Spirituality Days – Hoole St. Michaels CE Primary School

We hold Spirituality Days because we are a faith school and believe that, because God is the Creator of all things, there are many links to be found between faith and life.

OFSTED is also very interested in the spiritual development of young people in our schools and look for evidence of it in their Inspections.

OFSTED says that a child’s spiritual development is shown by the:

ability to be reflective about their own beliefs, religious or otherwise, that inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values
sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them
use of imagination and creativity in their learning
willingness to reflect on their experiences.

We believe our Spirituality Days, Worship and SMSC lessons, as well as our Religious Education curriculum, help us deliver this.

Holy Week 2024

Honey Bees and Discovery Class: We really enjoyed Holy Week. We made bunting for Palm Sunday and talked about how exciting it would have been to be there to welcome Jesus. We then washed each other’s’ feet just as Jesus did. We had a last supper thinking about how the disciples felt.

Station 1 Gethsemane: After listening to the story when Jesus was arrested, we chose a stone and prayed for courage to stand up for what is right. White ribbons were then tied to branches as we thought about how God gives us the strength we need.

Station 2 The courtyard: Atlantis Class enjoyed their outdoor worship as they thought about how Peter denied knowing Jesus. We watched tablet fizz away as we thought about how God forgives us. We also enjoyed the ‘Flying saucers’ which melted away in our mouths as we prayed for forgiveness.

Station 3 Golgotha: We learnt about the symbol of the cross. We listened to the story when Jesus was crucified on a cross. We made our own crosses made from twigs. We remembered how we have a loving God who forgives everyone who is truly sorry.

Station 4 The Garden Tomb: We listened to the story of the women at the tomb. We all had a seed ball which just looked dead. We planted the seeds in the earth where it will break into new life and shoots will appear in the soil. This reminds us of Jesus’ resurrection. We wrote a prayer for Hope on a lollipop stick next to our seeds.

School Vision Day- Feb 2024

On Friday 9^th February, we held a ‘School Vision Day’ Our hall was divided into 8 stations where we could reflect on our Christian Values. Each class visited the hall throughout the day and completed the reflection activities. It was a wonderful way to PAUSE, CONNECT and WONDER. We continue to have PCW time in school regularly to develop our own spirituality.

Children’s comments:

‘It was a calming day where we learnt more about Jesus. I liked thinking about my hopes and dreams.’ Kadey.

‘My favourite station was the ‘Mary and Martha’ as it focused on the bible story when Jesus visited their home. I loved it.’ Murphy.

‘I found it really interesting because it helped me focus on what I am able to achieve.’ My favourite station was ‘Hopes and Dreams.’ I really liked helping my buddy.’ Maddie.

‘I liked all the different stations which helped me learn about God. I enjoyed helping the younger children on the Forest Thanks station where we thought about God’s wonderful creation.’ James.

Thy Kingdom Come Week – June 2023

This year, we explored how we could bring God’s kingdom to our school. Each class explored how our words and our actions can make this a reality. We used all our work to transform our entrance hall into school, showing everyone who enters our school that we are all trying to live our God’s kingdom on Earth.

Hour of Prayer June 2023

During our Thy Kingdom Come Week we took part in the diocese wide Hour of Prayer. Each class prayed for the work of the charity Mary’s Meals and found out about all their much needed work.

Spirituality Days-9th – 10th June 2022

As a school, we had a day outdoors focusing on praise and thanksgiving!

We gave thanks for God’s creation (joy) by creating our own masterpieces using natural materials and the grass as our canvas. We read the story of “Wonderful Earth” by Butterworth and Inkpen and then worked together to reflect on what brings us happiness in God’s world.

We gave thanks for our families and friends and the gift of love. We made paper-chain people and decided who we would like to keep in our prayers, wrote our own ribbon prayers to thank God for someone we love and wrote a prayer of praise for our own treasure box.

We gave thanks for our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. We made Jerusalem crosses, to remind us our faith started in Jerusalem, but has now spread all over the globe. Also to show that the cross is a symbol of Christian faith all over the world. Our ‘Static Electric Prayers’ were written to enable us to pray for a situation in the news.

We finally, prayed for peace in our world. We thought about the different people in different countries we wanted to pray for. We also wrote down problems in our world and then wrote prayers for them, so we could physically cover the problems with prayers.