During the first lockdown and in the time since, the churches and communities within our diocese have been working harder than ever to support the vulnerable, those who are lonely and those who find themselves without food or shelter. As a result, the Bishop of Southwark’s Lent call for 2021 is focusing on the work of food banks in our diocese and food insecurity in places where the diocese have strong links: Zimbabwe and the Holy Land.

The theme of the Bishop of Southwark’s call to Lent is  ”…..have compassion…” from Mark 8.2. In this passage, Jesus looks on those gathered around him who have come to hear the Good News and realises that they have nothing to eat. The Disciples bring him the little food that the members of the crowd have and Jesus feeds all of them and there is food left over. This familiar story reminds us that Jesus cares for people’s physical needs as well as their spiritual ones, as we should too.

During this period of Lent and as part of our ongoing ‘Love Projects’ Nutfield Church Primary School supported one of the Bishop’s named food banks: St. Matthews, Redhill. Food is a basic need, yet there are people in Redhill who are going hungry because they just don’t have enough money to feed themselves and their families. This can happen more easily than you think: 

• benefit delay
• redundancy
• sudden illness
• an unexpected bill
• bereavement
• too low income to make ends meet

The Foodbank at St. Matthews aim to provide local families and individuals with essential food supplies to keep them going until a longer term solution is found.

Over two weeks we managed to collect over 200 items, ranging from toothpaste, soap and deodorant to tins of soup and pasta. We are extremely thankful to everyone who supported our Love Project by donating items to help families in need in Redhill. Mrs Brooks will be taking the donations to St. Matthew’s food bank next week.

At Nutfield Church Primary School each child is ‘housed’ in a team. Our teams represent the saints of the British Isles and each of these Saints is given a colour. On Wednesday 17^th March we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. St Patrick is traditionally associated with the Shamrock plant, which he used to explain the concept of the Trinity. We celebrated this day with special Collective Worships in each class and children in the St Patrick’s team wore green clothes. Year 6 helped raise the St. Patrick’s flag. Children said a prayer written by St. Patrick and listened to his story.

Prayer for the Faithful by Saint Patrick

May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.
– Against the snares of the evil one.

May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!
May Christ be in us,
Christ be over all!

May Thy Grace, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.

On Tuesday 1^st December Year 3 and 4 Faith Team members Milo, Emilia, Elodie and Lennon led Year 3 and 4’s Collective Worship in the hall. On Wednesday 9th December Year 5 and 6 Faith Team members, Adam, Jessie, Amelie and Gabriel led Year 5 and 6’s Collective Worship in the hall. The Faith Team lead Collective Worship once a term and this is a particular highlight of their role! Ordinarily, all of the Faith Team members would lead Collective Worship together for the whole school. Sadly, this is not possible at the moment, but we were all pleased that the children still had the opportunity to lead a Collective Worship with their phase group. 

This term, during Collective Worship our focus has been on stories from the Old Testament. With this in mind, the Faith Team lead a Collective Worship based on the story of Jonah and the Whale. Jonah and the Whale is a well-known story from the Bible with the key message of being sorry and asking for forgiveness. The Faith Team explored this message through the Bible story and talked about how saying sorry isn’t always easy, but how it is important when we’ve done something wrong it is the first step to making things better again.

At Nutfield Church Primary School each child is ‘housed’ in a team. Our teams represent the saints of the British Isles and each of these Saints is given a colour. On Monday 30^th November we celebrated St. Andrew’s Day.

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, Greece and Russia and was Christ’s first disciple. We celebrated this day with special Collective Worships in each class and children in the St Andrew’s team wore blue clothes. On Friday the 27^th of November Year 5 helped raise the St. Andrew’s flag in anticipation of the day.

They said a prayer dedicated to St. Andrew and listened to his story.

A Prayer for St Andrew’s Day

God, our loving Father,
St Andrew introduced Peter,
the Greek visitors,
& the little boy with loaves & fishes,
to your Son, Jesus Christ.
May we be like him
in sharing friendship and hospitality,
and in faithfulness to Jesus
and his Kingdom of justice,
love & peace.
May our country be a community
in which everyone matters,
everyone has an honoured place,
and the dignity of each is assured
by our faith in you as Father of us all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

AMEN