. We flew the papal flag at half mast out of respect. May he rest in peace. 

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let Your perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed
rest in peace.

Amen.

Y6 Christingle 

Year 6 did an incredible job of leading the school in our Christingle Worship. Prayers, carols and beautiful candlelight as we prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus. Simply STUNNING!

Y6 & Y5 Carol Singing 

Y5 & Y6 spent a wonderful afternoon singing Christmas carols to the resident of Aspen Hill Village Care Home! So lovely to spread a bit of a Christmas cheers!!

Nativities

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 worked incredibly hard to bring to life the story of the nativity! Lots of proud mums, dads, grandmas, grandads and even a new-born baby!! Lovely to share all their hard work!! 

Confirmation

Congratulations to Christopher and Adam from Y6, who were Confirmed at St. Peter’s Church by Bishop Marcus. We are all very proud of you! Great saints names too…Nicholas & Peter!! 

December 2022 - Christmas Card Making Day

Today the whole school made beautiful Christmas cards and the Mini Vinnies hand delivered them to local residents. 

Reception Advent Wreaths 

Reception made their very first Advent Wreath. We learned all about the candles, the circular shape, evergreen leaves and red berries. Every child put a piece of greenery into our wreath, and then we learnt a special song called ‘Light the Advent Candle’.

St. Andrew's Day

Happy St. Andrew’s Day! St. Andrew the Apostle teaches us to have great courage and faith in our belief. He left behind his fishing nets and boats and dedicated his life to Jesus! The Y6 children from St. Andrew’s led the school in worship this morning! St. Andrew....pray for us.

Year 2 started our St. Joseph's Day celebrations with an assembly all about St. Joseph.

During it each child, member of staff and parent placed a pebble at the feet of St. Joseph to show that we are all part of this wonderful school community. When we leave we will take a pebble with us so that we never forget the happy times we spent at this school.

Christingle Worship
Today Year 6 lead the Christingle service for the whole school

Members of the wider school community joined us for the service and comments of their own thoughts on the service can be seen below.

Harvest Festival

Well done to the children in Y2 who led a wonderful Collective Worship to celebrate Harvest. As usual the response to our Harvest festival appeal was overwhelming, there were certainly more filled shoe boxes and bags of donations than there are families in school. The food was donated to the South Leeds Food Bank, The SVP and St. George's Crypt. Thank you to everyone for your amazing generosity. Another example of St. Joseph's living out our mission  'Following in the footsteps of Jesus: having fun learning, achieving and loving together.'

Y6 Welcome YR.

On Thursday 27th September Y6 led Collective Worship to formally welcome YR children to St. Joseph's. Children from Y6 introduced their buddies and told the school a little bit about them; they then committed themselves to looking after the YR children this year. The YR children and all children and staff new to St. Joseph's placed a pebble at the foot of St. Joseph where there is a pebble for every member of the school community; representing that as individuals we come together to make one community.  As children leave they take a pebble with them as a reminder that they will always be part of St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School community. Thank you to the many family members who joined us for this very special occasion.  

Mass to Celebrate the New School Year

Thank you to Fr. Polland who celebrated Mass on Friday 21st September to mark the begining of the new school year. Children from Y5 read and led the offertory procession. Prayers were offered for a successful year ahead; the children who left St. Joseph's in July were remembered and those children new to St. Joseph's welcomed. Our new teachers Mis Scanlon and Mr Wilson were inducted to St. Joseph's and all staff commissioned for the school year ahead. The children's enthusiastic singing and prayerful manner were a joy for all. A wonderful way to start the new school year. Thank you to our loyal Y6 altar servers.

Year 6 Leavers' Mass
 

On Friday 13th July, the school celebrated the final Mass of the academic year. Year 6 helped to lead the prayers and readings before they leave St. Joseph's for high school next week. Everyone at St. Joseph's wishes the children all the best for the future; we hope wherever they go and whatever they do, that they will always look back fondly about their time at St. Joseph's and know they are in our thoughts and prayers - good luck Year 6!

The Mass also allowed us to celebrate the contributions made by staff members who will be leaving us this year. Mr Mercer, Mrs Hargreaves & Mrs Labadie are all retiring after many years of service to catholic education. These staff had undoubtedly impacted on the education of thousands of children throughout the years. 

Congratulations  to Father Polland who next week celebrates the Silver Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood.  We thank him for his years of service and for everything he does in leading us to be closer to God.

Prayer Garden Restoration 
 

Last week, a team of volunteers from Gardiner & Theobald LLP came into school to help transform our prayer garden. The garden had become overgrown and unfortunately unusable. The volunteers and a group of children from across KS2 worked together to trim overgrown plants and bed new flowers - creating a lovely outdoor area for prayers and reflection. Thank you to everyone from G&T who gave their time - God bless! 

G&T Partner, Simon Worden, took part in the event and commented:
“We are extremely proud to be able to help St Joseph’s School and clean up an area where the kids can play and learn at the same time in order to look after the plants and bushes. It was brilliant to spend some time with the children of St Joseph’s. They are a credit to their teachers and worked together to bring the gardens back to life.”

A link to the G&T website can be found below:
http://www.gardiner.com/newsroom/2018/gt-helps-restore-garden

Year 2 Marion Service

As May is the month when we especially think of Mary and pray for her intercession Year 2 led us in a Collective worship about her.  It enabled us to think about why she is important and understand that she is our heavenly mother.

Congratulations to the whole of St Joseph's.  As a school we raised £313.90 pounds towards the 'Good Shepherd Appeal' through our Silver Snake fundraising.

The top three classes who raised the most  money were Year 3, Year 5 and Reception. 

Congratulations to Reception Class who had the longest snake in our final week of the 'Silver Snake' challenge.
As a school we have raised over £250 for the Good Shepherd Appeal.  Keep checking back to find out our 'snakey statistics' when they have been calculated including, which class raised the most money, which class had the longest overall snake, and how many times around the hall the school snake would have stretched.

Christingle

(December 18th) Year Six led the school in a Christingle Worship. The Christingle was an opportunity for the school community to come together to worship God and Jesus’ coming as the Light of the World. The service was attended by many parents and carers. Thank you to everyone for making this such as special occasion. 

Some comments from our parents:

'The way you bring the message of Christmas across is brilliant. I really enjoyed the Christingle Service.'
'My first time attending your Christingle Collective Worship and really enjoyed it. Year Six were very good and should be proud.'
'So beautiful, lovely readings. A special start to Christmas.'
'Very moving service about the meaning of Christmas.'
'The service was absolutely fantastic. It was my first time joining and I really enjoyed every bit of it.'

Harvest  Collective Worship

We had great fun preparing for our Year 1 Harvest collective worship and enjoyed seeing so many grown-ups who came to share the celebration with us.

Our favourite part was singing the Harvest Samba!  We collected lots of food for people who are not as lucky as we are.

Year 4 lead our Resurrection Mass

Year 2 lead an assembly about St. Joseph

To celebrate the feast day of St. Joseph, Year 2 lead the school in an assembly. They gave clues as to what was special about the day before revealing the statue of St. Joseph. All the children, adults and parents were then given a pebble to place at the feet of St. Joseph to show that we belong to a school named after him.

First Holy Communion

Congratulations to the sixteen children who made their First Holy Communion at St Peter's church on the 9th May.  After many months of First Holy Communion classes the children were well prepared for this important occasion and their conduct was an example for us all.  Many thanks to Mrs Scott and Mrs Hewson for giving up their own time in order to prepare the children for both the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Sacrament of Holy Communion.  Thanks to Fr. Eamon and Deacon Gerry for all their hard work ensuring that the day was such a special occasion for all concerned.

Mini Vinnies Commissioning Ceremony

On Wednesday 30th March 10 children were commissioned in  a special assembly. Many children were eager to become members of this new group. They all wrote an application form saying why wanted to join the group.