Reception: Black History Month Worship
Today we joined the Great Big Live Assembly all about Black History Month. The children found out that lots of people of colour do not feel safe in the place that they live.There are lots of black heroes such as Saka the footballer and Krish a television presenter who have gone on to be extremely successful regardless of the colour of their skin. We ended our worship with a prayer all about treating everybody equally no matter the colour of their skin. The belief that everybody deserves to feel safe and happy. It is important to make sure that everybody feels special and valued.
Monday Worship: Harvest Appeal
This week is Recycle Week so we will be thinking about all of the rubbish we throw away and how it could be rescued and reused or recycled. Bobby-Ray said what one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure! Thank you for all of the donations of coats we have had so far for our Rota Kids Wrap Up Appeal. Mrs Ham showed us two bin bags that at first she thought was rubbish but they were filled with coats that can be donated to the homeless. Mrs Ham then introduced the Bishop’s Harvest appeal which our WOW group have chosen to support this year at Harvest along with DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). We started by exploring our spirituality window and looked at a photo of the classrooms of a church school in Multan in Pakistan. We stopped and reflected on what is great about our classrooms. Lottie loves the amount of paper, Ella-Grace said our teachers, Callie said our books, Eleanor said our friends, Jacob said the opportunities to learn, Olivia said the view of Darwen Tower and Will said everything. There are some boys and girls in Multan in Pakistan that are unable to go to school and some who do but don't have many resources in their classroom. We took some time to look at a picture and reflect on what we could see. The classrooms in Multan do not have any chairs, tables, pictures, windows or toys. The children reflected and felt empathy for the Christian children in Multan who did not have the same experience and resources as we all do at St Barnabas. We then started to think about what we could do to make a difference to their lives. The Bishop’s Harvest Appeal has helped the children to receive books, solar panels and hand washing facilities in the past. Rosie said we could do a sponsored run and James said we could collect books. Bishop Philip has asked us all do to a Harvest Heptathlon . We need to think of seven things we could do to help the children in our area and also the boys and girls in Multan. Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking about how we can help and make a difference. We ended our worship by singing ‘I can make a difference’.
Reception: Surprise Frog Visit
Reception had a very exciting afternoon. Some of the children found a frog in our outdoor area. We put the frog in some water and let it out safely in its natural habitat.
Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by thanking everyone for dressing in yellow yesterday for World Mental Health Day. What a fabulous day we had! This week, we have also been thinking about courageous advocacy. Well done to our Rotakids who are being courageous advocates by collecting coats to keep people warm this winter and our WOW group for collecting harvest donations for DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise). We then presented Ralphy, Skye and Ella in EYFS and KS1 and Lyla, Harriet, Ruby and Noah in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, being safe, being kind and being respectful) and our school Christian values. We also congratulated our Year 5/6 football team who worked exceptionally well as a team in the Kids Cup Heat on Monday during all of the group stages and will now be competing in the final in the 23rd November, our Year 4/5/6 girls football team who played amazingly well in the DPSSA football league last night, Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners for the second week running and River Darwen as the value award winners again this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Lyla and Carmen for achieving their Stage 5 in swimming, Tristen for achieving his green and white belt in kickboxing and completing the BwD Summer Reading challenge, Maggie for being a superstar rainbow and being awarded Olivia this week and Isabella for being a fantastic swimmer. Finally, we had some beautiful prayers from James, Iris and Elijah to pray for those who have been affected by the hurricane in Florida and to give thank you this Harvest time and then we sang ‘Sing a Song of Harvest.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
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St Barnabas do Hello Yellow Day 2024
Today in school, we celebrated Hello Yellow Day 2024. Hello Yellow Day is a day when we can show our support for young people and let them know they're not alone with their mental health. Thousands of children came together to make World Mental Health Day that little bit brighter by wearing something yellow and donating to YoungMinds. Right now, the world is a really tough place for children and young people to grow up in. We want young people to know that they don’t have to go through this alone. Things can get better. Because we stand brighter, together. At St Barnabas, we celebrated through our whole school worship led by Mrs Ham and her minion friends, Harry, Hamza, Daisy and Rosie. Each class then used their PSHE session to explore Hello Yellow Day further and it was clear to see that every class made a super effort with their outfits too. What a super day being loud and proud in yellow. #HelloYellow
Cre8ability
This week at Cre8ability we focussed on who our special people are. We discussed how we all have similarities and differences. These differences help us to be unique. We all decorated a box with all of our favourite things. We talked about how we should celebrate our differences and ensure everybody is included.
Year 6 - Hello Yellow Day
Year 6 celebrated ‘Hello Yellow Day’ by exploring ways in which they can make themselves feel better if they are going through a tough time. We discussed that an effective strategy is to take the time to think about how great we are as an individual. To highlight this, we designed badges containing words and symbols. It was great to see the children celebrating what makes them great and focusing on the positives as it is sometimes hard to pay ourselves compliments.
Year 3 - PSHE- Hello Yellow Day
Following our whole-school worship,to celebrate and raise awareness for World Mental Health Day, Year 3 wore yellow to show our support for mental health awareness. We also learned about some top tips to help people who might be feeling down such as: Allowing children to express their feelings through art and Dance, sing, or play instruments to release emotions . We then watched Emily and Harry's story on BBC Newsround about the importance of talking to a trusted adult.
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Year 5 - Hello Yellow Day
To support this year’s Hello Yellow Day, Year 5 enthusiastically created their own unique badges, each representing what made them special. With this year’s theme, "Wear it loud and wear it proud," the children confidently showcased their badges and spoke about them with pride. Afterward, we engaged in a meaningful discussion about mental health and well-being, exploring the different ways we can take control of and improve our own mental health by focusing on activities that bring us joy and comfort.
Reception - Hello Yellow Day
Today we have enjoyed taking part in activities to support Hello Yellow Day. We have been doodling what makes us happy and have been talking about the different feelings we all have. We know that there are lots of grown ups around us who can help us with big feelings but we must always ask when we need help.
Rev Matt’s Whole School Worship
Today, during Rev Matt’s worship, the children were captivated by a short clip showing the powerful moment when Moses received the Ten Commandments. The video illustrated how, with people's disbelief in God, dramatic lightning and clouds appeared, revealing the presence of God as he delivered these sacred laws. Through this visual and the accompanying story, the children were guided to understand not only the importance of the commandments but also the broader significance of rules in our lives. This reflection helped them recognise that rules, much like the Ten Commandments, are there to keep us safe, fostering a sense of responsibility and care for one another within our community.
Hello Yellow Day
To celebrate and raise awareness for World Mental Health Day, all the children and staff dressed in yellow to show their support. During a special worship, the children danced to happy songs. We reflected deeply on our emotions, exploring how they shape our inner lives and how we can find strength in times of struggle. We discussed the importance of nurturing our mental well-being through kindness, prayer, and community support. This spiritual reflection reminded us that we are never alone in our challenges; by turning to our faith and embracing hope, we can find peace and resilience within ourselves.