Church


A Master Class with Nigel Edmondson

Year six had a very special ‘Feel Good Friday’ today as the walked down to see Nigel Edmondson in his Levens’ studio this afternoon to kick-start our collaborative art project inspired by God’s creation.

Nigel talked to us about his work, his inspirations and some of his techniques. He then demonstrated how he uses his tools and machinery to create clay tiles.  After that, we began to experiment with our ideas using a range of objects that Nigel uses for his own pieces to create nature-inspired tiles.

We all learnt so much and feel so inspired following our special afternoon.  Year six will be working together to plan this whole-school project and act as mentors so that every pupil can explore this medium and create their own tiles.  These will be displayed together as a permanent art installation in our school hall.

Look out for more news on our project soon!


Multi-Faith Week

We have learnt so much this week during our focus on the sacred texts of four different religions – Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism.

Each day, every class learnt about one of these religions with one of our four class teachers which culminated in sharing all our learning in our Celebration Assembly on Friday morning.

On Friday we also reflected on what we had enjoyed about our learning and why it is important to learn about religions followed by millions of people both in Britain and across the world.


Levens School Remembers

We have been involved in making poppies with James Cropper PLC during our week of remembrance.

Children from key stage used the kits provided by the Burneside company to create a display of beautiful poppies at their plant during Remembrance weekend.

Last Friday, pupils from school walked down to St. John’s for our special service.  We were all wearing poppies that we had made using recycled materials, Each class laid a wreath at the memorial made in school and we donated money to the British Legion Poppy Appeal.


Children in Need

We have enjoyed two incredible days of fundraising for Children in Need and have reached our best every total of £404.24!

Thank you to all our pupils and their families for supporting this amazing charity with huge enthusiasm and generosity.  Your efforts will make such a difference to children all across the UK.


Harvest Service

Yesterday morning we enjoyed giving thanks for God’s creation and this year’s ‘harvest’ at our special service held in School.  The extreme rain and wind on Friday morning made it impossible for us to walk safely to church.

Our service included contributions from children across school who had each prepared poems, art work and prayers; or shared some of their learning about Harvest.  Our years 5+6 pupils shared their research on how food is distributed unfairly across the world.  Although there is enough food in the world to feed everyone and no one should be without food; there is hunger simply because food is not distributed equally, so millions of people have too much, whilst others never have enough.  This message has encouraged us to think more carefully about how we waste food in our own homes.

We are very grateful to all our families and the wider community for their food gifts.  These will be distributed to our local foodbanks in the next few days to support families in our locality who are struggling to feed their families.


Giving thanks for our Queen

We have been remembering our remarkable Queen in this national period of mourning during our assemblies this week.

What words would you use to describe our Queen?  We found there were many and so wide-ranging, including: fun, happy, kind, considerate, courageous, dutiful, constant, loyal, committed, determined, loving!

As we gave thanks for our Queen through our reflections, memories and prayers  in our assemblies, we have continued these discussions in our classrooms with our own special tributes and prayers.  These were shared by pupils from all over school at our final assembly of the week on Friday.


World Book Day Wonders

Here are a selection of our amazing sock puppets of special book characters made to celebrate World Book Day 2022. We came together as a school to share our puppets and awarded prizes of £5 book tokens, kindly donated by FOLS.

We all loved your creativity and marveled at the many different ways you thought of to decorate your puppets. Thank you for all your hard work. 

In Assembly, Rev Bryan’s told us all about one of the most famous books in the world – The Bible. It is made up of different types of writing like poems, letters and biographies and was written by lots of different men and women. He showed us some Bibles written in different languages too – the one pictured below is in Hebrew.

After school, FOLS held a second hand book and hot chocolate stall – it was really popular and was great to see such a buzz around books with children recommending titles to each other and spotting books by authors they love – all for a bargain price! Thank you to FOLS for running this and to all who kindly donated and bought such lovely quality books which have now found new homes.

 


Experience Church

This week, we were treated to another of the “experience” series of events by St. Johns church. We’ve previously enjoyed experience Easter and experience Christmas, this time was “experience Church”.

Arriving at church, we found 6 stations waiting for us – each one representing a part of the church and service that the church provides. These included: the font (welcoming); the pulpit (teaching); the prayer desk (praying); stained glass windows (serving) and the altar (celebrating). At each station, we were encouraged to think about how the church serves all of these different functions. We also took part in a special activity to represent each station.

The sixth and final station was saved until the end. Everyone sat down in front of the great wooden door in the side of the church. Here, we learned that the church shares – part of the job is to share the ideas of Christianity with others. The things that we learn in church are designed to be taken out into the world and shared with others. I wonder if any of our children have shared what they learned with you?

Thanks to everyone from St Johns Church who helped to organise and staff this experience for us – it is greatly appreciated!


Anti-Bullying Week

In School this week, we have all been talking about ‘One Kind Word’ which has been the theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2021.   The week began with an assembly exploring the kind words that we can use in our daily interactions that can make the biggest difference to someone’s day; their life and their mental wellbeing.

We should all make a stand by challenging any unkind behaviour that we witness and each class has completed activities during the week about how to respond to different situations; how to seek help and how to support others who may need our help.

Our ‘Odd Socks Day’ was embraced by everyone on Monday too……


Boxes of Hope Revisited

In assembly today we celebrated the wonderful pupils and families of Levens CE School who have made Boxes of Hope. Our grand total this year is 40! This is an amazing achievement and fantastic testament to the empathy and support that pupils want to offer to others this Christmas time. A huge thank you to all who put a box together this year. Your gifts will really make a difference to a child and family who do not have as much as you.