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Year 4 - RE: Significance of Light in Hinduism
In RE this week, we began by watching a clip of a special Aarti ceremony being performed at the River Ganges. The children were given time to observe and ask questions about the artefacts used, the clothing worn and the actions performed. They then learned about the purpose of the ceremony and that not all Aarti ceremonies are as grand. We discussed what an Aarti ceremony might look like within a Hindu’s home. The children then read testimonies from a number of Hindu children about their experiences of worship and they drew symbols to represent what they thought would be the key features of an Aarti ceremony for Hindus.
A Brilliant Week of Living Life in its Fullness!
Dear Parents and Carers, What a fantastic and incredibly busy week we've had, truly embracing life in its fullness here at St Barnabas! We are so proud of all our children and grateful for your continued support. This week has been packed with memorable moments: *Our Year 4 children had a wonderful visit to their linking school, St. Matthew's in Blackburn, fostering new connections and experiences. *Years 1-5 enjoyed a special trip to Darwen Library for the Literature Festival, inspiring a love for reading and stories. *We're incredibly proud of Year 1 for trying so hard with their phonics screening and our Year 4 children for being absolute stars in their multiplication times check. *Our amazing netball team secured two more super wins, and our cricket team represented our school family brilliantly, showing great sportsmanship. *Years 5 and 6 successfully completed their last "Money Matters" sessions, gaining valuable life skills. *Our Year of Prayer has continued to be great fun with an "I Spy" game, and in Worship, we focused on significant themes like Pentecost, St Barnabas Day, and Saul on the road to Damascus. *Our Donuts for Dads day and Father's Day Stay and Play were huge successes – a massive thank you for all your generous donut donations and to our FOSB for their support! And finally, we were thrilled to be awarded with an attendance award for being in the top 10% of schools nationally! This is a fantastic achievement for our whole school family. For all of this week's news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Looking Ahead to Next Week We have more exciting events planned: Wednesday: 9.00- Reception Class Stay and Play. Some of our Year 3 children will be attending a Global Tea Party with DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) in recognition of Refugee Week. Thursday: The final evening of the DPSSA netball league. Good luck to our team! Friday: Sports Day! EYFS and KS1: 9:15 AM - 10:30 AM KS2: 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM All children should come to school wearing their PE kits. Parents and carers welcome to spectate. Please bring something to sit on as seating is limited. Please note: If it rains, Sports Day will be postponed to the following Friday. In its place, we will have our Inter-House Sportshall Athletics competition led by our fantastic Sports Leaders. Upcoming events can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Thank you all for your continued support in making our school such a vibrant and thriving community. We do, however, need to remind everyone to park courteously of our neighbours. We have received reports of parking across drives, which causes inconvenience for residents. Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated. Also, a quick reminder about our upcoming Table Top Sale in Whitehall Park this Saturday from 1.00-4.00pm, which aims to raise funds for the park that we all enjoy using. Finally, we want to wish all of our Dads and Grandads a wonderful Father's Day this Sunday! Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by reflecting on our very busy yet wonderful week. This week, we celebrated St Barnabas Day on Wednesday and remembered Him as the encourager. Mrs Ham explained that next Friday 20th June is Sports Day which will be the perfect opportunity for us all to be an encourager just as St Barnabas was. Mrs Ham also congratulated all of our school for achieving the 'National School Attendance Award' for our attendance being in the top 10% of all Primary Schools in England. We then reflected on our highlights of the week. We dedicated time to prayers for perseverance and resilience, aligning with the Diocesan Year of Prayer. Worship sessions included a reflection on Ascension and Pentecost with Mrs. Ham, and a focus on transformation with Rev. Ben. Year 4 visited St. Matthew's as part of their linking schools project. We celebrated Father's Day with two special events: a "Stay and Play" session in Reception and the "Donuts for Dads" event, successfully run by FOSB and Mrs. Wilkinson. The first Cre8ability session took place, and Years 1-5 enjoyed attending the Darwen Literature Festival at Darwen Library. Our sports teams also achieved notable success, with the Year 6 cricket team representing the school exceptionally well at Darwen Cricket Club on Wednesday, and the Year 5/6 Netball Squad securing another two victories in the DPSSA Netball league, maintaining their impressive unbeaten record. This week, we were pleased to announce several awards. Year 1 and Year 3 were recognised as our attendance winners. Darwen Tower earned the weekly value award with 289 points. Furthermore, River Darwen was celebrated as the overall value award winner for the last half-term and will be rewarded with a non-uniform day and disco, with the date to be announced shortly. We then moved on to congratulate our individual value award winners which were Fiia, the whole Year 1 class for their amazing phonics this week, Frankie, the whole of Year 3 for their fantastic behaviour at the Literature Festival, Year 4 for being superstars at their linking schools visit to St Matthews, Matthew and Freddie. We then moved on to our out of school awards. Ava was recognised as a fabulous mini medic and scientist at Squirrels; James was awarded "Beaver of the Week" for his success and perseverance in the treasure trail and consistently making positive choices; Seb achieved "Player of the Week" in football; Mollie was recognised as a superstar at Rainbows; Eleanor earned her Rainbows Bronze and Health awards; Marley demonstrated kindness and helpfulness at Rainbows, achieving her Rainbows Silver and Health awards; Desmond, Charlie, Sonny, and Leo were commended for their fantastic efforts in a recent football tournament; Charlie achieved Stage 5 in his swimming; Thea was "Star of the Week" at gymnastics for her incredible vault and bar work; Eliza reached won the Silver Cup Final at the weekend and was recognised for being an incredible goalkeeper; Grace achieved bronze in ballet, silver in acro and tap, and was named "most hardworking dancer" in a recent dance competition; and Summer was celebrated as "Star of the Week" at ballet. To end our worship, we had some heartfelt prayers. Mrs. Ham led prayers for all the victims and their families affected by the tragic aeroplane crash yesterday, travelling from India to London, and encouraged us to be grateful for the many amazing things in our lives, including our families. We also heard some beautiful prayers from Sofia and Callie, who prayed for those in conflict and war, and expressed gratitude for our wonderful world and the beautiful people in it. Mrs. Ham explained that Rev Ben and Rev Matt would be holding a special 24/7 week of prayers that we could all get involved in and wished everyone a lovely, restful weekend. We closed our worship with a singalong to 'Shine from the inside out'. Slides can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
Access All Arts with Fleur East
Today we took part in Sounds Lesson Live with Fleur East. Fleur works at Hits Radio and she was telling us all about Access all Arts Week which is next week. As part of the session, Fleur told us all about how much she enjoys rapping and that it’s such a great thing to do. We started with a full body warm up and this highlighted the importance of warming up our whole body but especially our voice. Breath work plays a vital role in warming our voice up. We the practiced clapping in beats of four and added the lyrics backwards - Shout A, triple A Access all Arts it’s time to play! Let’s dance it, let’s draw it, let’s dream it, let’s make it. Dance it, draw it, dream it, make it! The children loved learning the rap and some of their performances were fantastic!
Reception PE Sports Day Practise
Reception have been practising the different races in preparation for Sports Day next week. They completed a sack race, running race, egg and spoon race and an obstacle race. They worked very hard and are ready to go next Friday!
Whole School Worship-The Road to Damascus - Change, and Forgiveness
Today's worship with Rev. Ben began with the sign of the Trinity. Rev. Ben then presented the children with images of four well-known fictional "Super Villains": Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, The Joker, Mrs. Trunchball, and Gru from Minions. The children enthusiastically shouted out the characters' names. This engaging activity led into the story of Damascus, focusing on the transformation of Saul into Saint Paul. The narrative explored how Saul, perceived as a "Villain", could undergo a profound change. Saul was initially a fervent persecutor of early Christians. While on his way to Damascus with authority to arrest followers of Jesus, a blinding light from heaven suddenly enveloped him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" When Saul asked who was speaking, the voice replied, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." This encounter left Saul blind for three days. He was led into Damascus, where a disciple named Ananias, guided by a vision from Jesus, healed his sight. After this miraculous experience, Saul was baptised and became a devoted follower of Jesus, changing his name to Paul. He tirelessly preached the Christian message from then on, becoming one of its most influential apostles. Following the story, the children were given time to consider a key question: Can a 'baddie' become a 'goodie'? If so, how and why?" This prompted thoughtful discussion among the children. The worship concluded with everyone singing "Shine from the Inside Out. and a prayer led by Rev Ben.
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Cre8ability- Session 1
What a fantastic start to our "Nurturing Emotional Wellbeing in Creative Spaces" group today, expertly guided by Cre8ability! We saw parents and children connecting and expressing themselves through Picasso-esque art in a wonderfully calming atmosphere. Beyond the creative process, they discovered how colors can represent feelings and practiced calming techniques. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Carol and Maria for making it such a success – we can't wait for more next week!
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Year 5 - Striking and Fielding
Today, Year 5 began their new unit on striking and fielding in PE. To kick things off the children played a game of kick rounders with a specific focus on developing their fielding skills. The session helped the children to practise accurate throwing, effective catching and quick decision-making as a team. It was a fun and active start to the unit and everyone showed great enthusiasm and teamwork throughout.
Year 4 - Linking Schools Visit to St Matthew’s
Our Linking Schools project reached its final part on Monday with Year 4 visiting St Matthew’s C of E Primary in Blackburn. We had a fantastic day designing “together towns”, creating poetry about living well together and even joining an assembly with local author, Dan Worsley. We have thoroughly enjoyed learning about our new friends and sharing work throughout this year; it has helped us to realise our similarities and celebrate differences.
Reception Father’s Day Outdoor Stay & Play
It was lovely for the children to have their special grown ups with them for an exciting outdoor stay and play. They loved playing football on the MUGA and showed some of the Dads how to use the outdoor gym! We would like to wish them all a very Happy Father’s Day for Sunday and a big thank you to everyone who attended.
Year 5 - Literature Festival
Today, Year 5 had the exciting opportunity to attend the Darwen Literature Festival at Darwen Library. As part of the event, they took part in an inspiring author session led by the brilliant poet and performer Rappaman. The children were captivated by his energetic performance and powerful poetry, which explored themes like identity, creativity and resilience. They listened, laughed and even joined in with some of the rhythmic wordplay, leaving the session buzzing with ideas and inspiration. It was a fantastic celebration of language and the joy of reading and writing. A big thank you to the festival organisers and Rappaman for such a memorable experience!
Amazing Attendance
We’re delighted to let you know that our school has been recognised not once, but twice in this year’s FFT National Attendance Awards. These awards celebrate the hard work and commitment of our staff, pupils, parents and carers in promoting excellent attendance and our school has stood out in both the autumn and spring terms of 2024/25. We are so proud that we are in the top 10% of schools nationally for our Spring term attendance! Well done everyone!