Ethos Group
Great Big Green Week 10-18th June.
Ethos group discussed this because of our commitment to Fairtrade and their support for farmers who are impacted by the climate crisis. We decided that we should take part in some way. We hope to do some litter picking along with Gardening Club and maybe have a walk at the weekend for school and their families to celebrate the beauty of nature. We'll let you know via Dojo of any dates and times.
ETHOS VALUES and Prayer Wheels. May 2023
We discussed the values we talk about in school. Our main seven plus others such as wisdom, courage, faith and justice.
We each decided to draw these on a stone to help us remember the one we have chosen and why.
We have also made prayer wheels and we are using these in Ethos group meetings to help us be thankful and to pray for others. We got this idea from the Conference and decided to build it in to help us become more confident at praying out loud.
ETHOS CONFERENCE April 27th 2023
What a fantastic experience for everyone who came! The workshops were different but we all learned somethining new and had the chance to reflect on the different elements of Spirituality. We thought about our journey and connection with creation, ourselves, one another and with God. We loved making friends and our confidence has grown.
Ethos Conference Preparations
We made windmills to think about this idea of our spiritual journey and how God is in all of His creation even though we cannot see Him, but we can see the outcome of His power all around us.
Ethos are busy planning again! We have started inviting other schools in CDAT but also in our area to join our Ethos Conference on 27th April 2023.
We spent time thinking about the theme of a Spiritual journey and our relationship with ourselves, others, God and the wider world and how we could make worships around these ideas. We're excited about getting ready for this time and welcoming others to our school.
ASDA
Our preparation for Fairtrade Fortnight has led to building a relationship with ASDA who displayed our board and Fairtrade products they sell in store. Janet the community champion came to Ethos group to ask about our values and what Ethos meant. She will come back and talk to us about what ideas we have to improve the town to make it a nicer place to live in. Ethos group were really pleased that ASDA had responded to our letters and we hope to build on this next year.
MARCH 2023
Ethos group led collective worship on Monday 6th March and shared with the school about the impact of climate change on farmers and what Fairtrade is doing to help them. We reminded everyone of all the different Fairtrade products we can buy and our promise as a Fairtrade school to use these as much as we can. Some of them were displayed on our worship table.We thought about poverty and justice and how we're called to be salt and light in the world and try to make a difference.The spoons are to remind us to use teaspoon prayers when we pray this week about climate change and Fairtrade: thankyou, sorry and please. We remembered that we can all be Agents for Change. We also held a successful Fairtrade stall and sold a lot of Divine Chocolate bars at break time and after school - over £100. Ethos are getting better at managing the sales and customer service! Two of our members from Year 6 helped make and serve the Fairtrade chocolate and banana milkshakes to celebrate us all completing the collective marathon and the end of Fairtrade Fortnight.
February 2023
Ethos group are working hard planning for Fairtrade Fortnight. We spent some time thinking about what we already know about Fairtrade and watched a Video from the Fairtrade Foundation to help us understand a bit more.
We decided as part of our focus during the Fortnight, that we'd encourage the school to collect the wrappers from everything we bought that was Fairtrade and bring then into school to add to our display board in the Hall. We also thought that we needed to challenge the supermarkets to promote Fairtrade by displaying their produce more clearly. We drafted letters to Asda, Morrisons, Lidl, and Aldi and some of Ethos hand delivered these to the managers just before we broke up for half term.
Aldi and Asda were very supportive and we are excited to see if these supermarkets promote Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight.
As a challenge to ourselves we are planning to do a "collective marathon" where the whole school contributes to 26 miles around the playground in stages. We are hoping for sponsorship to raise money for Fairtrade over the two weeks of Fairtrade Fornight.
The display board for Asda which will go beside a table of Fairtrade Products. Janet the Community Champion from Asda responded to the letter and wants to help!
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Food Bank Christmas 2022
The children loaded the car on Christmas Party day so we could get the food down to the Methodist church ready for distribution over the holidays.
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Reflection at the end of term 2022
On our final session we spent some time together thinking about what we'd enjoyed in school this term, what we'd found tricky, what we were thankful for and what we'd like to get better at. We thought about the values and which we wanted to work on more. We are looking forward to next term and planning for Fairtrade Fortnight. We also spent some time refecting on the Fairtrade stall we'd had and what sold well and how we could improve the way we serve.
Fairtrade Fortnight 2023 is taking place 27 February – 12 March 2023.
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Links with Christ Church Moreton - Ethos group October 2022
We are pleased to continue our friendship with this primary school on the Wirral. We had another zoom meeting together and are planning on more events together over this coming year. We are looking in to how we can meet up so it is not too expensive.
After some fantastic applications, we now have a new ETHOS team to help lead the school in living out our values and thinking about what it means to let all that we do be done in love. The group comprises children from Years 4,5 and 6.
September 2022
Foodbank Collection
Foodbank Collection for the end of term
Sue from the Foodbank came to collective worship and told us school had donated the equivalent of 1300 meals this year ,which made us feel so thankful that we could help.
Some of Ethos helped take all the bags of food and toiletries to the car which we've collected this half term and she gave all of Ethos a Foodbank Star badge!
Last Ethos group before the Summer July 2022
We had a lovely session together using Fairtrade charcoal on the fire pit and made quesadilla and then toasted marshmallows. We played on the tyre swings and relaxed in the hammock in the Forest School area inbetween. We said goodbye to year 6 and thanked them for all they've done.
Preparation for our visit to Christchurch, Moreton.
Ethos group have been busy making and designing images around our values to paint onto stones. We'll share these with our link school if we are able to visit them and put others in our Spiritual Garden as a reminder to the rest of the school.
Foodbank April 2022
Year 4 Ethos group worked very quickly and efficiently when they helped bag and pack up all this half term's food and toiletries to give to Sue from the Foodbank when she came to school. She was delighted by everything school had collected and it reminded us of our values of generosity, compasssion and thankfulness. Thank you to all our parents who give so generously.
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ETHOS Links
We were excited on March 30th to meet via Zoom, a school in our CDAT family on the Wirral called Christ Church. They led the session and read some words from the bible and then asked us to talk about what made us special. We spent some time separately thinking, then some from their school and some from ours shared some interesting facts! We then did some art work around what we enjoyed doing and showed this to each other once we'd finished. It was a great way to get to know one another and next time they hope to come to Hyde to visit us. We are planning a visit back to them in July when we all hope to have a picnic on the beach!
Spiritual Garden
We decided to renew the bible plant labels and spent some time at our meeting talking about the plants and where they are mentioned in the bible. It was good for the newer members to learn about the stories behind the plants and to make the garden look lovely. We all agreed that the rota is working well to keep things tidy..JPG)
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Fairtrade Fortnight 2022
Ethos group have had a very positive first week back after the half term and led collective worship for the whole school. We used resources from the Fairtrade Foundation and showed a quiz abour Fairtrade products and did a drama based on the story, " Thank you for the chocolate."
We spent our meeting this week taking stock of supplies and ordering more ready for next week's stall. Year 6 members continued with their preparation for their presentation to parents next Thursday at the Big Brew event in the afternoon. They will share the school's learning about Fairtrade and specifically about cotton.
Two Ethos members from Year 5 joined staff attending a Webinar on 4th March called " Threads: A sustainable cotton journey. " This was led by Andy Ashcroft from Koolskools and we learned a lot more about how cotton is farmed organically and the problems farmers and worker face.
We are also working hard to keep the Spiritual Garden looking tidy and have a rota for each day. As Spring approaches we hope everyone will want to use this quiet space to reflect and be still.
ETHOS links
Mrs Hewitt has told Ethos group about links we are making with another Ethos group from a CDAT primary school on the Wirral. Part of our Fairtrade Action plan is to make links with other schools and share our journey. We are also excited at the prospect of a visit and to learn about what things they do as part of their Ethos group.
ETHOS group and Fairtrade Fortnight 2022
Ethos have been busy thinking and planning for Fairtrade Fortnight at the end of February/beginning of March. We have looked at previous events over the years and seen how our journey with Fairtrade and the Schools Award has gone on since 2014. Fairtrade has been a big focus for our understanding of courageous advocacy and being global citizens. We thought about how we can incorporate our learning about climate change from last year's theme and our current focus on cotton. We are excited about our partnership with KoolSkools and look forward to launching the option of buying Fairtrade school uniform. Ethos will be leading collective worship during this time and are busy preparing for this. We hope to run a Fairtrade stall and use Fairtrade products in the baking that we'll be doing!
ADVENT SUNDAY 28.11.2021
Six members of ETHOS group led worship at Central Methodist church and school were incredible proud of them. They were very poised as they sang, led prayers performed a drama about the Good Samaritan and explained about our pledges to the planet. They shared about how school encourages us all to be Agents of Change and the work we do to support the Foodbank and Fairtrade. They gave leaves to the congregation to write their own pledges to the planet by helping us to take responsibility and shared the work school has been doing to engage with COP26 having read a version of Genesis 1. This supported a leaflet given out by the church to everyone there with practical ideas on how to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as a way of protecting God's creation.ETHOS group then had a Fairtrade stall after the service which was very well supported and made over £70. Our excitement about the whole morning was topped, by snow falling as we left church!
ETHOS and Anti-Bullying Week November 2021
ETHOS group started the week with the collective worship they'd prepared and shared it first with KS2 and then repeated it with KS1. We sang together, "We need to build each other up" and reminded ourselves of the importance of encouragement and kindness. Our challenge from worship was to develop class ideas of how to promote kindness in the classroom and to think about ways we can show kindness every day.
Ethos group have worked hard together creating short dramas around this year's theme of "One Kind Word". These were filmed by Mr Halligan and put together as part of collective worship at the start of the week on Monday 15th November which ETHOS are leading. The school are also supporting the charity KIDSCAPE with money raised from Odd Socks Day to celebrate our uniqueness and to enjoy the differences we find in one another.
Ethos Foodbank Donations November 2021
ETHOS group were delighted to help carry the 21 bags of food and toiletries for Sue from the Foodbank when she came this week to speak to us.
Sue explained how many people the Foodbank helps and that people need help for lots of different reasons. We are showing our value of compassion every time we bring something for the Foodbank. It’s good to know we are making a difference.
Spiritual Garden
On the last day of term we tidied up the Spiritual Garden and looked at the plants and the significance they have as plants mentioned in the bible. We enjoyed removing the seeds from the Honesty plant, otherwise known as moon pennies and reflecting on yesterday's Harvest Service led by some of ETHOS group.
Ethos Harvest Service October 2021
Agents of Change
ETHOS Group in September and October 2021 have been busy recruiting new members.
We have been thinking about COP26 and our response to Climate Change.
We have made our promises using the promise to the planet idea.
We have also spent time writing our own pledges as well as what we'd like world leaders to do.
We've decided to continue our support of Fairtrade and the Foodbank.
We are pleased to lead the school in these areas and be Agents of Change.
We've also been working on turning our Fairtrade wrappers into a collage using letters to spell out FAIRTRADE which we'll put up in the Hall.
Our half termly stall will be next week which we're excited about!
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Anti Bullying Week isn't far away so we've discussed ideas around " One Kind Word" which is this year's theme. We read James Chapter 3 about the power of the tongue and the damage it can cause and listened to Josh Wilson's song "Forest Fire." We'll work on this after half term.
Summer 2021
Year 6 Leavers Hoodies sourced from a Fairtrade company called Kool Skools which use Fairtrade Cotton. What a find!
Thanks to the Fairtrade Foundation for their suggestion.
Thanks to the Fairtrade Foundation for their suggestion.
Fairtrade Fortnight 2021
Despite many of ETHOS group being at home during lockdown, those who were in school, organised the Fairtrade stock and used Google Classrooms to let school choose what goodies they wanted from our virtual stall. Staff delivered to children's houses and we made £200.
The Fairtrade Foundation were delighted with this idea to keep supporting Fairtrade during Lockdown.
Spiritual Garden
After lockdown we realised the garden needed some care so ETHOS set to weeding and sowing sunflowers, mustard seeds and wildflowers
Ethos BBQ
As a final fun activity for ETHOS group to do after planning for next year, we decided on a BBQ using Fairtrade charcoal. The sun shone in the ECO area and we had great time with kebabs, hotdogs, mango and s'mores.
ETHOS 2020-2021
'Let all that you do be done in love' - Corinthians 1 16:14
Welcome to our Ethos page 2020-2021. We hope you will find out lots of interesting information about what we do on our page. At the moment things are very different for us and we can't do everything as we have always done but we are hoping to get back on track with our work in sharing and living out our values and developing the character of our school.
One of our first projects is to reconnect with our Fairtrade work. We are thinking about how we can promote Fairtrade in the community and how to make people more aware of the importance of buying Fairtrade products especially during a pandemic! We are acting as 'Agents for Change' and fighting to change the lives of those who live in poverty.
Read Kalpna and Leavadi's story - A Fairtrade Family
Kalpna and Lelavadi’s Story
In India, many people are very poor.
Families don’t have enough money to send children to school, to build a proper house or to buy enough food to eat.
Kalpna and Lelavadi live in a poor area of India. Their parents have a small plot of land on which they grow food for the family to eat and also to sell.
Kalpna and Lelavadi are happy to go back to school during the summer holidays because during mango harvest time the school is transformed into a factory making mango pickle!
By working in the factory, the teenagers can earn valuable money to help pay for their studies.
How do you think buying a Fairtrade product could help this family?
Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.
Foodbank
Ethos has always encouraged the school to show our values of compassion, love and generosity by supporting thr Foodbank. As we've thought about Fairtrade as part of our Harvest work we have used Fairtrade sugar, spices, chocolate and bananas in the food we've shared and enjoyed.
Some of our members alongside others from Year 6 helped to bag all the food brought into school for our Harvest. Other members from Year 5 met Mr Hargreaves from the Foodbank and helped to pack the car ready for it all to go to the warehouse.
Anti Bullying Week 2020
The theme for Anti Bullying week this year is UNITED AGAINST BULLYING. Ethos group have explored what this means and how we can be ambassadors for making our school a safe and happy place for everyone. We talked about the difference betwee falling out with our friends and what bullying actually is. We made two short dramas to help eveyone understand the difference.
We remembered the anti Bullying catchphrases: STOP - Several Times On Purpose
and STOP - Start Telling Other People
These are helpful things to remember when you think bullying is happening!
In these two videos, spot the difference between falling out and bullying.
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Zainab from Ethos Group said "I wrote this poem to raise awareness of bullying. I used my own thoughts and feelings and what I think other people would be feeling if they were being bullied".
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Fairtrade Fortnight 2020
Fairtrade cake and coffee afternoon
We had a fantastic number of people come to try the cakes each class had made using Fairtrade ingredients and taste Fairtrade tea and coffee. Visitors from the Methodist church and St. George's church enjoyed the event and listened to a presentation by Gracie one of our ETHOS members about Fairtrade. Everyone took part in a quiz devised by Zainab and Chloe from ETHOS and learned more facts about Fairtrade. Chocolate was for sale along with other goods on our Fairtrade stall and samples of chocolate from the Meaningful Chocolate Company were given to the adults to try. ETHOS members were welcomers, waiters and waitresses and helped to bring parents' children up to the Hall to join them for a drink and cake. It was a wonderful occasion and thanks to everyone who came along and also to Martin Bates from the Co-op who popped in for a coffee and chat!
Ethos group work with the CO-OP
Ethos group was visited on 3rd March by two community champions from the CO- OP.They came to talk about their work and to explain why the CO-OP began their support of Fairtrade over 25 years ago. They explained that were the first supermarket to introduce Fairtrade products in their stores. Ethos group had lots of questions to ask them and they in turn were pleased at how much knowledge and awareness was in the room.