Catholic Life
Our Catholic Life – Our Journey in Faith
The Catholic life of The Willows is rich in opportunities for children to encounter God and to deepen their relationship with Him as a loving, compassionate Father. On this page we aim to share with you and celebrate many of the elements which make our Catholic school so special. Here you will find information to help families, the Parish and the school work together in supporting the development of our children’s faith.
Our Parish
At The Willows we have such strong links with our Parish community. We are so lucky to have the church next to our school grounds. Father Andrew is a regular visitor in school and each class in turn always enjoys joining the Parish for weekday Mass on a Tuesday. We are delighted that so many children join the Parish for Mass on a Sunday. Come along and join our celebrations. Mass begins at 6:00pm on Saturday or 11:00am every Sunday.
Year 3 – Jesse Tree
During Advent Year 3 created their own Jesse Tree in the classroom to help them to prepare for the birth of Jesus. The Jesse Tree is a lovely tradition where, each day of Advent, a new ornament is added to a tree to symbolise a different story or person from the Bible...
Year 3 – Our Advent Promises
After an amazing Advent Liturgy led by Year 4, we all made Advent promises to hang on our beautiful tree. We thought about what we were going to do during this special time to prepare for the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Advent Promises
In class we have been learning all about Advent, we have spent some time making Advent Wreaths and discussing the importance of each Advent candle. This week we attended a whole school advent liturgy. From the liturgy we have made our own Advent promises and hung...
Reception – Our Nativity
Today, Reception impressed the whole school by retelling the story of The Nativity. Every child spoke so clearly and acted out their parts extremely well. I know all the children and staff watching were extremely proud of them all. Well done Reception, you have very...
Year 5 Prayer and Liturgies
Each week, children from Year 5 plan and deliver a prayer and liturgy to the class. They are always beautiful and reflective. Well done, everyone!
Year 6 Remembrance Prayer And Liturgy
On Thursday 10th November, Year 6 led a Prayer and Liturgy for the whole school based on the theme of Remembrance. The children led the reflection wonderfully, in a very calm, reflective and respectful manner. After explaining what Remembrance is about, Emily read the...
Year 1 – Visit to Church
Year One joined the Parish for Mass this week. It was the first time without their buddies and they listened really well to Father Andrew. They learnt about how important it is to be a friend of Jesus and make the right choices.
Year 3 Star
We are all so proud of Victoria and the wonderful work she has been doing outside of school. Victoria decided she wanted to try to raise money to donate to charities who work with homeless people. She collected money from family, did odd jobs at home, sorted and...
Remembrance Day
On Sunday 14th November, Evie and James (our Head Girl and Head Boy) as well as Deborah and Katie (Deputy Head Girls) joined members of the public and other organisations from Kirkham to remember those who gave their lives for us during times of war. They represented...
Year 6 – Remembrance Prayer & Liturgy
On Wednesday, 10th November, our wonderful Year 6 children led us in our Remembrance Prayer and Liturgy. They called us to be grateful for the sacrifice soldiers past and present that have given their lives so that we can live in peace. Evie-Marie read the Sermon on...
Fr. Andrew visits Year 6
On Wednesday 3rd November, Fr. Andrew came to visit Year 6 to hold a talk and answer their questions about the role of a priest and Fr. Andrew's personal experiences of becoming a Catholic priest. Year 6's current R.E. topic is all about vocations, in particular the...
INSET Day Liturgy
Just as the children regularly lead and take part in Prayer and Liturgy, so too do our staff. As we returned to school today after our half term break, Mrs. Roddy lead us in a beautifully reflective liturgy about the Feast of All of Saints. Mrs. Roddy called us to...
Year 6 – Outdoor RE Artwork!
We are currently learning all about The Kingdom of God and positive values in R.E. lessons. We have learnt all about what God’s Kingdom is, how we become mebers of God’s Kingdom and how we accept the invite of becoming a part of God’s family. It is however the...
Welcome Prayer & Liturgy
Each year our Year 6 children lead a Welcome Prayer and Liturgy for our new Reception children, the children who have joined our school in the last 12 months and staff who are new to our school. We welcome them to our 'Willows Family' and present them with a marian...
Whole School Mass
It was so wonderful to be able to go to church together again and celebrate Mass as a school family. For some of the children this was the first time that they have been able to go inside our beautiful chuch and witness how awe inspiring it is. We loved being able to...
Year 2 – Prayer & Liturgy
In Year 2 we get to plan and deliver our own child led Prayer and Liturgy sessions. Each week a small group of us go into the Prayer Area and plan each aspect of the prayer and liturgy. Later that day we deliver this to the class with support from Miss Harrison.
Year 2 – Our R.E.
This half term in RE we have been lucky enough to go over to Church with Miss Harrison and Mrs Barnett to do some learning. We got the entire Church to ourselves and enjoyed asking lots of questions, explored the stained class windows and even learnt how to genuflect...
Go Green for CAFOD!
This autumn, leading up to the COP26 climate talks in November, CAFOD are asking us to ‘Go Green’ by taking on a climate-related fundraising challenge. In school, we spent the day reducing the amount of energy we use - turning of lights, using less water etc. We also...
First Holy Communion
Now that the children have made their First Reconciliation, after waiting 19 months, it is time for them to prepare to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion for the first time. The children, their families and the Catechists are working hard to prepare for the...
First Reconciliation Service
In February 2020, just before COVID hit, our children had just about finished their preparation to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. As the pandemic worsened, Father Andrew made the sensible decision to postpone the celebration of...
Year 6 – Prayer & Liturgy
Year 6 children lead Prayer and Liturgies every Tuesday in class. The children plan their own Prayer and Liturgies using a wide range of resources and set up the worship table independently based on the theme they have chosen from their piece of scripture. The...
FOMO Donation
Over the past few months we have been looking at replacing the laptops that the children use in school. We have over 50 laptops which are now getting slow and are unable to run the latest software that we have in school. Rather than sending these devices to a company...
Leavers Mass
Fr. Andrew led us all in a wonderful Leavers’ Mass. We held our Mass outside so that the whole school could join in. It was a wonderful way to come together as a school family following all the restrictions due to COVID.
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross are a 14-step Catholic devotion that commemorates Jesus Christ's last day on Earth as a man. Walking with Jesus through the last hours of his life is one way of explaining the tradition of praying the Stations of the...
Ash Wednesday Mass
Ash Wednesday Mass On Wednesday 17th February, our children would normally gather together to celebrate Ash Wednesday. Fr. Andrew would lead us as we process around the hall offering our Lenten Promises. Given that Ash Wednesday falls during our half term, the...
Bethany Choir 2019
We were delighted to welcome The Bethany Family Children’s Choir from Tanzania to our school. Tanzania is one of the world’s very poorest countries. Its people are peace loving and friendly with a desire to develop their country to its full potential.The children in...
Charity Work – Care & Share
We support our local charity ‘Care and Share’. They work in our local community to support families with providing goods, food and gifts. At harvest time we lead an assembly and provide food for the charity. In December Mrs Mckee one of the volunteers comes into...
Advent Day
We were delighted to welcome Mrs Wright to our school who led us in a whole school worship and then workshops as part of our preparation to welcome Jesus at Christmas. The theme of the day was ‘The Jesse Tree’. She shared the story of Ruth with us and we explored the...
Remembrance Day
Each year in November we join with all the local churches and members of the local churches to remember people who died for us in the war.We process through the streets to the local cenotaph where we share a service of remembrance and lay a wreath on behalf of the...
Year 6 Mission Mass
Our Year 6 children joined the other Year 6 classes from our Deanery to take part in a special Mission Mass at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church. Each school led a different part of the service and each school was presented with a candle to mark this special occasion....
