Our Church School
Children’s exemplary behaviour and positive attitudes to learning are closely linked to their understanding of the Christian values of endurance, friendship, compassion and kindness. SIAMS 2018
We are the children of Waberthwaite School.
We show endurance and friendship.
We are compassionate and kind.
Point your kids in the right direction— when they're old they won't be lost. Proverbs 22:6 The Message
Waberthwaite Church of England School welcomes and respects everyone. We believe that everyone is an individual, created in the image of God, who should be encouraged, nurtured and challenged in order to flourish; hold high-aspirations and achieve their full potential.
We encourage everyone to 'listen up and speak out'; celebrate their own worth and that of others. A flourishing life is diverse, connected and outward-looking. We seek to broaden our understanding of the world, participate in enriching and challenging experiences and reflect on how our actions impact on the world around us.
We understand that we are each unique and we celebrate how our differences compliment each other; creating a community where 'we all fit together'; when our strengths are combined, we are stronger.
Listen up and speak out. Flourishing is not a solo endeavor.
‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.’ (John 10:10)
October 2024
Harvest is in full swing and Class 3 have been busy creating some produce themed watercolour still life paintings to decorate both our our local churches for the village harvest services.
Harvest Festival 2024
We were visited by Simon and 'Timmy the tuna' from The North Lakes Food Bank to tell us all about the origins or the harvest festival and how, as Christian charity, they work to show compassion and support those in need to make sure people who are hungry get the food and support that they need.
We had collected a lot of food donations that they were able to take away with them.
June 2024
Class 3 carried out a pilgrimage to our local village church, St John's at Hall Waberthwaite. We walked from school and collected a pilgrimage stone on route. At various points along our pilgrimage journey we stopped and held our stones and gave thanks for something we are grateful for. At our last reflection point we thought about something we wanted God to know. When we got to church, we took out our stones and held them in our hands and offered our collective thoughts we had gathered on our journey as a prayer to God.
June 2024
Class 3 spent a day in Irton Church, comparing it to other local churches we have visited and considering features of Christian art in stained glass windows.
February 2024
Our friend Imran returned from Bolton to explain to us all about Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and help us to build a greater understanding of all of the similarities between our two faiths. We spent time comparing the Hajj with Christian pilgrimage and bible characters with those who appear in the Qur'an.
Thank you Imran - see you again soon!
Christingle Service 2023
We were delighted to once again welcome Reverend Dave into school for our school community to again learn about Jesus, the light of the world and to spread the message of hope together.
Christmas Nativity
This year we explored the story of the nativity and the message of Christmas with the help of Springs Dance Company to put on a modern dance production.
Class 3 Residential to Manchester
Each year our Class 3 residential is centred around a faith focused theme. This year we took our children to the Manchester Jewish Museum to explore the synagogue and build on our Class 2 learning about the Jewish faith. We made challah bread and learned about the role of food in some significant Jewish festivals and compared the differences between synagogue and church buildings, referring to our work last year in one of our local churches.
Harvest Festival 2023
Our Class 1 children read The Little Red Hen and made their own bread for the Harvest Festival at school.
20th June 2023
The Great Big Live Assembly
The whole school gathered to watch the Great Big Live Assembly, live from a refugee camp in Jordan and presented by child refugees from Ukraine and Syria.
Wabcaster
December 2022
The whole school gathered together to make Christingles to celebrate Jesus as the light of the world.
We met our new vicar, Reverand Dave.
We all worked together to make our Christingles and talked about the meaning behind each part.
We lit our Christingles and sang some Christmas hymns.
We said a prayer and blew out our candles and took our christingles home to share.
Year 6 Leaver's service at Carlisle Cathedral.
The focus of our Year 5 and 6 residential visit this year was the comparison between Islamic and Christian places of worship. We were lucky enough to have a guided visit of both Liverpool Mosque and Liverpool Cathedral.
"We hope that the children and staff from Waberthwaite Primary school enjoyed their visit here yesterday. We would be grateful if you could pass on our compliments to them all for their excellent behaviour and attitude whilst they were here, we thoroughly enjoyed showing them round." Liverpool Cathedral Education Officer
Harvest Assembly with The Foodbank
We were visited by Stuart Christian and Timmy the Tuna. They told us all about the Christian meaning behind the harvest festival and the important work that the Foodbank do today to support families in times of need. We had made a community collection of food items as a donation to support their amazing work.
Islam
We had a whole school assembly with Imran from Muslim learner services to learn about the five pillars of Islam. He then worked with Class 3 to explore Islamic artefacts, looking specifically at some of the similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity. They also explored how the artefacts link to the five pillars, including through stories.
They then learned about the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). Imran explained how Muslims perform the Hajj and the differences between specific Islamic celebrations for adults and children.
Making Palm Crosses for Palm Sunday
This morning we created palm crosses using palm leaves. We carefully followed instructions and helped each other to create a cross each. We will use these as part of our Easter collective worship in school this year and then we will keep them to burn next year on Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday
This morning, we took our Collective Worship outside to explore Ash Wednesday and the meaning behind this day. We knew that Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and learnt that this day gets its name from burning palm crosses from the previous year and placing the ashes on your forehead whilst saying "memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris" ("remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return").
Shrove Tuesday
Classes 1 and 2 had a wonderful afternoon learning about Shrove Tuesday. We learnt that Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday when everyone feasts (usually on pancakes) before Lent begins. We started the afternoon with listening to a story, which was set in a Kenyan village: 'Mama Panya's Pancakes'. This led us on to researching life in Kenya, which made us think about our 'Count Your Blessings' display. We also all took part in a colouring competition linked to 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes' - we are looking forward to finding out who won this!
Most excitingly, we made pancakes by following a set of instructions. It was great fun and we really enjoyed eating them!
Count Our Blessings
Many hands make light work class 3- well done! This beautiful display is part of our assembly focus, we will be adding to it as we ‘count our blessings’ for all the beautiful things in our world that God has created. We will also be thinking throughout Lent about the lives of others and how the climate crisis is affecting people in countries such as Kenya.
If you have any further queries, you can contact our school administrator, Mrs Yvonne Hey, in a number of ways.
Our postal address:Waberthwaite CE SchoolWaberthwaiteMillomCumbriaLA19 5YJ Telephone:01229717664 Email:admin@waberthwaite.cumbria.sch.ukPlease direct any queries relating to Special Educational Needs to: Miss Natalie Sharp (SENCO)