On Thursday, we celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. This commemorates when Mary and Joseph would have presented Jesus to God at the temple and made an offering for him. It reminds us that Mary and Joseph looked out for Jesus and took care of him, just as many people look after and take care of us too.
Our mission this week is to think about those people who take care of you and who you take care of. What does it mean to be cared for and what difference can it make to your life?
Some things to think about:
- What can you do to show you care?
- How does it make you feel when someone cares for you?
- When might people need a little extra care?
- Who cares for you?
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This week, we have thinking about what it means to be cared for and who we ourselves care for. As children of God, we know that God cares for us and therefore we should do the same for others. We identified how being cared for makes us feel special and as though there is someone listening to us and championing us. The theme of care has linked well to this week’s RE lessons where we have been identifying how Sikhs can show care for the environment. This can take many forms, for example: planting trees, picking up litter, turning off the tap while brushing our teeth and fixing clothing rather than buying new items. We also realised that there are some people in our community that might need extra care – for example, those with disabilities, including mental health conditions. In Circle Time this week, we thought about the importance of caring for our own mental health and what we can do if we are stuggling.
This week year 1 have been recapping the Presentation story. We loved this story and meeting Anna and Simeon. We really liked what they said about Jesus. We have been thinking about how we show care to others and who shows us care. We know that our families, friends and adults at school all help us can care for us. We then discussed ways we show care to others. We came up with ideas such as helping someone is they are hurt, playing with a new friends, helping them if they are stuck with their work. We then thought about ways we can show our school care. We came up with ideas such as tidying the toys away, picking up litter, looking after God’s world and taking care of plants. We then tried to show care as much as we could to each other and our school.
This week, we have been thinking about those who show care for us and how we can show care for ourselves and others. We discussed how simple things like noticing when someone is alone can be showing care but also ensuring that we treat everyone with a caring attitude. This includes the way we speak to others, using respectful words and actions and supporting others around you when you can see that they are in need.
We gave examples of when we had shown care to others in our classroom and in the wider world, like when we collected the toiletries for the homeless at Christmas or food for the food bank at harvest time.
We also discussed the need to care for ourselves and ways in which we can do this. We talked about it being important for our own mental health to recognise when we need to show care to ourselves and who we ask when we feel this way.
Our Liturgical Prayer on Thursday in Year 5 was led by Nevia, Oscar, Egli and Sharisa. Nevia gathered us all together at the start of the liturgy by making the sign of the cross and lighting a candle. Then, we all sang ‘Our God Is a Great Big God’. After that, Oscar read a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke which shared the story of the presentation of Jesus in the temple by Mary and Joseph. Everyone was asked to reflect on how the story made them feel afterwards. Next, Egli carried a bowl of water around the classroom so that everyone could bless themselves. Finally, Sharisa ended our liturgy by asking everyone to reflect on the mission for the week, encouraging all of us to think about how we could show care by either being an example of Jesus or by caring for God’s world. Thank you to Oscar, Sharisa, Nevia and Egli for planning a beautiful liturgy.