St Martin de Porres

Welcome to Saint Martin’s Class Page!

“Everything, even sweeping, scraping vegetables, weeding a garden and waiting on the sick could be a prayer, if it were offered to God.” St Martin de Porres

Who is St Martin?

Martin de Porres (born December 9, 1579 – died November 3, 1639) was a kind and helpful man from Peru. He was a lay brother in the Dominican Order, a group of Catholic religious people. He was later recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Facts about him...

He is known as the patron saint for many groups. These include people of mixed-race and those who work to help others. He is also a patron saint of animals.

Martin de Porres was famous for helping the poor. He even started an orphanage and a children's hospital.

He lived a simple life, often fasting and not eating meat.

Many amazing things were said to happen around him. These included floating in the air and being in two places at once. People also said he could heal others instantly and talk to animals.

• Saint Martin’s homework will be set on a Friday, this will include: Spellings (TEAMS) – these will need to be practised at home ready for a test every Thursday. Two other pieces of homework will be set on Teams: Grammar work from SPaG.com (from October half term), and Maths, English or Topic work. This all needs to be completed and submitted/handed back in on the following Wednesday.
• PE will happen every Tuesday and Friday and the children should come to school wearing their PE kit.  
• Reading at home is very important for all children especially in Year 6 as it prepares them for the reading that they will face at Secondary school. Children will be rewarded reading points towards our bookworm badges!
• Each week, a child will bring home our class Prayer Bag. Within the bag, you will find a cloth (linked to our Liturgical Season), prayers and religious objects linked to the time of the year. Please use this to pray together as a family.
  

What is it like to be a child in Year 6 at St Joseph's?

When your child reaches Year 6, they are in their final year of primary school. In this year memories are made, experiences are had and preparation for a new journey to secondary school begins! As they are the eldest in the school, this also comes with responsibility; they are expected to have consistently high expectations of themselves and be outstanding role models for the rest of the children within our school.

The children continue to grow in their faith by embedding Catholic Social Teaching in their daily lives, rooted in scripture. Children have demonstrated their understanding of Human Dignity at various points throughout the year especially when we covered our topic ‘Equality for All’. During this, we were able to explore a historical topic called ‘Black and British’, and also think about the ‘UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’.

My hopes and wishes for the children within my class is for each child to feel unique, valued and empowered to always be the best they can be, which will enable them to be ready to tackle the challenges of Year 6. The children work incredibly hard throughout the school day, following a similar timetable every day. This includes: Group Reading, Maths, Spellings, Liturgical Prayer, Writing, Maths on Track and afternoon subjects such as History, Geography, PSHE, Art, Music, Science, French, Computing and DT.

The children in Year 6 are exposed to the teachings of Jesus and are taught about how they are all unique but in the image and likeness of God through a range of subjects such as Religious Education; Relationships and Health Education (RHE); Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education and Peacemakers. We teach children how to show love to thy neighbour, showing empathy and kindness to all around them, as Luke 6:31 states, "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Year 6 is full of many new experiences, activities and privileges, such as: the potential (if voted for) to be House Captain; the opportunity to sit on the benches in the hall (!); the chance to go on  a week long residential; an online workshop with Parliament;  the Gloucestershire Mock Trials; the Knex competition; the Gloucestershire Wildlife quiz; a summer time enterprise project; and last but not least, a leavers production complete with costumes, singing, acting and dancing! It truly is an action packed and unforgettable year!

In May, our incredible Year 6 children have the opportunity to complete the SATS. The children complete these for Reading, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG), Maths (Arithmetic and Reasoning). These are used to confirm the assessments Mrs. Knight has made throughout the school year but these do not ‘showcase’ all of the wonderful things that our Year 6 children have achieved throughout their time at St Joseph’s and how they REACH in everything that they do. Fortunately, we have the opportunity to explore our gifts and talents throughout the school year, during activities like the residential and the end of year 6 production. Here children can grow in confidence and develop their resilience which will in turn help them to develop and blossom. 

How do I contact my child's teacher?

Our relationships with our families is very important to us and we are more than happy to answer any questions/concerns you may have throughout the school year. You can catch me or any of the teachers on the playground after school. We are always happy to help!

Also, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via email if you have any questions or concerns. You can contact me via email (FAO Mrs Knight) through the school office: admin@st-josephs.gloucs.sch.uk