"A school full of Faith, filled with hope, and bursting with Love"
Advent Around School
Our preparations have begun and together we journey through Advent. A time of waiting, reflection and anticipation
'It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.'
making Advent Wreaths
Advent Around Home and School
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Thankyou to Aubree and her Mum for taking along the Food Bank donations this term on our behalf to The Well in West Auckland. They were greatly appreciated and volunteers at The Well said to pass on a huge thankyou to our school community. They mentioned that they were in much need of items at the minute, particularly needing household items. If we can help, I know we will. Every little helps so much.
Aubree also delivered her annual offerings for the Shoe Box Appeal, helping spread the joy of Christmas to those who need a caring heart. Wonderful!
Aubree at the foodbank 2024
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In November, We Remember...
Remembrance 2024
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Our travelling Poppy Prayer Bag
Travelling Poppy Bag
Our travelling prayer bags continue to come home this month as we move on from October's focus of the Rosary, to November being the month of Remembrance. We will continue to add pictures of the children as we receive them from home and thankyou once again for encouraging and contributing to prayer life of the school in your own home.Wonderful!
Our Travelling Rosary
The children are dedicating time throughout this month to share in prayer, with Mary and with family at home, as part of our Rosary Mission. The Robins children are discovering many forms of prayer and it is wonderful to see parents participating too. Thankyou; and thankyou for the beautiful photographs that we are able to share too.
Travelling Rosary
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Thank you to the children who joined me for the Commissioning Mass for lay chaplains across our diocese on Friday. It was lovely to see Bishop Stephen again, along with Father Purdy and all other children and staff from our Trust. The children were in awe of the chapel; the architecture and artwork! The shone shone too and Bishop Stephen left us with an important message and reminder to ' get the little things right' as we are called to do God's work.
Ushaw visit 2024
Prayers for our Year 6 children from children in Year 1 and 2
prayers for Owls
A Prayerful Picnic
As part of their journey in love, Wrens and Robins planned a liturgy of joy and celebration in the Church garden along with a kindness picnic; requesting lemonade, crisps and sponge cake. 'It was very special because it was in the garden.' (Nursery pupil)
Prayer Garden EYFS
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The Story of Creation both at home and at school.
Have a look at some of the wonderful work going on in and around school, linking to the Story of Creation. It is wonderful to see the children recognising we are all God's treasures and that we are all responsible for treasuring God's creation too... we are called to Stewardship, we care for our common home.
Story of Creation
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YMT Y6 Festival 2024
Once again the children in Year 6 went along to the annual festival at the Youth Village in Allensford. This year the theme for the day was ' Right Here, Right Now.' The day was jam packed with fantastic music, dancing, activities linking to scripture and film. The children all thoroughly enjoyed the day and it was wonderful to see them fully embracing the wide range of activities on offer. Thankyou YMT!
YMT 2024
EYFS June's travelling prayer bag theme: World Environment
Our travelling prayer bag has began it's journey once again with EYFS. This month, linking to the theme of World Environment Day, the children are praying especially for our common home and that we all contribute towards caring for it. How wonderful! I will add photographs as we receive them, and add pictures to FB too. Thankyou parents as always for supporting your child to pray at home; gladly embracing catholic life both at home and at school.
June travelling Prayer
A visit from Bishop Stephen
Bishop Stephen's Visit 2024
We had a wonderful day, as part of World Environment Day when Bishop Stephen came to visit. Bishop Stephen, along with Father Thomas listened the work we have been doing as part of our Live Simply Award. The children enjoyed leading us in prayer and celebrating their achievements. More photographs can also be found on our Facebook Page.
May, the Month of Mary
As a dedication to Mary during this month of May, we have created a beautiful prayer space in our school hall so that children, staff and parents can use, as and when they would like to. The children enjoyed helping Mrs Porter choose the colours, flowers and prayer cards and Dotty even created the most beautiful piece of artwork with her Daddy and kindly displayed it in the prayer arch. Thankyou Dotty.
I will also share any pictures we have from our prayers and reflection at home too. The children in EYFS are enjoying taking home the Mary prayer bag this month and sharing dedicated prayer time at home. Wonderful!
Month of May dedicated to Mary
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Stations of the Cross
The Owls visited church to take a closer look at the Stations of the Cross before returning to school to create their own. They were truly inspired and have created some wonderful pieces of art. Please join us if you can for our own Stations of the Cross, here in School on March 14th at 2.30pm with Father Thomas.
The children's artwork will also be displayed in Church under each Station, for parishioners to also enjoy.
Stations of the Cross
Lenten prayer and reflection: Stations of the Cross with Father Thomas, St Mary's Catholic Church, and also here back in school for lower KS2. Thankyou Father Thomas.
Stations of the Cross in Church
Year 5 and 6 Retreat
Owls class are looking forward to their 3 day/2 night residential retreat at the Youth Village, Allensford. The theme of the retreat is ''Lost and Found' and their schedule includes time to relax, pray, walk, team build and enjoy quality time with friends in their lodges.
I will add photographs to the gallery below as we receive them.
YMT Retreat 2024
Our Wrens and Robins have enjoyed a lovely visit to St Mary's Catholic Church today, as part of their RE learning this week. They were able to recognise and name lots of things in church and used their checklists to help them. Thankyou for your time as always Father Thomas!
Wrens and Robins visit to Church
Live Simply Award
Live Simply Pledges
'Deck The Halls With Boughs of Holly!'
The children in Owls class brought a little festive joy to our elderly residents at the Manor House in Barnard Castle. Mrs Porter said that they sang beautifully and that the residents and staff also enjoyed a sing a long too.
How lovely... thankyou Owls and Mrs Porter!
Carol Singing at The Manor
Delivering Joy!
Thankyou so much to everybody who has helped deliver joy to our local communities as part of the Dunelm Project this year.
Delivering Joy
Travelling Crib 2023
Our EYFS children are enjoying taking home our annual travelling Crib as part of our Advent season, sharing the joy and true meaning of Christmas. I will add pictures each week as we receive them. They are adorable! Thankyou to our families for getting involved and sharing the lovely pictures of the crib at home. Wonderful!
Travelling Crib 2023
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Toilet Twinning Project
A lovely letter of thanks to our our whole school community in raising such an incredible amount and together, helping to 'flush away poverty.'
Travelling Easter Basket 2023
As we journey through Lent- a special time of waiting, our children in EYFS have been enjoying taking the Easter story home with them to share with the family. Our travelling Easter baskets are fun for all of the family and ensure that when every child leaves EYFS, they know the true meaning of Easter. As they tuck into their hollow chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday, they will all understand the significance of that and hopefully be able to talk to you about the empty tomb and rejoice… ‘Jesus is Alive!’
‘He saw and believed’ John 20:1-9
I hope you enjoy looking at the photographs- thankyou to families for sending them in for us to share. I will keep adding to the gallery as we receive them.
A letter from Bishop Malcolm
The Owls received a lovely letter from our Bishop thanking them for their welcome letters. As part of their RE lessons the children took the time to write their letters welcoming Bishop Malcolm to the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. He also shared with them some of his own interests, and we learnt that he has two cats, Betty and Zena! Wonderful.
Advent Around School and Travelling Crib 2022
As we begin our Advent journey together, the waiting and preparations are also starting to take place too. The travelling crib found its first home tonight in EYFS with ‘ a big queue to see baby Jesus!’ (Tilly) We will continue to add photographs of our Advent journey here in school and please also feel free to send in any from home you would like me to share too.
A note of thanks…
We received a lovely card of appreciation from the Royal British Legion, thanking St Mary’s for their support with the Poppy Appeal. Thank you everybody!
We received a lovely letter of thanks this week from our friends at The Well, thanking us for our Harvest offerings this term. Thank you for your kind donations once again St Mary’s. It is a wonderful way to give recognition to our responsibility to give what we can and help those who need it.
Holy Communion 2022
This year we have 4 children from St Mary’s making their First Holy Communion. Please pray for Alfie, Amber, Robbie and Tomask as they begin their journey of preparation. Please also pray for Amelia, Max and Eleanor from Ingleton Primary School who are also joining our children here, for their preparation classes. It is wonderful we are sharing in such a special journey!
Samaritan’s Purse Shoebox Appeal 2022: Sharing God’s Love
Thank you so much to everybody who very kindly either donated a shoe box or items to make up a shoe box. We were delighted to be able to deliver at least 30 boxes, plus two bags of items to The Well on Friday, along with our monthly foodbank offerings. By sending a shoebox gift with Operation Christmas Child, we are sharing God’s love and showing a child they are special and thought of.
Thank you to Maxim and Layla for their help packing and delivering both the food and the shoeboxes. Just wonderful!
‘Let’s Give Thank for the Harvest’
Thank you to everybody who came along to support our Harvest offerings and prayers. The children read beautifully, sang with their whole hearts and gave with a kind heart too. Thank you so much for the kind donations to the foodbanks and also fresh produce for our elderly neighbours. We delivered it on Friday and were greeted with such gratitude… thank you!
Autumn Term Family Mass
It was wonderful to see some of our families at Mass on Thursday, especially those who have just recently joined our school family. Thank you for giving up your time to come and join us- didn’t the children do so well! Beautiful readers, so reverent and respectful; and for some, their very first visit to Mass. Thank you also to Father Thomas.
Other Faiths Week: Judaism
This week in school we have spent time in our RE lessons exploring other faiths. We looked at the Jewish faith and found out that there are many similarities, as well as differences between our faith and the Jewish faith. I wonder if the children can talk to you about some of them. We know it is important to learn about other faiths and we respect all faiths.
We linked this beautifully to our Trust Virtue: Respect
This week in school we have spent time in our RE lessons exploring other faiths. We looked at the Jewish faith and found out that there are many similarities, as well as differences between our faith and the Jewish faith. I wonder if the children can talk to you about some of them. We know it is important to learn about other faiths and we respect all faiths.
We linked this beautifully to our Trust Virtue: Respect
Prayers in our Local Community
The children in Nursery/Reception – Year 5/6 designed their prayer handprints and prayer tags to hang on the tree outside of St Mary’s Church, as part of the Teesdale Prayer Pilgrimage.
First Holy Communion
We continue to prayer for Alfie, Edward, Robbie, Tomask, Amber, Amelia and Max ( our friends from Ingleton) who are preparing to make their First Holy Communion on Saturday June 10th at 1pm, here at St Mary's, and 11th June at St Osmond's, Gainford. I hope you can join us for this special day.
Food Bank Thank You Card and Letter
Thank you to our food bank leaders Chloe, Kornel and Frankie for doing such a good job to promote the food banks and the importance of giving to those less fortunate.
We received a lovely letter and card from our friends at The Well Foodbank in Bishop Auckland. Thank you so much to everyone who contributes to our weekly Friday Foodbanks- it really does make a difference to people relying on foodbanks each week.
Pentecost Prayers: Journey with Mary