Thank you to everyone who donated food for the foodbank at St Mary’s Haughton Green
The food was delivered to the food bank today
CAFOD Family Fast Day
Category: Religious Life
F2 Collective worship
The children of F2 did an amazing job of leading our whole school collective worship for the first time. The focus was our church family. The children retold the story of Jesus being lost at the temple, shared the different members of our church family and sang their hearts out with three beautiful songs. Great job, F2!
First Holy Communion
Congratulations to our final group of Y3 children who made their First Holy Communion last weekend. Our thanks to Fr Joe, Sr Dolores and her team of catechists who prepared the children so well. Please pray for all the Y3 children and their families as they now continue their faith journey.
‘Lost and Found’.
This week, the children have been retelling the story ‘Lost and Found’. They enjoyed coming up with fantastic actions and using loud, clear voices to retell the story. In Collective Worship, the children learnt about Jesus’ Sacred Heart. They reflected on how they could show kindness to other people. The children have also looked at the miracles Jesus performed and how he helped others. They then wrote prayers and thought about things they might want help with this week.
Our Church Visit
After starting to learn about some of the features and artefacts in a church, today the children of F2 made a visit to our church to see them for ourselves. Fr Joe spoke to our children about the altar, the lectern and the bible, the candles, the tabernacle, the font, the holy water and the statues in the church. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to look around and to ask questions. F2 parents: can your child talk to you about what they saw in the church?
Y1 Class Prayer and Liturgy – Miracles
Y1 led our prayer and liturgy beautifully this week. They took the theme of miracles and acted out the story of the Calming of Storm. The children spoke clearly and confidently and reminded us that Jesus is there to help us in stormy times as well as in calm moments. Thank you Y1.
Y3/4 Easter Play – ‘Roll Back the Stone’
Thank you to everyone who was able to come along to watch our Y3/4 Easter Play – ‘Roll Back The Stone.’ The children were excellent. All the children sang with great enthusiasm. The narrators retold the story of Jesus’ passion with confidence and clarity and reminded us of the joy of the Easter message. Well done Y3/4!
KS1 East Bonnet Parade
RE Through Art
The children of F2 have been transfixed by the Easter story. This week, we talked about how Good Friday is the saddest day, but it is soon followed by the happiest day- Easter! The children understand our important symbol of the cross and it has been lovely to hear that many of our children have shared the Easter story at home with their parents. We have made beautiful Easter cards in class too: the children used pastels to create a cross shape, learning a smudging technique to create the effect.
Easter Gardens
Thank you to everyone who made an Easter Garden this week. They are all fantastic, clearly showing how much time and effort has been spent creating them. The gardens are currently on display in the school hall.
Tango’s Big Adventure
Years 1 and 2 had great fun watching Tango’s Big Adventure. The children listened and interacted well throughout the performance. They were the perfect trainee zookeepers. The children learnt that no matter how different we are, we are all family and are all loved.
Liturgical Prayer
Year 2’s class liturgical prayer took place this week. The theme was based on the scripture verse ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ and the children told the story of the feast of St Valentine to develop this message. The class also described how they could live out these values in their daily lives and spread God’s love to others all around us.
Mrs Nickeas
Y4 Prayer and Liturgy
This week 4P had their class liturgical prayer. They explained ‘The Feast of Presentation’ to the school community. The children read from the gospel of Luke and discussed the importance of how Simeon and Anna recognised how special baby Jesus was when he entered the temple. The children shared their ideas and ways we can find something special in each and every one of us.
GIFT Team Advent Collective Worship
GIFT Team delivering their Advent collective worship to Year 1.
F2 Community Christmas Cards
F2 children spread so much joy delivering their Christmas cards to the local community.
Y4 Christmas
Wow! We can’t believe it is the end of Autumn term! It has been such a fun week full of Christmas cheer with children sharing their understanding of Advent and taking the crib home to share with their families, delivering Christmas cards to our local community and enjoying our class party on Thursday. We also completed our Christmas stockings and these have gone home and we hope you enjoy hearing about how they made these and what thought they put into their designs.
F2’s First Nativity
F2 performed an amazing musical version of the story of the nativity this week, singing and dancing beautifully. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and reminded us of the importance of the Christmas story. Well done F2!
F1 Christmas performance
What a great performance the children in F1 put on for their Christmas singing show. We definitely spread lots of Christmas cheer with our beautiful singing and actions. What a great way to end the year in Nursery! Merry Christmas everyone!
Y4 Advent
This week the children have been engaged in learning about Advent. They have been excited to open the CAFOD Advent Calendar each day to read the associated scripture and to discuss what this means to them and what they can do. Children have begun taking home a crib to share with their families and to record their shared experiences. We have also been reading Christmas stories and tales to learn about the different Christmas traditions and their origins.
F1 Advent
In F1 we have been learning about Advent and the special time in the lead up to Christmas day. We have a class calendar which a different child opens each day with an act of kindness for us to complete as well as part of the Nativity story. We have been learning about Jesus’ birth and read stories to find out what happened. The children have retold the story using props and figures. We are all very excited about Christmas and have been talking lots about what we would like Santa to bring us!
St Mary’s and St John Fisher Parish Newsletter
TEN:TEN Home prayer resources 29.06.20
Please find a range of resources to support your prayer life at home this week.
www.tentenresources.co.uk/daily-prayers-for-home
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/sunday-liturgy-for-families/
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary/parents/
The Feast of SS Peter and Paul 29th June 2020
Today we celebrate the Feast of SS Peter and Paul.
Please follow the link below for a video assembly so we may remember the day both at home and in school.
r Home
TEN:TEN home prayer resources 22.06.20
Please find a range of resources to support your prayer life at home this week.
www.tentenresources.co.uk/daily-prayers-for-home
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/sunday-liturgy-for-families/
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary/parents/
www.tentenresources.co.uk/15-prayers
TEN:TEN home prayer resources
Please find a range of resources to support your prayer life at home.
Home Collective Worship
This weeks collective worship is entitled ‘A Meeting with Jesus’. Please follow the assembly video link below to access this at home and enjoy with your families.
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/assemblies/assembly-2020-04-27/2020_04_27_assembly_for_home/
Wind and Fire – Holy Spirit Comes
One of our families (including an ex-pupil on the guitar) has been hard at work and having lots of fun choreographing their wind and fire dance for the ‘Holy Spirit Comes’ Brilliant work.
TEN:TEN prayer resources
Below are links to the Ten:Ten resources which can be used to support the prayer life at home during these difficult times.
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PRAYERS FOR HOME
For the time being, we have suspended our normal Assembly and Daily Classroom Prayer resources and in their place, we have produced new resources which you can share with your families:- Sunday Liturgy for Families – an opportunity for families to lead their own Sunday liturgy following the order of the Mass, leading to ‘Spiritual Communion’.
- Daily Prayers for Home – daily prayers rooted in the Sunday Gospel for families to pray together.
We plan to make these resources available throughout the Easter holidays and continue until normal service resumes in schools and churches.
- FREE EXTENDED TRIAL TO ‘LIFE TO THE FULL’
If you are not yet a full subscriber to ‘Life to the Full’, we’d like to let you know that we are now offering a Free Extended Trial to the full site (previously this was only allowed for 7 days).This is an opportunity for your staff – including home-working staff – to fully review the materials and plan your Relationship and Health Education programme in readiness for statutory RHE, starting in September 2020. This free Extended Trial be available until Friday 22 May 2020.
CAFOD – What’s your goal?
Children from F2 to Year 6 took part in our Lent fundraiser – What’s your goal? Throughout the day children showed exceptional skill, determination and knowledge to perform keepie-uppies, score penalties, hit the crossbar and demonstrate their knowledge of football teams. The event was expertly organised the Year 5 children, who despite the cold and wet weather, maintained their enthusiasm throughout the day. Thanks to the children’s fantastic efforts we raised a brilliant £122. Thank you for your support.
Year 6 Talk from Sister Dolores about ‘The Mass and how it evolved’
Sister Dolores came into Year 6 to talk to the children about the Mass, looking at how it has evolved from ‘The Last Supper’ and then subsequently the Apostles meeting together after Jesus’ death, into the Eucharistic Service we celebrate today. Sister was able to give the children lots of interesting information and explain the different parts of the Mass, looking at the meanings and symbols. It gave the children chance to ask questions and gain a much better understanding of the Mass we celebrate today.
EYFS Nativity
We are so proud of all of our EYFS children. They put on a fantastic nativity performance: beautiful singing, actions and story telling. Most importantly all of the children enjoyed themselves and joined in with big smiles on their faces. What a beautiful way to retell the story of the first Christmas.
F2 Delivering Christmas Cards to the Local Community
As part of our Advent preparations, the children of St Mary’s are delivering Christmas cards to our local community. After making our own beautiful pointillism Christmas card creations, the children of F2 delivered their cards to our Kynder Street neighbours. We hope that our cards spread some Christmas cheer.
Year 1 Babushka and Community Christmas Cards
Year 1 and 2 put on a fabulous of Babushka last week. The year 1 choir were an amazing support to our year 2’s, well done! This week we have also made some beautiful Christmas cards and delivered them to our neighbouring community. Merry Christmas everyone!
Year 2 Christmas Play Babushka
This week, Year Two have performed the Christmas Play Babushka. The children thoroughly enjoyed acting, singing and doing actions. They have worked very hard over the last few weeks learning their lines and perfecting their actions. Well done Year Two! What a fantastic Performance!
Community Christmas Cards
Year 5 were out in force today to deliver their community Christmas cards to streets nearby. The children had taken time and effort t carefully make their cards and enjoyed spreading a little Christmas joy around the local area.
St. Mary’s Christmas Concert
Children from Years 5 and 6 were joined by children from St. Thomas More High School and St. John Fisher for the annual Christmas concert. Following performances by St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher it was the turn of St. Mary’s children and they didn’t disappoint. Following a beautifully read montage the children sang The Greatest Gift; followed by a reading from the Gospel of John before bringing their performance to a close with an outstanding performance of Mary Did You Know which they performed a cappella. The children were absolutely amazing and fully deserved the plaudits and congratulations they have received follo
wing the concert. Well done to all involved.
Children in Need
Today our CARITAS team were tasked with selling Pudsy Bear cookies throughout the school. After hours of long, hard work by the kitchen staff the cookies were ready to go on sale. Each child in the school received a cookie and through your very generation donations we raised £110.00. Thank you for your support and all involved.
Year 6 Collective Worship
Linked to the RE unit this term the Year 6 children led the collective worship with the theme of the Kingdom of God. The children through roleplays looked at the values of the Kingdom of God, values such as hope, peace, forgiveness, love, truth, courage and faith. The children demonstrated ways to live out the values in our everyday lives. They retold the parable of ‘The master and the grand banquet’ sending the message that everyone is invited into the Kingdom of God and that we must not make excuses but accept the invitation with open arms.
Year 4 Collective Worship
On Thursday, Year 4 led us in a very reflective collective worship which focused on God’s chosen people in the old testament. They took us through some of the stories in Genesis and Exodus, looking at the key figures Abraham and Moses. With their acting and singing, they also asked the school to think about how the stories can help us today by placing our trust in God. Have a listen to their song: all though history!
“Good News” Easter Play
Congratulations to the Y3 and Y4 children on their wonderful performance of ‘Good News’. The children retold the Passion of Jesus through drama and song. We saw some super acting and confident narration from Year 4. They were most ably supported by Year
3 who proved themselves talented singers.
Scriptures in Pictures
The GIFT Teams from St Mary’s, St John Fisher and St Thomas More led a Lenten Reflection based on the Stations of the Cross in St Mary’s Church. Each team produced artwork inspired by the Stations.
Year 4 Collective Worship
Year 4 lead the school collective worship on Thursday. They shared their knowledge of Jesus’s early life and explained the importance of belonging to a family. The children also reflected on what it means to be part of a church family.
Prickly Hay
Years 1 and 2 put on two fantastic performances of their nativity Prickly Hay on Tuesday and Wednesday. The children have worked exceptionally hard over the past few weeks rehearsing, learning lines, singing songs and perfecting dance routines and their dedication paid off as the children were brilliant. The audiences thoroughly enjoyed the children belting out such classics as Prickly Hay, Christmas is for Everyone and Stable Hoedown. Also, some of the dancing was a joy to behold. Well done to Year 2 for their fantastic acting and performance and well done to Year 1 for being such an enthusiastic and brilliant choir. Thank you to Miss Davies, Mrs Cheug and Mrs Ratcliffe for their help and support.
Year 2 Collective Worship – Being Chosen and Trusting in God
Year 2 lead the school in an excellent collective worship on Thursday telling everyone about how God has chosen people to do special jobs and how we must then trust in God. They told us about some very important people from the Old Testament; Moses and Abraham before acting out the story of Daniel who was saved by an Angel after being thrown in the lion’s den.They then told us about people they trust and how they felt when they were chosen for special jobs or responsibilities. Finally they gave us an excellent rendition of their song ‘You Can Trust in God’. Well done Year 2.
Stations of Mary
May is the month of special devotion of Our Lady. The GIFT Team led a reflection of the Stations of Mary for each class in St Mary’s Church this week. Each station was accompanied by a beautiful image of Mary created by each class in school. The prayer service was an opportunity for the children, parents and parishioners to reflect on special moments in the life of Mary. The children responded with prayerful reverence.
Year 4 Collective Worship
Year 4 retold the story of the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the beginning of the Early Church. They reminded us of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly courage and led a reflection on times when they might ask the Holy Spirit for courage too
Year 3 Collective Worship
In their Collective Worship, year 3 told the story of the Resurrection and how Jesus appeared to some of his friends on the road to Emmaus. They also told how Thomas would not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he had touch the wounds that the nails had made. The children’s singing and acting was excellent and the parents thoroughly enjoyed their collective worship.
KS1 Nativity Performance – Baubles
Congratulations to our Y1 and Y2 children on their fantastic performance in our Nativity play – Baubles. It was great to see and hear such lovely singing, confident speaking and acting. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and may have discovered new talents! Thank you to everyone who came along to watch the performances and to the school staff for preparing the children so well.
Year 5 Collective Worship
On Thursday, Year 5 led us in their Collective Worship which was focused around how Jesus is with us in the world today through prayer. Through role plays and well-read parts, they showed the rest of the school the many different ways we can pray and listen to Jesus in our daily lives.
Crowning of Our Lady at St Mary’s Church
Year 5 Collective Worship
Today, Year 5 led us in our whole school Collective Worship about being true followers of Jesus- through the theme of inspiration people. Having shared who has inspired them in their lives, Year 5 performed a series of role-plays to show how true followers of Jesus can just be ordinary people, who work hard everyday to do what God wants, by loving their neighbour as themselves.
6W Collective worship
Year 6 led the school in Collective Worship on Thursday with the theme of sacrifice and trusting in God. They told the story of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac to show his love and trust in God. They also helped us to think about sacrifices we may make and although it can be scary we can trust in God.
Christmas Concert
Along with children from St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, children from year’s 5 and 6 took part in the annual parish Christmas concert. This years theme was a journey of faith. Through, acting and singing the children re-told the story of Good King Wenceslas, who made the journey through the forests and deep mid-winter snow to give alms to the poor.
The children put on a fantastic performance with their fantastic acting and singing. Well done to all who took part.
Harvest Fast Day Collective Worship
Year 5 led the Harvest Feast Day collective worship wonderfully, helping the whole school to think about how they can be better stewards of creation. Sharing the story of St Vincent de Paul they acted out how we can live by the greatest commandment ‘ Love one another’. Listen to them sing their version of ‘Here comes the Sun’
Yr 6 Collective worship – CAFOD Harvest 2016
Year 6 lead us in today’s collective worship all about CAFOD’s Harvest 2016. They certainly Brightened up our day and are asking that next Friday everyone joins in and wears their brightest and boldest clothes. In return we ask that the children bring in a tin or packet of food that can be added to the harvest display before being donated to the St. Mary’s parish food bank.
Door of Mercy
St. Mary’s welcomed the Door of Mercy to our school yesterday afternoon. The door, which was commissioned by the Pope in Rome has been travelling around the diocese from school to school over the recent months as part of the Church’s ‘Year of Mercy’. Children from year 6 led the school in a collective worship before each walked through the door and added their own prayer asking for forgiveness to the basket.
Our Lady of Sorrows Feast Day surprise!
To celebrate the Parish and school’s feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows the whole school was treated to a very special surprise. During the afternoon the children were treated to an ice cream or ice lolly and an extra play to celebrate this special day. The surprise was enjoyed by all (especially the staff) who would like to thank the PTA for putting on the ice creams.
Year 5 and 6 Christmas Concert
Years 5 and 6 put on a sensational display in front of a packed St. Mary’s Church to open this years concert, which also featured great performances from children from St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. The children’s performance was on the theme of ‘The Christmas Star’. In addition to speaking clearly and beautifully, the fantastic acting the children also sang two songs; The First Noel and Christmas Star, which they sang acapella. They then joined children from the other schools to finish the concert with a selection of Christmas carols. Well done to all involved.
CAFOD – Brighten Up Our World
Thank you to all the children and families for their generous donations to the CAFOD appeal this year. Thanks to your donations we have raised a magnificent £117.48. In addition to we have an overwhelming response to the donations of food towards the St. Mary’s Parish food bank. Thank you again for your generosity and support.
6W Collective Worship – CAFOD
Year 6 Brightened up everyone’s day as they introduced the school to this year’s CAFOD appeal to ‘Brighten Up Our World.’ Through the stories of Creation and the colours of the rainbow quarrelling, the children reminded us about looking after each other and God’s creation. In addition, they launched the CAFOD appeal, which asks that the children dress up in bright clothes on Friday 2nd October and bring in a donation for CAFOD and a tinned food item that will be donated to the St. Mary’s food bank.
R.E. Inspection Report
Please click on the link below to access our RE Inspection report.
Comment from Mr John Galvin (Chair of Governors)
“I wish to congratulate ALL at St Mary’s upon the outcome of the recent inspection by the Diocese into Religious Education in school. In particular, I note that the report praises the outstanding commitment of our children and their families..as well as the outstanding work of the teaching staff and the governing body. I also wish to commend the work of the Parish Children Liturgy Team as well as the Faith Friends of the parish who make a huge contribution to the spiritual life of our children each Sunday and in preparation for the Sacraments. I note the comments of the Inspector who calls for the development of further links betwenn the school and parish in the future. I am sure that with the leadership and guidance of our Headteacher and the Parish Priest, this goal too will be achieved.”
2015 CAFOD water challenge
Over the past couple of weeks, the children throughout the school have been taking part in the CAFOD water challenge, in order to raise money for people less fortunate than ourselves. The event was organised by year 5, who designed the obstacle course, sent out letters and sponsor forms and then ran the events on the day, providing marshalling and guidance. The event has been a huge success and as a school we have raised well over £1000 for CAFOD. Well done to all the children and thank you to all of Year 5, both children and staff for organising the event.
Easter Praise
What a performance by Years 3 and 4 to re-tell the Easter story. All of the St. Mary’s community gathered in church to witness the children’s performance, which reminded us about the true meaning of Easter, from Jesus riding into Jerusalem; the last supper; his betrayal and trial; his death on the cross and finally when he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. Well done to all of year 3 and 4 for their hard work in putting in such a great performance.
Comic Relief – Pointless – silly faces
St. Mary’s put on their silliest faces (normal faces for teachers then!) to raise money for Comic Relief. In addition to this, Year 3 hosted a pointless style quiz, featuring contestants from each class in KS2 and a teacher’s team, with the eventual winners being Year 4. Again, St. Mary’s showed their generous and charitable nature raising over £200. thank you to year 3 and Mr Brown for organising the day.
Operation Christmas Child
Yet again the children and families of St. Mary’s have showed generous and charitable we are by donating toys and gifts to operation Christmas child that will be sent to children in other parts of Europe, who otherwise wouldn’t receive any Christmas presents.
Year 4 put their trust in each other and God
During R.E. Year 4 have been thinking about how they put their in God and in turn how we can put our trust in each other. They performed a little experiment to see if they could trust their fellow class mates. Thankfully, everyone in Year 4 is very trustworthy and no-one was hurt.
Harvest Collection
Year 6 introduced the Harvest Festival this year during their collective worship. They asked the school to bring in donations of food that could be donated to the local food back and again St. Mary’s gave an excellent response. Thank you to everyone who donated and to year 6 and Fr Peter fro helping organise the collection and delivery to the food bank.
Class 6W – Harvest Fast Day – The Big Silly Share – 10th October
Class 6W CAFOD Harvest Fast Day – ‘The Big Silly Share’ – 10th October
This Harvest Fast Day asks us to help make a space at your table for families around the world who don’t have enough to eat.
“It is not God’s will for some to have everything and others to have nothing” (Oscar Romero).
- Half of the people in the world who go hungry are actually farmers.
- Every day tasty fruit and vegetables are thrown away and never make it to our shops because they aren’t the right shape, size or colour.
- We throw away more food from our homes than we do packaging.
CAFOD say our food system is silly but this harvest Class 6W are serious about doing something and want to work in partnership with the SVP of St. Mary’s Parish to change it.
Class 6W ask that on Friday 10th October, the children wear something silly to school and bring a non perishable food donation into school as contribution to the parish’s SVP Food Bank collection. Contributions to CAFOD will also be most welcome.
Generous God, thank you for our food.
May we appreciate what we have and never take it for granted.
We pray for those in Denton and around the world, who do not have enough
to provide for their family.
We pray for a good harvest, for generosity and love,
as we seek a better, fairer world.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Class 6W would like to thank you for your support.
Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows – 15th September
All the children attended Mass at St. Mary’s Church to celebrate the Feast Day of our patron saint, Our Lady of Sorrows and the beginning of the New Year School. During Mass, we were reminded that Our Lady was with Jesus at times of great pain and sorrow as well as times of joy and happiness. Mary was also a witness to the Resurrection.
The children’s behaviour and response was excellent during Mass and we received many positive comments from parents and parishioners who were able to attend mass.
Disability Awareness Day
We were delighted to welcome Mr John McCorkell to St. Mary’s to lead our Disability Awareness Day. The day started with a whole school assembly which focused on the theme ‘Everyone has a gift from God.’ He helped the children to understand that there are a range of disabilities which can mean that things can take a little longer for some people. Mr McCorkell emphasised that everyone has abilities or ‘gifts’ from God which should be used to help each other.
Assembly was followed by class workshops and the children were encouraged to ask questions throughout. Everyone was impressed by the children’s attentiveness and the level of empathy their questioning demonstrated. It was a most successful day.