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Religious Education
School Prayers
Morning
Father in heaven I give you today,
All that I think or do or say.
My ears to hear, my eyes to see,
My hands and feet and all of me.
To live and work all day for you.
Amen
Lunchtime
For food in a world where many walk in hunger;
For faith in a world where many walk in fear;
For friends in a world where many walk alone;
We give you thanks, O Lord. Amen
End of the day
God our Father I come to say,
thank you for your love today.
Thank you for my family,
and all the friends you give to me.
Guard me in the dark of night,
and in the morning send your light.
Amen
At St John’s we aim to live by the 5W's. This is a framework created by the Diocese of Salford to ensure we live our lives by the values at the roots of Christianity; they help us to aspire to be like God.
THE 5 W’s
The 5Ws are: Word; Welcome; Welfare; Worship and Witness.
It is the framework by which our effectiveness as a Catholic school is assessed.
For our Children, these translate as
- Word (talk) - we talk together as a word of God's community
- Welcome (come) - we come together in welcome
- Welfare (walk) - we walk together as a welfare community
- Worship (pray) - we pray together as a worship community
- Witness (work) - we look at our School mission statement and work together as a witness community
You will see these displayed around the school. You will also hear about these being discussed in assemblies and in class.
WELCOME (COME)
Our school is a place where visitors receive the warmest welcome and feel valued and respected.
At St John’s all are WELCOME in God's name; we are all God's children. We do our best to include all within our community and we celebrate our diversity. Together with our Rights Respecting School award, we aim to build self-esteem, respect for all and a sense of community.When we think about how we want St John's to be, we think about the Kingdom of God. Along with our children, staff, parents and parish - we are a sign of Good News that speaks and listens to God.
WORD (TALK)
We place the word of God at the centre of all we do.
Our school community is inspired by the WORD of God. Teaching and learning within Religious Education and our ‘Come and See’ religious programme, is one way in which we do this at St John's. We learn about stories from the Bible that tell us how Jesus acted and how God wants us to try to be. Children are encouraged to engage in 'Big Questions' and higher level thinking generated from our faith, and also about our faith. We celebrate the Word of God in worship and liturgy in class, during assemblies, at Mass in school and at Mass at St John’s Church.
WITNESS (WORK)
We are witnesses to others by being charitable: we know that other people’s lives can be different from our own.
As witnesses to the Word of God, Christ is at the centre of all that we do at St John's. This principle is maintained across the full curriculum and life of our school. We are witnesses to the Word of God in our actions and our behaviour. We extend this WITNESS beyond our school community to reach out to others.
All the family of our school bear witness to our new Mission Statement which informs everything we do in our community. We nurture, support and challenge the children to live out and to give witness to the Gospel values in their everyday experience of school life and by developing their sense of responsibility to play their part in caring activities for good causes in the wider community. We are witnesses to our environment and all God's world by being good stewards of Creation.
WELFARE (WALK)
We value and support individuals and their families.
As a Rights Respecting School, St John’s's puts the WELFARE of all at the heart of our community. We respect the rights and dignity of every individual as a child of God made in His likeness.
At St. John’s, we see each individual child as a child of God. We want to enable every child and adult to 'have life to the full'; cultivating an attitude of respect for each other among the whole community. We all have a responsibility at St. John’s to follow Jesus and help and support each other in our community. We try to be fair, we care about each other and always try to help, including those less fortunate than us and those outside of our community.
WORSHIP (PRAY)
We come together as a community through prayer, worship, stillness and reflection.
Through WORSHIP opportunities we reflect on spiritual, moral social and cultural issues. At St John’s we encourage active participation in Liturgy, Collective Worship, personal reflection and meditation. At St. John’s our prayer can be traditional prayer of the Church, meditation, a philosophical approach or reflection on the Word of God. We aim to provide as many worship opportunities for our community as possible throughout the school (prayer, reflection, liturgies, assemblies, Mass) including small groups, year groups, the whole school, parents and parishioners. We hope that this develops, nurtures and deepens our relationship with God and with each other.
Come and See
We follow the Come and See Programme for Religious Education in our school from Nursery through to Year 6. Please see timetable below in documents section.
Throughout the year we also study other faiths. We are very fortunate to have close links with our local Islamic School for Girls who help us to learn about the Islamic faith by allowing us to visit their school. During our multi-faith week on Judaism we have a Jewish leader visit to talk to every class about the Jewish religion and demonstrate the meaning behind special artefacts. We also visit the Sikh and Buddhist centres in Chorlton during our second multi-faith week of the year in July.
We feel it is important to give the children an experience and understanding of other faiths to help them understand the importance of our multi-cultural society.
Advent and Christmas
During Advent we focus on our spiritual preparation for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. We also try to help others less fortunate.
Lent and Palm Sunday
In the Spring Term we celebrate Lent. At the start of Lent we remember the purpose of Lent in our Ash Wednesday Service.
Throughout Lent, we try to grow closer to Jesus by helping others. Each year, we raise funds for Saint Joseph’s Penny. We raise funds in a variety of ways including cake sales, raffles and are very popular 'Break The Rules Day'.
Towards the end of Lent we remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us in our preparation for Holy Week. The whole school create our special 'Stations of the Cross' display in our school chapel.
Children in EYFS make their own Easter bonnets and perform an Easter bonnet parade for their parents.
Fundraising
The School has fundraised for a number of charities over the course of this year, and plans to continue this throughout this year. With the efforts of the children, staff and PTA, we have managed to raise some substantial amounts. As a Catholic school we believe in following in the teachings of Christ and helping those less fortunate than us as well as those during a time of struggle. To raise money the school has ran fundraisers such as coffee mornings, carol singing and taking part in ‘Sing a Mile with a Smile’. The Charities we support include:
- Cornerstone Day Centre
- St Joseph’s Penny
- Wood Street Mission
- Manchester Royal Children’s Hospital
- Cancer research
- Children’s Liver Disease Foundation
- Local Food Banks
- CAFOD
Remembrance Day
Each year we join as a whole school to remember those that have died during wars. This year we choose two children from each class to participate in a remembrance service in the school grounds. Please click on the link below to see the video of this special event.
https://youtu.be/sbsaoBBywGw
Celebration of the word
Our faith permeates all aspects of school life, with prayer and collective worship taking place in small groups, classes, key stages and the whole school as much as possible.
Through worship opportunities we reflect on spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues. Our prayer can be traditional prayer of the Church, meditation, a philosophical approach or reflection on the Word of God. We hope this develops, nurtures and deepens our relationship with God and with each other.
