Ripon Cathedral School Update

On Monday, we celebrated our annual Christingle service at the Cathedral. During the day, volunteers from the Cathedral worked with the children in school to make their Christingles, an activity that is always very enjoyable for the pupils and volunteers alike! After school, the children watched a film together and ate some cupcakes provided by the school kitchen as they waited for darkness to fall before walking up to the Cathedral for the service. During the service, the children sang some hymns that they have been practising in school, accompanied by Mrs Gill on piano. Year 6 led the prayers and readings, which reflected on Jesus as the Light of the World. After Canon Matthew had explained to the congregation about the meaning of each part of the Christingle, it was time to light the candles. The children formed the shape of the cross in the central aisle and around the altar, while Iris and Ramsay sang a beautiful hymn, Hope of Heaven. The candles were lit and the lights dimmed while a prayer was said. The service was a lovely way to reflect the light of Jesus at the time of Candlemas and we are grateful to parents and carers for joining us to share this celebration. Thank you to Beth Wickenden, Canon Matthew, Sue Gill and the team of volunteers at the Cathedral who helped to make the event so special.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to all parents and carers for their support this week during our Ofsted visit. Thank you for completing the Parent View survey online and to those of you who took the time to speak to the inspector on the playground to share your thoughts and comments. It was a privilege for us to be able to show off all the hard work that the pupils and staff put in on a daily basis, and to be able to showcase all that is wonderful about our school. We felt the inspector understood and appreciated all that makes the school unique and special. Thank you for all of the kind words and gestures throughout the week which helped to keep us all going! We will share the outcome of the inspection as soon as we are able, which is likely to be in around thirty days' time.

Year 4 had a fabulous visit to Jorvik and the Dig. The children enjoyed a ride around the centre, where they were transported back in time to a Viking village! They then took part in a battle tactics worship and looked at different weapons used in battle between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons. After lunch, the children more about the role of an archaeologist before having a go at finding evidence at the Dig.

Last week, we once again welcomed Open the Book into school for worship, this time to tell the story of the Good Samaritan. Skylar, Mercedes, Jacob, Roman, Noah and Lottie from Year 4 joined the cast as robbers, a healer and some villagers, in the retelling. The familiar story about a man who was attacked and left injured on the road sent a powerful message to the children about how to care for others. Several people walked past the injured man and left him there to suffer, but the kindness of his ‘enemy’, the Samaritan, demonstrated that there should be no boundaries when it comes to love and care. We sang the hymn ‘When I needed a neighbour’ and considered who exactly was our neighbour? The answer was everybody. Regardless of our differences, Jesus compels us to care for each other and to treat everyone equally. The children were encouraged to look for ways they could live this out in school this week.

On Wednesday, the Year 3 children presented a class worship all about 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself' which was this year's theme for Place2Be's Children's Mental Health Week. They spoke about how you can explore your emotions and what you can do to keep happy by singing and dancing. They also told the school how the best thing you can do about a worry, is to talk someone and share it. They explained this by telling the story of 'Ruby's Worry' by Tom Percival.

They did a brilliant job at spreading a very important message.

Congratulations to this week's stars:

Nursery - Natalie for growing in confidence and becoming more independent.

Reception - Olly H for being a 'Go for it Gorilla' and a 'Persevering Parrot' with his phonics. He was worked really hard to remember his sounds and use them to blend in reading, but he has also been trying hard to use them in his writing.

Year 1 - Sadie for working with lots of determination and perseverance in our writing sessions. She is trying so hard to remember her capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.

Year 2 - Ivy for her determination and positive, can do attitude! This week Ivy has gone out of her way to display and promote our school values and on top of all this, she has produced a fantastic independent write in English!

Year 3 - Elliott P for his effort in lessons and at home, he really has been trying hard in every subject.

Year 4 - William for showing curiosity and enthusiasm in our science work on circuits, sharing his existing knowledge with his peers and asking questions to deepen his knowledge.

Year 5 - Jack for his fantastic ideas and handwriting in our RE learning. Jack has showed great independence and was rightly proud of himself.

Year 6 - Mia for having a mature attitude towards her learning and for taking every opportunity to improve, especially in maths.

We are unable to run a holiday club over Easter. However, there is good news for the summer holidays! Enough of our wonderful staff, all of whom are only contracted to work in term time, have offered to work in the first and last week of the summer break. We are just waiting for confirmation from the building management company that we can go ahead before we open up booking, but the dates should be Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th July and Tuesday 26th to Thursday 28th August.

Tuesday 11th February - Safer Internet Day and Year 5 Class Worship at 9am

Friday 14th February - School closes for half term

Email: admin@riponcathedral.n-yorks.sch.uk
Website: www.riponcathedralschool.org.uk
Location: HG41LT, United Kingdom
Phone: 01765 602355
Facebook: facebook.com/riponcathschool