Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. We have been extremely busy preparing for Easter in our RE lessons and in collective worships with Mrs Ham and Rev Matt, Reception led a very special worship and FOSB hosted a lovely coffee morning on Wednesday morning to celebrate Mothering Sunday, Reception and Year 1 contributed to ‘The Big Lent Walk,’ we have had enjoyed a variety of wonderful lunchtime and after schools clubs and Year 5 enjoyed a bikeability session. We then said a huge thank you to you all for continuing to support ‘THE BIG LENT WALK.’ So far, we have walked 1518km and raised £114. However, we really believe that we can surpass this. Please let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and please send photos if you can. This is a great way of giving back during Lent and supporting our mental health and well-being. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Archie, Vienna and Molly in EYFS and KS1 and Isaac, Darcy, Talia and Jake in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating great resilience, respect and kindness. Furthermore, we congratulated Carmen 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 99.2% and 99.3% attendance, Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 278 points and our Year 5/6 Cross Country Team for demonstrating great resilience, determination and respect in the Darwen Primary Schools League Cross Country Event at Witton Park last night. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Thea for swimming 10m, Eleanor for achieving a Rainbows agility badge, Maggie for being a fantastic Rainbow and working hard toward her gold badge, Lyla for demonstrating great skill in her acro, Harry for being the ‘Trainer of the week’ for fantastic tackling at football, Naomi, Martha and Scarlett for making their Brownie promise at the weekend, Marley for achieving her Stage 3 and 10m swimming certificates, Isaac for achieving ‘Player of the Day’ for scoring the winning goal in a recent football game and being the ‘Player of the Week’ at Soccer HQ, Sofia for being awarded her birthday badge at Rainbows, Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ for her super dribbling at football, Summer for receiving a 1st in a recent gymnastics competition as part of a duo, Daisy for demonstrating great skill in a recent gymnastics competition, Tristen for being awarded his green belt in kickboxing, Carmen and Renee for being awarded their white belt in kickboxing and Lydia for being the ‘Star of the Week’ at EdStart gymnastics club. To end our worship, Mrs Ham invited us all to join a special Mothering Sunday Worship at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am. Then, we all had a singalong to ‘Give Me Oil in My Lamp.’ We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Reception Maths - Butterfly doubles
This week we have been looking at when two equal parts come together to make a whole - this is called a double. We looked at two dice and decided if they showed a double pattern or not. We then used butterfly templates to create our own doubles, making sure each wing had an equal amount of objects or patterns on them.
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today, Rev. Matt led worship and shared the second half of the Easter story, focusing on the events following Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. The children listened intently as he spoke about the resurrection, emphasising the joy and hope it brings to Christians around the world. Through engaging storytelling, Rev. Matt encouraged the children to reflect on the meaning of Easter and how it represents new beginnings, faith and God’s everlasting love. He posed thought-provoking questions, prompting the children to consider how the message of forgiveness, kindness and renewal can be applied in their own lives. The session ended with a moment of quiet reflection and a prayer, allowing the children to appreciate the significance of Easter and its impact on their faith and actions.
FOSB Mother’s Day Coffee Morning
A huge thank you for your generous cake donations yesterday and to all of the wonderful ladies in our school family that came to our FOSB Mother’s Day Coffee Morning. We were overwhelmed with the turn out and thank you for your patience. We hope you all enjoyed having a few minutes to relax and have a brew and a cake with your loved ones. Thank you so much for your generous donations and for purchasing raffle tickets. We have raised an amazing £375 to go towards upgrading our trim trail surfaces and purchasing new chrome books. Thank you for bringing to our attention the issue with some of the wrong tickets being sold by our Year 6 helpers in the raffle. We worked out the missing ticket numbers and made tickets with those numbers and added them to our tombola drum to make it fair. The winning tickets drawn out were( also see photos) : *Peach number 30- £40 ocean palace voucher * Pink ticket 982- Dolly’s Tea Room afternoon tea for 2 voucher *Blue ticket 954- £20 Mangiamo Voucher * Blue ticket 669- £20 Freya’s Grill Voucher *Peach ticket 271- Bottle of Asti & Lemon Drizzle Cake * Pink ticket 979- Bottle of Pinot Grigio & Red Velvet Cake * Peach ticket 302 - Red wine & Red velvet * Peach ticket 6- Rose wine, photo frame & blueberry cake If you have won a prize, please bring your ticket to the office to claim your prize by the end of the week. A huge thank you to our FOSB members and staff involved in planning and supporting the event as we couldn’t have done it without you. A special mention to our Year 6 helpers too who did a brilliant job. Thank you so much to Katie and Steph from FOSB who also stayed after the event to clear out the FOSB cupboards. You have done a fantastic job! There are still plenty of cakes left so children can buy one after school today to give to the special lady in their life. They will be priced at 50p a cake or 3 for £1.00. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-mother-s-day-coffee-morning Thank you to everyone who made this morning a success and on behalf of our whole school family I wish all of our Mums, Grandmas and Aunties a wonderful and relaxing Mother’s Day and thank you for everything you do. You are all amazing!
Collective Worship - The Garden of Gethsemane
Our collective worship began with the Year 6 class presenting their learning about Shakespeare. Thank you for sharing, Year 6! Mrs Ham then led our worship about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus spent time praying for strength from God to help Him through the events that were to follow. We spent time reflecting on all of our Lenten events so far: Lent walks, Lenten promises and our 40 acts of kindness. Finally, we took part in this week’s special Year of Prayer by all sharing what was on our minds with Jesus, considering what we are thankful for, by writing these on a leaf. Mrs Ham created a prayer tree in our entrance area with over 200 lovely prayers on leaves from all of our children and staff.
Reception, Year 1 and 2-Story Club
Today, Miss Flynn and the librarians held a story and craft club at lunchtime. The children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 listened to the story of ‘The Highway Rat’ and decorated their own mask. Many children took on the role of the highway rat and told us what they would steal. We had ice-cream, cookies, pizza, sweets, cake and chocolate being stolen.
Reception: Muddy Monday
Today our Reception children explored a different area of Whitehall Park. The children created bug houses and dens together. They also found some sticks and pretended to create fires and also used them as drum sticks. Some of the children tried to climb trees and it was lovely to see how brave they were all being whilst developing their fundamental skills. In addition, the children collectively walked 75km to contribute to our Lent Challenge. Well done!
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.
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.
Reception Firefighter visit
Today the Fire Service visited our Reception classroom to talk about how they help to keep us and the community safe. Lee reminded us that we must check our smoke alarms as they are the best way to keep us safe at home. He also told us about the different ways they help in emergencies, from putting out fires to rescuing trapped animals. He showed us their special uniform and the tools they need to perform their jobs. We then had a look at the fire engine and even experienced a quick shower from the very powerful fire hose. A big thank you to Darwen Fire Service for a brilliant morning.
Reception-Year of Prayer- The Floor is Lava
This week for the year of prayer, Reception class used large love heart shapes and scattered them around the room. We played the game ‘the floor is lava’ and the rule was to only touch the love hearts. The children had fun hopping, stepping, jumping and crawling across the love hearts. This was to thank God for his love for us.
A Special Visit From Local Author, Janek Puzon
This morning, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 enjoyed a visit from local author, Janek Puzon. Janek engaged the children in a storytelling session by reading them his latest book, Agent Glen. The book was all about Agent Glen who was hired to detect a mysterious burglar who kept stealing riches from an art gallery. However, Agent Glen was a little hard of hearing and he ended up in some rather hilarious situations whilst completing his mission. The children particularly enjoyed the part where his hand got stuck to the toilet. Thank you to Janek Puzon for visiting our school and sharing his wonderful book with our infant children. We can’t wait to add Janek’s books to our school library collection.