EYFS and KS1 Mental Health Workshop
This morning, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had the pleasure of welcoming Erika and Pete from the Lily Jo project for a fun and energetic workshop focusing on our mental health and wellbeing. Erika talked about our three types of health. The first which was our physical health, the second which was our spiritual self and the third which was our mental health. Erika told us that today we would be focusing on our mental health. She explained that our mental health is our our thoughts, feelings and emotions and it is our responsibility to look after it. However, sometimes we struggle with this like being on a rollercoaster. Sometimes we are on the top of the rollercoaster feeling amazing, somewhere in the middle or on the bottom of the rollercoaster feeling down and blue. After this, we learnt how to become a hero of our mental health. We learnt all of the tricks and tips for this. They were: 1) Helping others. We shared ideas such as sharing your toys, giving people a hug, helping at home with the dishes, asking your teacher if they need help and standing up for something that is wrong. 2) Exercising such as taking part in swimming, cycling, play football, running, jogging, jumping or playing with your friends. 3) Relaxing such as watching TV, having a nap, reading a book, having a bath and doing breathing exercises. 4) Opening up by talking to a grown up about how you are feeling. Helping, exercising, relaxing and opening up spells the secret code of HERO. Then, Erika introduced her three very special friends who shared their experiences with us to help us become unstoppable heroes. Marcus was feeling sad because he was being bullied online. People were leaving him nasty comments online. However, he stood up against this and chose to be kind to people to show that kindness is stronger than hate. Jade was feeling worried because she wants to be an amazing singer. However, she got worried about standing on the stage in front of lots of people. She then opened up to someone she trusted to conquer her fear and be brave enough to display her talent. Tyler was feeling angry because he doesn’t know how to express his feelings and emotions. However, he found the strength to open up to someone close to him which made him feel positive and more confident talking about his feelings. Then we listened to and joined in with a couple of songs. The first one was called ‘Unstoppable’ and we said I am unstoppable (pointing at ourself), you are unstoppable (pointing at a partner) and we are unstoppable (pointing in the air). We watched a video of an unstoppable child called Skye Brown who loved to skate and sing. Although people said she was too small to skate, she proved them wrong and went on to be a very successful skater in the Olympics. This proves that with hard work and determination we can be successful. The second song was called ‘Be the Change’ and we all had a boogie and sing along as exercising and singing is good for our mental health. We also enjoyed the message of us being in control of our own mental health.
The Lily Jo Project - KS2 Workshop
We had the pleasure of taking part in The Lily Jo project Workshop this morning. It taught us all about being a hero of our own mental health. Physical Health Spiritual Health Mental Health HERO actually stands for: H- Help others E- Exercise R- Relaxing O- Opening up We had such an awesome time dancing and singing along . We want to remember the very important phrase- You being you, makes me feel YEY! Be yourself and shine your light #mental health #mindmatters #mentalhealthawareness #thelilyjoproject
Year 3 - Class Worship - Mental Health Week
Year 3 have been thinking about mental health, focusing on feelings of loneliness. We discussed ways we can feel less lonely and also ways to help others who are feeling lonely. We wrote some prayers and ended our worship by singing “Way Maker”.
Year 1-Class Worship
Today in our class worship, we talked about and celebrated differences. We read Danielle’s story from Picture News about her experiences of living with dwarfism. We talked about how Danielle doesn’t deserve the mean comments or laughter that she sometimes faces from strangers and how this must make her feel upset, devastated, uncomfortable and angry. We then read a story about Esther’s first day at school. Esther started a new school where she had been judged before people got to know her so we talked about how we must get to know people’s likes and dislikes rather than making our own judgements about them. To end our worship, we had some beautiful prayers from some children who held those with mental and physical disabilities in their prayers and prayed for the world to show kindness and respect to others.
Friday Celebration Worship
Despite it being a very short week in school this week, we still had lots to celebrate in Worship this morning. We reflected on how we have been showing generosity this week and shared our well wishes for Year 6 in preparation for their SATs next week. There were sports stars galore on the golden podium, as we had many children showing us how they are living life in all its fullness. A big well done to Charlotte who has raised £710 for East Lancs Hospice by running a mile a day! We also had football achievements (with a signing for Manchester United) and awards for swimming, cycling, martial arts and cubs! Wow, what another brilliant week at St Barnabas!
Whole school Worship: Generosity
Today during our worship we discussed what generosity means and why it is important to be generous. The children discussed how we can be generous. They said we can give to charity, help others, smile and make others happy. We looked at how important it is to give up our time to be generous and reflected on what this means. The children said they could stop playing on their games and could stop watching TV so that they would have more time to give to others. We looked at Mother Teresa and how she dedicated herself to helping others. This week we will be reflecting on how we can be generous and to see if we can create a positive ripple effect. We will also reflect on being truly grateful for anything that we receive.
Friday 29th April- Celebration Worship
Today in celebration worship, we reflected on Monday’s worship about St George and how we have shown our Christian value of courage this week just as he did. Annabelle in Year 2 said she showed courage by diving into the swimming pool and Oscar in Year 3 challenged some behaviour that he didn’t think was right. Then, our wonderful choir performed the song ‘Time to Shine’ for our whole school as they did last night at Ewood Park for an audience of 4,200. We then heard from our cross country team who participated in the DPSSA cross country on Tuesday night and showed amazing sportsmanship and our netball team who played against St Peter’s in the DPSSA netball league and won 11-0. A special well done to Kaycie who was voted player of the match for her determination. We then celebrated our out of school award winners. Well done to Katie, Harlow and Eva in Year 5 for their team success in coming 2nd in their football tournament, Eliza in year 1 for her success in horse riding and achieving trainer of the week in football, Daisy in Year 1 and Grace in Year 2 for earning a special badge at rainbows for learning sign language and Charlotte in Year 5 for her yellow belt in jujitsu and for fundraising for East Lancs Hospice. She has raised £600 by running a mile a day for 40 days. Amazing work Charlotte! We heard from our teachers who shared their highlights from the week. A huge well done to our whole school for their achievements and successes in class. Finally, Mrs Ham reminded us about the upcoming Royal Variety show that we’ll be having in school on 27th May to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee and we had some beautiful prayers from David and Lucy to end our worship.
Year 4- SMART School Council
This morning we held our first SMART School Council meeting in Year 4. We had a Class Meeting leader and a Class Meeting Notetaker. Because so many of us wanted to take the role, we used Class Dojo randomiser to select the pupils. Sophie and Freddie led the meeting and we looked at which example would have the most impact on improving our environment. We worked in groups and the majority thought that to stop littering would have the biggest impact on our planet. Year 4 had a great attitude and discussed ideas with confidence and maturity.
St George’s Day Worship
As we entered worship today, we listened to ‘Jerusalem’. On Saturday it was St George’s day. We discussed what we think of when we think about England. Carlton said “football”, Ted said “the sea”, Jake said “Formula 1” and Oscar said “our home” to name a few! We looked at a few favourites from England which included apple crumble, roast beef dinner, cups of tea, Charles Dickens, the white cliffs of Dover and Stonehenge. We looked at how things have changed in England. In the past, ladies did jobs at home whereas now ladies can have careers. We used to have lots of factories for workers but now many people work in jobs to provide services. We learnt about St George. St George died from what he believed in. He believed in God and St George stood up for what was right. We looked at our British values and how we follow them in school. We discussed how we are tolerant, how we respect each other, how our opinions are important, how we can make our own choices and how we need to follow the rules in school. During our reflection we thought about when we have had to show courage. This week we re going to focus on showing courage and standing up for what is right.
Celebration Worship
Today, we welcomed our parents back to Celebration Worship after two years. It was wonderful to have you all back. We then introduced our whole school worship by talking about Earth Day. We discussed how it's important to show respect to the earth as God created it for us. We were especially proud of Year 2 who did some litter picking around Darwen yesterday during their local area walk in Geography, and our other classes are looking forward to some further reflection on the importance of looking after the earth in their classes later today. We then celebrated some in and out of school achievements. We heard from our class teachers about how our children are living life in all its fullness. We said thank you to some boys across school who came into school in the holidays to take part in a darts competition and we also said a huge thank you to WOW group for their success in leading their first messy church on Tuesday this week. Well done WOW group! We then celebrated some individual sports superstars. Well done to Archie in Year 4 for his darts and football achievements, Jason, Lennox, Cassidy and Isaac for their swimming success, Cassidy for her gymnastics success, Olivia for very good listening and being sensible at rainbows and Mason for his dance talent . We had some notices from Mrs Govan and our Head and Deputy Head girl. Mrs Govan told us about the competition that is currently running linked to the Queen's Jubilee. Please see Class Dojo for further details. Our Head and Deputy Head girl told us about the new playtime equipment that they have ordered with some of the money that we raised as a school from the movie nights before half term. Finally, we ended our worship with some lovely prayers from Lily and Mason.
Year 3 Class Worship - Earth Day
Year 3 have been thinking about God’s wonderful creation and how we can help look after it. They wrote prayers and ended their worship by singing “Shine”.
Messy Church
A huge well done to our fantastic WOW group on running their first event! They did an amazing job of setting up and running our Easter Messy Church. They had great fun and they hope all those who attended did too.