Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. First of all, we started by saying a huge thank you to all of the children who attended St Barnabas Church last Sunday in celebration of Mothering Sunday and Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Araujo for supporting this event. We also thanked the children in the Year 4/5/6 swimming squad who represented our school in the DPSSA Swimming Gala at Darwen Leisure Centre on Friday evening and Mrs Gardner for supporting this event. Well done to these children for demonstrating courage, determination and giving each other lots of encouragement. We then thought about our highlights in school this week. We enjoyed an unforgettable science show delivered by the amazing Science Boffin Katja, a fabulous rock performance by the brilliant members of our Rocksteady Rock Bands, Year 5 enjoyed an introduction to peer mediation as well as their second bike ability session, Year 2, 3 and 5 enjoyed a walk to contribute to ‘Our Big Lent Walk’ and all of our children across school have enjoyed some fantastic clubs such as Choir, Lego Serious Play led by WOW group, Story Club led by the school librarians, Gymnastics and Dodgeball Club led by EDSTART and Craft Club led by Fred and Pearl. Other highlights include our Year 5/6 football team who played in the B team festival at Witton Park on Tuesday evening and our Year 4 football team who played their final matches in the BRFC League on Tuesday evening. Well done to these incredible footballers for showcasing incredible teamwork and finishing as proud runners-up. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Finn, Phoebe and Reneé in EYFS and KS1 and Iris, Miles, Theo and Jack in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating a consistently positive attitude to their learning and working hard to show the Barney’s 4Bs. Furthermore, we congratulated Carter and Nevaeh in Year 4 for working hard to achieve her pen license, our Year 2 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 99.6% and 99.2% attendance and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 354 points. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Charlie and Albie for being the Players of the Week at Little Darrener’s FC for super dribbling, Annabel for demonstrating amazing skill in her recent ballet and tap exam, Seb for being Player of the Match for his super tackling, Scarlett for demonstrating great skill in her interceptions and goal scoring at football, Summer for being a super dancer in modern jazz and tap, Brooke for achieving Player of the Match and Laila for being the opposition’s Player of the Match at football, Minnie for achieving a badge at squirrels, Olivia H for achieving a medal at gymnastics for working hard and demonstrating super listening skills, Leonora and Iris for their resilience and determination at gymnastics, Olivia R for achieving the Goalkeeper of the Week at Soccer HQ and Jack for achieving his 400m and Stage 7 swimming certificate. To end our worship, Mrs Govan told us about an upcoming Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. More information to follow on Class Dojo. We then had a joyous singalong and dance to ‘He is Alive’. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine. The slides can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
.jpeg)
Year 4 History - Was King Alfred really ‘ Great’?
In our history lesson this week we have been studying Alfred the Great. We were learning about the threat that the Vikings posed to the Anglo- Saxons, exploring sources for bias and deciding whether or not Alfred was a ‘great’ king. The children watched several clips in order to gather information about King Alfred and recorded their notes on whiteboards. Next they discussed key questions as to why he became king, which parts of England he ruled and who were his enemies. We found out lots of key facts and then added these to our sheets. We now know that King Alfred only became king as his two other brothers died and he was next in line, he ruled Wessex as it was the only kingdom left and Guthrum the Viking Leader was his arch enemy.
Reception: Outdoor Fun
Reception class are really lucky to be able to access the MUGA and outdoor gym during their continuous provision time. They have practised their fundamental skills and also learnt how to share and take turns.
Year 6 Music with Junior Jam
Another fantastic Junior Jam music lesson for Year 6, this week! The children have continued their work on scales and chords, learning more about terms such as: sharp, flat, major and minor. Their main task was to learn a section of the theme music from the “Harry Potter” films. Some children played for the rest of the class.
Reception- Year of Prayer- hot cross buns
As part of our year of prayer, we looked at the smell and taste of the hot cross bun. We spoke about how the cross on the bun symbolises the cross that Jesus died upon. We spoke about why Jesus died and that he died to take away the things we have done wrong. We said thank you to Jesus for giving his life so that we could have the chance of a new start.
Year 1 English- Capitalising Proper Nouns
This week in Year 1, our grammar focus has been to capitalise proper nouns. We have focused on capitalising the names of people, places, days of the week and months of the year in preparation for writing a recount. We have been using our microphones to encourage us to speak loudly and clearly as we orally repeat and/or construct sentences. We have also been using our Kung Fu Punctuation to support us with punctuating our sentences correctly.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2- Story Club with Miss Flynn and the Librarians
Today in story club, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 listened to the story of ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ with Miss Flynn and the librarians. They thought about why the giant went from being the smartest giant in town to the kindest giant in town because of his generosity to all of the animals who were upset in the story. We then finished with a craft where the children made a crown (like the one that the animals made for the giant) and thought about how they can also show kindness and generosity.
Year 5: Peer Mediation
On Wednesday Year 5 participated in their first Peer Mediation session in association with DACA and Ben from Quakers in Britain. Peer mediation empowers children to resolve conflicts peacefully and build important communication and problem-solving skills. The children are looking forward to their next two sessions and will then have the opportunity to apply to become a St Barnabas peer mediator. Our staff also had training on peer mediation yesterday too and are looking forward to seeing conflicts being resolved between the children and peer mediators.
Worship with Rev. Ben
Today, during Rev. Ben’s worship, the children explored the theme of living life in all its fullness through movement and storytelling. They engaged in a series of dynamic actions that brought a Bible story to life, immersing themselves in an active and reflective experience. The story they focused on was the Road to Emmaus from the Gospel of Luke. It tells of two disciples walking to Emmaus, filled with sadness and confusion following Jesus’ crucifixion. Along the way, they met a stranger who walked with them and explained the Scriptures, helping them understand God’s greater plan. As evening approached, they invited the stranger to stay and share a meal. It was only when he broke the bread that their eyes were opened—they realised the stranger was the resurrected Jesus! In that moment, Jesus disappeared, leaving them filled with renewed faith and joy. This interactive worship session helped the children connect with the story in a meaningful way, encouraging them to embrace faith, discovery and the joy of living life to the fullest.
Reception: French
Reception class had a wonderful lesson with Junior Jam this week. They were taught how to say hello, goodbye and thank you. They also learnt how to count to 5 in French. Bien joué!!
Reception: Computing
Reception class enjoyed their computing session yesterday taught by Junior Jam. They learnt how a camera works and had the opportunity to take some photographs too.
Year 6 Art
Year 6 have created their own artwork based on the work of Lubaina Himid’s ‘Five’. Lubaina Himid grew up around bold colours and fabrics due to her mum being a textile designer, and is renowned for her artwork telling stories about black people in western society. In the artwork ‘Five’, various items on the table carry symbolic meaning: the plates clearly displaying the stars and stripes of America and the continent of Africa; the sugar bowl representing a sweeter relationship between the two continents and other items on the table symbolising the transatlantic route taken by slaves in the past. We used this as our inspiration for our Easter artwork and provided images that carry symbolic meaning in answer to the question ‘Who was Jesus?’