Help Please – bring items for

our food bank Monday-

Wednesday each week.

No matter how big or small, these food

items help

change

people’s

lives!

Summer Edition 2016 Only

50p

2

CONTENTS p3 Letter from Mrs Arundell

p4-5` Faith Friends Facts

p6-7 Interview with Duggie Dug Dug

p8-9 Sikhism in Year 4

p10 Pilgrimmage to Aylesford

p11 Gospel: The Good Samaritan

p12 Prayer Corner

p13 Golden Table

p14 Thank You Thursday

p15 Spirit Years (Y6 song)

p16-7 Poetry Corner

p18 Art Competition

p19 Creativity: The Calming of the Storm

p20 Door of Mercy

p21 Your Voice: Bhangra

p22 Letter from Sr Chris

p23 RE Week at St. Mary’s

p24 Fun Corner

Bible Humour

How do you study the Bible?

You Luke into it.

When was Adam born?

A little before Eve.

Why can’t you play cards on Noah’s boat?

Because Noah sat on the deck.

Why was Adam a famous runner?

Because he came first in the human race.

R.E Week at S.t Mary's

On Monday we were learning about The Good Samaritan and had a junior

assembly which was run by Mrs.Arundell. During the assembly Mrs

Arundell told the juniors what an exciting week she had planned for us.

On Tuesday we drew and painted a picture of Our Lady for a school

competition and whoever is lucky enough to win the competition their

painting will be transformed into a stain glass window in our school, how

exciting! On Tuesday the Juniors had Duggie Dug Dug who came in to

teach us about rock and R.E together; he makes up awesome songs.

On Wednesday Bhangra dancers came in and taught us Bhangra which

was fun to learn because it was so different.

On Thursday the whole school (nursery to Year 6) had a school trip and as

it is the Year of Mercy we got to walk through the Door of Mercy. Going to

Aylesford was very special as it only happens every four years in our

school.

On Friday the Infants had their turn with Duggie Dug Dug while the

Juniors were creating a picture for a NATRE Art competition that was set

for the whole of England. WOW!

This week was so fun, Thank you Miss. Jackson and Mrs Arundell and all

the other teachers for making it happen, and thank you for joining in S.t

Mary's and all of our visitors!

By Matilda - Class H ,Year 3, a Faith Friend of St Mary's

Letter from Sr Chris As a Foundation Governor I was delighted to be able to

participate in St Mary‟s RE Week. The opening Assembly on Pope

Francis‟ encyclical letter „Laudato Si’ challenged us to take care of

our earth and of one another. In small practical ways we can make

our world a better place. Yes, each one of us, however young or old,

really can make a difference!

I was thrilled to see the children so animated and engaged at the

Duggie Dug Dug crazy praise party with such imaginative use of

puppetry, song and jaw-dropping scientific experiments. One of

our Sisters was working in the Convent garden next door to the

school while the first performance was taking place and was

intrigued to know what was going on in the Hall!

The Sisters of Mercy continue to take a prayerful interest in St Mary‟s. This Jubilee Year of

Mercy is of course a special year for us. Pope Francis has encouraged every Catholic to make

a pilgrimage through one of the many Holy Doors of Mercy set up in places of worship around

the world, and so the entire school „family‟ of staff, students and parents set off on pilgrimage

to Aylesford Priory to walk through its Holy Door. It was moving to see our children crossing

that important threshold so full of faith, wanting to be „merciful like the Father‟. The open-air

Mass was a joy-filled occasion. The weather held to allow us to have a picnic lunch in the

beautiful surroundings of the Priory.

The Food and Fellowship Evening achieved its aim of celebrating our diversity as a school

community. On arrival we placed a pin on a map and were given a badge to proudly proclaim

our place of origin. I was glad to find that I was not the only Geordie there! It was great fun

experiencing a little taste of Poland, Bulgaria, Cameroons, Albania and the many other

foodstuffs lovingly prepared by parents from other cultures. Seeing two dads working to

complete a puzzle of the world out of various different jigsaw pieces left me with a vivid

image of how, together, we make a whole.

Sr. Chris Bendin RSM

3

Dear readers,

Welcome to our first edition of our Faith Friends magazine. 2015-6 has been

an exciting year for all of us and we have been having lots of fun with faith

over these last months. We have included lots of interesting articles for you

to keep you up-to-date with all of the happenings this year including RE

week, Other Faiths, Golden Table, Thank You Thursday and many more.

One of the biggest changes has been setting up our own school chaplaincy

group who have chosen to be called ‘St. Mary’s Faith Friends’. The group

consists of 8 Y3 children who have been chosen to help promote spirituality

and faith in the school. They have been doing an amazing job so far and

have offered up a number of their breaks and lunch time in order to help

with RE around the school. They have taken responsibility for this magazine

as well as other initiatives this year and they have been excellent role models

for other pupils.

It has been a pleasure to work with them this year. I hope you enjoy reading

all about their experiences and their findings this year and are as proud of

them as I am.

Happy reading and have a great Summer break.

With every good wish,

Mrs Arundell

4

Faith Friends Facts

What a Faith Friend is:

A Faith Friend is a responsible person who would give up

their lunch time or playtime to help the infants learn more

about religious things and to help them to be more

confident. A Faith Friend is also someone everyone can

rely on.

What a Faith Friend does:

A Faith Friend helps all the other classes to be more

religious. During Lent we all got together and set up a

prayer group where infants and juniors met outside the

staff room and wrote prayers to the cook, their teachers

and to their friends. Now we run ‘Thank You Thursday’

when the Infants and the Juniors can write thank you

notes to all the people in our school, for example to Mrs

Kingdon because she tidies up the school.

How a Faith Friend impacts the school:

They help children, especially the infants, to learn more

about God. It helps them because they do colouring about

it and most of them like to colour and learn about God at

the same time, rather than write about it.

Throughout the year we have heard Pupil Voice through books and RE questionnaires as well as feedback about different events. Here are some of the comments you have made about the Bhangra dancing:

“I absolutely loved Bhangra dancing, not

just because I’m from a Hindu culture but

because it was fun learning new steps

and having fun.”

“I loved the

Bhangra

dancing—it

was so fun to

learn some

new dancing.

It was active

and very

exciting. It was

nice to learn

more about a

different

religion

through

dance.”

“I absolutely loved the Bhangra

dancing. It was very energetic and

fun and I like the idea that we get

involved and how it is linked with

Religious Education.”

“I liked the Bhangra dancing because we learned a new dance and ...it was cool.”

20

The Door of Mercy is a special door you walk

through and there are lots of doors of Mercy around

the world to celebrate the Year of Mercy this year. Our

one is at the front of the school in the entrance door to

the foyer. It looks really pretty because it has lots of

flowers and children‟s prayers around it.

The Door of Mercy is a special door and when we

walk through it we think about Jesus and how we can

be merciful like him and the Father.

When Father John came we had a blessing outside the

door. I felt cleansed, loved and merciful. This is

important

because without mercy in this world, the world would

be a miserable place.

The Door of Mercy is very similar. It opens into a

church kind of room where we pray and think about

people who have shown mercy. We all went through

this on our school visit.

By Matilda

5

My favourite bit about being a Faith Friend:

My favourite bit about being a Faith Friend is when we

get to have interviews with people. Recently we have had

an interview with a children’s popstar called Duggie Dug

Dug. I also like it when we have meetings.

Why we were chosen to be Faith Friends:

All the 8 of us were chosen because the whole class relied

on us to do the job and Mrs Arundell (our teacher)

trusted all of us.

What I would like to do as a Faith Friend:

I would like to set up masses, help the infants a lot more,

have more magazines which we can write, encourage a

lot more juniors to come to Thank You Thursday and to

be able to run more groups like Thank You Thursday.

6

Interview with Duggie Dug Dug

1. What inspired you to create these songs?

Writing songs when I was a kid, aged 12. Some were

quite bad! Bible verses can inspire me or when someone

says something I think that would be a good idea. I also

hear words in Church that I like and think would be good

for a song. If I get an idea I can record it onto my phone

and keep little notes in there. It's like my idea bank!

2. How many years have you been doing this?

I have been working with children full time for about 21

years.

3. How many songs have you written?

I have written loads of song and can't keep track but I

would say over 150.

4. What is your favourite song so far?

That's a very hard question, although I really like Hi 5

and Glory & Honour. I like the ones with sign language.

19

Calming of the Storm

Throughout the school we have been learning about RE in a really fun way. Here are some

photos of a memorable RE lesson in Y1. Some of us were writing prayers, making puppets,

making a collage for the class display, acting out the story or painting a story scene. Can you

tell which is which?

18

Art Competition

We have had various art competitions, one of which was to design a stained glass window

of Our Lady which could be made into a proper stained glass window in the school.

The Sisters looked at all the

pictures for the stained glass

window competition,

attached are the pictures .

The winner is Isabel Daly

year 6 Class N. The runner

up is Poppy Wood Class I

and third is Amelia year 1

Class D

7

5. Do you like singing?

. I really enjoy singing. I also like the puppets, pies in the

face and crazy science and other awesome things.

6. What is your favourite part of your job?

It's awesome when you write songs and then people like

you sing them at school. I also run camps and it's exciting

when people sing my songs and encounter God. I don't just

want people to sing songs but to realise God is pretty

awesome.

7. What was your maximum crowd?

I once performed at Wembley where there were 40,000

people. I'm going to Africa to do work in Malawi. I have

been doing some big concerts there. We are going to be

working in a refugee camp in the summer in Malawi. We

will go to orphanages and schools too. The biggest thing I

did was in Tanzania with 80,000 people but whether it's a

big show or small, I love performing in front of an audience

and praising God at the same time.

8

We entered the Gurdwara and saw this enormous, beautiful building

which looked like a castle. It was decorated with chandeliers,

patterns on the carpet and small tiled patterns on the ceilings. Then

we met a lady called Mrs Gill and she took us to a place where we

took our shoes off and

left our pack lunches

there. We had to take

our shoes off to leave

all our thoughts

behind and just focus

on the Gurdwara. We

then went to the

bathroom to wash our

hands.

Mrs Gill and our teachers took us to a big room where all the Sikhs

were sitting on the floor praying. We brought some money and some

people brought in food. Once we put our money inside a box and food

we went on the floor and sat prayerfully . We then went to another

room called the Langar hall and we sat down and asked Mrs Gill some

questions. Mrs Gill told us that she would bring some food that we

could have and some of us liked it some of us didn’t and it looked like

pie. Miss Dineen put us in groups and Mrs Gill took us to the cafeteria

and we had some wraps with curry sauce.

17

I am there

I am there when it‟s moonlight, it‟s only dark you can see

I am there when the sun shimmers and sets far away

I am there when you call my name and the light in your

heart is dying

I am there when only the ocean‟s breeze can make it better

I am there when your heart starts glowing and your faith

journey has just begun

I am there when your thoughts are floating

I am there like the beautiful wonders of the world

I am there like the cool breeze of the morning air

I am there like the helpless people starving with an empty

tummy

I am there like a boomerang going out to spread the Word

and coming back to share the Word with you.

By Olivia

Class H

16

Here are some poems written by various children

Diamond poem

Mother

gentle holy

caring loving nurturing

lady comforter queen star

guiding shining comforting

peaceful blessed

Mary

By James Class G

Haiku

Mother of Jesus

Lady full of grace and love

Watching over us.

By Jeremy Class G

9

After that we went outside

to have our lunch. We also

got some play time playing

‘Family It’ and our mini play

time was only about half an

hour.

A few weeks later we had a

visitor called Amarbeer, he

was Mrs Gill’s son. Amarbeer

told us what happened a

very long time ago. It included the 5 KS. The 5 KS are items that the

Sikhs need to have with them or wear on them. Also we asked him

some questions.

A couple of days later we had

some Bhangra dancers and a

drummer who plays the music.

These Bhangra dancers came in

to teach us how to dance in

their style. From what we heard

lots of people enjoyed their

visit.

On that day we had an assembly

and two people from each class

performed in front of the whole

school.

By Lauren, Emily and Donald

Class 4I

10

Pilgrimage to Aylesford Joshua Year 1 Last Thursday the whole school went to Aylesford for a special Mass. We went as part of our RE week. We got there on big coach. It was a special feast day. We remembered St Peter and St Paul. First we went to the Rosary Way. We saw pictures on the wall about Jesus. Mrs Harkin asked us to answer questions. At the beginning of the Rosary Way there was some Holy Water. We blessed ourselves with the Holy Water. After that we went to the Peace Garden. It was very peaceful at the Peace Garden. There were lots of flowers there. We took a photo at the Peace Garden. Then it was time to go to the Door of Mercy. The Door of Mercy was so special. It looked like a church. We said a prayer at the Door of Mercy. Then we went to Mass. We sang lots of hymns.

15

All KS2 children were invited to complete a questionnaire about their

RE lessons, what they enjoyed about them and how to move forward.

The results were very positive with many people enjoying their RE but

some thought that the way forward was to include more creativity. We

hope that you will see that a lot more in our learning.

This was a song written by Y6 children

Spirit Years

Verse 1 Chorus

Heart beats fast Jesus died t save us all

Spirit will always last From evil

All of my fear suddenly He arose

Blows away somehow Sent the Spirit

One step closer To the apostles

It stayed with them

Chorus For a thousand years

Jesus died to save us all

From evil Bridge

He arose And all along

Sent the Spirit We all knew

To the apostles You will be there

It stayed with them The fire flame

For a thousand years Your love contains

Is always there

Verse 2 For a thousand years

We stand still For a thousand more

Holy Spirit we feel

How to be brave

How could the lord

Do this again

One step closer

14

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

_______________________

On Thursday we run a fun club for the

students at lunchtime and breaktime. We do

it with the Infants and the Juniors. We help

by handing out Thank You notes and spend

our breaks helping the younger children with

their writing. At the end of the day we hep to

give these notes out around the school.

People thank the cooks, cleaners, Mrs

Kingdon, teachers, family, friends and God.

When people receive the messages they feel

very happy. It makes their day shine as they

know someone is thankful for what they do. It

makes people feel like weight is carried away

by kindness.

During Lent and Advent we also helped

children to write their own promises and

prayers.

Our teachers give us the privilege to help out

with the most joyful events.

By Rose and Erin

Dear Mrs Arundell,

Thanks for running prayer group this

week. It gave me time to think about

things and now I feel fresh and alive.

Thank you

From Ben (Class M)

Dear Zach,

Thank you for letting me play

and being nice to me. Thank you

Finley L

To Miss Collins,

Thank you for making my worst

subject (Maths) my best subject.

From Katrina

I would like to thank Miss

McCann, Jodie and Eva for

being there for me through good

and bad times.

Raquel

Dear Cleaner,

Thank you for cleaning after school

and for tidying.

Love Sofia

11

During the Year of Mercy we have looked at the story of the Good

Samaritan. The Faith Friends wanted to share this Gospel with you .

When you read it this time, think about how you treat your

neighbour and how you would like to be treated.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “ „Love the Lord your God with all your heart ad soul and with all your strength and with all your mind‟ ; and, „Love your neighbour as yourself.‟ ” “ You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “ Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “ And who is my neighbour?” In reply Jesus said: “ A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own

donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. „ Look after him,‟ he said, „ and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have,‟ “ Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

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Faith Friends help to set up focal points for prayer and they help with

Prayer group also. They have been talking about their favourite prayers

to share with the school. Here is one of them.

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

Christ be with me, Christ be beside me,

Christ be before me, Christ be behind me,

Christ be at my right hand, Christ be at left hand,

Christ be with me everywhere I go,

Christ be my friend for ever and ever.

Amen

St. Patrick prayed many times a day,

sometimes around 100. He said this

prayer when he was scared and lonely

too. He knew Jesus would look after him.

Spend some time talking to

Jesus today and tell him how

you are feeling.

13

The Golden Table is an award that

you get when you are a good example.

It gives you an opportunity to have

some fun with the other winners. You

get a certificate and you get early

lunch. It makes you feel excited and

special because it gives you a chance

to have an award. Any person who behaves well and is a shining

example may go to the Golden Table and it shows how well you’ve

done throughout the week. I

like the way the table is all set

up for you and decorated with

golden cloths because it makes

you feel like a golden example

and really proud of yourself.

By Ruby and Ella May