Friday Celebration Worship
Celebration Worship this week was full of wonderful moments and achievements from across our school community. We were delighted to reflect on recent NSPCC visits and our much-loved Harold the Giraffe sessions, which helped reinforce important messages about keeping safe and healthy. It has also been lovely to see kindness shining through our WOW group kindness kites and the continued enthusiasm for our brilliant clubs. A big well done to everyone who has taken part in the January Reading Challenge, it has been fantastic to see such a love of reading. Thank you also to families for sending in photos for us to share and celebrate together. We celebrated our school values and were proud to recognise Tommy as our Reception values winner, followed by Hendrix in Year 1, Callie in Year 2, Frankie in Year 3, Lennox in Year 4, James in Year 5 and Ella in Year 6. A special mention goes to Albie and Eva from Year 3, who were awarded a pen license for consistent handwriting. In our team values, Darwen Tower came in fourth place, Whitehall Park third, India Mill second and a huge congratulations to River Darwen for taking first place. Sporting achievements were a real highlight this week, with so many children being recognised for their dedication and hard work outside of school. Llewyn achieved a red belt in kickboxing, Jonas earned a badge in Squirrels and Willow was awarded star of the week in gymnastics for her back handsprings. Minnie achieved her 5m swimming certificate, Samuel was awarded a white belt in martial arts and Tommy Joe earned his 10m swimming certificate. Isaac received a football trophy for winning the Christmas Cup, Finn was recognised for good passing in football and Maggie achieved star of the week in gymnastics. James was awarded Cub of the Year for earning lots of badges as well as achieving his Stage 7 swimming certificate. Chester received the crab award in swimming and player of the week in football, while Mollie earned a Girl Power badge for learning how to save electricity. Olivia was awarded a medal for completing a 2k run for East Lancashire Hospice and raising money, George was named Squirrel of the Week and Luna received the Olivia doll from Rainbows for being a superstar in her very first week. Ella also celebrated achieving her 10m swimming certificate. We were incredibly proud of our Sportshall Athletics team, who demonstrated fantastic behaviour and teamwork throughout the event. They achieved an impressive third place and every child was awarded a medal for their efforts. Attendance celebrations this week went to Year 2 and Year 6, well done for your excellent commitment to being in school and ready to learn. Looking ahead, we would like to remind families that it is National Storytelling Week, and we warmly welcome family members who would like to volunteer to come in and read with the children. We will also be celebrating Dress to Express Day on Friday 13th February where children can express themselves through what they wear. We ended our worship beautifully with thoughtful prayers shared by Callie, Lydia and Seb. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to such a positive and joyful celebration.
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Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
Whole School Worship was led by Rev Matt this morning and it looked at the Bible story - John the Baptist. We started with the usual challenge that helped us think about being courageous in times of change. How easy do different people find change. Rev Matt gave instructions that the children had to follow. This included clapping, sticking our tongue out to make an ocean, using our hands to make a V shape and rubbing out tummy whilst we pat our heads. The children loved this challenge but found different ones more challenging ~ not everyone found the same challenge to be problematic and this shows how we are all different. Next Rev Matt shared the Bible story and he asked the children to say the word “Wow” every time the word “special” was used. The story of John told us that he lived simply in the desert, wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey, growing close to God. John preached a message of repentance (saying sorry for wrongs) and baptized people in the Jordan River, telling them God's promised Messiah (Jesus) was coming. When Jesus came, John baptized Him, and the Holy Spirit came down like a dove, showing everyone Jesus was God's Son. Baptism is all about change and through the story and our discussions we learnt that even though Jesus doesn’t need Baptism he shows us the way anyway.
Class Worship- Reception class, Year 3 and Year 4 -The Power of Kind Words
Mrs Gardner delivered a collective worship session focused on the power of our words, using the theme 'Kind Words.' The children reflected on how kind words can cheer us up and make others stronger, supported by verses from Proverbs and Ephesians. We watched a 'Douglas Talks' video that demonstrated how powerful our words can be, and we closed the worship with a prayer asking for help to use only words that bring a smile to the listener.
Year 6 Class Worship: Kindness
Year 6's class worship this week was linked to our whole-school focus on kindness. The children watched a video discussing how our words can be more powerful than a raging bull, as we can use them to lift others up or to tear them down. We have also been recording the kind words of our classmates on our Kindness Kite.
Whole School Worship - Kindness
We welcomed a visitor into school this morning who spoke to us all about what activities the children can take part in if they join Cubs or Beavers. Our visitor was a representative from the Whitehall Park division and the children agreed it sounded great fun! We then celebrated through song with some songs thinking about kindness, kindness to others, kindness to our word and kindness to ourselves.
Friday Celebration Worship
We enjoyed a lovely Celebration Worship this week and it was amazing to hear about all the great things the children have achieved both in and out of school. Across school, we have started creating our Kindness Kites in classrooms as part of the 100 year celebration of Blackburn Diocese, encouraging children to recognise and celebrate acts of kindness. We have also launched several exciting clubs, including Let’s Go Sing, Foodie Friends Club, Doodle and Dance Club, and Cross Country Club. These have already been met with great enthusiasm. Mrs Wilkinson also set the children a challenge as part of the National year of reading to read at home in their favourite places and it has been wonderful to see children already sending in photographs of themselves enjoying their reading at home. Our Values Awards were presented to children who consistently demonstrate our school values. Lily received the award in Reception, Luna in Year 1, Millie in Year 2, Roman in Year 3, Ella-Grace in Year 4, Lilly in Year 5 and Charlie in Year 6. The Pen Licence Award was presented to Arabelle in Year 4 for her excellent work and attitude to learning. This week’s team results saw River Darwen take first place, followed by Whitehall Park in second place, India Mill in third place and Darwen Tower in fourth place. Well done to all teams for showing our values throughout the week. We celebrated a wide range of sporting achievements during worship. Callie was recognised for her excellent work on the vault in gymnastics. Max was congratulated for swimming five metres. Beau completed Stage 4 in swimming and also won a football trophy for showing good turns and listening skills. Ida and Layla both won rosettes in horse riding for their mounting and dismounting skills. Hollie completed Stage 3 in swimming, while Charlie completed Stage 6 and Carmen completed Stage 7. Phoebe was awarded a rosette for taking part in a dance competition. Maggie and Hendrix both won medals for gymnastics after completing Stage 2 and Hendrix also received Star of the Week for his super listening and effort. Olivia earned a badge at Rainbows for making a present for her leader. Peyton won medals for completing Stage 4 in gymnastics. Cassius was awarded a football trophy for good listening and scoring four goals. Eleanor received a certificate for water skills and earned her sleepover badge. Scarlett was awarded a trophy for being Netball Player of the Match. Living Streets walk to school badges for December were awarded and the winning class was Reception. Well done to everyone who took part. We also celebrated birthdays this week and would like to wish a happy birthday to Mrs Gardner and Neve. Well done to Year 2 and Year 3 for their amazing attendance this week. Please remember the upcoming NSPCC Workshop, the return of Harold the Giraffe, and Reception Stay and Play on Wednesday morning. We ended our Celebration Worship with thoughtful prayers led by Charlie G, Max and Lottie and then all of our award winners got to sing My Lighthouse at the front of the hall.
Whole School Worship led by Rev Matt
Today our Celebration Worship was led Rev Matt and it focused on trusting God. We started with a challenge which was “. How green you are”. we started by singing it as a song. We sang it both loudly and quietly. As part of our challenge we hid Bishop Flippers and a child had to find him. If the person got close to the hiding place Rev Matt asked the children to sing loudly and if they moved away from the hiding place the children were asked to sing quietly.. Jenson hid Bishop Flippers and Mrs Wilkinson had the tough job of trying to find him but she succeeded with the help of our singers. Our Bible story followed which was the story of The Boy in the Temple which involves Jesus going missing in the temple but this reminds us that we can lean on God just as Jesus did when things become scary. It was scary for Mary and Jesus.”Whoever goes to the Lord for safety….can say to him, “You are my defender and protector. You are my God in you I trust.” We finished by reflecting on what makes us scared and how we can help others when they are scared too.
Year 3- Class Worship-Kindness is Viral: Following in the Footsteps of Positive Influencers
In class worship, we explored this week’s Picture News story about how famous people can influence others to make good choices. We looked at the story of MrBeast and his "1 Billion Acts of Kindness" campaign, which highlights how one person’s influence can inspire millions to take positive action. This linked perfectly with Mrs Ham’s whole school worship yesterday. She spoke about how our small, everyday actions can make a big difference, which is exactly what the children practised in their work today. To finish the lesson, we sang the hymn "My Lighthouse," reflecting on how we can be a "guiding light" for others through kindness, and Seb read a lovely prayer.
Reception: Kindness Kites
As part of celebrating 100 years of Blackburn Diocese, our school are taking part in the kindness kites challenge. For the next few weeks, we are focusing on saying something kind. Reception staff have caught three children so far saying something kind to their friends. Well done to Coban, Theo and Poppy. We are sure we will be adding more bows to our kindness kite in the upcoming weeks.
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Whole School Worship - God is Kind
In our whole-school worship, Mrs Ham revealed our first Kindness Kite celebrating the Blackburn Diocese centenary. This week, the focus is ‘God is Kind’. A small selection of Year 6 children were chosen to read three Psalms about God’s kindness and we learned that God is everywhere, always, even when it’s dark, even when we hide. The children were then invited to share some of the kind things that they have heard people say, such as ‘I like your hair’ , ‘Your dress is pretty’ and ‘You are so smart’. We reflected on how kind words make us feel and we all practised paying compliments to our partners. We are looking forward to adding kind words to our classroom kites.
Whole School Singing Worship - Monday
We welcomed our children back into school on Monday with a special story read to us from Bob Hartman, who also wrote the rhyming Bible that we use a lot in our worships. Jesus told us that children are important and should be treated with kindness and understanding and that the rich people of the world are not better than the poor, encouraging them to share their wealth. This turned the way people of the time thought upside down. We then celebrated together through some of our beautiful songs and children were welcomed to perform at the front. A lovely start to our week together.
100 Years of Blackburn Diocese
In order to celebrate 100 years of Blackburn diocese, we took part in a whole-school virtual assembly that focused on the many successes and achievements of the diocese over the past century. Bishop Philip welcomed schools from across the diocese and shared an engaging story about the travels of the Wise Men, linking these to themes of faith, journey and community. The children greatly enjoyed seeing and feeling connected to other schools within the diocese and were excited to take part in a shared celebration. The assembly provided a valuable opportunity for pupils to reflect on their place within the wider diocesan family, strengthening their sense of belonging and understanding of our shared faith. The event was engaging, inclusive, meaningful and it helped bring the history and mission of the diocese to life for the whole school community. We are looking forward to taking part in a variety of centenary 'All for Jesus' activities and worships over the year.