Whole School Worship - Resolving Conflict
Yesterday’s worship began with some fantastic news! A representative from East Lancs Hospice came in to tell us that our Hop, Skip and Jump event raised £163. Following this, Mrs Wilkinson introduced this week’s Year of Prayer theme: Favourite Places. We spent some time sharing our favourite spaces and then we talked about how God has created so many amazing and healthy spaces for us to enjoy. This led us on to considering the fantastic outdoor spaces we have around school in which we can enjoy time with our friends. We were introduced to our Year 5 peer mediators and Mrs Wilkinson explained how they are going to help us all resolve any fallings out between us and our friends. We are all looking forward to learning to compromise and play together more harmoniously.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by reflecting on our very busy yet wonderful week. This week, we celebrated St Barnabas Day on Wednesday and remembered Him as the encourager. Mrs Ham explained that next Friday 20th June is Sports Day which will be the perfect opportunity for us all to be an encourager just as St Barnabas was. Mrs Ham also congratulated all of our school for achieving the 'National School Attendance Award' for our attendance being in the top 10% of all Primary Schools in England. We then reflected on our highlights of the week. We dedicated time to prayers for perseverance and resilience, aligning with the Diocesan Year of Prayer. Worship sessions included a reflection on Ascension and Pentecost with Mrs. Ham, and a focus on transformation with Rev. Ben. Year 4 visited St. Matthew's as part of their linking schools project. We celebrated Father's Day with two special events: a "Stay and Play" session in Reception and the "Donuts for Dads" event, successfully run by FOSB and Mrs. Wilkinson. The first Cre8ability session took place, and Years 1-5 enjoyed attending the Darwen Literature Festival at Darwen Library. Our sports teams also achieved notable success, with the Year 6 cricket team representing the school exceptionally well at Darwen Cricket Club on Wednesday, and the Year 5/6 Netball Squad securing another two victories in the DPSSA Netball league, maintaining their impressive unbeaten record. This week, we were pleased to announce several awards. Year 1 and Year 3 were recognised as our attendance winners. Darwen Tower earned the weekly value award with 289 points. Furthermore, River Darwen was celebrated as the overall value award winner for the last half-term and will be rewarded with a non-uniform day and disco, with the date to be announced shortly. We then moved on to congratulate our individual value award winners which were Fiia, the whole Year 1 class for their amazing phonics this week, Frankie, the whole of Year 3 for their fantastic behaviour at the Literature Festival, Year 4 for being superstars at their linking schools visit to St Matthews, Matthew and Freddie. We then moved on to our out of school awards. Ava was recognised as a fabulous mini medic and scientist at Squirrels; James was awarded "Beaver of the Week" for his success and perseverance in the treasure trail and consistently making positive choices; Seb achieved "Player of the Week" in football; Mollie was recognised as a superstar at Rainbows; Eleanor earned her Rainbows Bronze and Health awards; Marley demonstrated kindness and helpfulness at Rainbows, achieving her Rainbows Silver and Health awards; Desmond, Charlie, Sonny, and Leo were commended for their fantastic efforts in a recent football tournament; Charlie achieved Stage 5 in his swimming; Thea was "Star of the Week" at gymnastics for her incredible vault and bar work; Eliza reached won the Silver Cup Final at the weekend and was recognised for being an incredible goalkeeper; Grace achieved bronze in ballet, silver in acro and tap, and was named "most hardworking dancer" in a recent dance competition; and Summer was celebrated as "Star of the Week" at ballet. To end our worship, we had some heartfelt prayers. Mrs. Ham led prayers for all the victims and their families affected by the tragic aeroplane crash yesterday, travelling from India to London, and encouraged us to be grateful for the many amazing things in our lives, including our families. We also heard some beautiful prayers from Sofia and Callie, who prayed for those in conflict and war, and expressed gratitude for our wonderful world and the beautiful people in it. Mrs. Ham explained that Rev Ben and Rev Matt would be holding a special 24/7 week of prayers that we could all get involved in and wished everyone a lovely, restful weekend. We closed our worship with a singalong to 'Shine from the inside out'. Slides can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
Whole School Worship-The Road to Damascus - Change, and Forgiveness
Today's worship with Rev. Ben began with the sign of the Trinity. Rev. Ben then presented the children with images of four well-known fictional "Super Villains": Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, The Joker, Mrs. Trunchball, and Gru from Minions. The children enthusiastically shouted out the characters' names. This engaging activity led into the story of Damascus, focusing on the transformation of Saul into Saint Paul. The narrative explored how Saul, perceived as a "Villain", could undergo a profound change. Saul was initially a fervent persecutor of early Christians. While on his way to Damascus with authority to arrest followers of Jesus, a blinding light from heaven suddenly enveloped him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" When Saul asked who was speaking, the voice replied, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." This encounter left Saul blind for three days. He was led into Damascus, where a disciple named Ananias, guided by a vision from Jesus, healed his sight. After this miraculous experience, Saul was baptised and became a devoted follower of Jesus, changing his name to Paul. He tirelessly preached the Christian message from then on, becoming one of its most influential apostles. Following the story, the children were given time to consider a key question: Can a 'baddie' become a 'goodie'? If so, how and why?" This prompted thoughtful discussion among the children. The worship concluded with everyone singing "Shine from the Inside Out. and a prayer led by Rev Ben.
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Year 4 - Class Worship and Year of Prayer
Year 4's class worship this Wednesday was from Blackburn Dioceses' Worship Together. We heard the well-known story from the Old Testament, David the Giant Killer. We thought about this story in different ways - about trying hard and using critical thinking when tackling a huge problem. We finished our worship with our Year of Prayer for this week, I Spy prayers, in which children hid objects around the room for everyone to try their best to find. We prayed about not giving up and asked for God’s help so that we may persevere.
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Year 3- Year of Prayer- I Spy-A Lesson in Perseverance
As part of our Year of Prayer, the children took part in a fun hunt around the classroom. Hidden in various places were special items, including a cross, a torch, a heart made of stone, a magnifying glass, and a bottle of sprinkles. The children were excited and eager to find them all, searching enthusiastically until we paused the hunt after 1 minute and 30 seconds. Interestingly, one item, the bottle of sprinkles hidden inside a shoebox, wasn’t found. This led to a discussion about perseverance. The children reflected on the importance of not giving up, even when something feels tricky or takes time. They recognised that determination, effort, and not giving up are key parts of our everyday life. To end the session, the children offered a special prayer, asking God to help them continue to try their best, especially when they feel like giving up.
Year 3- Class Worship-Jesus Teaches Us to Forgive
Today in class, we watched a worship across the diocesan video that helped us explore one of our important Christian values: forgiveness. Through the story of Jesus and Peter, we learned how meaningful and powerful it can be to forgive others and to accept forgiveness ourselves, even when it's not easy. The story showed us how Jesus sets a great example of how to mend friendships and love one another, so we can live together in peace and understanding.
Year 6 - Class Worship
In class worship, year 6 focused on the story of Peter betraying Jesus 3 times and discussed times that they have made mistakes or felt ashamed of themselves. Bishop Philip then spoke about the importance of forgiveness and facing our mistakes head on rather than avoiding them, as this allows us to make a lasting change to our behaviour. In addition, year 6 then focused on prayers and hymns used in Christian worship during their R.E. lesson and how some of the words reveal the nature and characteristics of God. The children provided some thoughtful insights and understood that no one can be compared to God in the Christian faith.
Year 1 Class Worship- Picture News
In today's class worship, Year 1 explored this week's Picture News, focusing on the question: "What do animals need to be happy and healthy?" The children identified essential needs such as food, water, shelter, sleep, care, love, and space. We then watched a video explaining a new government initiative aimed at enhancing zoo environments to better care for animals. The children learned about how this initiative will benefit various animals, including elephants, giraffes, stingrays, owls, and other birds of prey, by providing them with more space to move, exercise, explore, and play. Our worship concluded with heartfelt prayers from Mollie, Callie, Lydia, and Harry. They expressed gratitude to God for creating such wonderful creatures, including sea life, and prayed for hope that animals in zoos receive the care, love, and space they need to live happy and healthy lives.
Year 1- Year of Prayer- Resilience
This week, as part of the Diocesan Year of Prayer, Year 1 reflected on the theme of resilience, praying for God’s strength to help us persevere—even when things feel challenging or we feel like giving up. To bring this theme to life, the children chose 12 classroom items. Miss Flynn then hid these items around the classroom, and the children were tasked with finding them. Some were tucked away in tricky spots, but with determination, teamwork, and a resilient mindset, they rose to the challenge! The activity was great fun, and the children thoroughly enjoyed this week’s focus in our Year of Prayer.
Reception: Class Worship
We started our worship across the Diocese with a call and response with God loves us, all the time, Amen. We discussed if we have ever done something wrong to a friend and if we have ever had to say sorry. This does happen in class and this is what our story is about today. The story comes from the New Testament and is about the Salvation. The story is called Jesus forgives Peter. Bishop Philip explained the story further. Bishop Philip asked us to imagine that we have done something really bad to somebody. He asked us what we would do the next time we see that person. Bishop Philip hoped we would walk towards them and try to mend the relationship. Peter pretended he did not know Jesus three times. He was full of guilt and shame. Peter swam towards Jesus to say sorry and wanted Jesus to forgive him. Jesus forgave Peter and said I love you. The friendship was mended. We discussed how when we do things that are wrong, it is important to be like Peter and say sorry to mend the friendship. Forgiveness is one of our Christian values and it is really important to help to make the world a better place so that we can all live well together. We ended our worship by singing Build up.
Collective Worship- Pentecost
This morning Mrs Ham welcomed all of the children and staff back to our school after our half term holiday. We started worship by listening to a special prayer written by St Francis, 'Make me a channel of your peace' as that is our special Year of Prayer prayer for the week. We then learnt about Ascension and Pentecost with the help of some super actors and actresses who played the part of the disciples and the wind and fire. We enjoyed joining in with actions to the rhyming Bible stories and we learnt that Pentecost was a special time when God sent His Holy Spirit and it was then the birth of the church. We reflected on how Jesus is always with us through the Holy Spirit that God sent and thought of ways that we could show God's love to each other. We then said a special prayer for Pentecost and sang 'Let me walk beside you', said Jesus one day' song and focused on the 'come follow me forever, with you I'll always stay' which was the promise that Jesus made to his disciples before he ascended into heaven.
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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by reflecting on our theme for this week which was ‘Heaven on Earth.’ Mrs Ham asked us to think about things that we have done in school this week to support this. We had answers such as encouraging each other, helping people up when they are hurt and sharing our kind words and manners. We reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included prayers for our fears and worries as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, enjoying a worship with Rev Matt on the theme of dedication and perseverance, learning the Makaton sign for ‘sad,’ Year 4 welcoming St Matthews into our school on Monday as part of their linking schools project, two of our Worship Our Way group members (Daisy and Grace) attending the Pupil’s RE Conference 2025, Year 4 delivering a whole class worship on Mental Health Awareness, our Year 5/6 Netball Squad representing our school brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league again last night and coming away with two victories, our Year 5/6 Netball team who attended the Bee Stinger Netball finals at St Bedes on Tuesday and being crowned the BwD champions, Isaac, Ivy, Charlie and Oscar attending the Times tables Rockstar competition at Belmont on Wednesday afternoon and our Year 3/4 mixed cricket team for playing brilliantly at Darwen Cricket Club on Wednesday showing super teamwork and determination. Furthermore, we congratulated Peyton and Elliott in Year 4 for working hard to achieve their pen license, our Year 1 and Year 4 classes for being our attendance winners this week and Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 393 points. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Max, Leila, Lenny and Maggie in EYFS and KS1 and Cassidy, Alfie, Reuben and Tyler in KS2, Well done to these children for working incredibly hard across the curriculum and consistently displaying exceptional behaviour through demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Ralphy for being the coach’s dream and showing super skill at football, Charlie and Isabella for achieving their red belts at kickboxing, Annabel for being a super committed Rainbow, Fletcher for being award the Player’s Player of the Match in a recent football game, Cassius for achieving Stage 2 in his swimming, Hendrix for taking part in the Squirrel’s Sports Day, Callie for swimming 25m and being award the dragon at jiu jitsu, Thea for being a superstar Rainbow and achieving Olivia doll, Olivia for achieving Stage 3 in her gymnastics and Esmae, Leonora and Desmond for competing in the micro-league at Darwen Leisure Centre. To end our worship, Mrs Ham wished us all a lovely restful holiday and we had a singalong to ‘Our God is a Great Big God’.