Whole Class Worship - Joy
This week of advent, our focus is Joy. We began by recounting the advent themes we have explored so far: Hope and Peace. Mrs Ham chose Lyla from Year 4 to come to the front to light the three advent candles and she highlighted some of the ways our school family have brought joy to others over the past few weeks. It was heartwarming to hear about some of these, including the Reception class nativity, Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Cracker, the choir singing at Acer Lodge care home, and Year 4 writing letters to the residents, plus all of those who have been supporting our latest charity campaigns. We reflected on what true joy looks like and how we can sometimes forget about the simple things when our minds are preoccupied with expensive gifts and the hustle and bustle of the season. Our focus was brought back to the gift God sent - his only son - and how Jesus’ incarnation was the joyous gift that changed our world forever.
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Year 5 - RE
Year 5 have been practising their presentation of learning for Friday’s church service. The focus is on peace and how the message of peace can be found in the two nativity stories in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. We have already made triptych drawings telling the stories and the script compares Luke’s message of a humble saviour to Matthew’s message of a king descended from Moses and David.
Year 4 - Class Worship: Togetherness
In our class worship time this week we learned about the Princess of Wales’ annual carol service and the work she does to bring people from different walks of life together. We spent some time considering groups that we belong to and we used our oracy skills to share our thoughts on feeling a sense of belonging. There were some excellent points about sharing interests and feeling loved, and also about recognising when we feel ostracised or unsafe in a group, such as an online community.
Whole School Worship led by Rev Matt
In our Whole School Thursday Worship this week, Rev Matt shared the Bible story - Ruth Finds a New Home We started with our challenge which involved being good at charades. The children acted out a feeling and the other children sat down had to guess what it was. We had sad, angry, happy, excited and worried. We have been thinking about compassion. The Bible story - Ruth Finds a New home is about Ruth, a woman from Moab, chose to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi and move to Bethlehem after her husband died. There, she worked hard gleaning barley in the fields of Boaz, a relative of Naomi. Boaz was impressed by her kindness and loyalty, and he eventually married her, providing a new home and a place in God's family for both Ruth and Naomi. The story is filled with compassion so it led us to our questions - Who shows us the most compassion and who do we show it to. We had answers such as family, friends, trusted adults, teachers and God. The children have showed compassion to everyone that they have come across, including their pets. Rev Matt finished with a lovely prayer about compassion and asked the children sto think how they could show this more around school this week.
Whole School Worship - The Importance of Trees
This week is National Tree Week and Mrs Ham introduced an exciting new tree-planting project that we will be undertaking as a school. Following on from Switch Off Fortnight, we will continue our Planet Protectors mission by planting trees on our school grounds and, of course, our fantastic children will be involved. To kick start the project, we had a discussion about why trees are amazing. The children gave some very thoughtful answers, such as “they give us oxygen”, “they take harmful carbon dioxide out of the air”, “they provide protection for animals”, “we love playing in the trees”, “we use trees to make things”. Mrs Ham also told us the story, The Man Who Planted Trees. It was about a shepherd who saw the barren land and wanted to improve it, so he started planting trees. He planted over 1000 acorns, and after many years, the landscape was filled with lush, green trees, rivers flowed and a town was built. We learned from this 100-year-old story that one person’s small act can make a huge difference. Just like in the Parable of the Talents, we learned that it’s important for us all to use what we’ve been given to make a positive impact on the world. We can’t wait to use the trees that have been donated to us by the National Trust to make a positive impact on our community.
Whole School Worship led by Rev Ben
This weeks Worship was led by Rev Ben and we started with a challenge. Rev Ben had a Bop It and the five children that helped had to follow the instructions to either flick it, twist, spin it or pull it. Ella, Quinn, James, Walter and Sofia all had a go and it was super tricky! In the game you had to do exactly what it tells us but that’s not necessarily what we want those in charge to be like. We then went on to finish the story of Joseph the prisoner. We started at the part when there was a knock at Joseph’s door. It was his eleven brothers who begged him for food. They didn’t recognise Joseph, but Joseph knew who they were, and he forgave them for what they had done to him. Joseph’s family then moved to Egypt, and Joseph himself became a great leader. His story shows us the importance of forgiveness, trusting in God, and using our own talents to help others. In our discussion we looked at how Joseph showed compassion towards his brothers and how we could use of voice to encourage world leaders to show compassion. What could we say or do? We finished with a prayer that reflected on the theme of compassion.
Whole School Worship - Joseph the Prisoner
Our Whole School Worship was led by Rev Ben this morning. We started with a quick game all about compassion which followed on from Rev Matt’s Worship the week before. Next, we finished the remainder of the Bible story : Joseph the Prisoner. Joseph was his father's favorite son, given a colourful coat that made his brothers jealous. They sold him into slavery, but Joseph ended up in prison even though he was innocent. In prison, he interpreted the dreams of other prisoners and eventually Pharaoh's, predicting seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh made him the leader of Egypt, and Joseph stored food for the famine, saving many lives and eventually forgiving his brothers, showing that even bad things can be used for good. We looked at how Joseph had a big dream, but his life wasn’t going well. He still used his gifts to help others. And through Joseph, God showed compassion to Egypt warning them of a famine. As a school, we have showed lots of compassion for special events this week such as wearing odd socks to start Anti ~ Bullying Week. Through discussion the children then highlighted how Joseph used his gifts to help others. We also looked at how we can pay careful attention to the needs of others this week. What could we say, do or give? The children shared lots of wonderful ideas like caring and sharing, raising money through Children in Need and showing respect We finished our Worship with a prayer and then out singing King of Me.
Year 5 - Class worship- Climate Change
In class worship, we considered the current United Nations Climate Change Conference. We discussed how leaders from around the world are meeting to discuss ways to reduce pollution and save forests. The children highlighted how deforestation can lead to habitat loss and species extinction. We then read how the Bible encourages us to be responsible for God’s creation.
Whole School Worship - Power for Good
Our theme in today’s collective worship was “Power for Good”. Continuing our focus on Anti-Bullying Week, Mrs Ham shared some of the fantastic answers the children gave on Monday about standing up to bullying. These included saying stop, being assertive, asking why, and telling a trusted adult. We learned of how Jesus was a power for good, even when others turned against him, and we reflected on the ways in which we can also be a power for good by being a good friend and spotting when someone needs our help. The WOW Group also shared how they are being a power for good, by protecting our planet and leading our school’s Switch Off Fortnight campaign. They shared posters recommending ways to save energy around school, including turning off lights and computer monitors when they are not in use, and they explained that they will be checking how well each class is doing at saving energy every break time and lunchtime during the campaign.
Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
Rev Matt led our Whole School Worship this morning which focused on the word ‘Compassion’ We started by discussing what we thought the word compassion means. It means that having compassion is feeling how someone else feels. Our challenge this week was to find the best ending to each of the scenarios as to which shows the most compassion. One of this being~ you had a friend round at your house and they want to play with your favourite toy. Do we A ~ share our toy or B ~ distract them and not let them play with it? Our Bible story today was Joseph the Dreamer. Jacob had 12 sons and Jesus was his favourite who he gave special gifts too. His siblings hated the fact that they were not all treated the same. One night Jesus had a special dream which he shared with his brothers but they didn’t like it all. They ripped off his colourful coat and threw him to the floor. At that moment some traders walked by and the brothers sold him to them and ripped up his colourful coat. The brothers told their father Jacob that Jess was dead and he wept and wept. Not one single person in the story shows compassion and everything seems to be going wrong, but in the following part of the story we will see another side as God always shows compassion. We will hear this from Rev Ben next week. Following the story Rev Matt asked ‘ How can you show compassion this week?’ The children came up with some wonderful examples which included; to siblings when they are upset, if someone hasn’t got something that you have, you could share yours, Finally, we finished with a prayer and the children reflected on how they may show compassion to others today.
Whole School Worship - Remembrance
Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, our collective worships this week are all about taking time to reflect on those that have sacrificed themselves to keep us all safe. We have been learning about what Remembrance Day means to our nation and also to us personally. Mrs Ham explained the significance of the poppy and she shared some stories of extreme bravery and self-sacrifice demonstrated by those in the services during the World Wars. We considered which Christian values these people showed and Mrs Ham invited some children to share how they will be remembering our service men and women, past and present, this Remembrance Day.
Whole School-Harvest Festival at the Church – Living Life in All Its Fullness
This morning, our school community came together at our church to celebrate our Harvest Festival, a joyful morning filled with song, prayer, and thanksgiving. The service began as Naomi and Martha signed The Trinity, followed by everyone joining in a rendition of our Harvest Samba song. We also heard about Bishop Philip’s inspiring challenge, pedalling to raise money for those in need, reminding us that even small acts of kindness can have a big impact. As part of the Bishop of Blackburn’s Harvest Appeal, we have been encouraging everyone to ‘Pedal Along’ and raise money for Christians in South Africa. Olivia shared a thoughtful talk, and Darcy reminded us to keep in our prayers families and countries around the world who are suffering. We also gave thanks for the work of DARE and reflected on people using their time and energy to support good causes. The reception and Year 2 class delighted everyone with their Harvest songs. Year 1 shared Thank You for Our Favourite Food, helping us reflect on gratitude. Lilly and Sofia led us in a thoughtful final prayer. We also said goodbye and good luck to Miss Norton, April, and Eve, and shared our thanks to Mrs Araujo, Mrs Ham, and our dedicated WOW Group for helping make this service so meaningful. Our Harvest celebration at the church was a wonderful reminder of our school vision, living life in all its fullness, through thankfulness, compassion, and community. Wishing all our families a restful and joy-filled half-term break!