St Barnabas CE Primary in Worcester held a whole school harvest festival at St Barnabas Church this week. The service included the presentation of certificates to the winners of a harvest poetry and art competition which was run by the Church for children at the school.
The competition was organised as a way of building on the existing connection between the school and church. Church member Sue Sykes said: “We asked Key Stage 1 to create a harvest picture and Key Stage 2 to create a harvest poem and had a brilliant response. All the entries were displayed in church for our own harvest festival with the winning poems read out. Prizes and certificates were then presented to the winning children at the school harvest festival. Everyone who entered received a certificate of merit.”
The church regularly goes into school for Open the Book and the Revd Sarah Northall leads worship. The church also rang the bells for the school each day during lockdown when the school was still open. Headteacher, Sarah Hanson said:
“Our link with the church is very important, helping our children understand that it is there for everyone. We have children at all faiths and none at the school and they all come to the services we have in church. Through this link we can encourage compassion, community, religious tolerance and understanding. Our harvest festival is all about having a joyful celebration of all that is good and helping children to see that they can make a difference and exact change.
This year, our school council voted that we should collect items for the Foodbank. They made posters and spoke at assembly and the donations have been very generous and hugely touching. The harvest competitions were a lovely thing to do in terms of family liaison. They were sent home as a school project and were completely optional, but lots of children took part.”
Sarah Northall is Priest in Charge at St Barnabas. She said: “We are really blessed to have two church schools in the parish with children aged from 4 to 16. It’s a priority for our church to connect with families and children and that means opening the doors to those in the local community. We are very proud of our schools, and we hope to continue to build on the relationship and encourage families to come into church.
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At the start of term, St Barnabas opened as a café, inviting parents dropping their children off to come for a cuppa and to light a candle to pray for their children at the start of the school year. Each year group from Bishop Perowne CE College will also shortly be coming in to use the church with plans for a year 11 leavers service at the end of the year.
