This week, the whole school took part in a 'Leaves of the Trees' initiative by Worcester Cathedral. They asked us to reflect on the past year and everything we have been through as a community. We then wrote our hopes for the future on some leaves which are now displayed around school. A photograph of our leaves can be seen in Worcester Cathedral!

Today, we celebrated the feast day of two important saints: St Peter and St Peter. Year 6 went to church and the rest of the school joined in virtually.

Throughout the week, everyone at St Ambrose has taken part in a 'Walk a Mile' challenge to raise money for Father Hudson's. Each class decided how they were going to come to school looking a bit different and it was lovely to see everyone enjoying themselves on their walks. In total we raised: £246.

On Wednesday, we gathered virtually as a school to honour Mary. We choose to focus on the 'Glorious Mysteries' and asked Mary to listen to our prayers. Year 2 - Year 6 each had a mystery to share and produced some artwork for the rest of the school to see during the service. Please take a look at some of the chosen examples below:

This morning, some children in Year 3 helped Miss Ballard to lead a KS2 Collective Worship session about the Olympic and Paralymic Values. We discussed all seven of them and thought about how we can show these values in our own lives and when playing sport. Then each class were give two values to think about and we filled in the Olympic rings with examples of how we could show that we follow each value in our own lives. Below you can see what Year 3 wrote:

Today we remembered that whilst Jesus ascended into heaven, he is still with us and walks beside us each day. To celebrate the feast of the Ascension, Year 3 and Year 2 went to Mass and the rest of the school watched virtually from their classrooms. Year 6 produced some lovely creative reflections on the Mass. 

Year 4 led this week's collective worship and they focussed on the Gospel where Jesus tells us that there is 'no greater love' that a person can have than to 'lay down his life for his friends'. Their chosen theme was 'family' and they reminded us that we are all part of different families - but one family we are all part of the family of God. They also reminded us that one way we can show others love is to pray for our family members so we were invited to make a prayer chain. Here are some of Year 4's:

Today, we celebrated the life of our green patron house saint: Saint Richard and all came to school wearing something green to mark this speical day. Father Lamb kindly filmed a reflection of Saint Richard's life for us where we got to found out lots of interesting information about him.

After, we all watched a virtual tour of Droitwich's Sacred Heart Church where we got to see its stunning mosaics and sculptures. We were inspired to create our own mosaics and here are some examples from across the school:

This week we thought about all the people who have shown the virtues 'compassionate and loving' throughout the pandemic - our heroes. We then designed our own stamp to honour these heroes for a national competition by the Royal Mail. Mrs Rowe, our Chair of Governors, was so impressed with them when she came into visit school that she chose a winner and a runner up from each class to receive a prize! Our school winners were:

This week, all classes worked hard to produce some fantastic pictures of Jesus' journey to the cross inspired by the Stations of the Cross at St Chad's Cathedral. Each station was depicted by the following classes: 

Station 1: Reception
Station 2: Year 1
Station 3: Year 2
Station 4: Year 3
Station 5: Year 4
Station 6: Year 5
Station 7: Year 6
Station 8: Reception
Station 9: Year 1
Station 10: Year 2
Station 11: Year 3
Station 12: Year 4
Station 13: Year 5
Station 14: Year 6.

We shared the following presentation of the children's work along with the readings and prayers read by Year 6 with our families and friends of St Ambrose:

This half term, we have been focussing on the virtues attentive and discerning. As a school, we joined together on a virtual assembly to celebrate the children receiving a certificate who have been nominated by their peers and teachers for having demonstrated these virtues. 

From 8 December 2020 to 8 December 2021, Pope Francis has proclaimed a "Year of Saint Joseph" and today we celebrated his feast day. According to ancient tradition, Saint Joseph watches over and protects the Church; he is considered the model of perfect Christian life and the patron of a happy death as a school we spent time learning more about him. Father Lamb also recorded a lovely reflection for us all to watch on the day.

We also 'put our best foot forward' and wore odd shoes to school to raise money for our chosen Lenten charity: Father Hudson's. We managed to raise £210.60 to support this amazing charity who help people in need and work to improve their quality of life.

Father Lamb's Reflection - St Joseph

Each class spent time thinking about the past year and all the things that they are grateful for in their lives. We then updated our Thank You tree, for all to see.

We celebrated yellow house saint's feast day today by all wearing something yellow. Father Lamb kindly taught us all about the life of Saint Chad, which we all found really interesting.

At 10.00am, Father Lamb celebrated Mass for the whole school and this was live-streamed from our school hall. Afterwards, pupils in Year 6, Year 3 and Year 4 had the opportunity to adore the Blessed Sacrament, experiencing the real presence of Jesus Christ in their lives. It was an uplifting opportunity to offer our own thoughts and prayers for vocations in quiet reflection. In the afternoon, Year 5, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had the opportunity to do the same with Mr Moran and Father Lamb.

To celebrate Saint Valentine's day, we held a community bake off event. We were delighted with all the entries and it was clear a lot of joy had gone into the baking. What a lovely way to celebrate God's love for us all.

This half term, we have been focussing on the virtues grateful and generous. We have been growing to be grateful for our gifts, developing them to the full so that we can be generous in the service of others. Well done to all the children who were nominated by their teachers and parens who received a certificate today.

Reception and Year 1 joined in with Mass virtually this week and listened carefully to what Father Lamb talked to them about. Take a look at some of Reception's reflections:

It was Saint Nicholas Owen's feast day on the 22nd January, who is blue house team's patron saint. We celebrated his life today by starting our morning learning about his life from Father Lamb and in the afternoon for 'Well-being Wednesday', Miss Holtom challenged us to take part in some activities. Can you guess from the photos what we had to do?

Father Lamb's Reflection

Now that we are back in Ordinary time, Mrs Brocklesby asked our children to send in some photos of their updated home prayer tables.

As a school, we started off celebrating one of our school's house saints by listening to Father Lamb talk about the life of Saint Wulstan and leading us in prayer.

All pupils we then encouraged to design their own Catholic church because Saint Wulstan believed that country people should have the opportunity to go to Mass so he encouraged the building of churches on rural manors. Some pupils were in school designing their churches whereas some were in at home learning remotely. Here are our winning entries:

Next, we created a whole school reflection prayer book. We got to choose to either write a prayer or to choose our favourite Bible quote and decorate it for our special book. Here are some examples of the chosen quotes:

In the afternoon, Miss Holtom challenged us all to take part in at least one of the following activities: go on a walk and spot things that are red (Saint Wulstan is the patron saint of red house team), bake something red, design a Saint Wulstan inspired stained glass window or create a fact-file about his life. We were blown away with everyone's enthusiasm whilst taking part in these activities.

This year, each class learnt to sign a Christmas song and this was collated into a video for our families to watch. We wanted to spread a little Christmas joy after a difficult 2020 of not being able to see our loved ones so we learnt the following songs:

Reception - Little Donkey

Year 1 - Frosty the Snowman

Year 2 - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Year 3 - When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney

Year 4 - Mary's Boy Child

Year 5 - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Year 6 - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Each class also wrote a prayer together which was shared in the performance. Here is an example:

Dear Lord,

Please help us this Christmas time to remember the real meaning of Christmas and to help us prepare for your coming. We pray for those families affected by COV-ID 19 that they experience your love and are comforted by it.

Amen

This afternoon, Y6 took part in a Vocations workshop where they learnt lots about the different vocations in the Church and what people have been called to do by God in their different roles. They had the opportunity to ask lots of different questions and had a fun afternoon.

Bambinelli Sunday is a beautiful tradition that was started by Pope St. John Paul II and is celebrated on Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent. Thousands of people usually come to St. Peter's Square bringing the Baby Jesus figurines from their creches and nativity scenes; then, at the time of the Pope's Angelus address, he blesses all the little figures of the Child Jesus.

In preparation, all our children made their own special Baby Jesus figurines, which Father Lamb blessed virtually. These were then brought home so that our children could find a special place for their Baby Jesus in their homes to serve as a reminder of the real meaning of Christmas.

Today was the feast of our patron saint of our school: St Ambrose. Miss Holtom led the school in a virtual assembly all about his life and introduced us to the theme of our day: 'Who is God Calling us to be?' We spent time reflecting on this and our work is celebrated on our entrance corridor windows.

Year 6 also spent time doing their own research about his life and created some artwork to celebrate his life.

In the afternoon, in our classes. we were fortunate to take part in zoom calls with Sister Margaret (Sisters of Charity of St Paul the Apostle) and enjoyed learning about her calling from God and her life as a religious sister.

This evening, our Y6 pupils received the Sacrament of Confirmation at 7pm. It was livestreamed for all our families who were not able to join us in the church in person due to COV-ID restrictions.

Today, five Year 6 pupils led the whole school in a virtual Remembrance service ending in a two-minute silence where we remembered the sacrifice of everyone who has fought in the wars. They also shared with us why poppies are important and why we should support the Royal British Legion. Afterwards, the whole school had the opportunity to make their own poppy on a wooden disc to commemorate the day.

Today, we wore something red to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians and all those who suffer for their beliefs. We spent time thinking about these people and focussed our prayers on them.

Did you know that Christians are the most persecuted people in the world?

This afternoon, we came together as a whole school to honour Mary in a virtual rosary service. Three of our Y5 pupils along with two children from Y5 and Y4 led the service.