Whole School Worship - The Story of Queen Esther
This morning our whole school came together to worship with Rev Ben. Here we enjoyed a story about Queen Esther who came to power for her beauty and saved her people from the king by showing courage and compassion. We then thought about how we can show courage and compassion to others and ourselves.
Whole School Worship - The First Day of Advent
The whole school family came together to celebrate the start of Advent. We heard from Lisa, Sam and Bishop Joe that through his messengers the prophets, God told his people that Jesus was coming 100's of years before he arrived.
Year 4 - Class Worship: Togetherness
In our class worship time this week we learned about the Princess of Wales’ annual carol service and the work she does to bring people from different walks of life together. We spent some time considering groups that we belong to and we used our oracy skills to share our thoughts on feeling a sense of belonging. There were some excellent points about sharing interests and feeling loved, and also about recognising when we feel ostracised or unsafe in a group, such as an online community.
Year 3- Class Worship-The Importance of Togetherness
Today in our class worship, we discussed the importance of togetherness and the Princess of Wales's Carol Service, which aims to bring people together to celebrate kindness and community. We learned that togetherness means noticing others, caring, listening, and showing kindness. This helps create a sense of belonging for everyone. Charlie read the prayer out.
Year 3- Class Worship- The Spread of Christianity
Today, during our class worship, we explored the fascinating story of The Spread of Christianity and how the faith journeyed from its beginnings to our very own local area (our Diocese). We learned that after Jesus left, his first followers were given the special job, known as the Great Commission, to share his message of love and hope with everyone. Key stories, like the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and the incredible journeys of figures like the Apostle Paul, showed us how the Church grew and traveled across the world, eventually leading to the formation of the network of churches we belong to today. This movement is why we can gather together right here to worship. After learning about the growth of the Church, we took part in our own special way of spreading something good: thankfulness. Instead of using paper or screens, we used the power of our voices and our actions to share what we were grateful for. Each person was encouraged to verbally share something they were thankful for with the person next to them, creating a "chain" or "ripple" of gratitude that spread across the room, showing how quickly and easily good words can travel when we speak them aloud.
Whole School Worship led by Rev Matt
In our Whole School Thursday Worship this week, Rev Matt shared the Bible story - Ruth Finds a New Home We started with our challenge which involved being good at charades. The children acted out a feeling and the other children sat down had to guess what it was. We had sad, angry, happy, excited and worried. We have been thinking about compassion. The Bible story - Ruth Finds a New home is about Ruth, a woman from Moab, chose to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi and move to Bethlehem after her husband died. There, she worked hard gleaning barley in the fields of Boaz, a relative of Naomi. Boaz was impressed by her kindness and loyalty, and he eventually married her, providing a new home and a place in God's family for both Ruth and Naomi. The story is filled with compassion so it led us to our questions - Who shows us the most compassion and who do we show it to. We had answers such as family, friends, trusted adults, teachers and God. The children have showed compassion to everyone that they have come across, including their pets. Rev Matt finished with a lovely prayer about compassion and asked the children sto think how they could show this more around school this week.
Whole School Worship - The Importance of Trees
This week is National Tree Week and Mrs Ham introduced an exciting new tree-planting project that we will be undertaking as a school. Following on from Switch Off Fortnight, we will continue our Planet Protectors mission by planting trees on our school grounds and, of course, our fantastic children will be involved. To kick start the project, we had a discussion about why trees are amazing. The children gave some very thoughtful answers, such as “they give us oxygen”, “they take harmful carbon dioxide out of the air”, “they provide protection for animals”, “we love playing in the trees”, “we use trees to make things”. Mrs Ham also told us the story, The Man Who Planted Trees. It was about a shepherd who saw the barren land and wanted to improve it, so he started planting trees. He planted over 1000 acorns, and after many years, the landscape was filled with lush, green trees, rivers flowed and a town was built. We learned from this 100-year-old story that one person’s small act can make a huge difference. Just like in the Parable of the Talents, we learned that it’s important for us all to use what we’ve been given to make a positive impact on the world. We can’t wait to use the trees that have been donated to us by the National Trust to make a positive impact on our community.
Singing Worship
We came together as a whole school to start practising our Christmas songs and think about why these songs are important. The highlight was definitely Ding Dong!
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in our celebration worship we starting by thanking all the parents for their contributions to Children in Need. We thanked Miss Kachwalla for her workshops for Inter Faith week as we have all learnt so much about Islam. We also said a big thank you and goodbye to Miss Flynn for everything she has done for our school and wished her lots of luck as she starts her maternity leave. We will miss her! Firstly, we congratulated our new Science Ambassadors Minnie S in Year 1, Olly in Year 2, Elijah and Harry in Year 3, Jack in Year 4, Daisy in Year 5 and Grace in Year 6. Well done for your successful applications, it was so tough for Miss Kachwalla, our Science leader and class teachers to decide after an overwhelming number of applications. We celebrated our Value Award winners Ohana, Minnie S and Percy in EYFS and KS1 and Iyla, Jacob, Ted and Tilly in KS2. These children consistently follow our 4B’s, show our Christian values and have a strong work ethic in all lessons. We congratulated River Darwen for earning the most value points as a team this week. Additionally, we congratulated Year 1 for 97.4% attendance this week and Year 3 for 98.9% attendance this week. We then celebrated our out of school star achievers. We celebrated Ella-Grace for winning a trophy for her football training in Blackpool and showing lots of skill with her left foot, Reggie, Cassius and Jack for winning player of the week in their football teams and Beau for showing good listening and tackling in her football training. Additionally, Olivia received the Captains Armband for good tackles. We celebrated Alice for winning her cheer competition, Grace for winning an outstanding dancer award and the adjudicator award and winning a huge variety of bronze, silver and gold medals and Daisy for coming second in her gymnastics competition. We celebrated Bowen for his certificate for swimming 5 metres and Max for being awarded for swimming fast and jumping in the water. We also celebrated the Y5/6 football team for drawing 3-3 with St Paul’s and narrowly lost to St Peters 4-0. We closed by thanking Mollie, Olivia and Percy for their beautiful prayers and appreciating everyone who joined us in worship. We wish you all a peaceful and restful weekend as we look forward to the busy and joy-filled weeks leading up to Christmas.
Whole School Worship led by Rev Ben
This weeks Worship was led by Rev Ben and we started with a challenge. Rev Ben had a Bop It and the five children that helped had to follow the instructions to either flick it, twist, spin it or pull it. Ella, Quinn, James, Walter and Sofia all had a go and it was super tricky! In the game you had to do exactly what it tells us but that’s not necessarily what we want those in charge to be like. We then went on to finish the story of Joseph the prisoner. We started at the part when there was a knock at Joseph’s door. It was his eleven brothers who begged him for food. They didn’t recognise Joseph, but Joseph knew who they were, and he forgave them for what they had done to him. Joseph’s family then moved to Egypt, and Joseph himself became a great leader. His story shows us the importance of forgiveness, trusting in God, and using our own talents to help others. In our discussion we looked at how Joseph showed compassion towards his brothers and how we could use of voice to encourage world leaders to show compassion. What could we say or do? We finished with a prayer that reflected on the theme of compassion.
Year 3- Class Worship- Can technology ever help us too much?
Today in our collective worship, we discussed technology and reflected on the Christian Value of Wisdom. We looked at the new Nike Project Amplify powered shoe, designed to help people stay active, independent, and mobile. We talked about how technology is a useful tool but should not become a distraction. The Bible reminds us to focus on what truly matters, like our relationships with others. Renee read the prayer, where we thanked God for technology and asked for wisdom to use it for learning, connection, and kindness.
Year 1 Inter Faith Week
Year 1 have really enjoyed learning about Islam this week and what life is like as a Muslim. In our worship with Miss Kachwalla we learnt about the 5 pillars of Islam, she showed us her prayer mat and spoke about pilgrimages. Year 1 asked ‘how do Muslims celebrate Eid?’ which really excited them. They also asked ‘Why do you dress differently to us?’ which Miss Kachwala explained was about modesty. We also tried some traditional Muslim foods. The children really enjoyed honey on toast and melon, but they were not keen on dates, figs and olives.