Ethos Group

Ethos Service

On Sunday the 20th November, the Ethos Group led the Sunday morning service at Saughall All Saints Church.

We had 24 members of the group who came and took part and the children were absolutely brilliant. They all had big smiles on their faces throughout and taught us all so well about the love of God.

We focused on the verse that supports our Christian vision in school, 'Love your neighbour as yourself', and we broke this down into 5 parts:

1. The story of the Good Samaritan, which Jesus tells as an example for how to love our neighbours and who our neighbours are.
2. What we mean by the word love and the Parable of the Good Shepherd to demonstrate true love.
3. God's love and how it never runs out.
4. Who our neighbours are.
5. Loving ourselves.

The congregation of the church were very complimentary after the service, with one woman saying she was moved to tears at points with the message and industry of the Ethos group. The Vicar said: 'It was a special time of worship for the Church,' and one member of staff who attended commented: 'The Ethos group was amazing today. Can't believe they took almost the whole service and we could hear the children singing even at the back'. It was a really special morning and a big thank you to all those who attended and particularly to the children and their families.

SCRIPT

Part 1

Zoe: In school, we have a Bible verse that goes along with our Christian vision. That Bible verse is ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.

Sophia B: This verse comes from the story of the Good Samaritan and today we are going to explain what this verse means to us in school.

Jasmin A: But before we do that, we thought we should tell you the story.

Good Samaritan

(Sophia R)Narrator: One day, a religious expert stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question:

(Erica)Religious Leader: Teacher, what should I do to have eternal life?

(Reese)Jesus: What does the law of Moses say?

(Erica)Religious Leader: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and Love your neighbour as yourself.

(Reese)Jesus: Right, do this and you will live.

(Erica)Religious Leader: And who is my neighbour?

(Sophia R)Narrator: And Jesus told a parable to answer this question.

Scene 1: A person walks along a road towards a group of robbers.

(Reese)Jesus: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers.

(Stanley, Isaac, Jazmin H)Robbers x3: Give us all your money.

(Reese)Jesus: The robbers stole everything he had, beat him up and went away, leaving him half dead.

(Ben)Victim: (groans)

(Reese)Jesus: Now by chance, a priest was going down that road and when he saw the man lying on the ground, the priest crossed over to the other side of the road and walked on.

(Reese)Jesus: Likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, he too passed by on the other side.

(Reese)Jesus: But a Samaritan, while travelling, came near him and, when he saw the man on the ground, he wanted to help.

(Amara)Samaritan: Are you alright?

(Reese)Jesus: The Samaritan went to the man, cleaned his wounds and bandaged them.

(Amara)Samaritan: There, that should do it.

(Reese)Jesus: Then the Samaritan put the man on his own animal

(Amara)Samaritan: Come on, let’s get you to an inn so you can recover.

(Reese)Jesus: The Samaritan took him to an inn and asked the innkeeper to take care of the man.

Scene 2: Innkeeper sat at a desk, talking with the Samaritan.

(Reese)Jesus: The next day, the Samaritan took two coins and gave them to the innkeeper.

(Amara)Samaritan: Take care of him and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.

(Bella T)Innkeeper: I certainly will.

(Reese)Jesus: (Turning to the religious leaders) Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers: the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan?

(Erica)Religious Leader: the one who helped him and showed him kindness.

(Reese)Jesus: So go and do the same.

Zoe: We also need to do the same as Jesus commanded the Religious Leader to do: we need to help other people and show them kindness.

Sophia B: So, to help us understand the verse ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ more, we are going to break it down into parts.

Jasmin A: We are going to start with the word love, looking at what it means and why love is important.

 

Part 2

Elisabeth: (Show the letter or card to the congregation.) This letter came in the post for me this morning and I am so excited because it’s from my friend who moved to America last year. It tells me that he’s having loads of fun out there and has settled into his new school but he’s missing me. And look, he’s finished the letter with the words ‘Love from’. I wonder what he means by that!

Nia: The dictionary definition of ‘love’ is ‘a strong feeling of affection’ or ‘a great interest and pleasure in something’.

Elisabeth: Awhh. That must mean that he really cares for me and is missing me. I miss him to. I wonder who else I love in the same way?

Nia: We all have people who we have strong feelings of affection for:

Some children to share the people in their lives who they love. (Sophia R, Ruby, Isaac, Stanley)

Elisabeth: Hang on a minute. If I love my friend then does that mean that I don’t love my teddies or football because I don’t feel the same way about them as I do about my friend?

Ella-Rose: You can love lots of things in lots of different ways. The way you feel about your parents will be different to the way you feel about your friends or your toys.

Some children to share things that they love in their lives. (Gunnar, Etta N, Lucy D, Coco, Charlotte)

Elisabeth: Wow. There are lots of different things and people that I love. I wonder who loves me.

Nia: We all love lots of different people and things in different ways but we are also loved by lots of different people in different ways too.

Some children to share people who love them. (Ben, Bella C, Erica, Bella T, Reese)

Elisabeth: I love my parents. I want to show them that I love them but how can I do that?

Some children to share different ways that we can show people we love them.

Ella-Rose: Being loved by people is very special.

Some children to share how it feels to be loved. (Freya, Molly, Amara, Jazmin)

Elisabeth: Is everyone loved?

Nia: Sometimes, we might feel a bit alone. Perhaps we have had an argument with a friend or someone in our family, or perhaps someone we love has gone away. When we aren’t sure about being loved, it can feel sad and lonely.

Ella-Rose: But you are never truly alone. There are lots of people that you can talk to when you feel this way.

Some children to share who we can talk to. (Coco, Gunnar, Sophia R, Ruby)

Nia: No one should ever need to feel completely alone.

Ella-Rose: Christians believe that God loves people very much. They see this as great news because it means that there is someone who always loves us, whoever we are and whatever we do.

Zoe: The Parable of the Lost Sheep helps us to understand the love of God.

Sophia R: Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Jesus.

Charlotte: But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them”. Then Jesus told them this parable.

Coco: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep.

(Enter shepherd from the back of church with his “flock of sheep” behind him)

Shepherd: Come on Baaarney…..keep up. (as walking towards the front of church) Baaabara leave Eeeewan alone. (as Baaabara is jostling Eeewan)

(As the shepherd reaches the front of the church, he turns round and sees that one of the sheep is limping)

Shepherd: Oh poor Baaartholomew it looks like you are limping…… let’s have a look.

(lifts up Baaartholomew’s foot and mimes removing a stone)

Shepherd: There you are that should feel better.

(Shepherd looks around the front of the church where there is a simple shelter built for the “sheep”)

Shepherd: This looks like a good place to rest for the night. Now let’s count you into this sheep pen…..1,2,3,4,………..96, 97, 98, 99. (counts “sheep” into the shelter)

Oh no……one of my sheep is missing….. (looks around the sheep). It’s Laaambert. Laaambert is lost. Oh where is Laaambert?

(mimes looking around him for Laaambert)

Sophia R: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Shepherd: You are all safe here….I must go and find Laaambert.

(Shepherd walks down the church looking for his lost sheep, shouting “Laaambert.” He even asks people if they have seen Laaambert. Eventually shepherd disappears from view.)

Charlotte: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Shepherd: (Shepherd re-appears carrying Laaambert on his shoulders. He walks to the front of the church shouting)

I’ve found him, I’ve found Laaambert. I am so happy that I have found my lost sheep again. Rejoice with me that I have found my lost sheep.

Sheep: Hip hip Hooray, Hip hip hooray, Hip hip hooray.

Coco: I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent.

(Exit Shepherd leading his sheep out)

Jasmin A: No matter how many of us there are in our school, in our family or in the world, each one of us matters to God. Remembering this should help us never to feel alone and always to feel pretty special.

Sophia B: The verse from the Bible tells us to Love our neighbours. This tells us that God’s love is for sharing.

 

Part 3 (Bella T doing the cutting; Ben handing out corners)

Erica: Christians believe that God’s love is great and that his love will never run out.

Reese: Wait a minute. His love will never run out. Does that mean he will always love me?

Erica: Yes.

Reese: Even if I forget to pray to him sometimes.

Everyone: Yes.

Reese: Even if I argue with my little brother.

Everyone: Yes.

Reese: Even if I tell a big lie.

Everyone: Yes.

Reese: Even if…

Erica: (interrupting) YES. God’s love never runs out. He loves us all.

Lucy: We could think about God’s love as being like this piece of paper. Let’s count the corners together.

Show the piece of paper that has ‘God’s love’ written on it and all children count the corners as C points to them.

Lucy: If this piece of paper is God’s love, then God’s love has four corners.

Erica: If I were to cut off one of the corners to give to you, how many corners would be left? (A cuts off one corner and gives it to someone in the congregation)

Erica: I’m giving this to you because you have such a lovely smile.

Lucy: Let’s count the corners again. (Count corners)

Reese: Hang on; now there are 5 corners. How does that work? Normally, 4 – 1 = 3. Count the corners again.

Lucy: Counts the corners again and says 5.

Reese: That’s just not possible. Usually when we do sums that involve subtracting, the answer is always less.

Erica: We’re going to give away some more of God’s love.

Erica: (Cuts off a second corner and gives it to someone else in the congregation). I’m giving this to you because you have been listening so well and that encourages me.

Lucy: We had four corners at the start, so now that we have given away two, we would expect to be left with two.

Reese: Yes, 4 subtract 2 equals 2. That’s maths and you’re either right or wrong in maths; there is no maybe.

Lucy: Let’s count the corners again. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Reese: Wait, 6. That’s just not possible. 4-2 = 2.

Erica: (Cutting off a third corner but keeping it)

Lucy: Each time you cut off a corner, you end up with MORE corners of God’s love.

Erica: (Holding up their corner of God’s love). This is a corner of God’s love. I’m going to count the corners. 1, 2, 3.

Lottie: Christians believe that God’s love never gets less and it never will. His love goes on and on.

Lucy: Each of us has love to give away. When we show someone love and kindness, that doesn’t mean that we have less to give! In fact, as we love more, we seem to be topped up with more love so that we can give it out to even more people. The more love we give away, the more there is!

Reese: Wait, so if I give away some love to a friend, I will still have more to give away?

Lucy: Yes, that’s right.

Reese: And if I give some more love to a different friend, the love I have won’t get less, it will grow?

Erica: Yes.

Reese: OK. I think I get it now. I just have one more question.

Erica and Lucy: Yes?

Reese: How do I give away love?

Erica and Lucy walk away looking fed up.

Some children share their ways of showing others love and B nods along as listening. (Jazmin H, Gunnar, Freya, Stanley, Isaac, Ruby)

Reese: I get it now. Thank you everyone for your help.

Zoe: Underneath your chairs you will find a corner of God’s love that we placed there before the service. If you don’t have one we have spares here now for you.

Jasmin A: As you hold God’s love, we would like you to think of someone who you could show love to today or this week and how you will do that.

 

Part 4

Ben: Ok. So now we know what love means and that God’s love is for sharing, but who are our neighbours?

Nia: That’s easy: they’re the people who live next door to you. I know both my neighbours.

Bella C: Hang on a minute. I think loving our neighbours means more than just the people next door.

Charlotte: That’s right. In the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan’s neighbours would have been Samaritans, the people who lived in his street, not a Jew from Jerusalem.

Bella T: Yes, the Samaritan showed love for someone who didn’t just live in a different street to him

Ella-Rose: Or a different town or city.

Molly: But someone who lived in a completely different country.

Bella T: And not just a country who they were friends with.

Ella-Rose: No, a country who they were fierce enemies with.

Molly: That’s right. The Jews hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews.

Charlotte: But that didn’t stop the Samaritan from doing the right thing and helping the Jewish man.

Bella T: It doesn’t matter what country you live in.

Ella-Rose: Or what colour your skin is.

Molly: Whether you’re old or young

Bella T: Male or female

Ella-Rose: Wear glasses or don’t wear glasses.

Charlotte: Everyone on this planet is your neighbour.

Ben: So someone from Blacon is my neighbour.

Charlotte: Yes.

Nia: And someone from Wales is my neighbour.

Bella T: Yes.

Bella C: And someone from France.

Ella-Rose: Yes.

Ben: And someone from Africa. 

Molly: Yes

Part 5

Zoe: Now we’d like to focus on the final part of what Jesus tells us to do and that is loving ourselves.

Sophia B: The first part tells us that loving God is important, which is something that most people already understand to be an important aspect of being a Christian.

Jasmin A: However, the second part of Jesus’ answer is sometimes surprising to people.

Ella-Rose: Jesus tells us, ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ So, we are to love others in the same sorts of ways that we love ourselves.

Reese: Hey, Hey everyone. Look at this. I’ve been sent a birthday card. It’s my birthday tomorrow and this card just arrived in the post for me.

Elisabeth: OOOHhh. Who’s it from? Open it so we can see.

Reese: It says Happy Birthday. Have a wonderful day, love from ______

Elisabeth: Wait, what??? I didn’t know you had a friend with the same name as yourself.

Reese: I don’t. I sent the card to myself.

Elisabeth: Huh. You sent a birthday card to yourself!

Reese: Yes

Elisabeth: But why?

Zoe: Jesus’ teaching encourages us to love others by showing them kindness, care and compassion.

Sophia B: But what’s that got to do with sending yourself a Birthday card?

Zoe: Well, Jesus’ teaching calls us to love others as we love ourselves. If we are loving and kind to others, we should be loving and kind to ourselves too.

Jasmin: When we show care and kindness to others, but don’t practise self-care and self-love, we are out of balance with what Jesus teaches.

Ella-Rose: Christians are called to love and care for themselves as a starting point from which they can love and care for others.

Elisabeth: The idea of ‘self-love’ and ‘self-care’ might sound a bit cringy, but think of the alternative.

Reese: What do you mean?

Elisabeth: Have you ever seen a cartoon where the character has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.

Reese: Oh yes. The angel tells them the good things to do and the devil tries to get them to do bad things.

Elisabeth: That’s right. Sometimes, the devil tells you that you are rubbish and you can’t do anything.

Charlotte: Oh, so is that like the alternative to self-love?

Elisabeth: It is, and what would you rather: showing love to yourself or telling yourself you’re rubbish all the time?

Charlotte: I’d rather show myself love.

Reese and Ella-Rose: Us too.

Lucy D: It is not just Jesus who thinks loving and caring for ourselves is important, is it?

Elisabeth: A UK mental health charity called the Mental Health Foundation offers eight simple ways to practise self-love to enable us to support our own well-being.

Act out each of the following as children say them:

Reese- Catch more Zs. Sleep matters, so aim for a good-quality sleep routine to show yourself some love. (Everyone falls asleep on the stage)

Gunnar: (waking up and stretching) Wow. I feel so refreshed.

Nia- Prioritise ‘you’ time. Find ways to make time to do the things that you enjoy. (Group of children gather and play a game of cards. K walks over, watches what they’re doing.

Coco: Do you want to play with us?

Etta: No thank you. I really want to read my book. (Walks off, finds a comfy spot and starts reading)

Lucy D- #Doyourthing. You can love yourself by deciding to follow your own path, honing your own skills, gifts and talents.

Isaac: I want to be a footballer when I grow up.

Stanley and Freya: Oh, me too.

Amara: I don’t want to be a footballer.

Ben: What? But everyone wants to be a footballer.

Ruby: It’s the best job in the world.

Amara: Not to me. I want to be a baker.

Charlotte- Stop criticizing yourself. Critical self-talk doesn’t encourage an attitude of self-love. You wouldn’t tell a friend that they were worthless, so don’t say it to yourself!

Erica: Don’t listen to the devil on your shoulder; instead, listen to the angel and remember, we are all good at lots of different things.

Molly- Talk it out. Show yourself love by finding people and places where you can chat about how you feel.

Bella C: (Goes to friend) I’m feeling really down about something that happened this morning. Can I talk to you?

Ella-Rose: Of course. Let’s go find somewhere quiet so we can talk properly.

Jazmin H- Get moving. Love your body and your mind by getting exercise!

(Everyone does some sort of exercise move)

Sophia R- Less of the lattes. Too much caffeine can leave us feeling rough. Show yourself love by making healthy choices about what you eat and drink.

(Gunnar goes to 3 people and offers coffee or fruit juice; they say fruit juice please)

Bella T-Digital rethink. Again, too much time online can mean less time connecting with others in real life. Love yourself and give yourself balance by fostering relationships offline as well as online.

Sophia B: Who wants to go to the park?

(Everyone shouts out ME)

Zoe: So remember, if we are going to love other people, we need to make sure we are loving ourselves.

Jasmin A: Let’s sing My Lighthouse

Erica: Let us pray
Dear God,

Thank you for loving us. = Jaz/Coco

Thank you that your love is for everyone and that it never runs dry = Sophia B
Being loved makes us feel safe and happy. = Amara and Freya
It makes us feel warm and special on the inside. = Gunnar
Let us try to be thoughtful in whatever we do. = Stanley and Isaac
Teach us to be helpful and supportive to others. = Zoe
Help us to help others, = Bella C

not for the reward it brings = Bella T
but because we know we are doing the right thing. = Etta and Erica

Help us to love others so that they may feel that way, too. = Ella-Rose
Thank you for the people who love and care for us. = Lucy
Help us to show them that we are grateful. = Molly and Jasmin
Help those people who feel lonely and sad. = Ben
May they remember that they are never alone because you are always there. = Reese

We think about Jesus’ teaching on love: = Sophia R and Ruby
To love God, love others and love ourselves. = Charlotte
Please help us to take practical steps to show ourselves self-care, self-kindness and self-compassion. = Elisabeth
Help us today to be more loving to ourselves so that we can then share love and kindness with others. = Nia
Amen.

We have an Ethos Group in school. This is a group of children who help Mrs Fabby  with Collective Worship and anything linked to our Church School’s status.

They meet once a week.

Some of the things they do might include:

-planning acts of worship

-leading acts of worship

-evaluating acts of worship

-writing prayers for the school and individual classes

-planning and making displays that link to our school vision and termly values

-finding out what other children think of Collective Worship in school

-choosing termly values.

 

PLANNING AND TEACHING OUR VISION AFTERNOON 2024

This year, the Ethos group were asked to lead an afternoon in school focusing on the school's Christian Vision. 

They met weekly to plan what they wanted to do and delivered what they had planned on Tuesday 2nd July. 

The group was split into pairs or 3s and each pair was given a class that they would teach. The children then worked in teams to plan what would be delivered to each key phase across school and they prepared their resources. 

The results were brilliant and we had lots of positive comments from children and staff across the school. Mrs Ashdown told me that 'Sophia and Jazzy were great. Even thought on their feet to do an extra activity.'

Some of the children in Year 5 told me:

'I thought it was good because it teaches us teamwork and trust.'

'It was great and I enjoyed the ball game and trust fall.'

'Really good and they did a brilliant job and the activities were really fun.'

One member of the ethos group told me: 'I was really nervous before but I didn't need to be. ' Another said: 'It was fun, there was good teamwork and the class behaved.'

  

Reception being taught by Ella-Rose and Charlotte. 

    Mrs Wright's class being taught by Phoebe and Erica.

  Mr Murphy's class being taught by Edith and Hallie.

 

Mr Dixon's Class being taught by Bella and Lucy. 

  Nia and June teaching Mrs Hooper's and Mrs Hughes' class.

   Mrs Ashdown's Class were taught by Jasmin and Sophia. 

  This is one of the activities that Mrs Ashdown's class did.

Mr Dewndey's class working together as a team and doing trustfalls whilst being led by Elisabeth, Poppie and Logan.

Reese taught Mis Humphreys' class all about the importance of teamwork.

LEADING A SERVICE 2023

18 members of the Ethos group led a service in the local church on Sunday 19th November. They were asked to do this after a member of the church saw the Pentecost service that they led for the school back in the summer. 

They talked the members of the congregation through 'The Big Story of the Bible', sharing our school's version of the 'Big Frieze' and what each section means.

I would like to say a huge thank you to these 18 children and their families for giving their time so readily at a weekend to support our school and the loca church.

CREATION: they shared what in Creation makes them go WOW.

THE FALL: 5 members of the group acted out a scene where a chocolate cake is left in a classroom with a sign saying DO NOT TOUCH in front of it. 4 of the children were children from that class and we saw the different possible reactions to this scenario. The 5th child was the teacher who catches 3 of the children dipping their fingers in the icing. A big thank you to the Howards for providing us with the cake that we were then able to share with everyone afterwards.

PEOPLE OF GOD: in school, we have talked about this section of the Bible being like a circle with God's people making the same mistakes over and over again. The children talked us through this circle, holding up images in quarters of a circle to represent the cylce the Israelites got into:

1. everything is ok
2. they make mistakes and stop listening to God
3. they are punished for their wrongdoings
4. they ask for forgiveness and are forgiven

This cycle kept repeating, over and over again, for hundreds of years. 

During this time was the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo, and we shared a news video that members of our Ethos group recorded during the Ethos conference last year about this story. 

INCARNATION: for this section of the service, we showed the concgregation some images of the Nativity scene from other cultures, which you can see here. 

 

They then shared what they thought would have happened if Jesus had been born today: the conclusion was he would have been born in the Countess of Chester hospital and visited by Doctors, Nurses and Midwives who would have been the Wise Men.

GOSPELGOOD NEWS: the group that focused on this area during the Ethos conference chose to look at the story of Jesus calming the storm. They watched the story and then wrote a Tweet about it. This tweet was shared with the congregation and then a little sketch was acted out with Skylar reading out the Tweet and wanting to tell her friends about it. Because her friends didn't know who Jesus was, she then told them all about him and what he had been doing. The sketch ended with the friends wanting to find Jesus.

SALVATION: the children explained that this is the final part of God's rescue plan for humankind. It tells the story of Jesus dying on the cross and being resurrected. In school, we had been learning a song called 'The Bridge' by Casting Crowns and the children sang this after explaining how it links to Salvation and 'The Big Frieze'.

KINGDOM OF GOD: during the Ethos conference, we focused on being kind for this section and so we wanted to do this for the service as well. The children decorated envelopes and placed a kind message in each. These were then placed on seats in the church with the message DO NOT OPEN YET on the front. When we got to this part of the service, the children explained what we had done and instructed everyone to open their envelopes now and read their messages. 

Anna ended our service with the following prayer, which she wrote completely by her self.

Dear God,

Thank you for this world and thank you for everyone and everything on it. Thank you for everything. I'm amazed you could visualise the world: You're amazing! Please let us not get carried away with fighting and to keep peace. Thank you for letting us be here today. Thank you for loving us and thank you for listenig. Please help others who are not as fortunate as us. In your name we pray these things.

Amen 

ETHOS CONFERENCE 2023

Our Ethos group took part in the Virutal Ethos conference this year.

They spent the day completing activities about the big story of the Bible and had an online Collective Worship with children from other schools in Cheshire.

CREATION: The children made these beautiful creation globe hangings after spending time recapping the Creation story.

 

THE FALL: We talked about what temptations we face in life and wrote these on slips of paper.

PEOPLE OF GOD: We focused on the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo and the children from this group created a newsreport about the story. 

INCARNATION: We looked at different artists representations of the story of Jesus' birth and what influenced these artists' designs, for example, location, culture, time they were creating in. We then discussed where we would expect Jesus to have been born if it had happened today and who we would consider to be wise people who could visit him. The children decided Jesus would have been born in hospital and the wise men would be the doctors and nurses. They then created their own artwork to represent this.

GOSPEL: The children remembered that this means Good News. We focused on the story of Jesus calming the storm and the children created a Tweet for this story, trying to follow the rules of tweeting. This was their tweet:

SALVATION: Christians believe that Jesus is the rescue plan that God has for Creation and He fulfilled this rescue plan through his death and resurrection. The children were given a sheet of A4 paper and asked to colour it in using bright colours but in a messy way to represent the things we do wrong in life. They then followed the instructions on a video to fold and rip their paper in such a way that when they opened it out, they had created a cross. 

KINGDOM OF GOD: Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is here already. It is anywhere that God is put first so, for Christians, this is in their hearts. We focussed on what Christians should do to show that they are part of God's Kingdom and decided kindness was important so the children wrote kind messages for everyone in our group.

PENTECOST SERVICE 2023

This year, on 24th May, the Ethos group led our Pentecost service in church. Their parents were invited to watch and the rest of the school watched and joined in singing the songs. They taught the rest of the school about Ascension Day and Pentecost, what happened on these days and showed why they are celebrated as part of the Christian calendar.

One parent told me that her son went home telling her about what Pentecost means as a result of what the Ethos group had shared in the service.