We finished off this academic year with a lovely Mass in church celebrating the past year and with an assembly in the afternoon where we found out which pupils our teachers and classmates had voted for as demonstrating the virtues attentive and discerning this half term. We also wished Miss Ballard and Miss Wright all the best for their weddings over summer!

Today we had a super-learning day all about our mission statement: 'we do our best by following Jesus'. Following work staff and pupils have completed throughout the year, in our classes we worked together to showcase how we can live out our mission and presented it in an end of day assembly. Reception showed us the importance of praying and Year 1 highlighted how we can be kind and helpful. Year 2 sang a wonderful song about how we can be loving and Year 3 talked about the importance of forgiving people like Jesus did. Year 4 shared their gifts and talents and Year 5 highlighted how we can show understanding and be faithful. Year 6 wowed us with a mission impossible sketch teaching us that we should trust and be respectful. It was a fantastic learning experience!

Y6 Pupil: 'It was fun working together as a class to think about how we could get the message across to the rest of the school about trusting and being respectful like Jesus. It was nice seeing what the other classes had been up to as well. My favourite presentation was ours!'
Y3 Pupil: 'Our assembly was really interesting because we got to be creative and think about how we can do our best by following Jesus. We taught everyone about forgiveness that we should forgive people because this is what Jesus wants us to do.'
YR Pupil: 'In assembly we said 'we do our best by following Jesus' by praying.'
Y1 Pupil: 'We told everyone that it is important to be kind and helpful. I can do this by loving people.'
Y5 Pupil: 'It is important we listen to what Jesus is telling us to do and we drew some pictures in class to show how we can do this and be faithful and showed them to the rest of the school.'
Y3 Pupil: 'Our assembly was really good because we learnt how to follow Jesus' footsteps by praying, forgiving, loving, being kind and respectful and it was great seeing what everyone had done in the day to be ready for the assembly. I think everyone understands our mission now.'

To help raise money for Saint Ambrose Parish funds, Miss Ballard organised a whole school talent show. We were so impressed with the God-given talents that our pupils showcased in the glorious sunshine. We had dancing, singing, joke telling, poetry recitals, football skills and so much more! We raised £105.

At our school fete, we presented Father Lamb with a gift made from by each class to thank him for his 30 years dedicated service to Saint Ambrose parish. What a talented bunch we are - putting our God given talents to good use!

Ricky and Filip from Y6 volunteered to come and talk to Year 1 all about their important vocation as altar servers on Thursday afternoon. Year 1 were captivated by what they had to say.

On Thursday afternoon, Year 3 celebrated that they had made their First Holy Communion on the weekend all together. First, they went to church for Benediction and then they had a party in the hall.

Our wonderful Year 3 children made their First Holy Communion on Saturday. It was a wonderful occasion where they joined the rest of the faith community at God's table and received the same Eucharist which all the saints also received. Thank you to Mrs Holder who prepared the children so well for the day.

Parent comment: 'Thank you for all of your hard work preparing the children from their First Holy Communion. My son enjoyed the lessons, the Mass and the party.'

Our feedback questionnaire indicated that all parents felt their child was well prepared to receive the Sacrament of First Holy Communion, that their child speaks positively about their experience of preparing for it, that the Mass was well organised, prayerful and had a holy atmosphere.

On Wednesday 8th June, our Year 5 children hosted a bingo afternoon for parents and parishioners as part of their Mini-Vinnies project to raise money for charity. The children did everything, from waitressing and making drinks, to bingo calling and even explaining a false call. Watching the children descend on tables in the breaks to offer drinks, biscuits, cakes and raffle tickets was similar to watching a swarm of bees land on a daffodil - we were so proud of them and how hard they worked. In one afternoon, they managed to raise an amazing £316.10. They will be donating half the money to their chosen charity and half to St Ambrose Parish funds.

Our Year 6 pupils, led the whole school in a Rosary service to honour Our Lady in the month of May. They chose to say the Glorious Mysteries and led the procession around the school. It was a lovely sunny afternoon where we prayed for peace around the world.

Year 6 have demonstrated the virtues of grateful and generous this week on their residential to the Pioneer Centre. They used their God given talents to challenge themselves to overcome fears and to work together as a team to achieve their full potential. They showed that they were grateful for these talents, for the two nights their teachers spent away with them and for the opportunity to be able to go away with their friends after the pandemic.

During their Easter break, some of our Year 6 pupils depicted the Stations of the Cross in St Ambrose Church to their parents and parishioners. It was a very poignant service and we are really proud of how hard they worked on their freeze-frames and readings. Well done, Year 6!

Governor: 'what a thought provoking Stations of the Cross. The children showed reverence throughout and delivered a very meaningful message. It was good to see so many families in church. Well done.'

This week, KS2 led prayer services to help us prepare for Holy Week which is in our Easter break. Y3 started by sharing the events of Palm Sunday with the whole school on Monday. Next Year 5 depicted the Last Supper on Tuesday where we saw Jesus breaking the bread and Judas leaving to go and betray Jesus. On Thursday, Year 4 shared with us the events that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane where we learnt about the importance of praying to God in times of need. Then Year 6, shared the events leading up to Jesus' death in a Stations of the Cross service.

Governor A: "The children of Year 6 delivered a most memorable portrayal of this solemn Holy Week service on the last day of the Spring Term.
Whilst they enthusiastically conveyed the story of Jesus' final journey and crucifixion through prayer, readings and song the children demonstrated that they had a clear knowledge and understanding of the occasion.
Many of the children have long passages to read our loud to their peers sitting in front of them. They articulated their words with clear annunciation and at a good pace that made it easy to hear from my position, right at the back of the hall.
This most memorable service will inevitably remain within the minds of all the children as they progress through life's journey and come to this time in the Church's calendar - it certainly will with me!"

Charlie in Y6 wanted to do something else to show our support for the people of Ukraine at this difficult time. With Miss Holtom, he has organised for everyone to colour in a flag, created a prayer ribbon station and a prayer tree. We are really impressed!

We are so proud of our Year 5 pupils who have worked really hard over the past few months to learn different songs to perform in our Emmaus MAC Pyramid concert. They learnt a range of hymns and Brit Pop showcasing their amazing God-given talents.

"We really enjoyed working as a team and signing with our friends all day. It was a brilliant show."

"We really enjoyed the Brit Pop songs and loved to see the parents get involved in the audience."

"I really liked performing our own song which was Catatonia's Road Rage."

As part of their Life Skills curriculum, Year 6 were tasked to be teachers for the week. They planned activities for each other to share about their hobbies and different skills sets. We had fantastic teaching sessions on learning to speak polish, how to perform martial arts, how to create artwork from hama beads, how to be a competent swimmer, how to safety perform rugby tackles and how to improve goalkeeping skills to name but a few. Year 6 shared their God-given talents with each other and demonstrated our Catholic Mission of doing their best by following Jesus' example (by sharing and helping one another to grow) expertly. Well done, Year 6.

Miss Holtom challenged us to think about our Catholic Mission: 'We do our best by following Jesus' and what this means. In our classes we all discussed what this looks like and how we can be like Jesus and put our ideas onto a thought-shower. We understand that we need to be kind to each other because Jesus was kind to everyone he met. We know that we need to show love to others and help those in need because Jesus helped many people who were blind, sick or outcasts and we can do this by supporting lots of different charity work. We also know that we should say our prayers regularly because Jesus taught us to pray and it is a way to be close to him. Take a look at some of our mind maps!

Y1: 'I enjoyed doing this because I liked thinking about how we can be like Jesus. Jesus is really important because he made us.'

Y1: 'I liked working all together.'

Today, Father Lamb held a special Mass for our Y3 children where they had the opportunity to be 'curious and active' - our virtues for this half term. Father Lamb spoke about the different parts of the Mass with them and answered their intriguing questions.

To celebrate our red house patron saint's feast red we all wore something red to school today and spent time exploring Worcester Cathedral - where St Wulstan was Bishop of Worcester for many years. Do you like our pictures?

Y6 Pupil - 'I enjoyed drawing the picture of Worcester Cathedral and celebrating St Wulstan on his feast day.'

Y4 Pupil - 'It was interesting to listen all about St Wulstan and learn some new things.'

Y4 Pupil - 'I enjoyed drawing the cathedral because it was fun and challenging.'

The Blessing of the Bambinelli is a Roman tradition, celebrated by the Pope each year on the third Sunday of Advent. This week we made our own Bambinelli's, which Father Lamb blessed for us this afternoon. Now we all have a baby Jesus to take home with us to remind us that he is coming to be with us.

This evening, our Year 6 Confirmandi were confirmed by His Grace, Archbishop Bernard. We are extremely proud of how well they all prepared for this important stage of their life.

Parent Comment: 'Thank you for all that you did to support my son to prepare for this important Sacrament'.

Parent Comment: 'It was all very well organised and very special that the Archbishop was there.'

Questionnaire Feedback:  100% of parents agreed with the statements: 'My child speaks positively about their experience of preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation', 'The Confirmation Mass was prayerful and had a holy atmosphere' and 'My child was supported, if necessary, to choose a confirmation saint.'

To mark this very important day in the Church's calendar, Year 5 led the whole school in a prayer service about Mary. We were asked to think about Mary and the type of person she was and together we gave thanks to God for all she did and still does for us. Afterwards, we were challenged in Key Stage One to make a black out prayer from the Hail Mary and in Key Stage Two an illuminous prayer to mark this very special day when Mary said 'yes' to God.

Today was the feast day of our Patron Saint: Saint Ambrose. We all came to school dressed in black and yellow to remind us that Saint Ambrose is the patron saint of bees and beekeepers. Legend has it that when Ambrose was a baby some bees settled in his mouth but did not sting him. Instead, they dropped honey in his mouth and from that day he spoke sweetly and everyone loved listening to him.

In the morning, Year 5 went to Church and the rest of the school joined in virtually. We then had the rest of the day off our normal timetables to do fun activities. In Key Stage Two, we translated key words about St Ambrose into italian because he was the Bishop of Milan and had a go at making our own printing blocks of a bee which we then used printing ink to print! In Key Stage One, we made a word art collage from words we thought were important about Saint Ambrose and printed our own beehives using bubble wrap.

We all had a lovely day celebrating the life of Saint Ambrose. 

This afternoon, Tharushi visited Year 6 to share about the wonderful plan God has for everyone. She reminded us that we are all called by God and we had fun learning about the different vocations in the church.

'It was really fun to think about what our vocation might be e.g. whether I might get married or be single or have a role in the church.'

This week, we raised aware of bullying prevention in school and wore odd socks at the start of the week to remind ourselves that it is ok to be different. Our theme for the week was: 'One kind word'. We thought about how we can live out our Catholic Mission: 'we do our best by following Jesus' by being kind to others and saying nice things. Miss Holtom challenged us to cause a ripple effect of kindness around the school. Year 6 decided to write not just one kind word about someone else but several. They put these in kindness balloons and these will be popped and shared over the next few weeks.

Y2 Pupil - 'This week was nice because there was no arguments and we all tried hard to not do bad things. We tried our best to be nice to others and share God's love.'

KS2 Pupil Voice: 97% of pupils enjoyed Anti-Bullying Week and 99% of pupils understand that bullying is something that happens over a period of time and is on purpose.

Year 6 led a poignant Remembrance Service and asked each class to share their own class prayer after we observed two minute silence to remember all those who have fought to keep us safe.

Y3 Pupil - 'I really liked taking part in the two minute silence. Because 1 it helped me remember all those who had died for us and 2 it was nice to have a quiet classroom which gave me time to think.'

Y4 Pupil - 'I loved it because it was one day of the year where you can properly remember all those who have died in the war. We learnt a lot of things about the war and we found out all about why poppies are around on Remembrance Day.'

Today, we celebrated the children in our school who have been noticed demonstrating the virtues eloquent and truthful by their friends and teachers.

Our Year 6's led their first Rosary Service as a class at 2pm on Friday afternoon and their chosen theme was caring for God's creation. They chose to share the Joyful mysteries with everyone and we all joined in together to ask Mary, our Mother, to help us care for our common home.

Y3 Pupil - 'I enjoyed saying the Our Father because it was of my favourite prayers and I like saying it in church on Sundays.'

Y2 Pupil - 'I liked praying to Mary because we were praying to Jesus' mother.'

Y6 Pupil - 'I enjoyed being part of leading this service and we got to read to the whole school.'

Y4 Pupil - 'I quite liked it because we got to pray to Mary and knew she was listening to us. We asked her to help us make our world a better place.'

On the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, we had a lovely animal blessing service on the playground led by Year 6. It was lovely welcoming pets into school for Father Lamb's blessing.

Y3 Pupil - 'I liked this very much because I love animals and it was nice seeing Father Lamb bless them. It was the feast day of St Francis who is my class saint - we did a bit of writing about him and I also drew a picture. I enjoyed the day.'

Y4 Pupil - 'It was really nice seeing all the animals being blessed because we couldn't do it last year because of COVID. It was special because God made animals and He asked Adam to name them all carefully.'

It was the time of year again, where we got to show our generosity and celebrate Harvest! It was a fantastic opportunity for us to share our St Ambrose values and community spirit by supporting local families. We were really impressed by the number of donations that came into school and know that this will make such a different to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Y4 Pupil - 'Every morning when I came in I saw the amount of food being donated doubling which was amazing. It is really important that we did this because it's not just people who are poor who need food its also people who had to give up their jobs because of COVID.'

This week, Year 2 led an assembly all about their class saint: Saint Terese of Liseux. They explained how we can all make a difference like Therese by being kind to others. Everyone was asked to reflect on how we can do this and we wrote on kindness flowers. These all look lovely on our entrance display!

Father Lamb also came over to talk to Year 2 about Terese and they really enjoyed celebrating her Feast Day together in their own clothes on Friday.

This summer, top climate scientists around the world said:

“Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5°C and increase further with 2°C.”

2021 Report, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Today, we joined in with CAFOD's national assembly and learnt about some amazing people protecting the Amazon rainforest. After, we all made a pledge to help protect our environment and to do our bit to help save God's creation.