Whist contemplating this week's newsletter item, I became very aware of my family surrounding me in various states of learning and working at home. My husband, working away on emails beside me, one child on a zoom lesson, one completing a fitness challenge set by his PASS teacher, two working together (loudly!) on the creation of a Goldberg machine and another child cooking and taking photos (creatively avoiding the mess he’d created!) to send to his Food Tech teacher. Gosh, what a change learning has undergone in recent weeks! Despite the chaos surrounding me, I can’t help feel completely blessed for this bonus time together. Normally my family is split between home and 5 different schools, but here we are, all together, thriving and learning so many things beyond the walls of the classroom. As a little disagreement ensued over the Goldburg Machine, I found myself reminding my children to keep filling each other's buckets in the way they speak and interact. This prompted me to think that, as we head into school holidays after a long and tiring term, it’s probably a pertinent time to remind all our children to continue being Bucket Fillers.

‘Bucket filling’ is a term we use at school daily, particularly in the youngest grades. We teach the children that everyone is born with an invisible bucket. We remind the children to use kind words, gentle hands, praise and love to continually fill one another's buckets. Over the school holidays, if you find your children dipping from your bucket or one another's buckets (using mean words, fighting, disobeying), you may like to remind them that God wants them to be a bucket filler every day. It is a wonderfully simple way to explain kindness to children and it’s not such a bad way for adults to think either! If your children need a little reminder about being a bucket filler, you can find the latest Bucket Filler book, God’s Plan for Your Happiness here read by the author, Carol McCloud.

The pandemic is an important time to remember that we too need to be Bucket Fillers each day in our interactions with our family and people in our community despite our stresses, exhaustion and frayed nerves. Whilst there are many things we cannot do at the moment, we are unlimited in our ability to spread kindness in our world. I shared the prayer below with our staff members recently, I hope it speaks to your heart as it did mine. These school holidays, may each of us in the St. Kevin’s community shine God’s love through our eyes, our actions and our words to all those we meet despite the masks still covering our smiles.

What are we learning in Religion? 

Each newsletter, we will showcase a class and give you a little insight as to what they are learning about during Religion lessons. This week we hear from…   

                     Year 4!   

In Religion, Year 4 have been learning about Justice, and what it means to serve others. Year 4 had to research modern figures who demonstrate service to others and their communities. 

May God’s Spirit be with you all these holidays. May you have a restful break from home learning and lots of quality family time.

Mrs Jasmina Boudan  

Religious Education Coordinator