Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on our very busy week. This week, we launched our new behaviour focuses for this half-term which have been centred around dinner time behaviours. We have been really impressed with how much calmer our school hall is at dinner time- Well done to our whole school and thank you to Mrs Araujo and the WOW group for monitoring! This week we also saw the start of our wonderful Mad Science Club and we are really looking forward to the rest of our after-school clubs starting next week. There are still spaces to sign up to the craft club led by Fred and Pearl and the gymnastics and dodgeball club led by Edstart if anyone is interested. We then congratulated this week’s individual value award winners who have made a fantastic start to the Spring 2 term. Well done to Jess, Declan and Miley in KS2 and Albie, Harry and Thea in EYFS and KS1 for their consistently positive attitude to learning, demonstrating resilience and perseverance in their learning and showing all of our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, respectful, kind and safe). Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 3/4 Sportshall Athletics winners who competed amazingly well to achieve gold at Our Lady and St John’s on Wednesday evening, River Darwen as our value award winners this week with 396 points and Reception and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week. A special well done to Reception who achieved 100% attendance. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Ava for achieving 5m in her swimming, Thea for fantastic bar work in gymnastics, Lyla for achieving her level 2 in gymnastics, Seb for achieving ‘Trainer of the Week’ at football, Haydn for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ at football, Isabella for being ‘The Little Darreners’ Player of the Week’ at football, Archie for being awarded his green belt at martial arts, Eleanor for being awarded multiple gardening badges at Rainbows, Alessia and Piper-Jo for achieving Stage 2 in their swimming, Marley for her commitment to Brownies, Charlie for achieving 10m in his swimming, James for being a super improved player at football, Isaac for being ‘Player of the Day’ at football, Callie for being fiercely brave at Stagecoach and singing a solo, achieving several awards in her gymnastics such as gaining her level 2 grading and for also receiving Grunty the Dragon in martial arts, Alice for achieving 600m in her swimming, Peyton for achieving a badge at kickboxing, Scarlett for her fabulous commitment to Rivington Netball Club and Mason for achieving Stage 5 in his swimming. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that it’s World Book Day next Thursday 6th March where we will be dressing in pyjamas and participating in some fun and exciting reading activities and that it is also non-uniform day and a disco for India Mill and Whitehall Park on Friday 7th March for being the overall value award winners last half-term. We then had some beautiful prayers from James and Martha who prayed to keep those who are poorly and those in heaven in our thoughts. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1- Year of Prayer (Paper Planes)
This week’s prayer challenge focused on teaching the children a way of letting go of their worries. To do this, the children drew pictures of their worries on paper such as the worry they feel when leaving their mummy and daddy, worries about things that we can’t always control such as fires and war and worries about getting things wrong. The children then threw the paper planes as a way of saying goodbye to their worries so that they could feel happier and calmer.
Reception Visit to Imagine That
Our Reception class visited Imagine That today. They had a brilliant time using their imagination in imagination village, creating art making magnets and bags. They also made snow and slime! The children really enjoyed the dry ice experiments and loved the science room where we got to explore and learn. It was a wonderful trip where lots of memories were made. The staff commented on the children's behaviour and how amazing they all were, what superstars! For all images, please look at our gallery: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/reception-visit-to-imagine-that
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Year 3- Year of Prayer - Paper Plane Activity
As part of the Diocese of Blackburn's Year of Prayer, the children have made paper planes this week. They drew or wrote down something they were afraid of on a piece of paper and then folded it into paper aeroplanes. They then flew the planes across the room by throwing them away from them. Then whispered a prayer asking God to take away our fears and provide comfort and courage. Some of the fears suggested were, darkness, monsters, being alone, or making mistakes.
Year 5 - Gravity vs Mass
Today, Year 5 conducted an experiment to explore the relationship between mass and gravity. The children carefully measured and recorded the weights of five different balls before dropping them from the same height. To their surprise, they discovered that gravity is a constant force, meaning that all the balls fell at the same speed, regardless of their weight. We then discussed the role of air resistance and how it affects falling objects. The children were fascinated to learn that if air resistance were removed—such as in a vacuum—a bowling ball and a feather would fall at exactly the same speed. This led to a great discussion about real-life examples, including astronauts on the Moon, where there is no air to slow objects down.
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Year 5 - How safe do we feel online?
Today, the children took part in a Smart School Council discussion, debating the question: “How safe do you feel online?” They engaged in thoughtful conversations, expressing that while they feel safe, they are also aware of the potential risks. Many children highlighted the importance of privacy settings, recognising suspicious messages and knowing who they are talking to online. This discussion led perfectly into our E-Safety focus of the week, which explored online gaming through Marvel Rivals. The children examined the risks associated with online gaming, such as chat functions, in-game purchases, and cyberbullying and discussed ways to stay safe. We explored key safety tips, including never sharing personal information, using strong passwords, only playing with trusted friends and reporting concerns to a trusted adult.
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today’s worship with Rev. Matt began with The Story of the Great Parade. Rev. Matt invited children to take on different roles, bringing the story to life with waving leaves and flags as Year 6 paraded around the hall. The atmosphere was filled with excitement, just as it would have been on that first Palm Sunday, when crowds welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. After the reenactment, Rev. Matt explained the significance of Palm Sunday, reminding the children that Christians around the world still celebrate it today. He encouraged them to think about the emotions of the crowd —joy, hope and anticipation—as they welcomed Jesus as their king. He then explored a key Bible verse: “He always had the nature of God, but took on the nature of a servant.” The children reflected on what this means and discussed how they could show humility and kindness in their own lives. Ideas included helping others without expecting rewards, showing respect to friends and family, and using their voices to support those in need. To close the worship, Rev. Matt led a moment of quiet reflection, asking the children to think about one small way they could follow Jesus’ example this week. It was a meaningful way to prepare for Easter and to consider the values of humility and service in everyday life.
Year 5 Debt Aware
This week, Year 5 had a visit from Debt Aware. The focus was on the question - what is a budget? The children learned that a budget tells us three things: where the money comes from, where the money goes and how much is left over. These are better known as income, outgoings and disposable income. The children had to plan a budget based on wants vs needs. They also role-played being members of a family and thought about which wants/needs each person would have. The children really enjoyed this session and learned a lot about managing money sensibly.
Year 4 History - Who were the Angles, Jutes and Saxons?
This half term we will be looking at how easy it was to invade Britain. Today we focused on the next period of history following on from Roman Britain which was the Anglo Saxon invasion. In groups we researched who the Angles, Jutes and Saxons were and which countries they came from. The children worked really hard to develop their understanding of the routes that each of the groups took and which parts of Britain they invaded first.
Year 5 English - Arguments
In English, year 5 have begun looking at writing an argument. The children have been text-marking features and using point, evidence, explanation (P.E.E) to prepare an argument to persuade against wearing school uniform.
Year 4 Hockey with Progressive Sports
In our first hockey session this half term we had the pleasure of having specialist coaching from Progressive Sports. We started with the basics learning all about how to hold a hockey stick, basic rules and dribbling with a ball. Once we had mastered dribbling, we moved onto stopping the ball and avoiding each other by taking the ball in a different direction.
Year 3 - P.E- Hockey
To begin our invasion games unit focused on hockey, a specialist provided instruction on core skills, emphasising sending and receiving the ball. The children will build on this foundation by participating in small-sided games designed to develop and apply invasion game strategies.