Image of Mrs Ham's Weekly message
19 Apr

Mrs Ham's Weekly message

Good afternoon parents and carers, it has been another wonderful week at St Barnabas! It was brilliant to hear in Celebration Worship about how each class has lived life in all its fullness and about all the great things that have been achieved this week both in and out of school. Please click here to read all about it: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news/2024-04-19-friday-celebration-worship Thank you to everyone for your support for autism awareness today by dressing in blue. A special thanks to Finn for being courageous by telling us all about his big brother Declan, who has autism and to our Harvey who loved showing us his special blue autism awareness t-shirt and how he loves to blow out our worship candles. This week we found out that 30 new children will be joining our school family in September and we can't wait to welcome them. Next Friday we are looking forward to our Hop, Skip and Jump in support of East Lancs Hospice. Donations can be made via parent pay. For all of this week's news, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Thank you for your wonderful support and in particular with our walk to school initiative, which saw lots of children being awarded with their first WOW badge this morning. I would like to wish you all a fabulous weekend and I hope the weather is kinder to us next week. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham

Image of Friday Celebration Worship
19 Apr

Friday Celebration Worship

Today,  we started our celebration worship by talking about why we are all wearing blue today which is for Autism Awareness Day at St Barnabas as part of Autism Awareness Month. Finn very bravely stood up in front of the whole school and told us a little bit about his brother Declan who has Autism. He told us that Declan doesn’t like walking in the rain as he doesn’t like the sensation and he told us that he doesn’t like very loud noises and will therefore sometimes wear his ear defenders. Despite this, Finn said that Declan leads an amazing life and it’s wonderful having a brother with Autism. Harvey, who has autism, also came to the front to show everyone his t-shirt which spread awareness for Autism and he loved blowing the worship candles out. We heard a little about how Harvey loves to sing rhymes and songs just like many of us. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with our wonderful worships led by both Mrs Ham and Rev Matt and all of our wonderful after school clubs including Little Voices, Mad Science Club, Forest schools and Cricket and Rounders Club. We then presented Hollie, Lydia, Frankie, Iris, Oliver, Olivia, Talia, Charlie, Betsy and Jake as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning, always showing kindness and respect to their teachers and friends and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, Jack and Sofia for receiving their pen licenses, Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners this week with an amazing 611 points, the children that completed the big plastic count for being super eco warriors, all of the children who have achieved their badge as part of the WOW initiative which involves walking to school or from school at least once a week and we said a special well done to Year 5 who have won the schools walk to school challenge by completing the most walks or park and strides so far. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Lenny for achieving his starfish swimming badge, Ella-Grace for achieving a trophy for coming first in her recent 3x3 football tournament, Sonny, Charlie, Leo and Desmond for winning the cup in their recent football tournament,  Iris for being a wonderful gymnast and swimming several lengths to raise awareness for diabetes, Sofia for achieving her level 4 in gymnastics, making her promise at Brownies, being part of Brownies for two years and achieving an award at musical theatre, Betsy for being awarded a medal for amazing ballet, Isaac for being awarded a merit in his swimming, Lyla for achieving her Stage 4 certificate at swimming, Eliza for achieving several rosettes in her horse riding, Alexis for making her Brownie promise and achieving 100m in her swimming, Alice and Grace for achieving their Brownie Promise badge, Annabelle for gaining her silver certificate for demonstrating several skills at swimming, Lydia and Ella for achieving their Level 1 at swimming, Leonora for achieving her 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke in her swimming, Harry and Eli for being awarded their 100m certificate at swimming, Archie for getting Man of the Match during his semi-final football match, Eden for attending Brownies for a year and achieving her Brownie Eid badge, Mila for achieving her badge for visiting the Fire Station at Rainbows, Marley for getting Olivia doll at Rainbows for being kind, Thomas for getting his 15m swimming certificate, Callie for achieving Stage 4 in her swimming and Cassidy for making her Brownie Promise and being awarded her badge. Wow, what a busy week of celebrations that we had! Rev Ben then led us in prayer and to end our celebration worship, we thanked all those who attended and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too. 

Image of Year 1- Measuring the Mass of Objects
19 Apr

Year 1- Measuring the Mass of Objects

Today in their maths lesson, Year 1 were estimating and measuring the mass of objects using a balancing scale and cubes. They learnt that they should stop adding/counting cubes when the scale has balanced as this means that they have calculated the mass. They did really well with this and their estimates got better as the activity progressed as they could reason better e.g. I think this object will be 30 cubes because it feels heavier than the scissors which were 16 cubes.

Image of WOW Badge and Class Winners for March 2024
19 Apr

WOW Badge and Class Winners for March 2024

A huge well done to all 120 of our WOW badge winners for March 2024. What a super effort everyone has made. We have all tried really hard to either walk or park and stride once a week in the month of March which was a little taster session as we did it over the 2 weeks! A big congratulations to Year 5 as they have the most badge winners. We look forward to seeing who has earned a badge for April in a couple of weeks.

Image of Forest school club
17 Apr

Forest school club

In forest school we have been discussing the birds coming back from migration and what we could do to help them. We decided to make bird feeders using pipe cleaners and cereal. We then went on a walk around school to decide which trees were the best to hang the bird feeders in.

Image of Year 1 PE- Kicking and Controlling a Ball
17 Apr

Year 1 PE- Kicking and Controlling a Ball

This week in PE, Year 1 have been focusing on controlling and kicking a ball. First of all, they practised kicking the ball with the inside of their foot and stopping it with the top of their foot to maintain control. They then practised kicking the ball in a straight line at a target and along a straight line to a partner. Well done Year 1.

Image of Year 1 Maths- Measuring with a Ruler
17 Apr

Year 1 Maths- Measuring with a Ruler

Today in Year 1, the children have been learning to measure objects accurately using a ruler. They learnt that in order to measure accurately,  they needed to make sure that the start of the object that they were measuring with was lined up with 0 and that they counted along until the number that their object ended at. They also learnt that they were measuring in centimetres. 

Image of Little Voices After School Club
17 Apr

Little Voices After School Club

What a super first session with Little Voices! Our little superstars played several games that helped to develop their confidence and they learnt and performed an amazing song! Well done everyone! There are still places available if you would like your child to take part for the next five weeks on Tuesday evenings. CONTACT HAYLIE: Email: [email protected] Mobile: 07717 711715

Image of Year 1 English- The prefix ‘un’
17 Apr

Year 1 English- The prefix ‘un’

In English, Year 1 explored the meaning of the prefix ‘un.’ They learnt that when ‘un’ is added to the front of a root word, it changes its meaning to mean the opposite (not). For example, unfair means not fair and unkind means not kind. The children got given either the root word or the root word with ‘un’ added to it and they had to find each other. Then they had to write some sentences using words with the prefix ‘un’ e.g. It is untrue that my name is Bobby. It is unfair to leave someone out of a game.

Image of Mad Science After School Club- Optical Illusion
16 Apr

Mad Science After School Club- Optical Illusion

The Science after-school club got off to an exciting start as the young scientists dove into optics, reflection, and sight! They had a blast learning about light and vision, even using mirrors to draw pictures and understand how things reflect.

Image of Rev Matt’s Worship: The Resurrection
16 Apr

Rev Matt’s Worship: The Resurrection

Rev Matt came in to lead our worship today and tell us about the biggest surprise in the Bible: the resurrection. Rev Matt began with a mystery box game in which children had to feel an object in a box and guess what it was. He talked about how, even though we may worry about what’s coming, the surprise can often be the best thing. This is how the women felt when they visited Jesus’s tomb after his death. They were worried when they noticed Jesus was missing and the ground began to shake, but were overjoyed when Jesus appeared and spoke to them.

Image of Collective Worship- Road to Emmaus
15 Apr

Collective Worship- Road to Emmaus

This morning in our Collective Worship, we watched the latest Worship Together video from Blackburn Diocese. Lisa asked us to think about a time that we have run to share some exciting news with our friends or family. Archie said when he received a darts contract, Ella-Grace said when she won in a football 3x3 competition, Seb said when he won a dance competition, Luca said when he got a 171 in darts, Scarlett said when it was her birthday, Lyla Grace said when she got a fish and Alfie said when his team scored a goal. We then heard about the story of Jesus appearing to some of his followers on the road to Emmaus and how they ran back to tell the disciples. We then delved deeper into the story by watching a cartoon of the story to help us visualise what it must have been like for Jesus' disciples when he appeared to them and then disappeared. Bishop Philip explained how the disciples were happy as they knew that Jesus would always be with them and He is with us all the time. Lisa led us in a running prayer today and we all joined in with lots of enthusiasm. To finish our Worship we sang 'Let me walk beside you', said Jesus one day, which helps to explain how Jesus is with us when we are walking, sitting, standing and resting and we had some wonderful volunteers to show the younger children the actions. We then reflected on how we have lived life in all its fullness this week and Annabelle shared that she volunteered to be pushed into the freezing cold water during the Year 4 residential, Charlie said he jumped into the water twice, Jenson said he was brave in the water which felt like -25 and Isaac shared that he took part in some filming which pushed him out of his comfort zone. I wonder how we will live life in all its fullness this week?