On Wednesday 7th July, we held our 150th Anniversary service in our playground. This was the first time since lockdown that the children were together for worship.
We were pleased to have The Worshipful the Mayor of Kingston- Upon- Thames, Councillor Sushila Abraham, and Sir Ed Davey, our local Member of Parliament, with us to say a few words. Reverend Mark Stafford led the service joined by Reverend Jonathan Wilkes and Reverend Karl Rutlidge.
Before our new cross mosaic was blessed, some of our children talked about the rationale behind this creative design.
‘Recently, we all worked together to design a mosaic in the shape of a cross. We have put it up on the wall of Blue Bridge House. We worked with the artist, Philippa Adams, to make this cross. Everyone contributed to the design.
We wanted the globe on the design to show that at St John’s we care for the whole world. It also reminds us that God loves everyone. Our mosaic also has a rainbow behind the cross. This is to remind us about the NHS and all they have done throughout 2020 and 2021. We wanted our mosaic to be in the shape of a cross to show everyone that we are a Church of England school. In the centre of the cross there is a circle with 150 written in it. This is to mark our 150th anniversary.
On the cross there are 3 important words: Believe Inspire Achieve. This is our school motto to remind us that at St John’s we should believe in ourselves, be inspired and achieve the very best.We enjoyed designing and making our beautiful mosaic. We hope children who come to St John’s in the future will also enjoy it.’
Children wrote prayers for our service including this beautiful prayer by Year 5:
Dear God,
Thank you for inspiring our founder to build the school.
Thank you for 150 years of great learning
And for giving us a safe environment to learn in.
Thank you for keeping the school safe and strong during the pandemic.
Amen
Our service ended with all singing Happy Birthday to St John’s.