YEAR OF THE WORD
IN THE NEWS (CATHOLIC VOICE)
Click on the link to check it out. Catholic Voice write up about the incredible ‘Open Air Mass and Creation Day’ with our catholic cluster.
St Francis appear in the Catholic Voice once again. What an incredible write up – what an incredible school we have.
Thoughtful and reflective prayer and liturgy
Children in Beacon class have been planning and leading some very thoughtful and reflective prayer and liturgy sessions this term, all based on different themes.
The Feast of St Francis
13TH OCTOBER
THE HARVEST FESTIVAL
The St Francis family came together again this week to celebrate the harvest festival. We had a wonderful turn out, as we also had a McMillan Coffee concert collection. As well as asking for food for those who have none, we also collected for those who are suffering from this terrible illness. The children collected many items of food to be taken to the local food bank. It is important for children to not only ‘act out’ aspects of the gospel, but also to live it! Jesus taught us that the Kingdom of Heaven is for those who are rich in spirit. The children learn so much by giving to those less fortunate than ourselves, it brings us closer to God and to true happiness.
ST FRANCIS’ FEAST DAY MASS
LEADING THE WAY
Not only do children lead their own liturgies in he classroom, the children played a huge part in the mass to celebrate the feast day of St Francis. Many parishioners and parents commented oN how ‘grown up’, ‘thoughtful’ and ‘amazing’ our children are. Thank you to everyone who came along to celebrate our important feast day.
CALL FOR CREATION (Pope Francis)
SIGN THE PLEDGE
St Francis’ has signed up to live ‘Laudato Si’. As a school, we are going to make every effort to make sure governors, staff and children are doing their part to make the world a better place. Pope Francis wrote a letter to the world two years ago, to call for all humans to clean up their act. Two years on, Pope Francis is now calling us all to sign the pledge, spread the word and do our part. St Francis’ are proud to be a part of the LiveLaudatoSi movement. Hving already been awarded a ‘Laudato Si Award’ by CAFOD, the school will do all it can to continue to make the world a better place. The Pope has released a prayer for those who have signed the pledge ( you can find this below). The prayer will be used in school, it has been published on the website so you can use it too.
WIDER GLOBAL LINKS
Click on the link to see the children of Beacon Class make new friends and support children in Kenya. Having created a link last year the children are considering charitable ways to support children their age in a remote village in Kenya. Jesus taught us to cloth the naked, feed the hungry and love thy neighbor. Children at St Francis are acting stewards of the earth – actively making it a better place. Kenya pen pals
CHILDREN TAKE THE LEAD
The children from Fairsnape class have been planning their own class Liturgies. In groups, they have selected a topic to plan for. They have gathered their own resources, found bible readings and prayers.This week we have learnt about Creation from the Children. The sessions were delivered beautifully with so much maturity.
LEARNING ABOUT JUDAISM
Wider Global Links
Children from Years 3 and 4 joined together with children from schools in our local Catholic Cluster, to learn about Judaism. Judaism is an ancient religion that children learn about in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament, as Jesus was brought up Jewish in a Jewish family; therefore they share many common morals and Christianity. Being part of a world with many different faiths and beliefs, it is important that children act as Jesus would and accept and respect all people. The children learnt a lot and enjoyed time spent with children in our Catholic Cluster.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Do unto those as I would do unto you.
Year 6 student Tallulah Hodson has been inspired to help those who are not as fortunate as us. Part of the catholic spirit of St Francis is to be active disciples of Jesus and help others. Tallulah is a shining example and received much support from her family and the catholic community of St Francis. By sacrificing what she has for others and by raising money – she is making a difference. 
DEN BUILDING DAY!
St Francis made the news for the fantastic Den Building Day. The children were raising money to support those that are less fortunate than us. Romans 12:13
Laudato Si’ Award
We are thrilled to have recognition for our work and dedication towards ‘Care for our Common Home’. Our award was presented by a CAFOD volunteer this week. Getting the award was no mean feat. Children had to prove that they have done their part to make the earth a cleaner, healthier and better place to live. The work done by the children, both in class and the impact around school was inspected by a CAFOD volunteer to make sure standards had been achieved. This goes to show how OUTSTANDING the children are at St Francis’ and the effort they go to, to improve the world we live in.
WE ARE HERE TO TEACH OTHERS
ST FRANCIS LEADERS IN CATHOLIC EDUCATION
We have also gained our own copyright CD ROM in the scheme of work for Catholic schools ‘The Way, The Truth and The Life’ which means that schools that use this popular scheme of work will see our May Procession. Amazing!
Jacob’s Join to welcome Father Sony
Holy Week and Easter
“So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” (Luke 24:46)
Holy Week April 9th -15th
Palm Sunday begins our Holy Week as Christ was welcomed by crowds back into Jerusalem. Such love was shown towards Him, yet there were many who were jealous and disbelieved that He was God’s Son. Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter. The Triduum is the culmination of the Church’s Liturgical year…
Holy Thursday
The Last Supper
The Triduum begins on Thursday evening with the Lord’s Supper Mass, which was the beginning of the Holy Eucharist. This is the reason we celebrate Mass and marked the sharing of Christ’s body and blood for us all. The disciples were very scared and nervous about the events. This was the last meal Jesus would share with His Disciples and during the meal, Jesus predicts His betrayal by Judas. Christ washed the feet of His Disciples and they became the first Priests. As we are co- creators with God, we too must serve one another and work as equals to care for our common home.
Good Friday
The Crucifixion of Christ
On Good Friday, we gather for the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion- the events of such sorrow. Christ was betrayed and crucified on Calvary. Crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals and Jesus was mocked and tortured. Jesus fell three times carrying the heavy cross. Our 14 beautiful ‘Stations of the Cross’ pieces of art work, created by our children, can be seen in our school entrance area.
After Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, his body was taken down from the cross, and placed in a tomb. The tomb was sealed with an enormous stone and guarded by Roman soldiers to prevent Jesus’ body being stolen. When Mary Magdalene visited the tomb on Easter Sunday she found that the stone had been moved, and that Jesus’ body had gone.
On Holy Saturday we wait.
Easter Sunday
Christ is alive! We celebrate the Resurrection. Easter Sunday marks the end of Holy Week-a week after Palm Sunday.The wonderful news that Jesus came back to life and made himself known to His discpiles gives us great faith, hope and joy. As we celebrate Easter and welcome new life and growth all around us at Spring time, we will continue to grow together in the great love that Jesus has for each and every one of us.
Masses for Holy Week:
Maundy Thursday: Claughton-7.00pm
Good Friday: The Passion of Our Lord-Hill Chapel-3.00pm
Easter Vigil: Claughton-8.00pm
Easter Sunday: Hill Chapel- 10.30am
Fundraising in Lent 2017
Check out our ‘Music Videos’ section on our homepage to see our children perform at our most recent concert-all in aid of Big Fish…
More fundraising throughout Lent 2017. We welcomed Christine from CAFOD on Monday to talk to us about the Lent fundraiser ‘Big Fish’. We were involved in workshops and discussed how we could help make a difference.
Holocaust Memorial Service
Last week, our head boy and girl were invited to represent our school at St John’s church in Preston to a service to mark the 2017 Holocaust Memorial Day. The Mayor and Mayoress of Preston were joined by representatives from various groups in Preston to remember all those were affected by the Holocaust.
Harvest Food Bank Collection: Feed the Hungry
More fundraising for worthy causes-Children in Need.
FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS
It is the important time of the year again whee the children of St. Francis’ Catholic Primary School, celebrate the feast day of the school’s patron saint. The children had a special Saint Francis assembly with Miss Deakin on Monday. The children have also been learning about St Francis in their classrooms. The whole school then came together on the 4th October to celebrate the feast at mass.
Open Air Mass with our small schools Catholic Cluster
What a wonderful day we had! It began at 9.30am, when six of our cluster schools arrived at St.Francis.’ This year, we hosted, organised and led a day full of workshops, followed by Open Air Mass after lunch.We used as many spaces as we could in school and the children were all mixed up into different groups so they could make lots of new friends. We wrote prayers on stars in The Millennium Walk, drew pictures of our pets or favourite animals using charcoal and laptops, collaged parts of the creation story to take up to our St.Francis icon in Mass, planted seeds to take home, cared for chickens and undertook Laudato Sii activities in The Cottage. Father Smith even arranged for helium balloons to feature in the Mass.
We have spent a lot of time this year reflecting on Pope Francis’ Encyclical and are really linking this with The Year of Mercy as we care for our common home: plants, animals, the environment and each other.
Here are some pictures of our very special day. We even learned the Peruvian Gloria!
UFA Opens up Community Care opportunities
The children have been busily preparing to welcome residents from local care homes into school for dominoes, bingo, chatter and refreshments. Each Friday will be an opportunity to spend quality time with care home residents as we open our school hall to the community. The children have planned, prepared and written letters to publicise this new addition to our UFA time and are looking forward to learning from experienced members of the public about days past and present.
See the beauty in everything
Make a Splash! Concert Success
‘Give the Thirsty a Drink’
Thank you to all who donated cakes for our Coffee Morning Concert. As we continue on our active journey throughout ‘The Year of Mercy,’ we are delighted to tell you that we raised £110 for ‘Make a Splash!’ CAFOD appeal. The whole school performed and we thank you all for coming and supporting this worthy initiative.
May Procession
What a wonderful way in which to show our devotion to Our Lady. As Jesus is King, Mary is Queen and we joined in unity to crown Mary in Church after our procession which began in school.
Year 6 visit Ladyewell
Beacon lead prayer and liturgy outdoors
Our Prayer Space activities
Pentecost
Happy Birthday Church! We had a special Pentecost celebration in school and we learned a Pentecost song that was written by Mr Severyn. The children in Pendle class made a junk model church and we reflected upon what Pentecost means for us. They led a Pentecost assembly.
Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian church. It is when Christians celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and is celebrated on the Sunday 50 days after Easter and marks the start of the church’s mission to the world. The symbols of Pentecost are those of the Holy Spirit and include flames, wind, the breath of God and a dove.
The first Pentecost
The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles as they were together praying. It sounded like a very strong wind had filled the room and tongues of fire rested above their heads.
The apostles then found that they could speak in foreign languages, inspired by the Holy Spirit. This was to enable them to travel throughout the world and spread the good news! The Reception Class children led an assembly on Pentecost and they retold the story using flame headbands acting as the apostles.
Class Assemblies Each Week
We look forward to our Thursday morning assemblies, which are planned and led by the children themselves. These are usually centred around global issues, British and Catholic values. The children always relate these themes to scripture references and they write their own prayers and choose their own songs to celebrate and worship Christ together. It is wonderful for the children to leave us all with a reflection, mission idea or practical response to the assembly, enabling all to deepen faith, learn from the teachings of Christ and become the very best we can be for ourselves and for others.
St.Francis’ Catholic Primary School fundraises for ‘The Year of Mercy’
‘Clothe the Naked’
Throughout Lent, many fundraising initiatives had taken place. Each family was given a bin bag with a label on to explain that children were collecting items of clothing to send to YMCA in Longridge.
Once again, our children and families have overwhelmed us all with their generosity and kindness. Our parish supported school with this worthy cause, as we continue to work together hand in hand. We are now supporting the CAFOD ‘Make a Splash appeal”
The School Council have met with children in all classes in order to generate their ideas on supporting worthy causes and charities.
‘Moments of Mercy’ footprints, colour coded to link with the liturgical calendar, started in the entrance hall and ‘journey’ around school. The aim is to see how many times these footprints can travel around the whole school during the year. This was fitting for Lent, as the school and Parish ‘Journeyed with Jesus’ together. We have collected food to give to the Ingol food bank and the school joined in.
Individual, class or whole school initiatives are celebrated and described on each footprint. The footprints highlight acts of kindness within school or in the wider community. We welcome you all to collect a footprint to fill in and bring back to share with us all. It will be put up with the others and will celebrate us working in harmony.
Prayer and Liturgy
In each class, the children plan and lead class prayer and liturgy. This happens daily and the children in the junior classes lead Lectio Divina. This is now embedded within our school life. It is wonderful to see the children excited, enthusiastic and deepening their faith through prayer and liturgy and they have been provided with a toolkit in order to support this! In each class, there is a big prayer and liturgy book where pictures, planing templates and powerpoints are kept as a reminder and record of the worship.
Celebrating a beautiful day with the children.
Stations of the Cross
Each year group took two stations of the cross to explore and create a piece of art work for each station.
Here are the finished pieces of art work, which are now displayed in our entrance area.
St.Francis’ prepares for Holy Week
As Holy Week fast approaches, we have been examining and reflecting upon our actions as individuals and as a whole school. ‘Moments of Mercy’ footprints are up in school and we have now finished our beautiful pieces of art work, which depict the Stations of the Cross. During Lent, the children have been thinking about how they can prepare themselves for the great celebration of Easter as we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
As we journey with Jesus, our infants are celebrating our Palm Liturgy in Church, where they will be reminding us about Jesus riding back to Jerusalem. This is a wonderful celebration with many uplifting songs. The rest of the school will be holding reflective assemblies to remind us of the saddest events that followed and led to Jesus’ death on the cross. We will hear how Jesus had a last meal with His disciples, went out to pray, was betrayed, arrested and crucified with such pain and cruelty.
The children will be beginning Sunday Mass with a Palm Sunday procession starting at school. We do hope to see you all there.
Our Holy Week assemblies are as follows:
Thursday 17th March -2.30pm Palm Liturgy in church -Reception Class and KS1
Monday 21st March -9.10am – Pendle Class Assembly – The Last Supper
Tuesday 22nd March -9.10am – Parlick Class Assembly – Garden of Gethsemane
Wednesday 23rd March -9.10am – Fairsnape Class Assembly – crucifixion
Thursday 24th March – 9.10am – Beacon Class Assembly – The Resurrection
We break up for Easter at 1.30pm on Thursday 24th March
Good Friday – 25th March
The Easter story is at the heart of Christianity and is the most important time for us as. Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Sunday. It commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion and great sacrifice for all of us.
Good Friday is a day of reflection in the Christian church. During special Good Friday services Christians remember Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, and what this means for their faith.
Easter Sunday – 27th March
Easter Sunday marks Jesus’ resurrection. After Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, his body was taken down from the cross, and placed in a tomb. The tomb was sealed with an enormous stone and guarded by Roman soldiers to prevent Jesus’ body being stolen. When Mary Magdalene visited the tomb on Easter Sunday she found that the stone had been moved, and that Jesus’ body had gone. The wonderful news that Jesus came back to life and made himself known to His discpiles gives us great faith, hope and joy. As we celebrate Easter and welcome new life and growth all around us at Spring time, we will continue to grow together in the great love that Jesus has for each and every one of us.
We wish all our children and families a blessed and holy Easter 2016
Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural Life of the School
Please see our Catholic and British Values statement, which you can find under ‘About’ section on the main website homepage. At St.Francis’ we promote SMSC through our daily school life. We understand and welcome different cultures within school and further afield and appreciate that we are all unique and must show respect and tolerance of all. We work alongside other schools and come together to share one goal-our love of learning and of each other with Christ as our inspiration underpinning every aspect of daily school life. Through working together with other schools, colleges and high schools, we participate in many sporting, academc and musical initiatives where we can shine in a variety of ways. Our children work and socialise with children from a range of socio-economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds to be prepared for life in modern Britain. The children visit a local Sikh temple and learn from first hand experiences what life is like in other faiths, religions and backgrounds.
Our children are able to give their views and opinions and understand that the viewpoints of others must be appreciated. Through assemblies, class discussions, PSHE lessons and debates, our children explore situations that may challenge their thinking and own beliefs and cultures. Our mission statement and school aims are used to reinforce and encourage the fundamental British Values, whilst enabling all to be reflective upon their own beliefs, feelings and faith backgrounds. The very nature of our Catholic school ethos promotes inclusion, diversity and the wonderful fact that we are all different and unique.
‘Care for our Common home’ has fast become our motto. In Pope Francis’ Encyclical, he tells us all that we must act fast in looking after our world and all who dwell within it: humans, animals and the environment. This is what we aim to do and it is within ourselves to do this.
Our Fairtrade stall. The children run this themselves and are in charge of ordering new products to sell. The stall is run daily.
We look after wildlife and make our own bird feeders.
We support local charities. We are collecting clothes for Lent.
We celebrate world faiths and religions.We celebrated Chinese New Year and Diwali and learnt about these cultures as a whole school.
We support charities globally. We are raising money for the ‘Make a Splash’ appeal to Give the thirsty a drink.
We made cards to sell for charity.
We have a very busy school council. We also have Peer Mediators and Buddies, who help younger children in school.
We celebrate Mass together for special feast days and other celebrations.
Our special Advent Service. We made advent promises and helped to raise money for CAFOD in our collections.
Beacon class led our ‘Welcome assembly’ for our new Reception children and families.
We brought food in to give to local food banks.
We wore silly socks for the day and brought £1 each. The money raised was sent to overseas charity.
We raise money for the children’s hospice ‘Derian House.’ So far this year, we raised £70.
We raised £80 for our Poppy appeal.
We continue to raise money for CAFOD. Each class will be raising money to buy animals for overseas countires. This will form part of our Year of Mercy initiative-Feed the Hungry.
We raised £110 for Make a Splash!
The Jubilee Year of Mercy
‘A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just’-Pope Francis
Please see our special ‘Year of Mercy’ section, which you will find on the homepage. It tells you all about how we are supporting this special initiative within our school.
Worship Workshop with Andy Severyn.
Andy is an old friend of Miss Deakin’s and a very talented musician. We were delighted that he could spend the day with us in school. He taught us many new songs that we could sing at different times throughout the liturgical year and he even taught us songs he had written to use in our assemblies. The children loved singing rock and roll style songs and they could be heard singing throughout school and in the playground days after Mr Severyn had left! That’s what I like to hear-music permeating throughout our school. Have a look at our pictures…
St.Francis’ Week started on 7th October. We all went over to Mass to celebrate the patron of our school-St Francis. The children in Reception class made animals to put on the shrine in Church and everyone in school wrote either a prayer or message on a leaf to make a huge tree in our entrance area. We have focused on ‘Care for our Common Home’ as we looked at Pope Francis’ message in his Encyclical. The children who are Eco Warriors were very busy planning things to do outside to support our wildlife and we are excited to continue this in the Spring Term. 
Remembrance Day. The children came to Family Mass and the choir sung. We held a Remembrance Week in school and welcomed visitors to talk about their experiences of war. We thank parents and carers who send in medals and others artefacts for us to use in classes.
Our new Prayer Space– the children love our new prayer space which is in the school hall. They can play quiet music, write prayers or messages to go on the prayer wall or just sit and reflect. It is a delight to see the older children helping the younger children in Reception class write their prayers or scribe for them.
Year of Mercy starts this month. Pope Francis has caught the attention of the world’s people, asking us all to look after God’s earth. Children in KS2, will be looking at the ‘Corporal Acts of Mercy’ and learning how to be citizens of the earth. Watch the video below to see the Laudato Si’ animation.
Religious Education at St.Francis
Through Religious Education, pupils study the Catholic tradition and come to an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the different religious dimensions of life. They are given the opportunity to examine their own religious attitudes and to respect the convictions of others. We teach tolerance and respect for other religions, traditions and cultures. Please see our British Values statement.
The curriculum planning wheels are used throughout the school and supported by materials from CAFOD, “The Way, The Truth and The Life” and “Caritas in Action” to ensure we meet the needs of our children. All classes follow the Religious Education Curriculum Directory. Time spent on this area of the curriculum varies from 2 to 2.5 hours per week. Children plan for and lead their own class prayer and liturgy and engage in a variety of fundraising initiatives through the year.
Each child takes part in a daily act of worship (5-10 minutes) and formal prayers are used to open and close the school day sessions. Sacramental Preparation for Reconcilliation, Holy Communion and Confirmation is undertaken by the catechists of St.Francis’ Parish, Mrs Rossall, Mr Gilmour and Miss Deakin.
Religious Education is further enhanced and given expression through the liturgical life of the church by attendance and active participation in the Mass and the sacraments through the observance of religious services and festivals. At the beginning of each new term the whole school attend Mass with the parish.
The Catholic faith perspective is not an added extra, which we teach and offer to the children, it is integrated into the whole life of the school and into all the aspects of the curriculum.
Bound together as we are, by the unity of our faith, the children’s education is developed in an atmosphere of caring, sharing and example.
Sex education falls within the general framework of Religious Education within the school, and in accordance with the moral and dogmatic teaching of the church. Parents are informed of any special programmes in sex education.
Parents have a legal right to request that their child be withdrawn from lessons in Religious Education or from acts of Collective Worship. This may be done in consultation with the Headteacher.
Click here to see Religious Education Curriculum Dirrectory links for 5-7 year olds
Lancaster Diocese Education Service
Our Diocese has launched their new website. Click here to have a look.