Chaplaincy Team
CHAPLAINCY
2022-2023
Thankyou to all the parents who sponsored their children on the good deed challenge. You were very generous. We raised £151 which will be shared between Cafod and the prayer garden.
May 2023
Rosary Assembly
Well done to the Yr5 chaplaincy team who have planned, organised and delivered the Rosary assemblies during the month of May.
They split into two groups and chose which mysteries they wanted to concentrate on and researched information regarding these mysteries. As well as the prayers associated with the Rosary, they also wrote their own to begin and end their assemblies .
Well done team.
Praying the Rosary with Chaplaincy at the Convent
Yr2
I think that it was realty calming and I like to reflect a lot and it made me really happy. Joni
It was quiet and fun to see Mary. It was a surprise to see the statue of Mary and it was nice to say the Rosary with the Sisters. Bea
Yr1
I was excited to go as I have never been to the Nuns house. I got a pink rosary bead to hold and it's my favourite colour. We held the rosary when we said our prayers. I thought Mary was in a good spot and we said lots of prayers with Mary as she says lots of prayers. Charlotte
Because it was my first time there it was exciting. We said lots of prayers we had to keep saying the Hail Mary . We said it 10 times. I like the statue of Mary. it was hiding when we first came in, then you went around the corner and then you could see it. I like the hole it was in. Two of the nuns came to pray with us. Blake.
May 2023
Break time Rosary
At breaktime each class at a time have been to invited the nuns prayer garden to pray the decade of the Rosary. Children can decide if they want to come to the garden to pray but it was great to see so many children wanting to give up their break time to spend a little time in prayer.
I think that when the classes go to pray the rosary in the nuns garden, it is a great way to communicate with the nuns and expand our friendship with God. The nuns are really kind and great to chat to because they give us good advice and knowledge about God. Today when we went to the garden, the nuns helped the year 1's pray the rosary and they kept on reminding them to move on to the next bead. They were very encouraging when we prayed they helped the year 1 to remember the words.
The prayer garden /reflection area was so peaceful.
Imogen and Rosalie
May 2023
Prayer for SATS
During our Liturgical Prayer today, Grace yr 4 wrote a prayer for the Yr 6 children and their SATS
Dear Lord,
Help the Year 6 to be confident in their SATS,
Help them to remain focused and calm,
Bless them to succeed in their learning and to be the best we can be,
Help us to inspire everyone to REACH through Faith, hope and love,
AMEN
May 2023
May is often referred to as the Month of Mary – a month where Catholics across the world pay special devotions to Our Lady, Mary. This includes, reading scripture associated with Our Lady and praying the rosary.
For the second year we have signed up to ACN Maisy milk rosary for peace and pledged to say 700 decades as a school. https://acnuk.org/resource/maisy-milk-rosary-for-peace-and-plant-pot-fundraiser/
The children have said a decade of the rosary in class during class prayers and the yr5 chaplaincy team have planned, written and will lead the school in saying the Rosary before hymn practice for the next two weeks. They will introduce the Joyful and Luminous mysteries.
Finally, we are so lucky to have the Convent next to our school and the sisters have invited us to use their reflection area for prayer until our prayer garden is ready. Children from each class will have the chance to go with the chaplaincy team to say the Rosary during break each day in their Reflection area.
Prayer Garden update
April 2023
We held another meeting along with the school council and invited Mrs Howells to view the plan drawn up for us using ideas given by the children.
Ideas from the children;
- pergola, a covered areas for small classes to sit under,
- Path in shape of a cross,
- hedge/ fence,
- clematis around the pergola,
- gate leading into prayer garden,
- benches,
- trees ( with bench around),
- sensory plants,
We have sent plans to a landscaper for ideas of pricing so that we can begin our fundraising and sourcing materials. We would like to recycle as much as possible from paving stones, plants and wood ( to build the pergola).
Any help would be appreciated.
April 2023
Class Prayer in Reflection book.
We encourage the children in all the classes to participate in the faith and prayer life of the school from reading in mass, liturgical prayer, leading prayers, setting up and looking after their class prayer table and writing prayers to share with their class or the whole school. Chaplaincy have written some beautiful prayers this last year which can be seen on their chaplaincy board. Many prayers written by other children are written in their prayer book in their class prayer bag or their reflection book. I was shown a thoughtful prayer written by one class during their reflective time in class prayers.
Dear God,
Let us live in harmony and choose good over bad, and move in your mercy.
Thank you for all the work put into us.
Thank you for making us.
Thank you for guiding us through darkness.
Thank you for Jesus' love and we pray for God to inspire us every day.
Guide us through Faith, Hope and Love to help one another.
We pray for you to help us through tough times and always make sure we REACH.
Give us guidance through our work and here at ST Joseph's and in their Little Ways Partnership.
Thank you for our forgiveness.
Thank you for giving us life, and the Servant King who shows us love.
Thank you for the land and we pray we are good stewards of the earth.
Help us to be faithful and love others.
Thank you for Jesus' light.
Amen.
March 2023
Lenten Good Deed Challenge
We did it!
52.6 m long and 962 links.
March 2023
Stations of the Cross
On Friday the 31st March Y5 led the Stations of the Cross. There were 14 different stations , each one of them depicts the different events of Jesus' final journey before he was crucified . Year 5 enjoyed practicing and learning the different stages of Jesus' journey as well as explaining to other the pupils in our school community the different stages of Jesus' last hours and what they meant. Our prayers were linked to our schools values and virtues (faith, hope and love) we wanted to show the other pupils how to mirror God's image and likeness. we would like to finish with a prayer.
O Lord ,
Help us to thank Jesus for the sacrifice he made for us he died for our sins under Pontius pilot's wish and command , Jesus was reborn through us and continues to love and guide us through darkness and when we need help to forgive or say sorry to someone even if it is hard or something that you don't want to do
Amen
Orla, Bella and Pippa Yr 5
March 2023
Stations of the Cross
by Orla and Isla Yr4
We enjoyed the Stations led by Year 5 this morning.
It was quite interesting how they did the actions/mimes along with the readings. The children sounded confident as they knew it off by heart.
I liked that we were in a few rooms and not having t go upstairs. The children moved around quietly and as there was quiet music playing it seemed to settle us. I felt that I was in the presence of the Lord.
The miming and pictures gave me a better idea of each station.
It was dramatic. Isla Yr4
It helped us to put ourselves in Jesus' shoes, knew and understood how he felt and what was happening.
I am looking forward to doing it next year in Year 5 - Orla Yr4
March 2023
A prayer by Austin in Yr2
It is always lovely to be given prayers by children not in Chaplaincy. Austin wrote a prayer in his quiet time at home and wanted to share it with his class and me.
Thankyou Austin
Dear Father,
Please help us to inspire everyone to REACH through FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.
Help lead us out of the darkness,
and have time to pray with Faith Hope and Love and do what he wants us to do.
AMEN
Austin said he wanted to include our school virtues as we should always try and follow them to be more like Jesus.
March 2023
Lenten Good Deed Challenge
In our Liturgical Prayer, we have been watching a British sign language video for GIVE ACT and PRAY. We have been working on good deeds and have been focusing on our virtues ( faith, hope and love). Every little good deed we do, we write on a link to make a prayer chain. We are sponsored to make the longest link possible. We are hoping that by the end of Lent we will have done enough good deeds to wrap the paper chain around our school family.
The money we raise will go to Emmaues, Cafod and our prayer garden, which will be for the use of our whole school community.
We try to do little things like St Terese did alongside our Little Way partnership schools.
Bella, Orla Lucy Yr5
Feb 2023
Thinking Day
Every year Guides and Scouts celebrate their organisations by connecting with each other, having fun together, learning about and taking actions on the global issues that affect their communities and fundraising for their organisations around the world.. This is known as World Thinking Day.
Traditionally all members of the guiding and scouting movement wear their uniforms to school, this helps them to identify with other children who may be members in groups other than their own; maybe making new friendships.
This is a great way for children to follow our Catholic Social Teachings by being part of a wider community, raising funds for poorer countries and also, to make others aware of Gods creation and be Stewards of the Earth.
Members of chaplaincy and other children in school in the guiding and scouting community led an assembly for the school encouraging other children to join them.
Well done all.
Lent Retreat 2023
Jesus Dies on the Cross.
We were doing station twelve(Jesus dies on the cross). We helped set up with guidance from the class teacher. We did most the talking but if the children were stuck on the questions the class teacher would help. Our activity was making little crosses with red thread wrapped around it to represent the blood of Jesus. We think our station went really well and overall I think the Lent retreat was amazing .Everyone enjoyed the different activities and different stations . We think the activities helped the children understand what Jesús had been through for us.
By Amelia and Pippa Yr 5
January 2023
Liturgical Prayer - The Chosen one of God
Today we presented the Liturgical Prayer in front of the whole school. It was about Revelations - God the Chosen One. I was part of a drama about Prince Albert visiting a school. He looked scruffy so that we didn't know he was Prince Albert. We were expecting a fanfare and someone wearing smart clothes.
The message was that important people don't always need to look special. knowing who people are changes us.
I felt nervous and so were my friends but it turned out very well.
I look forward to do the next one!
Grace Yr4
Prayer Bags.
The children are excited each week to be given the prayer bag to take home. The children really think about how they are setting up their prayer tables at home and the prayers and activities they do as a family.
Jan 2023
Epiphany
On Friday, (if you are a Catholic) you might have gone to church. We went to church to celebrate Epiphany, when the three kings were on their journey to visit baby Jesus. George said a reading from the gospel about the Magi. We shared a quiet moment of reflection to think about what we are grateful for. At the end we all said a prayer then sat to reflect on the message of the reading.
Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th January every year to remember what happened when the kings went to visit the baby Jesus. The three kings studied the stars and after visiting Herod to ask where the new born King was, they followed the star to Bethlehem. They stayed at the stable to worship him until God came to them in a dream telling them not to go back to Herod.
As with Christian tradition, to mark the occasion of Epiphany we made signs to 'chalk the door' People create signs above their door asking God to bless their house. We made signs asking God to bless our classrooms
20+C+M+B+23.
2023 is for the year we are in .C,M and B are the initials of the Three Wise Men, Caspar, Malchior and Balthazar.
By Beatrice and Safia
Jan 2023
It is lovely when the children use their own time to think how they can continue to help others.
This was written by Rosalie and is a lovely poem to start the new year off with.
A Poem about Chaplaincy
Chaplaincy is kind and loving,
we help when someone has really been struggling.
We are honest and kind,
never steal, always find,
and show love wherever we go.
We have had communions, commissioning and grateful care,
knowing God will always answer our prayer.
We give generous donations, always help, always care,
hoping when they get it they will continue to share.
For people in the world need us now more than ever,
pollution, wars, battles and poisoned air,
So know this now and remember it forever,
When we need him God will definitely be there.
Written by Rosalie
Dec 2022
Daily Prayer
During this season of Advent, our Chaplaincy team have taken inspiration from the Advent wreath and the four candles that are lit each Sunday to help remind the children that Advent is a time of expectation, celebration and hope connected to the birth of Jesus.
Each week a new candle is lit:
- week one - candle symbolises HOPE;
- week two - candle symbolises FAITH;
- week three - candle symbolises JOY;
- week four - candle symbolises PEACE.
The children have written prayers connected to a particular candle and these are given to each class every day while we are at school during Advent. We hope that the children will think about how to prepare themselves and others leading up to Christmas.
The prayers themselves have been written by Chaplaincy , two versions; one that is placed on the advent candle in Reception and the other has been written on a decorated candle which is put in the class prayer book.
November 2022
Advent Retreat
What a wonderful afternoon shared by the whole school. Chaplaincy, for the first time in two years, were able to lead each station in the classroom rather than on video.
They were put with children from other year groups to enable the older ,experienced chaplaincy members to help and encourage the new ones.
They were all amazing and their confidence grew with each new group of children who came into their class so by the time the last group of children came through they were like mini teachers.
Advent Retreat by Lucy and Pippa
On Monday we had the Advent Retreat . The whole school were put into groups and everyone went into the hall in their groups where we listened to Mrs Howells introduced the story of when Jesus was born. Chaplaincy then lead a group out to each class room. Each class room had a different station representing the journey of Advent. Each station was led by a members of Chaplaincy.
Lucy : ``I was in year 6 , we were learning about the promise and what we would give Jesus as a gift as an activity.``
Pippa: ``I was in reception,we were learning about the journey and we had to write about a time where we needed Jesus alongside us.''
Pippa and Lucy
November 2022
Advent Prayer bags
All change for Advent;
Purple cloth, candle, prayer book, prayer sheet, Christmas strory/ Nativity book and activity .
November 2022
Commisionning
On Friday, we went to St Peter's Catholic Primary school in Glouster to be commissioned by Monsignor Liam. We joined the Little Way partnership and we got to meet a wide range of different Chaplains across lots of schools. After our lovely welcome from Mrs Mac Donald we were sure we would have a lovely time with
her at this school. Then we went outside for a breath of fresh air and we were offered a biscuit and a drink.
The first activity we did after the commissioning was a getting to know activity where we walked around the room asking people questions about themselves so we were able to get to know everyone in the little way partnership. We were excited by this next activity where we needed to throw a bean bag to one another and remember who we passed to so we got to know there names. After that we sat down for lunch with a range of people as well as some of are friends. We enjoyed getting to know the other schools in the little way partnership. It was great fun and we enjoyed the experience of getting to know all different people and teachers with in gods community.
Following on from that we happily left with warm hearts and smiles wide on are faces. It was great!
Emily and Flo
November 2022
1st November is All Saints Day . This is a Holy Day of Obligation and we were lucky enough to join the Sisters of Mercy at the convent to celebrate with them.
It was an enjoyable mass with plenty of singing.
Well done team, you read and sang beautifully.
Oct 2022
Awe and Wonder
Hinduism
It is important that the children learn about other faiths in our school. The children examine different religious groups, helping them understand the similarities and differences between faiths and that of the Catholic faith.
Oct 22
Prayer Bags
Encouraging families to sit and pray together is important to us. We hope by re introducing the prayer bag to the children will enable this.
Inside the bag we have placed items that children could set out as a focal point at home; liturgical colour cloth,candle, rosary beads, prayer book and crucifix.
We have put in a prompt sheet with a scripture reading , questions and ideas for children to think about, aswell as a class book for the children to use to draw a picture, add a photo or write a prayer.
Enjoy using the bag.
Oct 22
Exciting time ahead.... for many years the children in both School Council and Chaplaincy have wanted to create a Prayer garden on the school field but many things have prevented this. but today ,both groups had their first meeting together to discuss it. The children had many ideas to put forward .
I think they are all excited to get started!
Oct 22
Yr 5 girls lead class prayers and the Rosary
Oct 2022
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Liturgical prayer was led by Chaplaincy this week to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
While the children said a decade of the Rosary they were asked to think about how they could follow Mary's example in the Joyful mysteries to say yes to God and become Carers of Creation.
It was a peaceful and thoughtful assembly.
Sept 2022
Welcome to our new Chaplaincy Team, I am excited to work with them all. I had some lovely letters from the children, who really thought about what they could do for the children and the school as well as the community.
it was important to me that the children showed how they could follow the principles of the Catholic Social Teachings and lead by example. Many of their letters gave examples of this.
Bella - " I want to be in Chaplaincy because I care about God's creation and how he wants us to look after it. I will try my best to help as much as I can."
Rosalie - " I am a good role model, help people come closer to God, I believe and trust in God, helpful in hard times."
Sadie - "I want to encourage younger children throughout the school to follow in Jesus' footsteps, I want to meet other people who she my beliefs and help spread God's word"
Florence - " I know how greatful we should be, aware of the many different types of faiths."
Sept 2022
It's great to be back for a start of a new school year. It was sad to say goodbye to my Yr6 Chaplaincy team as many have been part of this team since Yr3 and helped encourage more children to think about their faith and what it means to follow in Jesus' footsteps.
I look forward to setting up our new team, the letters requesting to join have already started to roll in.
God Our Father
Thanks for your Guidance,
And showing us the way,
To be good Catholic children,
And be our best each day
Amen
prayer by Sadie
CHAPLAINCY
2022-2023
May 2022 Sunflowers for Ukraine
We are excited to have joined forces with St Gregorys in their fundraising efforts to raise money for Ukraine. They have launched the Sunflowers for Ukraine Challenge. Each child pays £1 to enter. We plant a sunflower seed and see who can grow the tallest Sunflower before 13h July.
Chaplaincy team have entered ...finger crossed.
May 2022 The Rosary
During the month of May we look at the 4 mysteries that make up the Rosary.
In class prayers each week the Chaplaincy team will be leading the classes through a decade of the Rosary. We will begin by looking at the Joyful mysteries and while saying a decade the children are reminded to think about happy and joyful times in their lives.
Each child in school have their own set of Rosary beads and are encouraged to use them during our class prayers.
It is good to see that again the older children want to go to the KS1 classes and help them with the Rosary
April 2022 Day at St Peters
We were invited to spend the day at St Peters High school with other Chaplaincy teams in the area. The activities were based around Earth Day and Pope Francis' message to be 'Good Stewards of Creation'.
The children enjoyed mixing with other children and were encouraged to spend the day making new friends. We played a CAFOD game about the environment, walked around the school and spent time in the art department learning about mono printing. The children came back to school with loads of ideas.
April 2022
Today the whole school joined with YR6 to follow the journey of the Stations of the Cross.
Each of the 14 stations retells part of Jesus' passion through images and words. They help us to remember the last few hours that led to Jesus' death and then his Resurrection.
Lent is a special time for us to follow the Stations and to help us feel closer to Jesus and understand what his sacrifice meant to us.
March 2022
St Joseph's Day
St Joseph feast day is celebrated on 19th March. As this falls on a weekend this year the whole school celebrated Holy Mass on Thursday. For the Reception children and many new children who have started with us this year this is their first year of celebrating this with us.
Last year Chaplaincy filmed a liturgy to be shown in the classes. Some of the Year4 girls sang a hymn for the liturgy to welcome the school together and we were asked again this year if we could open our School mass again with this hymn.
With only an afternoons practice, Yr5 Chaplaincy team (and Lawrence who wanted to help) sang the first verse in church to be joined by the rest of their class for the last two verses. They did a wonderful job, even more so because they had to sing without backing music.
Mass was followed by playtime in the sun and little treats from Mrs Howells who even remembered that some children had given up chocolate as their Lenten promise and provided other treats!
March 2022
Jesus shows us that we are important to him as he sacrificed himself for us. How can we get to know Jesus more during this season of Lent?
Apart from giving up something we can also use our time for prayer as well as penance.
This year we could do a positive act and help others.
In each class the children thought about a Lenten promise they could make and wrote it down. All the classes promises were put together on a cross for the whole school to see. Chaplaincy team helped the younger children with their ideas.
Can we keep them?
March 2022
Ash Wednesday - Lent Retreat Afternoon
My older chaplaincy children helping the KS1 children complete their Lent activity sheet. They encouraged them to think about what Lent means and how they can prepare during the next 40 days.
Feb 2022
Lent Retreat
We begin our Lenten journey in school with our Lent Retreat. It was filmed again due to Covid restrictions but we were all able to begin and end our retreat all together in the hall.
My Chaplaincy team were disappointed they were unable to lead the retreat in the classrooms, but stepped up to the mark to help set up each station and film it.
A wonderful job again team well done !
December 2021
Our advent wreath is made from cut outs of all of the chaplaincy team hands. it represents how we all work and are stronger together. That together following our acts of kindness we can achieve and are prepared for Advent.
December 2021
Plenty of jobs to do in December, an important one is to change our prayer tables. Rosalie was a very big help in Reception and used her lunchtime to change theirs.
Great job now 6 more to do!
December 2021
Daily Acts of Kindness.
An important part of being Chaplaincy is helping in the faith of our school and encouraging children to 'follow in the footsteps of Jesus'.
Advent is a time for us to prepare for the coming of Jesus but as a group we had to think about how we could go about doing this as a whole school.
During the next few weeks, we would like the children to do a daily act of kindness. Each day a new act of kindness will be taken off the tree in the Reception area and given to each class for the children to act upon.
An Act of kindness book is in each class for children to write in what they have done that day as part of the 'act of kindness'. We hope by the end of this term the books will be full and we can show how wonderful our children are to each other.
November 2021
The Advent Retreat
Our Advent retreat again this year had to be filmed and watched together in our classrooms. The children did another amazing job and helped us as a school tp prepare for the start of Advent.
It was lovely to see the older children working with the younger children explaining the activities helping them fill out each section and encouraging them.
November 2021
Commissioning
The children were disappointed this year that again we were unable to go to Clifton Cathedral to receive our badges but, we were very lucky to have Louise White visting out school and while she was here she held a mini commissioning service with us and the new children joining Chaplaincy this year were able to receive both their badges and certificates from Louise. We also had one of our Chair of Governors here to help also.
Thankyou both of you for helping make our children feel special.
October 2021
Today we did an assembly on Saint Luke. The key points we looked at are the poor ,the outcast and the women.We also taught them about St Luke and his journey. We really enjoyed doing this assembly. We had to do it in the hall infront of the school and with children on zoom!
Ava and Emily Yr5
October 2021
COP 24 Eyes of the World
Today we did a zoom meeting with St.Katherine's school chaplincy team.
We did a lot of talking about COP 26 - how we can help the world with climate change.COP 26 is a meeting in Glasgow, Scoland with our world leaders to help tackle climate change.In this meeting, they will be disscussing what we can do to help the world.
Maya, Amelia, Harvey
September 2021
It was great to come back to school and actually have a whole school assembly and even better I could actually speak to the children about Chaplaincy and ask for letters off children who were interested in joining this year .
WOW!!! the letters I received were AMAZING it makes me proud to be part of St Joseph's family and the lovely children we have here.
CHAPLAINCY 2021-2022
May 2021 The Rosary
May is the month of Mary. During this month we will be leading the whole school during class prayers to say a decade of the Rosary.
The chaplaincy team talked about the Rosary to their class and introduced the first decade of the Rosary - the Joyful mysteries.
During this month try and think more about Mary and how important she was in the life of Jesus.
March 2021
YEAR OF ST JOSEPH - Dec2020 to Dec 2021
St Joseph is the patron saint of our school, our parish and by proclamation of Pope Pius IX Christ's universal church.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Proclamation by Pope Pius IX, the present Pope Francis has declared this a special year to honour and pray to St Joseph.
As we celebrated St Joseph's day on 19th March the whole school spent the afternoon thinking of him, his work and how important he was to Mary and Jesus. Through this time of covid it has shown us the importance of 'ordinary people' who though far from the limelight offer partience and help to others every day just like St Joseph.
It is difficult to find much about St Joseph so the children though pf symbols that would remind them of him.
Reception became Carpenters, Year 1, 3 and 4 used the symbol of lillies in their art work . Year 2 were at home on teams and produced drawings of St Joseph while Year 5 , also at home , created beautiful prayers.
Year 6 created an amazing 'stain glass window' effect picture which hasnow been framed and put up on display. Work from each class has also been put on a display in the Reception area so any visitors to the school can see how important he is to us.
March 2021
St Joseph's Feast Day
We were not able to attend mass this year to celebrate this important Feast day in our school calender year, but this did not stop the Chaplaincy team from encouraging the school to still think about t Joseph and celebrate how wonderful he was.
The children in Year3,4 and 5 who are inthe chaplaincy team learnt and sang a hymn and all the children took part in a Liturgy about St Joseph. Please take a look at it on our school assembly pages.
February 2021
Lent Retreat
WE are very lucky here at St Joseph's to have such a committed Chaplaincy Team. We haven't been able to have many meetings but the children have still showed they are committed to helping the faith of the school by leading class prayers, writing their own prayers for the chidlren, looking after the class prayer table and taking on the responsiblilty of the Lent retreat with respect and maturity.
We filmed the retreat so that the whole school was involved. Even though many of the Chaplaincy Team, were at home we were able to involve and film them through TEAMs. They managed extremley well despite Mrs B's ICT skills and the internet loosing connection just as we were recording!!
WELL DONE
December 2020
Advent Retreat
Although the children had to stay in their class bubbles, the Chaplaincy team showed they could cope with anything we ask them to do.
Today we held our advent retreat in school. Instead of moving around the school in mixed groups, the children stayed in their classes but used TEAMS to introduce each stage of the Advent journey. The chaplaincy team were still able to take part in the retreat by talking on TEAMS to each class. asking questions, encouraging children to talk and then setting a task for them to complete. It was a new experience for the Reception children who have never been involved in the retreat before but, they sat and listened really well answering questions when encouraged by the team.
Well done Chaplaincy for another great job!
November 2020
Commissioning of the Chaplaincy Team
Things are certainly different in the world at this present time. Even more so at school! This year instead of Chaplaincy team going up to Bristol Cathedral to receive their badges from the Bishop, the children stayed at school and took part in a virtual Commissioning Mass.
I was worried that the children wouldn't feel special as the mass is always a reflective time but, after talking to the chaplaincy team they agreed that it felt very special as their friends in class were able to join in the mass and understand more about what the chaplaincy team was.
The children followed the mass sheet and at various points in the mass we were asked to pause and our chaplains could then stand up and read. This meant that all the children took part in the mass rather than just one school.
When it came to give the badges out, this job was given to the class teacher and the children felt proud to receive their badges in front of their class mates.
October 2020
After an awful end to the year where Chaplaincy team missed setting up and organising the Lent retreat and fundraising and I missed saying goodbye to some chaplaincy members who have helped me over several years , we are back hoping that despite being in different bubbles we may still help and encourage the prayer life here at St Josephs.
During Lock down it was lovely to receive pictures and prayers from the children and I hoped you enjoyed seeing them on our web page.
After settling back into school and getting used to different ways of doing things I was able to ask the children who would be interested in helping me again this year with chaplaincy and, how we could still organise and meet up within our bubbles.
I received lovely letters from the children, some I have put here on the web page and some are up on display in the school corridor.
I look forward to working together with the children.
Our new team welcome
Year 6
Summer, Isabelle, Leo
Year 5
Emily, Amelia, Maddie, Lola, Maya, Francesca
Year 4
Ava, Safia, Emily, Beatrice
Year 3
Orla, Rosalie, Pippa
Chaplaincy
2020-2021
May 2020
Thank you to the children that sent in pictures and prayers in support of Earth Day. Your pictures were beautiful, some of you using Gods creation to make them. Your prayers were very special and I have attached them for you all to look at.
Prayer from Ava for Earth Day
Dear Lord,
Thank you for our beautiful world and for all we have in it.
I am sorry that we haven’t looked after it as well as we should of.
We pray for your guidance to help us care for all that you have given us.
Amen
Prayer
Thank you for babies and we entrust them to Mary our Mother for protection over them from conception to natural death
22nd April 2020
EARTH DAY
Today is Earth Day, an annual event celebrated around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970, it now includes events coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network in more than 193 countries.
Our Chaplaincy team were due to go back to St Peters High school today to work with other chaplaincy teams in the Gloucestershire area and St Peters chaplaincy team on activities to do with Earth Day. Unfortunately due to lock down we are unable to attend.
Mandy the chaplain from St Peters has asked that we could virtually celebrate together.
Please watch the attached youtube video
I would like you to think of God's creation and how beautiful it is but how easily it can be destroyed. I would like you to create a picture of your favourite God's creation. You can draw it, paint it or collage a picture using different materials found inside your home or outdoors. It would be lovely of you could write a few lines about being thankful for the God's creation you have 'created' I. am hoping that putting all your thoughts together we can write a school prayer of thanksgiving.
If you could either email me a photo of your picture to SLT@st-josephs.gloucs.sch.uk or put it on twitter but please email your prayer. I would like to send the pictures and prayer to Mandy at St Peters.
Could I have this by next Friday 1st May
Thankyou and enjoy creating
EASTER DURING LOCK DOWN
It has been lovely to see that children have been thinking of the importance of Lent and Easter even while we have not been in school. Children have been reading the Easter story and making their own Easter gardens.
Safia went a little further and after reading the Easter story painted some of the Stations of the Cross with her mum. These are beautiful pictures and I wanted to share them with the Chaplaincy team.
If you have anything that you would like to go on our Chaplaincy pages then please email them into school.
See if you can identify which stations Safia has painted.
Our Journey through Lent
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and finishes on Holy Saturday. Lent is the season of reflection and preparation. It is a time when we could think about giving up something like Jesus did in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights or, to do something extra to help others.
This journey made by the Chaplaincy team help us to think about how we are and where we want to be, how by either giving up something or doing something extra will make us all better people and ready to celebrate the season of Easter, to help us find a new path to God.
The Chaplaincy team have come up with ideas/goals to help you for the next 40 days. Each day is new day so if you haven’t managed to follow an idea/goal on one day don’t give up, there is always another goal the following day.
March 2020
Lent Retreat.
The children did another superb job during the school lent retreat. They assisted the teachers setting up the stations in each classroom and the teachers then talked to the children about each station and their input during the session.
All the class teachers said how amazing the Chaplaincy team were. they listened, followed instructions and worked with the other children keeping them all on task.
Another great job Chaplaincy!
January 2020
Visit to St Peters High School
We were invited to St Peters High School to work together with their Chaplaincy team and other catholic school chaplaincy teams in the diocese. This was a chance to meet with other children and launch the Year of Communion. The children had to introduce themselves to the other chaplaincy teams, talk about themselves, ask questions and learn more about what other teams do in their schools.
Mandy, the Chaplain of St Peters, set the children questions to think about...
What is a Community?
What do we have on common?
What do we need to build a community?
The children shared their ideas.
December 2019
Advent Posada
As part of St Peters High Schools Advent preparation and the Year of Communion we were invited to participate in their Posada Prayer Service.
The custom of Posada originated form Mexico where two young people were chosen to dress up as Mary and Joseph. They used to travel from house to house in their village telling people about the imminent arrival of Jesus and asking them if they would give them room. On Christmas Eve t would re-enact a community play and bring figures of Mary and Joseph to be placed in the crib.
Instead of children dressing up we were sent statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The beautifully carved figures were made in Zambia.
he stautes visited different schools during Advent and we received the figures from The Rosary School.
Our Chaplaincy team had the chance to sit with the Reception children and show them the figurines an the Chaplaincy team lead the prayer.
December 2019
Advent Acts of Kindness Tree
Advent is a time of preparation where we prepare for the birth of Jesus. The children wanted to think of a way to encourage children to prepare and one idea was to do acts of kindness leading up to Christmas.
The children decorated boxes. Each box was then numbered and filled with a reading from a scripture from the Nativity story, one to go in their class prayer book and one by the tree. Also inside the box, as well as a little sweet surprise, was a little slip of paper with an act of kindness on for the children to do each day. These were written by the Chaplaincy team.
Each day a member of the Chaplaincy team went with a child from a different class to the box numbered with that day and found the goodies inside. then the act of kindness slip was given to each class for them to follow that day.
A lovely thoughtful idea to help all the children think of more than just presents and Father Christmas!
November 2019
Advent Retreat
Chaplaincy were amazing toady during our school Advent retreat. They were put into groups of three and allocated a class. The children had to help prepare class area, set out resources and light the candles ready for the retreat. After they had watched the teachers first introduce the station they were then able to have a go themselves, talking to the children from all the classes, ask questions and get them to complete a task.
Mrs D'Arcy came around and watched each group and said how brilliant and respectful the children had been.
Well done Chaplaincy Team
Elsa, Summer and Leo have written a piece about their day
Nov 2019
Chaplaincy Commissioning
Today was a special day for 8 of our chaplaincy team members as they were commissioned by Bishop Declan at Clifton Cathedral. They received a badge and certificate.
We had a lovely day, the children met chaplaincy members from other schools around the Clifton Diocese and were able to talk to them and find out what other schools had been doing last year during The Year of Prayer. We are now looking forward to starting the Year of Communion.
October 2019
Education Mass
Isabelle and Leo attended the Education Mass on Tuesday evening taking up our school banner. They also handed over a cheque to Missio for £130.00 which was money raised by the Chaplaincy team this year.
October 2019
Welcome to a new school year and new members of the Chaplaincy Team. I am so pleased to welcome 8 new children to our team.
We held our first meeting and the children were given their books to use during the year to write ideas down, prayers, challenges that are set and any thing that will help them during the year.
We listened to a podcast sent by Bishop Declan welcoming the children and encouraging them to think of others during the year.
I asked the children to look at their class prayer tables and think of ways these can be improved and this is one of the things we will be looking at this year.
Important dates ahead -
Education Mass is on 19th October where Bishop Declan will introduce the Year of Communion.
Chaplaincy Mass at Clifton Cathedral 13th November
Advent Retreat - December
Lampedusa Cross
Prayer around the cross - ‘We are linked together in prayer to help one another.’
This is a special cross called the LAMPEDUSA CROSS. This pilgrimage cross has been entrusted to all pupils in our diocese. It left Clifton Cathedral in November during our Chaplaincy Commissioning and has visited each school in turn.
The crosses were originally made by Francesco Tussio, a carpenter from a small Italian Island in Lampedusa. When hundreds of refugees drowned off the coast of Lampedusa, he was moved to gather the driftwood from the wrecked boats and turn them into crosses, which he gave to the survivors as a symbol of hope.
As this cross has travelled around each of our schools in turn, it reminds us that we need to work to bring justice and hope to our world, to remember that God walks with us, even in difficult times, and of our need to pray.
We used different coloured card to write our prayers on. 5 colours for the 5 Continents. In the poorest areas of these Continents we think about their suffering, and how our prayers can give them love, hope, strength and perseverance to overcome the difficulties they face.
WE will write our own prayer promising God how we will remember and help these people. Then link all our prayers together to make a chain symbolising ‘we are all linked together through prayer to make a difference in this world’.
May 2019
We finally counted the money from the Missio Boxes.This was our Lent fundraising 'Give it up or Do Something Extra'. Out of 160 boxes sent out we received 50 back. Thank you so much to all who returned their boxes. The children counted £311.00.
£150.00 of this will go to Cafod and the rest will go towards Missio.
20.9.19
Today was the feast day of St Joseph. We were very lucky as Bishop Declan came to say our special mass.
After a lovely service he came around the school, talking to the children and then met with the Chaplaincy team who presented him with a gift of print of a cross, in the theme of Jackson Pollock , created by the Year 3 and Year 4 classes.
The Chaplaincy team helped choose the hymns for the mass and sang 'Come and join the circle' accompanied by Mrs D'Arcy on the flute. They did an amazing job.
The Year 3 and 4 children then read the Bidding Prayers.
Well done Chaplaincy team.
11.3.19
Lent Retreat
Our Chaplaincy team are working very hard this term. The Year 5 and Year 6 children did a brilliant job setting up for the Lent Retreat in KS1. They organised the classroom for the teachers, prepared the resources and introduced the theme to the groups of children who came into the class with respect and knowledge. During the session they asked the children questions and when setting the children a task, helped the younger children with their writing.
Well done.
5.3.19
The children have been very busy today with lots of jobs that needed doing ready for Lent.
They were making Prayer boxes for the classrooms, for their classmates to use if they want to have a prayer said during Class Prayers or they wanted to class to think of someone in their prayers,
Next as a team they worked together to make a display. This is our fundraising for Lent in support of both CAFOD and MISSIO.
Give Up for Lent is the Slogan. We are asking the children to give up something for Lent and instead use that money to put in the Missio box to help other children around the world. If they are not giving up then we ask that they think about doing something extra for their family and friends. If they are given money again we ask that they think about putting it in the Missio boxes.
We will collect the boxes after Lent .
4.2.19
Chaplaincy Assembly.
Today the Chaplaincy team gave the morning assembly to the whole school about the Year Of Prayer, The Mission Prayer and our development plan.
They made a power point for the children to see and designed a prayer sheet for the Mission prayer.
The prayer was said together, and the chaplaincy team will take it in turns to go around each of the classes saying the prayer every afternoon after registration.
Our Prayer Promise
May all children
In the world
Share love
Share friendship and live
In the peace
Of God's love
Now and forever. Amen
December 2018
St Roses School in Stroud invited our Year six Chaplaincy members to come and visit their school and to learn 'The Lord's Prayer' in Makaton.
The school hall was decorated for Christmas and it gave us a special feeling being there and meeting other children form different schools.
It was quite difficult remebering all the actions but I hope the Chaplaincy team can show the other children and we can use it when saying our prayer.
During this Year of Prayer it is good to get together with other schools to pray.
We had a lovely morning, especially as we called in for jam doughnuts on the way back to school!
30th November 2018
Today was a special day as our new Chaplaincy members went to Clifton Cathedral for their Commissioning. They went with The Rosary School for the day. It was very exciting as many of the children had never visited Clifton Cathedral.
Betty and Kara took our school banner and paraded around the cathedral with all the other schools. There were over 900 children there!
The new members received a badge and a certificate. We took our Prayer promise with us which Holly gave to the Bishop. This was signed by all the members of the Chaplaincy team promising to Pray for children overseas who are living in poverty. This was also to help us remember that this Church year is 'The Year of Prayer'.
We had a chance to talk with other schools, infact we met some past pupils who have moved onto Secondary School and it was nice to see how they were getting on and, that they are still Chaplaincy members in their new school.
It was a long but enjoyable service where we learned new songs and actions!
October 2019
Today I went to the Education Mass. Leo and I carried the banner to represent St Josephs . The cathedral
was full up with lots of other schools who all came to celebrate the start of the new education year. At the end of mass we all got a candle to take back to our schools.
By Isabelle
Nov 2018
In November our new Chaplaincy Team were invited to St Peters Catholic Primary School to a Mass with other school in the Diocese to celebrate 175 years of Mission Together. To honour children around the world who live out the Mission motto - 'Children helping Children' through prayers and sharing.
We made a Prayer Pole adding our own Prayers to it which we exchanged with another school during the service. This was to represent our children sharing faith with one another.
The children sang and read beautifully. At the end of the Mass we were given a special candle and a Prayer card.
Chaplaincy
2022-2023