Year 2 Science-Food Chains
This week, Year 2 explored how food chains work in Science. To help understand the concept, we used the idea of a Russian doll, showing how a food chain begins with a producer and is followed by a series of consumers. We built food chains with up to four consumers. Fantastic work, Year 2!
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Year 2 Class Worship: The Great Big Live Assembly
This morning, Year 2 tuned into The Great Big Live Assembly: Black History Month 2025. We only managed to watch the first five minutes because we got into a lengthy conversation about the symbolism of the St George’s flag — how it can be used to celebrate our amazing country, but also how, sadly, it can sometimes be misused to intimidate or threaten. This idea was linked to the image of a brick: in the hands of a builder, a brick is a tool for good — used to construct homes, schools, hospitals, and other places that serve and support communities. But in a different context — for example, someone walking down the street holding a brick with harmful intent — it can take on a much more negative meaning. In the same way, the St George’s Cross can represent national pride and unity through culture and sport, yet it can also be misused to exclude or intimidate, particularly towards immigrants. The assembly then posed a question: How can we make sure everyone feels welcome in our schools — no matter where they come from, what they look like, or the colour of their skin? Our class had some thoughtful and compassionate suggestions: helping new people find their way around, smiling to make them feel included, offering help if they’re lost or hurt, and using kind words. It was wonderful to hear the children speak proudly about their own diverse backgrounds. Many shared that they have family members from different nationalities such as China and New Zealand and friendships with children from places such as Pakistan. We’re looking forward to watching the rest of the assembly in the coming days and learning more about the inspirational people of colour who have helped shape our country as part of Black History Month.
Year 5 - Science
In science, we continued exploring how materials change. This week we looked at mixtures, including what they are made of and how we could separate them. We focussed on trying to retrieve the salt from salt water solution, using filtering and evaporation methods.
Year 6 - Hockey
This week, Year 6 began their hockey unit, focusing on developing their passing and receiving skills. The children practised maintaining control of the ball while moving, using both push and slap passes to improve accuracy and teamwork. They showed great enthusiasm and cooperation throughout the lesson as they refined their technique and built confidence with the stick and ball.
Reception- Understanding the world- Our senses
During our understanding the world lessons we’ve been learning all about our senses. Today we have learnt about the job of our ears and that they are used for hearing so we are able to listen. The children closed their eyes and had to match the hidden sounds to the correct objects. We listened to bells, pasta, feathers and coins in different bowls to see if we could identify their sounds just by listening alone.
Year 1 - Fundamentals - Jumping for Distance
In today’s fundamental skills session, Year 1 focused on jumping for distance. We followed various teaching points including crouching with knees bent, swing arms back and forward, explode forward and push off from toes. The children quickly developed their movements using the theory of uncoiling like a spring. We finished with the challenge of can you jump as long as you are high?
Year 2 - Fundamental Skills in PE
In our PE session this week, we focused on improving our distance in jumping. The children moved from limited arm swings to swinging both arms together in order to launch themselves forward. They also realised that using the front of their feet and bending their knees helped them to go further. We will continue to work on landing on both feet after a full extension of our legs and leaning forwards with our body.
Craft Club
Over the past 2 weeks we have been making dream catchers at Craft Club. The children decorated the hoops with gems and washi tape, wrapped them with coloured yarn, tied on ribbons and threaded beads. Lots of patience and fine motor skills were needed for this project and everyone did a fab job! We are super excited for our next project: air dry clay mechanical toys!
Foodie Friends club- Yummy Shape Biscuits
At our after-school foodie club, we made some absolutely delicious buttery biscuits. It took lots of teamwork to get the right dough, the amazing bakers spent time weighing sugar and flour, cracking eggs, and mixing .We then used a variety of different shape cutters to make our biscuits. The end result was a lot of fun, and a lot of tasty treats!
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Year 3- Science- Forming shadows
In our science lesson, our young scientists learned some fundamental principles of physics. They discovered that light travels in a straight line, which is why a shadow is formed when an object blocks that path. By moving the light source, they learned how the position of light affects the size and shape of a shadow. They saw firsthand that an object's shadow changes depending on the light's angle and how far away it is. This hands-on exploration taught them that a shadow is simply the absence of light, a concept that forms the basis for everything from understanding eclipses to how our eyes see. We became experts at forming shadows using artificial light sources, like torches. It was great to see everyone working in pairs, acting as our own little research team.
Harvest Appeal
This morning we launched our Harvest Appeal for this year by hearing from Bishop Philip about his Pedalathon on 17th October where he will be cycling to visit and pray at a school or church in all 14 deaneries across the Diocese. We will be supporting Bishop Philip's Harvest Appeal for Christians in South Africa by joining in with his pedalathon over the next few weeks, including half term. We are encouraging our school family to cycle on bikes or scooters just like we did for the Big Lent Walk and we would love for you to send your photos in and the distance. Donations can be made on parent pay shortly. Our RotaKids are also supporting Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise (DARE) and Darwen Rotary this Harvest by creating Winter Warmer boxes filled with toiletries, packets or tins of food and warm clothing for DARE families, the elderly, isolated, poor and vulnerable people in our community . They are also collecting winter coats for the homeless and poor through Darwen Rotary club. Please send in any donations and thank you in advance for your generosity. We then sang some of our Harvest songs for our Church Harvest Festival this Sunday 12th October at 11.00am- all welcome and our school Harvest Festival on Thursday 23rd October led by our WOW group and Reception, Years 1 and 2. All welcome.
Key Stage 1 Multi- Skills Festival at St Bedes
This morning, ten of our Year 2 children took part in the Key Stage 1 Multi- Skills Festival at St Bedes. We also had three of our wonderful Sports Leaders- Seb, Theo and Luca to support and guide the younger children. The children worked their way round the stations which included an over and under relay, aim game, cone stack high stepper and vortex throw. Our children had so much fun and represented our school fantastically well! They encouraged each other in true St Barnabas the Encourager style, listening carefully to instructions and trying their very best. We even came back to school with a gold medal!