This is just to say a BIG welcome back to everyone at Kirk Fenton Primary School, from all at St Mary's Church as another school years begins. As your Vicar, I'm always happy to be contacted by parents, or anyone else who has a connection with the school to chat about faith, what we offer as a church in terms of services and events, childrens' ministry, enquiries about baptism, or anything else which you think we might be able to help you with.

I'm also delighted to be welcoming Catherine Charlesworth as a Foundation Governor, as she moves across from being a Parent Governor this year. I very much look forward to working with her within her new role, as we look to strengthen links, and increase our working together between the church and Kirk Fenton Primary School over the academic year ahead.

Please do also keep up to date with everything which is taking place within the life of the church by visiting our whole benefice website, or by 'liking' our St Mary's Church Fenton Facebook page; details below. Keep an eye-out for details of special upcoming events around Harvest, Advent, and Christmas when the time comes.

Plus, do say 'hello' if you see me out and about either in the village or at the school, and remember that St Mary's is your church, in your community, where everyone is genuinely always very welcome.

With very best wishes – Rev'd Paulie.

rev.paulie@aol.com

www.tadcasterbenefice.org

www.facebook.com/churchfentonchurch

Our vision:

Rooted in Christian belief, our vision for every member of this school community is to feel valued and respected, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race, faith, belief or ability. Through developing a love of learning, each individual will have the opportunity to reach their full potential and aspire to become the person they were born to be.

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

Our values our respect, thankfulness, perseverance and forgiveness and we try to live our lives with these in mind. In the Autumn term, we focus on respect and thankfulness.

Our RE lessons always start with a question and can be related to Christianity or learning about other religions, they can be about the nature of God or belief in general and allow the children to learn and ask questions of an academic subject.

This half term the children are finding out:

Donaldson: Which stories are special and why?

Hughes: What do Christians believe about God?

Coelho: Who is a Christian and what do they believe?

Rosen: Who is a Muslim and what do they believe?

Milligan: What do different people believe about God?

Zephaniah: Why are festivals important to religious communities?

Shakespeare: Why do some people believe God exists?

Angelou: What do religions say to us when life gets hard?

Collective worship happens daily usually as a whole school but occasionally as a class and is led by different staff with support from the children. It is a chance for children to talk to God and each other about anything and everything and is based in Christian belief as we are a Church of England school. We use this time to talk about the things that are happening in our world with an invitation for children to join us in prayer. We also consider the UN Rights of the Child and how our vision and values can be used to make our school and the wider world a better place.

Our classes are also invited to pray before lunch and at the end of each day using our school prayers.

We will be celebrating Harvest and thinking about thankfulness in school on 5th October with the worship that day led by our new Head Pupils and Year 6 Team captains. Although we don't have room to invite parents to the worship, we would be very grateful for any donations of tinned or dried goods which we then donate to the Selby Food Bank. They are particularly in need of tinned spaghetti, baked beans, tinned custard and rice pudding as well as tinned soups if you are able to help. Please bring items to school on 5th October and the food bank will collect them that day. Thank you.