Advent is the start of the new year for Christians.  It starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas.  Advent comes from the Latin word 'adventus' which means coming and it's the time when the Church prepares for the coming of Jesus.

As a school, we have thought about how Christmas is a very busy time and that there is lots of preparation for adults. It is also a time when children can become impatient as they wait for Christmas to arrive. Ms Wilson talked about going Christmas shopping (which she hates!) and that she had bought a hyacinth plant for her auntie who likes flowers.  Some children planted the bulbs for her and while they were doing so,  Ms Wilson explained that the plant would have to be put in the dark and that her auntie would have to wait for the roots to grow well in order for the flowers to be strong.

We thought about how, when a plant grows, it has to push out its roots and that if we were to think of ourselves as plants, this may be an uncomfortable thing to do.  However, this is something that we would have to go through in order to get the end result.

We then thought about how waiting for Christmas can make us feel uncomfortable and irritable.  We referred to the Old Testament which tells us how people who were alive before Jesus was born, had to wait for his arrival and that although you would have been uncomfortable too, it was worth the wait.  Therefore we must be patient as Christmas will eventually arrive.