The Feast Day of Saint Jerome is celebrated by the Church on 30th September. The day is very special to us not only as our school is named after Saint Jerome, but also because in 2013, on 30th September, the Government gave the agreement that the founders could start planning the opening of our school. Last year the ‘Story of Saint Jerome’ was written for us in a Godly Play style and we were able to share this story with the children in school again this year.

 

All children in Year 1 - Year 6 listened to the story. We thought about Jerome growing up as a young boy and loving learning and books. We listened well as we heard about him coming to feel that he, ‘wanted to know God—not just with his mind, but with his heart.’ We thought about him going into the desert and praying, studying and listening to God. We thought about the story of the lion that people say he helped. We remembered that he travelled to the Holy Land and he translated the Bible into Latin, word by word. We learnt he became a Bishop and that he kept on studying and praying and reading to the end of his life. We were reminded that he said, ‘knowing things is good - But knowing God… is even better.’ We thought about the fact that he loved languages and learning languages helps us understand one another, so we can love one another.

At the end of the story the children spent some time wondering about what they had heard. Wondering what part of the story they liked the best, wondering what was the most important part and wondering what Jerome would say to us if he visited our school today. We also thought about questions we would like to ask him.

Some Year 4 pupils wanted to ask Saint Jerome:

When you walked into the desert, did you know there was a cave that you were going to?

How did you know the lion had come with a thorn in his paw?

Why did you get the thorn out of the lion's paw, if lions are dangerous?

Are you happy that our school is named after you?

Would you like to see our Bible and Godly Play room?

 

Some Year 3 pupils thought Saint Jerome might talk to us or ask us questions:

Why did you name your school after me? 

Do you have loads of books in your school?

Why do you read the Bible?

Make sure you always get as much education as you can.

How many languages do you speak?

Do you like your school?

I thought people might have forgotten about me but they haven’t.

Are you keeping your school tidy and are you working hard?

Are you interested in learning about me and my story?