Mad Science After -School Club- Missions Nutritious
Today, in our after-school club led by a scientist, the young children investigated the energy content of food by burning a stale crisp and using the released energy to heat water. We discovered that one crisp equals 6 calories. This was super exciting to watch. The young scientists also measured their energy expenditure by jogging on the spot. For our final experiment, the children filled a bottle halfway with water and then poured in about 100ml of oil. They then observed the oil float on the water. They were fascinated by this observation. We also estimated the length of a child's intestine during the session, adding to our exploration of the human body. They're eagerly looking forward to next week's experiment with slime.
Whole-School Worship: Understanding Lent
In worship today, Mrs Ham explained that Lent is a time in the Christian calendar in which we observe Jesus’ time in the wilderness and prepare for Easter. We discussed what we could do to observe Lent. Some of the children’s suggestions included giving up sweets, chocolate, crisps, time on devices, or giving back by helping at home or making an extra effort to show kindness to others. We also learned more about THE BIG LENT WALK and how each member of our school family can contribute by walking a few kilometres over the Lenten period and raising money that will go towards ending global hunger. More information is available on Class Dojo.
The Big Lent Walk
During Lent, our school are currently fundraising for CAFOD. We are taking part in the big Lent walk where we are collectively trying to walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
Dress to Express 2024
What a fantastic day we’ve had celebrating Dress to Express! It was lovely to get together as a whole school to raise awareness for Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. Every single member of our school family certainly dressed to express themselves and made themselves heard as we all have a voice. Well done to all of the children that spoke about why they had chosen their outfits and how it allowed them to express themselves.
Celebration Worship- Dress to Express Day
Today, we had a very special worship to celebrate Children's Mental Health Week. We all ‘Dressed to Express’ and danced our way into the hall. We discussed the theme for this year which is ‘Our Voice Matters’ and we watched a video that told us all about the rights and responsibilities that we have such as being free to choose to think what we like and have our own opinions and ideas. Mrs Ham then showed us some pictures of people that have been influential in the past for standing up for their belief. Ross and Wilson named Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parkes, Sonny named Ayanna all of whom worked to end black segregation. Darcy named Marcus Rashford who has been influential in helping to stop racism within football and Charlie added that he has also been helping to support children who are entitled to free school meals. We then heard from some children from each year group about how they’ve chosen to express themselves. Hamza expressed his love of football and fashion, Archie his love of darts, Isaac his love of BMX, Charlie-Rose her love of all things sports, Betsy her love of dancing, Mason his love of smart clothes and attending special occasions such as weddings, Archie his love of football, Grace and Lola their love of gymnastics, Sonny represented all those in the world who live with diabetes, Daisy her love of art and bright colours, Renee’s love of PJ Masks, Olivia’s love of the colour pink and Jewellery, Alfie’s love of playing and watching football, Ella-Grace’s love of dancing and sparkles, Isabella’s loves of wearing pyjamas because you can snuggle and be cosy in them, Naomi’s love of all things pink, Charlie’s love of football, Annabel’s love of Ariel, Joey’s love of Spider-Man and Elijah’s love of superheroes. Mrs Ham then asked some of our members of staff how they had chosen to express themselves. Mr Prescott and Mrs Norris chose to bring their golf clubs to express themselves as golfers, Miss Kachwalla and Mrs Lyons expressed themselves by wearing bright and bold colours to express themselves as creative and Mrs Hegarty wore an apron to express herself as a baker. What a wonderful way to end ‘Mental Health Week.’ We wish you all a restful and enjoyable half-term and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 19th February.
Year One- Listening and Following Instructions
To kickstart their new English unit on instructions, Year One had to listen to a series of instructions and carry them out. They thoroughly enjoyed this and were absolutely incredible at it. They did this in the context of creating and then completing an obstacle course. E.g. Firstly, crawl under the hurdle. Secondly, run between the cones. Next, put the hula hoop over your head. After that, side gallop to the quoit. Then, throw the quoit in the air and catch it. Finally, drop the quoit and run back to your team. Year One spotted that instructions need both a time conjunction and a verb. They will also learn about using adverbs as part of their instructional writing and retelling too. What a fantastic start to our unit and even better that it was during mental health week as we know how important exercise is to keep us happy and healthy.
Year 1- Dress to Express
Year 1 made a wonderful effort for ‘Dress to Express Day.’ We had children dressing as their favourite Disney character or princess, dressing as superheroes, dressing in party clothes as they love to party and attend celebrations , dressing as a unicorn, wearing their favourite colours, wearing all things sparkly, wearing football kits and sport clothes to express their love of sports and wearing pyjamas to express their love of relaxing and being snuggled up. Well done Year 1. We loved hearing how you like to express yourselves.
Safer Internet Raps
*PROUD POST* A huge well done to Years 1-4 for their fantastic safer internet raps this morning & to Year 5 for introducing our safer internet worship. Please have a watch of the videos on class dojo. After the Safer Internet Day worship on Tuesday, Mrs Wilkinson set them the challenge of performing a rap to the whole school to advise them how to keep safe online. This week is also Children’s Mental Health week and the theme is My Voice Matters so this was a great opportunity for the children to use their voice. Some of the children were nervous about performing in front of the whole school but they showed lots of courage and did brilliantly. Over the next few years we are going to be involved in an oracy project with our Trust called Voice 21. This will develop our children’s oracy skills and develop their confidence when speaking in small groups and large groups. Well done, you are superstars!
St Barnabas Big Lent Walk
Good morning, Next Wednesday 14th February, is the start of Lent. During Lent, our school will be fundraising for CAFOD. We will be taking part in the big Lent walk where we will collectively try and walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 1 Art- Hundertwasser
Year 1 have been working extremely hard this week to produce a piece of artwork in the style of Hundertwasser. To produce this piece of artwork, they had to use and apply the skills that they’ve been learning in art over the last few weeks such as exploring with various lines (curved, wavy, horizontal, vertical, diagonal and swirls) and shapes (circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, semi-circles and pentagons). Their pieces of artwork are now on display ready to be viewed so please take a look. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Science
Year 1 have had a challenging science lesson this week exploring whether materials are manufactured or natural. First, we explored natural materials and described these as materials that can be found out in the world either by being collected, farmed or harvested. Examples of these are materials such as wood, rock, iron, wool and sand. We then talked about manufactured materials which are those that don’t exist naturally and have to be created by being heated or by mixed with other substances. Examples of these are materials such as plastic, polyester and paper. What we found very tricky is learning that some materials can be both. For example rubber can be natural if it is the sap that has come directly from the tree but it can also be manufactured using plastic and some metals are natural such as iron but others are manufactured such as steel. Year 1 also watched polyester being made in a factory from recycled bottles and found out that their school polos were made 65% polyester.
Safer Internet Day
This morning our whole school enjoyed a special worship, focusing on how to stay safe on the internet to celebrate Safer Internet Day. We discussed why it is important to raise awareness. We looked at what technology looked like compared to now. We then looked at what can happen online and how important it is that we know what to do if we come across something that makes us feel uncomfortable. The children discussed how we can speak to Mrs Ham, Mrs Wilkinson, our teachers, our sports coaches and our families if we feel we have seen something we shouldn’t have. We also discussed why our parents might check our devices and how our grown ups, including our teachers always want to keep us safe. We then joined lots of other schools from all around the country on a special assembly to discuss safe and unsafe things which may happen online. The importance of passwords, checking the settings so they aren’t sharing information with people they don’t know and also what to do if people they don’t know try to contact them online. Every Wednesday, we post guidance on how to keep safe online. Please have a look and discuss the National Online Safety posters with your children. The online world can be wonderful as long as we know how to use it safely.