Year 5 - Snow White
The children had a great time at Blackburn Empire Theatre watching the pantomime Snow White. The children enjoyed every minute as they heckled the evil queen Horibella, celebrated the love of Prince Charming and Snow White and tried in vain to warn Tilly that there was a ghost behind her. They sang and danced along to every song and during the intermission, the children had an ice lolly.
Year 1: Fun at the Snow White Pantomime
Year 1 had such a great time at Snow White. The ice lollies were especially good! They all joined in really well and were so sensible travelling to and from the theatre. I am so proud of their behaviour today.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
????It’s beginning to look like Christmas now our whole school have decorated our hall tree. ???? ????A huge thank you to our youngest child in school, Phoebe, who had the special job of putting the star on the tree, which is a tradition we have had for many years at St Barnabas. ????
Reception Nativity 2025
We want to express how incredibly proud we are of all the children in Reception class for their truly amazing performance in their Nativity play! The children showed such courage and confidence on the stage. We were so impressed with: Brave Speaking: Every child who had lines delivered them so clearly. Enthusiastic Singing and actions: Their little voices filled the hall, making the performance joyful and bright and we were so impressed with the amount of words they had to learn in the songs. It takes great bravery to stand up in front of a big audience, and they all shone! It was a very special occasion, and they brought the Christmas story to life beautifully. Thank you so much for your support in preparing them for the show and for your active participation in the show. A huge thank you to our Reception staff team for the time and effort they have put into the production, Mr Ashworth, our CEO of Cidari Multi Academy Trust for his support, Mr Bloomfield for filming and Rev Ben for leading us in prayer. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/reception-nativity-2025 The video links will be send shortly.
Y4 History - Roman Formations
In our history lesson this week, we looked at Roman formations. The children created their very own shields and tested how effective the formations were whilst Mrs Gardner tried to break through with table tennis balls. The key formations are the testudo (tortoise), which is a defensive shell formed by soldiers holding their shields to create a roof and walls, and the wedge, an offensive V-shape used to charge and break. We had a great time and the children worked really well within their legions.
Year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics Trials
Our first Sportshall Athletics trial for Years 5 and 6 took place this week. The children mainly worked on their field events such as chest push, javelin, ling jump and triple jump. They developed their techniques by working on hip thrust and swinging their arms when jumping. We finished with sprint relays and the children really encouraged each other and thoroughly enjoyed the session.
Year 4 DT - Seasonal Stocking Production
We are flying with our seasonal stockings in Year 4 now. The children have been working so hard to create these wonderful stockings and we are so proud of their perseverance and determination to master difficult skills such as embroidery and appliqué. We can’t wait to share the stockings with everyone at the Christmas Fayre.
Year 5 - Online Safety
We continued our exploration of the online world by discussing the popular computer game Roblox. The children’s talked about their experiences and we considered how to stay safe during multiplayer experiences, how best to deal with friend requests alongside the financial elements of robux online payments.
Year 5 - RotaKids
Darwen Rotary Club visited us again to inspire us for our next project in the new year. We talked about how our shoebox collections helped refugees in Darwen and further ideas on how to support our school and international communities. The children were inspired by the principles and ideals of the Rotary Club and are already full of ideas for the future. We also received badges and certificates confirming our role as RotaKids.
Year 5 - Geography
We started our geography unit on mountains by revisiting past knowledge of the topic. The children’s mind maps included names of famous mountains, their height, their climate and where they are found. Then we moved onto defining a mountain as a steep landform 600m above the ground before using atlases to find the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents (the seven summits).
Year 1 Maths: subtraction using play dough
Year 1 had so much fun in maths today using play dough to help them with subtraction. For example, for 8-2=6, they had to roll 8 balls of play dough as this is the whole, then squash 2 (a part) to find out how many were left over (6 as a part). They found this helpful as they could physically change the play dough and use it as a visual. Well done Year 1!
Year 3- Class Worship- The Spread of Christianity
Today, during our class worship, we explored the fascinating story of The Spread of Christianity and how the faith journeyed from its beginnings to our very own local area (our Diocese). We learned that after Jesus left, his first followers were given the special job, known as the Great Commission, to share his message of love and hope with everyone. Key stories, like the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and the incredible journeys of figures like the Apostle Paul, showed us how the Church grew and traveled across the world, eventually leading to the formation of the network of churches we belong to today. This movement is why we can gather together right here to worship. After learning about the growth of the Church, we took part in our own special way of spreading something good: thankfulness. Instead of using paper or screens, we used the power of our voices and our actions to share what we were grateful for. Each person was encouraged to verbally share something they were thankful for with the person next to them, creating a "chain" or "ripple" of gratitude that spread across the room, showing how quickly and easily good words can travel when we speak them aloud.