St Philip’s School Update

By Mrs Lucy Horne Headteacher

It has been a very busy term in school. With restrictions lifted, we are rescheduling many events that have been postponed. It has been lovely to have trips, events and visits taking place.

Cafod volunteers came into school to lead an assembly on the work they carry out in Sierra Leone. It was a great opportunity for the children to see how children in other countries learn and live. The volunteers talked about how day to day life is for these children after the civil war and how such small amounts of donations can be used to feed families for the year. We hope to do some fundraising during the Summer Term. In March we held our annual Spirituality Day. This is a day ‘off timetable’ for all children. It began with a whole school assembly followed by each class rotating around to a different classroom to carry out an activity. The theme was ‘Growing’ and the children had opportunities to learn how they grow both physically and spiritually. We were very fortunate in having Jerome and Benjamin from the SPH Chaplaincy Team to join us for the day too.

Rosary Club

School Talent Contest

On Ash Wednesday, Canon David came into school to distribute ashes to all staff and children during a liturgy. Some of our RE ambassadors were able to distribute the ashes too after they had been blessed by Canon David. During Lent, we have been running Rosary Club at lunchtimes. All children are able to attend on any day it is running. We also held our Lent Penitential Service for Key Stage 2 children. All children attended the liturgy and were then given the opportunity to take part on the sacrament of Reconciliation. For those children who are not Catholic, they were still able to spend some time with Canon David or Father Charles. During the final week of Lent that the children spent in school, we held our daily Holy Week Liturgies. Each day, a class re-enacted a part of the Easter story. Reception Class began the week with Palm Sunday and by the end of the week Year 6 completed the story with the Crucifixion and Jesus being laid in the tomb.

During this last term, the staff spent an INSET day on a retreat. All teachers were invited to spend the day in quiet, calm reflection. It is not often that any of us take time out to be still and quiet and develop our relationship with Christ. The day taken to do this is a wonderful opportunity for staff to replenish their spiritual wellbeing so they can continue to teach and form the children in their care.

With the conflict in Ukraine being an ever present thought in people’s minds at the moment, we have had to help support children in understanding how and why these events are happening. For many children, the news and media coverage cause worry and as a result we have been

spending time talking about what is going on and how the children are feeling. Some children wanted to raise money for the appeal so we decided, as a school, to support The Red Cross. As a school, we invited all children to come to school wearing Yellow and Blue which raised £475 and other individual children also promoted and ran their own event.

School Cake Sale

Home Cake Sale

Marley in Year 4 organised a cake sale. We had many, many delicious donations for the sale and Marley and her team raised £445. This made a total of £920. Ruby in Reception Class made sunflower planting kits for every child in the school and asked for donations to be made online and Tallulah and Matilda organised a lemonade and cake sale. This raised a further £475. We have been approached by a few families locally who are happy to host Ukrainian families. We are delighted that we will be able to offer school places for those who need it in the year groups where we have space.