Father Max welcomed Year 1 to St Mary's as the children learned about the Christian beliefs and practices associated with Baptism.

Year 3 and 4 visited the Jewish Synagogue to deepen our understanding of the roots of Judaism and to find out more about how Jewish people worship. It was fascinating to hear about some of the similarities and differences between the Christian and Jewish Faith. We learnt that men and women sit in different places during worship and that it is only the men that have to pray three times a day. We were shown the Torah and found out about how it is beautifully handwritten in Hebrew. We then shared some reflections of how the Jewish people were persecuted during the Holocaust and shared some refreshments together.
It was great to put all of our previous learning about Judaism into perspective and link our current learning about persecution in Christianity to the more recent victims of religious persecution.

Year 3 and 4 went to St Mary’s Church to find out how the Christian message has survived for over 2000 years.

We learnt about the history of Jesus by looking at the stained glass windows. Father Steffan what the Pentecost was and told us that it happened after Jesus’ ascension. We thought about what qualities the apostles needed in order to go out and spread God’s word and reflected on the Fruit of the Spirit.

Father Steffan then gave us some of the history of the church and showed us how the message is still spread today, using bible readings and sermons (teaching) and pictures. We also learnt that when a bishop confirms someone, Christians believe that the Bishop passes the Holy Spirit on and then tells them to, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.’