Friday Celebration Worship
It has been another very busy and exciting week here at St Barnabas. In Worship we have been taking time to reflect on both Lent and Ramadan, thinking about kindness, reflection and helping others. We have also had a fantastic week celebrating World Book Day, sharing our love of reading and enjoying all the brilliant costumes and book characters we saw in school. Our classes were also lucky enough to take part in the Pinocchio dance workshop and performance, which was fantastic to watch. There has been lots happening beyond the classroom too, including the River Darwen team disco and our wide range of clubs, such as Kids with Bricks club. Many of you have also been taking part in the Times Tables Rockstars competition and showing great enthusiasm for practising your times tables. We have now completed our Big Winter Wander and together we have raised £175 for WWF, which is an amazing achievement. Thank you to everyone who took part and supported this. Our RotaKids have also been showing kindness in action by collecting teddies for Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise and Darwen Rotary which will help support children less fortunate than us. We also had the World Book Day Dolly Peg Competition run by the Friends of St Barnabas and the judges were very impressed with the creativity and effort that went into the entries. The award for Best Book Character goes to Phoebe for Greg the Sausage Roll. The award for Most Creative goes to Ida for the Highway Rat. The award for Best Use of Materials goes to Molly for Molly and the Goldfish Fairy. The Judges’ Choice award goes to Alfie. The award for Most Imaginative goes to Alice for Stitch and the Outstanding Effort award goes to Elliot. Well done to everyone who took part and a huge thank you to our FOSB for organising the competition as well as contributing money to the Pinocchio workshops. A massive thank you to our parishioner Glenda for undertaking the difficult task of judging the competition. Our Values Awards where we recognise children who have been showing our school four Be's of being kind, respectful, safe and ready to learn. In Reception the award goes to Erina. In Year 1 it goes to Cassius. In Year 2 the award goes to Thomas. In Year 3 it goes to Albie. In Year 4 the awards go to Cassidy and Alfie. In Year 5 the award goes to Olivia and in Year 6 the award goes to Isabelle. Well done to all of you for showing our 4 Be's and Christian values so clearly in school. We also had some pen licences to award this week in Year 3. These go to Harry, Molly and Eddie. Well done for showing such neat and consistent handwriting across the curriculum, not just in English. We celebrated our team values totals for the week. In fourth place was Darwen Tower. In third place was Whitehall Park. In second place was River Darwen. And in first place this week was India Mill. Well done everyone! We also have lots of wonderful sports and out-of-school achievements to celebrate. Olivia, Eleanor and Annie have been awarded a certificate for celebrating 100 years of World Thinking Day at Rainbows. Alessia has been awarded her Level 1 for back bends in dance. Poppy has been awarded a teddy for really good dancing. Carmen and Renee have both been awarded their yellow belts in kickboxing. Albie has been awarded player of the week for good tackling. Martha has achieved her 20 metre swimming certificate. Haydn has been awarded a trophy for scoring seven goals in football. Olivia has also received a certificate for a fantastic backwards roll in gymnastics. Callie has been awarded a certificate for completing two years of JuJitsu. Maggie has received a Brownie doll and her promise badge. Annabel has been awarded star of the week in dance and swimmer of the month. Jack has been awarded a certificate for completing a silver swimming challenge and Piper-Jo has achieved her 50 metre swimming certificate. Well done to all of you for your hard work and dedication outside of school. A special well done also goes to our Cross Country team who showed fantastic determination when competing in rainy weather and muddy conditions. They ran over a mile, which is a brilliant achievement. We also held our inter-house competition for football and bench ball and the winning house was India Mill. Well done to everyone who took part. Our WOW group had some exciting news to share as well. Our school is now number one across all Blackburn and Darwen schools for walking to school last month. That is an incredible achievement. Year 4 are the overall winners for walking to school and badges will be given to all children who walked to school. Our attendance awards this week go to Year 2 and Year 3. Well done for coming to school every day and being ready to learn. Finally, just a reminder that Reception will soon be performing their Mother’s Day Service next Wednesday at 9.00am and there will also be the Mothering Sunday Service at St Barnabas Church where children are invited to come along and sing to their mums. To finish our worship we had lovely prayers from Olivia and Darcy and we sang the Butterfly song.
Year 1 World Book Day Workshop
Year 1 were fortunate enough to take part in an online workshop for World Book Day. The author of The Flower Thief, Alice Hemming, read her book to us. This book linked to our focus on Signs of Spring. Then, the illustrator, Nicola Slater, showed us step-by-step drawing on the squirrel and the bird from the story. The drawings made by Year 1 were fantastic! It was a lovely way to start our World Book Day celebrations.
World Book Week Showcase
Year 4 have had a wonderful World Book Week and to celebrate we have decided to showcase our best parts in a display outside Year 4. We have included pic collages that highlight our webinar with the author James Fox, The Pinocchio Workshop, learning a piece of text by heart and our fantastic World Book Day Celebrations. We have also included our bag packs which we could take with us into the Amazon in order to survive. This was linked to our favourite class novel - The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. We were so shocked to see Katherine also appear on our World Book Day interactive worship yesterday and it was a lovely surprise! What a week we have had!
Year 5 - World Book Day quiz and creative writing
As it is World Book Day, we changed the timetable this Thursday. We took part in a nationwide book and football quiz led by the Premier League with Year 6. Naturally we answered every question correctly. Then each child wrote an independent creative piece of writing about a story they have always wanted to tell or a book that they have always loved.
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Year 6 - World Book Day
As part of World Book Day, Year 6 took part in a variety of engaging and creative activities to celebrate reading and the enjoyment of books. The children participated in a World Book Day Premier League online workshop, where they had the opportunity to watch footballers discuss their favourite books and explain why reading is important to them. The children then took part in an interactive quiz linked to the session, which encouraged them to think about different authors, stories and the importance of reading for pleasure. In English, the children completed a poetry activity linked to Macbeth, focusing on the witches’ famous spell. They explored the language used in the scene and discussed how rhyme, rhythm and descriptive vocabulary help create a mysterious and magical atmosphere. The children then used their creative writing skills to compose their own spell-inspired poems, experimenting with rhyming patterns and imaginative word choices. As part of the day, the children also designed and created their own unique bookmarks. They used colours, illustrations and quotes from their favourite books to produce personalised designs which they can continue to use during reading time. Throughout the day, the activities aimed to promote a love of reading, creativity and imagination, while also giving the children opportunities to discuss their favourite books and share recommendations with their classmates.
Year 5 - Dressing up for World Book Day
To celebrate World Book Day, Year 5 came to school dressed either in their pyjamas or as their favourite book character. These include Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Sophie from the BFG, Stitch from Lilo and Stitch and Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Great effort Year 5!
Year 1 World Book Day
Year 1 looked amazing in their World Book Day costumes! We had so many princesses, Roald Dahl characters and lots of children in cozy pyjamas. We have lots of fun activities to look forward too.
World Book Day Oracy Worship
What a fantastic morning we had celebrating World Book Day! Children from Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 came together for a special Oracy Talk Assembly, where the hall was filled with the sound of meaningful discussion. Working in trios, the children were challenged to dive deep into their love of literature by sharing their favourite books and characters, providing thoughtful "whys" for their choices. The energy peaked during a fascinating debate on whether reading gives you a "superhero power." After some deep exploration, the children concluded that reading truly is a superpower; they decided it makes you incredibly clever and has the unique ability to expand your imagination beyond the classroom. Mrs. Wilkinson was immensely impressed by the level of maturity and respect on display. It was a "super" oracy worship, with children across the three year groups demonstrating excellent communication skills by taking turns and listening intently to one another. It was wonderful to see our youngest learners not only celebrating stories but also developing the confidence to articulate their ideas with such clarity and enthusiasm.
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World Book Day Worship with Key Stage 2
World Book Day Worship with Key Stage 2. Todays session started with a WBD quiz from Primary League Primary Stars in association with WBD. We completed the quiz in our classrooms and it had a football focus. An example question was - Which Premier League club does the current Wales men’s national team captain, Harry Wilson, play for? A mix of authors and footballers asked the questions with Katherine Randell who wrote Year 4’s class novel ~ The Explorer asking question six. The children absolutely loved the interactive quiz and worked to support each other in answering the football heavy questions. What a super way to kick off our World book Day Celebrations and celebrate The National Year of Reading. We finished with Ben and Alex who told us about the ‘Go All In’ challenge which we look forward to taking part in.
Year 3 Celebrating World Book Day
To celebrate World Book Day, the children arrived dressed as their all-time favourite book characters or snuggled up in their best pyjamas. Whether they were channelling their inner hero or getting cosy for a story, the spirit of reading was truly alive today.
Reception World Book Day
Reception have loved dressing up and wearing their PJs for world book day. We started the day with a special worship to share our love of books with our friends. We then had a fantastic drawing club lesson where the children innovated a part of the story from Detective Dog and created their own imaginative Libraries to share books with others. During provision, we shared our favourite stories and created bookmarks to take home.
Kids with Bricks Lego Club
This week was our first 'Kids with Bricks' Lego club! The theme for this week was telephones. We watched our weekly challenge video, which tasked us with creating our own telephone or communication device and we also learned some interesting facts about how and when telephones were first invented. We all had a really fun time and made some amazing Lego creations, photos of which will be sent in for the weekly, inter-school competition. An extra well done to our Builder of the Week - Samuel!