Year 5 - Kindness Kites
2026 is the centenary year for the Blackburn Diocese, which includes the churches and schools in the local area. To celebrate this, everyone at St Barnabas has been thinking about kindness and the different forms that it can take. Previously the children have considered the power of saying something kind, listening and sharing while giving examples from their own lives. This week, we completed our ‘making peace’ kite and over the next two weeks we will start thinking about generosity.
Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
We had a lovely Whole School Worship this morning which was led by Rev Ben. We started with a true or false game and Rev Ben asked us some questions - Does an octopus have 5 hearts.? Do ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they are scared? Do butterflies taste things with their feet? The purpose of the story is to make us think if things are true or not? The story of Easter is true but some can’t quite believe it but it is an event in history and there is evidence to back it up. Easter shows Jesus is alive and able to forgive. If you know you are forgiven, you must forgive others. We focused on the Bible story of The Resurrection. The story told us that after Jesus died on the cross, he was buried in a tomb secured by a large stone. On Sunday, the third day, women found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty; an angel announced Jesus had risen. Jesus appeared to his disciples, proving he was alive before ascending to heaven.
.png)
Year 3- Class Worship- Building a Community of Kindness
In our class worship, we learned about the development of Barking Riverside, a brand-new town in East London designed to provide up to 20,000 new homes. We discussed how this new community will include schools, parks, and shared spaces where neighbours can show mutual respect and tolerance so that everyone feels they belong. This led to a thoughtful conversation about new children starting in our own class; we talked about how every child has the right to a safe place to live and grow, and how we can be "good neighbours" by making others feel welcomed. Evie read the school prayer, thanking God for safe homes and asking for help to treat our neighbours with kindness so that our hearts can be filled with peace. We ended worship with singing 'When I Needed a Neighbour'.
Whole School Worship - The Value of Kindness
Today, our whole school worship was focussed on the value of kindness and our Kindness Kite of God rewards kindness. We talk about kindness frequently at St Barnabas, especially as it is one of our 4 Be’s. As we came into worship, a video was playing that showed how kind acts affect the recipient, prompting them to pay the kindness forward so that it spreads. The children spotted some acts of kindness in the video and linked these to the charitable activities we have taken part in as a school family recently. Mrs Ham read some motivational quotes and we all acted out sprinkling a glitter trail of kindness and throwing around kindness like confetti. She then showed us the story of The Good Samaritan and explained that showing kindness isn’t something we reserve just for our friends and family; it’s for everyone. Quotes from the Bible about kindness were read brilliantly by Matthew, Darcy and Charlie from this week's Kindness Kite. We then spent some time reflecting on how we will show kindness this week and beyond, and we finished by singing one of our favourite songs, Rich in Kindness.
.jpg)
Singing Worship
In our Whole School Singing Worship this morning, we welcomed everyone back into school with a joyful and uplifting sing. We began by singing My Lighthouse and then we sang Our God is a Great Big God, Sing a New Song to the Lord, Life is Always Better and ended our worship with a beautiful rendition of Waymaker. A wonderful way to start the new term!
Easter Church Service
A Joyful Easter Celebration! What a wonderful morning we had at our Easter Church Service! The atmosphere was filled with energy, reflection, and community spirit. Highlights from the Service: The Easter Story: Our talented teachers took to the stage to act out the Easter story. Global Perspectives: We were so impressed by Key Stage 2, who shared their beautiful and diverse "A Cross the World" project. Joyful Voices: We sang our hearts out to all the favourites, from the rhythmic Lord of the Dance and Give Me Oil in My Lamp to the moving When I Think About the Cross. The Grand Finale: We finished on a high note with a high-energy rendition of He is Alive! A Huge Thank You To all the parents and carers who joined us today: thank you for your support. We wish all of our families a peaceful and happy Easter break!
Whole School Worship - God’s Green Earth
As we approach the end of Lent, Mrs Ham led a special worship to celebrate all the efforts our school community has made to give back by looking after our local area and beyond. We couldn’t believe just how much we’ve all achieved in 2026 so far. Some key actions include: Reception class earning the Ruby Robin Award through building bug hotels, spotting birds and taking part in a wildlife quiz; our collective Big Winter Wander to raise money for the World Fund For Nature; our whole-school tree planting day on Jack’s Key; the WOW group planting two community orchards on school grounds; Mr Fairbanks building bird boxes and placing them around school; the Rota Kids collecting pre-loved teddies and coats for charity; the WOW group creating posters about the community poo bag dispenser located outside school, and putting them up all around the local area; and some of our children and parents choosing to go litter picking to help keep our streets clean. We have much more planned for the future, so keep a lookout for our next initiative. We ended our worship with prayers of thanks for God’s creations and singing one of our favourite Fischy Music songs: Make A Difference. Key Stage 2 stayed behind to hear the winners of the March TT Rockstars battle. A huge well done to the winning classes, Years 3 and 6, and to our class champions: Charlie, Charlie, Isabella and Isabelle.
Friday Celebration Worship
What a fantastic week we’ve had in school, there is so much to celebrate! We are really looking forward to next week’s drama club's Heroes of Troy performance on Tuesday, and we are so proud of our choir who represented us beautifully at Let’s Go Sing. A special well done to Grace for her performance in Les Misérables, what an incredible achievement! A big thank you to our WOW Group for creating poo bag dispenser posters to help keep our local area clean, such a thoughtful and responsible project. We’ve also been busy improving our school environment, with tree planting in our grounds to begin creating our very own orchards. Year 4 have been absolute stars on their residential, showing excellent behaviour and representing the school brilliantly. Year 5 have also impressed us with how sensible and responsible they were during Bikeability. Thank you as well for all of the generous Easter egg donations, we really appreciate your support. This week’s values awards go to James in Reception, Ava and Tommy-Joe in Year 1, Harry in Year 2, all of Year 4, Darcy in Year 5, and Talia in Year 6, well done for consistently demonstrating our school values. A huge congratulations to our TT Rockstars certificate winners: Charlie D, Elijah, Freddie, Eddie, Emily, Olivia, Isaac, Joshua, Ella Grace, Alexis and Ivy, fantastic effort and dedication to your times tables practice! In our team values this week, Darwen Tower came 4th, Whitehall Park 3rd, River Darwen 2nd, and India Mill took 1st place, well done everyone! We are incredibly proud of all of our sporting achievements this week. Well done to Beau for achieving a superstar gymnastics certificate for walking on the big beam, and to Thea for earning her Stage 2 gymnastics certificate. Charlie G and Olivia were both awarded Player of the Week in football, while Charlie G was recognised for excellent defending. Ava achieved badges in Squirrels and Beavers and was also named Beaver of the Week, fantastic commitment! Congratulations to Eleanor, Olivia, Annie, Evie and Phoebe for earning multiple Rainbows certificates, and to Lydia, Skye and Chester for their swimming certificates. Phoebe also received a rosette in dancing, while Scarlett was named trainer of the week in netball. A special mention to Annabel, who not only completed a 500m swim for Cancer Research UK but also raised an incredible £341, what an amazing achievement! Callie performed brilliantly as Peter Pan in her recent show and received a certificate, and James achieved his red belt in Ju Jitsu, well done! Olivia also received a certificate for effort in gymnastics, great perseverance! Our swimming team performed brilliantly at the gala against Blackburn and Darwen schools. James won a bronze medal for backstroke, Jenson placed second in breaststroke and Desmond got two silvers, an amazing effort. Our cross country team also showed great determination competing against other local schools, well done to everyone involved. Well done to Year 2 and Year 5 for achieving the best attendance this week, fantastic effort! Looking ahead, we have lots of exciting events coming up including the FOSB Easter Egg Bingo on Tuesday, the Rocksteady concert on Wednesday, our Heroes of Troy performance after school, Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancashire Hospice, our Easter Service on Thursday, and a special visit from Spring Chicken. A reminder that we break up early at 2.00pm on Thursday. We finished our worship with lovely prayers from Darcy and Charlie D, thank you both for such a thoughtful contribution. What a wonderful week, well done everyone!
.jpeg)
Whole School Worship: The Last Supper
Today’s worship was a deeply moving and thought-provoking session led by Rev. Ben, as he helped the children explore the complex meaning of Good Friday. The morning began with a lighthearted but meaningful game where Rev. Ben asked Eliza some very tricky questions while giving Luna much easier ones. Just as it looked like the game might end poorly, an intervention changed everything, which Rev. Ben used to illustrate the core message: Christians believe Good Friday is all about how God steps in to help us when we need it most. Rev. Ben then shared the story of the crucifixion, describing it as a "dreadful day" that naturally makes us feel sad. However, he explained that Christians call it "Good" Friday because it represents the moment Jesus stepped in to save humanity, choosing to take the punishment himself so that all who trust in him can be set free. This sacrifice transforms a day of mourning into a time of profound joy. The children showed wonderful engagement as they recounted details of the story; Hollie and Isabella spoke of the physical suffering Jesus endured, while Percy remembered the crown of thorns placed on his head. Elijah also noted the moment Peter tried to defend Jesus, only to be told to put his sword away. The worship concluded with a beautiful reflection on how these events make us feel. While Sofia acknowledged the sadness of the cross, she looked forward to the "something good" coming on Easter Sunday. Mollie, Olivia, and Mason all expressed feelings of happiness and gratitude, recognising that Jesus’ actions were a "favour to us all" that took away their sins. To close our time together, Rev. Ben led a thank you prayer, and we joined our voices to sing Jesus, Strong and Kind.
Year 3- Class Worship-Living Out God's Big Story
In our class worship today, we watched the latest video in our ‘Living Out God’s Big Story’ series. We explored the story of the first Disciples from the Book of Acts and discovered that when the early church started falling out, they didn't give up; instead, they recruited seven Deacons to help serve the people and restore fairness. In the video, Bishop Philip talked to us about how we can be servants to one another to bring peace to our own community. This linked perfectly with our "Kindness Kite" theme for the week .
.JPG)
Year 4 - Class Worship: Helping To Make Peace
Our class worship this week tied together our kindness kite theme of 'helping to make peace' and phase 2 of our Linking Schools project - Social Action. We watched the God's Big Story worship from Blackburn Diocese, which was about serving others, and we drew pictures on our whiteboards to show one thing we had taken from the worship. Then we joined in with actions to the Starfish Story and discussed the things we are passionate about and that we can help to change in our community. We have shared a number of ideas and we will vote on a project to undertake in the Summer Term.
Reception: Class Worship
We had a beautiful start to our day as we gathered for class worship, beginning by signing the Trinity together. Lisa led us in a heartfelt repeating prayer, reminding us that "God is good, all the time," before we settled in to listen to a story about the depth of God’s love. To help us connect with the message, Lisa asked the children if they ever felt overwhelmed by having too many jobs to do. Eva shared a relatable moment, mentioning how she often needs a helping hand when it’s time to clean her room! We learned that even Jesus’ disciples needed support, which is why they appointed apostles to help them spread their message. We were also joined by Bishop Philip, who shared a powerful message about the heart of a servant. He explained that servants are special because they prioritise the needs of others, which creates a sense of peace and allows everyone to share the good news of Jesus. In a world where arguments can happen, we discussed how Jesus calls us to be servants who put others first. Whether we are visiting a friend, being kind, or standing up for a good cause, we are choosing to be peacemakers who stand up for what is right. The children had some lovely ideas on how they can serve others in their daily lives. Mason suggested cheering up those who feel sad, Chester reminded us that we can always lend a helping hand, and Phoebe shared that a simple hug can make a big difference. We concluded our time together with a "sorry prayer," asking for forgiveness for the times we fall out with one another and seeking God’s help to be better peacemakers. We ended on a high note, joyfully singing "Our God is a Great Big God"!