Reception: I am Special
This week in PSHE, we thought about how we are all special. Beau said we are all unique. We discussed how we are all not the same and that is ok. Jasper said we all look different. Cassius said we all like different things. We sang a song about being special and thought about things we like and dislike. Some of the children liked things that their friends did not. We discussed how this is ok as we are all special.
Reception: Muddy Monday
Today, our Reception children went for a walk into our local environment. We went on a mile walk to Jack Keys reservoir. The children enjoyed looking at the reservoir, the fallen leaves and loved listening to the birds singing. The children really concentrated on what they could see and hear, exploring spirituality. It was a rainy walk and the children persevered and enjoyed splashing in the puddles too.
Harvest Church Service 2024
Thank you to our Wow group, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 classes for leading our Harvest celebration at church today. I have uploaded some videos to class dojo and additional photos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/harvest-church-service-2024 It was wonderful to see so many of our families in attendance. A huge thank you to you all for coming to watch and thank you to all of our families for your continued support this half term. Thank you for all of your kind harvest donations, these can be continued to be sent in during the first week that we are back at school. Wishing you all a wonderful half term, Mrs Wilkinson
Reception: Junk Modelling
The children in Reception found a box in class. We discussed what we could do with it. The children said we could hide in it or decorate it. As a class, we decided to make a house. The children couldn’t believe that we could make a house from a recycled box! Together we painted the house and added materials to it. We then decided it was a house for the Funnybones Skeleton family.
Reception: World Faith learning
Today, the children found out a little bit about Islam. Mrs Wilkinson showed the children some Islamic prayer beads called Subhah. We started our learning by wondering what they could be. The children thought it could be a necklace to wear. We wondered what they could be used for. Will said we could give them as a present. We learnt that Muslims used Subhah to pray with. The children all got to hold a Subhah.
Reception: Black History Month Worship
Today we joined the Great Big Live Assembly all about Black History Month. The children found out that lots of people of colour do not feel safe in the place that they live.There are lots of black heroes such as Saka the footballer and Krish a television presenter who have gone on to be extremely successful regardless of the colour of their skin. We ended our worship with a prayer all about treating everybody equally no matter the colour of their skin. The belief that everybody deserves to feel safe and happy. It is important to make sure that everybody feels special and valued.
Reception: Funnybones
This morning, our Reception class read ‘Funnybones’. Each time we heard big, little and dog skeleton we put actions in so that we all paid attention and could retell the story after. We then completed some challenges in continuous provision linked to the story. Some of the children painted skeletons, some children had to problem solve to complete a skeleton using playdough, some counted bones and matched the amount to the numeral and some practised their fine motor skills too. It has been wonderful to see lots of busy children living life in all its fullness in Reception, well done!
Monday Worship: Harvest Appeal
This week is Recycle Week so we will be thinking about all of the rubbish we throw away and how it could be rescued and reused or recycled. Bobby-Ray said what one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure! Thank you for all of the donations of coats we have had so far for our Rota Kids Wrap Up Appeal. Mrs Ham showed us two bin bags that at first she thought was rubbish but they were filled with coats that can be donated to the homeless. Mrs Ham then introduced the Bishop’s Harvest appeal which our WOW group have chosen to support this year at Harvest along with DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). We started by exploring our spirituality window and looked at a photo of the classrooms of a church school in Multan in Pakistan. We stopped and reflected on what is great about our classrooms. Lottie loves the amount of paper, Ella-Grace said our teachers, Callie said our books, Eleanor said our friends, Jacob said the opportunities to learn, Olivia said the view of Darwen Tower and Will said everything. There are some boys and girls in Multan in Pakistan that are unable to go to school and some who do but don't have many resources in their classroom. We took some time to look at a picture and reflect on what we could see. The classrooms in Multan do not have any chairs, tables, pictures, windows or toys. The children reflected and felt empathy for the Christian children in Multan who did not have the same experience and resources as we all do at St Barnabas. We then started to think about what we could do to make a difference to their lives. The Bishop’s Harvest Appeal has helped the children to receive books, solar panels and hand washing facilities in the past. Rosie said we could do a sponsored run and James said we could collect books. Bishop Philip has asked us all do to a Harvest Heptathlon . We need to think of seven things we could do to help the children in our area and also the boys and girls in Multan. Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking about how we can help and make a difference. We ended our worship by singing ‘I can make a difference’.
Reception: Surprise Frog Visit
Reception had a very exciting afternoon. Some of the children found a frog in our outdoor area. We put the frog in some water and let it out safely in its natural habitat.
Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by thanking everyone for dressing in yellow yesterday for World Mental Health Day. What a fabulous day we had! This week, we have also been thinking about courageous advocacy. Well done to our Rotakids who are being courageous advocates by collecting coats to keep people warm this winter and our WOW group for collecting harvest donations for DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise). We then presented Ralphy, Skye and Ella in EYFS and KS1 and Lyla, Harriet, Ruby and Noah in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, being safe, being kind and being respectful) and our school Christian values. We also congratulated our Year 5/6 football team who worked exceptionally well as a team in the Kids Cup Heat on Monday during all of the group stages and will now be competing in the final in the 23rd November, our Year 4/5/6 girls football team who played amazingly well in the DPSSA football league last night, Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners for the second week running and River Darwen as the value award winners again this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Lyla and Carmen for achieving their Stage 5 in swimming, Tristen for achieving his green and white belt in kickboxing and completing the BwD Summer Reading challenge, Maggie for being a superstar rainbow and being awarded Olivia this week and Isabella for being a fantastic swimmer. Finally, we had some beautiful prayers from James, Iris and Elijah to pray for those who have been affected by the hurricane in Florida and to give thank you this Harvest time and then we sang ‘Sing a Song of Harvest.’ 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.
.png)
St Barnabas do Hello Yellow Day 2024
Today in school, we celebrated Hello Yellow Day 2024. Hello Yellow Day is a day when we can show our support for young people and let them know they're not alone with their mental health. Thousands of children came together to make World Mental Health Day that little bit brighter by wearing something yellow and donating to YoungMinds. Right now, the world is a really tough place for children and young people to grow up in. We want young people to know that they don’t have to go through this alone. Things can get better. Because we stand brighter, together. At St Barnabas, we celebrated through our whole school worship led by Mrs Ham and her minion friends, Harry, Hamza, Daisy and Rosie. Each class then used their PSHE session to explore Hello Yellow Day further and it was clear to see that every class made a super effort with their outfits too. What a super day being loud and proud in yellow. #HelloYellow
Reception - Hello Yellow Day
Today we have enjoyed taking part in activities to support Hello Yellow Day. We have been doodling what makes us happy and have been talking about the different feelings we all have. We know that there are lots of grown ups around us who can help us with big feelings but we must always ask when we need help.