We are incredibly proud to be one of only 3 schools in Birmingham to receive a Bishop of Birmingham Award. We were recognised by Bishop David for living our biblically inspired values and the clear impact this has on the lives of our pupils. Please see below for details of the award and Bishop David's visit.

Bishop David's visit

Bishop David Urquhart visited our school to present us with the award. He was greeted by our ethos committee who look after and lead our ethos and values as well as collective worship. They were very excited to met Bishop David and showed him our Quotes, questions and reflections books, in which we record our thoughts and questions inspired by our values teaching and collective worship. Revered Emma Sykes then lead our collective worship during which the ethos committee shared their favourite bible stories and how they were inspire to be the best they could be and help others though our focus Christian values. They explained that out of all our key bible stories the Good Samaritan is their favourite because it teaches a lot about helping other people and that everyone can make a difference through their actions. They also said that it teaches us to be respectful of others no matter what your colour or religion is. It is a good story because it helps people to help others no matter who they are and they don't have to be our friend. 

Prayers were then said by children of all faiths and Bishop David led the school in prayer. He then had a tour of the school and joined in in lots of lessons. He really enjoyed the visit. He explained that the award is focused on Christian values and ethos in a school and that St Barnabas has integrated their values into the ordinary life of the school. He said they are not just a 'tick box' they are really being lived and discussed and practised by the children and staff, both at school and at home. The welcome I have had this morning from the Ethos Committee been really remarkable. They are able to talk about the difficulties and realities of being honest as one of the important bits of our relationship together. "Faith is caught rather than taught, and children have a rather wonderful way of inquiring into the really big questions: why are we here, who is God, how do we pray, does it matter...? They look at adults to see if the things that adults say are Bing put into practice, so in that sense they bring openness and honest and the idea that faith is just an idea is not good enough, its actually lived and so that what is happening here - they are practising , living and building trust in God and in each other and trying to live in a complicated and uncertain world".  

We thank Bishop David for his visit and his kind words of praise he had for the commitment and work of our school.

We were honoured to be the only school in Birmingham with children speaking at the farewell service for Bishop David. Our children wrote lovely farewell messages of thanks and a prayer for the service.

Please click the link below to watch out children 1hr 12mins onwards.

• Farwell service