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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 3- P.E-Target Striking & Ball Balance
Year 3 had a great P.E lesson today, working on our Target Strike skills. We focused on proper striking technique: first, balancing the ball on the bat or hand for a controlled feed, then standing side-on to the target area, keeping our eyes focused on the ball throughout the swing, and ensuring a strong follow-through towards the target. It was a great challenge to see if we could successfully hit both the front and back targets.
Year 3- Science- Shadow Puppet Show
Today, the children became both scientists and artists as they explored the fascinating world of shadows. They created bar charts to accurately record and show exactly how the sun's position causes shadows to move and change size throughout the day. Following this scientific exploration, they took that understanding and applied it to performance, designing and staging an amazing shadow puppet show, putting the knowledge they've gained this half term in science, all about light sources, light rays, and how light travels, directly into practice.
Year 2 Geography- Continents and Oceans
To conclude our geography unit this half-term, Year 2 pupils created a quiz for the Year 3 children to see how much they could recall from studying the same topic last year. Year 2 wrote three multiple-choice questions each to test their peers’ knowledge. The questions covered topics such as the largest and smallest continents and oceans, as well as the warmest and coolest continents and oceans. They also explored geographical positioning, asking Year 3 to identify locations in relation to the compass points—for example, which ocean lies north, south, east, or west of a particular continent.
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 3- Inter House Dodgeball-
Year 3 had a great time taking part in Inter -House Dodgeball . Renee was our star player selected by the Sports leaders. A massive well done to the whole class for giving it their all and to the Sports Leaders for leading it.
Cross Country Trials
Today we held cross country trials for years 3-6. We had a super turn out and every single child that took part tried really hard and pushed themselves out of their comfort zones. The ground was wet which made it even harder but this didn’t deter our super stars. Well done to everyone and a big thanks to our Year 6 Marshalls and sports leaders.
Year 3- Online Safety- Investigating conspiracy theories
Today, our Year 3 class explored the important online safety poster about conspiracy theories. We discussed the importance of being critical thinkers online, questioning what they see, hear, and read, and verifying information from trusted sources. We also talked about how some information online might not be true and how to recognise and avoid misinformation. This is a crucial step in helping them navigate the digital world safely and responsibly.
Year 3- Art- Egyptian Scroll Making
Throughout this half term, Year 3 has been exploring the fascinating world of Ancient Egyptian art. They have learned about the unique styles, patterns, and techniques used by the Egyptians. To display their knowledge and skills they have created their own scrolls on papyrus, which they created themselves using coffee and tea. They have carefully chosen colours and materials to make their scrolls visually appealing and historically accurate. They have also used sketchbooks to record their observations, experiment with different ideas, and plan their scroll-making process. By studying how artists in the past produced art, they have gained a deeper understanding of the influence and impact of historical methods and styles on contemporary art. This knowledge has inspired them to create their own unique and meaningful works of art.
Year 3- Class Debate- Is it more important to understand the history or the present Black community to celebrate Black History Month?
Today, Archie and Frankie led a class debate focused on the key question: Is it more important to understand the history or the present Black community to celebrate Black History Month? Year 3 showed excellent critical thinking, arguing that it is essential to learn about both the past and the present in equal measure to truly celebrate the Black community's contributions and journey. We also reviewed the previous class meeting, the majority selected listening to calm music or a story to help them feel relaxed. We're putting that into action now: we will play calm music while the children collect their bags and put on their coats, before we move into our class novel reading.
Year 3- Computing- Making our own podcast
In today's computing lesson, Year 3 focused on online platforms like YouTube and learned about creating a contents page for a podcast. The children analysed different examples from various users to see what makes a good one. A big part of the lesson was protecting our identity online, because a channel can combine many forms of communication, including a written description, links to other sites, and even videos about ourselves.
Year 3- PSHE- Understanding good and bad DARES
Today in our PSHE lesson, we talked about dares and what they mean. First, we came up with a definition for a dare and discussed how some dares can be good, while others might not be. The highlight of our lesson was a role-playing activity called "Dan's Dare". We used the Teacher-in-Role strategy, where the teacher acted as a character named Dan who had a tricky situation with a dare. We learned about how Dan's friend, Zak, used persuasive language to try and get him to do things that made him feel uncomfortable. Afterward, we discussed what Dan could have done differently to stand up for himself. We also role-played a few dares to see what they look like in real life. We practiced a "good" dare, like hugging a friend , which is a fun and positive way to be daring. We also discussed and role-modeled a situation that wasn't a good dare, such as daring someone to hit someone, and talked about why that might be a wrong choice. This helped us understand how to recognise what to do if we are ever asked to do something that makes us feel uneasy.