School & Community
Our Leadership Team from the current Year 6. The children are looking forward to getting to know more about their new roles and responsibilities, following their elections. The children will be great ambassadors for the other pupils in the younger years. Well done everyone!
The children have been taking part in the CAFOD Big Walk for Lent each Friday at lunchtime. Donations from parents, carers, friends and family are able to be made via Parent Pay.
The children were also lucky enough to have Mrs West (a CAFOD representative) come to present an assembly to explain what CAFOD do and the difference they make to communities in need across the world.
Saturday 9th March - THE BIG LENT PARISH WALK
The Parish of Our Lady and St Anne's also held a Big Lent Walk for CAFOD, with people from the parishes of St James, St William of York, Our Lady of Peace and Christ the King taking part. The walk started at Our Lady and St Anne's Church and took us via all the other parishes, finishing at Christ the King. It was a wonderful event that brought so many in the community together. Can you spot anyone from St Anne's School?
The total raised for Cafod was £2690. Well done everyone involved!
Our children regularly contribute to displays around our school, showing their responses to scripture and through writing their own prayers of reflection. The Virtues and Values of the term help the children to focus on how Jesus lived and how we can try to follow his example.
Year 2 visit to Signature Care Home in Caversham - Christmas 2023
Miss Talbot and Miss Andrew took the Year 2 class to visit residents at the Caversham Signature Care Home. Here they were able to talk with the residents and practiced their Nativity Songs for the people who live there. The children were a credit to the school and were even lucky enough to have some special brownies as a treaat for all their efforts! Well done year 2 for reaching out to our wider community. We look forward to keeping connected and visiting again soon! Thank you all at Signature for making us feel so welcome.
St Anne's Gardening Club
The children from our gardening club regularly engage in looking after our environment and taking care of God's Creation. The nursery garden was needing some tender loving care and the children worked hard to weed and planted bulbs and talked about their work as 'stewards' of God's gifts. The nursery class were very happy to see the result of all the hard work. Well done everyone and thank you.
9th November, 2023
We are sending out today our second Catholic Life and Mission Newsletter focussed on telling our wider school community how we are trying to follow in Jesus’s footsteps.
As mentioned previously, on Tuesdays, the children gather in Key Stage groups to learn about an aspect of Catholic Social Teaching; last term, we focussed on Participation through Family and Community and on the Dignity of the Human Person. This term, we are focussing on Solidarity and the Common Good.
On Wednesday mornings, children participate in a class liturgy based on the Jesuit virtues, with those in KS2 planning and leading the liturgy themselves. Last term, the virtues that the children were learning about and trying to grow within themselves were being grateful and being generous. Our actions included a collection for Readifood, reflecting on the generosity of God in Creation and writing prayers for the farmers and workers who grow and produce our food. This term, the children will be thinking about being Attentive and Discerning.
19 OCTOBER 2023
This week, the children have also shown solidarity with the people of Israel and Palestine. The Catholic bishops of the Holy Land called for Tuesday October 17 to be set aside for fasting, abstinence, and prayer for peace in the region. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said: “On behalf of all the Ordinaries of the Holy Land, I invite all parishes and religious communities to a day of fasting and prayer for peace and reconciliation. Let us organise prayer times with Eucharistic adoration and with the recitation of the rosary to our Blessed Virgin Mary.” As a result, all children from Reception to Year 6 said the rosary on Tuesday and wrote prayers for the people of these lands.
This Friday is Disconnect to Reconnect Day living out the Catholic Social Teaching of Stewardship. On this day, teachers across the school will try to deliver as much learning as possible without the aid of computers or interactive whiteboards. Staff will try to provide as many practical activities as possible and will spend time outside appreciating God’s beautiful creation. In his papal encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis asked that we all work to protect the earth, our common home. He writes ‘The earth is God’s gift to us full of beauty and wonder. And it belongs to everyone… The whole human family needs to work together to care for our planet earth so that we sow beauty and not pollution and destruction.’
We would like to ask all of our families to join with us in marking this day for the earth by unplugging at home throughout the day. This could be by switching off lights, eating a meal that does not need cooking or playing a board game/reading a book rather than watching TV or your phone in the evening. It would be lovely if families could send in photos of what they get up to at home! Please email your pictures to head@st-annes.reading.sch.uk The benefits of unplugging are numerous. Research has shown that too much time spent on electronic devices can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and depression. By taking a break from technology, we can give our minds and bodies much-needed rest and improve our overall well-being.
READIFOOD
We were extremely touched by your generosity and wish to extend our deepest thanks for all the items that we sent in. Readifood has now collected our contributions and they will be going out to families in and around Reading throughout the half term.
5 OCTOBER 2023
Thank you so very much for all your kind donations to our Harvest collection in aid of Readifood; the boxes are starting to fill up nicely! We will be having our Harvest Mass next Friday 13 October in the church and would be most grateful if we could have a final push for donations. In addition, we would like to warmly welcome all parents to join us at Mass where we will give praise and thanksgiving to God for His wonderful Creation and the gifts He has given us.
A message from our One World Council Reps:
We – the One World Council members - have been very keen to collect for Readifood and have made some fantastic posters to raise awareness of our annual collection. Please read some of the reasons why we want to help and collect food for our local Christian charity.
‘We want to help people and make the world a better place and more loving,’ said Trisha from Year 3.
Our One World Council members are keen to help others and to, ‘Make school and the environment a better place,’ Saad from Year 6.
Romaya from Year 4 wants to be involved, ‘because I want people to love each other’.
We are very blessed to have such loving children who want to help their community so, if you have not yet donated, please do send something in with your child. A small donation can make a big difference!
