Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

This year’s Shrove Tuesday pancake celebrations were a somewhat soggy affair! However, following a feast of pancakes in the classroom, the children nevertheless braved the inclement weather to complete their traditional pancake races in the school playground. Parents who arrived early to collect the children were able to observe the fun – and even took part in a race of their own!

As is traditional here, the children had to race the length of the playground, while tossing their pancake a number of times according to their current year group – 6 for year 6, 5 for year 5 etc. Then, the children competed to see who could perform the most consecutive tosses without dropping their pancake. It was a lot of fun – even if the pancakes were a little inedible at the end of it!

 

On Ash Wednesday, parents were once again invited to arrive early for the end of the school day for the school’s Ash Wednesday Eucharist service at St. Winifred’s church. It was wonderful to have such a great turnout for this service. Father Steven reminded the children of the reasons for this celebration and the Year 6 children read the story of Jesus’ forty days and nights in the wilderness, as well as a passage from the Old Testament book of Joel about the importance of repentance and the unending forgiveness, faithfulness and love of the Lord. Father Steven spoke about how the tradition of putting ash on people’s foreheads on this day helps them to remember this unending love and forgiveness. Many of the children were keen to come forward to receive an ash cross on their foreheads and again to receive a blessing during the celebration of Communion. The intercessory prayers were written and read by some of the Key Stage 2 children and included prayers for some of the current troubles and difficulties around the world.