Year 5 - World Down Syndrome Day
To celebrate World Down Syndrome day, we rocked out in our best socks. We learned about what Down Syndrome is, how it is caused and how it can impact people. Most importantly we learned that children with Down Syndrome are just the same as others. All children love eating cake, playing with their friends, spending time with their families and learning amazing things about the world.
Year 4 - RE: Forgiveness
This week, Year 4 children embarked on some philosophical enquiry into the meaning of forgiveness and its importance to God’s salvation plan. They watched the story of Peter and then acted out 3 key parts: his actions in the Garden of Gethsemane, his denial of Jesus and how Jesus forgave him. The children then acted these parts out in groups to create a dramatic class retelling. Following this, the children explored “forgiveness” as a BIG idea. They located it in the story and asked questions about the salvation plan. They then spent time exploring what forgiveness means to them, before creating metaphorical representations of this using Brusho paints, water spray bottles and Sharpies.
Year 4 - Class Worship: Joy
In our class worship we looked at the Picture News story for the week about Pokémon turning 30 years old. The subject of the worship was: Finding Joy in the Journey. After discussing the story, the children worked in pairs to discuss their experiences of having fun. They used the social and emotional skill of oracy to really listen to their partner’s response, ready to share it with the rest of the class. They then listened to the Bible passage taken from Ecclesiastes explaining that God wants us all to experience and seek out joy, with the following caveats: don’t sacrifice your kindness and respect towards others in the pursuit of joy, and enjoy the journey rather than solely focussing on the destination.
Year 5 - RE
In RE, we compared the stories of Jesus’ death in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. We found that there are many similarities between the two stories, with both authors writing that Jesus died on the cross at noon with followers offering to ease his suffering with sour wine. Differences between the Gospels include Matthew writing that an earthquake struck at the moment of his death. The children then wrote their own version of the story, choosing which details to add.
Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
Our Whole School Worship was led by Rev Matt this morning. We started with a prayer and then Rev Matt introduced our challenge - Would you rather. Where would you rather live ,in a castle or a yacht? A cave or a hot air balloon? An aquarium or a zoo? The challenge was linked to our Bible story as it was about the place we live in. The Bible story Rev Matt shared was about where our home is . It was The Prodigal Son which is about a son who foolishly wastes his inheritance, yet is welcomed back with loving arms and forgiveness by his father. It teaches that God’s love is unconditional and that it is never too late to ask for forgiveness and come home. In our time to think session we looked at what the perfect home would look like and how it would feel to know that you could live in God’s perfect home. We learnt that our perfect home would be filled with love, happiness and joy.
W.O.W. Group - Messy Church: The Sower
The WOW group ran their final messy church this week. They did a fantastic job planning a fun session based on the Parable of the Sower. First, they read the story and discussed its meaning and how Jesus wanted his followers to root their faith in God. Then the participants decorated a plant pot. Once the pots were decorated, the children filled them with rich, nutritious compost and added Nigella or Candytuft seeds.
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Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
Today's Collective Worship with Rev Ben started with a guessing game where half of a celebrity's face was covered and the children had to guess who it was. The last celebrity was Mrs Ham and we learnt that working out who people are is important, but not always easy! Our Bible story today told us something important about Jesus. Jesus could make sick people well. Jesus wanted to help the man in the story and he told him that his sins were forgiven but the man was lame. Jesus said this to show how he can help people with what’s wrong on the outside and the inside.
Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
Our Whole School Celebration Worship was led by Rev Ben this morning. We looked at the Bible story which focused on Jesus calling His team to see what super powers he needed to help him. Christian’s believe that Jesus is the number one King of the Universe,but His team were pretty ordinary. Although the team continued to make mistakes, Jesus still loved and cared for them. This helps Christians to have courage to overcome fear. As always, we started with a challenge and needed seven volunteers who were good at acting. We were thinking about superheroes and the children had to mime a super power whilst the other children had to guess what it was. Callie, Mason, Matthew, Desmond, Sofia, Eleanor and Harry all did a treat job and it was very entertaining! We then discussed the Bible story and what sort of people Jesus chose and what difference it makes to know that God can still use people who don’t have super powers to help him.
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Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
Whole School Worship was led by Rev Matt this morning and it looked at the Bible story - John the Baptist. We started with the usual challenge that helped us think about being courageous in times of change. How easy do different people find change. Rev Matt gave instructions that the children had to follow. This included clapping, sticking our tongue out to make an ocean, using our hands to make a V shape and rubbing out tummy whilst we pat our heads. The children loved this challenge but found different ones more challenging ~ not everyone found the same challenge to be problematic and this shows how we are all different. Next Rev Matt shared the Bible story and he asked the children to say the word “Wow” every time the word “special” was used. The story of John told us that he lived simply in the desert, wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey, growing close to God. John preached a message of repentance (saying sorry for wrongs) and baptized people in the Jordan River, telling them God's promised Messiah (Jesus) was coming. When Jesus came, John baptized Him, and the Holy Spirit came down like a dove, showing everyone Jesus was God's Son. Baptism is all about change and through the story and our discussions we learnt that even though Jesus doesn’t need Baptism he shows us the way anyway.
Year 5 - RE
In RE, we continued exploring the role Jesus played in the Bible as a teacher. We examined the parable of the Widow’s Gift. This story told by Jesus celebrates the generosity of those who are genuine and give as much as they can to help others. It emphasises the Christian values of generosity, sacrifice and love in action over greed and selfishness. The children considered how important such values are in the modern world.
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Whole School Worship - God is Kind
In our whole-school worship, Mrs Ham revealed our first Kindness Kite celebrating the Blackburn Diocese centenary. This week, the focus is ‘God is Kind’. A small selection of Year 6 children were chosen to read three Psalms about God’s kindness and we learned that God is everywhere, always, even when it’s dark, even when we hide. The children were then invited to share some of the kind things that they have heard people say, such as ‘I like your hair’ , ‘Your dress is pretty’ and ‘You are so smart’. We reflected on how kind words make us feel and we all practised paying compliments to our partners. We are looking forward to adding kind words to our classroom kites.
Whole School Worship - Epiphany
To continue our Epiphany celebration, in worship, we learned about the significance of the wise men’s gifts. We were entertained with some fantastic acting from a few of our Year 6 children as they acted out the story of the wise men meeting Herod on their way to visit Jesus. We all joined in with actions for repeated sections of the rhyming Bible story too. As the wise men presented their gifts it was revealed that each had a specific significance: gold to represent the King, frankincense to represent God, and myrrh to represent the great sacrifice to come. Following this we took the time to reflect on the true wonder of this significant event and then enjoyed singing We Three Kings together to bring this festive season to a close.