Year 4 - Black History Month
In our class worship this week, the Year 4s joined in with the Great Big Live Assembly to learn about Black History Month. This year’s BHM assembly began with a look at current issues in our localities. They addressed the division becoming more apparent within communities and raised the questions: ‘What does the St George’s flag mean to you?’ and ‘How can we help to make everyone welcome?’ The children had some lovely, heartfelt answers about the flag being a symbol of pride, of peace and of our amazing sports teams. As usual, there were many ideas for welcoming visitors and people new to our school. Being welcoming is definitely a strength of our fantastic children.
Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
Today our whole school worship was led by Rev. Matt. We started Worship with a challenge. The challenge involved trust. Elsie and Grace took part in the challenge. Elsie was blindfolded and Grace had to guide Elsie around cups that Rev Matt had placed on the floor by giving verbal instructions only. They were super quick but the reason the activity took place was to link it to today’s story which was all about trust and how Abraham trusted God. Abraham was a rich man who had servants and lots of money but he trusted God. One day god asked Abraham leave his home and trust that it would be the right decision. God led Abraham to Canaan. Abraham didn’t have children but God asked him to look at the sky and count the stars. God told him that one day he would have more children than stars in the sky. Abraham had three visitors sent by God who he fed and looked after. Sarah, Abraham's wife then became pregnant with Isaac and this was because they trusted God's word and this led to good things. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way” We then went on to discuss who do we trust and what is something generous that we could do for them? We shared that we trust our families, God, friends and teachers. Something generous could be that we give them a gift, trust them with all of our heart and treat them with respect. We finished today's worship with a prayer to reflect on how we may show kindness and generosity to everyone around us.
Year 4 - Class Worship: God’s Smuggler
This week in class worship, the Year 4 class heard the story of Brother Andrew, the Dutch Christian missionary who risked his life to smuggle Bibles into communist countries. We considered the Christian values he showed and how he lived out God’s Big Story by helping persecuted Christians to practise their faith. In class, we reflected on our we spread God’s love in our school and some children acted their ideas out for the rest of the class. Their ideas included, helping people up when they have fallen, holding the door for people, saying thank you and welcoming others.
Year 5 - RotaKids
Dear Parents and Carers, This October, Year 5 is organising a special charity drive to support refugee families in Darwen who are in need of warmth and essentials. We are inviting every family at St Barnabas to fill a shoe box with small items that can make a big difference. Suggested items to include: Warm winter clothing (hats, gloves, scarves) Toiletries (soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo) Non-perishable treats (e.g. chocolate, biscuits) Once filled, kindly secure your shoe box with an elastic band and bring it into school by Thursday 23rd October. Together, we can show compassion and bring comfort to those who need it most. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Warm regards, Mr Mealor & The Year 5 RotaKids
Year 4 Picture News - Primary Park Run
In our class worship we shared Picture News which introduced the new initiative of a ‘Primary Parkrun’ which aims to bring junior running events closer to primary schools. It is inclusive and not just about fitness, but also about helping children build friendships, confidence and life skills in their local community. We then moved onto looking at community and what the bible tells us about the importance of getting together as a community. Christians believe service to others is very important, because it helps demonstrate love for God and others. We loved really like the quote from Phil Jackson who is an NBA coach as we really believe it to be true. ‘The strength of. Team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team’
Whole School Worship - Agent Ananias
We learned about a very special mission given by God this week in worship. God directed Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to heal Saul of his blindness and baptise him. Despite Ananias's fear due to Saul's reputation as a persecutor of Christians, he obeyed the Lord's assurance that Saul was a "chosen instrument". Ananias laid hands on Saul, restoring his sight, and then baptised him, marking his dramatic conversion from persecutor to the apostle Paul, a key figure in spreading Christianity. We reflected on what we learned from the story and the children shared their thoughts, including that we should trust God’s choices, and that everyone has the ability to change.
Year 4 - Class Worship
In order to support the children’s understanding of this week’s worship theme, the Year 4s listened to the story of Ananias and Saul again. They discussed why God chose Saul to spread the word about Jesus, especially after spending a lot of time persecuting Christians. The children thought about the benefits and dangers of giving someone unexpected an important job. They recognised that the message meant more coming from a former non-believer. The Year 4s were then chosen for a special mission of their own: to be agents of respect. Their job will be to look out for anyone treating our spiritual garden with respect and nominate them for some extra value points. They are looking forward to announcing their nominations next week.
Year 4 - RE: What is Prayer?
This half term, the Year 4s are on a RE quest to discover what prayer is. We began by studying images of people around the world from different faiths praying. We recorded our best ideas and also posed questions for Sally the Social Scientist about how the people were behaving. We then studied some quotes from the New Testament and tried to uncover Jesus’ teachings about prayer. The children will be choosing where they want their quest to go in next week’s lesson.
Year 4 - Class Worship
This week, in our class worship, we looked again at Lisa and Bishop Philip’s worship about living out God’s big story. We looked at our big frieze and recapped the story, using the pictures to help us. We discussed how Bishop Philip lives out God’s big story and shared ideas about how we could do this in our daily lives. Towards the end of our worship, the children shared their favourite parts of the big story, explaining the reasons for their choices. Here are some of their ideas: “I like Kingdom of God because it’s about everyone getting along.” “I like Creation because it’s reminds me of nature.”
Year 5 - RotaKids
Kathleen and Julia from Darwen Rotary Club visited Year 5 to help choose our RotoKids. The children elected a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer who will help organise our fund raising efforts this year. We will have events to support the school, our local community as well as making contributions to international relief efforts. Congratulations to Desmond, Olivia, Daisy and Miles!
Whole School Worship - School Pride
Our first collective worship was a chance for us to celebrate being back together as a school family and reflect on what we hope for the year ahead. Mrs Ham began with a look at our school vision and invited the children to share ideas of how we can all contribute to our 'love-filled Christian family'. The children spoke in depth about acts of respect and kindness, which led Mrs Ham on to a recap of our school rules: Barney's 4 Be's- Be ready, be kind, be safe and be respectful. We discussed the importance of following our rules in order that we take real pride in our school and help every part of our school family to flourish. Some of our children even chose to come to the front of worship to demonstrate exemplary behaviour such as wonderful walking and legendary lining up. There were also reminders about healthy snack choices and the importance of attending school each day. We are so proud of our overall school attendance for the previous academic year and the children shared some reasons why regular attendance is important. We left our worship feeling energised and excited about the year ahead.
Year 4 - Class Rules
The Year 4s were introduced to the 'walking gallery' activity this week. We talked about what our 4 school rules meant and the children had to walk around the room adding examples of each behaviour to the posters. Some of the children wanted to add non-examples too as a reminder of what not to do. These ideas will be collated into our rules posters that will remain on display in the classroom throughout the year.