Back with our friends
It is wonderful to be back with our friends! We have had a brilliant day so far and we had lots of fun playing with our friends at break time.
Whole School Worship: Jesus the Good Shepherd
We were all so happy to have everyone back for our first day of the school year. In our first worship we recapped and celebrated all of the amazing ways we live out our school vision and what Jesus meant when he said we should have life in all its fullness. We heard about His teaching of the sheep and the gate and learned that He wished for all of us to use Him as our gate to God; that we can have a good life if we follow His word. We then recapped our 4 B's school rules and our Christian Values. Our teachers will be looking for our children to demonstrate these in order to gain values points each day and get on our 'time to shine' board. We reflected on what we are looking forward to this year and how we will achieve great things and live life in all its fullness.
Whole School Awards Ceremony
This morning, we had a special award ceremony to celebrate a fantastic 2023-2024 academic year here at St Barnabas. First of all, we said a huge well done to Harvey and Miss Reynolds. We thank Mrs Reynolds for the amazing support that she has given to Harvey and the rest of our school family this year and we celebrate all of the wonderful things that Harvey has achieved. We wish him lots of luck at his new school. We then moved on to our Progress Award, Star of the Year and Children’s Champion winners in Years Reception-5. We congratulated Olly in Reception, Eli in Year One, Martha in Year 2, Alfie in Year 3, Elsie in Year 4 and Betsy in Year 5 with the Progress award, Elsie in Reception, James in Year 1, Naomi in Year 2, Alice in Year 3, Declan in Year 4 and Matthew in Year 5 as the Stars of the Year and Edward in Reception, Evie in Year 1, Alfie in Year 2, Daisy in Year 3, Annabelle in Year 4 and Harry in Year 5 as the Children’s Champion. Well done to all of these children for their incredible effort this year. Mrs Gardener and Mrs Ham also presented two of our Year 4 children with special awards. We said a massive congratulations to Annabelle who won our Protecting the Planet award. This is an award that Rev David left after retiring a couple of years ago. It goes to Annabelle for her fantastic commitment to preserving the planet. They also presented the Sharon Kay Cup for Kindness to Bella for her kind, caring, loving and empathetic nature. Mrs Ham, our current Heads and Deputies and Sports Leaders then presented Harry as our new Head Boy, Hamza as our new Deputy Head Boy, Daisy as our new Head Girl and Rosie as our new Deputy Head Girl for next academic year and Matthew, Freddie, Austin, Ezmae, Brooke and Poppy as our new Sports Leaders for next academic year. Well done to all of these children for their very successful applications-we are sure that you’ll all do a fantastic job in your new roles! Mrs Ham then presented all the children in school who have achieved 96% attendance across this academic year- a huge well done to these children for their commitment to learning. Finally, the Rotakids then presented Darcy and James as the sweet jar winners. Thank you to all of our children who guessed the number of the sweets in the jars to raise money for East Lancs Hospice and well done to Darcy and James for guessing correctly. We are so proud of our whole school family for their hard work and dedication, they really have achieved great things and lived life in all its fullness.
Whitehall Park Disco
Whitehall Park team enjoyed a disco in the school hall at break time today. They received the most house points this term. The children enjoyed some sweets, danced and also played musical bumps.
Rev Ben’s Worship: Talents
Today, Rev Ben set a task for our volunteers: to carry a balloon from one side of the hall to the other without using their hands. He shared the story of Paul and the shipwreck and talked about the Christian belief that it is their task to share the good news of God and His Son, Jesus. We also considered the talents God gave us and how these talents can be used to serve God and others.
Year 1 Panda Paramedic First Aid Bronze Award
This morning, we welcomed Dawn the paramedic into our Year 1 classroom to complete our Basic First Aid Bronze Award. First of all, Dawn asked us how we treat a burn. We knew that we needed to run it under cool water but our guesses for how long this should be done for were way out. Eventually, we came to the right answer which is 20 minutes. Dawn them showed us how we give first aid to someone with a graze. We all practised applying a plaster without touching the part of the plaster that will touch the graze. Then we learnt how to treat an open wound and got the opportunity to practise bandaging a wound for our friend. Finally, Dawn told us about anaphylaxis. We learnt that anaphylaxis is an extreme allergic reaction where there are symptoms such as extreme swelling. In this case, we found out that we need to use an EpiPen to treat someone. We practised using an EpiPen by reciting the rhyme ‘Blue to the sky and orange to the thigh’. Dawn explained that we do this for 10 seconds and that the thigh is a big muscle which is why we do it there. Dawn also said that we need to call 999 because anaphylaxis is an emergency. When you dial 999, Dawn said that the first thing you will be asked is what service you require and for a medical emergency you will ask for the ambulance. Then , Dawn said that the ambulance will ask for your home address so it’s really important that we all know this. Dawn gave us some scenarios and we had to day whether we would phone an ambulance. We said yes for someone who has collapsed and was not responding, complaining of a pain in their heart and looking pale and having an asthma attack and struggling to breathe/talk in full sentences. Dawn also explained the dangers of dialling 999 for a joke. Thank you Dawn. Year 1 learnt lots about basic first aid.
Summer Reading Challenge 2024
This morning, Angela came in to invite us all to join in with ‘The Summer Reading Challenge 2024- Marvellous Makers’. This is a national reading activity, which aims to encourage a love of reading in children and develop their literacy skills throughout the summer. To get started, drop in to either Darwen or Blackburn Library. Angela told us that once you’re enrolled, each member needs to read 6 library books (or eBooks/eAudio), with stickers or a prize being awarded for each book that is read and returned. Prizes will include origami paper and pencil crayons. Those who complete the scheme (all 6 books), will receive a medal and a certificate that they can bring into school in September and have presented in Friday celebration worship. Angela asked us why it would be amazing if we all completed the Summer Reading Challenge. Our children said that reading can help us to learn new words, increase our imagination, get us excited so our hearts will beat fast and help us to challenge our brains. We look forward to hopefully presenting lots of ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ certificates and medals in September. Extra Information To enrol, simply go to your nearest Blackburn with Darwen library and complete an application form between 1st July & 30th September. Enrolment in the scheme is free of charge, and involves children borrowing books on a library card. If your child does not yet have a library card, we would encourage you to take this opportunity to enrol them as a library member. This is a quick process, and you will simply be asked to complete and sign another form. However, those children without library cards may still join the Summer Reading Challenge, and temporary arrangements will be put in place to allow them to borrow books.
Year 1 Enjoy Their Last Euro’s Training Session
This afternoon, Year 1 had their last Euro’s training session with coaches Ste and Lily Walker. For the last four weeks, they have been practising skills such as stopping the ball, walking and running with the ball, passing, tackling and shooting and today they got the opportunity to play a 5 a side football match. Coach Ste also gave them all a ‘CONFIDENCE’ tennis ball. The idea of the ball is to promote positivity, build the children’s confidence and support them in developing a growth mindset by catching their own confidence throwing the tennis ball up and down and catching it, throwing it against a wall and catching it and throwing the ball around with friends. It is also for using whilst saying positive affirmations to yourself. Thank you Ste and Lily for 5 wonderful weeks of coaching.
Year 1 Maths- Telling the time to the hour
This morning in Year 1, we have been learning to tell the time to the hour. We made various o’clock times e.g. 6 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 11 o’clock and then we made various o’clock times using clues such as the time that we go to bed, wake up in the morning and have our dinner.
Year 1 English
This week, Year 1 have explored riddles. They have practised writing their own clues using adjectives, verbs, adverbs, similes and conjunctions. They are now really excited to write their own riddle containing all of the grammatical features that they have been practising. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 RE- Joseph
In RE, Year 1 have been learning about the story of Joseph. They have learnt about Joseph being a dreamer, a prisoner and eventually a ruler. In their most recent lesson, Year 1 discussed what they had learnt from this story and a couple of the things that the children said that they had learnt was that God is always with you and will support you in achieving your dreams and it is worth being resilient and overcoming challenges to achieve something that you really want. It tied in really nicely with the whole school worship that we had on Tuesday morning about growth mindset. To end the lesson, the children thought about their own dreams and shared these with their friends.
Rev Matt’s Worship - Seeking Truth
Rev Matt shared with us the fantastic news of his recent ordination. Some of the children even helped with a little re-enactment. He explained that his duty as a Christian is to live a life of truth. We listened to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; three men of faith who were punished for refusing to turn their backs on God in order to worship an image of the king. Rev Matt spoke about how it isn’t always easy for us to stand by our beliefs and we discussed times when this might be particularly difficult.