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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by reflecting on our theme for this week which was ‘Heaven on Earth.’ Mrs Ham asked us to think about things that we have done in school this week to support this. We had answers such as encouraging each other, helping people up when they are hurt and sharing our kind words and manners. We reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included prayers for our fears and worries as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, enjoying a worship with Rev Matt on the theme of dedication and perseverance, learning the Makaton sign for ‘sad,’ Year 4 welcoming St Matthews into our school on Monday as part of their linking schools project, two of our Worship Our Way group members (Daisy and Grace) attending the Pupil’s RE Conference 2025, Year 4 delivering a whole class worship on Mental Health Awareness, our Year 5/6 Netball Squad representing our school brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league again last night and coming away with two victories, our Year 5/6 Netball team who attended the Bee Stinger Netball finals at St Bedes on Tuesday and being crowned the BwD champions, Isaac, Ivy, Charlie and Oscar attending the Times tables Rockstar competition at Belmont on Wednesday afternoon and our Year 3/4 mixed cricket team for playing brilliantly at Darwen Cricket Club on Wednesday showing super teamwork and determination. Furthermore, we congratulated Peyton and Elliott in Year 4 for working hard to achieve their pen license, our Year 1 and Year 4 classes for being our attendance winners this week and Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 393 points. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Max, Leila, Lenny and Maggie in EYFS and KS1 and Cassidy, Alfie, Reuben and Tyler in KS2, Well done to these children for working incredibly hard across the curriculum and consistently displaying exceptional behaviour through demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Ralphy for being the coach’s dream and showing super skill at football, Charlie and Isabella for achieving their red belts at kickboxing, Annabel for being a super committed Rainbow, Fletcher for being award the Player’s Player of the Match in a recent football game, Cassius for achieving Stage 2 in his swimming, Hendrix for taking part in the Squirrel’s Sports Day, Callie for swimming 25m and being award the dragon at jiu jitsu, Thea for being a superstar Rainbow and achieving Olivia doll, Olivia for achieving Stage 3 in her gymnastics and Esmae, Leonora and Desmond for competing in the micro-league at Darwen Leisure Centre. To end our worship, Mrs Ham wished us all a lovely restful holiday and we had a singalong to ‘Our God is a Great Big God’.
Year 4 Biscuit Creations Group 1
In our final food technology session we made our lovely biscuit creations. We have planned these for several weeks from looking at package design, taste testing, budgeting and then mixing and baking. What a fantastic end result for Group 1!
Year 4 Biscuit Creations Group 2
In our final food technology session we made our lovely biscuit creations. We have planned these for several weeks from looking at package design, taste testing, budgeting and then mixing and baking. What a fantastic end result for Group 2!
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Year 4 - The Master Baker Process
What a fantastic unit we have just completed in our Food Technology unit - Adapting a recipe. We used a basic shortbread recipe and then added up to three extra special ingredients according to our target audience. The master baker process was very tricky, especially the decorating at the end but the final result is proof of how hard the children have been working throughout.
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Happy half term!
Dear Parents and Carers, As we reach the end of another busy half term, we want to extend our sincerest thanks for your continued support. Your partnership is invaluable, and we truly appreciate everything you do for our school family. It's been another fantastic week, full of learning, achieving great things, and fun! Here are just a few of the highlights: * Year 4 had a wonderful time welcoming visitors from their link school, St. Matthew's. They're already looking forward to visiting them on the first Monday back after the holiday! *Our incredible netball team has been on a winning streak! They won the final of the Bee Stinger Netball competition and will now go on to represent our borough – a truly amazing achievement! Our netball squad also won all of their games for the third week in a row in the netball league. *Year 3 enjoyed a fascinating session learning all about Judaism from Lennox's auntie. *Our Reception class had a fantastic time with Muddy Monday, hunting for bugs, and a brilliant forest school session building habitats and dens. *A big well done to our Year 4/5 cricket team for their outstanding sportsmanship in the cricket competition. *Reception class also enjoyed learning all about Islam from Miss Kachwalla. *Two of our WOW group members and Mrs. Araujo had a brilliant day taking part in the Diocesan RE Conference. *Year 4 led a super worship all about how we can support our mental health and wellbeing – an incredibly important topic. *We had great fun in Worship with Rev. Matt, especially with the mystery game and learning about the miracle of Tabitha being brought to life. For all of the news in detail from each class see our news page: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news You can find details of our upcoming events next half term here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Thank you to our staff team for their phenomenal hard work and unwavering dedication this half term, as well as supporting and transporting at sports competitions. Now, it's time for a well-deserved break! We wish you all wonderful two-week half term holiday. Take this time to rest, recharge, and truly live life in all its fullness! We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for an exciting next half term on Monday 9th June! Enjoy your holidays, Becky Ham
DPSSA NETBALL ROUND 3
Another great evening at the Darwen Primary Netball League with Team B coming away with another two solid wins 12-0 and 18-1. Great performances, super team spirit and sportsmanship. Now for a well earned rest before we go again after half term. Well done everyone! Thank you to Mrs Gardner for her amazing umpiring and coaching and Miss Kachwalla for supporting the team.
Year 2 - Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
Over the past few weeks, Year 2 have been exploring the stories of the Ascension and Pentecost. We had good knowledge of the events in each story, but one question seemed to remain: "What actually is the Holy Spirit?" This was a difficult and personal question for each child. I was extremely impressed with the mature responses we discussed in class. It was amazing to see the children agreeing to disagree with their opinions on what the Holy Spirit meant to them. Later, we discussed how the Holy Spirit can help us. The "Fruits of the Spirit" song suggests that if we have the Holy Spirit, we should be joyful, peaceful, gentle, and many more. We decided that by showing many of these qualities, the Holy Spirit would be shining from the inside out.
Year 4 History - What do artefacts tell us about the past?
In our final history lesson, we looked at how we may extract information from artefacts. The children worked in groups to decide what the artefact was, what it may be used for and what it was made from. We know that the Vikings came to Britain for many reasons and the artefacts that we looked at in the session helped to build our understanding of why and how they lived like they did. Finally, the children presented their learning to the other groups and posed questions related to each artefact example.
Reception- Forest School
This afternoon we have enjoyed a forest school session. We have had fun bug hunting, habitat building, role playing, and den building. The children learnt about different flowers and trees in our environment and had a great time exploring.
Year 5 - Athletes
Today, as part of the Year 5 athletics unit, the children focused on developing their sprinting skills. They worked on key elements such as reaction times, speed, running technique and acceleration. Through a series of short sprints and timed challenges, they aimed to improve their personal bests while learning how to start quickly and maintain good form throughout the run.
Year 5 - E-Safety
Today, the children explored this week’s E-Safety poster, which focused on the topic of violent content online and its potential impact on young people. They discussed the risks associated with viewing such material and demonstrated a good understanding of how to respond safely and responsibly if they ever come across it. The session encouraged thoughtful conversation and reinforced the importance of talking to a trusted adult when something online feels upsetting or inappropriate.
Year 4/5 Cricket Competition
Huge well done to our mixed Year 4 & 5 cricket team! They played brilliantly at Darwen Cricket Club, showing great teamwork and determination. The team secured one impressive win and narrowly lost three matches — one by just a single run! A fantastic effort all round – well done, team!