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VE Commemoration- Red, white and blue day
Today, our pupils and staff dressed in red, white and blue to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. We came together to remember and honour those who served, and to reflect on the importance of peace and unity. As part of our celebrations, we’re supporting the Royal British Legion. If you’d like to make a donation, you can do so easily via ParentPay. Every contribution helps support veterans and their families. Thank you for helping us make this day meaningful for our school family! #VEDay80 #StBarnabasRemembers #RoyalBritishLegion #RedWhiteBlueDay
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in a special worship, we came together to remember and celebrate Victory in Europe (VE) Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Thank you to our whole school family for dressing in red, white, and blue today to help us to show our support for this important moment in history and raise money for the Royal British Legion. We also reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included further exploration of the Lord’s Prayer and learning about VE Day in our collective worships, focusing on reflective prayers as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, Reception having a visit from the Animal Garden pet shop, who brought along a fascinating collection of minibeasts for the children to explore, Year 1 visiting St Barnabas Church for a mock baptism , Year 1&2 visiting the Crocky Trail and showing extreme courage, Year 5 have enjoying another Peer Mediation session, our Year 4 tennis team who represented our school with pride and positivity at the Blackburn Northern Tennis Club on Wednesday afternoon and our Year 5/6 Netball Squad who represented St Barnabas brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league in the first round of games. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Willow in EYFS and Oliver, Alexis, Beau and Austin in KS2. Well done to these children for showing our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready) and consistently pushing themselves to achieve great things. We also congratulated the whole of the Year 1 & 2 classes for being amazing on their trip to the Crocky Trail. They were extremely brave, encouraged each other every step of the way and demonstrated impeccable manners. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 161 points. We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Piper-Jo for achieving her white belt in kickboxing, Marnie-May for being awarded her 20m swimming certificate, Mikey and Marley for achieving their 5m swimming certificates, Eleanor for being awarded Olivia at Rainbows for super behaviour and achieving her 5m and 10m swimming certificates, Charlie for being a super football star and competing amazingly well in a recent football tournament, Olivia, Olivia and Ivy for their recent success in winning the under 8s Cup Final 2025, Eliza for achieving ‘Girl of the Game’ in her most recent football match and Grace for achieving a distinction and a merit in her recent tap and jazz exams. To end our worship, we wished our fabulous Year 6 children good luck in their SATs next week, Olivia, Lana and Percy shared some beautiful prayers and we sang happy birthday to those who have an upcoming birthday or have celebrated their birthday recently. We then invited our Year 6 children to lead us in singing the National Anthem. Thank you to all of our school family who could attend celebration worship and we thank you for your ongoing support. We send an extended thank you to the rest of our school family. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine.
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Reception - Minibeast Visit
Today, our Reception class enjoyed an exciting visit from the local Animal Garden pet shop, who brought along a fascinating collection of minibeasts for the children to explore. The children were thrilled to get up close with a range of creepy crawlies and even a tarantula! They had the opportunity to ask questions and observe the creatures carefully. This hands-on experience sparked lots of curiosity and discussion, supporting our current topic on minibeasts and helping to build confidence, language skills and respect for living things.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2- Story and Craft Club
At lunch time, the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children were invited to Story and Craft Club led by Miss Flynn and the Librarians. We read ‘Nibbles the Book Monster’ who caused lots of havoc in some very well known fairy tales such as Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk and then created our very own book monsters. What an enjoyable lunch time!
Reception: 5 Ways to Wellbeing
Our Reception class had a wonderful session focussing on wellbeing through being active, staying connected, and taking notice. The children thoroughly enjoyed their Forest Schools session, where they were actively running, exploring, and building together. This hands-on experience fostered both their physical health and their ability to stay connected as they collaborated on projects and supported each other's play. Creativity blossomed as they used "God's creations" to make art. Leaves, twigs, and pebbles became their media, encouraging appreciation for the natural world. This activity also promoted connection as they shared materials and ideas. Moments of quiet reflection helped the children practice taking notice. They listened to the birds singing, observed the beauty around them, and explored their spirituality by expressing gratitude for their environment. This encouraged mindfulness and a sense of wonder. These engaging activities provided valuable lessons in looking after their wellbeing through movement, positive relationships, and appreciating the present moment.
Reception- Year of Prayer
For this week's year of prayer the children each took a wooden spoon and wrote on a word which reflects what the children would like to pray for. We then put all the spoons in a jar in the reflection area and the children can then choose a spoon to quietly pray for the word written on it.
Whole School Worship - V.E. Day & The Lord’s Prayer
Our worship began with an introduction to V.E. Day. Mrs Ham gave a short explanation about the Second World War and the celebrations that took place after Europe’s victory in 1945. There will be a number of worships and activities taking place across the week to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II, including our Red, White and Blue day on Friday. Mrs Ham and Mrs Araujo then launched this week’s Year of Prayer activities. Our focus was then directed to The Lord’s Prayer. Mrs Ham spent some time explaining the first few lines to make sure everyone in our school family understands what they are praying about when they recite The Lord’s Prayer. We focused particularly on the word “hallowed” and that this means holy. We shared our ideas of how we can carry out God’s wishes and that we can all try to be like saints. The children had some extremely thoughtful ideas about welcoming people and why it is important to make others feel welcome. We finished by reciting The Lord’s Prayer once more and then singing one of our favourite worship songs, My Lighthouse.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing this week’s Makaton sign which was ‘please’ and thanked everyone for their enormous generosity in supporting Miss Kachwalla, Mr Bloomfield, Rota Kids and School Council with their Afternoon Tea. Thank you to Darwen Rotary Club for also attending and supporting this event. An impressive £256 was raised which will go directly towards supporting our school. We also reflected on some of our other highlights this week which have included exploring the Lord’s Prayer, the Ascension and Songs of Praise in collective worship, our Diocesan Year of Prayer focusing on following in Jesus’ path and putting our trust in Him to guide us down the right path, Year 5 have enjoyed another Peer Mediation session, Year 3,4,5 and 6 enjoyed celebrating Square Root Day and we have enjoyed a relaunch of Choir. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Zac, Inaiya and Elijah in EYFS and KS1 and Scarlett, Elliott, Isabelle and Ruby in KS2. Well done to these children for showing working hard to consistently demonstrate our Barney’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready) and producing an exceptional standard of work across the curriculum. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week with 97.9% and 99.2% attendance, Whitehall Park and India Mill as our joint value award winners this week, Our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children who took part in the DPSSA Cross Country at Witton Park last night for pushing themselves to their limits despite the heat, our Year 5/6 Bee Stinger Netball Squad who represented St Barnabas brilliantly on Tuesday evening and came away as heat winners and Year 2 for being the the ‘WOW (Walking to School)’ champions for the month of April. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Ella for achieving her Stage 2 swimming certificate, Olivia for achieving her special ‘Healthy Minds’ badge and making her promise at Rainbows, Beau for being awarded Olivia at Rainbows for being extremely kind and helpful, Reggie for being the Little Darreners’ Player of the Week, Darcy, Sofia, Grace and Lana for being super Brownies and achieving a variety of badges including badges for World Earth Day, First Aid and Taking Action, Daisy for representing Brownies in the St George’s Day Parade, Olivia B, Ivy, Olivia R and Eliza for representing their football teams and winning the East Lancashire cup, Ava for being a super squirrel and completing all of her badges, Callie for being the Star of the Week at the Edstart Striking and Fielding Club and being a super consistent gymnast, Phoebe for being able to ride her bike without stabilisers, Isaac for representing his football team on a tour to Italy and achieving the team player award and special future champion cup award, Harry for successfully competing his grading and achieving his white belt in kickboxing, Lilly for being the pupil of the month at Little Voices for showing up to every lesson with a smile and being a superstar creator at the Youth Zone and Jack for achieving the star performance whilst playing football for Blackburn Eagles. To end our worship, Mrs Govan reminded us about the Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. The deadline is on the 21st May. Please find further information on Class Dojo. We then had a singalong to ‘Shine from the Inside Out’ and had some beautiful prayers from Marley and Hamza. We wish you all a lovely and restful May Bank holiday weekend in the sunshine.
River Darwen’s Team Winning Disco
Today, the River Darwen team celebrated their success with a special non-uniform day and disco after earning the highest number of Value points last half term. Their hard work, positive attitude and teamwork truly paid off – well done to everyone in River Darwen! A huge thank you to Mr Bloomfield for leading the disco and to Miss Lohar for her support!
Worship with Rev. Ben
Today’s worship with Rev. Ben began with a fun game where two teams raced to pass a shuttlecock around the hall and get it back to the start. This linked to the Bible story about Jesus giving us instructions to “pass it on”—just like in the game. The story focused on the Ascension—the moment when Jesus, after rising from the dead and spending time with his disciples, was taken up to heaven. Before he left, Jesus gave his disciples an important mission: to go out into the world, share his teachings, and spread the good news. He promised they would not be alone—God would send the Holy Spirit to be their helper. Even though the disciples felt unsure and a bit afraid, Jesus reassured them that he would always be with them. After the story, the children engaged in thoughtful discussions, exploring questions such as: What did Jesus ask the disciples to do? And How can you trust in Jesus’ promise to be with you, even when you don’t feel brave? Some children shared that they feel brave when they remember Jesus is with them in their hearts. Others said they can pass on kindness and love to friends and family, just like the disciples did. The worship reminded everyone that living like Jesus and sharing his message helps us experience life in all its fullness—a life filled with love, purpose and hope.
Reception- practising our ball skills
The children initiated a game of catch where they made a circle and called someone’s name before throwing the ball to them to see if they could catch it. More and more children joined the circle and enjoyed the game of catch.
Whole School Celebration-Living Life to the Full- Afternoon Tea
The afternoon tea, organised by the Smart School Council and RotaKids, was a wonderful celebration of our school family living life to the fullest. There was a lovely selection of cakes and biscuits, some homemade by the RotaKids the day before and some bought in. The children enjoyed chatting, laughing, and drinking hot chocolate together. We're thrilled to share that the event raised an impressive £256, which will go directly towards supporting our school. A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event and to all the staff who helped make it happen. A special thank you to our friends from Darwen Rotary who came along to support too. We look forward to hosting many more in the future!