Festivals

At St Michael with St John we celebrate and learn about key religious festivals of the Christian calendar.  Our children experience a wide range of Christian festivals including; Harvest, Remembrance Sunday, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. 

In addition, we also celebrate and learn about key religious festivals of other faiths.  Please see below for further information:

Advent

“This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Luke 2:12

The season of Advent marks the start of the Christian year.  It is a season of expectation and preparation as we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus and reflect on why this is an important time of the year for Christians.  Advent falls at the darkest time of the year, and the natural symbols of darkness and light are powerfully at work.  We have an ‘Advent wreath’ in school to mark the Sundays of Advent, lighting a new candle each week.  In addition, we make 'Christingles' which are also a symbol of light.

Christmas

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”  Matthew 2:10

At Christmas time we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus and reflect on why this is an important time for Christians.  In our Collective Worship, we shared the following stories from the Bible and linked this to our value PEACE:

• The Promised King (Micah 5)
• Mary, Martha and Lazarus (Luke 10)
• The First Christmas - The Birth of Jesus (Matthew 1)

Our children always enjoy sharing their Christmas performances with the whole school community.  Our younger children in Reception and Key Stage One perform the Nativity and tell the story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.  Our older children in Key Stage Two plan and perform a wonderful Christmas carol concert. 

Please click on the link below to view the Christmas Collective Worship that Father Nicholas led.  

Easter

 "He is not here; he has risen!"  Luke 24:6-7

Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar.  It celebrates Jesus rising from the dead, three days after he died on the cross.  In Collective Worship, we have shared the following Easter stories from the Bible:

The Great Parade - The Story of Palm Sunday (Matthew 21)

An Important Meal - The Last Supper & a Betrayal (Matthew 26)

A Dreadful Day - The Story of Good Friday (Matthew 27)

A Happy Day - The Story of Jesus' Resurrection (Matthew 28)

Father Nicholas shared with the children the importance of Lent and Easter for Christians.  The slides for each collective worship can be viewed below:

Please click on the picture below to see some of the lovely work our children completed at Easter time!

Saint George's Day

At St Michael with St John, we celebrated St George's Day in school.  Please see below our special whole school collective worship in which we learned about how St George became the patron saint of England.  

Eid-Ul-Fitr

Eid is a very special time for the vast majority of our families.  We had a very special collective worship to learn about the meaning of Eid-ul-Fitr, a Muslim celebration to mark the end of Ramadan.  Our children made some excellent contributions about how they celebrate Eid with their families.