St John’s CE Primary School Godly Lane Rishworth Sowerby Bridge West HX6 4QR Tel: 01422 822596 An Academy Trust working with the Diocese of Leeds: 08296540

Friday 11th December

Dear Parent/Carer,

As you will be aware, we are unable to hold our annual Carol Service at St John’s Church, Rishworth due to the current pandemic restrictions. This is usually a truly wonderful time of year and a time of great joy as we gather pupils, staff, parents, governors, and the wider community together. To maintain that sense of coming together we have decided to hold school’s first ever Virtual Christingle Service for the pupils and staff in the morning of Friday 18th December.

As part of our Christingle work, we will be raising money for The Children’s Society who provide free candles and ribbon resources to school in addition to using their donations to protect and assist vulnerable children in the U.K. Oranges have been donated by Fresh Fields Food Ltd and raisins and cocktail sticks have been donated by Tesco at Sowerby Bridge. We ask parents to send a donation of £1 per child for us to send to “The Children’s Society” through schoolcomms. The pupils will bring home their own Christingle and will participate in a full morning of activities to learn more about Christingle and the work of The Children’s Society.

To share this special worship time with parents, governors, and the wider school community, we are providing a ‘Christingle at home’ pack on the website for you to join in our worship activities. This letter and the resources on the website invite you to join in these worship activities at home. Use the ideas on the website to create your own Christingle activities at home: find details here on the school website https://www.stjohnsrishworth.org.uk/collective-worship/.

In addition, we are also providing you with the details of a Christingle at Home service taking part in the benefice of churches. The Virtual Christingle Service is being organised by the Benefice of churches to which St John’s Church belongs. We have been asked to provide a small video of some of our children singing in line with the current guidance to be premiered at 5.30pm on Christmas Eve and have been given the following link to share with you all: https://rainbowtroutfilms.com/ripponden-christingle-2020/

I look forward to sharing the Christingle with you and your families. Yours sincerely,

H Kowal

Mrs H Kowal Class One Teacher and Subject Lead for R.E. and Collective Worship

Head teacher: Web: www.stjohnsrishworth.org.uk Mrs J Wasyliw BA(Hons) Email: admin@st-johns-rishworth..sch.uk