Our Faith Community

 

We enjoy close links with our church, St Mary's and the wider faith community. We are blessed to have clergy-led worship every Thursday morning and we welcome Archdeacon Richard Pratt into school on a regular basis too. . We also enjoy members of the church community and Yvette Ladds and Lynn Graham (Solway Network Youth Church) also join us for prayer space reflections, well-being groups and after school groups. Throughout the year, we visit St Mary's Church to hold services where we welcome family members and encourage the wider community to join us in our worship. 

Please visit our Vision, Aims and Values page in the About Us section of our website for further information. 

Bible Story and Hymn overview 

Every half term we look closely at one of our Christian Values. During the half term, our Collective Worships cover a wide range of Bible Stories that look deeply at the value. In addition to this, we have one overarching Bible Story that the children know and can refer back to when thinking about the value in every day life. Our children throughout school enjoy learning the hymn for the half term too. See below the overview. 

Bible Story Overview

Christmas Prayer Spaces

A huge thank you to Yvette, Captain Jeff and their team in creating our Christmas prayer spaces. Our worship leads were amazing in delivering the sessions across all year groups in school.

 

Christmas prayer spaces

Christingle Making 

Christingle making

 

 

 

The orange represents the world. The red ribbon (or tape) symbolises the love and blood of Christ. The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God's creations. The lit candle represents Jesus's light in the world, bringing hope to people living in darkness.

 

Christingle Service 2023

Christingle Service 2023

 

 

 

Our KS2 children attended our annual carol service at St Mary's Church. The Year 3 children led the service acting out the nativity. 

Back at school, each class made a Christingle and lit them as they reflected on the importance of the birth of Jesus to Christians around the world. 

Harvest Festival 2023

 

Our Year 5 children led our Harvest Festival in St Mary's Church. It was lovely to have the whole school together in the church to share our worship through song, prayer and reflections. Our EYFS children ended the service with an Autumn song that they have been learning in class.

Thank you to everyone who supported our Harvest appeal and donated items to the North Lakes Foodbank - your contributions will make a difference to those in need within our community.

 

Meet our Worship Leaders for 2022-23

Our Worship Leaders plan and deliver collective worship based on the current Christian Value for the half term. We value children having a voice so acts of worship are nurtured and encouraged. Within the worship planning, the group consider something to read, something to listen to, something to see and a prayer.

 

Remembrance 2022

On 11/11/22, representatives from our school joined other schools in the town at St Mary's Church for a Remembrance Service in recognition of all those who have lost their lives in conflict. Our children did a reading and a prayer before laying our school wreath at the altar.

Remembrance Service 2022

 

Peace Prayer Stations

Over 2 days in November, all of our children visited our peace prayer stations where they had time to reflect on what peace means to them, to others and to the world. Thank you to our wonderful Y6 Worship Leaders and parent volunteers for helping out with this.

 

Y5 Visit to Carlisle Cathedral

On 8th November 2022, our Year 5 children visited Carlisle Cathedral to take part in a workshop around Remembrance. The children reflected on the significance of the poppy and on why it is important to 'remember them'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19th October 2022 - Harvest Festival

 

Our Year 5 children led our Harvest Festival  today in St Mary's Church. It was lovely to have the whole school together in the church to share our worship through song, prayer and reflections. 

Thank you to everyone who supported our Harvest appeal and donated items to the North Lakes Foodbank - your contributions will make a difference to those in need within our community.

Harvest October 2022

 

 

17th October 2022

Today our Worship Leaders, along with some Y6 volunteers delivered their first collective worship of the year on the theme of Courage.

Worship Leader led courage worship

 

Confirmation service

Some of our Year 6 girls have recently been confirmed at St Mary’s Church. The service was carried out by Bishop James.

 

Pride of Cumbria Award Winner

We are very proud of Lily’s fundraising efforts but to see this recognised as a winner at the Pride of Cumbria awards is amazing. Huge congratulations from everyone at school.

 

Year 6 Pilgrimage to the beach

A big thank you to Paul Rose and Yvette Ladds for leading our Pilgrimage which gave the children the opportunity to reflect on memories and past experiences of primary school. It was a wonderful experience.

 

Link with school in South Africa

Year 5 have linked with a school in South Africa over Zoom to find out about their traditions and culture. The children even shared a traditional Zulu song and their National anthem.

 

Visit to Carlisle Cathedral

Y6 Oak class attended a special service at Carlisle Cathedral. They visited the labyrinth project where each Church of England school in the county created a jigsaw piece. The pieces have now all been joined together to form a giant piece of art.

 

Maryport Town Council Jubilee Service 6th June 2022

Representatives from each class attended a service at St Mary's to celebrate the Platinum jubilee of Her Majesty, queen Elizabeth 11. At the service, some of our pupils contributed by doing a reading for the congregation. At the end of the service, a tree was planted in honour of the Queen.

 

Prayer Spaces based on the Creation for KS1

Members of St Mary’s congregation delivered prayer spaces for the Reception, Year 1 and 2 children. The children considered what happened on each day of God’s creation. After all of the activities representing days 1-6, the children were ready for a rest at station 7, just like God!

 

Collective Worship based on the Christian Value of Respect

The worship leaders led a very enjoyable and interactive worship using the song ‘Nobody is a nobody’ The whole school liked joining in with the actions and adding in some dance moves! Morgan played the piano and the group shared the Bible story of Elijah and the old woman.

 

Visits to St Mary's Church

All classes visited the church to reflect on showing respect for places of worship and important parts of the church such as the altar, pews, font and the prayer mats. The children showed respect by reflecting for a moment in silence.

 

Year 3 Residential to Bassenfell Christian Centre

This was an amazing experience- the classes problem solved, experienced bush craft, completed orienteering, climbed trees and so much more!

Bassenfell Christian Centre

 

Easter Service at St Mary’s Church 2022

Year 4 led our Easter service sharing the traditions of Easter and they reflected on the Easter story. They shared the symbols of Easter, such as the palm leaf, the crown of thorns and the silver coin. The whole school enjoyed singing lots of Easter hymns such as ‘Give me joy in my heart’ and the ‘Lord of the Dance’.

 

NISCU Easter Story Puppet Show

 We welcomed NISCU to deliver their puppet show which helped the children understand the Bible verse from John 3:16- ‘For God loved the world so much that he sent his only son Jesus to show us the way to live and care for the world’

NISCU Puppets

 

 

 

 

Year 1 and 2 visit to Stockswood Outdoor Centre in Wigton

The visit intended to raise children’s awareness of caring for the environment and looking after God’s creation. The children considered what it meant to ‘Tread gently’ and be stewards for our local area. They had lots of fun taking part in lots of interactive outdoor games whilst developing their team work and problem solving skills.

 

Forgiveness Collective Worship

Our Worship Leaders delivered collective worship in the form of role play based on the parable of ‘The Unforgiving Servant’. Volunteers answered questions about what is means to forgive someone, what kind of things people need to say sorry for and who we need to apologise to. In the Bible, Jesus tells us that we need to say sorry to God and he will forgive us.

 

                                                   Experience Easter

Each class visited St Mary’s Church. The children moved between different stations which represented elements of the Easter story.

Experience Easter

 

 

                                                  Guatemalan Easter

Our focus country for Easter around the World this year is Guatemala. In Collective Worship, the children have learnt about Easter traditions there and how they compare to ours in Maryport.

   

 

Easter Crosses

Year 4 have constructed Easter crosses in their Forest School session. They had to work collaboratively with good team work skills to make sure their structure was strong enough.

                                                                                                     

Easter crosses

 

                                                Courageous Advocacy

Some children in Year 6 asked if they could raise awareness of charities close to their heart: Parkinsons UK and Short Lives Matter. This began with a whole school information sharing session which quickly snowballed into table top sales, making bird boxes to auction and creating book marks and loom bands.

Courageous Advocacy

 

Poverty Swap

Helen from Poverty Swap visited our School Council to tell the children about her visit to overseas countries and the work that she carries out there linked to Global Christianity. As a result of this visit, the children are inspired to make a difference themselves to ‘Think global, act local’. At the moment, the school council are collating ideas of projects to initiate in school.

                                                                                           

 

Collective Worship- led by our Worship Leaders

Our Worship Leaders planned and delivered Collective Worship based around the current Christian Value of Thankfulness. Lots of children joined in and volunteered to take part in role play, lighting of the candle and readings from the Bible.

                                   

 

Visit from the Diocese

Charlotte Tudway- Director of Education visited our school and our worship leaders gave her a tour, shared a Keynote presentation of their role in school and talked about our priorities for this year.

                                            

 

 

Key Stage 2 Carol Service 2021

On Wednesday 15th December our KS2 children attended our annual carol service at St Mary's Church. The Year 3 children led the service which also included a performance by our Year 5 and 6 guitar group. Thank you to Arch Deacon Richard for closing the service with a blessing and prayers.

Back at school, each class made a Christingle and lit them as they reflected on the importance of the birth of Jesus to Christians around the world.

 

St Mary's Christmas Tree Festival

Some of our Year 4 children visited St Mary's Church to decorate a tree for the annual Christmas Tree Festival. We hope lots of families will be able to visit over the weekend to see all of the lovely trees.

 

 

Narnia themed reflection and prayer spaces

On 1st and 2nd December, our friends from the Diocese created an enchanting outdoor prayer and reflection area in our woods based on Narnia. Our Worship Leader group worked alongside the adults at each station to encourage the KS2 children to think about friendship, courage and how they could make the world a better place. They also found time to sit around the fire and share a prayer.

 

 

December 2021

This half term, our Worship Leaders delivered a worship session on the theme of responsibility. the group planned and delivered this to include a bible story, reflection time and a hymn.

 

'A Christmas journey' at Bassenfell Manor

Our Year 1 and 2 children visited Bassenfell Manor Christian Centre to take part in a wonderful workshop exploring the Christmas Journey. Thank you to everyone at the centre for making the visit so memorable.

 

 

REMEMBRANCE 2021

We joined other schools in our local area at St Mary's Church for a Remembrance Service. Some of our Year 6 pupils did a reading and Y6 Beech class created a wonderful display.

 

Remembrance 2021

 

Bishop James' Visit

On Thursday 14th October, we welcomed Bishop James into school to officially open our outdoor prayer space. Our Worship Leaders also gave a tour of the school and Y6 got to do a Q&A session. Please watch the video linked below to see more -

 

Weekly Bible Story sessions with Key stage one children

Each Friday afternoon, we welcome members of our church community to deliver Bible stories to our Key Stage One children This term they have been centred around our current values of Hope and Responsibility. Opportunities for reflection are built in which encourage the children to wonder and explore their own thoughts, feelings and ideas.

Harvest Appeal 2021

Foodbank Collective Worship October 2021

Our school harvest appeal this year is for the North Lakes Foodbank. To launch this appeal, Stuart Christian led a collective worship for each key stage. Following on from this the children have donated a range of items to help the local community. 

Collective Worship led by our Worship Warriors

Worship delivered by the Worship Warriors

This term our Worship Warrior group have planned and led Collective Worship based on the value of Hope.

Outdoor Prayer Spaces

Outdoor Prayer Spaces

 

 

 

 

 

In September, we were blessed by two days of glorious sunshine- this enabled us to offer the whole school outdoor prayer space sessions led by Yvette Ladds accompanied by many church volunteers. The clergy modelled prayer, the children embraced the opportunities and this forged a partnership in prayer between the school and the church which was highly valuable.

Reverend Susan Thanksgiving service

Reverend Susan retirement service at St Mary's Church

 

 

 

Reverend Susan has contributed widely to our school over the past 10 years. In recognition of this excellent service, some of our children attended and did some readings in her service of thanksgiving.

Christian after school club

After school club

We offer an after school club run by the Solway Network Youth Church each Thursday.

Collective worship delivered by members of the church community

Collective worship led by Yvette Ladds from the Solway Network Youth Church

 

 

Each Thursday morning Yvette Ladds delivers Collective Worship across the school. At times, we have visitors as part of this rolling programme such as Helen Faulds from Poverty Swap who is helping to raise children’s awareness of Christianity on a global scale and help them to understand how they can think local and act global to make a difference to the lives of others.

Maranatha Yoga Well being

Maranatha Yoga

This term we are running Maranatha Yoga sessions to our well-being group in Year 5 and 6. The sessions are provided by a Church of Scotland Minister. Each week the children have the opportunity to join up their thinking mind, their bodies and their breathing.

 

 Examples of work linked to the Christian value of Compassion across the school- Summer term 2021

Compassion

Summer term well-being group 2021

This term we have a groups of children working weekly with Yvette Ladds, Paul Rose and Stephen Williams developing their well being through spirituality and nature.

https://www.facebook.com/SolwayNYC/posts/995147147684595

 

EASTER

Unfortunately we were still unable to visit church for our annual Easter service. Each class did however make a video to share with the community.

 

EYFS https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/446209233314073

YEAR 1  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/173085344543295

YEAR 2  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/719976395335562

YEAR 3  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/435442197718540

YEAR 4  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/1374030609641597

YEAR 5  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/2677740305834414

YEAR 6  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/760246717941342

 

 

Spring term Collective Worship

Our focus Christian value theme for this half term has been Perseverance. During the period of national lockdown, Mrs Ormond has continued to deliver Collective Worship for the children in the bubbles in school and also broadcasting these live on Facebook for the children and families at home. The hub children were given the opportunity to participate and lead aspects of the worship. The children had an important role to play, just as Jesus welcomed children and used them as models of faith for his followers.

 

Twas the week before the Christmas break.......

In the last week before we broke up for Christmas, the whole school focused on the Nativity and reflected on how and why it is important to Christians. Each class made a video to share with our community.

 

EYFS  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/840286846773080

YEAR 1  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/224965242484755

YEAR 2    https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/716217392589487

YEAR 3   https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/751511572125000

YEAR 4   https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/1327057914313580

YEAR 5  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/699240154317659

YEAR 6  https://www.facebook.com/333028734300032/videos/421863202528064

 

 

 

CHRISTINGLE 2020

Even though we could not go to St Mary's for our Christingle service this year, we still continued the tradition in school. All of the children made their Christingle and then watched a pre-recorded video from Rev Susan.

 

PRAYER BAGS

We were delighted that Yvette Ladds, from the Solway Network Youth Church delivered individual prayer bags for all of our KS2 children. The contents of the bags provided lots of opportunities for thought and reflection.

 

DECEMBER 2020

 

As we are unable to attend church this year, each class has created a scene on a window retelling part of the story of Jesus' birth. This has formed a Nativity Trail that each class will follow and explore.

 

 

HARVEST 2020

Every year we are always humbled by how generous our school community is in supporting the foodbank based in St Mary's as part of our Harvest Appeal. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept food donations for the North Lakes Foodbank appeal this year but monetary donations of whatever you can afford are most welcome. Please visit https://www.thefoodbank.org.uk/  

 

As we are still unable to attend church, each class has presented a Harvest collective worship to share with the rest of the school and our community.  

 

NISCU Lockdown reflections

Our friends at NISCU are helping us through lockdown by posting a series of videos on YouTube each week which reflect our Christian Values to share with our families. We hope you find them useful in these difficult times.

FRIENDSHIP

 

 

Experience Easter March 2nd -4th 2020

Over the course of 3 days, all of our classes from Reception through to Year 6 visited St Mary's to visit the Experience Easter stations set up there. The children found out, in age appropriate ways, all about the Easter story and were able to reflect on the feelings of those involved as well as what Easter means for us today as Christians. A big thank you to RevSusan, the Solway Youth Network volunteers and all the helpers at St Mary's for leading this wonderful opportunity.

 

 

 

Crosses From Around The World

Children from each class worked with Miss Lockwood on a very special art project to find out about and then make the many different crosses from around the world. The crosses are now up on display for all to see in school.

 

Forgiveness Reflection Area

On 27/2/20, Lynn Graham from NISCU worked alongside our worship leaders to create a new reflection area on forgiveness.

Forgiveness Reflection Area

 

Year 4 Swallows Christianity Around the World Project

Our Christianity around the world project is based on the book “Where in the world?”by Martyn Payne. 

Year 4 followed Sparkle’s story of migration, we learned that the safest place for a Swallow to perch during migration is the roof of a church. This led us to investigate different Christian churches and traditions around the world. We also looked at prayers from these places. 

We found out how Christianity originated in some countries - did you know that it is thanks to the apostle Andrew that Christianity is in Romania, he shared the story of Jesus. 

We learned that 77.4% of the population in Argentina is Christian. 

We all really enjoyed the investigation and with good team work, we were able to produce these wonderful Pic Collages. 

Y4 Swallows

 

Thankfulness reflection areas

 

On 16/1/2020, Lynn Graham from NISCU joined our worship leaders to create two new reflection areas on the theme of 'thankfulness'. Lynne and the children created spaces where the pupils can reflect on what they are thankful for and can record their thoughts on the branches of the tree.

Thankfulness

 

Carol Service 2019

On Monday 16^th December our children were joined by family members at our annual carol service in St Mary’s Church. The service was led by our Year 3 children who retold the story of the Nativity. Towards the end of the service Rev. Susan talked about the significance of the Christingle before we lit our candles and dimmed the lights in church.

 

The children in KS2 enjoyed making over 250 Christingle oranges for the carol service to be held on Monday 16th December in St Mary's. Each orange has a red ribbon and sweets/dried fruit on cocktail sticks along with a candle to represent Jesus as the 'light of the world'.

 

On Wednesday 2nd December, some of our children visited church to decorate a tree as part of the annual Christmas tree festival. Our tree was decorated with stars which each had on them our Christian values.

Christmas tree festival

 

On Tuesday 3rd December, Rev. Susan and our friends from NISCU came along to deliver a special collective worship. They told the story of the Wise Men in the nativity and how the most special gift we can bring to God is ourselves. We enjoyed hearing the story and reflecting on the message. We also really enjoyed singing 'Little Drummer Boy'.

NISCU visit

During 13^th and 14^th November, we were joined by representatives from St Mary's Church, Solway Network Youth Church and NISCU who worked with the children to access prayer spaces on the value of RESPONSIBILITY. The children visited each station and reflected on their responsibilities to themselves, their friends and family, the community and the world as a whole.

 

Maryport Schools Remembrance Service

Representatives from our school council joined those from other schools in the town at the annual Remembrance Service. Everyone in school had written a promise to God on a poppy and these were displayed in church. We also laid a wreath in remembrance of those who have sacrificed so much.

Remembrance Service 2019