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Key Stage 1 Year 2

A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Love is creative. To have a fertile heart is to love, grow and make a positive difference.

A Fertile Heart Receiving & Giving Creative Love

Children have a natural desire to love. They have a longing to make a difference. They love growing. A Fertile Heart helps them understand that these desires are all connected. God’s first words to us were, “Be fertile!” And the whole of the Bible teaches us that we are fertile through healthy, loving relationships – with God and each other. Learning to authentically and appropriately receive and give love leads to us having fertile hearts. Using the concept ‘fertile’ helps the children see the similarity between plants growing through fertile soil, sun and water, and us growing through a caring environment, love and truth.

Key Stage 1: Year 2

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love Panda Press Publishing would like to thank the following contributors to A Fertile Heart: Kathryn Lycett, John Cook, Mary Dickenson, Maryanne Dowle, Bernadette Eakin, Christopher Hancox, Louise Kirk, Gavin McAleer and Rebecca Surman Thanks also to Dr Charlie O’Donnell, Joe Smiles, Michael H. Barton, Mary Flynn, Rev Dr Stephen Morgan and Fr Wayne Coughlin for their kind support. ISBN: 978-0-9930555-9-1 A Fertile Heart KS1 - Year 2 Scripture quotations taken from various authorised translations. Every effort has been made to locate copyright holders and to obtain permission to reproduce sources. For those sources where it has been difficult to trace the originator of the work, we would welcome further information. If any copyright holder would like us to make an amendment, please inform us and we will update our information during the next reprint. All images and illustrations used under licence. Design © 2021 Panda Press Publishing Limited Illustrations and Images: Shutterstock All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher who can be contacted at hello@fertileheart.org.uk British Library Catalogue Publication Data. A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Printed and bound in the UK and published under licence by Panda Press Publishing Ltd, 1 Newcastle Street, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 8JU Company Number 11786188 Printed, bound and distributed in Australia by Createl Publishing, 98 Logistics Street, Keilor Park, Victoria 3042, t: 03 9336 0800, f: 03 9336 0900, www.createl.com.au Keep in touch Facebook @afertileheart Linkedin.com/company/a-fertile-heart Twitter @afertileheart visit A Fertile Heart at www.fertileheart.org.uk Version 7, September 2021

Imprimatur:

Nihil Obstat for KS 2, 3 and 4: Reverend Jonathan Veasey. Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, 30th November 2020.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

04/07/2018

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Foreword His Grace George Stack, Archbishop of Cardiff Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel “The Glory of God is humanity fully alive”. Thus wrote St. Irenaeus in the 3rd century. His words remain true to this day. They mean that God is the creator of the gift of life. In that gift, each human person receives a share in His own creative love. His revelation in life and love, as well as through creation, is pure gift. This is the ‘grace’ of which we speak, in order that “we may have life and have it to the full” (Gospel of St. John 10:10). This truth lies at the heart of the Gospel. It is what it means to be truly human. The gift of life is bestowed by God in order that we may flourish and thrive. We do this in the first place simply by living with gratitude. We do it by responding to His love in a life of joyful communion with Him. We express it by actively engaging in the good of others so that mutual ‘flourishing’ may take place. The more we give, the more we receive. The ‘Gospel of Life’ outlined above is, indeed, ‘Good News’. It is revealed in every aspect of human nature and creation itself. This is the life-giving teaching we seek to hand on to our children who are “the messages we send to tomorrow”. The Rite of Baptism reminds us that parents are the first and best teachers of their children. The Catholic school exists primarily to educate children to receive and respond to God’s love for each one of them and for all. Our schools are designed to help parents fulfil their God given task of caring for their children in the school of love. The Catholic school is not just a place for professional education – existing for improvement in learning - important though that is. It is a place of formation, a place in which ‘lessons for life’ are imparted, received and shared. The whole school community teaches and learns these lessons in a truly Catholic environment. Human relationships are obviously at the heart of life and flourishing. We are made to relate to each other, body, mind and spirit. The physical, emotional and spiritual reality of our being are part and parcel of the ‘holy trinity’ of each one of us. Thus affective sexuality education is a crucial part of human formation. A Fertile Heart is the culmination of several years work of dedicated individuals [teachers, theologians, education advisers and parents] from within the dioceses of Birmingham, Cardiff, Clifton, Arundel and Brighton and Shrewsbury. They have worked tirelessly to create a resource which puts the human person and the flourishing of our pupils at the heart of the Catholic school. It is offered as an important aid to pupils, parents, teachers, governors and clergy to remind us all that “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it” (Ephesians 2:10).

Year 2 Introduction Welcome! It’s such a privilege to help a young child grow in understanding anything; doubly so when it means them understanding themselves. We are all created in love, to live and grow - but maybe that’s particularly obvious though the wonder of a child’s eyes. Content In Reception, we focused on being loved, happy, beautiful children of God - whom God helps to grow in body, mind and heart, and invites us to cooperate in this. In Y1 the Hail Mary guided us to deepen our love for ourselves, each other and the whole human family, through receiving God’s creative love of us, and responding generously and joyfully, as Mary did. Year 2 is structured by the Our Father, separated into six parts. Healthy, life-giving relationship is founded firstly on self-knowledge. We cannot truly know ourselves except in the light of Genesis 1-3. We are lovingly created in the image of God as his helpers and friends. Year 2 starts with the sad story of the Fall of Adam and Eve - which helps us understand why we and the world aren’t perfect, and need saving. It is a hard module - and 2a1 and 2a2 are longer - because it is so important for the children to understand this story correctly: but the reward is that it helps the rest of the year go much more smoothly. The children learn that sin hurts our special journey to full happiness with God, but in Jesus, can’t stop it: he is both our vaccine for sin and our satnav guide through life. The parable of the Good Samaritan helps the children understand the joy of giving, and that we are called to build up God’s kingdom through loving service of each other. Jesus’ Calming of the Storm calls us to trust in God’s loving will for us even when it feels dark and scary. It also helps the children see that our real journey is an ‘inside one’ not an ‘outside one’: a spiritual journey. The parable of the Talents develops the children’s understanding that God feeds our body, mind and heart with the daily bread of food, truth and love - and that we can cooperate in all of these: growing more when we share our gifts. The parable of the Unforgiving Servant calls the children not just to be forgiving, but to have a forgiving heart. It offers ways to overcome our emotions in order to do this. Accepting that we are all loved sinners can be both freeing and uniting. Finally, the story of Joseph and his brothers, and his journey to Egypt, helps the children understand how to help God lead them away from temptation. They also learn that nothing can stop our journey home to God. Within these, we also deal with some safeguarding issues, helping the children to understand how to be ‘kind but careful’ - hopefully in a way that will give them confidence without panicking them. The great strength of all this is that it communicates - in a joyful, life-giving way - the truth behind healthy living and good relationships and firmly links it all to our faith, so that the children don’t only learn the externals of good practice, but gradually understand and own the reasons behind it. Structure and Methodology The year begins with an introduction to the Our Father, and in particular the meaning of ‘on earth as it is in heaven’. This is followed by 6 modules - perhaps one every half term - each with three lessons. Each module focuses on a Bible story, with (except for 2f ) a modern story to help us understand its truth. Please, as a school, buy these contemporary books - the course is impoverished without them, and the authors etc. have a right to just remuneration. Each lesson has an Introduction, a Respond and Teach element - as reflective Circle Time, example activities and a mission. There is a lot of music used - normally two songs per lesson - that helps immerse the children in the beauty and joy of Christ’s message. All lessons can easily be delivered in smaller chunks to suit your class and timetable.

A Fertile Heart | Receiving & Giving Creative Love

After a lot of reflection and discussion, we decided to write down nearly every word of the lessons. There are several reasons for this: to save you the spade work; because we found it easier to write down a set of questions and answers than try and explain in abstract what they are trying to achieve; and because doing it this way really allows the important strands of A Fertile Heart to be built up slowly. We hope the fuller text gives you confidence in the lessons, and allows you to focus on what you do best - teach the children! Included in this, we haven’t added so many ‘mindmap’ and ‘discuss’ pointers as in Reception modules, due to space - trusting that you know the best way to make the lessons dynamic and interactive. We are firm believers that you are the best resource you have in the classroom and we want our course and colourful powerpoints to help you as much as possible. Truth and Love We are in a culture where many of our children do not experience the traditional family structure. This is important to acknowledge, while still presenting Jesus’ vision of what family is called to be. As well as this, many of our children sadly carry wounds that need great sensitivity. We have tried to allow these truths to shape how we communicate Christ’s life-giving message of love, without it preventing us talking of God as Father, family life, forgiveness, trust, etc. - in a spirit of equality, tolerance, compassion and dignity. We can only help you in this with our words and prayers; you are the one who will best know how to deal with anything that arises. Sensitive issues need to be dealt with sensitively, not ignored. The RHE themes at the start of each module relate to England and Wales’ CES given themes, based on DfE guidance and agreed with them. A Fertile Heart is so called, because we all long to be fertile in the deepest sense - to grow, to help others grow, to make a difference: and ultimately it is love that achieves this. So we invite you to add your fertile heart to ours, and to Jesus’ and Mary’s - so that we can all help our children’s fertile hearts grow too.

Modern Texts Max Lucado - The Oak Inside the Acorn Publisher - Tommy Nelson ISBN-13: 9781602522732 Shel Silverstein - The Giving Tree Publisher - Harper & Row ISBN-13: 9780060256654 Angela Elwell Hunt - The Tale of Three Trees Publisher - Lion Children’s Books ISBN-13: 9780745917436 Marcus Pfister - The Rainbow Fish Publisher - North-South Books ISBN-13: 9780735820845 John Steptoe - Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters Publisher - Puffin ISBN-13: 9780140559460