Forgiveness is the lifeblood of any family or community. In this Sunday’s Gospel the younger son insults his father; his inheritance is all he thinks about. To make matters worse, his reason for returning is not love or consideration for his father, but simply his own desperate hunger. The father does not even question his son’s motives. He welcomes his son back with the open heart and the open arms of forgiveness.

The message for us is that, whatever we may have done wrong, if we are truly sorry, we can still count on the loving forgiveness of God, who is our Father, and on the freedom that his forgiveness brings.

Our Year 3 children also received the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday evening at Our Lady and All Saints Church with both Fr. Philip and Fr. Stephen.  Thank you to Miss Robertson for preparing the children so well to receive this special sacrament.

Thank you for your generosity in supporting the PTA Mother's Day Sale.  Wishing all our mothers a very happy Mother's Day on Sunday.  A reminder that the clocks also go forward on Sunday by an hour too.

A reminder that our Year 6 Parents' Evening sessions will take place on Tuesday 29th March and Tuesday 5th April between 3.30pm and 5.30pm.  We ask that parents wear a face covering when entering the school site and undertake a LFD test beforehand.  If you have not completed the Parents' Evening questionnaire, please click on the link within the 'Key Information' tab on the school website.  We have received very positive feedback overall, however, we will ensure in future that parents can write a comment if there are areas in which they would like to see further developments at the school.  Thank you for your continued support.

Congratulations to the following children for being chosen for Good Work or for displaying the Catholic virtues (Curious and Active) this week.  Well done to St. John's house for gaining the most points too.

Please come along to support the PTA football fundraiser event this coming Saturday afternoon.  A huge thank you to our parents and PTA for their generosity in terms of gifts and time towards the preparation of the Mother's Day Sale in school earlier today.

We are collecting Easter eggs for the Black Country Food Bank. Please donate one if you can. There is a  box by the school office to put them in. Last collection 6th April.

On Monday 21st  February, the Prime Minister set out the next phase of the government's COVID-19 response 'Living with COVID-19'. COVID-19 continues to be a virus that we learn to live with and the imperative to reduce the disruption to children and young people's education remains.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), accessed through option 1 of the DfE COVID-19 helpline, will be decommissioned from Friday 1st April 2022. The UKHSA advice service was introduced in September 2020 to provide advice to education and childcare settings on the action they should take to respond to positive cases of COVID-19 in their setting.

The Wednesday Word can be accessed via following link: The Wednesday Word Primary School Resource | Catholic Church.  Please go through this with leaflet with your child so that they become more familiar and understand the focus of the Gospel each week.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,

your grace into our hearts,

that we to whom the incarnation of Christ, your Son,

was made known by the message of an angel,

may be brought by his passion and cross

to the glory of his resurrection,

through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Children at St. Joseph's are growing to be Intentional in the way they live and use the
resources of the earth, guided by conscience; and Prophetic in the example they set to
others.

MARCH

For a Christian response to bioethical challenges

We pray for Christians facing new bioethical challenges; may they continue to defend the dignity of all human life with prayer and action.