Today in collective worship, we were joined by the Worshipful, the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Councillor Derek Hardman as we gathered together for our ‘Support for Ukraine’ day. Our whole school were either dressed in yellow and blue to reflect the colours of the Ukraine flag or red to support The Red Cross who we are supporting today through raising money for Ukraine.
Our heads and deputy heads led our whole school worship today. They made us all think about what essentials we need to survive such as food, water, homes, safety, warmth, love and kindness. This led them on to a discussion about how people all over the world are stepping up to help Ukraine at the moment as they are having to escape their country and leave behind their homes, schools, family members, toys and other possessions. They made the whole school reflect on how they must be feeling and we came up with feelings such as devastated, terrified, heartbroken and worried. We watched a video and looked at how
Poland are helping Ukraine at the moment by providing the refugees with a warm welcome, houses, toiletries, schools and friendship. We then talked about how the smallest act of kindness can save a life and how we are very proud of the children in our whole school. We said a huge thank you to Neve, William and Lily for showing our Christian values of generosity, service and friendship during this Ukraine crisis. Neve came up with an idea to make and sell cakes and William will be selling lots of bath bombs to our whole school family. They will be donating the money that they make in school today to The Red Cross. Lily asked for shower gels, shampoo and shower gel which her family friend will be taking over to Ukraine as they are short of these essentials at the moment. We also said a huge well done to our whole school for making such an effort with their clothing, giving donations of toiletries and donating money on Parent Pay. The heads and deputy heads shared how our whole school donations will help to fund hot food, hot drinks, chlorine tablets, toiletries including nappies , medical supplies and lots of other essentials for Ukraine. They also shared a message of hope for the refugees. They made us aware of some well known refugees who had to flee their home but have gone on to achieve amazing things such as Jesus, Mo Farah, Rita Ora, Judith Kerr and Magid Magid. We also heard from two of our very own incredible St Barnabas children, Aisha and Hamza, who told us their experiences of being refugees. They told us about how their family were brought to England by The Red Cross who decided it was much too dangerous to stay in their hometown in Somalia. We felt very proud of the courage they showed in sharing their story with the rest of the school and we feel incredibly proud of them.
Finally, we ended our worship by celebrating some out of school awards from Luca, Summer and Finn for darts, gymnastics and donating hair to The Prince’s Trust. We also heard from the Mr Mayor. He told us about how schools are his favourite places to visit and how he was very proud of the efforts from the children, parents and staff of St Barnabas for their efforts in supporting Ukraine.
