The Liturgical Year at Holy Rood

As a Catholic Primary School, we carry out many celebrations, liturgies and events to mark various events in the Liturgical Year. The Liturgical Year is the celebration of a series of religious feasts and seasons. It is the calendar of the Catholic Church. Take a look at what the Liturgical Year looks like at Holy Rood.

September 2021 - Start of Year Mass - The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Tuesday 14^th September marked a very special day in the life of our school in our return from the restrictions of the Covid pandemic, as we celebrated Mass together, with all of the pupils in KS2….in real life…..in person….with singing! Celebrating our school feast day, the feast of ‘The Exaltation of the Holy Cross’, Fr Gerard joined us to mark this occasion with a beautiful Mass to start the academic year and to give thanks for our fantastic Catholic school! My thanks to Fr Gerard and to all of the clergy of our parishes for their ongoing dedicated support of our school. We look forward to our continued collaboration with them in the year ahead!

May 2021 - The Month of Mary 

Mary holds a special place in the life of the Catholic Church because she displayed exceptional qualities and is therefore an ideal role model to follow. Mary’s ‘yes’ made it possible for Jesus to enter the world and bring to it a great light. Mary lived a life of faith and trusted in God, despite great suffering. During the month of May, we, as Catholics, remember Mary and take extra time to pray to her. To help us do this, Deacon Liam, from St. Helen’s Church and St. Joan of Arc, has spent time in each class in our school praying the Rosary with us and talking about Mary.

If you would like to learn more about Mary and how we remember Mary during the month of May, please click here. 

April 2021 - Easter 

As part of our Easter celebrations, our Reception children made their very own Easter Gardens. The Easter Gardens helped the children to show what they have learnt about Holy Week and the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday in particular. The children then used the Easter Gardens to share their learning with their parents.

This was followed by an at-home Easter Garden blessing which the school made ‘blessing kits’ for and a YouTube video to support.

As a whole school, we have also been celebrating the Easter season and sharing the joy of Christ’s resurrection with one another.  Fr Peter joined us in school to celebrate our first ‘live streamed’ virtual Mass from the school chapel.

March 2021 - Lent - Walk of Witness 

To help us understand the wonder of Jesus’ sacrifice for us all, we carried out our own Walk of Witness. A Walk of Witness is when a group of people carry a wooden cross, just like Jesus did after his sentencing, and share reflections, prayers and moments of silent contemplation along the way to help you better understand the events of Jesus’ journey to death in order to make the greatest sacrifice of all.

December 2020 - Advent - Walking Nativity 

Using our school grounds and woodland, children followed the journey of Mary and Joseph as they travelled to Bethlehem meeting important characters from the Nativity story along the way and stopping to reflect on key parts of the story. This was beautifully lead by our Year 6 pupils and each child in our school created a decoration for the different stops along the way. As part of the Walking Nativity, there was the opportunity to support the work of the Watford New Hope Trust to help homeless families and individuals over Christmas. The children, like the 3 Wise Men, carried gifts with them the whole way through their journey. At the end, they placed them down as an offering, just like the 3 Wise Men did. These were then collected by Watford New Hope Trust and distributed to those most in need.