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Whole School Worship & Farewell to Mrs Norton
It is with great sadness that we are saying goodbye to our school cook of 19 years, Mrs Norton, this week. In our whole school worship we celebrated all Mrs Norton has done for us by inviting some of our children to share memories and messages of thanks. Each class made Mrs Norton a special card and Mrs Ham presented her with some gifts from our school family. We wish her well as she embarks on a new chapter. Mrs Ham also shared an update about our Harvest collections for Dare and we practised our songs for the Harvest service.
Year 1 Selecting and using apparatus
In our PE lesson today, Year 1 combined a variety of fundamental skills and performed these to move between various pieces of equipment and apparatus. The children listened and followed instructions carefully in order to keep themselves safe. It was clear to see that they have come on so much over the past few weeks and it was a joy to see!
Year 1 Art: mixed media landscapes
Today Year 1 finished their final mixed media landscape. We were so impressed with the use of materials on the landscapes which showed a lot of thought and understanding. They made sure to use appropriate colours (warm or cold colours) depending on the landscape they created. Year 1 were excited to show the landscapes to one another and they were very proud of themselves.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we began our worship by reflecting on what has been a busy but thoroughly enjoyable week. Mrs Ham started by thanking everyone for their wonderful efforts in raising awareness for mental health during last Friday’s Hello Yellow Day. She also expressed her appreciation to all the children who attended the Harvest Church Service at St Barnabas Church on Sunday, accompanied by Mrs Araujo, Mrs Wilkinson, and Mrs Govan. The children sang beautifully and truly gave it their all. We also recognised the many children supporting Rotakids by donating winter coats and shoeboxes filled with essentials for DARE (Darwen Asylum Refuge). Mrs Ham reminded us that we can continue to support important causes by taking part in Bishop Phillip’s Pedalathon, raising funds for Christians in South Africa by getting out on our bikes and putting in some miles. We are also still collecting Harvest donations for the local food bank and DARE. We took time to congratulate our individual Value Award winners this week: Poppy, Olivia and Skye in EYFS and KS1, and Renee, Lyla, Walter and Ruby in KS2, for consistently following Barny’s 4Bs, working incredibly hard across the curriculum, and showing great growth and maturity during their first half-term in their new classes. Our congratulations also went to our Year 2 and Year 3 classes for being this week’s attendance winners. A big well done to India Mill, who were our weekly Value Award winners with an impressive 236 points, and also our overall Value Award winners for the half-term. As a reward, they will enjoy a non-uniform day and disco — with the date to be announced shortly. We were delighted to recognise a number of pupils for their achievements outside of school this week. Well done to Jonas for settling in so well after recently joining Squirrels, and to Phoebe for earning a badge at Rainbows and always bringing positivity and laughter. Callie has been an excellent role model at martial arts, while Elijah was awarded Beaver of the Week for his enthusiasm and willingness to get involved. James impressed with his fantastic fielding in cricket, Lyla performed beautifully in her lyrical dancing, and Sofia was named Star of the Week at acro while also earning several badges at Brownies. Charlie achieved 25 metres in all swimming strokes, Olivia received her Silver Award at Rainbows, Willow showed amazing gymnastics skills, Lydia earned her Gold Award at Rainbows, and Eleanor achieved her Amazing Helper badge. We also congratulated our Year 4 pupils for representing the school so well at the Cidari Earth Conference at Blackburn Cathedral yesterday, and praised our girls' football team for their continued efforts in the DPSSA league. Finally, a reminder that next week is a four-day week due to an INSET day on Friday. We also have our Halloween Spooky Disco on Wednesday evening, organised by FOSB, and our Harvest Church Service taking place on Thursday morning. Please check Class Dojo for more details. Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!
Year 1 RE: God as a Creator
This afternoon, we started our new topic about Creation. The children had 5 minutes to create anything they could choose, either drawing something or building something. They then thought about how they felt when they are creative, whether they found easy or tricky and if they had an idea straight away or if their idea changed whilst they were making something. Then we learnt about the Creation story in the Bible. It took God 7 days to make our earth and all of the living things. We then sequenced the story to solidify our understanding.
Year 1 Fundamental Movement Skills
In today’s PE session, we continued to work on fundamental skills which can be viewed in stages. The children worked on bouncing and dodging through a variety of activities. With dodging we highlighted key teaching points which included bending of the knee to anticipate dodging, changing direction with verbal command and mirroring. In bouncing we discussed ineffective slapping of the ball and keeping control in a stationary position. It was super to see how the children developed their skills and became more and more confident.
Year 1 Art: Mixed Media Landscapes
This afternoon we have started to create our final piece of our hot or cold landscapes. The children used their previous plan to draw their landscape picture. They then used lots of materials such as sand, beads, plastic, cotton wool and tin foil to create their mixed media landscapes. They put lots of thought of what colour materials they were using to ensure that they were only using warm colours for their hot landscape or cool colours for their cold landscape. We cannot wait to see what they look like when they are finished. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Science: Characteristics of animals
In Science, we have learnt lots of information about animals over the past 6 weeks. We have learnt all the animal groups: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. Additionally, we have learnt how to group them based on their diets: carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Today the children had to draw an animal of their choice into their books and had to write 3 characteristics to describe the animal as well as the animal group it belongs too. For example, a giraffe is a mammal, it is yellow, spotty and has four legs. The children then tried to guess each other’s animal based on the clues, which was a lot of fun!
Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.
Year 1 English: Fact hunt
In our English lesson today, we were looking for facts about Emperor Penguins which will help us to write our non-chronological reports over the next two weeks. The children had to find a fact around the room, remember it and come and write it in the correct box in their English books. They all tried really hard and showed our 4B’s whilst moving around the room: be ready, be safe, be kind, be respectful.
Year 1 Hello Yellow Day
We loved celebrating Hello Yellow Day in Year 1. We discussed that Hello Yellow Day is raising awareness for mental health and the children shared times when they might have felt sad, lonely or scared. We read ‘I am Enough’ by Grace Byers to promote positive mental health and enjoyed lots of fun Hello Yellow activities in our areas like colouring, dot to dot and word searches.
Year 1 RE: building a Sukkah
Today we looked at the Jewish festival Sukkot which lasts for 7 days. Jewish people celebrate Sukkot to thank God for helping the Israelites escape from Egypt with Moses. God gave Moses the power to part the Red Sea so that they could escape. During the festival, Jewish people build a Sukah which they live in for 7 days as a way to reflect and thank God for all that He provides, including food. This links with our own Christian festival Harvest as we say thanks for the food God gives to us. We then built our own Sukkah using chairs, ribbon, sticks and leaves. Year 1 even created a paper chain to decorate their Sukkah. It was lovely to see the children all working together and sharing ideas.