Online Safety: Fortnite
It has been brought to our attention, that a number of our children are playing Fortnite. Please find attached some information about the game and the age recommendation is 13+. You can also find further information on our online safety page: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/useful-links/online-safety
The Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal- Burundi Harvest Challenge
This morning in worship, the WOW group launched our Harvest appeal challenge. We are asking for donations of £1.50 from parents in exchange for the children completing 3 helpful challenges at home. Each challenge is worth 50p. The challenges can be any of those mentioned in the poster, or any that you and your child decide at home. Donations will go to the Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal and this year they are supporting the Christian charity, Mothers' Union, to support the delivery of literacy and numeracy programs to women in Burundi so that they can help earn money to support their families. Donations will be collected by next Thursday 20th October on Parent pay. We are also collecting tins and packets for our local Darwen Refugee and Asylum Enterprise (DARE) to support refugees who have had to flee their homes due to conflict. Please send any donations into school next week. Parents and carers are welcome to join us at our Harvest Festival next Thursday 20th October at 9.30am at St Barnabas church. Our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes will be leading the service and the rest of the school will be joining in with songs and prayers.
Year 1- Hello Yellow.
What a super busy day we’ve had in year 1. We loved dressing up in yellow and talking about our feelings. We had a special worship for hello yellow day ran by the minions which was amazing ,they told us it’s ok to not feel ok and to speak up if we ever feel like this.
Monday Worship: Hello Yellow Day
Wow, what an uplifting worship we had. We began our worship with our trinity. Mrs Ham then called upon her minions to help her with today’s special worship. We began by dancing along to ‘Happy’. The roof blew off with all of the fabulous singing and dancing. The minions started by asking the children to show different feelings, for example, tired, happy, sad and loved. The minions explained how you are not alone with your mental health and it is important to talk to somebody. The minions explained that Young Minds is a great campaign about opening up about your mental health. The children watched a video about mental health. It explained how we all have feelings that come and go every day. If feelings become too big then it is important to talk to somebody about them. The minions shared some morning affirmations that we can use. If you say an affirmation, it can make you feel happy, brave, confident, strong and determined. The children said affirmations together such as ‘today is going to be a great day’, ‘I am kind’ and ‘I matter in this world’. The minions explained that you can donate to Young Minds which helps provide a service to help young people with their mental health. The minions have created a competition to design your own emoji. The winning emoji will receive a special hamper prize! This week, we will also have a hello yellow hunt on the MUGA every lunchtime. We finished our worship by singing ‘build up’. A huge thank you to our minions- our head boy, head girl, deputy head boy and deputy head girl.
FOSB Remembrance Day Art Competition
FOSB Remembrance Day Art Competition £1 entry on ParentPay 3 Hamper prizes to be won! Deadline: Friday 4th November Art work will be on Display in the School Hall on Friday 11th November during Celebration Worship and some pieces at Whitehall Park
Celebration Worship
Wow what a jam-packed celebration worship we had this morning - our children have certainly be living life in all its fullness this week! We started by sharing smiles with each other in aid of World Smile Day - Mother Theresa taught us that ‘peace starts with a smile’, so let’s smile at one another and continue spread joy and kindness around our school. There have been so many achievements across school this week! We say a big well done to this weeks value point winners Albie, Bluebelle, Alice, Lola, Bobby, Lucy And Eliza who continue to demonstrate our Christian values throughout school. River Darwen are our Value point champions this week. Keep it up! And what fantastic Sports stars we have in our school - well done to Charlie, Miles, Annabel, Penelope, Leonora, Isabella & Charlie, Eliza, James and Lyla. Congratulations to our DPSSA football team for their 10-2 victory against St James, what a result! Well done Rosie for your super reading too. Year 2 and Year 5 are our attendance winners this week - let’s keep up that fantastic attendance to school. We also shared our Remembrance Day art competition with the school and look forward to seeing some fantastic entries for the chance to win a prize hamper. It was lovely to have Lillian back in school with us to finish with a blessing and a prayer. Thank you. What another tremendous week!
Year 1- English
In English year 1 have been looking at the features of an information text.
Year 1-Science
In science year 1 have been looking at the differences and similarities of different animal groups such as mammals and reptiles.
Monday Worship- Black History Month
Last week we focussed on being kind to our neighbour. When we came into worship, we listened to ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin. We discussed what this meant and looked at how it was one of our Christian values and our British Value, mutual respect. Mrs Ham told us about how many years ago, Africans were captured and taken to America to be slaves. The children all agreed that this was unfair. Mrs Ham then role played with Declan and Elsie to show the children how slaves were treated. They weren’t treated nicely which was very unfair. In 1865, slavery was completely banned. In 1926, Carter Woodson created black history week and now we celebrate black history month every October. We watched a video which showed how Ayanna Najuma who was just 7 years old changed the world! Ayanna did a peaceful protest and went into a white only restaurant and waited until they were served. Ayanna asked for a hamburger and a coke but the waitress said no. They went back on day 2 and 3. By day 3, they were served food and the restaurant became integrated. Ayanna said “my voice was little but it was just as important as everybody else’s voice”. Martin Luther King Junior also stood up for what was right and he fought for a long time for everybody to be treated equally. Finally we watched a song video about Rosa Parks and how she fought for change. This week, Mrs Ham asked the children to reflect on anything that we have experienced that seemed unfair. Did we have the courage to speak up? Can we do this going forward? We finished our worship by singing ‘Make a difference’.
Message from Mrs Ham
Good afternoon parents and carers, I hope you're all well. We have had another brilliant week at St Barnabas this week. To see what has been happening, please see our news page on our website. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news We had our Macmillan Coffee morning on Thursday which wasn't as well attended as in previous years, however we appreciate that many of our parents are busy working and less parents are now working from home. If you would like to donate to such a wonderful cause, you can do via parent pay. A huge well done to Years 2 and 5 for the best attendance across school this week. They will receive an extra fun session on the MUGA with Miss Baxendale. All parents have a legal obligation to ensure their child attends school regularly and on time. Unfortunately we still have children and parents arriving onto the school grounds at 8.55am or after, despite several reminders. We want all of our children to have the best start to their day and to be ready to start their morning learning tasks at 8.55am, which is our official start time. All children are expected to be in their classroom with their coat and bag away for 8.55am, not walking through the school gates at this time. Any child who isn't ready in their classroom at 8.55am will be marked as late in our register. Every second counts so when children are late or off school they are missing valuable learning time. We have several events coming up in the lead up to half term including Hello Yellow day for World Mental Health Day and our Harvest Festival. Please see our events page for further information. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Thank you for your continued support and if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to me on the yard or send me a dojo message. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I hope this rain eases off and the sun comes out, Mrs Ham
Sports Awards- Celebration Worship
During our celebration worship this morning, the children were presented with their sports awards. Last night, a group from Years 5 and 6 represented DPSSA football. They played superbly and gained 1 victory and a narrow defeat. A massive well done to all of our children who also celebrated awards that they brought in from taking part in activities outside of school. We had awards for gymnastics, running, swimming, dancing, reading and martial arts.
Celebration Worship and Celebrating Values
During our Celebration Worship, Mrs Ham reminded everyone about spreading kindness at school and at home. The children shared some of the kindness that they have been sharing at home, such as, cleaning their bedroom, helping their parents carry in the shopping, opening the doors for teachers and pupils and looking after the environment. We also celebrated the value certificate for each classroom presented to, Year 6 - Eva, Year 5 - Rio, Year 4 - Laila, Year 3 - Grace, Year 2 - Sofiya, Year 1 - Harry and Emily, Reception - Sienna and the winning team this week, Whitehall Park. They have all demonstrated our Christian and British Values throughout the school. A huge well done to everyone. The worship came to an end with a prayer led by Mrs Ham and three children.