Autism Awareness Week in Year 4
In our PSHE session today, we looked at Autism Awareness Week. We looked at what autism is, how people are at different levels on the spectrum and the many famous people who have autism, including Albert Einstein and Lionel Messi.
Year 5 - Class Worship - Community
Today for class worship we looked at our British Values of tolerance and respect. We discussed our roles in the community and what we may have done to help others. We looked at how the community in Turkey and Syria have come together after the tragic events of the earthquake to ensure children are still able to go to school.
Whole School Worship: Palm Sunday
Today, we began our worship by watching a video about Palm Sunday. Mrs Ham and the children all read the parable from the rhyming bible whilst we had some talented actors acting the story out. James was the donkey, a vote meant that Mr Prescott was Jesus, Sonny, Alby and Riley were the disciples and Ted and Bobby were the religious leaders. A child from each year group led our prayers at the end of our worship.
Whole School Celebration Worship
In our Celebration Worship this morning we commemorated Year 6's trip to London, as well as the wonderful achievements of our pupils across all year groups. The class teachers gave out awards to pupils who have demonstrated our Christian values such as kindness, respect, and courage. We recognised the hard work and dedication of pupils who have excelled in various extracurricular activities, including our recent swimming gala and the Year 4 children for being brave and showing courage at Junction 4 skatepark. We also awarded the amazing attendance award to our Year 1 and Year 3 pupils, who have shown a commitment to their education and a passion for learning. Congratulations to the yellow team (Darwen Tower) for gaining a total of 317 points. This is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved. Well done and keep up the good work! We are incredibly proud of all our pupils and their accomplishments, and we know that they will continue to achieve great things. We want to thank Rev Ben for leading us in prayer and for reminding us of the importance of faith and community in our daily lives. To celebrate our students' achievements, we sang "Shine from the inside out," a fitting tribute to the incredible talents and hard work of our pupils.
WOW Group - Messy Church Planning
The WOW Group had plenty of ideas for a parable-themed messy church. The children have taken a parable in pairs and have started researching craft ideas and songs to put together a session in the Summer term. Keep your eyes peeled for the date coming soon.
Year 4 Picture News - Should we all be entitled to an opinion?
In our class worship this week we have focused on Picture News. We looked at the news article about Gary Lineker and how his Tweet led him to be dismissed from Match of the Day. We had some great conversations and came to the decision that we should all be entitled to our own opinion, but we need to choose our words very careful as these could be hurtful.
Year 5: Collective Worship- See with your heart
During our class worship today, we explored a text about the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, which provides trained guide dogs to people who are blind or visually impaired. They rely heavily on volunteers who help to raise and train the dogs before they are matched with their new owners. The children then participated in a drawing activity while being blindfolded. It was an experience that helped them understand what it might be like to navigate the world without sight. This created an awareness about the challenges faced by the visually impaired. We ended our class worship by singing ' Light up the fire'.
Year 2: Class Worship
During class worship, we had a look the impact that Roald Dahl’s books have on the modern day world. We discussed whether these books should be rewritten to fit in with new rules and regulations in today's society. Children were of the opinion that they: represent a time period, are historical and are still very funny and appealing. Therefore we agreed that they should not be rewritten.
Rev Ben Worship: Gates to Heaven
This morning, Rev Ben led our worship. We began by playing a quiz. The children were split into team 1 and team 2. Rev Ben shared a variety of gate pictures and asked where they were from. Gates included Buckingham Palace, Arc de Triomphe, Ewood Park and Whitehall Park. Well done to Team 1. Rev Ben shared how Jesus is the gate. Rev Ben asked the children to think about what a gate is for and what we think Jesus is saying about himself. Tristen said a gate is about letting people in and out. Harlee thought the gate is there for Jesus to look after people. Jesus is the gate to protect his followers and to keep them safe. Rev Ben shared a photograph of the Thames barrier. It was built to stop parts of London flooding. If there is a high tide, the gates rise and stop parts of London from flooding. Christians believe that when we come to God, we face a barrier. The barrier is the things we have done wrong. However, Christians believe that Jesus takes away the barrier and creates a gate for us to walk through to God. Rev Ben invited the children to pray with him. At the end of our worship, we sang ‘Waymaker’.
Whole School Worship: Visions and Values
This morning during whole school worship, we revisited our school Christian values and British values and discussed why we have values. We follow the British values of democracy, rule of law, tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, mutual respect and individual liberty in and out of school so that we can feel safe, happy, valued and free to be ourselves. We also reflected on our school vision and the meaning behind ‘Life in all its fullness’ and how Jesus wants us to life live in all its fullness and what that means. We had some great suggestions from the children such as: To be happy, to live your life how you want, not copying others, to show kindness to everyone, to live your best life and to show our Christian Values. We thought about how we can be like Jesus, by showing our Christian values in school and within our community. We thought about the importance of respect and how we can show respect to all those around us. The children enjoyed watching children in another school perform a rap all about respect. Finally, we thought about what makes up our personal identity and what makes you, you by playing some fun thumbs up, thumbs down games to show that we are all different and unique and that is brilliant. Our Year 6 children are looking forward to learning more about our British values, in particular democracy and the rule of law when they visit the Houses of Parliament this Wednesday.
Celebration Worship -Sports Stars
The list of Super Sports Stars was never ending this week which is so great to see! We had children receiving awards for a number of out of school sports such as swimming, martial arts, horse riding, dancing, rugby and gymnastics. We hope that the children are inspired to take part in different sports after hearing from our worthy winners.
Celebration Worship Value Points Winners
In our Celebration Worship this morning we spent time reflecting on why we came to school in non- uniform- our school council chose to raise funds for families who have been affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. We also celebrated our Value Ponts Winners across both Key Stages and it’s so lovely to see how our values are being shown by the children and how they are working hard both in and out of the classroom. We had so many other things to celebrate this morning such as Let Girls Play Football Event, Let’s Go Sing and the verse speaking competition. The list of Super Sports Stars was never ending this week which is so great to see! Attendance Winners were Years 2 & 6 and Value Points Winning house team was River Darwen.