Year 3-The Great Big Live Assembly: A Journey Into Refugee Lives
Today, Year 3 joined hundreds of schools for The Great Big Live Assembly to mark World Refugee Week. Led by Krish Kandiah, the worship helped us learn about the lives of millions of children who have been forced to leave their homes because of war, violence, or danger. We discovered that over 43 million children and young people worldwide are refugees or displaced. Through stories and real examples, including a live connection with children living in refugee camps, we got a better understanding of the challenges these children face every day. Krish encouraged us to think about what “home” means and how important it is to show kindness, support, and hope to those who have lost so much. The worship helped us reflect on the courage and strength of refugees and inspired us to be more compassionate and aware of global issues.
The Great Live Assembly- World Refugee Day 2025
This morning in Year 4, we took part in The Great Live Assembly for World Refugee Week. 43 million young people and children have had to leave their country for various reasons including persecution and war. We met two children from Kenya - Ajok wanted to be a teacher and had to flee due to civil war. He had to walk over 500 miles to reach his final destination. We then watched an interview with the author Michael Rosen who has recently written On the Move, which uses poetry to highlight the struggles of a refugee. This teaches us that ‘Home is where the Heart is’ and we should really appreciate and support the sacrifices that the refugees across the world have to endure.
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Year 3-Exploring Spirituality Through Refugee Week
Today, as part of Refugee Week, 12 children from Year 3 visited a local church where they had the wonderful opportunity to meet refugees from 17 countries, such as Iraq, Palestine, Greece, South Africa, Afghanistan and Sudan. They listened to powerful, real-life stories of resilience, hope, and strength, gaining insight into these individuals' journeys and the challenges they have overcome. The experience helped to build empathy and deepen the children’s understanding of what it means to seek safety and rebuild a life in a new place. We ate food from Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Italy, Greece and drank Arabic coffee. The children sang songs for the refugees. Reverend Gilbert spoke to the children about how our donations to DARE - Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise have helped refugees and ensured they are always welcomed, and they encourage more donations, etc. This visit linked beautifully with our Spirituality school model of Windows, Mirrors, and Doors. Through Windows, the children looked out and learned from the lives of others, seeing the world through different perspectives. Mirrors encouraged them to look inward, reflect on their own lives, and think about how they might feel in similar situations. Finally, Doors inspired them to step out and consider how they can live more compassionately, supporting others and making positive choices in their own lives. The visit was a meaningful extension of our R.E. learning but also connected closely with Mrs Ham’s worship this week, which focused on raising awareness and showing solidarity with people in need. It encouraged our students to reflect on how they can contribute to a more welcoming and understanding world. Overall, today’s experience supported our whole-school aim of helping children to live life in all its fullness, by inspiring them to be open-hearted, thoughtful, and active in making a difference. #RefugeeWeek
Whole School Worship - Refugee Week
In Collective Worship today, we continued looking in detail at the Lord’s Prayer. This week we are focusing on ‘give us today our daily bread’. We had lots of ideas about what Jesus meant when He said these words. Of course, food and nutrition was mentioned, but the children said that this can also mean other things we need daily in order to live life in all its fullness, such as love, kindness, a safe place to live, clothing, education, fun and freedom. Mrs Ham then introduced Refugee Week and we looked through our spirituality opening to learn more about it. We were surprised to learn that some well-known people in Britain came as refugees, like Rita Ora and Mo Farrah and we also discussed how Jesus was a refugee when Mary and Joseph had to flee with him to Egypt. We also spent some time celebrating our work with D.A.R.E (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) . As a school, we have collected toys, books, Easter eggs, tinned foods and toiletries to help out our local refugees. Some of our Year 3 children will be taking part in a special Refugee Week Tea Party tomorrow at the United Reformed Church and will be meeting a number of refugees and will learn more about what has led them to come to Darwen. Hamza told everyone how he was a refugee from Kenya when he was only 3 and he was given a warm welcome at St Barnabas. Lana shared how her Grandma was a refugee from Palestine. We then reflected on how we can continue to support refugees and give them a warm welcome into our community, just as Jesus wanted us to love our neighbours as ourselves. We watched a video celebrating 80 years of the Moomins and learnt that the Moomin House became a refuge for all different animals who had to leave their homes. We reflected on how we want St Barnabas to be like the Moomin house where everyone feels welcome, accepted and loved.
Whole School Worship - Resolving Conflict
Yesterday’s worship began with some fantastic news! A representative from East Lancs Hospice came in to tell us that our Hop, Skip and Jump event raised £163. Following this, Mrs Wilkinson introduced this week’s Year of Prayer theme: Favourite Places. We spent some time sharing our favourite spaces and then we talked about how God has created so many amazing and healthy spaces for us to enjoy. This led us on to considering the fantastic outdoor spaces we have around school in which we can enjoy time with our friends. We were introduced to our Year 5 peer mediators and Mrs Wilkinson explained how they are going to help us all resolve any fallings out between us and our friends. We are all looking forward to learning to compromise and play together more harmoniously.
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VE Commemoration- Red, white and blue day
Today, our pupils and staff dressed in red, white and blue to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. We came together to remember and honour those who served, and to reflect on the importance of peace and unity. As part of our celebrations, we’re supporting the Royal British Legion. If you’d like to make a donation, you can do so easily via ParentPay. Every contribution helps support veterans and their families. Thank you for helping us make this day meaningful for our school family! #VEDay80 #StBarnabasRemembers #RoyalBritishLegion #RedWhiteBlueDay
Random Acts of Kindness around our community
As part of our PSHE sessions we have been looking at mental health awareness, what fills our buckets and how we can spread kindness. We decided to complete random acts of kindness by sharing our kindness poems that we had written in class. Inside the poems we wrapped a hot chocolate and a biscuit for people to enjoy. It was so lovely to share these with our local community and the children were super excited to give them out. We put a smile on so many peoples faces and they really appreciated how much effort Year 4 had made. We look forward to sharing more about this in our Presentation of learning next week whilst it’s Mental Health Awareness week too !
Year 5 - RotaKids
Year 5 RotaKids baked a wonderful selection of cakes and biscuits in preparation for hosting an afternoon tea for the whole school community. The event welcomed children from all year groups, who joined us after school to enjoy the treats and spend time together. It was a fantastic afternoon, and all the children had a great time taking part in this special event.
Year 4 - Linking Schools: Why Social Action?
As our Linking School project continues, the Year 4s have been considering things in their relationships, the school, the local area, the environment and the wider world that they care about. In today’s session, we listened to the Starfish Story and talked about how small, kind actions can have a big impact on others. We looked at the world around us and decided on some actions we could take to improve it. After sharing our ideas, we voted and decided that we would like to go on a class litter pick, and write to residents of a local care home. We will be carrying out our actions over the Summer Term.
Year 6 Hop, Skip and Jump
Year 6 took part in the Hop, Skip and Jump activity to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They wore the Easter crowns that they had made and had a lot of fun! Donations can be made on parent pay.
Year 3- Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancs Hospice
Year 3 have completed their Hop, Skip and Jump for The East Lancashire Hospice Challenge . The children all wore their decorated crowns whilst making their way around our 1k course in order to raise money for this wonderful cause. Donations can be made on parent pay for all those who took part and received their special chocolate treat.
Year 2 - Hop, skip and jump
Today, Year 2 took part in the Hop, Skip & Jump. This initiative is all about making a difference to the community and supporting East Lancashire Hospice. We hopped, skipped and jumped our way around our playground. Over the last two years, the campaign has raised over £12,000 for East Lancashire Hospice and they have had over 30 local schools and nurseries involved. This year, they want to go one step further and raise over £20,000 for the hospice - so we have done our bit and what a beautiful day to take part in the sun!