Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by collectively signing our new Makaton signs ‘yes’, ‘no,’ and ‘happy’ and congratulating our amazing Year 6 children for their incredible efforts in their SATs and the way that they have tackled them with nothing but smiles and positivity. We are so proud of you all! We also reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included prayers for the world as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, Reception having a visit from Nightingale Farm, Year 3 visiting Rock & River, Year 5 enjoying their PGL residential, having our DACA students join our school on work experience and our Year 5/6 Netball Squad who represented St Barnabas brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league last night and came away with three victories. Furthermore, we congratulated Ted in Year 4 for working hard to achieve his pen license, our Year 2 and Year 5 classes for being our attendance winners this week with 99.2% and 100% attendance and River Darwen as our value award winners this week with 226 points. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Minnie, Elsie and Harry in EYFS and KS1 and Alice in KS2. Well done to these children for working incredibly hard, pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and showing our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). We also congratulated the whole of the Year 3 & 5 classes for being amazing on their trip to PGL and Rock & River. They were extremely courageous, encouraged each other every step of the way and represented our school amazingly. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 161 points. We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Luna for achieving her Stage 1 in swimming, Olivia, Annie and Thea for being incredibly kind and caring at Rainbows, Hollie for achieving her Stage 2 in swimming, Lyla for achieving a distinction in her recent ballet exam, Jack for being the Player of the Match and achieving the Captain’s Armband in a recent football game, Annabel for achieving an entry level award for her music performance at Rocksteady and being Star of the Week at dancing, Eliza and Darcy for their commitment to Brownies, Maggie for achieving a gold award in Rainbows alongside multiple other certificates and badges, Olivia for being the Player of the Match and achieving the Captain’s Armband in a recent football game, Haydn for incredible football and Poppy, Brooke and Laila for being the EFLA cup winners 2025. To end our worship, we collective listened to this week’s Year of Prayer, said the Grace and sang ‘Sing a New Song.’ Thank you to all of our school family who could attend celebration worship and we thank you for your ongoing support. We send an extended thank you to the rest of our school family. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine.
Year 3-Living Life to the Fullest at Rock and River
What an unforgettable day at Rock and River! Today, Year 3 embarked on their exciting class trip to Rock and River, a day filled with challenge, adventure, and growth. The aim of the day was to step outside comfort zones, try new experiences, and explore personal potential, and the children did exactly that! From the Low Ropes Course, climbing wall, and air bag jump, to Rafted Canoes, Sit-on-Top Kayaks, Paddle Boards, and the Mega Paddle Boards, every child embraced the challenges with enthusiasm and bravery. What made the day special was the way the children supported one another. There was a wonderful sense of encouragement, respect, and team spirit, with friendships strengthened through shared experiences and mutual celebration of each other’s efforts. Throughout the day, the children truly lived life to the fullest, laughing, learning, and pushing beyond their fears. Just as importantly, they embodied the Christian values at the heart of our school: courage, friendship and encouragement. It was a day of lifelong memories, an example of what can be achieved when we believe in ourselves and lift each other. A huge well done to every single one of them, they should be incredibly proud! All of the photos will be added to this album shortly: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-3-rock-and-river-2024-25
DPSSA Netball Night 2
Super proud of our netball squad after another three consecutive wins on the bounce! Every team member is improving in every game. All listening to feedback and taking it forward. Supporting each other and showing great sportsmanship through each and every game. Go Team B!
Reception Farm Visit
Today, the Reception class had a special visitor – Farmer Steph! She brought a very cute, two-week-old lamb named Olly and two chicks for the children to see. Steph talked about what it's like to look after farm animals and the jobs she has to do. The children learned that pigs are surprisingly good at digging and help turn over the soil on the farm and their chickens each lay one egg every day! Thank you to Nightingale Farm for sharing their animals with us.
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Year 4/5 Multi- Skills PE in the Sun
In our PE session today we mixed with Year 5 so that half of us could trial for the cricket team whilst the rest tackled various multi skill challenges. The children worked so well in mixed teams and actively encouraged each other to strive for the best in true St Barnabas the Encourager style.
Year 6 Junior Jam - French
In French, Year 6 have been revising their work on jobs and also the names of items of furniture we might find in our home. They sang songs and played games to help them remember the key vocabulary. Tres bien!
Reception PE
The Reception class had a great lesson playing collecting games! They worked in teams to find ‘animal food’ and put them in their ‘nests’ to see who could get her the most. This involved listening carefully to instructions and working together as a team, sharing and helping each other. We then played ‘farmyard tig’ where the animals had to escape the farmers, demonstrating their agility and pace.
Year 6 Junior Jam - Music
As well as being superstars in their SATs, Year 6 have been writing their own song lyrics and creating an accompanying piece of music on the glockenspiel during their Junior Jam music lessons. They worked with a partner to create a word board of ideas, then use this to come up with their song.
Year 1 Class Worship- Young Inventors
Today in class worship, Year 1 explored the theme of Young Inventors. They were introduced to the story of three compassionate teenagers from India who developed a salt-powered fridge to store medicines and aid hospitals in rural areas lacking electricity. As part of this, Year 1 thought about things that they would invent to help our world. Samuel came up with the idea of creating a robot that can roam around playgrounds and provide first aid, Callie’s idea was for a similar invention but for animals in the wild, Ida and Thomas’ invention was to create a jet that could clear up litter in the seas and oceans to protect our animals and Vienna’s invention was a machine that could suck the fumes and gases out of our atmosphere. Well done Year 1. What incredible and thoughtful inventions!
Reception- Phonics-We’re going on a word hunt
This afternoon our Reception children went on a word hunt. Their challenge was to find words hidden around our playground. They took a clipboard and a pencil and they went hunting for the words. Once they found one they read it and wrote it on their clipboard, they could use the sound mats for reference. Once they had collected all the words they could find they chose one of the words to put into a sentence.
Year 2 - Past and Present Monarchs
This afternoon, we continued to learning about monarchs. After learning about our current Monarch, we contrasted him to a previous Monarch William I. We used zones of relevance to describe monarchs. Powerful was an adjective we decided was very relevant and lazy was the adjective lots of us placed outside of the zones. Then we identified similarities and differences between how they ruled.
Y4 DT - Food Technology - Biscuit Making
Today Year 4 moved onto our third food technology session where we were making our biscuit designs. We have adapted the original review by adding various topping ingredients. First we made our shortbread mix, rolled it out and then cut it into our individual shapes and designs. Miss Carol then laid all the biscuits on the baking trays and put them in the oven to cook. We can’t wait to decorate them tomorrow and finally get to taste test the end product.