Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.
Whole school Rev. Ben Worship
Today in Rev. Ben’s Worship we looked at The Story of Jacob, who was a cheat and he wasn’t kind at all as he tricked his brother out of a special gift from his father. God saw Jacob's wrong doings and still showed his family generosity. If we make the wrong choices sometimes, God will always forgive us, showing us grace and love.
Year 3 - Class Worship-Finding God's Love in Our Gifts
During our class worship, Year 3 were inspired by the story of Ellie Goldstein, the first contestant on Strictly Come Dancing with Down's syndrome. Her story beautifully illustrates that everyone is wonderfully made by God and has unique gifts to share. Ellie shows us that when we use our talents, we can help others and spread God’s love in the world. Her journey is a powerful reminder of the courage, joy, and determination that allow us to overcome challenges. By sharing her light, Ellie inspires us all to do the same. To conclude our worship, Ella read a prayer. Her words reminded us that with compassion and faith, we can all make a difference.
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.
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Year 2 Class Worship: The Great Big Live Assembly
This morning, Year 2 tuned into The Great Big Live Assembly: Black History Month 2025. We only managed to watch the first five minutes because we got into a lengthy conversation about the symbolism of the St George’s flag — how it can be used to celebrate our amazing country, but also how, sadly, it can sometimes be misused to intimidate or threaten. This idea was linked to the image of a brick: in the hands of a builder, a brick is a tool for good — used to construct homes, schools, hospitals, and other places that serve and support communities. But in a different context — for example, someone walking down the street holding a brick with harmful intent — it can take on a much more negative meaning. In the same way, the St George’s Cross can represent national pride and unity through culture and sport, yet it can also be misused to exclude or intimidate, particularly towards immigrants. The assembly then posed a question: How can we make sure everyone feels welcome in our schools — no matter where they come from, what they look like, or the colour of their skin? Our class had some thoughtful and compassionate suggestions: helping new people find their way around, smiling to make them feel included, offering help if they’re lost or hurt, and using kind words. It was wonderful to hear the children speak proudly about their own diverse backgrounds. Many shared that they have family members from different nationalities such as China and New Zealand and friendships with children from places such as Pakistan. We’re looking forward to watching the rest of the assembly in the coming days and learning more about the inspirational people of colour who have helped shape our country as part of Black History Month.
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.
Reception: Class Worship
Today during our class worship, we listened to Mark tell the story of Brother Andrew. Bishop Joe told us about the story. Andrew knew there were other countries in Europe who didn't like Christians. He shared the Bible with them because he was so enthusiastic that other people should read God's word. It shows us how much God loves us. We thought about how we could be just like brother Andrew by telling people how much God loves us all and by being kind and loving to everybody. We ended our worship by learning a new song and singing 'Our God is a great big God'.
Year 2 Class Worship- The Story of Andrew
This morning, Year 2 listened to the inspiring story of Andrew in class worship. Andrew was a man who believed deeply in God and showed great bravery by travelling all around the world to deliver Bibles to people who didn’t have any. In some countries, Bibles were banned or very limited, and Andrew knew he could get into serious trouble for what he was doing. But because of his strong faith and his belief that everyone should have the chance to worship God, he overcame his fear and carried on. We were amazed at how courageous Andrew was. He didn’t give up, even when things were difficult or dangerous. His actions reminded us of other brave people like Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks, who stood up for what was right, even when it was risky or scary. We also thought about Mary Jones, the girl who walked many miles and saved up for years just to get her own Bible, as this is a story we have recently learnt in our RE lessons. We talked about how her story led to big changes and helped many more people to get Bibles too. We saw how both Mary and Andrew were driven by their love for God and their desire to help others grow in their faith. Andrew’s story helped us think about the importance of courage, faith, and standing up for what is right, and so we had some beautiful prayers to reflect this to end our worship.
Harvest Singing Worship
Another joyous start to the week by singing songs of thanks ready for our upcoming Harvest church services on Sunday 12th October and Thursday 23rd October. Year 3, Year 5 and Year 6 led our actions this week and we were super impressed with how well our Reception class had remembered the actions from last week.
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’
Year 6 Class Worship
Following on from this week's worship theme, today's class worship looked again at the story of Ananias and Saul. The children heard about how God has agents, to whom he gives the courage to complete important jobs for him. They discussed why God chose Saul to spread the word about Jesus, especially since Saul had been persecuting Christians. We learned about how Saul went on to become Paul and write many important sections of the Bible.