Ethos Group

 

Spiritual Garden

We took a break today from woking on the Archbishop's Award. We've been thinking about the things we do to support our local area, our national charities and what we do internationally. We are thinking about the Challenge  we are going to do and we've decided we'll get involved in planning the Great Big Green Week event of the picnic and walk to the park.

The spiritual garden is looking beautiful at this time of year and all the plants are looking very healthy. Ethos made the most of the good weather and with the help of Mr Liggett, we took cuttings from the passion flower, the broom, the olive, the fig, the vine and some mint which are the main bible plants. We hope they survive!

 

May 2025

We welcomed some special visitors to our Collective Worship in church this morning. Cindy and John from the Methodist church joined us to hand out the prizes and congratulate the winners of the Fairtrade poetry competition. The winners received an £10 gift token, a bar of Tony Chocolonely, some Fairtrade mini eggs and some leaflets and stickers about Fairtrade.

The runners up recieved a certificate and a big Tony Chocolonely bar of chocolate to enjoy.

They were all given a certificate and were clapped by the whole school. Well done to all those who took part.

 

 

Easter 2025

We were invited by our friends at All Saints in Marple to join with their whole school for a presentation by Audacious Church of the Easter story through drama and song on Friday 4th April 2025.

It was a vibrant performance and a great experience. Before the show we went outside and had a juice and biscuit in their spiritual garden and then played on their new climbing frame equipment.  It was good to meet up with friends we've met before and be welcomed by new ones. Thank you to Mrs Noble the Headteacher who always makes us so welcome and gave us all a little booklet about Easter and a chocolate egg each.

 

April 2025

Ethos group have worked hard for the past few weeks on their poems for the Fairtrade competition run by Glossopdale Fairtraders. They've also been busy working on the Fairtrade logo in mosaic pieces for the current Fairtrade display board about Fairtrade footballs.

They've done a lot of research and thought carefully about their Acrostic poems about Fairtrade. They'll be judged on Saturday 26th April at a coffee morning at Glossop Central Methodist church - so watch this space!

Ethos have also held another Fairtrade stall after school on 3rd April just before we're due to break up. They're showing great business skills and were treated to a bar of chocolate by one of the pupil's uncles which was very generous of him. Thank you to everyone who supported the stall.

 

Spring 2025

February 6th - Preparations are under way to tidy up the Spiritual Garden ready for the next growing season. We worked hard today clearning and putting the prayer stones back and unblocking the fountain. We cleared away dead growth and saw the new shoots emerging.

We also looked at the new stock bought in readiness for a  Fairtrade stall next week. Mrs McKeown had visited Justicia Fairtrade shop in Bolton and bought things for us to sell.We decided  we would try and  hold it outside Foundation Stage and in the Barn on Year 4 and 5 Playground to catch more people. Children  were allocated  to remind classes to bring some money.

We also served tea and coffee to parents coming to pick up from clubs as part of Time to Talk Day. Parents took a letter about My Happy Minds and how to download the App and played some snakes and ladders games which encouraged the players to chat about the ups and downs of life.

Young Leaders Award 

In February 2025. after some more research using the Awards Top Trumps Leaders Cards, members of Ethos gave presentations to the group about someone they had chosen who they respected as a leader. Research and presentation is part of the award process and each child shared their information really well with tips from each other, on how to improve moving forward. They spoke about

Ghandi, Tom Daly, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela. Marie Curie, Hughie and Freddie, Martin Luther King and Malala.

 

 

December 2024   Ethos group have begun work on the Archbishop's Young Leaders Award where we're asked what thing we'd like to change and to think about what steps we can take to make those changes happen. We had lots of great ideas re limiting pollution and climate change, stopping violence and wars, stoping the sales of vapes to young people and promoting kindness. We were asked to think about what a leader is and what qualities make a good leader. This is a long term project but it was good to make a start.

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Anti-Bullying Week and Inter-Faith Week November 2024

Ethos Group prepared and led a Collective Worship to share with the school on Thursday 14th November. We talked about the difference between falling out and bullying and did some sketches to show a respectful response to disagreements  and how to be respectful about different faiths.

Classes did work around Respect and understanding. This is something we can choose to do all the time. It fits in well with our current value of compassion and resonates with our biblical vision of  "Let all that you do be done in Love."

Harvest 2024. Fairtrade and the Foodbank.

We had a lovely service in church on Wednesday 23rd October with so many parents supporting the children. Ethos group performed the drama again which they'd done at the Methodist church about the journey of cocoa from plant to choclate bar.  The children helped bag up all the donated items and carried them out to the car of one of the Trustees who came to collect it all.

She was delighted with the amount and has invited Ethos Group to visit the Foodbank in action one Wednesday morning. It has been a busy couple of weeks for the new members.

We also held a Fairtrade stall in church after the service and again at the end of the day so that people could be the Agents for Change we had talked about in the service.Many thanks to everyone who has supported us.

 

October 2024

We have been busy recruiting new members and  have had some excellent applications.

Here is the new group and we are looking forward to working towards a Young Leaders Award as a focus for our work this year.

So far we have been involved in the Fairtrade Cake Bake competition and Coffee Afternoon during Fairtrade Fortnight  in September and we invited others to join us as we led the Harvest Service at the Methodist Church on 6th October. We discussed with the new members, how to run a Fairtrade Stall which will be after school's Harvest Service on Wednesday 23rd October 2024.

Last Meeting July 2024

We met together for the last time after our last Fairtrade Stall for the school this year and worked with Mrs Mather to prepare ideas about Harvest for our visit to the Methodist church in Hyde in the Autumn. We shared which values and bible stories we thought might be useful and the theme of bread seemed to be coming through.

We all enjoyed some Fairtrade ice cream cornettos from the Co op whilst we worked!

Ethos group response to worship -Perseverance 15th July 2024

Ethos rose to the challenge of preparing a collective worship in our Ethos group session ready for Monday which is something All Saints do regularly.

We led the response to worship for this half term and thought about the different elements of bible stories, people like Paul Sturgess the 7ft+ basket ball player who we met and other people who have been told " You're too small, too tall, not good enough etc"  We reflected on the growth mindset of all these people  who didn't give up on their dream or goal and for us all to realise that God can always help us when we want to give up.

 

End of year visit to All Saints Marple July 2024

We had a lovely visit to All Saints primary school on 11th July in the afternoon.

We shared some Fairtrade sweet treats from the Co op and wrote a luggage label to say thank you to people in our Ethos groups who have helped us this year. We really enjoyed looking around their playground space and having time out on their huge field. They have a fabulous Forest School!

We came back inside and sang along to the Lord's Prayer with actions, led by one of All Saints' Ethos members then we shared friendship bracelets together.

Thank you All Saints for making us so welcome. We hope to carry on working together in the coming year.

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 Ethos group - thankfulness and compassion. Refugee Week.

We used our values today as we thought about the reasons why people have to leave their homes. Sometimes it's war, or climate disasters such as floods or earthquakes. Nearer to home we know that people have to leave their homes because they can't pay their rent.

We spent some time thinking about all the things we are grateful for in our own homes.

Fairtrade Leavers' hoodies. 

We are very grateful to St George's church for their very kind subsidy which has allowed us to work with KOOLSKOOLS again to purchase Fairtrade Cotton Hoodies.

Our Ethos group are enjoying wearing them despite the heat!

Sharing our understanding of Spirituality with Mottram Cof E Primary School.

We had the privilege on 20th June 2024 to go to Mottram primary school to lead collective worship about Spirituality and the Nows Wows and Ows which is how we described it. We left each class with a pack to use around these 3 areas. We had practised hard to be ready and we were given lots of compliments by the staff who said we did a great job and they had learned a lot. We had a tour around the school by Mrs Levy and we were made to feel so welcome. It was good to share what we have done with another school who is starting their journey into reflecting more about what Spirituality means.

Great Big Green Week 2024

School has managed to get from Tesco in Hattersley, past their best plants which we can reuse around school.  A big thank you to them!

Ethos group went out in the rain in their meeting time and litter picked down Great Norbury Street and into Millenium Green Park. We filled 4 large black bin bags.

We shared the posters we designed to encourage parents to swap to Fairtrade on Dojo plus information from Fairtrade about 10 swaps and also shared our swaps on the Great Big Green Week site.

The weather has meant we've postponed our school walk to Hyde Park and our picnic until next week because of the poor weather.

Spiritual Garden

The garden is starting to look beautiful again and Ethos group spent some time looking at the plants and then researching where they are mentioned in the Bible. We even acted out the story of Adam and Eve being tempted in the Garden of Eden!

We have an apple tree, a vine, an olive, a palm, a fig and a broom. We have honesty flowers and poppies for Remembrance. The climbing passion plant is what was used to teach about Jesus in South America in days gone by and the herbs (mint and rosemary) represents Jesus's challenge to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

Matthew 23 verse 23

“It will be bad for you teachers of the law and you Pharisees! You are hypocrites! You give God a tenth of the food you get, even your mint, dill, and cumin. But you don’t obey the really important teachings of the law—being fair, showing mercy, and being faithful. These are the things you should do. And you should also continue to do those other things.

 

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The Great Big Green Week 2024

We started our meeting watching a video from Fairtrade Schools' resources about Foncho a banana farmer in Colombia. He explains how climate change is impacting his farming and how Fairtrade is helping him and others in his cooperative, ensure we can still enjoy eating bananas even though the crop is inder threat. They have learned to grow different crops and fertilize the soil and use other trees to protect the bananas from extremes of weather. Ensuring a minimum fair price and the Fairtrade premium means farmers have more security and can plan.

We then worked on ideas to encourage our school via posters, to swap a product to Fairtrade eg tea, coffee, chocolate or sugar. We realised that when we buy Fairtrade we're helping not just a farmer but a whole community. We'll give these out in the Great Big Green Week in June.

 

 

 

Ethos Group and Foodbank April 2024

Ethos members packed up all we'd collected in school this past term and welcomed Ann and Des from Hyde Foodbank into school to collect it. It is good to know this will help many families.

Prayer Space at All Saints Easter 2024

All Saints school kindly invited some of our Ethos group to join them visiting their prayer stations in their church, All Saints in Marple. Ethos group enjoyed the chance to interact with the events of Holy Week and reflect on the different areas they visited, prior to doing our own Easter Experience outside school on Maundy Thursday.

One of our pupils who went to Marple said, " We got chocolate eggs at the end which was really good!"

 

 

                                                                   

 

Fairtrade celebrates 30 Years!

2024 marks 30 years of the Fairtrade mark in the UK. Ethos group took part in a competition led by Glossopdale Fairtraders to create a birthday card for Fairtrade imagining they were a shopper, trader, farmer or community who had benefitted from Fair Trade.  Ethos group did some research to make sure their information was correct and drafted their cards before the final ones.

We found out the results on 21st March and we had two winners who each received a certificate and a bag of Fairtrade stickers and chocolate treats. The rest of the group got some little Fairtrade eggs as a consolation prize. We were also given a wonderful book for our library about Fairtrade and have bought another one about Fairtrade food.

 

Childrens' Mental Health Week 5-10th February 2024

Ethos helped lead worship as we spent time thinking about  how to improve our mental health. We can learn to be better listeners, realise the things we've done well and can be proud of and become more grateful when we recognise how many of our needs are met compared to so many people in the world.

We did some dramas showing how we behave in certain ways because of how we're feeling but that's because of what we're thinking. We thought about how our thinking has such a big impact on our mood. Learning to talk about things and problem solve is a great way to build resliience and improve our mental health.

We thought about the bible verse in Phiippians which encourages us to think differently. We supported the charity Place2Be by having an own clothes day at the end of the week to raise money for them, by wearing what we feel expresses who we are.

Prior to the week we spent time practising our listening skills through games and reflecting on what we're good at. Other members helped us when we got stuck when we were thinking about things we are proud of. We talked about the 5 ways to wellbeing and what these mean.

 

 

 

Worship Leaders Training Event 5th February 2024

Some of our Ethos group were part of a session led by Jen McIlveen from the Diocese this afternoon. There were 10 schools in total from the east side of Cheshire and St George's hosted the event. We were encouraged to reflect on what makes good worship and how we can improve what we're already doing.

 

All Saints Marple - Visit to St George's 29th November 2023

What a lovely afternoon we shared with new friends from All Saints' Ethos group. There were 7 children from Years 2-6 and we were very happy to make them welcome and show them our spiritual areas in the classrooms. It was appropriate, as our value this half term is friendship!

 We talked about what we'd noticed and what All Saints do which is different to us. We all got some good ideas.

We thought a little bit about the 5 ways to wellbeing so as we connected, noticed, learned new things about each other and gave a small gift.we realised doing these things makes us and keeps us happy. We asked questions and then decorated little wooden discs with different values which are important to us. All Saints took these back with them to place in their spiritual areas.

We shared drinks and biscuits before our new friends had to go back to their school.  We will hopefully meet again in February when we do some more work together on worship.

 

       

 

 

Foodbank visitors November 2023

School was very pleased to welcome  Ann and Des to take part in our Collective Worship but to also share with us some of their work with Hyde, Hattersley and Longdendale foodbanks.  They were so grateful for the food we'd donated over this first half term and for what we donated for Harvest.

They said our kindness will help many families who are struggling for all sorts of different reasons and we want to thank you our parents for your ongoing generosity.

Ethos group helped carry all the bags from the Hall to the van in the car park and the food will go to the warehouse to be sorted and dated. From there it will go to the different foodbanks and will be helping families next week to have a decent meal.

Thank you.

 

 

Anti bullying and InterFaith Week - Collective Worship led by ETHOS.

 

Anti bullying Week and Inter Faith Week 13-17th November 2023

Ethos group worked hard in preparing for Collective Worship on Monday 13th November to start these important weeks.

They had worked on dramas to show  examples of falling out and being mean in friendships and how conflict does happen. They acted out a scene of  bullying behaviour where more than one person bullies another and when it is more than once.The person has asked them to stop and they carry on. 

The school was reminded of the Golden Rule to treat others the way we would like to be treated.

This fitted nicely with people sharing what was special about their faith and why our school values are important and bind us together. Tolerance and understanding are what we need to show respect for people different to ourselves.

 in September, we had looked at pebbles from a beach - all similar, but also different and we realised we are just like those pebbles. All in the same school, different, but belonging to St George's family. We can think about our similarities rather than our differences  especailly when we think about faith.

Throughout the week we'll be learning more in our classes about different faiths and also about kindness and building empathy. 

We hope to end the week with Odd Socks Day to show that difference is a good thing and brings colour and variety!

We said prayers for ourselves and the world and asked that we might be good friends and willing to forgive.

They explained about how to resolve problems and where to go for help. They talked about the values of compassion and forgiveness and the dangers of holding a grudge.

 

 

ETHOS group September 2023

We are delighted to welcome new members from Years 4- 6 after some excellent applications. 

Our first session all together was to go into the Spiritual garden and tidy, weed and repair the fountain. We also searched amongst the stones to find the white prayer stones and set the prayer area up again underneath the post inscribed with " Be still and know that I am God."

 

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July 2023 End of Year.

We were blessed with good weather after a very wet July, as we had our last session of Ethos group and said goodbye to our Year 6 members.

We used Fairtrade charcoal and toasted bread and crumpets and enjoyed them with Fairtrade jam in the Spiritual Garden. We finished off with juice and chocolate biscuits.

We are thankful for all we've done this year and look forward to welcoming new members to our Ethos group in September.

 

Visit to All Saints CE Primary School, Marple. July 2023.

Ethos group went on Tuesday afternoon 11.07.2023, to visit the school and church of All Saints. We had met the staff and children at out Ethos Conference and they very kindly invited us to visit.

We had a tour of the school and spirituality garden. We listened to their Ethos team talk about what they enjoyed about their school and then joined the school for collective worship at the end of the school day. We enjoyed their drama and video about the Lost Coin and how finding something lost gives God and us great joy. We saw similarites and differences between  how we worship as a school and that was really interesting. Their Value for this half term was joy. We had to think together about how we could bring joy in school, our community and how to give God or Allah joy. We were made so welcome and everyone was very friendly.

We were treated to a juice and biscuit before we went home and we gave the school our pebbles with our values on as a sign of our link and friendship.We hope to invite them back to our school next school year.

 

 

Litter picking

Gardening Club on Monday and Ethos group on Thursday used the litter pickers borrowed from Tameside council's parks department and helped to clear the school grounds and Millenium park of litter. We managed to clear a lot of rubbish in a short time and everyone enjoyed it.

 

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.

You cannot see the wind. You can only see its effect on the material that gets blown about by it. You cannot actually hear wind either unless it is acting on an object in its way. The normal way to see the movement of the Holy Spirit of God is by his effect on those with whom he comes in contact.

 

 

 

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!

The Bishop's Visit January 2023

Ethos group were delighted that Bishop Sam came to visit school to open our new playground equipment. Ethos  prepared and led collective worship with the theme of leadership fitting in with our value this half term of Service. We thought about the sort of leader Jesus was and how we are called to model that sort of servant leadership. We prayed for all our leaders and then had a tour of the playground.

 

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.

 

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.

This Fairtrade Fortnight, join us in spreading a simple message: choose Fairtrade now and help save our favourite foods. Did you know cocoa, bananas and coffee could soon be much more difficult to find on our shelves?

Climate change is making crops like these harder and harder to grow. Combined with deeply unfair trade, communities growing these crops are being pushed to the brink. But here’s the good news. More of us choosing Fairtrade means extra income, power, and support for those communities, as they work to build sustainable and prosperous futures. So not only is choosing Fairtrade best for people and planet, it could help save everyday treats like chocolate, bananas and a hot cuppa!

 

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

A Message from Koolskools: Many thanks to those who were able to attend the webinar. Everyone who would like to see it in full please follow the link on our YouTube channel https://youtu.be/cnLbfXKr0FM Kind regards The Koolskools Team

 

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

Taking out the seeds from the Honesty plant to re-sow.	Ethos members from Years 5 & 6 leading the Harvest Service.	Our leaves as pledges and our food for the Foodbank.

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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. 

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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".

 

Fairtrade Fortnight 2020

 

Fairtrade cake and coffee afternoon

Ethos group work with the CO-OP