A Word from Mrs Aisher
It is always pleasing when children get excited about words. One such word, which recently sparked interest, was advent, coming as it does from two Latin words Year 6 have just learned; “ad” meaning “to” and “venit” “he is coming”. For those of us who are Christians we are looking forward to the time we celebrate Jesus’ birth. Advent time literally means “he is coming”.
For many parents this time is a frantic few weeks of shopping and preparation for family celebrations, to be navigated around a simultaneous increase in momentous additional events!
Here at St Michael’s we start our advent season with the wonderful P & F Christmas bazaar tomorrow with many treats in store for us all. Perhaps you will stop by the International Club’s seasonal, cosmopolitan treats or savour the harmonious music-making by the staff choir and our young musicians. Perhaps you will visit Santa’s grotto or the secrets room to wrap a gift, have a bounce on one of the inflatables or stop for lunch in the Christmas café. Whatever you do, please come and join in the fun between 12 noon and 3 pm. We look forward to seeing you here.
There will, over the next few weeks, be a wonderful set of treats in store for us all as we mark our St Michael’s advent, and we hope you will all enjoy coming together, joining in and having a lot of time off work! Whether your child is dressing up to be a part of the Christmas story, retold in song and actions, whether they concentrate hard while carrying their Christingle candle or whether they read to us in our carol service in Shoreham Parish Church, treasure these moments. The children are what Christmas is all about and the wonderful responsibility we share with you to bring them to understand what it is to be a fully-rounded human being and what it means to think of others before ourselves, lies at the heart of our work at school.
If the standards reached at the recent performers’ breakfast are anything to go by, we will have a wonderful few weeks. For much of last year, the ensembles worked as sectionals to prepare the way for our two new musical groups, the orchestra and the jazz band. With wonderful skill and pzazz they showed a whole new level of music making and our two music teachers, Mr Bennett and Mr Davies are to be congratulated for what they have achieved in one term. Alongside these débuts, we enjoyed a variety of other talented music soloists as well as the recorder group and the concert closed with a moving performance from the Show Choir. If you missed the concert itself, which got Tuesday off to a swinging start, you can catch a glimpse of it all on my twitter feed.
As we hurtle towards December do enjoy the seasonal highlights of St Michael’s. I look forward to sharing them with you.