Biggest Ever Girls Football Event
Today, we proudly took part in the FA’s Biggest Ever Girls’ Football Event, celebrating the joy of football and encouraging more girls to get involved in the sport. Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 participated in a fun, game-based session where they had to dribble the ball and score in any of the four goals while defenders tried to stop them with tackles. The session helped develop their dribbling, spatial awareness and teamwork skills in an exciting and engaging way. Years 3, 4, 5, and 6 took part in a series of competitive matches, showcasing their skills and teamwork. They then tested their nerves in thrilling penalty shootouts, demonstrating confidence and precision under pressure. It was fantastic to see so much enthusiasm, determination and teamwork throughout the morning. The event truly highlighted the growing passion for girls’ football in our school!
British Science Week- Reception- What can we 'Flush Away'?
We have kicked off Science Week with a blast! Miss Kachwalla, our Science Lead initiated a discussion about what can and cannot be flushed down the toilet, encouraging the children to think critically about the impact of their choices. This activity helped develop observational skills and apply knowledge to real-life situations. The class explored key questions, such as: Have you ever flushed any of these items? What happened to them? Which materials broke down when flushed, and which did not? Why is it important to only flush items that break up easily? To investigate further, the Reception class conducted a practical experiment by shaking a bottle containing tissue, paper towel, and toilet paper for 15 seconds. They then observed how each material responded to water, noting which broke down and which remained intact. This helped them understand why only toilet paper, wee and poo should be flushed, while other materials can cause blockages. Science Ambassadors Cassidy and Naomi were on hand to support the lesson, helping to guide discussions and assist with the experiment. As an extra challenge, the children planted mung seeds in a sealed bag with moist cotton wool and used talk tactics to predict what might happen next. Will they disappear? Change colour? Explode? After just 24 hours, the seeds should start to pop open and sprout. Within 3 days to a week, they’ll be fully sprouted, and after a few more days, tiny leaves will start to emerge. This hands-on activity will allow them to observe germination in action and track the changes over time.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on our very busy yet enjoyable week in school. This week, we launched our challenge called ‘THE BIG LENT WALK’ which involves our whole school community working together to raise money to make a difference to the lives of those who don't have enough food. Please continue to let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and send photos if you can. We have also been thinking about how Lent is a good time to give things back so we have launched our 40 Day Kindness Challenge. This week, we have also celebrated Shrove Tuesday, World Book Day and enjoyed a great variety of after school clubs such as Craft Club led by Fred and Pearl, Cross Country, Mad Science, Choir , Dodgeball and Gymnastics clubs led by Edstart. We then congratulated this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Evie, Alessia and Heidi in EYFS and KS1 and Lottie, Penelope, Nevaeh, Seb and Laila in KS2 for their fantastic work ethic, their commitment to demonstrating the Barney’s 4Bs (being ready, respectful, kind and safe) and showing full participation and engagement in lessons. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 2 and Year 3 classes for being our attendance winners this week with 99.2% and 99.3% attendance, River Darwen as our value award winners this week with 509 points and our Year 4 Football team who kicked off their journey in the BRFC league with three exciting matches on Tuesday evening and represented school amazingly well. We also congratulated Year 3 and Year 6 as being the WOW (Walk to School) winners for the month of February. Well done to these classes for earning the most badges. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school sports award winners. This week, it was a week full of congratulating super swimmers. Well done to Zac for being a super swimmer and achieving his Puffin award, Phoebe for achieving her Stage 1 swimming certificate, Annabel for achieving her 15m swimming certificate, Ava for achieving her Stage 2 swimming certificate, Desmond for achieving his silver and gold swimming certificates, Iris for achieving her Stage 6 swimming certificate and Bluebelle for swimming an amazing 50m. We also said a huge well done to Carter for being a fantastic footballer and Lana for being the Star of the Week at Performing Arts. To end our worship, we read a beautiful Lent prayer together as a school and sang ‘We Have a King Who Rides a Donkey’. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1- World Book Day 2025
Wow! What a fabulous World Book Day we have had in Year 1! To start the day, we listened to two stories which we thought were hilarious (Do Not Open This Book by Andy Lee and The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was none of his business by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch) and we can’t wait for these to now be part of our existing library collection in school. We then took part in a live lesson where we enjoyed listening to ‘The Full Stop That Got Away by Laura Baker’ and became illustrators. We really enjoyed learning how to draw the eyebrows in different ways to change the character’s expression. We also enjoyed other activities such as moving around school to listen to the story that we had voted for, decorating bunting with our favourite books, creating our own bookmarks and taking part in a quiz to guess our teacher’s favourite books. To end a wonderful day, we listened to ‘Nibbles the Book Monster by Emma Yarlett.’
Year 4 Hockey - Passing Skills with a Partner
Today was our second hockey session led by Blae from Progressive Sports. We discussed what we covered in the last session and highlighted key points such as stepping with your left leg forward and pushing the ball with the head of the stick. Extend the left arm and hand to pull the stick forward. Push the right hand through to generate power and direction of the pass. Maintaining a still head throughout. The children then worked in pairs to develop their push pass. We learnt that a push pass is an effective and accurate short pass that can be used quickly to maintain possession. Never have we done a hockey lesson in our PJ’s so the children thoroughly enjoyed it and even more so in the beautiful sunshine!
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Year 3 Celebrates World Book Day: Reading Our Way!
Today, Year 3 celebrated World Book Day with a cozy celebration, dressed in their pyjamas. Miss Flynn led a worship, sharing three wonderful stories, ‘DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOK’, The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was none of his business and 'Nibbles The Book Monster’, that sparked imagination and reflection. Following this, the children participated in a game of 'Guess the Teacher Behind the Book,' a challenge that proved both entertaining and great fun. This year's theme, 'Read Your Way,' emphasized the joy of reading in diverse settings, from the bathroom to bus stations and beyond. To further celebrate this theme, the children had the opportunity to visit classrooms and enjoy stories they chose read aloud by members of staff. Additionally, they participated in classroom quizzes centered on teachers' favourite books, with numerous prizes awarded. A special highlight of the day was a live session with the author Pamela Butchart, who read from her book, 'Learn How to Be a Billionaire’, The day was a great success, fostering a deep appreciation for reading. We thank Miss Flynn for making this day so memorable.
Year 6 World Book Day
Year 6 have had a fantastic World Book Day! The theme this year was Read Your Way and we have enjoyed a wonderful World Book Day worship, listened to different books, created bunting based on our favourite book, took part in a school quiz and much more - all whilst nice and cosy in our pyjamas!
World Book Day- Storytime Across School
To celebrate World Book Day, our children voted for the story that they wanted to listen to and moved around school to listen to their chosen one. Miss Flynn read ‘The Monkey With a Bright Blue Bottom,’ Mrs Wilkinson read ‘The Wonky Donky,’ Mrs Govan read ‘Taylor Swift (Little People, Big Dreams), Mr Norris read ‘Sammy Striker and the Football Cup,’ Mrs Hegarty read ‘The Great Dog Bottom Swap,’ Miss Woods read ‘I’ve Broken My Bottom,’ Miss Kachwalla read ‘There’s a Snake in My School,’ Mrs Gardner read ‘Revolting Rhymes,’ Mr Bloomfield read, ‘The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors,’ Mr Prescott read ‘The World’s Worst Children’ and Miss Lyons read ‘Absolutely Awful Adults.’ Most of these stories were new to our children and they thoroughly enjoyed listening to and engaging with them. There were lots of giggles!
World Book Day in Year 4
What a wonderful World Book Day we have had in Year 4. The theme for this year's World Book Day is Get Ready to Read Your Way which encourages us all to read wherever and whenever we want. This morning we started our celebrations with a whole school worship which was led by Miss Flynn and the librarians. The children loved joining in with the quizzes and interactive games. Next we took part in an online workshop with the author Pamela Butchart. She also wrote A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch and The Great Crisp Robbery. The most recent book that Pamela has written is Diary of a Future Billionaire and she talked about how she created this fantastic story. It’s about being at home rather than school. Pamela was worried that her new book might not be as popular as her Izzy books. The main character is called Ben and here are his thoughts: So here's the thing about me. I'm a billionaire. An actual REAL-LIFE billionaire! And you know how some people who get rich say stuff like, "I can't believe it!" and "I never thought it would happen to me!" Well ... I CAN believe it. And I KNEW it would happen to me. Because I PLANNED IT. I PLANNED to become the world's RICHEST ten-year-old. And you know what? It WORKED The children have asked if we can buy the book and read it as our next class novel so this shows how enthusiastic they were about the whole workshop. Following this we played match the teacher to their favourite book which we found rather interesting and then we went to various classes around school to listen to St Barnabas school staff read their favourite books. It was so nice to hear the children come back and talk so enthusiastically about what they had listened to. Finally this afternoon, we created special WBD bunting with our favourite novel on and discussed why we had chosen these. What an amazing experience and huge thanks to Miss Flynn for organising!
Year 2 - Character descriptions
Today in Year two we continued to explore our new book ‘The king of space’. In our previous learning, we had created expanded noun phrases and similes to describe the main character Rex. We also read other character descriptions of other characters such as The Highway Rat. From these other descriptions, we created a tool kit that included all of the features we needed to include in order to write a successful character description. The children wrote some excellent descriptions and managed to include expanded noun phrases, similes and contractions. We have been working on contractions in our grammar lessons and it was great to see the children being able to incorporate these new words into their writing.
Year 5 - Year of Prayer
As part of the Year of Prayer, Year 5 took part in this week’s prayer focus, reflecting on those who feel lonely or without friends. Using pipe cleaners, they each created a link while offering their prayers, before joining them together as a symbol of unity and togetherness.
Year 2 - World Book Day
This afternoon for World Book Day, the children had an activity where they had to decide which book was the favourite of which teacher. The children loved being nosy and deciding which teacher might like each book. The winning team that managed to get the most correct answers, won a prize from Miss Flynn. The children thought it would be easy but it turns out, our teachers like lots of different types of books.