The W.O.W. Group - Messy Church
Our fantastic W.O.W. Group have been busy planning and this week was our first messy church of the year. The theme was “promises” and the session began with a reading of the Parable of the Two Sons. The attendees compared the two sons in the story - the one that promised to do a job for his father but never did it, and the one who originally grumbled but then decided to help - and agreed that promises don’t mean anything if they are not kept. The W.O.W. Group then led an activity in which participants decorated promise jars and wrote down a promise that they vow to keep. They then drew messy church to a close with a prayer asking God to help us to keep our promises.
Year 4 - Class Worship: Jesus Helps People
Continuing the 100 years of Blackburn Diocese, our class worship this week focussed on how Jesus helped people and the importance of taking the time to listen. The children took part in a short quiz, learned about books, chapters and verses in the Bible, and they acted out the story of Martha. They learned about how Jesus taught people to avoid distracting themselves with unimportant tasks and take the time to listen to God’s word. The children then shared times when they have truly felt listened to and we added some examples to our second kindness kite.
Year 3-Our Class Worship on Jesus and the 'Listened Really Well' Kite.
In our Class Worship today, we explored the theme "Jesus Helps People, and Jesus Listens," reflecting on how Jesus showed compassion by healing Bartimaeus, feeding the hungry crowd with five loaves and two fish, and ensuring his mother was cared for by the disciple John. We also introduced our next display kite, "Listened really well," by sharing the story of Mary and Martha. We learned that while Martha was busy and "grumpy" with chores, Mary chose to sit still and listen carefully to Jesus' teachings. Jesus explained that Mary had "chosen well," and we practised sitting still ourselves to understand why being a good listener is so important. To encourage this behaviour, we will now be adding to our kite display whenever children show their best listening skills in and out of the classroom. We concluded with a prayer, asking for a caring attitude and the strength to help those who feel forgotten.
Year 1 Class Worship: National Storytelling Week
As it is National Storytelling Week, we were fortunate enough to join a Class Worship led by Annemarie Anang, the author of I Am Nefertiti. We loved joining in with the story and creating sounds and music. Then, we created some “I Am” poems which focused on our good qualities and being proud of our name. For example: “I am kind. I am smart. I am helpful. I am (name).” They also designed their backgrounds and shared them with each other.
Friday Celebration Worship
This week’s Celebration Worship was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the many achievements, experiences and values shown across our school community. We began by celebrating some exciting learning opportunities, including an inspiring author visit and our worships which encouraged our children to think deeply about fairness and injustice through discussions around the Holocaust and what it means to be treated unfairly. We also celebrated the success of our clubs, with Foodie Club, Drama Club, and Doodle and Dance providing fantastic opportunities for creativity, confidence and teamwork. Alongside this, pupils were praised for taking part in the January Reading Challenge, sharing their favourite books and enjoying reading in their favourite places. We then celebrated our values awards, recognising pupils who have demonstrated our school values in their everyday actions. Ronan was awarded the Reception value award, while Albie received the Year 1 values award, Elsie the Year 2 award, Charlie G the Year 3 award, Bindi the Year 4 award, Peyton the Year 5 award and Matthew the Year 6 award. These children were recognised for being excellent role models to others, always following our 4B’s and working hard. Team values were also celebrated, with Whitehall Park coming in fourth place, Darwen Tower in third place, India Mill in second place and River Darwen taking first place. Well done to all teams for showing cooperation, respect and determination. We were incredibly proud to celebrate a wide range of sporting and extracurricular achievements. Ava was awarded a medal and trophy for achieving second place in acro dancing, while Alice received a medal for coming first in a cheerleading competition. Zachary was awarded a Rocksteady certificate for his drumming, and Thea received a certificate for her hard work on the bars in gymnastics. Charlie G was awarded a trophy for martial arts, with Isabelle also receiving a trophy for being a winter champion in martial arts. Lyla was awarded medals for acro, Erin received a cheerleading certificate for Cheerleader of the Week and Phoebe was awarded both a trophy and certificate at a dancing competition. Mason received a certificate for jumping into the water with his coach, Chester was awarded Squirrel of the Week, and Jack received swimming certificates for swimming a metre butterfly, 25m front crawl, back crawl and breaststroke. We also celebrated Lilly and Sophia, who attended a red-carpet event for their acting school, with Lilly proudly featured on screen as Annie. Attendance was celebrated, with Year 3 achieving an outstanding 100% attendance, and well done also to Year 2 for their continued efforts. We shared some important reminders, including National Storytelling Week, where parents and grandparents are invited to come into school to read in classes. Thank you to those who volunteered! Reception Stay and Play next Wednesday and Dress to Express will take place on the 13th of February. We also reminded pupils that Kids with Bricks Club will be running in Spring 2 and Summer 1. We ended our Celebration Worship with thoughtful prayers led by Charlie and Ava, bringing the whole school together to reflect on gratitude, kindness and our shared values. It was a joyful celebration of achievement, effort and community spirit.
Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
Our Whole School Celebration Worship was led by Rev Ben this morning. We looked at the Bible story which focused on Jesus calling His team to see what super powers he needed to help him. Christian’s believe that Jesus is the number one King of the Universe,but His team were pretty ordinary. Although the team continued to make mistakes, Jesus still loved and cared for them. This helps Christians to have courage to overcome fear. As always, we started with a challenge and needed seven volunteers who were good at acting. We were thinking about superheroes and the children had to mime a super power whilst the other children had to guess what it was. Callie, Mason, Matthew, Desmond, Sofia, Eleanor and Harry all did a treat job and it was very entertaining! We then discussed the Bible story and what sort of people Jesus chose and what difference it makes to know that God can still use people who don’t have super powers to help him.
Year 3- Class Worship-Respect in Action
In our Class Worship today, we explored the theme of "Respect in Action" by looking at recent news from the Football Association (FA). We discussed the FA’s review of behaviour in the sport, which aims to ensure matches are safe, fair, and enjoyable for everyone, players, referees, and fans alike. Linking this to our Christian value of Respect, we focused on The Golden Rule: treating others the way we wish to be treated. We looked at Matthew 7:12, which tells us that treating others with kindness sums up the Law and the Prophets. We debated big questions, such as whether respect must be earned or if everyone deserves it just for being human, and how we can remain respectful even when others are not. We concluded with a prayer, thanking God for making every person unique and asking for the wisdom to treat everyone with the kindness we wish to receive ourselves.
Whole School Worship - How can we be peacemakers?
On Monday, during our whole school worship we came together to think about peace, how the bible tells us to show peace and also how we can learn from the past to ensure we create a world of peace and not war. Olivia and Desmond beautifully read our Peacemaker Bible readings from this week's kindness kite whilst we made doves, a symbol of peace, from our hands being linked together. We thought about world Holocaust Memorial Day, which is today, and reflected on how during that time peace and forgiveness were not shown and how cruel and unfair that was. We prayed for all those who lost their lives during the Holocaust and also asked God to help us to be courageous peacemakers when we see cruelty and also to love our neighbours and treat everyone with kindness and respect. We lit a special candle of peace for all those who cruelly lost their lives during the Holocaust and were shocked to learn that if we held a moment of silence for each person then we would have to be silent for 11 and a half years. We then sang a song about living without division but together, 'As One'.
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.