Year 4 - RE: Christingle
We completed our Year 4 Christmas unit this week, learning about Christingle and what each part of the Christingle candle represents. The children then made their own Christingle candles out of satsumas, cocktail sticks, birthday candles and sweets. We spent some time thinking about those who may not always have their basic needs met whilst we held our candles.
KS1 Christmas Cracker
We are so proud of our Year 1 and 2 children for their wonderful Christmas Cracker Concerts this morning and yesterday afternoon. It was an absolute delight to see them singing and dancing with such enthusiasm and confidence. They certainly did bring joy to everyone who came to watch. A huge thank you to Miss Flynn for her amazing role as musical director, Mr Norris for the high pressured job of playing the music, Miss Craig, Mrs Hegarty and Miss Lyons for their wonderful props, stage directions and encouraging the children with the actions and to Mr Bloomfield for filming. Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came along to show their support. Thank you also for helping the children learn their lines and for providing them with their wonderful Christmas clothes. Thank you to Rev Ben for leading us in prayer and blessing us all. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/ks1-christmas-cracker-1 The video can be found here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usy-SsMPTGc
Year 3- Class Worship- Love- Christmas Cards
In today’s worship, Year 3 enjoyed learning about the history of Christmas cards, from when the first postcard was made to how they’ve changed over the years. We talked about how things like rising postage costs have led to more people sending digital or hand-delivered cards. The children shared their own family Christmas traditions and thought about the real meaning of the season, focusing on the story of Jesus’ birth. Lyla ended the worship by reading a prayer, thanking God for all the joy and excitement that Christmas brings.
Year 3- Advent trail- Rose Garden
Year 3 enjoyed exploring the Advent trail at Whitehall Park's Rose Garden. Working in pairs, the children answered questions about the amazing artwork created by our students. Some of the questions included spotting how many stars they could find, counting how many baby Jesus’ were depicted, and identifying where the birth of Jesus took place in the scenes. Well done to Naomi and Jacob, who were the first to finish the quiz. To spread festive cheer, the class also sang festive songs like "Jingle Bells," "Ding Dong," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," bringing joy to everyone around.
Reception: Year of Prayer
This week, Mrs Wilkinson gave each child in Reception a piece of ribbon. We discussed how we sometimes receive special looking presents with ribbon wrapped around them. We all took it in turns to tie our ribbon to our prayer tree and gave thanks to Jesus who is the best gift ever!
Year 5 - RotaKids - Christmas Cards for Care Homes
Building on from our Worship earlier in the week about spreading joy this Advent, our Year 5 Rotakids decided to take action. Today, they spread festive cheer in the community by creating thoughtful Christmas cards to send to East Lancs Hospice and care homes around Darwen. The children poured their creativity and kindness into each card, adding heartfelt messages and festive designs. These cards will soon be delivered, bringing warmth, joy and a sense of connection to residents who may need it most this Christmas season. It’s a wonderful way to show that even small acts of kindness can make a big difference. Well done, RotaKids, for embodying the true spirit of the holidays!
Whitehall Park Rose Garden Art Trail
Thank you to all the children who created fantastic Art work for our ADVENTure trail at the Whitehall Park. A selection of the Art work is now on display in the Rose Garden for everyone to see. All classes will be visiting next week to look at the Art work, talk about the Nativity story and sing some Christmas carols to get us all in the festive spirit!
Not Getting Inn!
Our whole school was treated to a modern day version of the Nativity story. 4Front Theatre put on a wonderful production for our children. There was lots of laughter, singing and chanting throughout. Most importantly, there was a wonderful heartfelt message at the end of hope and joy. The photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/not-getting-inn-1
Worship with Rev. Ben
During worship with Rev. Ben, the children began by playing a game of "Spot the Difference," where they had to identify which picture was missing from a selection of displayed images. Following this, Rev. Ben shared the story of Daniel and the Lions' Den. The children learned how Daniel, despite knowing that following God and continuing to pray would put him in danger, trusted in God and was unharmed by the lions. This led to a thoughtful discussion about Daniel's courage and faith. The children then reflected on how they could show courage in their own lives, drawing inspiration from Daniel’s example.
Whole School Worship: Joy at Advent
This week, our advent theme is JOY. We learned about the joy of Jesus’s birth and how we can bring joy into the lives of others this Christmas. We looked at the John Lewis advert about the man in the moon and how the little girl brought joy to the man, who had been very lonely. We also watched an alternative to the original advert about a girl searching for God and when she almost gave up looking, he sent to her his greatest gift: his son, Jesus. We finished with a look at all of the ways our classes have been bringing joy to each other and the community, including litter picking and singing in the local care home and reflected on how we can bring joy to to others this Christmas.
Reception: Bubble Prayers
At the end of our school day, Reception class lit our candle and signed the holy trinity. We then burnt some Frankincense which was lovely and calming for all of the children. This week, for Blackburn Diocese's year of prayer, we focussed on bubble prayers. We discussed what we were thankful for. Some of the children's responses were God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, parents, teachers and friends. It was lovely for the children to stop and reflect which aided them to explore their own spirituality.
Year 6 - Class Worship
This week, in our class worship, year 6 discussed what it means to feel included. We explored a new incentive from the FA to raise participation of disabled people in football and expressed how we felt about this. The overarching views were positive, but we also explained how this incentive could have happened sooner. We then linked this to school life and spoke about what it means to feel fully included. The word that epitomises this is ‘belonging‘.