Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. We have been extremely busy preparing for Easter in our RE lessons and in collective worships with Mrs Ham and Rev Matt, Reception led a very special worship and FOSB hosted a lovely coffee morning on Wednesday morning to celebrate Mothering Sunday, Reception and Year 1 contributed to ‘The Big Lent Walk,’ we have had enjoyed a variety of wonderful lunchtime and after schools clubs and Year 5 enjoyed a bikeability session. We then said a huge thank you to you all for continuing to support ‘THE BIG LENT WALK.’ So far, we have walked 1518km and raised £114. However, we really believe that we can surpass this. Please let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and please send photos if you can. This is a great way of giving back during Lent and supporting our mental health and well-being. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Archie, Vienna and Molly in EYFS and KS1 and Isaac, Darcy, Talia and Jake in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating great resilience, respect and kindness. Furthermore, we congratulated Carmen in Year 4 for working hard to achieve her pen license, our Year 2 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 99.2% and 99.3% attendance, Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 278 points and our Year 5/6 Cross Country Team for demonstrating great resilience, determination and respect in the Darwen Primary Schools League Cross Country Event at Witton Park last night. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Thea for swimming 10m, Eleanor for achieving a Rainbows agility badge, Maggie for being a fantastic Rainbow and working hard toward her gold badge, Lyla for demonstrating great skill in her acro, Harry for being the ‘Trainer of the week’ for fantastic tackling at football, Naomi, Martha and Scarlett for making their Brownie promise at the weekend, Marley for achieving her Stage 3 and 10m swimming certificates, Isaac for achieving ‘Player of the Day’ for scoring the winning goal in a recent football game and being the ‘Player of the Week’ at Soccer HQ, Sofia for being awarded her birthday badge at Rainbows, Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ for her super dribbling at football, Summer for receiving a 1st in a recent gymnastics competition as part of a duo, Daisy for demonstrating great skill in a recent gymnastics competition, Tristen for being awarded his green belt in kickboxing, Carmen and Renee for being awarded their white belt in kickboxing and Lydia for being the ‘Star of the Week’ at EdStart gymnastics club. To end our worship, Mrs Ham invited us all to join a special Mothering Sunday Worship at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am. Then, we all had a singalong to ‘Give Me Oil in My Lamp.’ We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today, Rev. Matt led worship and shared the second half of the Easter story, focusing on the events following Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. The children listened intently as he spoke about the resurrection, emphasising the joy and hope it brings to Christians around the world. Through engaging storytelling, Rev. Matt encouraged the children to reflect on the meaning of Easter and how it represents new beginnings, faith and God’s everlasting love. He posed thought-provoking questions, prompting the children to consider how the message of forgiveness, kindness and renewal can be applied in their own lives. The session ended with a moment of quiet reflection and a prayer, allowing the children to appreciate the significance of Easter and its impact on their faith and actions.
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Year 3- Class Worship- Helping Other Countries
In our class worship this week, Year 3 discussed the recent news story about twenty world leaders forming a 'coalition of the willing' to support Ukraine- Helping Other Countries. The children felt strongly that everyone needs to work together and find solutions that are good for everyone. Emily then read a prayer, thanking God for the example of the Good Samaritan, who demonstrated compassion by helping a stranger in need. We also explored how other faiths emphasise caring for others and working together to promote peace and justice.
Collective Worship - The Garden of Gethsemane
Our collective worship began with the Year 6 class presenting their learning about Shakespeare. Thank you for sharing, Year 6! Mrs Ham then led our worship about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus spent time praying for strength from God to help Him through the events that were to follow. We spent time reflecting on all of our Lenten events so far: Lent walks, Lenten promises and our 40 acts of kindness. Finally, we took part in this week’s special Year of Prayer by all sharing what was on our minds with Jesus, considering what we are thankful for, by writing these on a leaf. Mrs Ham created a prayer tree in our entrance area with over 200 lovely prayers on leaves from all of our children and staff.
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Year 2 - Class Worship
This week in our Class Worship, we heard some news about the government. They're going to open 750 new breakfast clubs all over the country. This made us think about something really important, the United Nations Rights of a Child. One of these rights says that all children should have healthy food to eat. We talked about how the government is trying to help all children have a healthy breakfast, and these new breakfast clubs are one way they can do that. Then, we thought about how lucky we are to have healthy food to eat. We talked about how we don't always have to worry about having breakfast. Finally, we said a prayer to say thank you for all the healthy food we have. It was a time to be grateful for what we have!
Year 3 - Year of Prayer- Prayers for Healing the Sick
During our 'Year of Prayer' session, the children reflected on who needed healing, focusing on healing the sick, etc. They wrote down names on plasters and we prayed for Jesus to bring them comfort. It was great to see how the children considered not only those they knew, but also those suffering in wider contexts, like wounded soldier, patients at the hospitals and pets that are taken ill.
Collective Worship: Year of Prayer and Singing Worship
This week, some members of our WOW group introduced our year of prayer activity. Mrs Araujo gave every class a packet of plasters and the children will think of somebody who is poorly to pray for. We then began our singing worship and practised songs that some of our children will be singing in church on Sunday during the St Barnabas Mother's Day Worship. We sang My Lighthouse, Our God is a Great Big God, Rich in Kindness and Build Up. All children are welcome to attend the special worship with Mrs Wilkinson at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am.
Rock Your Socks For World Down Syndrome Day
Year 1 enjoyed rocking bright and funky socks today to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. We are very lucky in our class as we have Lenny who allows us to learn about and celebrate the amazing qualities of a child with Down Syndrome every day. However, we did take the opportunity to revisit and explore some of the things that we need to be mindful of and things that we can do to help children with Down Syndrome such as using gestures and signs to communicate, repeating words and phrases multiple times, being helpful, kind, encouraging and patient. We finished the day with Lenny handing out sweets for his friends to celebrate a special day. Thank you very much Lenny!
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet fantastic week in school. First of all, we thanked everyone for rocking their socks for World Down Syndrome Day and continuing to support ‘THE BIG LENT WALK.’ The kilometres walked across school are ever increasing as is the money that we have raised and we are extremely grateful- thank you! Please continue to let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and please send photos if you can. This week, we have had a wonderful week learning about Lent in collective worship, Reception, Year 1 and 2 had a special visit from Local Author Janek Puzon, Reception had an exciting firefighter visit, we’ve enjoyed a variety of after-school and lunch-time clubs and Year 6 spent two days exploring London. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Freddie, Cici and Charlie G in EYFS and KS1 and Bobby-Ray, Tristen and Neve in Years 3, 4 and 5. Well done to these children for consistently showing our Barny’s 4Bs and working hard across the curriculum. We also awarded all of Year 6 as the value award winners this week for representing school amazingly well in London and making the most of the experience. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 96.7% and 99.6% attendance, India Mill as our value award winners this week with 442 points and our Year 4 football team for three fantastic performances in the BRFC league on Tuesday evening- well done! We then moved on to congratulating our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Hollie for being the Star of the Week at gymnastics, Charlie for achieving his blue belt in martial arts and being the Beaver of the Week, Isabella for also being awarded her blue belt at martial arts, Callie for her amazing performance at Stage Coach, Elijah for being Player of the Week at football, Haydn for achieving his white belt at kickboxing, Lyla for achieving gold in a recent Jazz competition and silver for a lyrical dance, Sofia for coming 3rd place in a recent singing competition and Olivia for being Star of the Week at gymnastics. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that next Tuesday 25th March is ‘Friends of St Barnabas Non-Uniform Day’ in exchange for a cake or sweet treat to sell at the Mother’s Day Coffee Morning on Wednesday 26th March which you are all welcome to. Then, we all had a singalong to ‘Lord of the Dance.’ We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1 Class Worship- Picture News
This week in Class Worship, Year 1 thought about their morning routine and decided that breakfast was a very important part of this. They then listened to the news about how the government are trialing breakfast clubs across 750 schools. Initially, the class was very divided with regards to whether they thought having their breakfast at school was a good idea. However, after discussing this in detail, most children decided that it was in fact a good idea as it would ensure that every child across the country would have the chance to fill their tummies up so that they can learn, have the chance to eat some of their 5 a day to keep fit and healthy and get the chance to catch up with their friends before school.
Year 4 - Class Worship: John’s Vision of Heaven
In class worship, we worshipped with Lisa, Liz and Bishop Philip at Worship Together Across the Diocese. This week’s story was taken from the final book of the Bible, in which John described his vision of heaven in detail. Bishop Philip explained John’s Vision and how Christianity is about knowing what God has planned for us, what He tells us the world will one day be like and seeking comfort and clarity in that. Following this, Year 4 spent some time thinking about what Earth will be like once God’s plan is realised, and also what heaven might look like to each of us. The children drew their ideas about heaven and gave some lovely, thoughtful explanations about their loved ones all being together and there being peace in every area of the world.
Year 6 Class Worship
During class worship this week, Year 6 listened to an extract from the Bible about John’s vision of heaven and what the future holds. This extract describes a peace-filled world that is joyful and without any pain. Bishop Philip discussed the extract further and explained that it meant that we can feel hope for the future. Worship ended with the children joining in with a prayer.