Let Your Light Shine

Letting Our Light Shine In Our Community and Beyond 
Let Your Light Shine - Matthew 5:16 
The words of the Sermon on the Mount remind us that a light should not be put under a bowl – it should give light to everyone, including oneself.   In possession of God’s light and His love, it is possible for us all to show something of his light in our families, in our school, in our community and throughout the world.  

Let Your Light Shine on everyone, everywhere, everyday!   

Caring for our local environment – PCSO speed awareness

Our Year 5 children have been working hard to improve our school environment and the safety of the local area for themselves as children and the wider community of Edenthorpe. They have worked with our PCSO Sophy on a speed awareness safety project whereby they monitored vehicles accessing Church Balk on different days and at different times of the day. Their community work was celebrated within the weekly newsletter as agents for change! 

 

Linking with our community - Remembrance Service - November  

Remembrance Day is always on 11th November.   It marks the day World War One ended, at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month back in 1918 – over 100 years ago.  Our school comes together within our community to honour those who served in the armed services and thanks them for the sacrifices they made for us.    Red poppies are a symbol of remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.    During WW1, much of the fighting took place in Western Europe.  The countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over repeatedly. 
Beautiful landscapes turned to mud; bleak and barren scenes replaced them.   There was a notable and striking exception to the bleakness - the bright red poppies.    These resilient flowers flourished in the middle of so much chaos and destruction, growing in the thousands upon thousands.   Some of our relatives and local residents have served in the armed forces to protect us.   Some gave their lives for us.  We are truly thankful. 
Each November, we lead a service at The Church of the Good Shepherd  to remember those who gave up so much for us.   Year 6 take on the role of developing and leading the Remembrance service which is open to our local community to attend. Each year a representative of our school also attends the community remembrance event by laying a wreath on behalf of all pupils and staff at Canon Popham and takes part in the service by delivering a reading from the act of commitment. 
We also raise money in school for the Royal British Legion by selling poppies to children and their parents/carers.

 

Raising money for others – becoming Agents for Change in our community, our nation and our world. 

Children in Need,  Red Nose Day Santa Dash – Children’s Air Ambulance charity, Unicef  
Each year our school and class ambassadors meet to discuss how we can let our lights shine by supporting charitable events. This year we chose a local, national and global charity to support. 

Children chose to support a local charity – The Hanger who raise money for the Children’s Air Ambulance service to enable them to continue the fantastic work they do to help people within our locality who has suffered an injury and their support is needed to safely and quickly be transported to receive vital medical assistance.

 

Thinking of others and spreading kindness - Harvest  

Harvest time is a great opportunity for us to recall and celebrate together the origins of these good gifts – to express our gratitude for the land and people who produce them, and to thank God.  Each year we have the opportunity to express our thanks and support others who are less fortunate than ourselves with the help of The Church of the Good Shepherd and our local food bank in Doncaster. 

Doncaster Foodbank provided food to 5273 adults and 2889 children in our local community, meaning they needed to collect over 60 tonnes of tins and packets to provide those in crisis with emergency support. The demand for their service in Doncaster has literally more than doubled and the amazing support they receive from Schools, Churches, and organisations is essential to helping them meet that demand. Canon Popham rise to the challenge of supporting our local food bank each year by consistently donating several tonnes of valuable produce to Doncaster Food Bank. 

 

Thinking of others – FIVER CHALLENGE  

Within PSHE, we give pupils the opportunity to learn how money and financial decision making can affect people’s wellbeing, and how to make informed choices with money. Each year, every class from nursery to year 6 take part in Fiver Challenge from Young Enterprise. Once their business has secured a profit, classes think how they can use this as agents for change. This year, with a donation of £127.45 (10% of their profits), children chose to support UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. UNICEF is a UN agency focused on providing humanitarian and development aid to children worldwide. It works in over 190 countries and territories to protect children's rights, meeting their basic needs and expanding their opportunities. UNICEF's work includes providing nutrition, healthcare, education, clean water, and protection from violence and exploitation. Each class wanted to know they had supported children across our world to help provide for things they might take for granted in their own lives. 

 

Sharing the ‘Story of Holy Week’ with the wider community  

   

We created some work to display in the ‘Story of Holy Week’ at The Church of the Good Shepherd with Rev Tom and Josey. Each class spent time in church working with Rev Tom and Josey at different ‘stations’ focused on the events of Holy Week.

 

Spreading kindness in our community – Easter Cards

Our Year 4 children delivered an Easter card to our local residents.   The children we able to design, make and send a personalised Easter card to our local community with help from Rev Tom. The children were really pleased they could write a name on their card to personalise their Easter message. We hope our local residents enjoyed receiving these as much as Year 4 did in making and sending them.

 

 

 

Raising money for others - Christingle – Children’s Society

After our Christingle Service, led by year 5, the children used collection boxes at the start and end of the service when welcoming our community to raise money for the Children’s Society who help children and young adults in the darkest of times.    We raised money we were able to send to the Children’s Society.