World Book Day 2023
Today we celebrated world book day to show how amazing books are and the theme of this year’s celebration is bedtime stories and stories that fill our happy tank. During worship, Mrs Wilkinson, our reading leader, shared a variety of books through ‘the masked book’ quiz. Our school librarians shared clues from their favourite bedtime stories and asked the school to guess their book. Mrs Ham showed us one of her favourite stories, Oliver Twist, and read a 'Little people, big dreams' book about the author Charles Dickens. We learnt how he developed his love of books and became a successful author, writing stories with powerful messages. We are looking forward to a production of one of Charles Dickens famous stories tomorrow, A Christmas Carol, but in a special adaptation called Scrooge. Charles Dickens wanted everyone to know that everyday can feel like Christmas, if we show kindness and fill up each other's happy tanks. Children enjoyed stories from other teachers across the school who shared their favourite bedtime stories or stories that fill their happy tank. A special author came into school to read her latest book. The lion who lost its mane. She shared her amazing story and the message behind the story and her inspiration for making her book. Throughout the day children completed many activities to celebrate this year's themes for world book day, favourite bedtime stories or stories that fill your happy tank. This included: competitions for creating the best book cover, creating art work and reading their favourite stories to each other. Thank you to Mrs Speak, our English link Governor for joining us in our special World Book Day Worship. Happy World Book Day 2023!
Whole School Worship - Fairtrade Fortnight
In Worship today, we began by lighting a special candle and had a moments silence to pray for the families affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Mrs Ham then showed us some foods that she had bought over the last week. We then had to guess why Mrs Ham was showing us these foods and what was special about them. Darci said that they were all fairtrade products and Hamza spotted the fairtrade logo. Mrs Ham explained that today was the start of Fairtrade Fortnight. We joined in with a quiz about fairtrade products, thought about our foods, where they come from and how climate change is affecting farmers and their crops in tropical countries. We also thought about how the Fairtrade Foundation supports these farmers, and how we can do a bit by opting for Fairtrade products. We reflected on how we can show kindness and support our neighbours around the world by buying Fairtrade products and how we can show our Christian values of generosity, friendship and respect this Fairtrade Fortnight and through Lent.
Celebration worship- Super Sports Stars
Well done! Well done to all our amazing ‘sports stars’ this week. It is wonderful to see such a variety of activities being enjoyed. Our Year 3/4 gymnastics team have done us so proud this week representing our school beautifully, your progress is excellent and a direct reflection to your hard working attitude as gymnastics takes practice, perseverance and a positive attitude, which you all show in buckets. Well done!
Celebration Worship
Well done to all of our children this week on another busy week in school, working so hard and showing all our Christian values and gaining so many value points. A huge congratulations to Reception and Year 3 for being the amazing attendance winners again this week! Well done Darwen Tower team for winning the overall value points prize which you get to choose, will it be a disco, non uniform, or maybe an extra MUGA session with coach Baxendale? A massive well done to all our class Value Award winners, your hard work and determination really does show both in the classroom and around school, we hope you are super proud of yourselves.
Year 2 - Class Worship
This week during our class worship we have been discussing the horrific incident that occurred in Turkey and Syria. Children discussed the devastating effects that it must have on family and what we can do and are doing as a country to show our support to all those affected. Some of the ideas we came up with are: - Sending food and water - Providing tents and beds for people to sleep in - Praying for all those affected - Sending specialist teams such as doctors, nurses and teachers.
Shrove Tuesday
As today is Shrove Tuesday, Mrs Ham bought our whole school family pancake bites to eat to symbolise the start of Lent tomorrow. They went down a treat and many of the children were excited to have pancakes at home this evening too. We are looking forward to seeing lots of different ways that we can all give this Lent through demonstrating our Christian values of service, friendship and generosity.
Rev Ben’s Ash Wednesday Worship
This morning Rev Ben led our Worship. First he lit our special candle and we had a moment's silence to pray for the families in Turkey and Syria who have been affected by the devastating earthquakes. Rev Ben asked us who was the greatest out of four celebrities, Marcus Rashford, Taylor Swift, Princess Kate and Rishi Sunak. The children had a discussion with a partner about who was the greatest and why. We had some super answers and several reasons why each one was the greatest. We then watched a video about the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee which was a story that Jesus told to some people who thought they were great and looked down on others. The Pharisee thought he was the greatest and looked down on others but the tax collector was actually great in God's eyes as he asked for help and forgiveness. Rev Ben explained that Ash Wednesday is when Christian's ask for help and for their sins to be forgiven by God. Rev Ben then talked to us about Christian greatness and we had some time to reflect and discuss what Christians think being great is all about and how we can put that greatness into practice. Again we had some brilliant answers such as showing kindness, friendship, generosity and service to others. We finished our worship with a special prayer led by Rev Ben and sang and danced to My Lighthouse, to symbolise that God is always there to hear our prayers of help and forgiveness.
Whole School Worship: Shrove Tuesday and Lent
To begin our worship, we lit a special candle and prayed for everyone in Turkey and Syria. As we entered worship, we watched a video all about when Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. Tomorrow it is Shrove Tuesday. On Wednesday, our altar will change to the colour of purple as we enter Lent and prepare for Easter. Mrs Ham asked the children ‘what makes you you?’ Neve said her freckles, Oscar said playing the piano and cello, Jake said his fingerprints and Grace said her flexibility. Our personality, emotions, behaviour, clothes, family and belongings all make us unique. Mrs Ham then asked ‘what made Jesus Jesus?’ Eliza said he was the son of God, Grace said his abilities to perform miracles, Ella said that he came down from heaven, Finn said his kindness and Leonora said when he rose from the dead. On Wednesday, Lent beings where we remember how Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. We watched a video all about this time. Jesus was tempted by the devil during his time but he trusted in God and didn’t give in to temptation. Jesus knew there was a plan for him. He knew that he was going to die on the cross so that all of our sins can be forgiven. During our reflection, we had a think about what we could do or give up to help us to feel closer to God. Eva said she is going to give up chocolate, Elsa said sweets, Carter said fizzy drinks, Isaac said he will give some of his toys to charity and Declan said his clothes to the charity shop. We also thought about how we could show kindness and which Christian values we could show during Lent. We finished our worship by singing ‘our God is a great big God’.
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Whole School- Celebration Worship
Wow! We had lots to celebrate today. During our Celebration Worship this morning, the class teachers celebrated by presenting a value award to the children who have been demonstrating our Christian Values. This week, our overall house values point winner was Darwen tower with 258 points. We also celebrated Years 3 and 4 for their winning at sportshall athletics. Well done to the reception class and Year 3 for this week's best attendance. We also celebrated the children that have taken part in extracurricular activities, well done to everyone! We finished our worship with Rev Ben leading a prayer.
Celebration Worship- Dress to Express- Mental Health Week
The Year 4 class led our 'dress to express' worship this morning for 'Children's Mental Health Week'. The children had prepared lines about mental health, which they presented with confidence and maturity to parents and the whole school. They spoke about how we can all look after our mental health by doing activities we enjoy. They also shared their favourite clip about kindness and stressed how important it is to be kind to each other and the positive impact being kind has on our mental health. The Year 5 Well-being warriors also presented prizes to our winners from KS1 for their amazing artwork which represented their feelings on a drawing of a jar. They finished by singing their favourite song ' My Lighthouse' and prayers led by Tyler and Grace. Thank you Year 4 and to all of the parents, carers and grandparents who joined us.
Year 5- Collective Worship
During our class worship this morning, we looked at this week's news on equality and the earthquake which has caused major damage to the families of Turkey and Syria. We discussed equality in detail and mainly focussing on men and women's football team. The children shared their opinions and thoughts on the topic and concluded that humans are equal and Jesus wants everyone to treat each other equally. He also teaches us to challenge individuals and social structures, that do not treat all humans equally. We watched a short clip of the damage that has been caused by the 7.8 magnitude Turkey-Syria earthquake and looked at the support that is already out there. We learnt about how earthquakes are measured and the damage it can cause. We then thought of ways that we could help by sending them a prayer and that we are thinking of them all.
Year 2 - Collective Worship
During our class worship we looked at the story with the Wales national football team. They are one of very few national football teams that have granted men and women equal pay. We looked at equality within sports and across the world and we all talked about how anybody can play football. The society we live in is and should be inclusive and we all have the potential to be amazing.