On this page you will see pictures to celebrate all the elements of Catholic Life and Collective worship across Year 6. You will find pictures of displays and examples of RE work the children have completed. We most importantly want to share with you how we keep Jesus Christ at the center of all that we do. Every day is filled with opportunities for children to develop their faith and relationship with God. We keep our school mission statement in the forefront of our teaching, ‘We will prepare the way by loving, living and learning with the Lord’.

Prayer Focus

Children are offered the chance to pray throughout the day at St. John the Baptist.  Our Prayer focus is our focal point during class prayer services or for the children’s own private intentions. Reflection time is encouraged in Year 6 to think about their daily lives and actions.  The children are involved in changing and adding necessary symbols to our prayer focus, based on the Liturgical Year. We display the School Mission Statement, alongside our key vocabulary and children’s work.

Our prayer focus also has an ‘I Wonder’ board offering children the chance to have their questions answered by Father Michael. 

This area is for the children and they take great pride in the ownership of it.  They often redress it and add things to it.

Our Virtues

Each half term at St. John the Baptist we work hard to live our lives following Gospel Virtues. In Year 6 we strive to actively promote values, virtues and ethics that shape our pupils' character and moral perspective, through the teachings of the Catholic Church. We are confident that our continued focus on the Diocesan Virtues will give our pupils the necessary awareness of what it means to be a good citizen in Britain today, and embed in them the building blocks of a future successful and productive life.  During our weekly celebration assembly, children from each class who have been nominated (by staff or their peers) receive the Virtues Award.

Mission Weeks

Through the year at St. John the Baptist we celebrate our mission statement of ‘We prepare the way by Loving, Living and Learning with the Lord’ through three mission weeks. During these weeks classes get a chance to explore what our mission means to them and how we can live it out in our daily lives so that we can be closer to God. We really enjoy taking part in these mission weeks and setting a good example to the younger children in our school.

Loving Week – Serving dinner

Collective Worship

Collective Worship is an important aspect of Religious Education. A special part of daily life at St. John the Baptist is our time in Collective Worship. Children in Year 6 use this time to reflect on their daily lives and how the choices they make bring them closer to God. These are offered as a whole school, Key Stage and class throughout the week. We also offer our parents and parishioners to join us for collective worship throughout the year.

I Wonder Board

You will find our 'I Wonder' board displayed by our classroom prayer table. The children in Year 6 are encouraged to reflect on their beliefs. The children then articulate views and thoughts and listen attentively to others. This board encourages children to share their ideas and often becomes a hot point of debate. The children have the opportunity to think about their own questions of meaning and purpose and be able to express their own points of view. The questions and answers should give the children a sense of awe and wonder. Through these questions they will encounter the idea of mystery as well as appreciate that there are general questions about life that are difficult to answer.  It allows for thought provoking questions about our faith. Father Michael is invited in the hope that he can answer some of our questions.

Prayer Garden

At St. John the Baptist we have a very special Prayer Garden. throughout the year, we plan many opportunities (often during Collective Worship and Religious Education sessions) for children to visit the Prayer Garden to reflect and pray in the fresh air of the prayer garden.  Year 6 enjoy our lessons here.

Beautiful Work

Year 6 use a range of different genres to depict the Word of God. We always ensure that we think carefully about our answers and present our work beautifully.  The children are proud of their books and work they create.

The Sacrament of Confirmation

Our Year 6 Confirmandi invited Bishop Pargeter to celebrate their Sacrament of Confirmation in February 2019. The children led a beautiful service and were all filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. 

Confirmation Preparation

The children were busily preparing in school for their big day when they became full members of the church. Bishop Pargeter had also taken time out his very busy schedule to speak to the children in Year 6 about the signs and symbols of Baptism as well as Confirmation to support them in their understanding of the sacrament. The children also had a chance to ask questions to deepen their understanding of their faith.

We researched the lives of the saints in order to choose our Confirmation names.  The children chose their Saint based on who inspired them.  As a class we took part in ‘speed sainting’.  This was a great way to pass on facts to each other about the Saints and to help the Confirmandi with their  choice.

Our Confirmandi used their Saint bags and presented an assembly to the school.  They played a guess the Saint game and spoke to the school about the importance of the sacrament.

We debated in class about the most important Gift of the Holy Spirit.  In groups we used the zone of relevance to begin our debate.

Our Confirmandi created artwork to depict the Holy Spirit.

Vocations

Deacon Owen visited us to talk about vocations and to share information about work that people do for the church.

The Community

We visit Jubilee House which is local to our school.  We love going to visit the residents.

Soup Kitchen

Some of our Year 6 children took part in hosting the soup kitchen. This was with members from our parish at our local church.