Whole School Worship - The Unforgiving Servant
The theme in this worship was “forgiveness”. Mrs Ham continued to reveal the meaning behind the Lord’s Prayer, today, focussing on the line “and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us”. To explain what Jesus taught us about forgiving others, Mrs Ham chose to share the story of The Unforgiving Servant with the help of some willing participants. Rev Ben and a couple of the children gave a fabulous performance, showing us that we should replicate to others the mercy shown to us, and that forgiveness should be given as many times as necessary. The children reflected on the story’s moral and shared their opinions about this.
Year 3- Design Technology-Features of a Castle
Today, our young designers started their final D.T. unit on structures by learning about castles. They explored the different features of a castle, such as turrets, battlements, moats, and drawbridges. We discussed why castles needed to be strong and stable, and linked this to stories and real-life examples of castles and how they were built to protect the people inside. The children then sketched their castles using 2D shapes, carefully labelling key parts. This helped them develop the skills and understanding they’ll need to build their 3D castles using boxes and cardboard tubes later in the unit. They showed fantastic creativity and a growing understanding of how structures are designed for strength and purpose.
Whole School Worship - How Can We Flourish Together?
Today, in our collective worship, we shared ideas of what it means to flourish. The children had some fantastic thoughts, including being the best you can be, persevering, sharing with others and appreciating what God has given us. We looked at each one of our Christian values and decided how they could help us to learn and grow together. Mrs Ham reminded us of some of the “wows” and the “ows” in the world and we discussed how they make us feel. We reflected on the part we can all play by taking action to prevent the suffering in the world. We ended our worship with a reminder and a celebration of the ways we at St Barnabas have affected change in our communities and in the wider world. These included supporting our local refugees, collecting preloved coats for the homeless, raising money for East Lancs Hospice and collecting tinned food and toiletries for our harvest appeal. The children articulated that we all flourish when we aim to make the world a better place.
Another Week of Achieving Great Things & Living Life in All Its Fullness!
Dear Parents and Carers, What another truly fantastic week we've had, packed with children living life in all its fullness and achieving great things! The enthusiasm and effort from our children continue to make us incredibly proud. *This Week's Highlights* It's hard to pick just a few, but here are some of the wonderful things that have happened: *Our Year 5 Peer Mediators have been outstanding! On Monday morning, they led a Worship all about justice and forgiveness, and then bravely started their new role at break and lunch times, helping to resolve conflicts among children. They're doing an amazing job and have put all their training to good use! *On Monday we also had great fun singing our favourite Worship songs at a live Fischy Music Concert. *Year 3 has been deeply engaged in learning about refugees through the book 'I am Refugee'. As part of Refugee Week, some of them were invited to a special Refugee Week Tea Party by Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise (DARE), and the whole class confidently presented their learning to the Year 2 class. *A massive congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 netball squad who won the Darwen Netball League for the second year in a row! They were undefeated in all their games over the last five weeks – what an incredible achievement!They also won the Bee Stinger Netball a few weeks ago so will be representing BWD on the 8th July. *Reception class enjoyed a spiritual walk as part of their Muddy Monday and appreciated all of God's creation and gave thanks to Him all the way along. *We've seen the exciting start of some of our new out-of-school enrichment clubs, including Forest Schools, Cre8ability, Racquet Skills, Jag Tag, Craft Club, and Multi-skills. It's wonderful to see the children engaging in such a variety of activities. *In our Year of Prayer focus, we explored fruit tea smells in class, taking time to thank God for the amazing variety of fruits and vegetables He created. *During Worship with Rev Matt, we continued our focus on different ways to pray, reminding ourselves that we can pray anytime, anyway, and anywhere. We also dedicated worship time to Refugee Week, with some classes joining the Big Live Assembly for Refugee Week. The absolute biggest highlight of the week was our Sports Day this morning! We were completely overwhelmed by the fabulous turnout of parents, carers, and family members who came along to support and encourage in true St Barnabas style. A huge thank you to everyone who came – your presence truly made it special for the children. We are so incredibly proud of each and every child for their determination, courage, and effort, as well as for the fantastic encouragement they showed each other. For all of the news in detail from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Next week promises to be another busy and exciting one: Monday: Our Year 6 children will be showcasing their writing to the writing moderators from the local authority. We are super proud of all their hard work! Tuesday: Our SIAMS Church School Inspection will be taking place. We are so excited to show the Inspector our amazing school family and how we live out our vision of 'Achieving great things through learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family' and how we all live life in all its fullness. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to speak to the Inspector and to everyone who has filled in the survey. If you haven't done so already, there is still time to fill this in. https://forms.gle/KUNHYgF69mgkLtM49 Also on Tuesday, Years 1 and 4 will have workshops from the Environment Agency about how they can reduce, reuse, and recycle waste, a great way to protect our planet. Thursday: Darwen Rotary will be visiting our RotaKids to thank them for their fantastic fundraising and projects this year and to start planning for next year. Please note, we've had to postpone our Barney's Got Talent Auditions by a week as our Sports Day ran over today. Thank you for your continued support – it means the world to us and we couldn’t do what we do without your support. Wishing you all wonderful weekend and I hope the sun continues to shine, Mrs Ham
KS1 Sports Day- Mums’, Dads’ and Toddler Race
A huge thank you to all the amazing toddler siblings, mums, and dads who joined us for our Sports Day! You all did brilliantly, especially in the Mums', Dads', and Toddler Race, and brought so many smiles to the children's faces.
KS2 Sports Day Winners
We are so proud of every child who took part with enthusiasm, determination and team spirit. Whether running, jumping, cheering or supporting one another, you each showed what it means to “Achieve great things through learning and growing in a love-filled Christian family.” Sports Day is more than just winning races—it’s about celebrating effort, encouraging one another and showing resilience. It was fantastic to see so many parents and carers joining us and a huge thank you to everyone who entered the Toddlers, Mums and Dads races and thankfully nearly everyone came away injury free! Well done to all of our competitors and thank you to the staff, families and supporters who made the day so special. You truly helped create an atmosphere of joy, encouragement and community! All of the photos will be uploaded shortly to here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/sports-day-2025
Year 1- Sports Day
A huge well done to all our fantastic Year 1 children for their incredible efforts this morning during Sports Day! Every single one of you put in 100% and truly shone. It was wonderful to see you all trying your absolute best in every event and, even better, encouraging one another with such enthusiasm. We are so incredibly proud of you all!
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Reception- Sports Day
A huge well done to our absolutely amazing Reception children! We're bursting with pride after their fantastic performance at their very first Sports Day here at St. Barnabas. Every single child showed such super efforts, lots of enthusiasm, and beautifully encouraged their friends. What a brilliant morning of achieving great things!
EYFS and KS1- Sports Day Medal Winners
Hurray for Our Sports Day Stars! A huge well done to all our amazing medal winners from EYFS, Year 1, and Year 2 at Sports Day! We are so, so proud of all our incredible sports stars! And a massive shout-out to every single child in EYFS and Key Stage 1! You all showed such super efforts and truly shone on the day. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of you! All of the photos will shortly be uploaded here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/sports-day-2025
Year 3-The Great Big Live Assembly: A Journey Into Refugee Lives
Today, Year 3 joined hundreds of schools for The Great Big Live Assembly to mark World Refugee Week. Led by Krish Kandiah, the worship helped us learn about the lives of millions of children who have been forced to leave their homes because of war, violence, or danger. We discovered that over 43 million children and young people worldwide are refugees or displaced. Through stories and real examples, including a live connection with children living in refugee camps, we got a better understanding of the challenges these children face every day. Krish encouraged us to think about what “home” means and how important it is to show kindness, support, and hope to those who have lost so much. The worship helped us reflect on the courage and strength of refugees and inspired us to be more compassionate and aware of global issues.
The Great Live Assembly- World Refugee Day 2025
This morning in Year 4, we took part in The Great Live Assembly for World Refugee Week. 43 million young people and children have had to leave their country for various reasons including persecution and war. We met two children from Kenya - Ajok wanted to be a teacher and had to flee due to civil war. He had to walk over 500 miles to reach his final destination. We then watched an interview with the author Michael Rosen who has recently written On the Move, which uses poetry to highlight the struggles of a refugee. This teaches us that ‘Home is where the Heart is’ and we should really appreciate and support the sacrifices that the refugees across the world have to endure.
Darwen Netball League Winners
We are immensely proud of our netball squad for playing amazingly well over the last five weeks in the Darwen Netball League and for winning all of their games. Tonight they played in scorching heat against Avondale, Belmont and St Joseph’s resulting in two wins and a draw, making us the winners of the league for the second year in a row! This is along with winning the Bee Stinger High Fives for the second year in a row too! We can’t wait to represent Blackburn with Darwen in the Lancashire games on the 8th July. A huge thank you to Mrs Gardner for her wonderful coaching and umpiring and thank you to our other teachers who came along to support. A massive thanks to the parents and carers for your support and help with transport. Well done to all the other teams and umpires along with Phil Eastwood, who organised the league. And finally an enormous thank you to our children for always giving it 100%, being so competitive and always encouraging each other. A special mention to the Year 5 girls who have stepped up and played games- this is great preparation for next year! What a fantastic evening of achieving great things and living life in all its fullness!