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.

May 2022 - 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, Mr. Molloy led a special assembly to help us all learn more about Mary. He also set us a 'May Mission'. This was to learn either a 'Mary Prayer' or a hymn about Mary. 

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

It was really nice to learn about Mary and other special women in today’s assembly. At the end we prayer the ‘Hail Mary’ together as a whole school.

Sinead – Year 6

 April 2022 - Easter Celebrations

To help celebrate Easter, a whole host of activities took place. Fr. Gerard joined us for a celebration of Mass with the children and staff in KS2. Fr Gerard reminded us all that the joy and celebration of Easter, should continue to be present until Pentecost and that we should remember to say ‘Happy Easter’ throughout this time. It was a lovely Mass with beautiful readings and hymns to mark this special time in the liturgical year. Later, our Reception children led us in a beautiful liturgy filled with hymns, prayers and a blessing of their Easter Gardens by Deacon Liam. It was a very special service where the children spoke so confidently in front of a huge crowd of family members-which is not an easy thing to do when you are 4 or 5 years old! Then, we shared a special Easter liturgy with our KS1 children and staff to remind us all of this special time as well. At this liturgy, the Easter Gardens made by Reception were a focal point for the children and helped them to remember why this is such an important time for us as a Catholic community. In the sunshine, all of the KS1 and KS2 children enjoyed our annual Easter Bonnet parade showing off the creations they had made at home. Our Nursery children continued our Easter celebrations with a special performance of hymns and sharing the Easter story message with their families who came to see them in the ‘big hall’. The children did a wonderful job, supported beautifully by the Nursery team and this was then followed by a family Easter Egg Hunt for our Nursery children.

March 2022 - Stations of the Cross

With the support of Mrs. McCarthy, our chaplaincy team led the whole school in the Stations of the Cross. They planned out the liturgy, organised the readings and even included drama to help the children in our school understand the events leading up the death of Jesus. As part of this, the whole school created new ‘Station of The Cross’ canvases on display in our school Chapel.

March 2022 - Ash Wednesday  

This year on Ash Wednesday, all pupils participated in special Ash Wednesday liturgies across the morning and received ashes on their foreheads as part of this. Deacon Liam has also been in school in recent weeks working with our Chaplaincy Team to ensure they are ready to support children who come to the Chapel for prayer during Lent. With the help of some Joan of Arc students, these sessions have been incredibly helpful.

March 2022 - Year 5 Lenten SPEC Retreat

As part of their Lenten reflection and prayer, the children from Year 5 travelled to the SPEC retreat in Pinner where they stayed for three days and two nights with their peers and teachers. Led by the Diocesan staff at SPEC, the children engaged in a variety of spiritual activities to learn more about their faith, as well as celebrating Mass and special times of prayer throughout their stay during this liturgical season of Lent. They also spent a lot of fun time together as a class family with free play, talent shows and a movie night to build a bank of memories which we hope will last for a long time.

At SPEC, we became closer to God during this time of Lent. We prayed every morning and every night.

Year 5 Pupil

 March 2022 - Lenten Reconciliation

Fr. Gerard and Fr. Alex joined us form Holy Rood Church to lead year 5 and 6 in a Lenten penitential service followed by reconciliation. This was a very special service where the children were spoken to by Fr. Gerard about the opportunity at confession to ‘wipe the slate clean’ from sin in preparation for Easter.

To see the sheet we use to support the children in receiving the sacrament of reconciliation, please click on the image below.

February 2022  - Class Masses

Over the course of this month, our pupils in Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 gathered as year groups to enjoy a beautiful celebration of Mass together. These masses were celebrated with priest from across our trust including Fr Richard from St Saviour’s in Abbots Langley and Fr Gerrard from Holy Rood Church. The children led in sharing the readings, prayers and hymns.

Fr. Gerard said “love one another as Jesus loves you”. He was talking about our gospel reading. This means we should live out Jesus’ wishes in our daily lives.

Sofia – Year 4

December 2021 - Key Stage 2 Carol Service 

Our KS2 children visited St Helen’s Church during Advent to record our KS2 Carol Service video for parents. The Service is always a highlight of the Advent season in school and, having missed out on this last year, we were pleased that we will be able to share with KS2 families the joy of the Christmas season in song, drama and readings.

It felt very peaceful while singing because it made me ready and jolly for Christmas.

Year 5 pupil

December 2021 - Nativities

Over the course of December, we were blessed to see not only one Nativity performance but 3! These were carefully and creatively led by our Nursery children, Reception children and Year 2 children. It was fantastic to be also be joined by family members of this year group to help us mark Advent in this most special way!

December 2021 - Year 1 Crib Blessing 

As part of our preparations for the birth of Jesus during Advent, Year 1 led a beautiful Crib Blessing liturgy that their families were also invited to attend. It was wonderful, as always, to see the hall festooned with all of the beautiful handmade cribs that children have been working on at home with families in recent weeks. We were joined by Deacon Liam who led us in a special service during which the children sang, acted, read and prayed with confidence and reverence, making this a very special moment in our Advent journey.

November 2021 - All Saints - ASCAT Mass 

In the week in which the church celebrates the feast of All Saints, representative pupils from across the four schools within our Academy Trust, gathered together at St Saviour’s Church in Abbot’s Langley to celebrate Mass together. 6N attended to represent Holy Rood and enjoyed a joyful celebration of Mass, led by Fr Richard Mway Zeng (parish priest at St Saviour’s). Deacon Liam preached the sermon and spoke to the children about following the example of the Healer family from the television programme ‘Bluey’ by being totally committed to making real the Catholic mission of our Trust schools. It was a wonderful Mass and a great opportunity to gather with our partner schools in celebration of our common mission.

We celebrated a mass with all our ASCAT school Year 6’s. It was nice to see all the faces (and interesting colours of uniforms and badges). It was good to ‘meet’ at mass.

Samuel – Year 6

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!

We celebrate this mass because it remind us of our school badge. We have a cross on our school badge. Holy Rood means Holy Cross.

Christian – Year 3

Past Liturgical Celebrations

To view some of our favourite past Liturgical Celebrations, click here.