Over St. John's CE Primary SchoolHead Teacher Blog: Friday 23rd November 2018
Date: 23rd Nov 2018 @ 1:23pm
Another busy and exciting week in school! This week we have had an inter-faith week in school. Throughout the course of the week, we have had a number of visitors coming in to school to talk to the children about their different faiths. We have representatives from Unitarianism, Buddhism, Islam, Baha’i, Humanism, Quakerism and of course George came into school to lead the children in some activities around Christianity.
All this culminated in an assembly this morning where the children came together to share what they had learnt over the week, led by a number of our visitors who returned to school.
The children showed great respect for our visitors of different faiths this week, which is one of our core Christian values as a school, but also one of the governments British Values – “mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.”
Our visitors wrote some wonderful comments in our Comments Book and I am very proud of our children.
“Lovely children and staff that engaged and welcomed the session and me.” (Rahima – Islam)
“Wonderful children and staff, all very engaged and thoughtful answers to my questions. A pleasure to be here.” (Alison – Buddhist)
“What a joyful, lovely school. Staff engaged with the lessons, children were wonderful and asked many intelligent questions.” (Joan – Baha’i)
“What a lovely, fun afternoon I’ve had with such a delightful couple of classes. Such a privilege to be among super bright sparks!” (Penny – Humanist)
In Collective Worship on Monday we talked about the importance of truthfulness and the huge impact that not telling the truth can have on people. We looked at the story of Joseph from the Bible and how his brothers lied to their father about what had happened to him and the impact that this had on a number of people. We talked about endeavouring to always tell the truth, even if it may seem hard, knowing that God will support us.
We had an interesting No Outsiders assembly led by Mrs Kelly on Tuesday when she showed us a picture of a woman in a school in Jamaica in the 1970s and talked about the way the woman was treated like an outsider for making it a school where everyone was welcome as there were a mixture of races and cultures in the photograph. It turned out that Mrs Kelly was one of the children in the photograph and the woman was her Mum! We know that everyone is welcome at Over St. John’s and we wouldn’t treat anybody in that way.
A big well done to our two teams of Year 5 and 6 netballers who visited Winsford Academy to take part in a High 5 Netball competition. The children played incredibly well in the cold and displayed great team skills, winning a number of matches. Without a doubt, the stiffest competition came when our two teams played each other – it was an incredibly hard played game and even harder when watching from the sidelines! The children will take part again in round 2 next week and I will give you further news when we see how they progress.
Confirmed Dates for the Autumn Term – additions from last week are highlighted.
Monday 26th November – Friday 30th November: Anti-Bulling Week in school
Monday 26th November: Sandymere and Delamere visit to Norton Priory
Tuesday 27th November: Linmere visit to Manchester Airport
Thursday 29th November: Artist to work with Blakemere making lanterns all day
Friday 30th November: Blakemere to take part in the Lantern Parade for the Christmas lights switch on
Friday 30th November: Linmere to rehearse at the Lifestyle Centre for the WEP (Winsford Education Partnership) Christmas Choral Project in the afternoon.
Friday 30th November: Odd Socks Day for Anti-Bullying
Sunday 2nd December: All Together Service in St. John’s Church Hall at 10.30am. All welcome for the Christingle Service.
Monday 3rd December and Tuesday 4th December: Linmere involved in WEP Christmas Choral Project at the Lifestyle Centre
Wednesday 5th December: Children to visit St John’s Church for a service
Friday 7th December: Christmas Fair 3pm – 5pm
Thursday 20th December: Blakemere to carol sing at Overdene Care Home (am)
Thursday 20th December: Carol Service in St. John’s Church at 1.45pm. All welcome. Please note: All children to be collected from church at 3pm instead of school.
Friday 21st December: Whole School to Northwich Memorial Court for the pantomime – Cinderella
Friday 21st December: Non Uniform Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children
School closes for Christmas at 2pm
Don’t forget to keep checking the calendar on the school website. If you click on an event on the calendar, more information about that event will be given, if it has been added.
Take care,
Mrs E Snowdon