Mrs Araujo, our RE leader, leads our WOW group which is made up of children who are passionate about improving Worship and involving all of our children and community in prayer and spiritual activities.

This year they are hoping to plan and lead collective worship. WOW group have also taken the lead in organising and distributing resources to each class each week for the Year of Prayer focus that we are taking part in across our Diocese both in our classes and in whole school worships each week. Please click here to learn more about the Year of Prayer throughout our school.

25th April 2025

This week as part of the Diocesan Year of Prayer, Year 1 planted cress seeds. As we did this, we prayed to Jesus to say thank you for the new life that He brings at Easter. We enjoyed some beautiful prayers to say thank you for the baby animals such as the chicks, rabbits, lambs and calves that are brought into our world. We also said thank you for the beautiful plants that are in bloom, including those that provide us with food.

15th April 2025

During our first whole-school worship after the Easter break, the children explored the power of prayer and how it can support us during difficult times. This week the focus for our Diocesan Year of Prayer was the 'robes of righteousness'. As part of the reflection, two children were gently wrapped in robes to symbolise that God is always with us—surrounding us with His love, comfort, and protection. This visual reminder helped the children understand that even in challenging moments, we are never alone. Through prayer and faith, we can experience hope, peace and life in all its fullness.

3rd April 2025

As part of our year of prayer, we looked at the smell and taste of the hot cross bun. We spoke about how the cross on the bun symbolises the cross that Jesus died upon. We spoke about why Jesus died and that he died to take away the things we have done wrong. We said thank you to Jesus for giving his life so that we could have the chance of a new start. 

2nd April 2025

Our wonderful W.O.W. group led their first Lego Serious Play session this week with two children from each year group. They asked their groups to build models that would demonstrate prior learning in RE - for example, “Make a model to show how Christians celebrate Jesus’ birthday”. W.O.W. group introduced the task then gave the children ten minutes to build. During the process, they asked questions and asked children to explain their choices. They made a note of the responses and then presented the models to the group. 

2nd April 2025

As part of our Year of Prayer this week, the children enjoyed hot cross buns. The cross on the bun symbolized Jesus' death on the cross. We reflected on how Jesus' sacrifice takes away our wrongdoings, and we expressed gratitude for the new beginnings his death makes possible.

 1st April 2025

As part of the Diocese of Blackburn’s Year of Prayer, the children in Year 1 tasted Hot Cross Buns and said some beautiful Easter prayers. The children could see that the Hot Cross Buns were a symbol of Easter because of the cross that is displayed on them and they were able to make the connection with Jesus’ crucifixion. We collectively said thank you to God for dying on the cross to take away all the bad in the world so that we could have a new start. We saw this as us having the opportunity to lead a life where we respect and show kindness to our world and the people in it. We also said thank you for all the new life that we experience in Spring such as baby lambs, chicks, bunnies, tadpoles and beautiful flowers  and prayed that all of the baby animals are brought safely into the world. 

31st March 2025

What an uplifting and joyous way to start a Monday morning  practising 'When I think about the cross' and the new upbeat Easter song from Pop Uk called 'He is alive'. We loved putting our own actions to the song and Year 6 modelled enthusiastically at the front, encouraging everyone to join in.
We also introduced the Year of Prayer in classes for this week which involves everyone eating hot cross buns, which Mrs Ham brought in. We then said had our special Year of Prayer prayer for this week which thanked Jesus for praying for us just before he died and for always loving us and being there to hear our prayers.  

26 March 2025

Our collective worship began with the Year 6 class presenting their learning about Shakespeare. Thank you for sharing, Year 6! Mrs Ham then led our worship about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus spent time praying for strength from God to help Him through the events that were to follow. We spent time reflecting on all of our Lenten events so far: Lent walks, Lenten promises and our 40 acts of kindness. Finally, we took part in this week’s special Year of Prayer by all sharing what was on our minds with Jesus, considering what we are thankful for, by writing these on a leaf.  Mrs Ham created a prayer tree in our entrance area with over 200 lovely prayers on leaves from all of our children and staff. 

26th March 2025

The WOW group have been working hard to prepare for a very special Lego session over the past few weeks. They have made up individual packs, prepared activities based on BIG questions in RE and this week they have practised the activity ready to deliver it next week. They can’t wait to deliver the session and facilitate some great discussion to explore children’s RE learning so far. 

24th March 2025

This week, some members of our WOW group introduced our year of prayer activity. Mrs Araujo gave every class a packet of plasters and the children will think of somebody who is poorly to pray for. We then began our singing worship and practised songs that some of our children will be singing in church on Sunday during the St Barnabas Mother's Day Worship. We sang My Lighthouse, Our God is a Great Big God, Rich in Kindness and Build Up. All children are welcome to attend the special worship with Mrs Wilkinson at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am. 

24th March 2025

During our 'Year of  Prayer' session, the children reflected on who needed healing, focusing on healing the sick, etc. They wrote down names on plasters and we prayed for Jesus to bring them comfort. It was great to see how the children considered not only those they knew, but also those suffering in wider contexts, like wounded soldier, patients at the hospitals and pets that are taken ill.

21st March 2025

This week for the year of prayer, Year 1 played a game of ‘the floor is lava’ but with huge love hearts that were scattered around the room. They had to move around the room only touching the love hearts whilst thanking God for his love for us. We decided that God’s love is especially important to us when we are finding things tricky or we are feeling sad. 

21st March 2025

Year 5 took part in a special Year of Prayer activity, playing ‘The Floor is Lava’ while reflecting on gratitude and thankfulness. As they moved between safe spaces, they shared what they were thankful for, recognising the joy, happiness and blessings in their lives. A wonderful way to combine faith, fun and reflection!

20th March 2025

This week for the year of prayer, Reception class  used large love heart shapes and scattered them around the room. We played the game ‘the floor is lava’ and the rule was to only touch the love hearts. The children had fun hopping, stepping, jumping and crawling across the love hearts. This was to thank God for his love for us. 

 20th March 2025

Here are the last two weeks of Year 2's Year of Prayer. Both weeks, the children have written prayers for different reasons. Last week, we wrote prayers to say sorry to God. We said sorry for either something we have done or for something happening in the world we are sorry for. After we had written them, we tore them into pieces and threw them into the air. We discussed how doing this was like we were moving on and being forgiven. This week, it was time for a game of the floor is lava! Each child had to jump into a love heart with a partner. Every time this happened, we said prayers to say thank you to God. We had very thoughtful prayers including saying thank you for: fruit and vegetables, our homes, being healthy, our friends, living in a safe country and our families. It was a lovely opportunity to go into their spirituality garden and give thanks for all the amazing things on our lives.

18th March 2025

This week for Year of Prayer, Year 3 went to the peace garden. They imagined the ground was lava and only 'love hearts' were safe to touch. Hopping between these hearts, they thanked God for his love, exemplified by the beauty of creation surrounding them  the flowers, the gentle breeze, and the warmth of the sun  all testaments to His care. They also acknowledged His love in providing them with family, friends, and the gift of each new day, a constant reminder of His presence.

13th March 2025

This week, Year 1 have been writing sorry prayers, screwing these up and throwing them in the bin. Year 1 wrote prayers to say sorry for sometimes shouting at a family member or a friend, being unkind to their brothers and sisters and not listening to their mummy or daddy when they are asked to tidy up for example. We discussed how we all make mistakes and do things that we often later regret but it is how we learn from our mistakes that is important and this is why we say sorry and move forward.

13th March 2025

In class we were looking at rubbish prayers as part of the year of prayer. The children wrote or drew something they would like to say sorry for on a strip of paper. We then quietly said sorry to God and asked him for forgiveness. We then screwed or ripped the piece of paper up and threw it in the waste bin to represent God forgiving us and getting rid of our sins. 

12th March 2025

This week’s Year of Prayer focus is all about forgiveness. The children took time to reflect on their actions, writing down things they wished to be forgiven for on a scrap piece of paper. As a powerful symbol of God’s grace and mercy, they then ripped up their papers—reminding them that, through faith, they are forgiven and can move forward with a fresh start.

By embracing forgiveness, the children are learning to let go of past mistakes and live life in all its fullness, just as God intends.

6th March 2025

As part of the Year of Prayer, Year 5 took part in this week’s prayer focus, reflecting on those who feel lonely or without friends. Using pipe cleaners, they each created a link while offering their prayers, before joining them together as a symbol of unity and togetherness.

6th March 2025

This afternoon, Year 3 participated in a hands-on activity to symbolize connection and prayer. We each formed a pipe cleaner into a bracelet, then partnered up and linked our bracelets together.We then prayed for people who may be lonely and have no friends and thanked God for always being with us and caring for us. 

5th March 2025

In Reception class we each chose a pipe cleaner and a button charm and then chose a partner. We made our pipe cleaners into bracelets and linked them together with our partner we then prayed for people who may be lonely and have no friends. We then unlinked our pipe cleaners and looped them around our wrist and thanked God that he cares for us and is always with us. 

4th March 2025

For this week’s Year of Prayer challenge, Year 1 were each given a pipe cleaner from our WOW group. We worked together to connect our pipe cleaners together to create one huge circle to represent community and togetherness. We prayed for all those who may be experiencing loneliness and for people to show them kindness and friendship. We said that if we saw anyone looking lonely or sad on the playground then we would show our Christian Values and include them in our game or conversation. 

27th February 2025

As part of the Diocese of Blackburn's Year of Prayer, the children have made paper planes this week.  They drew or wrote down something they were afraid of on  a piece of paper and then folded it into paper aeroplanes. They then flew the planes across the room by throwing them away from them. Then whispered a prayer asking God to take away our fears and provide comfort and courage. Some of the fears suggested were, darkness, monsters, being alone, or making mistakes. 

27th February 2025

This week’s prayer challenge focused on teaching the children a way of letting go of their worries. To do this, the children drew pictures of their worries on paper such as the worry they feel when leaving their mummy and daddy, worries about things that we can’t always control such as fires and war and worries about getting things wrong. The children then threw the paper planes as a way of saying goodbye to their worries so that they could feel happier and calmer.

26th February 2025

During the year of prayer we have been exploring different ways we can pray. Today we made paper aeroplanes. We went outside with them and each shouted a fear we have before flying the aeroplane to represent us asking god to help take our fears away. 

24 February 2025

Our whole school worship today began with the signing of the Trinity by the Heads and Deputies. Mrs. Araujo then led the worship, introducing our new behaviour focus: creating a calmer and more enjoyable lunchtime experience, while continuing to practice the good manners we have already learned. Mrs. Ham highlighted the importance of feeling safe at school, emphasizing that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure a secure and supportive environment for all.

To help improve lunchtimes, Mrs Araujo used a data logger to measure noise levels in the dining hall, which ranged from 79.5 to 80.5 decibels as loud as a truck! Many children noted that the high noise levels were overwhelming, made them want to cover their ears, and could prevent them from hearing important instructions in an emergency. During the worship, children worked with talk partners to discuss the question: If we use good table manners, how could this improve our lunchtimes? Through these discussions, they identified key areas for improvement, such as sitting properly at the table, using a knife and fork to eat, and avoiding walking while eating to reduce choking risks.

The WOW group played a key role in visually demonstrating positive lunchtime behaviours. They were featured in photos and role-play scenarios, modelling both the correct and incorrect ways to behave in the dining hall. These demonstrations helped reinforce the importance of eating safely and respectfully.

To support these changes, new posters have been placed around the school, reminding everyone to face the table while eating, lean over trays or lunchboxes to avoid spills, and wait until they have swallowed their food before getting up. These expectations will continue to be reinforced through modelling, praise, and reminders, ensuring that lunchtimes are a safe, calm, and enjoyable experience for everyone. Our WOW group will be monitoring at lunch times and will be rewarding wonderful lunchtime manners with stickers and values points.

 

13th February 2025

As part of our year of prayer we made foam using warm water and a squirt of washing up liquid. We made lots of bubbles using a whisk to make the bubbles turn to foam. We then said a thank you prayer to thank god for the energy which allows us to move and be active. Thank you WOW group for providing us with all of the resources to make fun foam. 

12 February 2025

As we continue the Blackburn Diocese Year of Prayer, this week we took a moment to be thankful for our ability to move. We chose different whisking implements in order to create bubbles in our soap solution whilst showing gratitude for the fantastic things we can do by moving different body parts.  We said thanks for our legs to play football, our mouths to speak and our arms to swim, to name just a few. We are really enjoying having the opportunity to explore different ways to pray and we’re already developing some favourites. 

11th February 2025

This week, the theme for the ‘Year of Prayer’ was making foam. The children in Year 1 created foam using fairy liquid and hot water. They experimented whisking the solution to see what would happen. They discovered that the solution became more foamy and bubbly as they added more and more energy. Whilst doing this, we said thank you to God for energy that allows us to move and be active. Children thanked God for giving them the energy to dance, use a skipping rope, play football, do cartwheels and play with their friends. We also had some prayers to say thank you to God for giving us the energy to learn and think wisely. Well done Year 1! 

6th February 2025

This week’s theme for the Year of Prayer is praying through the use of a ‘Prayer Band’. Year 1 have enjoyed drawing people that they would like to pray and thank God for such as their mummy, daddy, grandparents,  siblings and pets. Some children also chose to draw and think about the wider community such as people who are sick in hospital, those who are in the midst of war and refugees who are having to flee their homes. Whilst saying their prayer, the children held on to their prayer band. We are really enjoying learning about lots of new ways in which we can pray. Well done Year 1! 

4th February 2025

The theme for the Year of Prayer this week is Prayer Bands. This week in Reception, the children have created prayer bands. They drew people who they wanted to pray for and then spoke to God about their special person. The children chose their parents, friends, siblings and teachers. Thank you to our WOW group for delivering the paper strips to each class. 

3rd February 2025

This morning Mrs Ham launched our Children's Mental Health Week theme of 'Know yourself, Grow Yourself'. We started by looking at our school vision that says 'Achieving great things through learning and growing together'. We thought about what the growing together means and we had some super suggestions such as growing emotionally and mentally, getting better at things and not giving up when we find things hard. We then looked at our emotions and how they control our brain, just like in the film Inside Out. We thought about the times when our brain tells us that we aren't good at things and we had some great examples such as in acro when doing cartwheels, in maths or art and when we do things for the first time. We thought of ways to challenge our brains and help ourselves grow by doing things that we enjoy such as listening to music, taking part in sports or other hobbies, showing courage to try new things etc.

We then focused on our Year of Prayer for this week which is thanking God for our talents. We shared our talents and thought about ways we could express our talents this week and especially on our dress to express day on Friday. We reflected on how we should shine from the inside out and always respect each other's God given talents and the way we like to express ourselves. We discussed that if we laugh at the way someone likes to express themselves then that might hurt their feelings and they will feel sad and won't want to express themselves that way again. We said a lovely prayer thanking God for our talents and how we promise to share them with others and respect others' talents. We finished with singing one of our favourite songs 'Shine from the inside out' which reminds us that God knows us, loves us and fills us with talents that we need show to everyone we meet.

30th January 2025

This week’s theme for the Year of Prayer is special fingerprint prayers. In Year 1, the children made themselves using their fingerprint and said a prayer to thank God for making us special and unique. We had children saying thank you for their families including their mummy and daddy, for their special talents such as football and dance and for giving them characteristics such as perseverance and strength when things get tricky. Well done Year 1! 

29th January 2025

Thank you to the W.O.W. group today for leading our class worships across school. The theme was online content. Our worship leads began by introducing the topic and the news story linked to the topic. They played a couple of games of ‘Follow me’ and that we have the choice not to do something that makes us feel uncomfortable. They talked about the Christian value of courage and how we can show courage in the way we protect ourselves when viewing content online. 

The Bible link was from St Paul’s teachings, that we should seek out what is true, pure and trustworthy. In reflection, the Year 4s were in agreement that strict rules should be in place for children accessing content online.

 

29th January 2025

Year 6’s class worship this week was led by our members of the Wow Group. They did a fantastic job of leading a discussion around the government’s recent decision to promote more educational content on social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok. The class talked about the influence that social media can have on us, both positive and negative.

Year 2 had the privilege of welcoming Grace and Jess from our WOW group. They led our class worship on topic of YouTube. The question they posed was should YouTube have more videos to help us learn? They helped us discuss both sides of the argument with the majority of our class deciding YES YouTube should have more educational videos! Thank you Grace and Jess. 

29th January 2025

Wow group led our class worship this week and talked to Reception about how we can be safe when watching online videos. We talked about the Christian value of courage as we need to be brave to speak up if we see something that makes us feel worried or sad. We talked about the things we watch that make us feel happy and safe and must always check with a grown up. Thank you to Josh, Sofia and Ruby for leading so brilliantly. 

28th January 2025

This morning in our Collective Worship, some of our WOW (Worship our Way) group  members told everyone about the special way we would be praying in  class this week as part of Blackburn Diocese's Year of Prayer. In class we will be saying special fingerprint prayers to say thank you to God for making us all unique and special, just like our fingerprints. They then handed out ink pads for each class. 
Then we moved on to our whole school year of prayer focus and this week it was special toe prayers for our friends. The children enjoyed wiggling each of their toes whilst saying prayers for 5 special friends.  Sofia put the special toes sticker onto our Year of Prayer poster. We then  sang some of our favourite worship songs and each class had the chance to perform the actions at the front. This week we warmed up our voices by singing  and dancing to Sing a new song to the Lord and then we sang Jesus strong and kind, Waymaker, Life in all its fullness and finished with Build Up. 

13th January 2025

This morning in our Collective Worship we focused on our prayer for this week of the Year of Prayer from Blackburn Diocese. We discussed and shared our responsibilities in school and at home such as cleaning our rooms, loading the dishwasher, helping look after younger siblings, helping with the cooking and cleaning, counting values points (Heads and Deputies) and planning and leading sports events (Sports Leaders) . We then said together a special prayer for our responsibilities and discussed how God is always with us during those responsibilities and having a smile on face whilst carrying them out benefits others. 

Mrs Ham then shared the responsibility of selecting songs to sing and choosing children to demonstrate the actions at the front. The children chose to sing 'Life is always better when we share it with each other', 'Waymaker' 'My Lighthouse' and 'Build Up'. Build up is also the theme for our class Year of Prayer this week too. Our WOW group members informed each class of the special build up prayers they would be saying this week.  

16th December 2024

This week, Mrs Wilkinson gave each child in Reception a piece of ribbon. We discussed how we sometimes receive special looking presents with ribbon wrapped around them.  We all took it in turns to tie our ribbon to our prayer tree and gave thanks to Jesus who is the best gift ever! Thank you for the ribbons WOW group!

12th December 2024

Our WOW group had some preparing to do this week, showing the Christian value of service. Each week for the Year of Prayer, it is their job to be equip each class for the theme and introduce it in Monday worship. Next week, the theme is ribbon prayers, so the children were making sure that each class receives a selection of ribbon to use in their prayers.

 

10th December 2024

At the end of our school day, Reception class lit our candle and signed the holy trinity. We then burnt some Frankincense which was lovely and calming for all of the children. This week, for Blackburn Diocese's year of prayer, we focused on bubble prayers. We discussed what we were thankful for. Some of the children's responses were God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, parents, teachers and friends. It was lovely for the children to stop and reflect which aided them to explore their own spirituality. Thank you for the bubbles WOW group!

25th November 2024

The St Barnabas school family were thrilled to join a live worship with Bishop Philip this afternoon, along with nearly 60 other church schools in Blackburn Diocese. Lisa and the Bishop met us via Zoom to talk to us about prayer, why we pray and what happens to our prayers. We were fascinated to learn that Jesus knows each and every one of us, and that he hears all of our prayers. We also learned some new ways to pray. These included quiet prayers, for which we were silent and focused on just being with our thoughts, and noisy prayers, for which we shouted out our school name and our own name as loud as we could. 

Over the course of this academic year, we will be focusing on a new way to pray each week in whole school collective worship, and in our classrooms. Our WOW group will be resourcing the prayers and launching them each week in collective worship. We know the children will enjoy exploring prayers along with hundreds of other children across the Diocese. 

20th November 2024

Our wonderful W.O.W. group would like to say thank you to everyone who sent in their recycled bottle tops. We spent our session this week starting to put our spirituality mural together. It is looking fabulous so far and we can’t wait to share it with you all once it’s in situ. 

7th November 2024

Today, Year 1 took their worship outside for Outdoor Classroom Day. In the Spiritual Garden that the WOW group designed and created, we listened to and enjoyed each other’s beautiful remembrance prayers that we have each created in class. Percy said a prayer to thank soldiers for their bravery and keeping our country safe. Ida, Thomas and Mollie  followed with a prayer to say thank you for our everyday heroes such as the NHS, paramedics and charity workers and Callie ended with a prayer about remembering those who lost their homes to the Great Fire of London and all the other refugees who are having to flee their homes. We ended our time in the spiritual garden by having a few moments to ourselves whilst we walked around and took in the sights and sounds of nature. 

6th November 2024

This week, the W.O.W. Group created viewfinders to help us explore the beautiful natural patterns in our spiritual garden. Over the next couple of weeks, they will be showing the other children how to spend time exploring patterns in nature and they will develop further activities from this, such as observational drawing, describing and games.

 

29th October 2024

A huge thank you to our WOW (Worship Our Way) group, Mrs Araujo and Mr Fairbanks for planning and developing our Spiritual Garden. We are loving having time to reflect, admire God’s creations, be peaceful and connect with our friends in it at break and lunch times. Thank you to SACRE for the generous grant we received to create a spiritual garden made from mainly reclaimed and recycled materials. 

 

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, these can be continued to be sent in during the first week that we are back at school. 

Wishing you all a wonderful half term, 

2nd October 2024

After a great deal of hard work and creativity on the part of Mr Fairbanks and the WOW Group, the new spiritual garden was launched in Tuesday’s worship. The WOW members presented the rest of the school with ideas for using the garden as intended and in a respectful manner. Unfortunately, the garden was a bit flooded due to the heavy downpour on Monday, but we are hopeful that it can be used towards the end of the week. 

17th September 2024- Spiritual Garden

The W.O.W. group began the exciting task of decorating our new spiritual garden today. Crown Paints kindly donated lots of paint for our project, so we took full advantage of the sunshine and began painting the wooden punctuation symbols. Just the benches, bird tables and planters to go! 

19th June 2024- Spiritual Garden

The W.O.W. group began to see all their ideas and planning coming to fruition on Wednesday when they started work on our new spiritual garden. The area had kindly been dug out by Mr Ham and so W.O.W. got to work laying the membrane and spreading stones. They will be adding to this area each week, so keep a look out for their progress. 

 

 

 15th May 2024- Planning for our Spiritual Garden

The W.O.W. Group has been working hard on planning for our new spiritual garden. We successfully secured some funding to be able to create a peaceful area with multi sensory features and an eco friendly environment in which children can spend time on calm activities. We hope to attract local birds and insects too. Look out for ways in which you can support us to create this new area over the coming weeks. 

 

10th May 2024- WOW group lead Year 6 Class Worship

Yesterday, our class worship was led by our WOW group members Luca and Archie, who did a superb job. The focus was all about how the past can help us learn about modern life. From the past, we can learn from mistakes, the consequences of actions and how they have impacted the world, and be inspired by positive outcomes.

           

9th May 2024- WOW group lead Year 5 Class Worship

This week, Year 5 were treated to a child led class worship by the WOW group that discussed, can the past help us learn about modern life? The children discussed at length about how we can learn from the past and how it can inform our future. Comparing this to everyday lives, understanding that we all make mistakes but learning from them can make us a better all round person. 

 

9th May 2024- WOW group lead Year 4 Class Worship

The WOW group led our Class Worship this morning and Year 4 really enjoyed taking an active role alongside them. The children posed various questions and asked how the past has helped us learn new things for the future and how we may have experienced life changing events. The children shared some really heart warming experiences and we closed the worship with some beautiful prayers. 

 

9th May 2024- WOW group lead Year 3 Class Worship

Lucy, Grace and Ruby did a wonderful job delivering our class worship today. Year 3 learnt about the new study published in an archaeological journal, using evidence found in Italy, which found that Neanderthals organised their living areas and tools similarly to modern humans. The class discussed how the events and people in our past have shaped who we are. Lucy ended the worship by thanking God for all the people who have shaped and influenced the world we live in today. 

 

23rd April 2024- The Pupils’ RE Conference 2024

Mrs Araujo and two of our W.O.W. group members enjoyed a fun-packed day at the RE conference. They met the author of the story The Dove Stone and explored the prayer themes revealed in the book. They even had the opportunity to create their own prayer stones from clay. All in all, it was a fantastic day, and our children were fantastic ambassadors for St Barnabas. 

 

13th March 2024

This week was our final week of Messy Church and the W.O.W. Group have thoroughly enjoyed planning and delivering these interactive sessions. Our final week was based on creation again. The children watched a video about God creating the world and then chose, from a range of activities, to create something with a partner. All sorts of materials were available so that they could let their imaginations run wild. 

6th March 2024

W.O.W. Group delivered a very exciting infant Messy Church on the theme of creation. They read a short story about creation and then they took the participants outside to appreciate God’s creations and create their own nature bracelets. The children were very proud of the bracelets and marvelled  at all the gorgeous colours in the plant life around us. 

28th February 2024

The WOW Group Messy Church activities continued this week with the final KS2 Faith in Action session. Participants watched the story of David and Goliath and talked about how David believed in God and himself. They then chose an affirmation bookmark to decorate and take home. Next week the WOW Group will be moving on to the KS1 sessions, with a focus on creation. 

21 February 2024

The W.O.W. Group have done a fantastic job in planning some exciting lunchtime Messy Church sessions. The first one was for KS2 children and the theme was “Faith in Action”. Participants had to think of someone who is their hero and make them into a superhero. They also listened to the story of Samson and his strength, and they were treated to a drink and a biscuit whilst they worked on their superheroes. The W.O.W. Group are looking forward to the second KS2 session next week. 

 

1 February 2024

The WOW Group have been busy planning their lunchtime messy church sessions. This week, they were making posters to advertise the sessions and, next week, they will be explaining what they are all about in worship.

21 November 2023

Well done to our fantastic WOW Group, who led their first whole-school worship this year today. In recognition of Inter Faith week, they talked about respecting each other’s differences and they taught us about tolerance and how we can show it to one another. 

5 October 2023

In our Class Worship session this morning, our WOW group members Luca, Annabelle and Grace used Picture News to lead the session. 
We focused on ‘Record Breakers’ and is it correct that anyone can break a world record? 
We learnt that over 30,000 applicants submit their achievements each year but only 2,638 were selected to be published in the Guinness World Records 2024 . We prayed for the ability to show perseverance and determination along with all of the special people involved in trying to break records. 

5 October 2023

Today was an exciting day for the class as Lucy, David, and Archie from the WOW group took the lead in our class worship. They guided us through a PowerPoint presentation about Guinness World Records.

The children had the opportunity to share what they believe should be included in the book, as well as their dreams and goals. Lucy, David, and Archie also discussed the process involved in getting into the Guinness World Records book. It was an inspiring and thought-provoking session! Great work!

12 July 2023

This week, the W.O.W. Group finished off their Messy Parables workshops with our final two choices, The Wise and Foolish Builders and The Widow’s Offering. The children understood the stories well and had great fun making stained-glass style windows or a coin purse.  Well done to all WOW members for leading exciting, engaging and thoughtful workshops.

28 June 2023

This week in the Messy Parables workshop, the children looked at the importance of forgiveness through the parable ‘The Unforgiving Servant’. They then had fun making bookmarks with a message of forgiveness. Well done to the W.O.W. Group; they are doing a fabulous job organising and delivering these workshops. 

26 June 2023

Last week was the W.O.W. group’s first Messy Parables session. We read the Parable of the Mustard Seed, talked about how one little thought or belief can grow into something great, and made our own self-belief badges. All in all, a brilliant first session, with a few biscuits thrown in for good measure. 
This week, the parable is The Unforgiving Servant. 

23 March 2023

The WOW Group had plenty of ideas for a parable-themed messy church. The children have taken a parable in pairs and have started researching craft ideas and songs to put together a session in the Summer term. Keep your eyes peeled for the date coming soon. 

WOW Group Minutes

16 November 2022

In preparation for our Interfaith Week next week, the WOW (Worship Our Way) group have been labelling artefacts from different world faiths. We hope the children enjoy exploring these in the hall next week. 

 

 10 November 2022

This week, W.O.W. group designed and ran some poppy-themed activities at lunchtimes. Well done W.O.W., your activities were lovely and very well received. 

4 October 2022

This week, the WOW Group provided the class with a new idea for how to pray. In class worship, we focused on Pebble Prayers. Some of the children took turns to come to our class prayer area and complete a Pebble Prayer. The children held a pebble in their hand, whilst saying their prayer and putting the pebble into the water. Thank you to the WOW group for this lovely idea for how to pray! 

2 February 2022

Mrs Ham had the pleasure of taking two of our Worship our Way (WOW) group members to a special children’s collective worship conference today at The Foxfields Country Hotel. The children can’t wait to share the amazing worship ideas with the rest of WOW group and our school family. 

A huge well done to our fantastic WOW group on running their first event this year! They did an amazing job of setting up and running our Easter Messy Church. They had great fun and they hope all those who attended did too.

Today our worship was led by our WOW group who previously took suggestions from our whole school about what they enjoy about worship such as acting out and singing and incorporated these into their Easter worship. The WOW group retold the following parts of the Easter story: Good Friday, The Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane, The Road to Calvary, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. Following on from this, they quizzed the whole school on questions linked to The Easter Story. For answer A, the children had to put their hands on their heads and for answer B, they had to put their hands on their shoulders. The whole school really enjoyed being quizzed on the story. We ended the worship with the whole school singing ‘Lord of the Dance.’ Thank you for a wonderful worship WOW group! 

 

26 November 2021

Two of our WOW (Worship our way) group members told our whole school, in Worship on Friday, about the Knife Angel. They attended a conference at Blackburn Cathedral a couple of weeks ago and learnt about angels being special messengers and they particularly focused on the special Knife Angel. 
It is made up of over 100,000 knives that have been used in knife crimes around the country. Many of the knives have writing calved into them which are messages asking for forgiveness to the victims and their families from the person who used the knife. The message is to try to eliminate knife crime in our local area and a knife amnesty box is next to it to encourage youngsters to surrender any weapons they may have. Most knife crimes occur by accident and it’s usually the person carrying a knife that becomes injured.

Thank you to our WOW group members for delivering the important message of the Knife Angel to our school family. We hope this will discourage any of our children from carrying weapons when they are older. The Knife Angel will be at Blackburn Cathedral till 30th November if you are in the area and would like to admire it.