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.
RotaKids- Year 5
ROTAKIDS The children in year 5 have put their hearts and soul into RotaKids. Their dedication throughout this project has been immense and we are so proud of each and every one of them. They have expressed themselves with the utmost energy, enthusiasm, and determination. The role of a RotaKid is to raise funds to support local, national and international good causes. During Christmas, every year group sent a Christmas e-card to our local care homes. This was something that the Rotakids organised. They felt it was vital for everyone to receive a card on Christmas day because not everyone has a family. This certainly put smiles on their faces and a few happy tears. For the Spring term, we were given an Entrepreneurial Project. We were given £100.00 to start a small business the money was to be transferred back if we made any profit. This was a competition running between four schools. We were definitely in it to win it! The Rotakids came up with some great ideas. All of the ideas were planned during breaks. We successfully ran two movie nights, one for KS1 and KS2. This is something that we will most definitely consider doing again next year. The children absolutely loved it! Following on from this, we did ' Guess How Many Sweets In The Jar' which was a huge success. Some children had four or five guesses. Every child walked away with a treat and a smile. So for the final bit, we raised a total of £939.00! We came joint first. We were then able to buy outdoor equipment for KS1 and KS2 playtimes, board games for wet playtimes, and give a donation to Christian Aid, Macmillan Cancer Support and East Lancs Hospice.
Rotakids Annual Conference 2022- Year 5
Today, some of our Rotakids went to the University of Cumbria, in Lancaster. They had a day full of fun-filled activities. They made friendship bracelets, had a lot of fun with arts and crafts, and learned about different types of food chains and how to extract DNA from a strawberry. For the recognition of their work, they were all awarded a certificate for taking an active part in the Annual Rotakids Conference.
Collective Worship- Christian Aid Week and Courageous Advocacy
This morning in worship, we introduced Christian Aid week. First we discussed the phrase, ‘Your Kingdom Come.’ Mrs Ham asked us to imagine what heaven was like. We said that we imagine it as peaceful and calm and when we use the phase, ‘Your Kingdom Come,’ this phrase means that God would like our world on earth to represent heaven where the world is fair and at peace. Then Mrs Ham discussed the term ‘Courageous advocacy’ with us all which is the act of speaking out against injustice (wrongdoing) and then we watched and listened carefully to a video to see some of the injustice that is happening in the world. The children shared what they saw. Lily saw a sea turtle trapped in a fishing net, Skye said that there were people who were hungry, Jack said there were people without clothes, Harlee and Manni said they noticed people who were extremely thirsty, James said that he saw a man who didn’t have much furniture in his house and Lucy said there were people living in unclean places. Mrs Ham asked us what Jesus would like us to about this injustice. Desmond said we should try to be like Jesus and love our neighbour. Mrs Ham agreed and discussed how we all need to be a courageous advocate and love our neighbours as Jesus did. We then looked at some inspirational people who were courageous advocates and spoke out for those who didn’t/don’t have a voice such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, David Attenborough and Marcus Rashford. We also recognised some children in school who have recently stood up for something that they believe in. These courageous advocates were Neve, Lily, William and Charlotte who recently promoted initiatives to raise money for Ukraine and East Lancs Hospice. Lastly, we ended our worship with a video called ‘Starfish’ which summed up the message that small things can make a huge difference and Mrs Ham asked us to reflect on small things that we can do in the next week and beyond to help to make a difference such as donating to the local food or clothes bank and reusing and recycling plastic.
Easter Eggs for Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise (DARE)
A huge thank you to everyone who donated Easter Eggs to DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterpise). They were collected today and we were given these special thank you cards for our support to enable children in our community have a lovely Easter.
Movie Night - Year 5 - RotaKids
The Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 classes had such a good night. The children enjoyed their pre-ordered meal whilst watching the magical and enchanted Disney film ‘Encanto’.
Movie Night - RotaKids
The reception,Year 1 and Year 2 have had an absolute blast watching the Disney film ‘Luca’. It was a funny film which had elements of friendship, courage, and acceptance. The night was organised by the RotaKids to raise money for their latest local project.
RotaKids Planting bulbs- Year 5
Our RotaKids have planted crocus bulbs in the centre of the cross-shaped flower bed in the school yard, ready for spring. Thank you to Darwen Rotary Club for helping us and supplying the bulbs and equipment.
Christmas Cards with RotaKids - Year 5
This year, RotaKids ( Year 5 ) have been spreading ‘Acts of Kindness ‘ across Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and South Cumbria by sending a Christmas Card ( E-Card) to care homes.
Rotakids - Year 5
We now have a President ( Charlotte), Vice President ( Freya), Treasurer ( Bobby) and a Secretary ( Louie ) for Rotary Club. Year 5 have pledged to be fair to all, to serve their community and to show respect for others. Over the following weeks, we will have meetings to discuss and collate ideas and find ways to support our community.
Thank you for your generosity this Harvest!
Thank you so much for your generous donations for Harvest this year. Darwen Asylum & Refugee Enterprise (DARE) were overwhelmed with your support and generosity. The donations were created into care packages along with the children’s maps of the local area, welcome to Darwen posters, prayers and poems which enabled refugees to receive a warm welcome to Darwen.
Hooray for Harvest!
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 were amazing in our Harvest Festival today. Thank you to all those who attended or donated generous gifts of food or toiletries for local refugees. We were fortunate to be joined by John, Patsy and Shameem from DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) who have taken all of your donations, the children’s welcome posters, local maps, prayers and poems. They will be sorted into parcels for refugees who have joined our community in order to give them a warm welcome and will also be shared with others in need in our community. We heard a harrowing account from Shameem, who fled from Afghanistan seven years ago due to being persecuted as a female teacher there. She has only just managed to get two of her children here seven years later and they are now attending our local high school and are being supported by one of our past pupils, who remembers Shameem visiting St Barnabas several years ago. We are so thankful for the work that John and Patsy are doing to support people in our community who are in need and so grateful for your donations. We are so proud of our children for showing our Christian Values of generosity, friendship and respect through the warm welcome they have shown refugees through their prayers, poems, welcome posters, maps and songs.
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