Poppy Appeal 2024
Our Heads and Deputies have been around to all of the classrooms today to show all of the children the poppy appeal merchandise that will be on sale from Monday at break times. The suggested donation for slap bands is £1.50, bracelets £1.00 and poppy reflectors 50p. Please send money into school in a named envelope or bag. Thank you in advance for your generosity to this worthy cause. Next week we will be focusing on Remembrance Day in our Worships and Year 6 will be taking part in a special Remembrance Service at Darwen Cemetery. We will remember them.
Worship with Rev. Matt
During this week’s worship, Rev. Matt engaged the children with a game of ‘Real or Fake,’ encouraging them to think carefully about what they see and question whether images are genuine or not. This led into the story of Elijah, who courageously stood against people worshiping a statue made of sticks and stones, teaching the children about the importance of true faith over false idols. To close, Rev. Matt invited the children to reflect on what they would like God’s help with, creating a moment of thoughtful prayer and connection.
Reception - Diwali
During today’s worship, Reception Class led a special service to celebrate Diwali. The children proudly showcased their beautiful artwork, including vibrant rangoli patterns filling the space with vibrant colours. They sang joyful songs and shared the story of Diwali with the whole school. It was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to learn about and appreciate this important Hindu celebration!
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Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide
In our first collective worship of the week, Mrs Ham looked at Allhallowtide through our three spirituality lenses. Lens 1 - Windows: we looked out into the world at a photograph from Bangladesh depicting Christians gathered around graves with lit candles on them and discussed our observations and ideas about what the people were doing and how they might have felt. We had some fabulous ideas such as it must be a place of worship as they could see a cross and candles like we have in our worship, that they might be praying and that they were remembering. Lens 2 - Mirrors: we learned about All Souls’ Day and reflected on how we might remember our loved ones. The children had some lovely ideas about lighting candles and going to a special place. Lens 3 - Doors: we learned about All Saints’ Day and thought carefully about how we could be like saints. The WOW group introduced our behaviour focus for this half term , which is using good manners around school, and the children immediately put these into action by saying please and thank you, holding doors for each other, and letting people past. What a fantastic start to the new half term!
Enjoying our Spiritual Garden
A huge thank you to our WOW (Worship Our Way) group, Mrs Araujo and Mr Fairbanks for planning and developing our Spiritual Garden. We are loving having time to reflect, admire God’s creations, be peaceful and connect with our friends in it at break and lunch times. Thank you to SACRE for the generous grant we received to create a spiritual garden made from mainly reclaimed and recycled materials.
Welcome back Worship
It was wonderful to welcome the children back into school this morning after the half term break. We had a brilliant singing worship where we created actions for our new song 'life is always better' and our super volunteers led the actions for our 'song of peace'. song. What an uplifting way to start the new half term!
Harvest Church Service 2024
Thank you to our Wow group, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 classes for leading our Harvest celebration at church today. I have uploaded some videos to class dojo and additional photos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/harvest-church-service-2024 It was wonderful to see so many of our families in attendance. A huge thank you to you all for coming to watch and thank you to all of our families for your continued support this half term. Thank you for all of your kind harvest donations, these can be continued to be sent in during the first week that we are back at school. Wishing you all a wonderful half term, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 4 - The Great Big Live Assembly
On Tuesday morning, Year 4 joined the rest of the school and over 1000 other schools across the country for the Great Big Live Assembly online. The assembly was a celebration of Black History Month in which we heard from various black celebrities as they talked about people from the black community who have inspired them. There was a quiz about historical figures and a short interview with children from a UK primary school who said we should all be proud of who we are.
Year 6 - Black History Month Worship
Year 6 took part in a worship, that schools across the country joined, to celebrate ‘Black History Month’. We discussed how we can ensure that all children feel welcome in school and explored some inspirational figures. One Individual that stood out to year 6 was Ruby Bridges. She is an American civil rights activist who attended a formerly all-white school at the age of 6. Despite having to be escorted into school and jeered at daily, she battled adversity in order to get the best possible education for herself.
Year 1 Class Worship- Black History Month
This week in Year 1, we have listened to the stories of some extraordinary people in Black History. We watched a video about Olaudah Equiano who worked as a slave for many years before buying his freedom. We learnt that once he was freed, he was incredibly brave and fought for black slavery to be abolished. We also learnt about an inspirational man called Laurie Cunningham who fought against many challenges to become one of the first black footballers to play for England. Finally, we read a book about Rosa Parks who was a very courageous woman who made her famous stand (while sitting) on the bus, helping to bring about freedom and equality for black people. Year 1 are looking forward to reading more of the ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ books.
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’.