Reception Nativity 2025
We want to express how incredibly proud we are of all the children in Reception class for their truly amazing performance in their Nativity play! The children showed such courage and confidence on the stage. We were so impressed with: Brave Speaking: Every child who had lines delivered them so clearly. Enthusiastic Singing and actions: Their little voices filled the hall, making the performance joyful and bright and we were so impressed with the amount of words they had to learn in the songs. It takes great bravery to stand up in front of a big audience, and they all shone! It was a very special occasion, and they brought the Christmas story to life beautifully. Thank you so much for your support in preparing them for the show and for your active participation in the show. A huge thank you to our Reception staff team for the time and effort they have put into the production, Mr Ashworth, our CEO of Cidari Multi Academy Trust for his support, Mr Bloomfield for filming and Rev Ben for leading us in prayer. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/reception-nativity-2025 The video links will be send shortly.
Reception PE - Climbing & Jumping
This week we have been continuing to develop our jumping skills, but also introduced climbing. We have been building our resilience and courage to take safe risks when climbing. This helps us to build our upper body strength so we can develop our stamina for writing.
Reception - Electricity and Safety
This week as part of our Understanding of the World, we have been looking at objects in the home that use electricity. We talked about the power of electricity and what jobs it helps us to do, but also the importance of how we can be safe around electricity, as it can be very dangerous if not used by a grown up or used carefully. The children enjoyed spotting electrical items around the classroom and the ways we use electricity to improve our learning. We also thought of ways we can save electricity by making sure electrical devices are turned off when they aren't being used.
Reception-PSHE- Teamwork
In our PSHE lesson we were learning all about teamwork, why teamwork is important and different ways we can work as a team. The children were set a challenge, in their colour teams they had to sort the sections of the tray into five different colours using the blocks. Each team were timed on how quickly they could work together to solve the problem.
Whole School Worship - The Importance of Trees
This week is National Tree Week and Mrs Ham introduced an exciting new tree-planting project that we will be undertaking as a school. Following on from Switch Off Fortnight, we will continue our Planet Protectors mission by planting trees on our school grounds and, of course, our fantastic children will be involved. To kick start the project, we had a discussion about why trees are amazing. The children gave some very thoughtful answers, such as “they give us oxygen”, “they take harmful carbon dioxide out of the air”, “they provide protection for animals”, “we love playing in the trees”, “we use trees to make things”. Mrs Ham also told us the story, The Man Who Planted Trees. It was about a shepherd who saw the barren land and wanted to improve it, so he started planting trees. He planted over 1000 acorns, and after many years, the landscape was filled with lush, green trees, rivers flowed and a town was built. We learned from this 100-year-old story that one person’s small act can make a huge difference. Just like in the Parable of the Talents, we learned that it’s important for us all to use what we’ve been given to make a positive impact on the world. We can’t wait to use the trees that have been donated to us by the National Trust to make a positive impact on our community.
Reception RE - Why the characters in the Nativity are important
During our RE session we played a game of ‘who’s in the bag’ The children picked out the characters from the Nativity Story and identified each character, they talked with their partner about why the characters were important to the story and what part they played within it.
Reception-PSHE- I am Caring
In PSHE we were discussing what does caring behaviour looks like? And what can we do to show that we are caring? The children learnt that their own caring actions can help make a difference to how others feel. The children spoke about when others had shown kindness to them and when they have shown kindness to others. As part of the activity the children made a circle and and soft toys were placed in the centre. The children were told the toys were feeling lonely and they were then asked what they could do to help. The children came up with some lovely ideas such as play with them, share with them, make them things, give them a cuddle if they want one or make them a card.
Reception class celebrate Interfaith Week
Reception class had a highly engaging week exploring Islam and the life of a Muslim. During their worship session with Miss Kachwalla, the class delved into the Five Pillars of Islam. Miss Kachwalla enhanced the learning by demonstrating her prayer mat and discussing the significance of pilgrimages. The children really enjoyed listening to Miss Kachwalla and enjoyed looking at her special clothes. Miss Kachwalla explained why certain foods were significant to Islam. They enjoyed tasting honey, wholemeal bread, melon, figs and olives and found out that Muslims eat these to keep healthy, help our bodies and to give us energy too. Thank you so much Miss Kachwalla, we have really enjoyed learning all about your religion!
Friday Celebration Worship: Children in Need
This morning in our celebration worship, we gathered as a whole school family to mark Children in Need, offering heartfelt thanks for the generosity shown in raising awareness and funds for such a worthy cause. This week, we have also celebrated the start of Anti-Bullying Week by wearing odd socks, a joyful reminder of the importance of uniqueness and individuality. Together, we reflected on how love, friendship, generosity and kindness can help us use our power for good and stand against bullying and nurture one another’s mental health. Throughout the week, our after-school clubs have brought great excitement and creativity, with children enjoying board games, football, forest school, Warhammer painting and a lively Let’s Go Sing workshop. Reception delighted in a terrific Trekking Tuesday, Year 3 welcomed Rev Ben and enjoyed a memorable visit to Nightingale Farm, and all classes began their new Design & Technology units as they prepare to create products for the Christmas Fair. Our worship continued with the presentation of awards. We celebrated our Value award winners Alfie, Beau and Haydn in EYFS and KS1, and Joshua, Luke and Mason across KS2, for demonstrating an excellent work ethic, thoughtful listening, teamwork, independence and our Christian values. We congratulated the whole of Year 3 for representing our school so beautifully during their farm visit, Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners with an impressive 233 points, and Year 2 and Year 3 as our attendance champions. We then celebrated our out of school star achievers. We celebrated Bo for earning both ‘Player of the Week’ in football and ‘Best in the Cast’ at Made for Stage, Haydn for his ‘Player of the Week’ award and an incredible 27 goals in just seven games, Ralphi for achieving his 5m swimming badge, Poppy for her wonderful dancing, Isabella for being ‘Star of the Day’ in acro, Hendrix and Maggie for completing Stage 1 gymnastics, Jack for his courage and skill as ‘Player of the Match’ with Blackburn Eagles, Marley for her dedication to Brownies, Grace for exceptional success across her dance competition, Freddie for swimming a fantastic 25 metres, Evie for achieving her laughter, communication, drawing and promise badges at Rainbows, Lydia and Naomi for demonstrating kindness, helpfulness and bravery at Rainbows and Brownies, and Ohana in Reception class for swimming an impressive 75 metres. We also celebrated our Year 5/6 football team for their two brilliant league wins last night in the DPSSA Football League and for representing our school proudly at the Blackburn Rovers Senior Ground on Wednesday as part of the KS2 BRFC Kids Cup. Mrs Ham and Mrs Govan then awarded certificates to Luna, Beau, Lyla, Skye, Olivia, Edward, Alana and Naomi for their success in the Spring Vale Ramblers Club Art Competition, with their artwork chosen for display in the Darwen Heritage Centre. Mrs Govan also introduced our Christmas ADVENTure Trail Art competition, inspired by the Nativity story and soon to be showcased in Whitehall Park, with a chocolate treat awaiting all who take part. We closed by thanking Renée, Callie and Harry for their beautiful prayers and offering our appreciation to everyone who joined us in worship, as well as to our whole school community for their continued support. We wish you all a peaceful and restful weekend as we look forward to the busy and joy-filled weeks leading up to Christmas.
Reception - Birthdays
This week for our topic, we have been learning about Birthday celebrations based on the book Kipper’s Birthday. We have been thinking about how we grow and change as each birthday passes and how we celebrate each year. We have been completing challenges in provision linked to our topic in preparation for an exciting toy party in class on Friday afternoon.
Reception- Stay and Play
We had a fantastic first stay and play session for our reception class. It was lovely to see so many parents, carers and grandparents come to play in our indoor and outdoor classroom. It was also lovely to see some children there who may be joining reception class in September.
Reception- R.E- Making a Harvest for the Birds
In our R.E sessions we have been learning all about harvest. Today we spoke about the wildlife and how hard it could be for birds, squirrels and other wildlife to find food in the winter. We decided it would be a good idea to create our own harvest for the wildlife by making bird feeders. We thought about ways we could thank God as we made them.