Worship with Rev. Ben
Today’s worship with Rev. Ben began with a fun game where two teams raced to pass a shuttlecock around the hall and get it back to the start. This linked to the Bible story about Jesus giving us instructions to “pass it on”—just like in the game. The story focused on the Ascension—the moment when Jesus, after rising from the dead and spending time with his disciples, was taken up to heaven. Before he left, Jesus gave his disciples an important mission: to go out into the world, share his teachings, and spread the good news. He promised they would not be alone—God would send the Holy Spirit to be their helper. Even though the disciples felt unsure and a bit afraid, Jesus reassured them that he would always be with them. After the story, the children engaged in thoughtful discussions, exploring questions such as: What did Jesus ask the disciples to do? And How can you trust in Jesus’ promise to be with you, even when you don’t feel brave? Some children shared that they feel brave when they remember Jesus is with them in their hearts. Others said they can pass on kindness and love to friends and family, just like the disciples did. The worship reminded everyone that living like Jesus and sharing his message helps us experience life in all its fullness—a life filled with love, purpose and hope.
Year 6 - Year of Prayer
Continuing our Year of Prayer activities, year 6 took part in a reflective walk along the markings on the school yard. We had to follow the lines, reflecting or praying, remembering that we can trust Jesus and ask him to help us to follow the right path.
Year 3:Year of Prayer- Where Lines Led to Prayer
The children drew chalk lines and followed them on an adventure. It was a lovely reminder, as part of our year of prayer, that just like following those lines, we can trust Jesus to guide us on the right path through prayer.
Year 4 - Class Worship in the Spirituality Garden
We took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and gathered for our class worship in the Spirituality Garden today. This half term, our collective worship theme is the Lord’s Prayer, so we drew some symbols to help us remember and understand it. We then used the symbols to help us recite the prayer. We finished by retelling some of our favourite stories from the Bible.
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Collective Worship- Songs of Praise
As part of our focus on prayer this half term, we further explored how one way we can pray is through song. We had a joyous start to the morning singing some of our favourite songs of praise and different classes were chosen to model the singing and actions at the front. We are super proud of our Reception class for showing their Build Up song as they showed lots of courage singing in front of the whole school family. We sang Waymaker, Shine from the inside out, Build up one another, Life in all its fullness and Jesus strong and kind. Most of our favourite worship songs can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-5832
Whole School Worship - Exploring Prayer
Today’s worship marked the beginning of an exploration of prayer: what it is, why people pray, how, when and where they pray, and why it is an important part of faith. We started by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and signing parts using the Makaton symbols we already knew. Jesus told his disciples this prayer twice when they asked him how to pray. We watched a short video explaining that prayer is simply talking to God and that there are no specific rules when communicating with God. We also learned that he is never too busy to listen to us. The children spent time recapping some of the ways they have prayed including through the Diocesan Year of Prayer, and thinking about what they might want to tell God. We then had some quiet time to say our own prayers to God. Some children said thank you for God’s wonderful creations, some said sorry for making wrong choices, some were thankful for their family and friends and some were grateful for their homes and food. We finished by singing our special Lord’s Prayer song with our Makaton actions.
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Year 3- Year 0f Prayer-Seeds of New Beginnings
As part of our Year of Prayer across the Diocese, the children each planted cress seeds to represent new beginnings. They also wrote heartfelt prayers, giving thanks to God for the many signs of new life around us, from newborn lambs and blooming flowers to the start of a new school term and the joy of new friendships.
Friday Celebration Worship
*Celebration Worship* Today, we started our celebration worship by signing this week’s Makaton sign which was ‘How Are You?’ and we thanked everyone for their enormous generosity on the lead up to Easter. We walked 2627.6km and raised a wonderful £214 for the Big Lent Walk to help fight poverty globally and we also thanked our whole school for participating in the ‘Hop, Skip and Jump’ to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. The final amount raised will be confirmed shortly. We then reflected on our highlights in school this week. We have enjoyed learning about Earth Day- thank you Year 5 for your wonderful presentation of learning, Year 3 enjoyed a visit from author and quizmaster Jay Flynn, Reception have enjoyed a visit from the dentist and we have also enjoyed joining in with the Diocesan Year of Prayer. This week it was the 'robes of righteousness' which helped us to understand that God is always with us—surrounding us with His love, comfort, and protection. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Mikey, Alayna and Annabel in EYFS and KS1 and Harry, Carter, James and Brooke in KS2. Well done to these children for showing growth, maturity and resilience in their approach to learning by working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 2 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week with 96.9% and 98.5% attendance and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with a record 720 points. River Darwen have won the half term award for receiving the most values points and they will have a non-uniform day and disco next Friday. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Ava for achieving a sleepover, swimming and adventure badge at Squirrels, Callie for achieving a medal for showing strength and technique in her amazing vault, bar, floor and beam work in a recent gymnastics competition, Beau for achieving her Stage 3 swimming certificate, Harry for being the Blackburn Eagles ‘Star of the Week’, Fletcher for being awarded ‘Beaver of the Year for 2024/25’ for being an extremely kind and respectful beaver, Lilly for achieving a super effort award during her recent Easter holiday club and making a fantastic start to her performing arts lessons at Little Voices, Annabel for wonderful projection of her voice in her singing lessons, Lyla for achieving a stage 3 award in a recent gymnastics competition, Jack for being Blackburn Eagles ‘Player of the Match’ in his first game playing for them, James for achieving his Stage 6 swimming certificate and Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week ‘ for her wonderful goalkeeping in a recent game playing for Little Darreners. To end our worship, Mrs Govan reminded us about an upcoming Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. The deadline is in 3 weeks time. Please find further information on Class Dojo. We then had a singalong to ‘Oh When the Saints Go Marching In’ for St George's Day and had some beautiful prayers from Olivia, Archie and Cici. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine.
Year 6 Class Worship
Today, year 6 took part in a class worship and discussed moments when they have felt genuinely surprised, shocked, puzzled, amazed and confused. These are emotions that Mary would have undoubtedly felt when she discovered the empty tomb and heard Jesus saying her name. We then heard from Bishop Phillip who spoke about how Jesus won victory over death and that means Christians can be friends with him forever.
Year 3- Class Worship- The Beginning of Hope: The Empty Tomb
During our class worship today, we explored the story of the empty tomb from the Bible . The empty tomb was a huge surprise that showed everyone that even though Jesus died, he was alive again, bringing hope and joy after sadness. Following this, the children reflected on moments in their own lives when they experienced surprise and shock. Some of their suggestions included the birth of a baby cousin, the unexpected school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Isaac found out he was going to Italy for a football tournament, Naomi, when she got locked in a toilet at a play centre, Ella-Grace was invited to a Manchester United trial and when Lottie was surprised with a special birthday party. We concluded worship by sending a prayer of joy and thankfulness for Jesus coming back to life, bringing hope and new beginnings to the world.
Year 4 God's Big Story - Class Worship
Year 4 Class Worship - Gods Big Story - The Empty Tomb Today in class worship we started off by discussing if we had ever had a special surprise. We looked at how we made sense of it, what emotions it evoked and how we felt. The children exchanged their experiences with each other and then shared these with the rest of the class. Next we shared the story - The Empty Tomb which came from the Salvation brick, at the very end of the gospels and told the story of Jesus dying on the cross and raising back to life again. Bishop Philip then shared his experiences with us and linked this to the shock that Mary experienced when Jesus died, was buried and then came to life again. If Jesus is alive then love overcame hatred. We can experience love, hope and joy. We can rejoice as Jesus is alive! Over Easter we as Christian’s made a declaration: Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. We then finished our worship by learning the song - Praise Ye the lord and a short prayer.
Year 5 - Presentation of Learning
On Tuesday Year 5 hosted a special worship to share their Presentation of Learning all about Earth Day 2025. This year’s theme, ‘Our Power, Our Planet’, encouraged our children to reflect on how individuals and communities can work together to make a positive impact on the environment. Their worship was both informative and inspiring, reminding us all that we have the power to protect our planet and God's creations through the choices we make every day. The children led a whole-school diagnostic quiz to test everyone’s knowledge about Earth Day and share what they had learned throughout their presentation. We then said a special Earth Day prayer written by Pope Francis and took a few moments to think about him as he sadly passed away earlier in the week. We finished with singing 'I can make a difference in this world of ours'