This week at Holy Family we are celebrating Exposition.

At the beginning of the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, a priest removes the sacred host from the tabernacle and places it in the monstrance on the altar for adoration. This visit to the Blessed Sacrament is a great treasure of our Catholic faith.

We were lucky enough to have Fr Tom come to our school to show us the Monstrance and the Tabernacle. We sang Jesus Our Saviour to gather us all together and listened to Fr Tom say a prayer.

He explained that when Jesus comes to us through the monstrance a bell will ring to signify his presence. During benediction a bell rang and we closed our eyes and felt him near us.

Afterwards,  Fr Tom asked us what it was like and we said, 'It felt like he was next to us', 'He was blessing us' and with one child commenting that 'It felt like a little bit of heaven'.

To end our Liturgy we sang Christ be Our Light and as we left the exposition we all had to genuflect on one knee to say goodbye to Jesus.

Act!onaid

You may remember that last year Holy Family decided to adopt a child. Well we were successful and we adopted a girl called Estella.

Just before Christmas we had a letter sent to us by her but translated by her field worker called Etienne

Dear Holy Family,

I am a field worker and your friend Estella asks me to help her to write this message because she doesn't know how to write yet. She greets you wishing you peace of God. How are you and your family? Her parents and siblings are well and they all greet you. She is repeating grade 2. She didn't succeed last year because she was ill during examination. She is doing her best in order to succeed and move in grade 3. They are in Cultural season A. Her parents are now growing various crops that is why she comes from school. She helps them to fetch water and prepare food. Their pig and goat both gave birth, they will get sufficient manure to enrich their soil. She has tried to draw their house and hopes it will please you. She will be very glad to see a photo of you all. She wishes you all the best.

Your friend

Estella

On returning after the Easter break we were extremely lucky to have a representative from CAFOD come to our school and carry our workshops with year 3,4 and 5. These workshops were based on the subject of "care for our common home", as covered in Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si". Children worked in groups to discuss 'GOOD' and 'BAD' pictures of different world issues, such as wasting water and food, the picture prompts prompted ideas for the main activity where they thought about pollution, water and what we are doing wrong/what we should do next. This really challenged the children’s thinking on how we can care for our world. The session ended with the children receiving the CAFOD postcards and time for a reflection in which all children make their own personal promise.

Whole School Buddhism Week - February 2017

We were extremely lucky to have a whole school workshop provided by ‘Buddhism for Schools’. Years 2,3,4 and 5 also had individual class workshops where they learnt about the story of Buddha,  life of a Buddhist Monk, Meditation and the Buddhist way of life. Then the children were able to dress up and explore Buddhism artifacts and religious objects. Each class has been continuing to learn about Buddhism this week as part of our study of other faiths, which happens for a week twice a year.

Bibles for Schools

This week we were extremely lucky to receive Bibles for every child in Year 2 to Year 6 from a charity called Bibles for Schools. Bibles for Children was founded by Ted Hudson in July 1997 to advance the understanding of the Christian Faith through the provision of Children’s Bibles and Bible related materials to children in Primary Schools.

Now, in its twentieth year, the charity has provided Children’s Bibles to over 466,000

pupils in over 1,800 schools in over 125 Local Education Authorities throughout the United Kingdom.

Fr Norbert very kindly came and gave them out to the children and spent time with each class talking about the importance of the Holy Bible. He also showed each class the Bible in the original language of Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek and read to us. Each class also prayed and thanked God for the great work of the charity, Bibles for Schools.

We thank Bibles for Schools for their kind generosity.

Mrs Worton-Geer

Education Sunday

We started our new school year by celebrating Education Sunday at The Holy Family Church on 11th September 2016. Approximately 50 children attended the Mass in their school uniform and participated by reading prayers, reflections, acting out the Gospel and singing. It was a deeply spiritual Mass in which the children reflected upon how the Year of Mercy has enabled them to become closer to Jesus. It concluded by the children giving out mini doors of mercy to the congregation to remind them that we are praying for each other in this Year of Mercy. The children led the Mass with great spirituality and many of the parishioners commented on how the children had touched them by their words and

singing. It was a wonderful occasion where our school and our parish came together to celebrate and give thanks for all the students, staff and parents who work so hard, in and for, our Catholic schools. It was also a chance for us to reflect upon the contribution that Catholic education makes to our communities.

Thank you to all the children who participated in this wonderful Mass and for the parents who supported them so well.

Mrs Worton-Geer