Courageous Advocacy & Fundraising

At St Barnabas, we have a strong emphasis on encouraging our children to become courageous advocates, not just locally, but nationally and globally. For our latest courageous advocacy news and information, please click here.

At some point in life we will all face challenges and need support to help us overcome these barriers, to achieve 'life in all its fullness' (John 10:10). We teach our children that it is important to help others when we can, no matter who they are, where they come from or what challenges they may face. We teach this through the teachings of the bible and learning about other courageous advocates.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Proverbs 31:8-9

We love to show our Christian values of generosity, friendship, respect and service to others through a variety of fundraising and awareness raising events over the year. Carefully planned opportunities in our curriculum, ensure that the children develop skills in order to challenge injustice and to engage in activities that can bring about change. Our children often come to us with their own fundraising ideas and our WOW Group (Worship our Way), Rotakids, Wellbeing Warriors, Heads and Deputies and our FOSB PTFA also fundraise for our school, local, national and global charities and causes.

‘Pupils look forward to taking on roles of responsibility. For example, they are keen to be involved in the worship our way (WOW) group, or acting as well-being warriors or ‘rota kids’. These activities also encourage and allow pupils to play an important role in the local community as well as supporting those who may be less fortunate.’ Ofsted March 2023

Please see our events for information about the next fundraising events.

So far this year we have taken part in the following fundraising or awareness raising activities:

31st January 2025

As part of Year 5 RotaKids, we are determined to make a difference and support the 180,000 people who have been affected and forced to flee their homes due to the devastating LA wildfires. On Friday, 31st January, RotaKids will be hosting a non-uniform day to raise money for those impacted by this tragic event. We encourage everyone to get involved by wearing their favourite clothes and contributing to this important cause.

We kindly ask for a minimum donation of £1, but any additional contributions will be greatly appreciated. This will be available on parent pay next week. Every penny raised will go towards helping families rebuild their lives and providing essential supplies to those in need. This is a wonderful opportunity to teach our children the value of helping others and making a positive impact on the world around us.

Thank you for your generosity and support, Year 5 RotaKids

Message from one of our school parents:

'I have friends across the USA, and speaking to them this week, I learned that one of them, now living in Arizona, grew up in LA, and still have friends there. They have been following heartbreakingly the news, watching the devastation of places they knew growing up, and their friends properties. I told them what St Barnabas are doing this week, and she was truly blown away, that a small school in England, is raising awareness and sharing their prayers for LA, and she wanted me to pass on her eternal gratitude.'

13th December 2024- Year 5 Christmas Cards for Care Homes

Building on from our Worship earlier in the week about spreading joy this Advent, our Year 5 Rotakids decided to take action. Today, they spread festive cheer in the community by creating thoughtful Christmas cards to send to East Lancs Hospice and care homes around Darwen. The children poured their creativity and kindness into each card, adding heartfelt messages and festive designs. These cards will soon be delivered, bringing warmth, joy and a sense of connection to residents who may need it most this Christmas season. It’s a wonderful way to show that even small acts of kindness can make a big difference. Well done, RotaKids, for embodying the true spirit of the holidays!

'Could you please a pass a message on to all the children in year 5. A big thank you for all your lovely Christmas cards! They have brought lots of smiles and joy to the staff, patients, and families at East Lancashire Hospice.

Thank you so much

Nadia Coupe

Senior Staff Nurse

East Lancashire Hospice'

5th December 2024- Choir singing at Acer Lodge Care Home

Some of our choir members and a few of their younger siblings brought lots of festive cheer to the residents at Acer Lodge Care Home in Blackburn this evening. They sang their little hearts out and filled the staff and resident's hearts with joy. They were overjoyed to have a visit from Father Christmas who brought them all a little gift for being such little superstars. A huge thank you to the parents and grandparents who transported the children to Blackburn, battling horrendous rain, floods and road closures. It was certainly worth it to see the smiles on the resident's faces and to hear them singing along.

27th November 2024- Year 5 Litter Picking

As part of No Pens Day, Year 5 explored the local area, taking part in a litter-picking activity inspired by a suggestion from the Smart School Council. This act of kindness demonstrated fantastic teamwork, community spirit, and a shared commitment to protecting the environment. Back in class, the children reflected on what they had observed, noting the impact of litter on wildlife and natural spaces. They engaged in thoughtful discussions about how to make a positive difference, generating ideas such as increasing recycling efforts, designing impactful posters to raise awareness about the environmental damage caused by littering and making a habit of picking up litter whenever they see it. The activity not only built their understanding of environmental responsibility but also empowered them to be proactive change-makers within their community.

27th November 2024- Year 3 Litter Picking

Today, Year 3 celebrated No Pens Day thanks to our Smart School Council. They combined learning by litter picking, demonstrating teamwork, communication, and a strong sense of kindness and spirituality. They even discussed how God and the community would be pleased with their efforts. In the classroom, they paired up for a fun game of BrainBox, boosting their memory, observation skills, and understanding of math and reading. Oracy skills were embedded throughout the day, as students listened attentively, took turns to talk, and engaged in thoughtful discussions.

27th November 2024

Today in class worship, Year 3 celebrated the Earthshot Prize winners. This inspiring award recognises people and organisations working to protect our planet. Year 3 were particularly excited, having just cleaned up their local community. We discussed how small acts of kindness, like their community clean-up, can contribute to a healthier world. The Bible reminds us that we are stewards of creation, and responsible for caring for the Earth. We prayed, thanking God for our beautiful world and asking for forgiveness when we haven't been good stewards.

20th November 2024

In worship yesterday, we looked through our spirituality windows and out into the world on toilets. We were shocked and saddened to find out that around 700 children under 5 die every year due to poor sanitation. We heard about Jeremiah in Kenya who doesn’t have access to a toilet. In his community, people would mostly use a hole in the ground or a plastic bag, which some people would tie up and throw on other people’s roofs. We talked about how this affects people’s health and shared ideas of what we could do to help.
The children then learned about our Toilet Twinning project for which we raised money a few years go to sponsor the building and maintenance of toilets in Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, and Afghanistan. We reflected on how we should never take our toilets for granted and thought of ways we could save loo paper and water.

15th November 2024

Our Y6 Heads and Deputies asked everyone to dress in pyjamas or spots to show our support for Children in Need this year.
Yesterday we had a special visit from Pudsey Bear and Christine from Asda. They told us all about how Asda are raising money for Children in Need and they said a special thank you to us all for our fundraising to help children who are less fortunate than us. Thank you so much to our staff, children and parents for the effort you have gone to in dressing in your pyjamas or spots and thank you for your generous donations on parent pay. Together we can make a positive difference to the lives of so many disadvantaged children around our country.

1st November 2024

Our Heads and Deputies have been around to all of the classrooms today to show all of the children the poppy appeal merchandise that will be on sale from Monday at break times. The suggested donation for slap bands is £1.50, bracelets £1.00 and poppy reflectors 50p. Please send money into school in a named envelope or bag. Thank you in advance for your generosity to this worthy cause.

Next week we will be focusing on Remembrance Day in our Worships and Year 6 will be taking part in a special Remembrance Service at Darwen Cemetery. We will remember them.

30th October 2024

Today, each class took part in our Harvest Heptathlon obstacle course challenge for the Bishop’s Harvest appeal. The course consisted of running, hurdles, travelling through a hoop, hopping, skipping, speed bounce and star jumps. A huge well done to every child that took part. They gave it their best effort. And an extra big thank you to all of the WOW group and Year 6 helpers for helping to set up, replace equipment, demonstrate the course and support and encourage the younger children to complete the course. Let’s hope we can raise some much needed funds for developing classrooms and literacy in church schools in Multan, Pakistan.

28th October 2024

Our WOW (Worship Our Way) group would like to say a huge thank you for your generous donations to DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). Patsy from DARE came to collect the donations yesterday and sent a lovely thank you message on behalf of everyone at DARE. Thank you for your kindness and generosity as your donations will really help to make a difference to the lives of others.

17th October 2024

Thank you to our Wow group, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 classes for leading our Harvest celebration at church today. I have uploaded some videos to class dojo and additional photos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/harvest-church-service-2024

It was wonderful to see so many of our families in attendance. A huge thank you to you all for coming to watch and thank you to all of our families for your continued support this half term.

Thank you for all of your kind harvest donations for DARE, these can be continued to be sent in during the first week that we are back at school.

9th October 2024- WOW (Worship Our Way) Group collecting Harvest Donations for DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)

Harvest is almost upon us and, this year, our wonderful WOW group have chosen to support two charities. They would like to continue to support refugees in our local area through the charity D.A.R.E. (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) and are asking for donations of non-perishable food items, toiletries and good quality clothing.

Please send these into school any time over the next week (by Thursday 17th October) and we will ensure they get to D.A.R.E.

More details of the second charity we have chosen will be released shortly.

4th October 2024- Rotakids support East Lancashire Wrap Up

In order to support East Lancashire Wrap Up, RotaKids have decided to collect coats to clothe the homeless. Please can you donate any winter coats that are no longer of use and these can be collected into the box above. The coats will be collected, sorted and delivered to local charities throughout East Lancashire.

The campaign will run from the 1st October until 31st October 2024. There will be collection box in the hall for all the coats to be collected.

Please can we also try and collect glasses too to continue to help developing countries.

Thank you for your support
Year 5
RotaKids

Rotakids

27th September 2024- Macmillan Coffee Morning

A huge thank you for your generous donations at our Macmillan Coffee Morning. It was lovely to welcome so many of our school family into the coffee morning and every child in school was able to have a cake thanks to your generous donations. Our Heads and Deputies did a fantastic job of serving everyone and counting the money. We raised a wonderful £347.50.

8th July 2024- East Lancs Hospice

A huge well done to the whole of St Barnabas, we have raised a massive £277.30 for the East Lancs Hospice through our Hop, Skip and Jump event and our Barney's Got Talent Show. The money will be used to help care for those in need and will support the wonderful staff that do an amazing job within the health care system. East Lancs Hospice is a charity close to the hearts of our school family as sadly one of our school family mums passed away a few years ago and she was shown wonderful support from East Lancs Hospice. Her two sons have raised over £30,000 in her memory and we continually try to support them each year.

Barney's Got Talent for East Lancs Hospice

To celebrate World Music Day, Mrs Ham supported by our Heads and Deputies (Lucy, Skye, Isaac and Wilson) presented a very special Barney's Got Talent. Our Heads and Deputies chose to collect donations for East Lancs Hospice to support the wonderful work they do. All of the talents that we witnessed from our school family were absolutely incredible and we commend all of the children for being so courageous and sharing these talents with such a large audience. A huge well done to Callie the Tangled Twin , Super Summer the Gummy Bear, Haydn and Percy as the Football Friends, Olivia and Lydia as the Barbie Girls, Ballerina Annabel dancing to the instrumental version of ‘Dance Monkey,’ Super Ted and Electric Elijah with their amazing street dancing, The Friendship Band of Iris and Naomi singing ‘This Girl is on Fire,’ Jack, Ella-Grace and Chay as The Conga Monkeys, Miles, Daisy and James as The Brilliant Believers singing Believer by the Imagine Dragons, Toffee Tristen singing Pure Imagination dressed as Willy Wonka, Sparkly Sofia singing ‘Beautiful Things’ by Benson Boone, Dramatic Darcy singing ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri, Mason and James as the MJ Boys singing ‘Shotgun’ by George Ezra, Amazing Annabelle as a magician , Graceful Grace dancing to ‘ABC’ by the Jackson 5, Beau, Jess, Laila, Brooke, Charlie-Rose and Betsy dancing to ‘Who Runs the World? (Girls)’ as the 6 Golden Stars, Eliza as The Joyful Joker, Outstanding Oscar playing ‘Believer’ on the Piano, R’Kid Seb singing ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis, Archie the Arrow thrashing Mr Bloomfield at darts and The WWE Wrestlemania team of Charlie, Carlton and Alfie. Wow! What a lot of talent. Thank you to the parents who could attend our Barney's Got Talent, we hope you enjoyed the performances. For those who couldn’t, Mr Bloomfield kindly recorded it and this will be shared with you all. We wish you a lovely restful weekend. Thank you for your continued support.

East Lancs Hospice Hop, Skip and Jump

Today we have decorated our crowns for the East Lancashire Hospice. We wore our crown to do a 1 mile hop, skip and jump around our school playground which was a total of 18 laps. The children did so well and tried so hard.

The Big Lent Walk 2024

Thank you so much to our children for the amazing walking they have been doing both in and out of school for our Big Lent Walk challenge. As a school family we have walked a fantastic 2383km and raised £215 to help fight global poverty! All the photos can be found here.

DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) Christmas 2023 Donations

Thank you so much to our staff team and our Year 1 kindness elves for donating Christmas items to Darwen Asylum and Refuge3 Enterprise. The donations have been used to create Christmas hampers for families in need. They were distributed at the DARE Christmas party and were gratefully received.

DARE Christmas 2023 Toys

The RotaKids, Smart School Council of Years 5 and 6 and the rest of the school family at St Barnabas would like to say a massive thank you for your generosity. In just over two weeks, we have been overwhelmed with donations of toys for families in need. The donations will now be distributed amongst families and refugees of Darwen. This will definitely make this time extra special for so many families and that is because of you.

Poppy Appeal- November 2023

Our Heads and Deputies sold Poppy Appeal merchandise and poppies during break times and raised a wonderful £365.50.
We focused on Remembrance Day in our Worships and our Year 6 class took part in a special Remembrance Service in Darwen Cemetery. We will remember them.

Book Donations- Darwen Rotary Club November 2023

As part of Year 5’s pledge to supporting Darwen Rotary, Year 5 have sorted and organised books to be donated to children and families that are less fortunate than ourselves. They have come up with some amazing and fantastic ideas of how they can support their local community and work as a team to make their community a better place.

Children in Need 2023

Thank you to everyone who put on their spots and donated to Children in Need!

September 2023- Morocco Earthquake Appeal

As part of RotaKids, Year 5 chose to raise money for the families that have been affected by the earthquakes in Morocco. In order to raise money, Year 5 hosted a non uniform day and children came into school wearing the colours of the Moroccan flag to show their support and compassion for those affected.

The money raised will help provide: food, water, shelter, medical essentials and survival equipment to help.

Macmillan Coffee Morning 2023

A huge thank you to everyone who supported our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning. There was a wonderful turnout and every child got to take part too. We raised a brilliant £274.62. Thank you so much for your cake donations.

Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancashire Hospice

Each class took part in a fun Hop, Skip and Jump around the playground to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. Thank you so much for your kind donations.

Easter Eggs for DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)

On Friday 31st March, we will be hosting a non uniform day. In exchange for the children wearing non uniform, we would really appreciate an Easter egg donation. Any donations received will be donated to Darwen and Asylum Refugee Enterprise (DARE) who will pass them on to families in need, the elderly who are isolated and Ukrainian families. We are sure the children will be able to tell you all about what we have been discussing during our worships about giving something to our community during Lent. This is a great way to show our Christian value of generosity by giving something to those in need during Lent and we really appreciate your generosity as always.

Smart School Councillors-Fundraising for Turkey and Syria Earthquake Relief

Following our last school council meeting, the children voted to hold a fundraising event on Friday 17th of March, where they will wear the flag colours of Turkey and Syria to show their support for those affected by the earthquakes. We are asking for a minimum donation of £1.00 for each child who participates in this cause, via parent pay.

The colours are red, black, green and white. Do not go out to buy anything new, please wear what you have at home.
All funds raised will be donated to a reputable charity actively working to provide relief to the earthquake victims.

Our RotaKids collected toys for DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) and children in Ukraine

Children in Need

Poppy Appeal for the Royal British Legion

St Barnabas remembers

Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal

Our Worship our Way (WOW) group launched our Harvest appeal challenge. We asked for donations of £1.50 from parents in exchange for the children completing 3 helpful challenges at home. Each challenge was worth 50p. The challenges could be any of those mentioned in the poster, or any that you and your child decided at home.

Donations went to the Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal and this year they are supporting the Christian charity, Mothers' Union, to support the delivery of literacy and numeracy programs to women in Burundi so that they can help earn money to support their families.

We are also collected tins and packets for our local Darwen Refugee and Asylum Enterprise (DARE) to support refugees who have had to flee their homes due to conflict.

It was lovely to see so many parents and carers joining us at our Harvest Festival on Thursday 20th October at St Barnabas church. Our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes led the service and the rest of the school will be joined in with songs and prayers.

Hello Yellow Day for World Mental Health Day

We all dressed in yellow to raise awareness of mental health and money for Young Minds so they can support youngsters with their mental health. We raised a wonderful £143.50. Thank you for all of your support.

Hello Yellow Day 2022

Macmillan Coffee morning led by our FOSB.

Thank you to everyone who donated cakes, their time and money towards this year's MacMillan Coffee Morning.

We have raised a total of £151.00 this year.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

RotaKids

The children in year 5 have put their hearts and soul into RotaKids. Their dedication throughout this project has been immense and we are so proud of each and every one of them. They have expressed themselves with the utmost energy, enthusiasm, and determination.

The role of a RotaKid is to raise funds to support local, national and international good causes.

During Christmas, every year group sent a Christmas e-card to our local care homes. This was something that the Rotakids organised. They felt it was vital for everyone to receive a card on Christmas day because not everyone has a family. This certainly put smiles on their faces and a few happy tears.

For the Spring term, we were given an Entrepreneurial Project. We were given £100.00 to start a small business the money was to be transferred back if we made any profit. This was a competition running between four schools.
We were definitely in it to win it!

The Rotakids came up with some great ideas. All of the ideas were planned during breaks. We successfully ran two movie nights, one for KS1 and KS2. This is something that we will most definitely consider doing again next year. The children absolutely loved it!

Following on from this, we did ' Guess How Many Sweets In The Jar' which was a huge success. Some children had four or five guesses. Every child walked away with a treat and a smile.

So for the final bit, we raised a total of £939.00! We came joint first.
We were then able to buy outdoor equipment for KS1 and KS2 playtimes and board games for wet playtimes. The children also voted on which charities they would like to donate to. They gave a donation to Christian Aid, Macmillan Cancer Support and East Lancs Hospice.

Easter Eggs for DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)

A huge thank you to everyone who donated Easter Eggs to DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). They were collected today and we were given these special thank you cards for our support to enable children in our community have a lovely Easter.

Support for Ukraine

In light of the current devastating situation in Ukraine and the wonderful generosity and compassion of Neve in Year 2, we decided to change our red nose day on Friday 18th March to a 'Red day for Ukraine' supporting the British Red Cross. As well as dressing in red (or children decided to wear yellow and blue like the Ukrainian flag), we also be held a cake sale. Neve and her friends and family baked cakes along with some of our infant classes. All of the money raised went to the British red cross and every pound donated by the UK public will be matched by the UK government through its Aid Match scheme up to the value of £20 million.

A huge thank you to you all for your kindness and generosity towards our support for Ukraine day on Friday.
Our special visitor, The Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, Councillor Derek Hardman was so impressed with the effort that our children had put into the day and he thanked them all for their generosity.

Our cake sale planned and led by Neve in Year 2 raised a wonderful £148.36 after she also sold the left over cakes to her neighbours.

William in Year 6 raised an amazing £106 with his bath bomb lucky dip!

Tyler in Year 6 made a wonderful banner in support of Ukraine.

Lily in Year 6 arranged for a collection of shampoo, shower gel and hairbrushes. These are being packed at the moment and will be take to Ukraine tomorrow.

A fantastic £526.49 was raised through the Red Cross Appeal for wearing blue and yellow non uniform.

The money has all been added together and £780.85 will be sent to the British Red Cross. The government will then also match each pound we have raised.

Thank you so much for the effort you all put into the day and for your generous donations. Together we really have made a difference!

Dress to Express to raise money for Children's Mental Health Services

Children's Mental Health Week 2022

Children in Need- Friday 19th November

A huge thank you to you all for putting on your spots and for your generous donations to Children in Need. You have raised a fabulous £256.50 so have helped to make a positive difference to the lives of many children in the UK.

Children in Need 2021

Harvest fundraising for DARE- Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise

Thank you to everyone who attend our Harvest Festivals this year or donated generous gifts of food or toiletries for local refugees. We were fortunate to be joined by John, Patsy and Shameem from DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) who have taken all of your donations, the children’s welcome posters, local maps, prayers and poems. They will be sorted into parcels for refugees who have joined our community in order to give them a warm welcome and will also be shared with others in need in our community. We heard a harrowing account from Shameem, who fled from Afghanistan seven years ago due to being persecuted as a female teacher there. She has only just managed to get two of her children here seven years later and they are now attending our local high school and are being supported by one of our past pupils, who remembers Shameem visiting St Barnabas several years ago.
We are so thankful for the work that John and Patsy are doing to support people in our community who are in need and so grateful for your donations. We are so proud of our children for showing our Christian Values of generosity, friendship and respect through the warm welcome they have shown refugees through their prayers, poems, welcome posters, maps and songs.

Thank you so much for your generous donations for Harvest this year. Darwen Asylum & Refugee Enterprise (DARE) were overwhelmed with your support and generosity. The donations were created into care packages along with the children’s maps of the local area, welcome to Darwen posters, prayers and poems which enabled refugees to receive a warm welcome to Darwen.