Friday Celebration Worship: Children in Need
This morning in our celebration worship, we gathered as a whole school family to mark Children in Need, offering heartfelt thanks for the generosity shown in raising awareness and funds for such a worthy cause. This week, we have also celebrated the start of Anti-Bullying Week by wearing odd socks, a joyful reminder of the importance of uniqueness and individuality. Together, we reflected on how love, friendship, generosity and kindness can help us use our power for good and stand against bullying and nurture one another’s mental health. Throughout the week, our after-school clubs have brought great excitement and creativity, with children enjoying board games, football, forest school, Warhammer painting and a lively Let’s Go Sing workshop. Reception delighted in a terrific Trekking Tuesday, Year 3 welcomed Rev Ben and enjoyed a memorable visit to Nightingale Farm, and all classes began their new Design & Technology units as they prepare to create products for the Christmas Fair. Our worship continued with the presentation of awards. We celebrated our Value award winners Alfie, Beau and Haydn in EYFS and KS1, and Joshua, Luke and Mason across KS2, for demonstrating an excellent work ethic, thoughtful listening, teamwork, independence and our Christian values. We congratulated the whole of Year 3 for representing our school so beautifully during their farm visit, Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners with an impressive 233 points, and Year 2 and Year 3 as our attendance champions. We then celebrated our out of school star achievers. We celebrated Bo for earning both ‘Player of the Week’ in football and ‘Best in the Cast’ at Made for Stage, Haydn for his ‘Player of the Week’ award and an incredible 27 goals in just seven games, Ralphi for achieving his 5m swimming badge, Poppy for her wonderful dancing, Isabella for being ‘Star of the Day’ in acro, Hendrix and Maggie for completing Stage 1 gymnastics, Jack for his courage and skill as ‘Player of the Match’ with Blackburn Eagles, Marley for her dedication to Brownies, Grace for exceptional success across her dance competition, Freddie for swimming a fantastic 25 metres, Evie for achieving her laughter, communication, drawing and promise badges at Rainbows, Lydia and Naomi for demonstrating kindness, helpfulness and bravery at Rainbows and Brownies, and Ohana in Reception class for swimming an impressive 75 metres. We also celebrated our Year 5/6 football team for their two brilliant league wins last night in the DPSSA Football League and for representing our school proudly at the Blackburn Rovers Senior Ground on Wednesday as part of the KS2 BRFC Kids Cup. Mrs Ham and Mrs Govan then awarded certificates to Luna, Beau, Lyla, Skye, Olivia, Edward, Alana and Naomi for their success in the Spring Vale Ramblers Club Art Competition, with their artwork chosen for display in the Darwen Heritage Centre. Mrs Govan also introduced our Christmas ADVENTure Trail Art competition, inspired by the Nativity story and soon to be showcased in Whitehall Park, with a chocolate treat awaiting all who take part. We closed by thanking Renée, Callie and Harry for their beautiful prayers and offering our appreciation to everyone who joined us in worship, as well as to our whole school community for their continued support. 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 - Joseph the Prisoner
Our Whole School Worship was led by Rev Ben this morning. We started with a quick game all about compassion which followed on from Rev Matt’s Worship the week before. Next, we finished the remainder of the Bible story : Joseph the Prisoner. Joseph was his father's favorite son, given a colourful coat that made his brothers jealous. They sold him into slavery, but Joseph ended up in prison even though he was innocent. In prison, he interpreted the dreams of other prisoners and eventually Pharaoh's, predicting seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh made him the leader of Egypt, and Joseph stored food for the famine, saving many lives and eventually forgiving his brothers, showing that even bad things can be used for good. We looked at how Joseph had a big dream, but his life wasn’t going well. He still used his gifts to help others. And through Joseph, God showed compassion to Egypt warning them of a famine. As a school, we have showed lots of compassion for special events this week such as wearing odd socks to start Anti ~ Bullying Week. Through discussion the children then highlighted how Joseph used his gifts to help others. We also looked at how we can pay careful attention to the needs of others this week. What could we say, do or give? The children shared lots of wonderful ideas like caring and sharing, raising money through Children in Need and showing respect We finished our Worship with a prayer and then out singing King of Me.
Whole School Worship - Power for Good
Our theme in today’s collective worship was “Power for Good”. Continuing our focus on Anti-Bullying Week, Mrs Ham shared some of the fantastic answers the children gave on Monday about standing up to bullying. These included saying stop, being assertive, asking why, and telling a trusted adult. We learned of how Jesus was a power for good, even when others turned against him, and we reflected on the ways in which we can also be a power for good by being a good friend and spotting when someone needs our help. The WOW Group also shared how they are being a power for good, by protecting our planet and leading our school’s Switch Off Fortnight campaign. They shared posters recommending ways to save energy around school, including turning off lights and computer monitors when they are not in use, and they explained that they will be checking how well each class is doing at saving energy every break time and lunchtime during the campaign.
Collective Worship - Odd Socks Day
This morning we gathered as a whole school and spoke about why we were all wearing odd socks to launch anti bullying week. We celebrated how God created us all unique and special. The theme for anti-bullying week is 'Power for Good' so we discussed the amazing powers that we can show others including kindness, love, respect and friendship. We then watched a special Odd Socks Day video from the 'Living out God's big story' series and reflected on how we can learn from Jesus; to always be kind, forgiving and respectful to others. We then did a fun dancing prayer showing off our odd socks and then went on to sing ‘build up’ and ‘make a difference’.
Year 1 D&T- Remembrance Day
Today in Year 1, we applied our understanding of sliding mechanisms to create beautiful, remembrance-themed moving pictures. As we worked, we reflected on all the soldiers who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives to protect our country. We also thought carefully about the symbolism of the poppy and what it represents. Well done, Year 1, for your thoughtful work and creativity.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we reflected on a wonderful first week back to start the second half of our Autumn term. This week, we have remembered all those who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives for us, and we observed a special two-minute silence. We would like to thank everyone who has supported the Poppy Appeal; our poppy merchandise will continue to be available next week. We then presented our individual value award winners in EYFS, KS1 and KS2. Well done to our worthy winners Hunter, Finn, Inaiya, Elijah, Chay, Harriet and Quinn for consistently demonstrating the Barney’s 4Bs, working extremely hard across the curriculum, producing work of an exceptional standard and showing a genuine desire to always improve. A huge well done also goes to Elijah, Chay, Isaac, Lana, Lyla, Cassidy, Naomi and Emily for achieving their pen licences—we know how hard you have all worked for this accomplishment. We also congratulated Whitehall Park as our overall value award winners for the week, along with Year 1 and Year 5 for achieving the highest attendance. Moving on, we celebrated the wonderful achievements of our children who have been excelling outside of school in their various sports and activities. Well done to Beau for being a mighty defender in football, Ida and Leila for showing impressive skill in stop, starting and steering during horse riding, Callie for demonstrating outstanding floor and vault work in gymnastics, Ava for her generosity at Rainbows and for achieving Star of the Week at Street Dance, Lana for her performing arts award, Theo for earning her drawing interest badge and Star of the Week in gymnastics for exceptional beam work, Olivia for achieving her 20m swimming certificate, Lyla for her success in lyrical, jazz and commercial dance, Olivia again for achieving her Level 1 gymnastics award, Isaac for demonstrating exceptional football skills at the Everton Academy experience, Rosie for being a superstar Brownie and earning several badges, Martha for achieving her 10m swimming award, Lydia for earning her laughter badge at Rainbows and for being extremely helpful, and Eleanor for achieving both her Rainbow Silver Award and a laughter badge. In other news, our Wellbeing Warriors also announced Year 3 as the winning class for having the most walkers in October and proudly shared that our school placed third in the borough for the highest number of walkers overall, our Sports Leaders presented India Mill as the Inter-house Dodgeball Competition winners from before the holidays, and we also congratulated our Year 5/6 Boys Football Team, who represented our school brilliantly and achieved two wins in the BwD Football League last night. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue our Scholastic Book Fair next week, to wear odd socks on Monday as we launch Anti-Bullying Week, and to end the week by wearing spots, pyjamas or Pudsey attire in support of Children in Need next Friday. Thank you to our wonderful school family for their support this week and always. Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Year 6: Remembrance Service
Our Year 6 children took part in the Darwen Cemetery remembrance day service this morning and we were so proud of the remarkable respect that they showed. A huge well done to Mason for his lovely reading and to all of our children for their maturity and compassion when placing crosses on the graves of the soldiers who bravely fought for our country. After the service the children learned that the piper used to attend St Barnabas as a child so he let the children try on his special hat. As a reward for representing our school so brilliantly, the children got to enjoy their break time on the play area in Whitehall Park. #WeWillRememberThem #remembrance #remembranceday #lestweforget
Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
Rev Matt led our Whole School Worship this morning which focused on the word ‘Compassion’ We started by discussing what we thought the word compassion means. It means that having compassion is feeling how someone else feels. Our challenge this week was to find the best ending to each of the scenarios as to which shows the most compassion. One of this being~ you had a friend round at your house and they want to play with your favourite toy. Do we A ~ share our toy or B ~ distract them and not let them play with it? Our Bible story today was Joseph the Dreamer. Jacob had 12 sons and Jesus was his favourite who he gave special gifts too. His siblings hated the fact that they were not all treated the same. One night Jesus had a special dream which he shared with his brothers but they didn’t like it all. They ripped off his colourful coat and threw him to the floor. At that moment some traders walked by and the brothers sold him to them and ripped up his colourful coat. The brothers told their father Jacob that Jess was dead and he wept and wept. Not one single person in the story shows compassion and everything seems to be going wrong, but in the following part of the story we will see another side as God always shows compassion. We will hear this from Rev Ben next week. Following the story Rev Matt asked ‘ How can you show compassion this week?’ The children came up with some wonderful examples which included; to siblings when they are upset, if someone hasn’t got something that you have, you could share yours, Finally, we finished with a prayer and the children reflected on how they may show compassion to others today.
Year 3- Class Worship- The Courage to Love: Noel Chavasse's Example
Today in Collective Worship, we heard the incredible story of Noel Chavasse, a man who showed immense valour and faith while serving as a doctor in the army during World War I. We learned how Noel exemplified "Loving Others Before Yourself" by following Jesus' example and demonstrating extraordinary, selfless love and courage towards others, even in the face of danger.
Whole School Worship - Remembrance
Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, our collective worships this week are all about taking time to reflect on those that have sacrificed themselves to keep us all safe. We have been learning about what Remembrance Day means to our nation and also to us personally. Mrs Ham explained the significance of the poppy and she shared some stories of extreme bravery and self-sacrifice demonstrated by those in the services during the World Wars. We considered which Christian values these people showed and Mrs Ham invited some children to share how they will be remembering our service men and women, past and present, this Remembrance Day.
Whole School Singing Worship
This morning we welcomed our children back into school with a Singing Worship. We warmed up our voices and bodies so we were all ready to worship through song and do our best learning in our classrooms. We then practised 'A song of peace' as we will be focusing on Remembrance this week and 'Build Up' ready for our Anti-bullying and Inter-faith weeks coming up soon. Super singing everyone!
Whole School-Harvest Festival at the Church – Living Life in All Its Fullness
This morning, our school community came together at our church to celebrate our Harvest Festival, a joyful morning filled with song, prayer, and thanksgiving. The service began as Naomi and Martha signed The Trinity, followed by everyone joining in a rendition of our Harvest Samba song. We also heard about Bishop Philip’s inspiring challenge, pedalling to raise money for those in need, reminding us that even small acts of kindness can have a big impact. As part of the Bishop of Blackburn’s Harvest Appeal, we have been encouraging everyone to ‘Pedal Along’ and raise money for Christians in South Africa. Olivia shared a thoughtful talk, and Darcy reminded us to keep in our prayers families and countries around the world who are suffering. We also gave thanks for the work of DARE and reflected on people using their time and energy to support good causes. The reception and Year 2 class delighted everyone with their Harvest songs. Year 1 shared Thank You for Our Favourite Food, helping us reflect on gratitude. Lilly and Sofia led us in a thoughtful final prayer. We also said goodbye and good luck to Miss Norton, April, and Eve, and shared our thanks to Mrs Araujo, Mrs Ham, and our dedicated WOW Group for helping make this service so meaningful. Our Harvest celebration at the church was a wonderful reminder of our school vision, living life in all its fullness, through thankfulness, compassion, and community. Wishing all our families a restful and joy-filled half-term break!