Friday Celebration Worship
This morning we started our worship by thinking about remembrance. We put all of the people who serve us each and everyday with great strength and courage in our thoughts. Our heads and deputies said some some lovely prayers for all of those who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives to fight in the wars and all of those who are caught in conflict at the moment. We then observed a two minute silence. Following this, we presented our value award winners for this week. Well done to Lucy, Freddy, Elsie and Alfie in the Juniors and Lennox, Evie and Harvey in EYFS and KS1. We also said a huge well done to River Darwen for being our overall value award winners this week and Year 1, 2 and Year 4 for being our amazing attendance winners. We then moved onto celebrating our Year 5/6 football team who are through to the finals of the Darwen schools league next week after playing exceptional football through the league and we also celebrate our out of school achievers. Well done to Issac for being a super scout and swimmer, Sofia for being a wonderfully creative brownie and designing and making her own t-shirt, Annabel for working extremely hard in her ballet lessons and being a wonderful ballerina, Grace for being a fantastic gymnast, Poppy for achieving athlete of the week and ‘man of the match’ in her most recent football game, Ivy for pushing herself out of her comfort zone in her dancing and achieving a medal and Amelia and Jess for showing super courage and talent in their horse riding lessons. Finally, we ended our celebration worship by singing happy birthday to Alice, Elsie and Sophie and singing ‘A Song of Peace.’ Please remember that we are wearing odd socks and shoes on Monday to celebrate the launch of Anti-Bullying week. Our Well-Being Warriors announced that there will be a winner per class for the funkiest choice of odd shoes. We wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Year 1- We Will Remember Them
Year 1 have been thinking about all of the soldiers that have unfortunately died or been injured in the war. They have also been thinking about all of the soldiers that are fighting at the moment and all of families that are being affected by the wars in Gaza, Israel and Ukraine. They have independently printed some pictures in the creative area, created some models in the construction area and shared some lovely prayers with the class.
Year 6 Parliament Week
In year 6, we spent some time thinking about parliament and how the country is actually run as part of parliament week. We looked at how the Houses of Parliament are split into two houses: the House of Commons and the House of Lords and discussed some current issues that are close to the children’s hearts and what they would like to see the government do to address them. I’m sure we will find out even more when we go to the Houses of Parliament on our trip to London in March.
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Year 3- Parliament Week
This week, as part of Parliament Week, the children participated by taking a stance and casting their votes for the changes they wish to see. Some of the suggestions were shorter school days, lowered prices for sweets and snacks, more and better playgrounds, and reduced traffic on the roads. The children particularly enjoyed putting their vote in the Big Ben cardboard ballot box. They want people to listen to their ideas and support their rights.
Year 3- Remembrance Day
In their guided reading sessions this week, Year 3 have been learning about Remembrance Day. They have guided information about when the war began and ended and why people wear poppies today. They also talked about the word 'peace' and how everyone wants to have peace in the world. They wrote individual prayers to remember the people who died in the war and the sacrifices they made for our country.
Year 5&6 War Memorial Visit
Today in their class Worship Year 5 and Year 6 took a special trip to the war memorial to pay their respects to those people who gave their lives up for our freedom. The children held a two minute silence to consider all those people and all those who have been affected by the wars. The children all wrote prayers on poppies and decorated them. They placed their poppies next to the memorial for all visitors to read. Year 5&6 also placed their amazing prayers outside of our school to show their respect to make others think about all those who have been affected.
Rev Matt’s Worship: God’s Compassion for Gideon
Rev Matt’s Worship this week was about victory against the odds and staying faithful to God. He told us the story of Gideon and how he defeated the Midianites, even though his army was small. He trusted in God and God showed Gideon compassion. We also discussed how we can show compassion to people who need our help.
Whole-School Worship: Remembrance
With Remembrance Day fast approaching, Mrs Ham began the week with a worship about why and how we remember those who have died due to war and those who serve our country and protect us. She explained the significance of the poppy and we discussed which Christian and British values are shown by people in the armed forces. We ended our worship time with a prayer of thanks to those in the armed forces and prayed for peace around the world as we sang ‘A song of peace’.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today we started our worship by lighting our very special candle for those in Israel and Gaza who have very much been in our thoughts this week. Mrs Ham reminded us that we will be focusing on remembrance next week. We will be thinking about all of the soldiers that have fought in the war past and present and all of those that have and are being affected by the war. The heads and deputies told us some of the things that they will be selling next week to support the Poppy Appeal. We then presented our value award winners with their certificates. Our winners this week were Callie, Mila, Alby, Carmen, Matthew, Seb, Layla and Sophie and we also said well done to Matthew, Layla and Will who gained their pen licenses. We then said a huge well done to our out of school achievers. Congratulations to Albie for achieving his 5m certificate in his swimming with no armbands, Annabel for getting Olivia at Rainbows this week for super tidying up and achieving super star status in her ballet and acro, Darcy for achieving stage 3 in her swimming, Daisy for achieving 2nd place in her gymnastics competition, Callie for achieving 10m in her swimming with no armbands, Cassidy for achieving 3 gold medals in her gymnastics vault, floor and all around routines and an additional overall gold medal, Iris for achieving 10m in her swimming and stage 1 in her gymnastics, Desmond for stage 4 and 10m in his swimming, Eliza for achieving girl of the game as goalkeeper in her football, Annabelle for entering in the 18+ category in orienteering and coming in first place, Alfie for scoring a hat trick in a recent football game, Bobby-Ray for achieving the brown and white belt in Karate, Finn for being a cricket superstar, Charlie for achieving the batter of the year in his cricket, Archie for achieving batter of the batter and fielder of the year in his cricket, Grace for achieving several medals and a trophy for her acro expertise and Elsie for achieving a certificate in her tutoring lessons. We said a well done to Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week with 407 points and Year 2 and Year 5 for being the amazing attendance award winners this week. Finally, we ended our worship with some lovely prayers for those in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza and a song about peace. Thank you to those who could attend our celebration worship this week and we wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
Poppy Appeal 2023
From Monday our Heads and Deputies will be selling Poppy Appeal merchandise at break times. The suggested donation for zip ties and reflectors is 50p, standard wristbands £1.00 and slap bands £1.50. Poppies will also be available to purchase for a small donation. Next week we will be focusing on Remembrance Day in our Worships and our Year 6 Heads and Deputies plus some of our WOW group members will be taking part in a special Remembrance Service in Darwen Cemetery. We will remember them.
Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
Rev Ben taught us all about the value of thankfulness this week. He told us the story of the Jews being freed from slavery and how they lost sight of the good things God had given them, so they were left to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The children loved interacting with the story and shared their ideas on how we can focus on the good.
Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide & Praying for Peace
This morning Mrs Ham reminded us of the Christian season of Allhallowtide starting with All Hallows’ Eve tomorrow - Hallow means Holy and it is a time to be mindful of the good we can do in the world, All Saints’ Day on Wednesday - when Christians remember the good the saints have done, and All Souls‘ Day on Thursday - when we think of those who have died and are in heaven. We discussed Remembrance day which is coming up shortly, where we remember soldiers who have died in the wars. We also thought about the conflict in Israel and Gaza and prayed for those who are suffering in this war. We watched some newsround videos to learn about how children in Gaza and Israel are being affected and we thought of some ways that we can be like saints and help. Peyton said we can pray to God for them and Darcy, Jack and Naomi said we can donate money, clothes and toys to the children who have lost their homes and belongings. To finish we sang a 'Song of Peace' where we wished for a world where hate and war would cease and the everyone in the world could live in peace.