Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. First of all, we started by saying a huge thank you to all of the children who attended St Barnabas Church last Sunday in celebration of Mothering Sunday and Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Araujo for supporting this event. We also thanked the children in the Year 4/5/6 swimming squad who represented our school in the DPSSA Swimming Gala at Darwen Leisure Centre on Friday evening and Mrs Gardner for supporting this event. Well done to these children for demonstrating courage, determination and giving each other lots of encouragement. We then thought about our highlights in school this week. We enjoyed an unforgettable science show delivered by the amazing Science Boffin Katja, a fabulous rock performance by the brilliant members of our Rocksteady Rock Bands, Year 5 enjoyed an introduction to peer mediation as well as their second bike ability session, Year 2, 3 and 5 enjoyed a walk to contribute to ‘Our Big Lent Walk’ and all of our children across school have enjoyed some fantastic clubs such as Choir, Lego Serious Play led by WOW group, Story Club led by the school librarians, Gymnastics and Dodgeball Club led by EDSTART and Craft Club led by Fred and Pearl. Other highlights include our Year 5/6 football team who played in the B team festival at Witton Park on Tuesday evening and our Year 4 football team who played their final matches in the BRFC League on Tuesday evening. Well done to these incredible footballers for showcasing incredible teamwork and finishing as proud runners-up. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Finn, Phoebe and Reneé in EYFS and KS1 and Iris, Miles, Theo and Jack in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating a consistently positive attitude to their learning and working hard to show the Barney’s 4Bs. Furthermore, we congratulated Carter and Nevaeh in Year 4 for working hard to achieve her pen license, our Year 2 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 99.6% and 99.2% attendance and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 354 points. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Charlie and Albie for being the Players of the Week at Little Darrener’s FC for super dribbling, Annabel for demonstrating amazing skill in her recent ballet and tap exam, Seb for being Player of the Match for his super tackling, Scarlett for demonstrating great skill in her interceptions and goal scoring at football, Summer for being a super dancer in modern jazz and tap, Brooke for achieving Player of the Match and Laila for being the opposition’s Player of the Match at football, Minnie for achieving a badge at squirrels, Olivia H for achieving a medal at gymnastics for working hard and demonstrating super listening skills, Leonora and Iris for their resilience and determination at gymnastics, Olivia R for achieving the Goalkeeper of the Week at Soccer HQ and Jack for achieving his 400m and Stage 7 swimming certificate. To end our worship, Mrs Govan told us about an upcoming Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. More information to follow on Class Dojo. We then had a joyous singalong and dance to ‘He is Alive’. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine. The slides can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
Worship with Rev. Ben
Today, during Rev. Ben’s worship, the children explored the theme of living life in all its fullness through movement and storytelling. They engaged in a series of dynamic actions that brought a Bible story to life, immersing themselves in an active and reflective experience. The story they focused on was the Road to Emmaus from the Gospel of Luke. It tells of two disciples walking to Emmaus, filled with sadness and confusion following Jesus’ crucifixion. Along the way, they met a stranger who walked with them and explained the Scriptures, helping them understand God’s greater plan. As evening approached, they invited the stranger to stay and share a meal. It was only when he broke the bread that their eyes were opened—they realised the stranger was the resurrected Jesus! In that moment, Jesus disappeared, leaving them filled with renewed faith and joy. This interactive worship session helped the children connect with the story in a meaningful way, encouraging them to embrace faith, discovery and the joy of living life to the fullest.
Year 3-Year of Prayer-Hot Cross Buns and Prayer
As part of our Year of Prayer this week, the children enjoyed hot cross buns. The cross on the bun symbolized Jesus' death on the cross. We reflected on how Jesus' sacrifice takes away our wrongdoings, and we expressed gratitude for the new beginnings his death makes possible.
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Year of Prayer and Singing Worship
What an uplifting and joyous way to start a Monday morning practising 'When I think about the cross' and the new upbeat Easter song from Pop Uk called 'He is alive'. We loved putting our own actions to the song and Year 6 modelled enthusiastically at the front, encouraging everyone to join in. We also introduced the Year of Prayer in classes for this week which involves everyone eating hot cross buns, which Mrs Ham brought in. We then said had our special Year of Prayer prayer for this week which thanked Jesus for praying for us just before he died and for always loving us and being there to hear our prayers.
Mother's Day Worship at St Barnabas Church
A huge thank you to the children who came to sing at the Mother's Day Service at St Barnabas Church. You were all wonderful and really made everyone smile with your singing and beautiful words about your Mummies. Thank you to parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles who came to watch too and for bringing the children so they could represent St Barnabas. Thank you to Mrs Araujo, Mrs Gardner and Mrs Hegarty for coming to support the children too and thank you to Rev Ben for inviting us to sing and for making us all feel so welcome. Photos and videos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/mother-s-day-celebration-at-st-barnabas-church Wishing all of our families a Happy Mother's Day, Mrs Wilkinson
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. We have been extremely busy preparing for Easter in our RE lessons and in collective worships with Mrs Ham and Rev Matt, Reception led a very special worship and FOSB hosted a lovely coffee morning on Wednesday morning to celebrate Mothering Sunday, Reception and Year 1 contributed to ‘The Big Lent Walk,’ we have had enjoyed a variety of wonderful lunchtime and after schools clubs and Year 5 enjoyed a bikeability session. We then said a huge thank you to you all for continuing to support ‘THE BIG LENT WALK.’ So far, we have walked 1518km and raised £114. However, we really believe that we can surpass this. Please let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and please send photos if you can. This is a great way of giving back during Lent and supporting our mental health and well-being. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Archie, Vienna and Molly in EYFS and KS1 and Isaac, Darcy, Talia and Jake in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating great resilience, respect and kindness. Furthermore, we congratulated Carmen in Year 4 for working hard to achieve her pen license, our Year 2 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 99.2% and 99.3% attendance, Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 278 points and our Year 5/6 Cross Country Team for demonstrating great resilience, determination and respect in the Darwen Primary Schools League Cross Country Event at Witton Park last night. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Thea for swimming 10m, Eleanor for achieving a Rainbows agility badge, Maggie for being a fantastic Rainbow and working hard toward her gold badge, Lyla for demonstrating great skill in her acro, Harry for being the ‘Trainer of the week’ for fantastic tackling at football, Naomi, Martha and Scarlett for making their Brownie promise at the weekend, Marley for achieving her Stage 3 and 10m swimming certificates, Isaac for achieving ‘Player of the Day’ for scoring the winning goal in a recent football game and being the ‘Player of the Week’ at Soccer HQ, Sofia for being awarded her birthday badge at Rainbows, Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ for her super dribbling at football, Summer for receiving a 1st in a recent gymnastics competition as part of a duo, Daisy for demonstrating great skill in a recent gymnastics competition, Tristen for being awarded his green belt in kickboxing, Carmen and Renee for being awarded their white belt in kickboxing and Lydia for being the ‘Star of the Week’ at EdStart gymnastics club. To end our worship, Mrs Ham invited us all to join a special Mothering Sunday Worship at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am. Then, we all had a singalong to ‘Give Me Oil in My Lamp.’ We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today, Rev. Matt led worship and shared the second half of the Easter story, focusing on the events following Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. The children listened intently as he spoke about the resurrection, emphasising the joy and hope it brings to Christians around the world. Through engaging storytelling, Rev. Matt encouraged the children to reflect on the meaning of Easter and how it represents new beginnings, faith and God’s everlasting love. He posed thought-provoking questions, prompting the children to consider how the message of forgiveness, kindness and renewal can be applied in their own lives. The session ended with a moment of quiet reflection and a prayer, allowing the children to appreciate the significance of Easter and its impact on their faith and actions.
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Year 3- Class Worship- Helping Other Countries
In our class worship this week, Year 3 discussed the recent news story about twenty world leaders forming a 'coalition of the willing' to support Ukraine- Helping Other Countries. The children felt strongly that everyone needs to work together and find solutions that are good for everyone. Emily then read a prayer, thanking God for the example of the Good Samaritan, who demonstrated compassion by helping a stranger in need. We also explored how other faiths emphasise caring for others and working together to promote peace and justice.
Collective Worship - The Garden of Gethsemane
Our collective worship began with the Year 6 class presenting their learning about Shakespeare. Thank you for sharing, Year 6! Mrs Ham then led our worship about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus spent time praying for strength from God to help Him through the events that were to follow. We spent time reflecting on all of our Lenten events so far: Lent walks, Lenten promises and our 40 acts of kindness. Finally, we took part in this week’s special Year of Prayer by all sharing what was on our minds with Jesus, considering what we are thankful for, by writing these on a leaf. Mrs Ham created a prayer tree in our entrance area with over 200 lovely prayers on leaves from all of our children and staff.
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Year 2 - Class Worship
This week in our Class Worship, we heard some news about the government. They're going to open 750 new breakfast clubs all over the country. This made us think about something really important, the United Nations Rights of a Child. One of these rights says that all children should have healthy food to eat. We talked about how the government is trying to help all children have a healthy breakfast, and these new breakfast clubs are one way they can do that. Then, we thought about how lucky we are to have healthy food to eat. We talked about how we don't always have to worry about having breakfast. Finally, we said a prayer to say thank you for all the healthy food we have. It was a time to be grateful for what we have!
Year 3 - Year of Prayer- Prayers for Healing the Sick
During our 'Year of Prayer' session, the children reflected on who needed healing, focusing on healing the sick, etc. They wrote down names on plasters and we prayed for Jesus to bring them comfort. It was great to see how the children considered not only those they knew, but also those suffering in wider contexts, like wounded soldier, patients at the hospitals and pets that are taken ill.
Collective Worship: Year of Prayer and Singing Worship
This week, some members of our WOW group introduced our year of prayer activity. Mrs Araujo gave every class a packet of plasters and the children will think of somebody who is poorly to pray for. We then began our singing worship and practised songs that some of our children will be singing in church on Sunday during the St Barnabas Mother's Day Worship. We sang My Lighthouse, Our God is a Great Big God, Rich in Kindness and Build Up. All children are welcome to attend the special worship with Mrs Wilkinson at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am.