Great Gidding Challenge Updates

Week Three - Gold

We completed this week's environment challenge. In mixed age groups the children had to choose some seeds and then decide where to plant them in the school grounds in order to make the environment attractive to visitors. Each group marked the planting areas on a map of the school and grounds. We planted the seeds Wednesday p.m. - in the rain! But one child put a positive spin on it declaring that "even though it was miserable weather it will help the plants to grow and make the environment cleaner"   Other quotes included "We'd like to thank the Bishops for giving us this task" "It was incredibly fun and exciting" "It took a while to prepare" "Everybody joined in"

Week Two - Gold

We started this challenge with a visit from our vicar, Rev Mary Jepp. Mary told them all about her recent trip to the Holy Land and especially about the school and children living in Gaza. She asked them if they would include the children of Gaza in their challenge this week.

Our children worked in 4 mixed age groups (Fs – Y6) and decided the route for the prayer walk and the group of people they would like to pray for. The children were very thoughtful and really tried to link where they prayed with the group of people they were praying for. They worked together to write a group prayer.

The walk was as followed:

It began in the school garden where the children prayed for the homeless. They chose the garden because many homeless people sleep outdoors in parks etc. They then walked to  St Michael’s Church (next door) and went inside and prayed for the elderly of Great Gidding and the neighboring villages. The children were adamant that they wanted to include the Church in our walk as they are proud of being a Church school. They came back into the school grounds and went to the tyre play area where they prayed for the children of Gaza. The tyres are arranged in a strip and they linked this to The Gaza Strip. Lastly the children went to our Peace Garden to pray for people who have recently been bereaved; two of our children have had grandparents die in the last couple of weeks.

Today in Collective Worship the children reported that they had really enjoyed the challenge this week. One child said it made him really listen to the prayers and think about what was being said. They said they felt happy and it was made special by hearing the birds sing and feeling the breeze on their faces. One thing I have introduced recently is a prayer bear. We use him at prayer time and a child will come out the front and hold the bear. He has been a huge hit and also accompanied the children on their prayer walk.

Week One - Gold

The whole school worked together during Collective Worship this week.  We have discussed Lent and what it means and then each child in school made a fish complete with either a picture (FS & Y1) or a message/fact about Lent (Y2-Y6).  All the children worked together supporting each other especially the older children supporting the younger ones. We have created a corner display as well.