Year 4 - Year of Prayer: Pipe Cleaner Prayers
This week, the prayer focus is about making connections and praying for those who may feel lonely or who don’t have friends or family. In Year 4, our prayers expressed hope that no one ever has to feel as though they’re alone with no one to turn to in times of need. We prayed that God would take care of those experiencing loneliness and help them to find companionship.
Year 1- Year of Prayer (Pipe Cleaners)
For this week’s Year of Prayer challenge, Year 1 were each given a pipe cleaner. We worked together to connect our pipe cleaners together to create one huge circle to represent community and togetherness. We prayed for all those who may be experiencing loneliness and for people to show them kindness and friendship. We said that if we saw anyone looking lonely or sad on the playground then we would show our Christian Values and include them in our game or conversation.
Worship-Shrove Tuesday, Lent and Ramadan
This morning in Collective Worship we built on our knowledge of Lent from yesterday's worship and focused on things we could give during Lent, the time of preparation for Easter. Some children said they would sort their clothes and toys and give them to charity, some said they would raise money through walking for the Big Lent Walk and some said they would help others. Yesterday Leonora said she would show kindness everyday during Lent which then led us to take up a 40 day Lent generosity and kindness challenge. Over the next 40 days in school, we will take part in generous acts in order to spread kindness to others. We said our special Year of Prayer prayer today too which was about compassion and how Jesus showed compassion to others and helped them and we can be like Him and help others too. We then learned about the holy month of Ramadan that Muslims around the world are taking part in at the moment by fasting, praying to God and giving back. We discussed the similarities between Lent and Ramadan and agreed that they are both times to feel closer to God, give things up or fast and give things back. They are also times to prepare for celebrations as Christians will be celebrating Easter and Muslims will be celebrating Eid. Miss Kachwalla and Ms Lohar are both fasting at the moment during the day and we learned that Muslims fast to understand how it feels to be hungry and think about and pray for those less fortunate around the world, as well as feeling closer to God. As part of our Big Lent Walk, we can make a difference to the lives of those who don't have enough food by raising money to help them. At the end of our worship we sang some Easter hymns and shared pancakes together as a whole school family as today is Shrove Tuesday. We then reflected on how we can 'be kind' and show generosity to others this Lent.
Collective Worship: The start of Lent
Today, Mrs Wilkinson discussed what is happening this week. Tomorrow it is Shrove Tuesday and we discussed what happens on Shrove Tuesday. We are looking forward to tasting some pancakes tomorrow during worship! On Wednesday it is the start of Lent. The children watched a video all about Lent and we discussed what it means for Christians. We discussed how it is a time of reflection and many Christians give up something or do something during Lent. Some of the children said they would give up chocolates, sweets and fizzy drinks. Some children said they'd give to charity and be kind every day. Mrs Wilkinson introduced the Big Lent Walk challenge which our school will be doing. We are aiming to raise money for Cafod and will aim to walk 200km collectively. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. The children seemed very excited to get started and thank you to those families who have donated already. To donate please click here https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-ce-primary-academys-big-lent-walk and don't forget to send photos to either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham so we can update our page. We finished our worship by singing Jesus strong and kind.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on our very busy week. This week, we launched our new behaviour focuses for this half-term which have been centred around dinner time behaviours. We have been really impressed with how much calmer our school hall is at dinner time- Well done to our whole school and thank you to Mrs Araujo and the WOW group for monitoring! This week we also saw the start of our wonderful Mad Science Club and we are really looking forward to the rest of our after-school clubs starting next week. There are still spaces to sign up to the craft club led by Fred and Pearl and the gymnastics and dodgeball club led by Edstart if anyone is interested. We then congratulated this week’s individual value award winners who have made a fantastic start to the Spring 2 term. Well done to Jess, Declan and Miley in KS2 and Albie, Harry and Thea in EYFS and KS1 for their consistently positive attitude to learning, demonstrating resilience and perseverance in their learning and showing all of our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, respectful, kind and safe). Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 3/4 Sportshall Athletics winners who competed amazingly well to achieve gold at Our Lady and St John’s on Wednesday evening, River Darwen as our value award winners this week with 396 points and Reception and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week. A special well done to Reception who achieved 100% attendance. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Ava for achieving 5m in her swimming, Thea for fantastic bar work in gymnastics, Lyla for achieving her level 2 in gymnastics, Seb for achieving ‘Trainer of the Week’ at football, Haydn for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ at football, Isabella for being ‘The Little Darreners’ Player of the Week’ at football, Archie for being awarded his green belt at martial arts, Eleanor for being awarded multiple gardening badges at Rainbows, Alessia and Piper-Jo for achieving Stage 2 in their swimming, Marley for her commitment to Brownies, Charlie for achieving 10m in his swimming, James for being a super improved player at football, Isaac for being ‘Player of the Day’ at football, Callie for being fiercely brave at Stagecoach and singing a solo, achieving several awards in her gymnastics such as gaining her level 2 grading and for also receiving Grunty the Dragon in martial arts, Alice for achieving 600m in her swimming, Peyton for achieving a badge at kickboxing, Scarlett for her fabulous commitment to Rivington Netball Club and Mason for achieving Stage 5 in his swimming. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that it’s World Book Day next Thursday 6th March where we will be dressing in pyjamas and participating in some fun and exciting reading activities and that it is also non-uniform day and a disco for India Mill and Whitehall Park on Friday 7th March for being the overall value award winners last half-term. We then had some beautiful prayers from James and Martha who prayed to keep those who are poorly and those in heaven in our thoughts. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
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Year 3- Year of Prayer - Paper Plane Activity
As part of the Diocese of Blackburn's Year of Prayer, the children have made paper planes this week. They drew or wrote down something they were afraid of on a piece of paper and then folded it into paper aeroplanes. They then flew the planes across the room by throwing them away from them. Then whispered a prayer asking God to take away our fears and provide comfort and courage. Some of the fears suggested were, darkness, monsters, being alone, or making mistakes.
Year 3- Class Worship-Why do we judge people based on their appearance?
During our class worship today, we watched this week's Picture News about a football team that launched a campaign to support young players with short hair. This came after a junior girls' team faced accusations of "cheating" when opposing teams and their supporters assumed they were fielding boys. To show their support, York Railway Institute AFC's women's recreational squad created a social media video where players wore T-shirts with the slogan: "Girls can have short hair – get over it." The junior players, aged 11 and 12, shared that these comments upset and frustrated them. Kate White, from the women's team, expressed how unfair the situation was, saying: "It's been horrible. It's the girls' basic personal choice it’s who they are. Some girls have short hair, and this singles them out when they don’t need that." As a class, we then watched a short clip of two girls playing football. However, because they had short hair, some people mistakenly questioned their gender. This led to a discussion about why we sometimes judge people based on their appearance whether it’s a person, a book by its cover, or a film by its trailer. Naomi shared her own experience from Year 2 when she was hesitant to talk to Albert at first. But once she got to know him, she realised they had a lot in common. Now that Albert is no longer here, she misses him. We then explored a Bible quote that reminds us, as people of God, to see beyond appearances and treat everyone with dignity, love, and kindness. We also reflected on Martin Luther King Jr.'s powerful words: "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." To conclude, we thanked God for loving and accepting us just as we are, and we prayed for the ability to see beyond appearances and recognise the true worth in every person.
Spring 2- Week 1 Collective Worship- Life in all its fullness & Year of Prayer
This morning in Collective Worship our WOW (Worship our Way) group showed us the special way of praying this week as part of the Year of Prayer across Blackburn Diocese. This week we will be writing our fears and worries on a piece of paper and then fold it into a paper aeroplane. We can then have fun throwing it whilst saying a prayer to God to take our fears and worries away. Some children shared their fears such as heights, clowns, being alone and snakes. We then looked at the Year of Prayer for the whole school which was 'Where are you today?' . We looked at 10 doodled people around a tree:some looked happy, some sad, worried or confused . We then had to decide which one we were at the moment or we would like to be today. We reflected on how we can feel lots of different emotions in a day and then we said a special prayer to ask for God's understanding and support when we feel different emotions. Next we reflected on our school vision and how Jesus came to give us life in all its fullness and He also said He was the good shepherd and the gate. We discussed that when we are feel sad, we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus knows us, just like a shepherd knows his sheep and He is always with us. We thought about how developing our spirituality can also support us when we are feeling sad and we looked at the five ways of wellbeing such as taking notice of God's creations and different ways of connecting with Him, our family and friends. We finished by singing two of our favourite uplifting songs 'If I were a butterfly' and 'Sing a new song to the Lord'. We agreed that they helped us all to feel happy and also showed our gratitude to God for the wonderful world that he created.
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Whole School Worship- How to make an enjoyable lunchtime?
Our whole school worship today began with the signing of the Trinity by the Heads and Deputies. Mrs. Araujo then led the worship, introducing our new behaviour focus: creating a calmer and more enjoyable lunchtime experience, while continuing to practice the good manners we have already learned. Mrs. Ham highlighted the importance of feeling safe at school, emphasizing that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure a secure and supportive environment for all. To help improve lunchtimes, Mrs Araujo used a data logger to measure noise levels in the dining hall, which ranged from 79.5 to 80.5 decibels as loud as a truck! Many children noted that the high noise levels were overwhelming, made them want to cover their ears, and could prevent them from hearing important instructions in an emergency. During the worship, children worked with talk partners to discuss the question: If we use good table manners, how could this improve our lunchtimes? Through these discussions, they identified key areas for improvement, such as sitting properly at the table, using a knife and fork to eat, and avoiding walking while eating to reduce choking risks. The WOW group played a key role in visually demonstrating positive lunchtime behaviours. They were featured in photos and role-play scenarios, modelling both the correct and incorrect ways to behave in the dining hall. These demonstrations helped reinforce the importance of eating safely and respectfully. To support these changes, new posters have been placed around the school, reminding everyone to face the table while eating, lean over trays or lunchboxes to avoid spills, and wait until they have swallowed their food before getting up. These expectations will continue to be reinforced through modelling, praise, and reminders, ensuring that lunchtimes are a safe, calm, and enjoyable experience for everyone.
Friday Celebration Worship
Our celebration worship today began with the signing of the Trinity by the Heads and Deputies. Moving onto expressing our gratitude to everyone who supported the school's Valentine's Disco, which promoted love and kindness. We also acknowledged Safer Internet Day, which classes have been focusing on this week. The whole school also enjoyed a fantastic science show presented by Mad Science. The children were buzzing with excitement as we witnessed multiple experiments involving, an egg, fire and a red cabbage. The children in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 shared their thanks for wonderful dance and gymnastics sessions led by Rothwell Arts. We've also had a great half term of extra-curricular clubs, including Foodie Friends Club, Craft Club, Basketball, SATS and Multi-Sports. Next half term's clubs include Mad Science Club, Edstart Dodgeball and Gymnastics, Craft Club, Performing Arts, SATs Club, Choir, Cross Country, and Netball. Sign up soon, as spaces are limited! All class teachers presented value awards to children in their class that received the most value points this week, Luna, Joey, Lyla, Chloe, Lilly, Isabelle, and Daisy for demonstrating our 4 Bs: being respectful, kind, safe, and ready along with our Christian Values. Well done to these children for their excellent attitude and commitment to learning. The WOW group announced the ‘Wow Badge Winners’ for their amazing badge creations: Reception: Eva, Year 1: Elsie, Year 2: Renee, Year 3: Cassidy, Year 4: Alexis, Year 5: Bella, and Year 6: Daisy. They all received a big bar of chocolate for their entries. Well done to Year 2 and Year 5 for their amazing attendance this week! We also celebrated our out-of-school achievers: Hayden (good tackling), Hendrix (key game at Squirrels), Maggie (Rainbows badges), Olivia (gymnastics), Annabel (Rainbows badges for healthy mind), Grace (song and dance), Molly (swimming), Jack (swimming, Stage 7), Olivia (player of the match), and Tristan (imaginary green belt for kickboxing). Our Sports Hall Athletics team came 3rd in the final! Well done to the whole squad! Our house teams with the highest points will be rewarded with a house points disco and non-uniform day after the holiday. Congratulations to the Green (Whitehall Park) and Red (India Mill) teams tied with an overall score of 11 points for the half term. This week Darwen Tower placed 4th, India Mill came 3rd place , 2nd place Whitehall Park and 1st place River Darwen. Mrs Ham read out a special prayer called the Lord is my Shepherd which focuses on Jesus being like a shepherd by guiding us and always being there for us and Lydia placed the “ Year of Prayer” sticker on our special chart. We thank all those who attended the celebration worship and wish our school family a lovely, restful half-term break. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Year 3- Year of Prayer
This week, Year 3 explored the theme of foam as part of our "Year of Prayer." Mixing fairy liquid and hot water, the children experimented with different whisking techniques to create bubbles in the water. This activity provided an opportunity to give thanks to God for the gift of strength that enables us to move and participate in various activities.
Year 6 - Safer Internet Day
This year’s Safer Internet Day is based around scams. Year 6 discussed what a scam is, the types of scams we can come across on the Internet and what we can do to keep ourselves safe, for example double-checking things that we see online and telling a trusted adult if we are unsure about anything. The children discussed with their partners how online scams made them feel and how the Internet is an excellent tool, if used correctly.