Image of Year 5 - Hello Yellow Day
10 Oct

Year 5 - Hello Yellow Day

Year 5 celebrated Hello Yellow Day by wearing our own yellow clothes. We defined what the term ‘mental health’ means before reflecting on what positive mental health looks like and the many different ways it can be managed. This included a mindfulness colouring session.

Image of Year 1 Hello Yellow Day
10 Oct

Year 1 Hello Yellow Day

We loved celebrating Hello Yellow Day in Year 1. We discussed that Hello Yellow Day is raising awareness for mental health and the children shared times when they might have felt sad, lonely or scared. We read ‘I am Enough’ by Grace Byers to promote positive mental health and enjoyed lots of fun Hello Yellow activities in our areas like colouring, dot to dot and word searches.

Image of Year 2-World Mental Health Day
10 Oct

Year 2-World Mental Health Day

Year 2 celebrated World Mental Health Day today! Everyone came dressed in yellow and spent time learning about how important it is to look after ourselves. We talked about what we can do when we’re feeling a bit down — like doing things we love, spending time with friends and family, and talking about how we feel. The children shared lots of great ideas about what makes them happy and how they can stay positive. Well done Year 2!

Image of Year 1 Science: Characteristics of animals
10 Oct

Year 1 Science: Characteristics of animals

In Science, we have learnt lots of information about animals over the past 6 weeks. We have learnt all the animal groups: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. Additionally, we have learnt how to group them based on their diets: carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Today the children had to draw an animal of their choice into their books and had to write 3 characteristics to describe the animal as well as the animal group it belongs too. For example, a giraffe is a mammal, it is yellow, spotty and has four legs. The children then tried to guess each other’s animal based on the clues, which was a lot of fun!

Image of Year 3- Hello Yellow Day for World Mental Health
10 Oct

Year 3- Hello Yellow Day for World Mental Health

Today, we held a fantastic "Hello Yellow Day" to observe World Mental Health Day, raising awareness by having everyone come to school in non-uniform, wearing something bright yellow. As part of our activities, we watched an inspiring short video that highlighted the power of drawing and sketching as tools for children to express their emotions and build mental wellbeing, featuring insights from actor Tony Hale (from Inside Out 2) and Consultant Clinical Psychologist David Trickey, with the goal of inspiring our students to grow in confidence, kindness, and self-awareness.

Image of Hello Yellow Day in Year 4
10 Oct

Hello Yellow Day in Year 4

We have had a great day in Year 4 trying to raise the profile of World Mental Health Day by taking part in Hello Yellow Day! Hello Yellow Day is a campaign to show support for young people's mental health and let them know they aren't alone.

Image of Reception - Hello Yellow Day
10 Oct

Reception - Hello Yellow Day

Reception have enjoyed raising awareness for Young Minds through wearing yellow today and taking part in lots of activities that enhance our happiness. We took part in some cosmic yoga to calm our minds, created beautiful pictures and talked about different feelings from the film ‘inside out.’ The children were very thoughtful about their feelings and what we can do when we are feeling sad, scared or angry.

Image of Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
10 Oct

Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day

This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.

Image of Year 1 English: Fact hunt
10 Oct

Year 1 English: Fact hunt

In our English lesson today, we were looking for facts about Emperor Penguins which will help us to write our non-chronological reports over the next two weeks. The children had to find a fact around the room, remember it and come and write it in the correct box in their English books. They all tried really hard and showed our 4B’s whilst moving around the room: be ready, be safe, be kind, be respectful.

Image of DPSSA Girls Football
9 Oct

DPSSA Girls Football

Our St Barnabas girls’ team did amazingly well today! They showed great teamwork and determination, earning hard-fought draws against St James’ Lower Darwen and St Cuthbert’s, before securing a fantastic 1–0 win against St Paul’s. We’re so proud of their effort, skill and sportsmanship throughout the matches.

Image of Year 6 - History
9 Oct

Year 6 - History

Today, Year 6 had a visit from Diana Killey, who as a child, attended St Barnabas in the 1940s. She spoke to the children about what life was like growing up during that time and shared her experiences as a child of war. Diana described her daily life and spoke about the strong sense of community that developed during those years. The children were fascinated by her stories and asked many thoughtful questions, showing great curiosity and respect for her experiences.

Image of Whole school Rev. Ben Worship
9 Oct

Whole school Rev. Ben Worship

Today in Rev. Ben’s Worship we looked at The Story of Jacob, who was a cheat and he wasn’t kind at all as he tricked his brother out of a special gift from his father. God saw Jacob's wrong doings and still showed his family generosity. If we make the wrong choices sometimes, God will always forgive us, showing us grace and love.