Church
As a church school, the link we have with St Paul’s Church, Hooton, is important to our school community. Little Sutton Church of England’s original school and St Paul’s Church were both built by Christopher Naylor. Here began the long standing involvement between the two and in recent years, despite the restrictions we have faced, the bond has become much stronger.
St Paul’s is our home for our special services at Easter, Harvest, Christmas time and when it’s time for our Year 6 pupils to say goodbye to us and move on to high school. These are an opportunity for all our families to come together to celebrate with God.
Vicar Keith comes into school to lead us in collective worship and take us through the stories and lessons within the Bible.
Our school choir have supported events at church on many occasions such as opening the church summer fair and singing for the congregation at the drop-in service, which is a service specifically for those who live alone.
During the pandemic, Owl Class (Reception) recorded their hymn It was on a Starry Night, which was then played for the congregation of the two Service of Light events in December 2020. The beautiful voices brought smiles to all our faces.
Our school Principal has played an active part in church life. She was welcomed in December 2019 by being invited to attend St Paul’s Lessons and Carols service and introduced to the church family. Since then she has spoken on Education Sunday and taken part in the service of Light.
In January 2020 three young ladies from Years 5 and 6 took part in St Paul’s Women’s World day of Prayer service.
The pandemic has brought our school and church communities closer together. Our children wrote letters to our parishioners during the second lockdown, sending them messages of hope, jokes, telling them about themselves and their families. Many parishioners wrote back over the next few weeks and months, thanking our pupils and wishing them well. At Christmas time, our pupils sent Christmas cards and letters which were given out at services in church.
We also co-ordinate our efforts to support our local food bank to support those families less fortunate.
Our most recent community project has seen many messages of hope, written in speech bubbles, attached to our school fence.
We have strong links with our Foundation Governors within school. Auntie Gwen, who runs St Paul’s Sunday club, has brought this into our school during lunch time on a Wednesday for children in years 3 and 4 to take part in. She leads them in prayer before doing a variety of interactive, craft-based activities based on stories from the Bible, or special events such as Remembrance Day.