“The glory of God is a human being fully alive” St Irenaeus

At St Rose’s, Christ is the foundation of everything we do and the Gospels provide us with our influence and inspiration.We are a family whose members’ value and support each other through tolerance, understanding and mutual trust.

As our children continue their spiritual journey at St Rose’s, we provide an experience that strengthens the child's understanding of the impact of the charitable work that they do and the choices they make.  We give our pupils opportunities to have deep and meaningful experiences of prayer in a variety of ways.

Our children experience different forms of worship at school each week; whole school liturgy where we listen to the word of God, more intimate class collective worships, personal prayer and meditation.

Importantly, on their journey at St Rose’s, our pupils develop leadership skills in areas of life that support others. We encourage them to become inquisitive thinkers that question the world around them whilst celebrating and valuing difference in our world. We are a rights respecting school.

In this section, you can find out about the different worship experiences children have in our school at special times in the liturgical calendar.

The Dom Squad

The Dom Squad are our school's spiritual leaders. Their roles in school include, leading the children in spiritual faith, encourage children to apply what they have learnt from the Bible's teachings into everyday practice and develop good relationships within both the school and wider community. 

The Dom Squad follows the teachings of St Dominic, who is the Patron saint of Astronomers. As part of their work in The Dom Squad, the children follow the four Dominican Pillars: community, service, study and prayer. Every year, in the summer term, the children need to apply to become a member, explaining what skills they can bring to the role and why they should be chosen for this prestigious duty. 

The roles of The Dom Squad include: 

1. Setting up for assemblies and Mass;
2. Delivering the Wednesday Word;
3. Leading Friday morning class prayers;
4. Leading whole school Liturgies (once a month);
5. Running the Prayer Garden of St Rose and St Dominic. 

This week, The Dom Squad delivered the Wednesday word to each class. They helped the children to greet the Gospel by singing Rise and Shine, then explained why the Wednesday Word is important. All of the children enjoyed hearing The Dom Squad explain about the different activities that they could complete in order to help them to understand Sunday's Gospel reading. 

Our Prayer Garden

The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.

Isaiah 40:8

Our pupils asked us to create a peaceful and prayerful space that they could use during the school day. We were fortunate enough to receive donations from our parents / carers, local business and staff to create a prayer garden in our school. Our children thought about what they would like in their garden and designed it. The staff helped them to bring it to life. There are some before, during and after construction photos below. Our pupils use the garden throughout the school day for a moment of prayer and quiet reflection and a small team of pupils help to look after the garden. Our Parish Priest officially blessed and opened the Prayer garden in October 2018.

Fr Brian Visits

The Consecration

“… and when he had given thanks, He broke it and said ‘This is My body broken for you; do this in memory of Me’…”

Corinthians 11:24

Fr Brian came to speak to Year 2 about The Consecration. He was able to help them to make the link between The Old Covenant, The New Covenant and Agnus Dei. He spoke about the language used during Mass, relating it back to the language used during The Last Supper by Jesus. Thank you Fr Brian for a wonderful afternoon sharing your knowledge and understanding with us! 

Andrew Masters Visit

"Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men."

Matthew 4:19

Each half term we welcome Andrew Masters who comes in to celebrate our assembly with us. He entertains us with his guitar playing, reminds us through song that Jesus loves us because the Bible tells us so. At his last visit, Andrew told us the story of The Fishers of Men, using children of all ages to help him to retell the story. We spoke about the importance of having trust and faith in Jesus, spreading his message to followers in our local and wider community.

Andrew Masters Visit

On Tuesday, 5th November we welcomed Andrew Masters who came to celebrate our assembly with us. He entertained us with his guitar playing, reminding us through song that Jesus loves us because the Bible tells us so. Andrew Masters told us the story of Daniel in the Lions Den, using children of all ages to help him to retell the story. We spoke about the importance of courage and trusting in God because he always keeps his promises to us.

"I am alive, my God has saved me!" Daniel 6

Harvest

We celebrate our first Mass of the school year together for Harvest. Our community thanks God for all we have, as well as taking time to pray for those that have less than us. Before Mass, our community donates food to be shared with those in need.  We give generously delivering the gifts to the food bank at DENS. 

Remembrance

During the month of November St Rose’s remembers all of our loved ones who are now in heaven. The children learn about why we wear poppies and where it all begin at the end of the First World War. In response to this, pupils often create creative art work to help us remember all those who have fallen in wars, then and now. We hold a Remembrance liturgy to share the children’s work, to pray together and to have our own two minute silence to think about all those who have suffered through war. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”

Advent

There are many exciting activities that have been take place throughout Advent place in order to prepare the children for the special time in the Church’s liturgical year. Our children begin Advent by coming to school wearing an item of purple clothing in order to mark the official start of Advent. We share a liturgy where the first Advent candle is lit on our Advent wreath. The children, think about hope write down their own hopes for themselves, the community and the wider world. Each week, we continue our reflections on the Advent wreath and offer these up to God during this special time.

As part of the children’s learning, there are many Biblical visitors in school. These visitors have included the Angel Gabriel, Mary, Elizabeth and even a donkey! They help the children to re-enact the Christmas story at the key points which included, the Annunciation, the visitation and also the road to Bethlehem. The donkey often challenges the children, asking questions about how the different people in the Christmas story felt.

During Advent, our community thinks about how Mary and Joseph were from the poorest section in society. We ask all families to consider donating the money that one of their chosen gifts or an item of food this Christmas would have cost and donate this money to a chosen charity at school. We do not ask anyone to spend more or much, the idea is that families choose a present or luxury that your child/family will go without, and instead give the gift of hope to another child through charity at Christmas time.

Close to the end of the Autumn term, all our pupils enjoy re-enacting 'The Christmas Story'. Through the use of drama and singing, the children remind us of the meaning of Christmas with Oscar worthy performances! They really enjoy sharing the special journey that Mary and Joseph took on the donkey to Bethlehem as well as sharing a peaceful and reflective moment drawing focus onto Christmas in the modern world through prayer. 

Our Christmas RE home learning tasks are celebrated at class liturgies. All parents/carers are invited to attend their child’s class worship. Families and children enjoy taking a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas together and share a more intimate experience of worship. We leave each other at the end of term with a prayer for Christmas…

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in thy tender care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

Lent – Shine your light St Rose’s!

Lent is our most important time at school. We begin by reminding ourselves about Shrove Tuesday, the meaning of the word 'shrove' and that it is a time when Christians say sorry for all the things they have done wrong before the start of Lent. The children think about the things that they could be sorry for and reflect on the ways that they could be more like Jesus. They put a lot of thought into writing their own Lenten promises not only thinking of sacrifices they can make during this time but one thing they could do differently to make a positive contribution to society and ‘shine their light’ during Lent. At our Ash Wednesday liturgy, our children share their Lenten promises and think of the significance of this special day; how Jesus went without food and water for 40 days. We all reflect on this as we receive Ashes blessed by our Parish Priest.

Lent is also a time for giving alms. During Lent, our children meet with different charities and choose who they would like to raise money for. Each class works together to decide upon a sponsored fundraising event that they could hold in school.

Y2 Stations of the Cross retreat

Our Year 2 pupils enjoy a reflective retreat at St Mary and St Joseph’s Church to pray the Stations of the Cross. As part of their Lenten journey the children experience different types of prayer by walking the way of the cross and reflecting on the pain and suffering that Jesus endured for us. They pray the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be as they move throughout the church. 

May the Month of Mary

Each May, we celebrate and honour Mary who followed the will of God all her life. She said “yes” to what God asked of her. Mary is a model of faith for all of us.  

Mary was always faithful to God’s will. She was faithful at the stable in Bethlehem, she was faithful on the flight to Egypt, and she was faithful at the foot of the cross. We think about how we should follow her example and be faithful to God’s will in our lives.

Our children as God for his support to help us to do his will even when it is difficult; help us to be like Mary and respond yes to what God asks of us. We learn to pray the Rosary together and often make our own school Rosary learning about the Decades and prayers.

Our School prayers

St Rose's Morning Prayer Father in Heaven I give you today All that I think and do and say All my work and all my happy play I will give to you today - Amen
St Rose's Prayer for Dinner God our Father Thank you for our food Which makes us grow strong and healthy Amen
St Rose's Afternoon Prayer Father in Heaven I come to say Thank you for your love today Thank you for my family And all the friends you give to me Guard me in the dark of night And in the morning send your light Amen
St Rose's Prayer for Peace Dear God Grant us peace in our hearts In our school In our homes In our world Amen
Sign of the Cross In the name of the Father The Son And the Holy Spirit Amen