Festive fun for all at St Chad’s
13 December 2022
Youngsters at a Lichfield school have been using their creative skills to get into the festive spirit and enhance their understanding of Christian themes.
At St Chad’s Primary School, part of the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, pupils have enjoyed both an in-school pantomime and Christingle service. The events centred around the Christian ethos of the school and highlighted the values of creativity and togetherness.
Children watched a performance of Rapunzel by Black Country-based Saltmine Trust theatre company before four days later they were busy making their own Christingles, which they then proudly showed off the following day at the annual Christingle worship in the school hall.
Deputy Headteacher Ellen Litherland explained: “Saltmine Trust is a charity and theatre company inspired by the life and teaching of Jesus.
“As a Church of England school, we are always looking for new ways to explore and promote our Christian values. To spark our Christmas celebrations, we invited Saltmine to deliver their Rapunzel pantomime for all children from reception to year 6 to enjoy.
“The production was based around the message ‘I am a masterpiece’ (with inspiration taken from the Bible – Ephesians Chapter 2 Verse 10).
“It focused on the understanding that all people are unique creations from a loving God who brought his son to earth at Christmas for a relationship with us.
“Children at St Chad’s loved the performance and the set, which Saltmine brought with them to transform our school hall. There was lots of laughter, cheering and merriment across the school as children had fun watching the show.”
Fresh from watching the young prince provide Rapunzel’s escape to freedom, the enthusiastic entire school from nursery to year 6 then showed off their artistic skills by creating their very own Christingle.
Each part of the Christingle – oranges, sweets, candles, red ribbon and cocktail sticks – represented an important Christian message.
The orange represented the world, red ribbon stood for the love and blood of Christ, sweets were God’s creations, four cocktail sticks represented the four seasons and the candle was Jesus’ light in the world – bringing hope to people living in darkness.
Mrs Litherland added: “The following morning we held our special annual Christingle worship.
“Parents and carers were invited to join us in the school hall, where we said special prayers, learnt about the meaning of Christingle and sang songs chosen by some of our pupil leaders.
“Particular favourites were Shine, Jesus Shine and The Little Light of Mine. Our worship centred around the message that Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12).
“It was a fantastic few days in school as everyone came together to celebrate important themes in exciting ways.”
Captions:
The Christingle service inspired children.
