Catholic Life
As a Catholic school, we aim to live out our faith in the interactions that we have with one another and with the world around us. St Teresa of Avila wrote
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Ol Moran School
Ol Moran is our British Council link school in rural Kenya.
John Githui – our colleague at Ol Moran School in Kenya - told us that Ol Moran was established in 1935 and has c750 pupils on roll from preschool to Class 8. There are around 50 pupils in each class and a total of 19 classes with 21 teaching staff. The children are of various different faiths with the majority being Catholic. Saint Mark’s Catholic Church plays a major role in supporting the pastoral and spiritual life of the school and sponsors its special needs unit. The children have produced a drawing showing the union between our schools. The learning environment for the pupils of Ol Moran is very different from that at St Anne’s and the children regularly use the school compound for learning adventures. They interact with the natural environment, making learning enjoyable and practical.
Our introduction to Ol Moran took place in September. All the classes in St Anne's took part in activities that would tell the teachers and pupils of Ol Moran more about ourselves, our school and the place that we live. Below are some examples of the children's work.
Our nursery children took part in their usual activities and made the most of being outside in the beautiful early Autumn weather!
Our first meeting on Zoom with Ol Moran - Friday 4th March.
Mrs Orife had been communicating with Mr. Githui via email and has had a virtual Zoom meeting with him to organise a time when our children could meet. It was agreed that our One World Council children would be the first to say, 'Hello' and after a couple of failed attempts we finally made contact on Friday 4th March at around 10am our time (Ol Moran are 3 hours ahead of us until the summer when it becomes 2 hours).
Our children were very excited to see their new friends in Kenya and we wished them all Good Luck with their exams. Mr Githui and the Ol Moran children tried to teach us how to greet someone in their National Language Swahili and Mr Githui has promised to teach us more in the near future. We are now considering how our children and the children in Ol Moran can be 'Pen Pals'. Ol Moran school will be closed until late April for their pupils to undertake examinations. Both schools are looking forward to developing the friendship when Ol Moran reopens, towards the end of April.
Our Family Fast Day and Walk Against Hunger for CAFOD
On Friday 3th March CAFOD came to our school to give an assembly about what they do as an organisation. Following this inspiring visit we collected donations on Friday March 11th for CAFOD's Family Fast Day and joined the St Anne's Parish to complete a Walk Against Hunger on Saturday 19th March.
Below is a photo of all the walkers when we arrived at Mapledurham! The weather was perfect!
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In response to our Family Fast Day collection, Mrs Bernto received a letter of thanks to you all from CAFOD. Attached was a certificate with the total raised on the day. Well done to everyone who donated, you have contributed to a worthy cause and helped someone, either in the Ukraine or in the remote parts of Africa where nutritional food is sometimes difficult to come by.
The Walk Against Hunger went fantastically well and the Parish, along with the support of pupils and teachers from our school were able to raise £2546 for CAFOD. This is not the final total, hopefully the total can get as near to £3000. You are still able to donate online for a few more weeks!
Writing letters to Ol Moran School - July 2022
Children from St Anne's have written letters to the children in Ol Moran School in Kenya. It will be exciting to find out how long it takes for the letters to reach them.
Letters of condolence from Ol Moran children.
We received letters from Ol Moran sending condolences for the loss of our Queen Elizabeth II and to let us know that they have a new President in Kenya and that people are happy about it.
Autumn Term 2022 - Our October Harvest Collection for Readifood
We understand the difficulties some families are facing with increasing living costs and would like to launch our Harvest Collection in aid of Readifood. The charity is continuing to help those in our local community who need food parcels and we kindly ask that anyone who feels able, please brings a tin or some boxed/dry food over the next week. Each class will have a box for the donated food items and ideas for your donations could include:
Tins of soup, baked beans, vegetables
Jars of jam, pickles and pasta sauces
Coffee, tea, biscuits
Pasta, rice and boxes of cereal.
Please do not send any fresh fruit or vegetables or any foods that require refrigeration. We have a wonderful community at St Anne’s and we know that you will do what you can. Thank you for your support!
Thank you so much for the fabulous donations!
Certificate from Readifood - Thank you for your donations!
Autumn Term 2 - Ol Moran received our letters at last!
We are looking forward to connecting with Ol Moran in the New Year and allowing our children the opportunity to work together on a project to help us look after God's World.
Christmas Cards from the children of St Anne's School - December 2022
During the preparation for Christmas our pupils made Christmas cards for the parishioners at Our Lady and St Anne's Church. Mrs Houghton put the cards in a box at the back of the church and any parishioners who wanted to take one could help themselves. Mrs Orife took some of the cards to St Luke's Care Home (Emmer Green) for distribution to the residents and staff. We wish all the parishioners and elderly people in our community a very peaceful and blessed Christmas and Happy New Year.
Pupils from Reception to Year 6 created wonderful Christmas cards for people in the community. Residents of St Luke's Care Home in Emmer Green and the parishioners of Our Lady and St Anne's were able to enjoy! We hope to develop links with our wider community going into 2023!