Year 3- Class Worship-Jesus Teaches Us to Forgive
Today in class, we watched a worship across the diocesan video that helped us explore one of our important Christian values: forgiveness. Through the story of Jesus and Peter, we learned how meaningful and powerful it can be to forgive others and to accept forgiveness ourselves, even when it's not easy. The story showed us how Jesus sets a great example of how to mend friendships and love one another, so we can live together in peace and understanding.
Year 6 - Class Worship
In class worship, year 6 focused on the story of Peter betraying Jesus 3 times and discussed times that they have made mistakes or felt ashamed of themselves. Bishop Philip then spoke about the importance of forgiveness and facing our mistakes head on rather than avoiding them, as this allows us to make a lasting change to our behaviour. In addition, year 6 then focused on prayers and hymns used in Christian worship during their R.E. lesson and how some of the words reveal the nature and characteristics of God. The children provided some thoughtful insights and understood that no one can be compared to God in the Christian faith.
Year 1 Class Worship- Picture News
In today's class worship, Year 1 explored this week's Picture News, focusing on the question: "What do animals need to be happy and healthy?" The children identified essential needs such as food, water, shelter, sleep, care, love, and space. We then watched a video explaining a new government initiative aimed at enhancing zoo environments to better care for animals. The children learned about how this initiative will benefit various animals, including elephants, giraffes, stingrays, owls, and other birds of prey, by providing them with more space to move, exercise, explore, and play. Our worship concluded with heartfelt prayers from Mollie, Callie, Lydia, and Harry. They expressed gratitude to God for creating such wonderful creatures, including sea life, and prayed for hope that animals in zoos receive the care, love, and space they need to live happy and healthy lives.
Year 1- Year of Prayer- Resilience
This week, as part of the Diocesan Year of Prayer, Year 1 reflected on the theme of resilience, praying for God’s strength to help us persevere—even when things feel challenging or we feel like giving up. To bring this theme to life, the children chose 12 classroom items. Miss Flynn then hid these items around the classroom, and the children were tasked with finding them. Some were tucked away in tricky spots, but with determination, teamwork, and a resilient mindset, they rose to the challenge! The activity was great fun, and the children thoroughly enjoyed this week’s focus in our Year of Prayer.
Reception: Class Worship
We started our worship across the Diocese with a call and response with God loves us, all the time, Amen. We discussed if we have ever done something wrong to a friend and if we have ever had to say sorry. This does happen in class and this is what our story is about today. The story comes from the New Testament and is about the Salvation. The story is called Jesus forgives Peter. Bishop Philip explained the story further. Bishop Philip asked us to imagine that we have done something really bad to somebody. He asked us what we would do the next time we see that person. Bishop Philip hoped we would walk towards them and try to mend the relationship. Peter pretended he did not know Jesus three times. He was full of guilt and shame. Peter swam towards Jesus to say sorry and wanted Jesus to forgive him. Jesus forgave Peter and said I love you. The friendship was mended. We discussed how when we do things that are wrong, it is important to be like Peter and say sorry to mend the friendship. Forgiveness is one of our Christian values and it is really important to help to make the world a better place so that we can all live well together. We ended our worship by singing Build up.
Collective Worship- Pentecost
This morning Mrs Ham welcomed all of the children and staff back to our school after our half term holiday. We started worship by listening to a special prayer written by St Francis, 'Make me a channel of your peace' as that is our special Year of Prayer prayer for the week. We then learnt about Ascension and Pentecost with the help of some super actors and actresses who played the part of the disciples and the wind and fire. We enjoyed joining in with actions to the rhyming Bible stories and we learnt that Pentecost was a special time when God sent His Holy Spirit and it was then the birth of the church. We reflected on how Jesus is always with us through the Holy Spirit that God sent and thought of ways that we could show God's love to each other. We then said a special prayer for Pentecost and sang 'Let me walk beside you', said Jesus one day' song and focused on the 'come follow me forever, with you I'll always stay' which was the promise that Jesus made to his disciples before he ascended into heaven.
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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by reflecting on our theme for this week which was ‘Heaven on Earth.’ Mrs Ham asked us to think about things that we have done in school this week to support this. We had answers such as encouraging each other, helping people up when they are hurt and sharing our kind words and manners. We reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included prayers for our fears and worries as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, enjoying a worship with Rev Matt on the theme of dedication and perseverance, learning the Makaton sign for ‘sad,’ Year 4 welcoming St Matthews into our school on Monday as part of their linking schools project, two of our Worship Our Way group members (Daisy and Grace) attending the Pupil’s RE Conference 2025, Year 4 delivering a whole class worship on Mental Health Awareness, our Year 5/6 Netball Squad representing our school brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league again last night and coming away with two victories, our Year 5/6 Netball team who attended the Bee Stinger Netball finals at St Bedes on Tuesday and being crowned the BwD champions, Isaac, Ivy, Charlie and Oscar attending the Times tables Rockstar competition at Belmont on Wednesday afternoon and our Year 3/4 mixed cricket team for playing brilliantly at Darwen Cricket Club on Wednesday showing super teamwork and determination. Furthermore, we congratulated Peyton and Elliott in Year 4 for working hard to achieve their pen license, our Year 1 and Year 4 classes for being our attendance winners this week and Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 393 points. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Max, Leila, Lenny and Maggie in EYFS and KS1 and Cassidy, Alfie, Reuben and Tyler in KS2, Well done to these children for working incredibly hard across the curriculum and consistently displaying exceptional behaviour through demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Ralphy for being the coach’s dream and showing super skill at football, Charlie and Isabella for achieving their red belts at kickboxing, Annabel for being a super committed Rainbow, Fletcher for being award the Player’s Player of the Match in a recent football game, Cassius for achieving Stage 2 in his swimming, Hendrix for taking part in the Squirrel’s Sports Day, Callie for swimming 25m and being award the dragon at jiu jitsu, Thea for being a superstar Rainbow and achieving Olivia doll, Olivia for achieving Stage 3 in her gymnastics and Esmae, Leonora and Desmond for competing in the micro-league at Darwen Leisure Centre. To end our worship, Mrs Ham wished us all a lovely restful holiday and we had a singalong to ‘Our God is a Great Big God’.
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Worship with Rev. Matt
Today in worship with Rev. Matt, the children began with an engaging game involving a mystery box. Selected children had to reach inside and guess the hidden item using only their sense of touch. This fun activity led into a meaningful Bible story about effort, kindness, and being present for others. Rev. Matt shared the story of a woman named Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, who lived in the town of Joppa. Tabitha was known for always doing good and helping those in need — especially widows and the poor. She spent her time sewing clothes for people in her community and showing love through her actions. Sadly, Tabitha became very ill and died. Her friends were heartbroken and sent for Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples. When Peter arrived, he prayed for her — and miraculously, she came back to life! This amazing moment reminded everyone that the good we do for others matters, and that God sees and values our efforts. The story encouraged the children to think about how they can show kindness and be a positive presence in the lives of others, just like Tabitha.
Pupil’s RE Conference 2025
This week, two of our wonderful Worship Our Way (W.O.W. ) group members accompanied Mrs Araujo to the Foxfields Country Club for the pupil’s RE conference. The day was filled with imagination and play, developing some deep concepts using Lego models. The children learned how to represent their ideas using Lego, and how to listen inquisitively to generate discovery questions. The girls enjoyed having the freedom to express their ideas in a calm and positive environment. I think they enjoyed the buffet lunch too!
Year 1-Year or Prayer- Knots (Thinking About Our Fears and Worries)
This week, the theme for the Diocesan Year of Prayer, 1 is ‘Knots’. For this, Year 1 had to think about the fears and worries that they experience whilst tying a knot into a ribbon. Year 1 shared worries such as moving into a new classroom with a less familiar teacher, hearing loud noises, our pets or family being poorly, being told off for not making the right choice and coming face to face with scary creatures such as spiders or crocodiles. To symbolise letting go of these worries, Year 1 undid their knot whilst asking God to take away these worries and fears.
Mental Health Awareness Whole School Worship Led by Year 4
Following on from Mental Health Awareness Week last week, Year 4 led a whole school worship this morning. The children in Year 4 have been focusing on mental health, what helps us to better our mental health and they have also delivered random acts of kindness. In the worship, the children shared a lovely video that was created by primary school children on how we can share our feelings, thinking, emotions and moods. We know how to look after our physical health but our mental health is just as important. We learnt that Year 4 like to take part in sport, get a good nights sleep, spend time with friends and family, share problems and eat healthy and drink plenty of water! The children also shared some beautiful kindness poems and buckets of how they fill them to support their mental health. We are very proud of Year 4 for sharing their experiences and it’s great to know how much we can support each other along the way!
Whole School Worship- Your Kingdom Come
During our whole school worship, we continued looking at the special Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught us. We began by imagining what our world might look like if we were in charge for a day. The children shared thoughtful and creative ideas, such as a world filled with kindness, fairness, and care for the environment. This engaging activity led naturally into our focus on the next part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” We took time to reflect on what God’s kingdom should look like—a place where love, kindness and peace are present in everything we do. Together, we discussed how we can each play a part in God’s kingdom through our actions and behaving the way He would want. We then turned our attention to the concept of heaven and how it connects to this line of the Lord's prayer. The children were encouraged to share with each other their thoughts on what heaven might be like. Their ideas were rich and varied, painting pictures of a world filled with happiness, joy and light. Jesus tells us through the Lord's prayer that God wants His Kingdom to be like heaven on earth so we reflected on how we could create heaven on earth in our school each day. We had some fantastic answers such as showing kindness, respect and generosity to each other. This worship helped deepen our understanding of the Lord’s Prayer and reminded us all of the role we can play in making our world a better place, starting with small, meaningful actions in our everyday lives.