A huge thank you to Mr Hughes for completing our Mary Grotto. The children are very excited to see the beginning of our prayer garden.

Mr Hughes one of our SSC representatives and parishioners has kindly offered to create an altar for Mary for our new playground prayer area. Some of our Liturgy Leaders came to see it in its first stages.

We reflected on the Stations of the Cross with a special exhibition in the hall. Each year group, from Nursery to Year 6, came and prayed at each station thinking about Jesus' final journey. We listened to an account of what happened at each station before praying and being given a special task to complete. 

The children have begun planning our new prayer area in the playground. The children have been asked to design the space and submit their ideas to Mrs Goodes. We will be carrying out fundraising over the next academic year to try and develop a beautiful space for the children at St Brigid’s to use when talking to God.

Year 6 teamed up with St Thomas Aquinas year 7 children to look at and explore the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

They worked brilliantly together.

Our new Liturgy Leaders met for this first time this year. They were introduced to our new Collective Worship bags and went away with a monitoring form to monitor their classroom prayer table.

We gathered in our classes to watch the Go Green CAFOD assembly which taught us about our global responsibility in protecting the world.

KS2 gathered together for the first time in almost 18 months to celebrate Mary’s birthday and listen to Sunday’s Gospel. It was wonderful to be in the presence of God together.

Vocations Day

Sunday 25th April was Vocations Sunday. We marked the occasion by dressing up as what we want to be when we are older as a way of thinking about what God is calling us to be.

Last year Isabel T, who is now at secondary school, won a prayer writing competition ran by The Knights of St Columba. Today, her sister Anabel, received the prize on her behalf: a £30 cheque for Isabel and £200 for our school.

We want to say a massive well done to Isabel and thank you to Bernard and all The Knights of St Columba for the fantastic prize.

Feast of the Epiphany

We would usually attend Mass as a school community on this special feast day to remember when the three wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus. As things are different this year, we joined our friends in our Catholic primary schools at a special online Mass. The Mass was held at St. Chad's Cathedral and was led by Archbishop Bernard. It was lovely to see our children in school and those learning at home participating. 

A Christmas Message from Archbishop Bernard 

His Grace has recorded a short Christmas message for schools to be shared with the children, staff and all their families. It is a lovely, simple message that even the youngest children in our schools will be able to understand. The YouTube link is here: https://youtu.be/lYVkU9cYa38 a

Charity Fundraising

To mark Christmas jumper day, we came to school dressed in our Christmas jumpers to raise money for St Mary's Hospice. Thank you to all of our families who donated so generously.

Maisie in Year 4 along with her sisters Mollie and Lily wanted to organise an event to raise money for charity. They came up with the idea of dressing as an elf for the day and set up their own just giving page. All of the money received will be donated to the Alzheimer's Charity.

We are thrilled to report that Maisie has raised over £600 when the original target was £175! This is brilliant! Well done to Maisie and her family - we are so proud of your wonderful fundraising efforts! We know that a number of pupils and parents have been doing so many wonderful things to help other at this special time of year so that others have a special time too. Your wonderful efforts bring tears to our eyes - you are so kind, thoughtful and generous. THANK YOU AND WELL DONE!

Advent and Christmas Reflection

Unfortunately, this year we are unable to invite parents and families to join us for our annual Nativity productions and Carol Concert. However, we still wanted to remind you of the true meaning of Christmas and offer you the opportunity to reflect on the birth of our Lord, Jesus. The pupils from Year 1-6 participated in an Advent and Christmas reflection. Please visit the following link to watch our recording:

https://www.stbrigid.bham.sch.uk/autumn-term-september-2020/

You can also access the Nursery and Reception recordings on this page. 

Online Advent Reflection

We joined together with our friends in Catholic primary schools across our diocese to join Dan and Emily from One Life Music in their Advent Reflection. It was lovely to feel part of a community as we listened to some Advent hymns and thought about how we can prepare for Jesus' coming. 

Collecting for the Homeless

Please see below a message from the SVP Parish group:

A huge thank you to all of you who have donated chocolate bars, toiletries and hats, scarves and gloves for the homeless in Birmingham. These will be delivered to Basil’s next week and we know that they will be greatly appreciated.

Well done to the School Councillors and Mini Vinnies who worked together to organise making Christmas cards for the homeless. These were handed out with our donations. There were so many cards that we even had some left over for our parishioners who may have been spending Christmas alone.

Prayer Buddies

The pupils in Year 3 have each been allocated a prayer buddy from St Columba's. During this Sacramental year, we promise to pray for each other. We made prayer cards to ask God to look after our prayer buddies throughout the coming year.

Food Parcels

A big thank you to parents who organised food parcels to be collected. These have been handed out to those in need in our community.

Advent

To celebrate the start of the season of Advent, pupils were encouraged to come to school wearing an item of purple clothing. This is to remind us that the liturgical colour of Advent is purple. Each class participated in an Advent craft afternoon when we made items to be displayed on our class prayer tables.

National Youth Funday

On Friday pupils in KS2 joined with young people across England to celebrate National Youth Day.

The theme for this year was ‘Being Together.'

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed distance from others and we may have felt an increasing distance between ourselves and God. However, in the midst of all these trials, God calls us to new opportunities and a life of hope. We look forward to a time where we can freely get together with family and friends. National Youth Funday is a fun way to celebrate with young people in schools. The day was hosted by youth ministry teams from across the country who lead us in prayer and fun activities as we unpacked the theme of ‘together’. We were delighted that Cardinal Vincent Nichols joined us to start our day in prayer with music led by Joe Wells of One Hope Project. 

Poppy Appeal

Pupils showed their support for the Poppy Appeal by giving money to charity and buying poppies and other items, All of the money raised will be going to charity. It is lovely to see so many children wearing their poppies with pride to remember our fallen soldiers.

Month of the Holy Souls

During the month of November, the children thought of somebody who they know who has died. We prayed to God asking Him to look after the souls of all our loved ones. We said the 'Eternal Rest' prayer each day in class.

Letters to those in isolation

Some of our children have been inspired to write letters to parishioners who may be spending time in isolation and those who may be lonely. We wrote to them to let them know that all of the children and staff at St Brigid's school are thinking of them and praying for them. 

Month of the Holy Rosary

Each class has been learning about the Rosary and why this is such a special prayer. Children were encouraged to bring in their own Rosary beads from home to help them to pray in their classes.

Saint of the Week

Please check our weekly newsletter for the Saint of the Week. Can you find out some more information about saints whose feast days are coming up soon?

Mini Vinnie Appointments

We are pleased to announce that our Mini Vinnies for 2020-2021 have been appointed. Please head to their dedicated website page to find out what they will be doing this year:

https://www.stbrigid.bham.sch.uk/mini-vinnies/

During ‘The Year of the Word’, the Liturgy leaders are holding a Bible study group during their lunchtime for the Year groups 2 to 6.

During ‘The Year of the Word’, the Liturgy leaders are holding a Bible study group during their lunchtime for the Year groups 2 to 6.

Sheila from Missio came into school to teach us about the work completed by Mission Together. We learnt how important it is to try and help and pray for other children all over the world.

Mrs Bentley from STACS came to teach KS2 choir songs for the Lumen Christi Carol Concert on Wednesday 18^th December.

The Mini Vinnies gathered together to write some ‘Postcards of Happiness’ to send to the people at Beeches Care Home in Northfield. We hope that when they receive them it will put a smile on their face. Thank you to Abel’s Father who donated the postcards which he bought from the Holy Land.

Year 3 have been working extremely hard getting ready for their First Holy Communion. On Friday 17^th May, the children met with Father Cecil and tried the unconsecrated bread in preparation for receiving the sacrament. On Saturday 18^th May, the children came together with their families and received Jesus for the first time. Congratulations children!

On Tuesday 26^th February, the new Mini Vinnies were given their badges and certificates in a ceremony during our Whole School Mass. Mrs Hodgkinson our Chair of Governors and our SVP representative for the parish gave out the awards. Congratulations children. We cannot wait for you to ‘turn concern into action’.

Year 3 were joined by their parents and family members for their Inspire workshop. We learned about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. Thank you to all those who braved the wet weather; we hope you enjoyed your afternoon.

It has been a very busy week selling cakes and collecting shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. The School Councillors and Liturgy Leaders would like to thank all those who supported the project. We collected 55 shoe boxes and raised £56.00 – Fantastic!

Operation Christmas Child project has officially begun!

The School Councillors invited some guest speakers, from the charity, to tell the rest of the school all about this project.

During Year 3's R.E lesson, Mrs Goodes came to visit with baby Annabel. She told us all about Annabel’s Baptism. She was so impressed with our knowledge. We were able to tell her what we knew about the Oil of Chrism, the God-parents, the Baptismal Candle and the White Garment.

It was lovely to meet Annabel and hear about her special day.

The Angelus

Every day during May, children in key Stage 2 have been saying the Angelus prayer to remind us of how special Our Lady is to us.