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.
.png)
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.
.jpeg)
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.
.jpeg)
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.
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.
.jpeg)
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.