Year 4 - Big Lent Walk to the Rose Garden
Yesterday, the Year 4s took advantage of the lovely weather and completed a Big Lent Walk to the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park. Whilst there, we spent time exploring the selection of artwork and poetry shared by each class. We helped the Reception children read the poetry and completed challenges to find each part of the Easter story.
PSHE Online Safety in Year 4
As part of our online safety, we looked at the use of instagram and the positive and negative impact it has on our mental health. The children discussed reasons for why the social media platform has an age restriction of 13 years old and the importance of keeping safe online. As a class we agreed that the age restriction is definitely a huge positive. The children then went on to highlight their key reasons for their positives and negatives, using voice 21 strategies to agree and disagree with their peers.
Reception- Fundamentals and Gymnastics Fun
Reception class had a visitor to class this morning - Mrs Gardner. The children completed a variety of activities to develop their fundamental skills and then moved onto travelling, jumping and height using low level apparatus. It was lovely to see the children challenging themselves and encouraging each other.
Hockey - Progressive Sports Final Session
We had our final hockey session with Progressive Sports on Friday and the children demonstrated all of their amazing hockey skills that they have been working on over the past six weeks. From various passing skills to dribbling and tactics, every single child has made great progress. The children finished with game challenges and have really enjoyed working individually and in smaller groups to perfect their skills. A huge thanks to Progressive Sports for providing specialist hockey coaching and teacher CPD. We look forward to working with them again soon!
Year 3- R.E-Exploring Easter Through Art
This afternoon, Year 3 walked to the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park to admire artwork created by the whole school. The displayed pieces reflect the Easter story and have been inspired by what pupils have learned in their R.E. lessons over the past few weeks. Year 3 took time to pause, reflect, and appreciate the powerful expressions of both sadness and joy, brought to life through art. The visit gave the children a chance to think, feel calm, and feel connected. They thought about how the Easter story teaches us to live life to its fullness. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were proud to see how their learning has been transformed into something so meaningful and creative.
Reception: Easter Artwork
For their Muddy Monday session, Reception class walked to Whitehall park and explored the Easter artwork our school family have created. The children enjoyed looking at the artwork and enjoyed listening to the poems that some of the children wrote. As a treat after, the children visited the playground. Also Reception class collectively walked 72.5km for the CAFOD's Big Lent Walk. Well done!
Year 1- Big Lent Walk
This morning, Year 1 walked 7.5km each, totalling a huge 225km as a collective. They did this by walking into Darwen Town Centre to take pictures of some of our well known landmarks in preparation for their art unit next half-term. This included India Mill, Darwen Post Office, Darwen Leisure Centre, Darwen Market Hall and Darwen Library. We extended our stay at Darwen Library by going inside to enjoy a lovely story. Finally, we came back to school to write a recount of our walk. We had to make sure that we were capitalising proper nouns (including the names of people, places and street names) as this is the grammar skill that we we have been working hard on over the last couple of weeks.
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Year 3- R.E- Artwork Reflecting the Sadness and Joy of the Cross
Year 3 has created artwork that represents both the sadness and the joy of the cross. Through their work, they have explored the events of Holy Week, reflecting on the sorrow of Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified, and the overwhelming joy of Easter Sunday, when He rose again. The cross, a symbol of suffering, also becomes a symbol of hope and salvation. Their artwork captures this emotional journey, showing how these two powerful feelings, sadness and joy, are connected in the Christian story of Easter. Some of the artwork will now be displayed in the Rose Garden for everyone to experience and reflect upon.
Easter Singing Worship
We had a joyous start to the week with a singalong to all of our favourite Easter songs ready for our church service on Thursday morning at 9.15am. KS2 will be showcasing their Easter artwork and parents and carers are very welcome to come along and support.
Reception PE - Fundamental skills
This half term, Reception have been working on their fundamental PE skills. We have been learning how to jump correctly, throw underarm and climb up and down equipment safely.
Barney's Best Bits- Spring 2- Week 6
Dear parents and carers, I hope this message finds you well. As we conclude another brilliant week of achieving great things and living life in all its fullness at St Barnabas, I'm delighted to share the highlights and achievements of our school family. *Science Boffin Show: Our children were thrilled to watch an array of exciting science experiments, sparking curiosity and wonder. *Rocksteady Rock Concert: Our school rock bands showcased their incredible musical talents, providing an exhilarating experience for everyone involved. *Big Lent Walk: Several classes participated in a class Big Lent Walk. Donations to Cafod can be made online: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-ce-primary-academys-big-lent-walk and this weekend looks perfect weather to get a walk in. * Year 6 Football Festival: Our Year 6 students participated with great enthusiasm, demonstrating teamwork and sportsmanship. *Year 4 Football Team: Congratulations to our Year 4 football team for coming second in their heat in the league and just missing out on the grand final! * Year 5 Peer Mediation: Year 5 students took part in their first Peer Mediation session, and our staff also received training in this important project. * Local Governing Committee Meeting: We shared all the successes of this term with our local governing committee, receiving positive feedback and support. * Year 5 Bikeability Sessions: Year 5 successfully completed their bikeability sessions, promoting safe cycling skills. *Eating hot cross buns as part of our Year of Prayer this week.
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