Reception: Bonfire and Firework Safety
This week the children in Reception have been learning all about Bonfire night. They learnt how Guy Fawkes planned to kill the king using gunpowder. His plan failed and we now celebrate Bonfire night to remember. The children have learnt how to keep safe around bonfires and fireworks. We then created bonfires using playdough and fireworks using pens, pegboards, sand and paint.
Reception: Muddy Monday
Today for Reception’s Muddy Monday session, the children walked to Jacks Key. To celebrate bonfire night, the children collected twigs, sticks and leaves to create their own bonfires. The children had to work together as a team and did a brilliant job.
Reception: Developing our Gross Motor Skills
Today our Reception children challenged themselves to climb trees. They used their muscles in their tummies, arms and legs to help them to safely climb the trees. Some of the children swang on the branches and balanced too. Well done for being so brave!
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on the wonderful week that we have had in school. We lit a special candle for All Souls Day on Sunday to remember all those who have sadly passed away and reflected on the positive behaviour that we’re seeing around school such as holding open the doors for each other and using our wonderful manners. We also thought about all the amazing experiences that we have had in school such as Reception showcasing their Diwali learning to the whole school, Year 1 and Year 3 visiting Nightingale Farm, Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 fully embracing their dance sessions led by Rothwell Arts and the WOW group for giving the harvest donations to DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee). Firstly, we congratulated the amazing children who took part in the 6 week Cre8ability programme which has allowed them to explore many of their creative talents such as painting, sculpting and being musicians and learning about their superpower emotional intelligence. We then presented Jasper, Vienna and Maggie in EYFS and KS1 and Ella-Grace, James, Quinn and Matthew in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working extremely hard across the curriculum, showing a positive attitude to learning and using exceptional manners. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Eleanor who has recently made her Rainbows promise, Ava for achieving her Stage 1 swimming certificate, Fletcher for being awarded with his 25m swimming certificate, Lyla and Darcy for achieving a medal for their incredible gymnastic talent, Lydia and Naomi for receiving a letter from the head of royal correspondence thanking them for their very thoughtful letter to Princess Charlotte, Grace for being an amazing dancer, brownie and physicist, Olivia for being an incredible captain and leading her, Eliza for being an outstanding footballer and Sofia for achieving her intermediate award in gymnastics. We also congratulated our Year 4/5/6 girls football team who attended the DPSSA football league presentation evening last night and coming in 3rd overall, Year 2 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners, India Mill for winning the Inter-house sports competition before the holidays and River Darwen as the value award winners this week. We also congratulated River Darwen as being the half-termly award winners for last half-term. They will be awarded with a non-uniform day and disco next week. Our heads and deputies also announced that they will be selling the Remembrance Day merchandise every break time next week to raise money for The Royal British Legion. To end our worship, we sang ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ in celebration of All Saints Day. We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Reception - Comparing who has more?
This week in Maths, Reception have been looking at comparing amounts. We have been thinking about the word ‘more’ when comparing quantities and what this means. The children have been using their subitising and counting skills to help them decide who has more in a range of games within provision. They have done brilliantly with this!
Reception: Painting Skills
Our Reception children have been really working hard on painting like an artist. The children have carefully selected colours and the right amount of paint to create some Rangoli patterns for Diwali. Well done!
Worship with Rev. Matt
During this week’s worship, Rev. Matt engaged the children with a game of ‘Real or Fake,’ encouraging them to think carefully about what they see and question whether images are genuine or not. This led into the story of Elijah, who courageously stood against people worshiping a statue made of sticks and stones, teaching the children about the importance of true faith over false idols. To close, Rev. Matt invited the children to reflect on what they would like God’s help with, creating a moment of thoughtful prayer and connection.
Reception - Diwali
During today’s worship, Reception Class led a special service to celebrate Diwali. The children proudly showcased their beautiful artwork, including vibrant rangoli patterns filling the space with vibrant colours. They sang joyful songs and shared the story of Diwali with the whole school. It was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to learn about and appreciate this important Hindu celebration!
Reception: Dough Disco
Our Reception children have been developing their fine motor skills today. Their hands have been getting stronger by completing a dough disco activity. This really helps them to get ready to hold a pencil and form letters accurately.
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Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide
In our first collective worship of the week, Mrs Ham looked at Allhallowtide through our three spirituality lenses. Lens 1 - Windows: we looked out into the world at a photograph from Bangladesh depicting Christians gathered around graves with lit candles on them and discussed our observations and ideas about what the people were doing and how they might have felt. We had some fabulous ideas such as it must be a place of worship as they could see a cross and candles like we have in our worship, that they might be praying and that they were remembering. Lens 2 - Mirrors: we learned about All Souls’ Day and reflected on how we might remember our loved ones. The children had some lovely ideas about lighting candles and going to a special place. Lens 3 - Doors: we learned about All Saints’ Day and thought carefully about how we could be like saints. The WOW group introduced our behaviour focus for this half term , which is using good manners around school, and the children immediately put these into action by saying please and thank you, holding doors for each other, and letting people past. What a fantastic start to the new half term!
Harvest Heptathlon
Today, each class took part in our Harvest Heptathlon obstacle course challenge for the Bishop’s Harvest appeal. The course consisted of running, hurdles, travelling through a hoop, hopping, skipping, speed bounce and star jumps. A huge well done to every child that took part. They gave it their best effort. And an extra big thank you to all of the Year 6 helpers for helping to set up, replace equipment, demonstrate the course and support and encourage the younger children to complete the course. Let’s hope we can raise some much needed funds for developing classrooms and literacy in church schools in Multan, Pakistan.
Reception: Diwali
Reception have been learning all about Diwali this week. Diwali will be celebrated by Hindus on Thursday and we are looking forward to teaching the school about it on Thursday. The children learnt about Rama and Sita and how Diwali is the festival of light. They have made Rangoli patterns, cards, Mendhi, diva lamps and cards. The children have also learnt a special song all about Diwali.