Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet fantastic week in school. First of all, we thanked everyone for rocking their socks for World Down Syndrome Day and continuing to support ‘THE BIG LENT WALK.’ The kilometres walked across school are ever increasing as is the money that we have raised and we are extremely grateful- thank you! Please continue to let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and please send photos if you can. This week, we have had a wonderful week learning about Lent in collective worship, Reception, Year 1 and 2 had a special visit from Local Author Janek Puzon, Reception had an exciting firefighter visit, we’ve enjoyed a variety of after-school and lunch-time clubs and Year 6 spent two days exploring London. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Freddie, Cici and Charlie G in EYFS and KS1 and Bobby-Ray, Tristen and Neve in Years 3, 4 and 5. Well done to these children for consistently showing our Barny’s 4Bs and working hard across the curriculum. We also awarded all of Year 6 as the value award winners this week for representing school amazingly well in London and making the most of the experience. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 96.7% and 99.6% attendance, India Mill as our value award winners this week with 442 points and our Year 4 football team for three fantastic performances in the BRFC league on Tuesday evening- well done! We then moved on to congratulating our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Hollie for being the Star of the Week at gymnastics, Charlie for achieving his blue belt in martial arts and being the Beaver of the Week, Isabella for also being awarded her blue belt at martial arts, Callie for her amazing performance at Stage Coach, Elijah for being Player of the Week at football, Haydn for achieving his white belt at kickboxing, Lyla for achieving gold in a recent Jazz competition and silver for a lyrical dance, Sofia for coming 3rd place in a recent singing competition and Olivia for being Star of the Week at gymnastics. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that next Tuesday 25th March is ‘Friends of St Barnabas Non-Uniform Day’ in exchange for a cake or sweet treat to sell at the Mother’s Day Coffee Morning on Wednesday 26th March which you are all welcome to. Then, we all had a singalong to ‘Lord of the Dance.’ We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 3- Online Safety- Live Streaming
Year 3 discussed this week's poster about live streaming. Many children were aware of the dangers but were unsure how to block unwanted users. Some mentioned that they ignore or ask who someone is when they join. We also talked about the importance of speaking to a trusted adult, only playing age-appropriate games, and following the guidance of grown-ups when it comes to online safety.
Year 1- Year of Prayer- Thanking God For His Love
This week for the year of prayer, Year 1 played a game of ‘the floor is lava’ but with huge love hearts that were scattered around the room. They had to move around the room only touching the love hearts whilst thanking God for his love for us. We decided that God’s love is especially important to us when we are finding things tricky or we are feeling sad.
Reception - Rock your Socks!
Reception are rocking their socks for World Down Syndrome Day. We have decorated socks in the creative area to show that everyone is special and unique in their own way. We will also be looking at the charity Mencap and what they do to support children with Down Syndrome, alongside learning some new Makaton signs to help us communicate with others.
Year 6- Going Underground
Our Year 6 children have loved travelling around London on the underground tube and escalators. We were so impressed with the way they sensibly and safely walked through the hoards of people commuting to work or sightseeing. They loved it when the tubes set off and stopped and they made sure they held on tight or else they would have gone flying through the carriage! They showed lots of respect to members of the public and used wonderful manners to the guards who let us through the gates.
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Year 6- Thames River Cruise
Our Year 6 children enjoyed seeing some of the famous sights of London from the River Thames. They also learnt about the history of the buildings from our tour guide. Can you spot any you know? All of the Year 6 London trip photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-6-london-trip-2025
Year 6- Food, glorious food!
Year 6 have shared some lovely meal times together in London in parks, restaurants and the hotel. They have enjoyed sampling a variety of food and have focused on their table manners and etiquette. They have had a buffet meal at Pizza Hut, a breakfast buffet at our Premier Inn Hotel, a meal at McDonalds and two picnics. We are so proud of the way they respected the members of the public, who were also dining alongside them. They also showed great independence skills by helping themselves to some of their buffet meals and clearing away their rubbish. They have also developed their conversational skills before moving on to high school. Well done Year 6!
Year 6- Imperial War Museum
In History this term, Year 6 have been learning all about the Second World War and the part that Darwen played in it. It has been wonderful to visit the Imperial War Museum to learn more about the Second World War and the part that London played in it and contrast this to Darwen’s involvement. All of the Year 6 London trip photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-6-london-trip-2025
Year 6- Graffiti Tunnel
We had a great time appreciating the graffiti art in Leake Street tunnel and we got to create our own graffiti art. Earlier on this year we looked at graffiti art in our Art unit so it was great to be able to apply the skills we learnt. All of the Year 6 London trip photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-6-london-trip-2025
Year 6- Houses of Parliament
Our Year 6 class were so fortunate to be able to visit the Houses of Parliament to learn all about our British Values and in particular, democracy and the rule of law. We had a tour and watched a live debate in the House of Commons. The Foreign Secretary David Lammy also gave an announcement. We visited Westminster Hall, which we recognised from seeing on the news when the Queen was lying in State after her sad death. We then took part in a workshop about how laws are created and we learnt all about Parliament and the houses of Commons and Lords through a fun activities. We also got to explore democracy through voting and debating. Finally we were visited by our local Member of Parliament, Andy McNae and had a great question and answer session. We are so proud of the thoughtful questions the children asked him. We are sure that we have a few future MPs amongst our Year 6 class!
Year 3- English- Using Adverbs to Bring The Iron Man to Life
In English, our young writers have started writing the opening for our class narrative based on The Iron Man! The children have been busy creating their powerful adverbs to bring their writing to life. From silently towering over the cliffs to mysteriously appearing in the darkness, they’ve been working hard to make their openings gripping. We’ve had giant hands cautiously reaching out, and eerie eyes glowingly piercing through the night.
Year 4 DT - Designing Torches
In our DT session this week we looked at designing our product to fit a set of specific user needs. To begin the session, we created our circuits that we will need for our torches and then we drew the circuit formats out using the correct symbols. It was quite challenging to make the circuits light the bulbs as some of the crocodile clips in the wires were tough and some of the batteries no longer worked. We worked in small groups and it was great to see the children working as a team to problem solve. Once we had done this we then designed our torches and labelled all of the components. We can’t wait to start making the torches in our next session now we have collect all of the resources which include; a water bottle, I battery pack, a bulb, a switch and three wires.