Life Education Workshops
Good afternoon parents and carers, it has been lovely to have the children back in school today and to see them catch up with their friends. They are all excited to try out the new outdoor gym and over the week they will be shown how to use all of the equipment correctly, before we start out lunch and break time timetable next week. On Wednesday or Thursday this week, each class will have a special visit from Harold the Giraffe from the life education programme and will take part in the following PSHE workshop. Reception: All about me Year 1: My Wonderful Body Year 2: Feelings Year 3: Meet the Brain Year 4: It's great to be me Year 5: Friends Year 6: Decisions The children always really enjoy the interactive sessions and get a lot out of them, which is why we pay for the life education sessions each year. On Thursday morning parents and carers are welcome to drop in from 8.45am-9.00am to see Karen from Coram Life Education and ask any questions you might have about the sessions.
Year 5 - Tactical Play
During our PE lesson, Year 5 have been building on their knowledge and understanding of invasion games. This week the children were learning about tactical work within any chosen game. They took part in ball games to gain a clearer understanding of time and space. The children will then apply their knowledge and understanding to racket and other invasion games.
Reception: Muddy Monday
Our Ducklings visited the forest schools area of Whitehall Park today for the first time. They enjoyed exploring and also had a go at making camp fires and bug houses.
Epiphany Collective Worship
It was wonderful to have our school family back together again for our first collective worship after the Christmas holidays. Today we focused on Epiphany which is when the three wise men went to see baby Jesus. Our Reception class Kings helped up to learn about the special gifts that they gave to Jesus and what they symbolised. Gold= King Frankincense= God and Myrrh = Sacrifice. We then watched a short film called 'Far from home' which we thought was about modern day refugees but the more we watched it, the more we realised that it was very similar to the Nativity story. We discussed how Mary, Joseph and Jesus had to flee as King Herod wanted to kill Jesus. We reflected on how they must have felt and how it must feel for those children nowadays who are living in places that aren't safe, such as in Palestine, Israel and Ukraine. We then thought about how we can support refugees who arrive in our country seeking safety. We had some brilliant answers such as give them a warm welcome, donate toys, food, clothes and money etc. We then looked back at some of the generous work we have been doing to support Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise such as donating toys, books and chocolate at Christmas time. We finished with a prayer and sang 'We three kings' and noticed what the three gifts symbolised- King, God and sacrifice, in the song.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Good afternoon parents and carers, what a fantastic last week we have had at St Barnabas celebrating Christmas. Each class has visited the Rose Garden in Whitehall Park to see the lovely Christmas art work and enjoyed singing Christmas carols. Our Christmas parties were great fun and the infants got a special visit and gift from Santa & the children in KS2 were left special presents from him too. This morning we had our Christmas church service and this afternoon we presented our amazing attendance winners with their certificates and had a singalong to our Christmas video. To see all of our latest news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news I’m delighted to let you know that Sean Dunn is our new parent governor and you should be able to spot him in our Christmas video along with some of our other governors, our staff and children. It wouldn’t be Christmas at St Barnabas without our special Christmas video to wish you all a merry Christmas from our whole school family. Here it is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EaMCS8bGFvc On behalf of our whole staff team, we would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and we hope that it is filled with moments of peace, love and joy. Thank you so much for your kind words, cards and gifts. We look forward to seeing you all next year when the Spring term starts on Monday 8th January. Merry Christmas and best wishes to you all, Mrs Ham and the St Barnabas staff team
Autumn Amazing Attendance
A huge well done to our amazing attendance winners for having 96% or above attendance for the Autumn term. Well done!
Thank you from DARE ( Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)
Thank you so much to our staff team and our Year 1 kindness elves for donating Christmas items to Darwen Asylum and Refuger Enterprise. The donations have been used to create Christmas hampers for families in need. They were distributed at the DARE Christmas party and were gratefully received.
Christmas Church Service
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us this morning for our Christmas Church Service. I have attached some photos and snippets for those of you who were unable to join us due to work commitments. A huge well done to our Key Stage 2 children for showcasing what they have been learning in RE this half term and a special thank you to Year 6, who led our service. We thanked Rev Ben and Rev Matt for their service to our school family. We also gave a special gift to Glenda, who has decided to retire from her volunteering role in school. Thank you so much Glenda for everything you have done for our school family over the years. It was wonderful to hear about all the great ways that our children have been spreading love and joy to our community through singing carols, delivering Christmas cards to the elderly and donating toys and gifts to the Rotary Club and DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). Thank you so much for your generous donations.
Year 4 - Visit to the Rose Garden
Year 4 class had a great time in the Rose Garden. They chose their top 3 card designs and then we all sang some of our favourite carols. Merry Christmas to you all!
Year 1 and 2 visit to Whitehall Park
Yesterday, Years 1 and 2 went to the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park to admire the Christmas artwork created by some of our children as part of the Home Bargains competition. We then had a play on the playground equipment as an end of term treat.
Key Stage 2 Christmas Party Fun
What a fab afternoon Key Stage 2 have had at their Christmas party. Games galore, dancing and singing. Everyone had a huge smile on their faces and enjoyed every second! Huge thanks to the elves who brought every child a gift which is so kind. Hopefully the children will have exhausted themselves and sleep well tonight ahead of our final day of school tomorrow.
Reception Christmas Party
Reception have had a super morning at their Christmas party and were so excited to have a special visitor in class - Father Christmas! They each got a present for being such good boys and girls.