Church School

In a special assembly this morning to honour Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we watched BBC Newsround to understand and celebrate the life of our monarch and the news of her sad death. We watched a short film of her life, including her role in World War II, her marriage to Prince Phillip and her accession to the throne of the United Kingdom and The Commonwealth. Newsround recalled many important events over the Queen’s lifetime, right up to the Coronavirus pandemic, the death of Prince Phillip and the celebrations over her Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. The programme explained that the Queen’s eldest son now becomes King Charles III. We learnt that the Queen will ‘lie in state’ in London until her funeral, which is still to be arranged. Queen Elizabeth II was the United Kingdom’s longest reigning monarch.

Scarlett (Herons, Y5) – “My sister just started crying, ‘I don’t want her to die.’

Flynn (Herons, Y6), “My mum just said Queen Elizabeth died.”

Toby (Herons, Y6) – “We were all doing Scouts when they explained, so we had a minute’s silence.”

Aaron (Herons Y6), “Me and my family all clinked glasses,” this was to honour the Queen and show the family’s respect.

Chloe (Grebes, Y4), “Me, my brother and my mum cried.”

Turlisa (Herons, Y6) explained that her brother’s girlfriend started crying and when she went to comfort her, she cried and felt sad too.

Lizzie (Grebes, Y5), “All of a sudden when we got home my dad called to say the Queen had died.”

Victoria (Grebes, Y4), “They said on the news yesterday that Charles would become king.”

We talked about how we would explain the sad news to younger children in school and reflected upon Queen Elizabeth’s long life of 96 years. As well as being the longest reigning monarch in the world, she had stayed healthy and looked after herself for such a long time. Most people in the UK do not remember anyone else as monarch.

Mitchell (Grebes Y5), told us that his grandma is 96 and is the same age as the Queen and we reflected that for lots of older people, as well as young, it’s a very sad and emotional time.

Turlisa (Herons Y6) and Mirren (Grebes Y4) read a prayer in honour of Queen Elizabeth II.

Today’s story is called Never Too Little – all about how no person in the world was too small (or too big, too poor, too young, too old, too sick, etc.!) to come and talk to Jesus and ask for his help. At the end of Collective Worship, our Collective Worship Leaders Thomas and Anya handed out Bibles to all the students who have just joined our school. The Bibles are provided by Mr Gay, pastor of Salhouse Baptist Church. Many thanks!

At Collective Worship today, Mrs Church discussed the Church of England Liturgy. Liturgy refers to the patterns, forms, words and actions through which public worship is conducted. Volunteers came up to the front to share our whole-school prayers for each Core Value.

Mrs Gay read the story of Noah’s Ark from the Book of Genesis and led a discussion about the heavy responsibility Noah bore. We prayed for the new King and others who have big responsibilities.