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.
Friday Celebration Worship
What a brilliant first week back! We are so proud of all the children for settling back into school so sensibly, even with the excitement of the snow. We started by celebrating our values awards winners: Elara in Reception, Max in Year 1, Vienna in Year 2, Mila in Year 3, Lottie in Year 4, Carmen in Year 5 and Luca in Year 6. These children are always doing the right thing and working hard, well done! We also celebrated Olivia and Jacob in Year 4 who were awarded their pen licenses this week. A huge well done to all of our house teams this week for earning lots of value points. Darwen Tower came in 4th place, Whitehall Park came in 3rd place, River Darwen came in 2nd place and India Mill in 1st place. We had lots of Sports Awards this week. Well done to Callie for 25m in backstroke, Ralphi was awarded a swimming medal for 5m and a football certificate for courage against older players, Elijah was awarded a 200m swimming certificate, James was awarded a 100m swimming certificate, Renee was awarded a 5m swimming certificate and Carmen won a student of the year trophy in kickboxing and a swimming certificate for 100m and 50m. Additionally, Phoebe was awarded the Olivia doll from Rainbows for excellent colouring, Thea was awarded a gymnastics certificate for backwards and forwards on the bars, Reggie won player of the week in football for scoring 10 goals and finally Scarlett won player of the match in netball. Well done everyone! Our Year 5 and 6 football team also shared that they lost to St Paul’s 2-1 in their most recent football game, but still placed 5th out of 13 schools. This is a brilliant placement! Also, well done to Year 1 and 2 who the best attendance in Key Stage 1 and Year 4 in Key Stage 2. Mrs Ham also reminded us of our upcoming events: Let’s Go Sing, Stay and Play, NSPCC Speak Out and our visit from Harold the Giraffe. Finally, Charlie, Lilly and James said some beautiful prayers to end our worship. Have a restful weekend and please stay safe in the turbulent weather conditions.
Worship with Rev Matt- Courage
This morning, we were delighted to welcome Rev. Matt for our whole school worship. We spent time exploring our current Christian value of Courage, using the story of Epiphany as our inspiration. Through the journey of the Wise Men, we discussed how they demonstrated incredible bravery. It wasn't just the long journey that required strength, but their decision to listen to God’s warning and defy King Herod’s orders. They showed us that courage often means doing what is right, even when it feels difficult or uncertain. We reflected on how God can provide us with the inner strength to face our fears. And how courage isn't something we have to find alone; we can encourage and support each other to be brave in our daily lives. Like the Wise Men, we can choose to do the right thing, even when faced with pressure.
Whole School Worship - Epiphany
To continue our Epiphany celebration, in worship, we learned about the significance of the wise men’s gifts. We were entertained with some fantastic acting from a few of our Year 6 children as they acted out the story of the wise men meeting Herod on their way to visit Jesus. We all joined in with actions for repeated sections of the rhyming Bible story too. As the wise men presented their gifts it was revealed that each had a specific significance: gold to represent the King, frankincense to represent God, and myrrh to represent the great sacrifice to come. Following this we took the time to reflect on the true wonder of this significant event and then enjoyed singing We Three Kings together to bring this festive season to a close.
Welcome back worship & Epiphany
It was a joy to gather for this morning’s Welcome Back and Epiphany Worship. Just how did the news of the arrival of Jesus 'the light of the world' spread beyond Bethlehem? Today we heard from the Diocese as part of the Living out God's big story, the story of the Wise Men visiting Jesus and why the Feast of Epiphany is so important. Jesus was a gift sent by God that needed to be shared with everyone. We reflected on our God given gifts and how we should celebrate them. We then filled the hall with the joyous singing of our favorite worship songs in celebration of being back together again after the Christmas break.