Worship Round Up
Friday 24th May 2024
Our weekly round-up aims to support our parents in the conversations that they are having at home with their children. Each week, we will share the themes of each of our worships and any resources that we have been using, such as: videos, books and music, to allow our parents to access these if they wish to. Our weekly worship is structured in the following way:
- Monday Worship Focus: Values Focus led by Mrs Evans who revisits one of our core values — Commitment, Courage and Love.
- Tuesday Worship Focus: ‘Earth Heroes’ led by class teachers;
- Wednesday Worship Focus: ‘What’s happening in the world this week?’ led by Mrs Griffin and focusing on key events that are taking place in the world currently;
- Thursday Worship Focus: Singing led by Mrs Walker;
- Friday Worship Focus: Celebration led by Mrs Gnanasri to celebrate the team points winners for the week and achievements from both inside and outside school with the pupils.
Monday's Worship
In worship on Monday, we looked at the next 'Earth Hero' in our series. We began with Genesis 2v15 "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." We learnt about Rok Rozman - an olympic rower frmm Slovenia who has been campaigning to protect rivers in Slovenia and surrounding countries. During his travels after the Olympics, he learnt about the concerns associated with hydroelectric dams - something that for a long time were seen as a sustainable way to produce energy. He realised that the use of them came at a cost to the local environment, causing problems for those who lived near to the rivers and damaging the wildlife in and around it. He decided that he wanted to make others aware in the hope of stopping the plan for some of the dams in Slovenia. He raised awareness by planning a kayak expedition - he ended up with 500+ kayakers joining his campaign. His hardwork paid off and so far he has stopped 6 dams from being built. We reflected on what we can learn from his approach: working together can be much more powerful than alone, that one person can make a change and that a creative approach can make people curious to know more. We closed worship with prayers of gratitude for our world.
Tuesday's Worship
In worship on Tuesday, we continued our series of 'Earth Heroes' worships. We began with Genesis 2v15 "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." We learnt about Isabel Soares who is passionate about reducing food waste. Isabel grew up in Portugal and always had a keen interest in how fruit and vegetables grow thanks to her uncle who was a farmer. As Isabel grew older, she realised that farms were left with a surplus of fruit and vegetables that supermarkets would not take to sell as they looked 'ugly' - not fitting the usual size or shape expected for them to be. These rejected fruit and vegetables would end up going to waste. Isabel knew that these tasted just as good as the 'average' fruit and vegetables, so she began a small business selling boxes of 'ugly fruit' in her village. Isabel has continued to expand her business selling boxes in other towns and has now also begun to go into schools to educate children about reducing food wastage. We thought about some companies who are making use of this 'ugly' fruit and some supermarkets that now offer the option to buy this too. We closed worship by considering how we could do this within our community.
Wednesday's Worship
In worship on Wednesday we reflected on what motivates us. We considered the different motivations for things that we observed in the world around us including peace and looking after our world. We identified that families and friends can motivate our decision making and how important our relationships are. Mrs Griffin then shared an account of St Paul's life. She shared how Paul (who was known as Saul) was motivated by hatred for Christians and how his motivations changed when he had a life changing encounter with Jesus. Paul then became motivated entirely differently to preach the good news of Jesus and his forgiveness of our sins. We finished by reflecting on our choice making and how we can ask God to help us with these through his example in Jesus.
Thursday's Worship
Singing
On Thursday, Year 5 treated us to a performance of 'Thunder' by Imagine Dragons, which they have been practising in their ukulele lessons. Together we then sang:
Living and Learning
Pacem Dona Nobis
Give It All You've Got
Today
Friday's Worship
During Friday's worship, Mrs Gnanasri shared the team points winners for the week (Year 5 for the class winners and Ruby for the team points), awarded the 'hot chocolate awards' given for demonstrating love in our actions and celebrated some of our pupils' achievements from outside of school. Congratulations to Rubies who won the half term treat of extra playtime. Mrs Gnanasri asked the children to reflect on when they look for opportunities to feel gratitude and how they could make a positive impact on others by sharing their thoughts too.