Image of Rev Ben’s Worship: Palm Sunday
19 Mar

Rev Ben’s Worship: Palm Sunday

Today, Rev Ben read the story of Palm Sunday and talked about the joy of the crowd when Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. He contrasted this with the anger of the crowd when they were led to believe that Jesus lied about who he was. Determination and perseverance were two key qualities demonstrated by Jesus during that time and Rev Ben asked everyone to reflect on when they will need to show these qualities this week.

Image of Friday Celebration Worship
15 Mar

Friday Celebration Worship

This morning, we started our celebration worship by thanking our whole school family for dressing in red to support Comic Relief. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with the help of our amazing after school clubs, a wonderful worship with Rev Matt about Jesus being kind towards Zacchaeus and by celebrating British Science Week. Mrs Ham also updated us all on our Big Lent Walk progress. Up to now, we have collectively walked 1239km and raised £215. We believe that we can continue to better this and achieve 2000km and raise even more money. We then presented Summer, Eli, Lyla, Ivy, Ruby, Hamza and Charlie as the value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning and our 4Bs. We also congratulated Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, the KS2 girls who took part in the Girls Football tournament last Friday with Mr Bloomfield to celebrate International Women’s Day and River Darwen who are our overall value award winners this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Olivia for achieving her white belt at kickboxing, Sofia for achieving her 8th birthday badge at Rainbows, Carter for achieving his stage 2 at swimming, Annabel for achieving swimmer of the month, Vienna for being awarded an amazing 50m at swimming, Elsie for her incredible swimming and Renee for achieving her Stage 1 swimming. To end our worship, we had some lovely prayers from Olivia, Olivia, Finn and Mrs Ham who prayed for those who have died , are in the midst of conflict and a prayer to encourage us to be both kind and forgiving during this time of Lent. We also sang along to ‘Sing Hosanna.’ We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.

Image of Year 3- Collective Worship- Jesus the Powerful Friend
14 Mar

Year 3- Collective Worship- Jesus the Powerful Friend

This morning in our class worship, Year 3 watched and listened to the worship together across the Diocese video. The children first explored God's Big Story by exploring the timeline. The story comes from the gospel. After listening to the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus the children discussed two key questions. What was Jesus trying to teach us and how can we use the story in our lives today. The story taught us about faith, trust and the power of Jesus in our lives.

Image of Easter Singing Worship
14 Mar

Easter Singing Worship

We had a wonderful morning singing our favourite Easter hymns and songs. To finish we practised the Spring Chicken song in hope that we get a visit from the Spring Chicken at the end of term.

Image of Rev Matt’s Worship: The Story of Zacchaeus
12 Mar

Rev Matt’s Worship: The Story of Zacchaeus

This morning Rev Matt began our worship talking about soft and hard materials and how some materials can be softened. This led nicely into the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who had a hard heart and did not treat people very well. However, when Jesus called Zacchaeus to Him and requested to go to Zacchaeus’s house, Zacchaeus changed and had a softer heart. The story taught us that those who struggle are the ones who need our kindness most.

Image of Mrs Ham's Weekly Message
8 Mar

Mrs Ham's Weekly Message

Dear parents and carers, wow, what another busy week of 'achieving great things' and 'living life in all its fullness'! The highlights have been: *Choir Let's Go Sing concert at King George's Hall *Reception class firefighter visit and Mother's Day Worship *Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Big Lent Walks *Year 5 and 6 football festival *An author visit- RK Alker *FOSB Mother's Day Breakfast- Thank you FOSB! *Year 3 visited by a baker and made apple crumble * World book day- the word costumes were amazing! *International Women's Day girls football tournament *Whitehall Park house team winners non-uniform day and disco *WOW walk to school launch Next week we have a slightly quieter week but are looking forward to: Monday: Launch of the Big Plastic Count Wednesday: Rhyme and story time for Reception class and younger children Thursday: Cross Country competition for our cross country team Friday: Dress in red for Red Nose Day, Comic Relief Darwen Swimming gala for our swimming squad. Thank you so much for your donations and support towards our Big Lent Walk. We have now walked 1088km. Please keep sending in your walks and sponsorship money can be donated here: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk For all the latest photos in our gallery, please click here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-gallery-category/our-gallery For all of the latest news from each class, please click here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news or see our facebook page. I've attached a photo of the upcoming church Easter services and your child should come home with an invitation today. We are looking forward to our choir singing on Palm Sunday 24th March and everyone is welcome to come and support. Happy International Women's day to all of our wonderful Mums, Grandmas, female staff and young ladies in our school family. We hope that all of our Mums and Grandmas have a wonderful relaxing day on Mothering Sunday. Rev Ben is leading a special church service at 11.00am on Sunday and everyone is welcome. Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and thank you for your ongoing support, Mrs Ham

Image of Friday Celebration Worship
8 Mar

Friday Celebration Worship

Today, we started our celebration worship by wishing all of the wonderful women in our school family a Happy International Women’s Day. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with a lovely Mother’s Day breakfast hosted by FOSB, a special Mother’s Day celebration in Reception class, a fantastic author visit from R.K. Alker, an amazing day celebrating World Book Day, a visit to King George’s Hall Let’s Go Sing concert for our amazing choir and lots of amazing extra curricular clubs. We then presented Vienna, Charlie, Archie, Carter, Declan, Grace, Bobby and Sienna as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently showing our Christian Values and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We then had a phenomenal performance from our incredible choir of ‘Dancing on Air’ which was one of their songs at Let’s Go Sing concert. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week, our Year 5/6 football team who attended the Football Festival on Tuesday evening, our amazing librarians for all of their effort and enthusiasm on World a book Day and Grace, Annabelle and James in Year 4 for designing badges for the launch of the WOW initiative. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Jenson for achieving his 400m at swimming, Daisy for getting Emily the doll at Rainbows for being incredibly kind and thoughtful, Eliza for being awarded player of the match in her football match at the weekend, Skye and Rosie for demonstrating incredible skills in their horse riding lessons, Isaac for achieving a 100m medal in a swimming competition, Cassidy for being awarded gymnast of the session and Scarlett for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge. To end our worship, we had a lovely prayer from Rev Ben, sang happy birthday to those children who are celebrating birthdays today and this weekend and we had a sing along to ‘We Have a King Who Rides a Donkey.’ Mrs Ham also reminded us that it is dress in red for Comic Relief next Friday 15th March. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.

Image of KS1 World Book Day Assembly
7 Mar

KS1 World Book Day Assembly

Thank you to our wonderful KS1 children for their fantastic enthusiasm and excitement in this morning’s World Book Day assembly. Mrs Ham introduced the worship by telling the children all about the word that she had come dressed as which was ‘onomatopoeia.’ The children then joined in with a picture book quiz. During the first round, the children had to identify the title of a book by looking at the front cover. This included book titles such as The The Smartest Giant in Town, Elmer, The Squirrels Who Squabbled, Who Pooed in my Loo, My Dad is a Grizzly Bear and The Highway Rat. The second round consisted of playing emoji Pictionary with books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Giraffes Can’t Dance, The Gruffalo and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. All of the books that were on the quiz were books that we have in our library so we are hoping that our children now feel inspired to sample a book that they haven’t yet read. Our librarians also awarded Emily and Molly with their book tokens as they were the KS1 winners of our ‘Design a Bookmark with Your Favourite Book Title’ competition.Molly’s bookmark showed her love of the ‘Who Pooed in my Loo?’ picture book and Emily’s showed her love of ‘Stickman.’

Image of KS2 World Book Day Assembly
7 Mar

KS2 World Book Day Assembly

Thank you to our wonderful KS2 children for their fantastic engagement with this morning’s World Book Day assembly. Mrs Ham introduced the assembly by telling the children all about the word that she had come dressed as which was ‘onomatopoeia.’ The children then watched a video published by the literacy trust which gave them some top tips for choosing an appropriate book such as deciding if the genre is of interest to them, reading the blurb and ensuring that there are no more than 5 words that they can’t understand on the first page. They then joined in with a three part quiz. During the first round, the children had to identify the title of a book by looking at the front cover. This included book titles such as The Naughtiest Unicorn, Grimwood, Mac B Kid Spy, The Storey Treehouse collection, The Accidental Prime Minister, The Babysitters Club, Loki and Breakfast Club Adventures. The second round consisted of guessing the authors of certain books such as J.K. Rowling, Andy Stanton and Francesca Simon and the third round consisted of playing emoji Pictionary with books such as Goldfish Boy, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, Ninja Kid and Daisy and the Trouble With. All of the books that were on the quiz are books that we have in our library so we are hoping that our children now feel inspired to sample a book that they haven’t yet read. The librarians also awarded Annabelle and Miley with their book token as they were the KS2 winners of our ‘Design a Bookmark with Your Favourite Book Title’ competition. Annabelle‘s bookmark showed her love of the ‘The 13 Storey Treehouse’ collection of books and Miley’s showed her love of the ‘Daisy and the Trouble With’ collection of books.

Image of World Book Day in Year 4
7 Mar

World Book Day in Year 4

What a wonderful World Book Day! We have had a day packed full of enjoyment and the opportunity to showcase our love of books and reading. From reading our new class novel to book tasting to hearing Miss Flynn sharing one of her favourite stories with us, we have loved every second. Thank you to Miss Flynn for organising and the librarians for making the World Book Day Assembly so interactive and fun! Also a special mention for Annabelle who won the WBD bookmark competition for Key Stage 2.

Image of Year 3 - The History of Women’s Football
5 Mar

Year 3 - The History of Women’s Football

Today during class worship we looked into the history of women’s football. Year 3 were very interested in learning about what women have faced in the past and how the game is evolving to include women. We discussed the importance of encouraging and supporting each other. The boys in class can’t wait to cheer on the girls on Friday when they take part in a football tournament in support of International Women's Day.

Image of Rev Ben’s Worship- Jesus welcomes the children
4 Mar

Rev Ben’s Worship- Jesus welcomes the children

This morning in Collective Worship Rev Ben started with a fun game where we all had to touch our nose, then stand on one leg, then whilst hopping, then whilst turning around and finally whilst shouting 'Good morning Mrs Ham'. We discussed how the busier you get, the harder it can be to do things. He then read us a story from the Bible about how everyone wanted to see Jesus and how his disciples thought he was too busy and important to see the children. However, they were wrong as Jesus welcomed the children and said that adults could learn from the example of children and that he is never too busy. We reflected on how we are sometimes so busy but it helps us to know that Jesus is never too busy to listen to us. We finished by singing Jesus strong and kind and My God's the King of Giants. Thank you Rev Ben for another brilliant Worship!