On Wednesday, we welcomed Stan and Anne Chedgzoy from MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) to launch our partnership. MAF supports 27 isolated countries around the world with food, medicines, shelter and bibles through aviation and technology. We have formed this partnership as it mirrors our school Christian Vision of living, loving and learning through faith in Jesus. MAF, as do we, believe nothing should stop people from receiving the love of God and the essentials of life – no matter how remote they are. We are looking forward to developing our partnership throughout the year which will involve the MAF Advent calendars we participated in last year. The children are really enthused about the work MAF do to provide hope to the isolated countries and we are excited to learn more about their mission.

We are delighted to inform you that we have been awarded Salix grant funding through Blackburn Diocese, to carry out work in school towards making our school carbon neutral. This also means we are now a member of a new team, The Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education Carbon Neutral Pioneers!

The work being carried out will include LED lighting throughout school, a new air source heat pump to replace the existing boiler and solar panelling. We are sure you will agree the work being done in our school is part of a truly ground-breaking project.

Having a small carbon footprint is better than having a large one, and our goal is to become 'carbon neutral'. This is when the combination of all your activities releases the same amount of CO2 as they absorb. When you are carbon neutral, your carbon footprint is zero. We are advocates for climate justice at St Laurence's where we teach hope, resilience and the fight for a sustainable future.

Update: Our solar panels are now installed and the ground source heat pumps are well underway! 

We entered the Chorley Flower Show July 2021. The process was a long one and interrupted by Covid but we persevered and managed to create a beautiful edible garden for our community to enjoy. Our journey started with a visit from John Everist who inspired us through his show gardens from the Chelsea Flower Show and expertise. Year 6 then explored different ideas for a theme for the garden and started thinking ahead to plant herbs, vegetables and fruit. The edible garden theme was a hit and we began designing how the garden would be displayed. Ella's design was selected for the competition entry. Year 6 created recipe cards to suggest ideas of what to make from the edible plants we grew. These were shared with the community at the flower show. Take a look at our poem which explains more about our creation! Thank you to Megan and Mr Headley for their gardening expertise and planting to ensure we had an abundance of produce!

Normally we would exhibit the children's artwork for the 'Spirited Arts' competition in school and invite the community, however, we had to be creative during Covid! We were lucky enough to exhibit the artwork at St Laurence church along with their Art exhibition they were holding throughout the summer. Sue and Joan commented on how many members of the parish were impressed with the quality of the artwork and in depth reflections. The children have worked hard to represent work based on one of the following themes: Healing; Holy Words; Inspiring; Where is God? 10 finalists will be entered into the National Association for Teachers of RE (NATRE) Spirited Arts: Art in Heaven competition. Thank you to the parish church for accommodating our spiritual artwork.

National Day of Reflection - March 23rd

Today marks one year since National Lockdown. Watch our video to that demonstrates some of our Christian Values of:
Hope - Keeping the faith during a Global Pandemic and spreading rainbows - a sign of God's love and His promise that better days are still to come.
Love - Spreading love to our community sharing, giving and looking out for one another.
Excellence - Finding new ways of learning to be the best we can be.

Click on the link below: https://www.dropbox.com/s/adzchr9ti41suwm/Reflection.mp4?dl=0

Spirited Arts Competition Results!

Out of 65,000 entries nationally, 2 out of the 10 entries from St Laurence's received 'Commended'. Isabelle (Y1) and Rose's (Y4) commended pieces can be found on the NATRE website in the 'Holy Words' and 'Where is God' categories. This is a great achievement girls! Well done! 

https://www.natre.org.uk/about-natre/projects/spirited-arts/spirited-arts-gallery/2020/

Harvest Heroes!

Each class participated in this year's Harvest Appeal by donating food to those in need and less fortunate than us. A BIG thank you to everyone for your donations have enabled us to support Living Water's Food Bank during these challenging times. You are HARVEST HEROES!

We hope you enjoyed watching our Harvest Celebration video, please click on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvKvhjjgslw&feature=youtu.be

Home Learning during Lockdown

Please find below some resources from Blackburn Diocese that have been designed to be used at home or school which make reference to the current lockdown situation. Children can choose any picture they find interesting to look at and discuss. They follow this by reading one of the two suggested Bible stories/texts/ They can then explore the story, its meaning and impact through a variety of activities that are 'Questful'!

The resources contain activities that are suitable for children in Yr1 – Yr6 and will be regularly updated on the website. To access the resources you simply go to the Off the Shelf page of the web site click and download. 

The first set of pictures are available to download below. 

There are further resources available for faith at home by following this link: https://www.churchofengland.org/faith-action/faith-home/i-am-parent 

Holy Week Crosses

Many will miss the blessing and distribution of Palm Crosses on Sunday. The Blackburn Diocese would like to encourage every Christian home to make a cross in the best way they can and place it in their window, leaving it there throughout Holy Week. It can be of paper, card, wood – be as creative as you like! It will be a sign to our communities that, in the cross of Christ, all the world’s ills are healed.
 

Here are some crosses create by children of keyworkers.

This half term's BIG Question is:

Why should we forgive?

Lent Challenge – St Laurence’s giving back to the community

Each class has been set the challenge to come up with an idea for how they can involve the community and give up some of their time not money. 

Year 1 are going to support the Toddler Session at Chorley Library by performing poems, sharing stories and creating decorations for other visitors to enjoy.

Year 6 are going to support church with providing gift packs to homeless people who come for a meal on a Monday.

Reception are going to visit Chorley Police Station with letters and gifts of thanks for all they do.

'We gave up our time for others.' Caydence (Year 1)

'I enjoyed reading to the Toddlers. I would like to do it again.' Bertie (Year 1)

'I liked going to the library because we made flowers to decorate the library.' Sofia (Year 1)

Spirited Arts: Art in Heaven Competition 2020

Every child created a piece of art work based on one of the following themes:

Where is God?

God's Good Earth?

Holy Words

Inspiring

We showcased all the pieces of work at an exhibition where our worshipping community helped judge the art work to select 10 entries to submit into the competition. The work was of a high standard which made the judging process a difficult one! 

Here are the 10 children chosen to represent St Laurence in the Spirited Arts Competition. They were awarded with a certificate and Christian Bookmark for their efforts and the top 3 pieces received some water colour pencils too. Well done to all involved! You CAN do all things through Christ who strengths you!

Isabelle (Reception), Evie (Y1), Annie (Y2), Rose (Y3), Amelia and Amelie (Y4), Sophia (Y6)

Top 3 - Jaydn (Y6), Alesha (Y5) and Ziggy (Y2)

Watch this space to find out how they get on in the national competition. Good Luck!

"I liked the RE lesson when we learned about why Jesus is the Son of God." Sofia - Year 4

"I liked when we did how to consider how light is used as a symbol of hope." Alex - Year 4

"When I went to the synagogue, I really enjoyed it because I learned about the Torah, Kippahs, Mezuzah and the Menorah. It was really interesting!" Faith - Year 4

"I enjoyed the synogogue because we got to learn about the Jewish faith more. I liked pretending to be the Rabbi. It inspired me to go and find out more about different religions. The Jewish community go to the synogogue and we saw a candle called the Menorah." Katie - Year 4

"They chose a few people to wear the Kippah. The Kippah is a hat Jewish people wear on their heads. They believe it points up to heaven." Josh - Year 5

"The synogogue is called a Shul and when you go inside it you kiss your hand and put it on the Mezuzah as a  sign of respect." Emma - Year 5

Class One have created birthday cards for our friends at Pencott Valley School along with a friendship bracelet to show our support in making a difference to their lives. Each bead on the friendship bracelet represents something special.

A Friendship Bracelet from St Laurence

A red bead to represent love from my heart to yours.

A yellow bed to bring you sunshine to light up your world.

A blue bead to stop you feeling blue.

A white bead to bring hope for your future.

A green bead for your life to grow strong.

"I am excited to help with the library and sending books. I want school to start a fundraiser to raise money to send books over to Pencott Valley." Talisha - Year 4

"I am so excited to help Pencott Valley Primary School and help their school be as good as ours and I know it will get better with our help." Amelia - Year 4 

End of Year Awards

At the end of each year, one child from each class (Rec-Y5) is awarded for their resilience, perseverance and determination thorough out the year as well as someone who has stood out demonstrating our school Christian Values. Year 6 have their own special award ceremony to celebrate their achievements at St. Laurence.

2019 Awards

Resilience Award - Grace (R), Ethan (Y1), Myles (Y2), Oliver W (Y3), Emily (Y4), Kaylie (Y5) 

Christian Values Award - Emma (Rec), Elsie (Y1), Robyn (Y2), Faith (Y3), Charlie (Y4), Martha (Y5)

Year 6 Awards 

Perserevance - Tia

Sport - Ben and Hope

Achievement - Gracie and Noah

Courtesy - Kiyanna and Max

Sue Dean Writing Award - Amna

A massive well done to all of you!