The Season of Lent 2024

The season of Lent started on Ash Wednesday. We held an Ash Wednesday reflection and 'Celebration of the Word' in school and distributed ashes. Our Prayer leaders helped us reflect upon our own lives and how fortunate many of us are compared to others. We offered prayers to for the children of the Holy Land. 

Within our classes, our Lenten Displays follow the liturgical colours and the children have made their Lenten promise, showing how they can closer to Jesus this Lenten season. 

 November is the month of Remembrance

On November 1st we celebrated All Saints Day with a Mass in school. Fr Foley led us in prayers and the celebration of the Eucharist. The lives that the saints led inspire us to be the best that we can be and to be Christ's hands and feet. November 2nd was the feast of ALL Souls where we remember those who are in Heaven or who are waiting to enter heaven. This month, Year Two showcased their Remembrance assembly with the whole school and parents too. They reminded us about why we wear poppies and why it is important to honour those who lost their lives in war. Our Stay and Pray, led by Y6 focused on counting our blessings and being grateful for the gifts that we have and the lives that we lead. 

May is the month dedicated to Our Lady

May is the month dedicated to Our Lady. May is the Patron Saint of our school. St Marie is French for St Mary. During May we dedicate our prayers to Mary and ask her to look after us and our school community. Our main hall display is a tribute to Mary and the children will be writing their own prayers to Our Lady in class. We will explore the different titles given to Mary and the various places that she has appeared to believers over the years. 

Eastertide

During this season of Eastertide, the 50 days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost, we hear all about how Jesus appeared to the Apostles and Disciples after His resurrection. 

                             Lent 2023

During this season of Lent, we GIVE, ACT, PRAY. All of the children have made their Lenten promises and have taken home their St Joseph Penny Caritas Boxes. 

November is the month of the Holy Souls

HRH Queen Elizabeth II: RIP

Lent at St Marie’s

November

November is the month that we remember the Holy Souls and Saints. During November, we offer our prayers up for the Holy Souls and we think about the lives of the saints. Many of these saints showed great bravery and faith. Through learning about these inspirational people, we hope, we too, can live 'saintly lives', always growing closer to Christ. We all have our own favourite saints whom we pray to and ask them to guide us in our lives.

May the Souls of the Faithful departed,

Through the Mercy of God,

Rest in Peace

Amen.

During November we also commemorate all of those who died as a result of war. The poppies remind you of those battlefields long ago and the hope for peace. 

June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

May is the month dedicated to Our Lady, the patron of our school

Lent is the season of preparation and growing closer to God

The Epiphany

On Wednesday we celebrated the Feast of The Epiphany. What gifts would you have given to the baby Jesus? What gifts can you offer up to Christ today?

                                Advent

        Pope Francis tells us : 'Advent is the season for remembering the closeness of God'

November

November is the month that we remember the Holy Souls and Saints. During November, we offer our prayers up for the Holy Souls and we think about the lives of the saints. Many of these saints showed great bravery and faith. Through learning about these inspirational people, we hope, we too, can live 'saintly lives', always growing closer to Christ. We all have our own favourite saints whom we pray to and ask them to guide us in our lives.

May the Souls of the Faithful departed,

Through the Mercy of God,

Rest in Peace

Amen.

During November we also commemorate all of those who died as a result of war. The poppies remind you of those battlefields long ago and the hope for peace. 

June is the month of the Sacred Heart.

During June we dedicate our prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We remind ourselves of the love that Jesus has for us and how much we love him. The Sacred Heart is represented in many different ways from stained glass windows, to statues and prayer cards. 

St Paul's letter to the Corinthians reminds us about love and of the greatest commandment that Jesus gave us- to love one another as I have loved you. 

                    Our Lady, Pray For Us

May is the month dedicated to Our Lady. Our school is named after Mary the mother of Jesus- St Marie's. Marie means Mary in French. As part of our home learning tasks we have written some prayers to Our Lady and have asked her to watch over us all during this time.

                                              ADVENT

Advent has arrived and it is such a special season. All of the teachers have made their class Advent wreaths, the Advent Prayer display is up and the crib is filled with straw and the animals, all awaiting their special guests. Each of the class prayer areas are Advent themed and our Prayer leaders will soon be busy preparing class liturgies. Light the Advent Candle One...now the waiting has begun. 

November

November is the month that we remember the Holy Souls and Saints. During November, we offer our prayers up for the Holy Souls and we think about the lives of the saints. Many of these saints showed great bravery and faith. Through learning about these inspirational people, we hope, we too, can live 'saintly lives', always growing closer to Christ. We all have our own favourite saints whom we pray to and ask them to guide us in our lives.

                Mass for the Start of the New School Year 

We started our new school year with a lovely Mass celebrated by Fr Francis. Sadly, it was Fr Francis' final Mass with us as he is leaving for another Parish. We celebrated his time here at St Marie's, thanked him for his work and presented him with a gift. The Mass was attended by lots of parents who were equally sad to say goodbye.

            June is the month of the Sacred Heart.

During June we dedicate our prayers to the sacred heart of Jesus. We remind ourselves of the love that Jesus has for us and how much we love him. In assembly we have looked at different ways in which the sacred heart of Jesus is represented, from stained glass windows, to statues and prayer cards. 

We read St Paul's letter to the Corinthians about love and reminded ourselves of the greatest commandment that Jesus gave us- to love one another as I have loved you. 

                     The Easter Season

During the Easter season, we are learning about the Gospel stories that took place after the resurrection of Jesus, such as Doubting Thomas and The Road to Emmaus. During the month of May, we dedicate our prayers to Mary, our Mother.

                              LENT 2019

We started the season of Lent with a lovely Mass on Ash Wednesday. Fr Francis spoke to us about the importance of being humble when we think about our Lenten promises. We know that Lent is about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. At the end of Mass, we had ashes placed upon our foreheads as a sign of penitence. In class, we will all be making our Lenten promises. Each classroom's prayer area will be dedicated to Lent and helping us grow closer to God. Stay with us Lord on our Journey.

November is the month dedicated to the Holy Souls. We offer our prayers during assemblies and collective worship in class to those whom have died and are awaiting their place in Heaven.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

We celebrated All Saints day in school with a lovely Mass and have learnt about the lives of different Saints

Leading up to and following Armistice day, we remembered all those affected by war.

HOPE IN THE FUTURE: BEACONS OF HOPE!

Yesterday (June 26th) we attended the 'Hope in the Future' school launch at St Mary's Priory, Bamber Bridge, Preston. Fr Francis, Mrs Doyle and Mr McRae attended along with two of our new Y5 prayer leaders. We learnt all about how our school community can be a 'Beacon of Hope' and how we can strengthen even further our excellent links with our parish through following seven important steps.

During the liturgy we were presented with a San Damiano Cross which Bishop John handed over to our Prayer leaders in waiting.

June is the month of the Sacred Heart

During the month of June, we offer our prayers to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus

                                       O Sacred Heart of Jesus,

                                       I place all my trust in you.

The Year Three children who have just made their First Holy Communion wrote some beautiful prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, some of which are displayed in our prayer area.

    May is Mary's Month   

During this month of May, we are busy writing prayers to Our Lady and asking her to watch over us all. We have been creating beautiful prayer areas within our classrooms to honour Mary. Two of our Y3 Sacramental Programme children crowned the statue of Our Lady in church. 

                "Mary, we love you, Hail full of Grace..."

  Exploring the Road to Emmaus

Having returned to school after Easter, we have been reading the Gospel accounts of Jesus appearing to the Apostles and Disciples after His resurrection. We have heard the account form St Luke's Gospel of how Jesus appeared to the two men walking on the road to Emmaus. How surprised they were when they realised exactly who had joined them!

The Season of Lent

As we enter the season of Lent at St Marie's, we have all been reflecting upon how we can live out our Mission statement and become Jesus' hands and feet on earth. Our Lent themed assemblies and collective worship sessions have encouraged us to:

PRAY, STOP and GO!

We will try to PRAY more and open up our hearts to Jesus

We will STOP doing things just so others notice us and we will make a simple sacrifice of giving something up.

We will GO and do something positive for Jesus and for others.

The Gospel of St Mark   

Over the next few weeks in our assemblies, we are exploring the Gospel of Mark. Already, we have been reminded that Mark learnt about Jesus from Simon Peter and that he wrote his Gospel for all of the people of the world. Mark tells us that Jesus asked Simon Peter to become a 'fisher of men' so we also have been reflecting upon how we are called to follow Jesus and share the 'good news.'

ADVENT AT ST MARIE'S 2017

During this most special time of year, we have all been growing closer to Christ through prayer, reflection and through our actions. Our 'Prayer Areas' within the classrooms are places where children and staff come together to focus, be still, to prepare and to rejoice. 

During our collective worship sessions, we have lit our Advent wreaths (made lovingly by our teachers) and have joined together as a class to offer our prayers to God.

Our school prayer leaders are busy preparing Advent themed liturgies which they will share with each of the classes. These liturgies will help lead both children and staff in prayer and celebration as we look towards the birth of Christ.

Both our EYFS and K.S.1 children have been busy rehearsing for their Christmas plays and what spectacular performances they are! Our parents are in for a treat.

The Christmas tree is up. Our Advent Wreaths are lit. Advent is upon us here at St Marie's.

Easter Gardens

Thank you to all of the children and parents who have worked so hard  creating Easter Gardens for our Easter competition. Yet again we have been astounded by the quality of the gardens and with the children's creativity. Well done everyone! 

Year 2's Lenten Promises

We are currently on our journey through Lent. We have all made special promises for Lent, and put them onto our Lenten Promise Tree. 

ASH WEDNESDAY:

BEGINNING OUR JOURNEY THROUGH LENT

On Ash Wednesday, we all went to St Marie's Church for our school's Ash Wednesday special Mass. During Mass we discussed the importance of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. At the end of Mass, we received ashes on our foreheads. Here are a few photographs...

Pilgrimage to Walsingham

On Saturday May 7th some of our school family joined a pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. We travelled all the way down to Walsingham in Norfolk and

joined Bishop John Arnold and many other members of the Salford Diocese. We walked the mile to the Slipper Chapel, praying the Rosary as we walked through the glorious countryside. The Slipper Chapel was beautiful and very serene. We attended Reconciliation and finished our pilgrimage with a very special Mass. A lovely day was had by all.

PRAYER STATIONS

Our Prayer leaders have been very busy lately. During Lent, Emily, Makenzie, Holly- Mai and Wiktoria visited a Prayer Station workshop led by students from Holy Cross College. Whilst they were there, they learnt some strategies and techniques to help lead others in prayer.

Today (May 5th) our very own prayer leaders hosted their own Prayer Stations! They led some of the other prayer leaders through reflective. prayerful tasks and encourgaed them to grow closer to God.

The themes of the prayer stations were:

* Saving water and our responsibility towards others

* Hand Prayers- using our hands to pray for different communities

* Helping the homeless and refugees - Cafod

* The Power of Love

The four girls did an amazing job and all of our prayer leaders are now ready to lead more Prayer Stations throughout the school very soon!

THE DOOR OF MERCY VISITS ST MARIE'S!

Pope Francis has declared this year to be a special YEAR OF MERCY. As part of these celebrations, the diocese of Salford has created a special travelling Holy Door which will visit every Catholic school in the diocese.

The Holy door visited St Marie's!

Once it was delivered from St Joseph and St Bedes, it had to be constructed. With a little help from our prayer leaders, the door was ready.

Mrs Robinson led a lovely assembly and all of the children in the school passed through the Holy Door and received a special blessing from their class teacher. The assembly and the Holy Door reminded us to show mercy towards others and to model compassion.

The door was then passed onto Bury Catholic Prep School as it continued its journey around the diocese.