School Prayer
At Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, the children are taught traditional Catholic prayer. These prayers can be used at home to support parents in developing their children’s knowledge of prayer and to continue to develop their children’s understanding of what the words mean to us as Christians today.
From my head
To my heart,
From my shoulder to my other shoulder
God loves me
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let our school be a place where happiness shines from every face.
A place to learn, a place to share
To help each other and show we care.
God bless our school everyday
O' St Cuthbert hear us pray.
Amen
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
All – Know that a prayer begins with ‘Dear God/Lord’ and ends with ‘Amen’.
Nursery and Reception – To begin to say a prayer starting with thank you, sorry or please (mostly about family)
Year 1 – Begin to write a series of sentences saying thank you, please or sorry.
Year 2 – Write a series of sentences saying thank you, please or sorry – children should start to include more religious language and show reference to other prayers that they may know.
Year 3 – Children start to compose prayers, using sentences to form verses. Prayer should start to contain sacramental language – Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, Forgiveness.
Year 4 – Children should start to become aware of community and global issues and start to reflect these in prayer. Children should show an awareness that they can ask God to help them become better people (e.g. asking for greater patience). Children should start to use a variety of ways of opening and concluding their prayers such as:
Year 5 – Children should build upon the prayer styles they learned in Year 4 and form full verses, saying please, sorry or thank you. Children should begin to reference character attributes of famous Christian figures and saints (Oscar Romero etc) and ask for help in becoming more like these figures. Children should start to reference specific global issues –e.g. current natural disasters or humanitarian crises. To start to include scripture by getting pupils to reference to ….e.g. – Jesus taught us in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Forgiving Father) that God loves us even when at times we let Him down. Today we ask God to love us even more when we need Him the most.
Year 6 – Children should build upon the prayer styles they learned in Year 4 and 5. Children should write fully formed prayers saying please, sorry or thank you. Their prayers should include by any religious language that they have acquired throughout their time at school. Children should confidently reference current global issues and prayers should allow for an aspirational tone, looking to the future with optimism