Image of Monday Worship: Blackburn Diocese Harvest Appeal 2022
17 Oct

Monday Worship: Blackburn Diocese Harvest Appeal 2022

During the start of our worship, we discussed what literacy and numeracy meant. We then discussed if any jobs do not require us to read and write. It was really interesting which jobs the children thought didn’t require you to read and write but Mrs Ham proved the children wrong! All jobs require you to read and write. Reading is like a key. If you can’t read, you can’t unlock all of those possibilities. You wouldn’t be able to be a teacher, cook, builder etc. We discussed the British Value of individual liberty. We all have rights. We have the right to education and it is free. This year, the Bishop of Blackburn’s Harvest appeal is supporting the Mother’s Union. The Mother’s union is a Christian charity but it shows the British value of tolerance of all faiths and helps everybody. Mrs Ham showed the children 4 tools and the children explained what each tool does. Mrs Ham explained that in some countries, they do not have the tools to do things that we take for granted: our reading and writing. The Mother’s Union helps people in Burundi which is one of the poorest places in the entire world. In Burundi, families live on £1.50 per day. Our Wow group have set us a challenge to raise £1.50 each to help to support families in Burundi. Wow group explained that we can do chores to help raise the money. Monies can then be paid on parent pay. We can also collect tins and cans for Dare. Mrs Ham has also asked if we can write prayers for families in Burundi. This week, we need to think about how we can help other people and help to make a difference. Our choir group led our song at the end ‘The Harvest of Love’.

Image of Celebration Worship - Value Awards
14 Oct

Celebration Worship - Value Awards

In Celebration Worship this morning we saw lots of children who had demonstrated our Christian values and British values and have worked hard to achieve great things. We can’t believe how quickly six weeks has gone by and all of our children are growing in confidence and maturity by the day! It’s lovely to see how they all support and respect each other both in and out of the classroom. Well done to all of our Value winners this week.

Image of Celebration Worship  - Sports Awards and House Team Half Term Winners
14 Oct

Celebration Worship - Sports Awards and House Team Half Term Winners

As part of our Celebration worship, we saw so many children sharing their fantastic achievements out of school too. Our football team had some fantastic wins at the DPSSA football games last night, showing great sportsmanship and serving our school so respectfully. We also shared the end of this half term “House Team Value Winners” Drum roll………… WINNERS - Whitehall Park - 18 2nd - India Mill - 15 3rd - River Darwen - 11 4th - Darwen Tower - 7 Congratulations to every single child in school for working so hard to demonstrate our Christian values both in and out of the classroom

Image of The Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal- Burundi Harvest Challenge
11 Oct

The Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal- Burundi Harvest Challenge

This morning in worship, the WOW group launched our Harvest appeal challenge. We are asking for donations of £1.50 from parents in exchange for the children completing 3 helpful challenges at home. Each challenge is worth 50p. The challenges can be any of those mentioned in the poster, or any that you and your child decide at home. Donations will go to the Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal and this year they are supporting the Christian charity, Mothers' Union, to support the delivery of literacy and numeracy programs to women in Burundi so that they can help earn money to support their families. Donations will be collected by next Thursday 20th October on Parent pay. We are also collecting tins and packets for our local Darwen Refugee and Asylum Enterprise (DARE) to support refugees who have had to flee their homes due to conflict. Please send any donations into school next week. Parents and carers are welcome to join us at our Harvest Festival next Thursday 20th October at 9.30am at St Barnabas church. Our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes will be leading the service and the rest of the school will be joining in with songs and prayers.

Image of Monday Worship: Hello Yellow Day
10 Oct

Monday Worship: Hello Yellow Day

Wow, what an uplifting worship we had. We began our worship with our trinity. Mrs Ham then called upon her minions to help her with today’s special worship. We began by dancing along to ‘Happy’. The roof blew off with all of the fabulous singing and dancing. The minions started by asking the children to show different feelings, for example, tired, happy, sad and loved. The minions explained how you are not alone with your mental health and it is important to talk to somebody. The minions explained that Young Minds is a great campaign about opening up about your mental health. The children watched a video about mental health. It explained how we all have feelings that come and go every day. If feelings become too big then it is important to talk to somebody about them. The minions shared some morning affirmations that we can use. If you say an affirmation, it can make you feel happy, brave, confident, strong and determined. The children said affirmations together such as ‘today is going to be a great day’, ‘I am kind’ and ‘I matter in this world’. The minions explained that you can donate to Young Minds which helps provide a service to help young people with their mental health. The minions have created a competition to design your own emoji. The winning emoji will receive a special hamper prize! This week, we will also have a hello yellow hunt on the MUGA every lunchtime. We finished our worship by singing ‘build up’. A huge thank you to our minions- our head boy, head girl, deputy head boy and deputy head girl.

Image of Celebration Worship
7 Oct

Celebration Worship

Wow what a jam-packed celebration worship we had this morning - our children have certainly be living life in all its fullness this week! We started by sharing smiles with each other in aid of World Smile Day - Mother Theresa taught us that ‘peace starts with a smile’, so let’s smile at one another and continue spread joy and kindness around our school. There have been so many achievements across school this week! We say a big well done to this weeks value point winners Albie, Bluebelle, Alice, Lola, Bobby, Lucy And Eliza who continue to demonstrate our Christian values throughout school. River Darwen are our Value point champions this week. Keep it up! And what fantastic Sports stars we have in our school - well done to Charlie, Miles, Annabel, Penelope, Leonora, Isabella & Charlie, Eliza, James and Lyla. Congratulations to our DPSSA football team for their 10-2 victory against St James, what a result! Well done Rosie for your super reading too. Year 2 and Year 5 are our attendance winners this week - let’s keep up that fantastic attendance to school. We also shared our Remembrance Day art competition with the school and look forward to seeing some fantastic entries for the chance to win a prize hamper. It was lovely to have Lillian back in school with us to finish with a blessing and a prayer. Thank you. What another tremendous week!

Image of Year 6 Class Worship
6 Oct

Year 6 Class Worship

In class worship this week, year 6 have been discussing whether they think competition is a good thing and whether it helps us to achieve more. We spoke about how this links to one of our British values (Rule of Law) because of rules that take place in competitions to make it a level playing field.

Image of Year 3 Class Worship: Pebble Prayers
4 Oct

Year 3 Class Worship: Pebble Prayers

This week, the WOW Group provided the class with a new idea for how to pray. In class worship, we focused on Pebble Prayers. Some of the children took turns to come to our class prayer area and complete a Pebble Prayer. The children held a pebble in their hand, whilst saying their prayer and putting the pebble into the water. Thank you to the WOW group for this lovely idea for how to pray!

Image of Monday Worship- Black History Month
3 Oct

Monday Worship- Black History Month

Last week we focussed on being kind to our neighbour. When we came into worship, we listened to ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin. We discussed what this meant and looked at how it was one of our Christian values and our British Value, mutual respect. Mrs Ham told us about how many years ago, Africans were captured and taken to America to be slaves. The children all agreed that this was unfair. Mrs Ham then role played with Declan and Elsie to show the children how slaves were treated. They weren’t treated nicely which was very unfair. In 1865, slavery was completely banned. In 1926, Carter Woodson created black history week and now we celebrate black history month every October. We watched a video which showed how Ayanna Najuma who was just 7 years old changed the world! Ayanna did a peaceful protest and went into a white only restaurant and waited until they were served. Ayanna asked for a hamburger and a coke but the waitress said no. They went back on day 2 and 3. By day 3, they were served food and the restaurant became integrated. Ayanna said “my voice was little but it was just as important as everybody else’s voice”. Martin Luther King Junior also stood up for what was right and he fought for a long time for everybody to be treated equally. Finally we watched a song video about Rosa Parks and how she fought for change. This week, Mrs Ham asked the children to reflect on anything that we have experienced that seemed unfair. Did we have the courage to speak up? Can we do this going forward? We finished our worship by singing ‘Make a difference’.

Image of Sports Awards- Celebration Worship
30 Sep

Sports Awards- Celebration Worship

During our celebration worship this morning, the children were presented with their sports awards. Last night, a group from Years 5 and 6 represented DPSSA football. They played superbly and gained 1 victory and a narrow defeat. A massive well done to all of our children who also celebrated awards that they brought in from taking part in activities outside of school. We had awards for gymnastics, running, swimming, dancing, reading and martial arts.

Image of Celebration Worship  and Celebrating Values
30 Sep

Celebration Worship and Celebrating Values

During our Celebration Worship, Mrs Ham reminded everyone about spreading kindness at school and at home. The children shared some of the kindness that they have been sharing at home, such as, cleaning their bedroom, helping their parents carry in the shopping, opening the doors for teachers and pupils and looking after the environment. We also celebrated the value certificate for each classroom presented to, Year 6 - Eva, Year 5 - Rio, Year 4 - Laila, Year 3 - Grace, Year 2 - Sofiya, Year 1 - Harry and Emily, Reception - Sienna and the winning team this week, Whitehall Park. They have all demonstrated our Christian and British Values throughout the school. A huge well done to everyone. The worship came to an end with a prayer led by Mrs Ham and three children.

Image of Year 6 Class Worship
30 Sep

Year 6 Class Worship

Year 6 have looked at how the Individual liberty of the people Pakistan has been affected because of the recent floods. They have also thought about how they can help people even when they are a long way away.