Image of The Jungle Book
7 Sep

The Jungle Book

Years 1-6 have had an amazing morning watching The Jungle Book production. They joined in so well and were transfixed throughout. Our Year 6 children got to take part in a special workshop afterwards where they learnt about the different roles that are needed in a theatre production as they will be performing The Jungle Book at the end of the year. A huge thank you to our FOSB for their generous donation towards the cost of the production and a massive thank you to you all for supporting our FOSB events. Without your generosity we wouldn’t be able to provide these sort of memorable opportunities for our children, as our school budget is very tight. For all of the photos, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-gallery-category/our-gallery

Image of Year 3 - Junior Jam
6 Sep

Year 3 - Junior Jam

We have thoroughly enjoyed having Junior Jam back this week. We have been learning how to say “My name is…” in French along with recapping some words we learnt in Year 2. In computing we have been making some fantastic music and beats on Garage Band and in music we have be learning how to play the ukulele.

Image of Year 3 - Science - Sources of Light
5 Sep

Year 3 - Science - Sources of Light

For science this week we looked at all the different sources of light. We talked about what light is natural and what is artificial.

Image of Collective Worship with Rev Ben and Rev Matt
5 Sep

Collective Worship with Rev Ben and Rev Matt

In worship today, Rev Ben got us all thinking about being creative and our greatest and most generous creator - God. We enjoyed watching two teams of children compete to create the best animal from just sticky tape and newspaper. We also reflected on how we can be generous with our creations in school this week.

Image of First day in Year 3
4 Sep

First day in Year 3

Year 3 were super excited about reuniting with their friends and talking about what they did over the summer. The children couldn't wait to go out for a break in the KS2 yard and have fun on the trim trail. They also visited the school library to select books for their personal reading enjoyment in the classroom. Alongside this, we created our own classroom rules, building upon the four golden rules Mrs. Ham highlighted during this morning's worship. In the afternoon, the children went on a shape hunt around the school, identifying, drawing and labelling the different shapes that make up the objects they find in everyday objects. For example, a door shaped like a rectangle, a classroom window shaped like a square and the netball goal ring shaped like a circle.

Image of Back with our friends
4 Sep

Back with our friends

We have had great fun in the sun with our friends. It’s been great to catch up and reconnect after the Summer holidays.

Image of Legendary lining up
4 Sep

Legendary lining up

Today we showed Mrs Ham our legendary lining up after discussing our school rules this morning in Worship. We know that we need to line up sensibly and smartly to keep ourselves and others safe and to be ready to learn. We have also been showing our wonderful walking around school. Well done everyone!

Image of First day back
4 Sep

First day back

We have had a fantastic first day back in school. Our teachers are so impressed with how well we have settled into our new classes and we have all been showing brilliant behaviour.

Image of  Monday Collective Worship-Welcome Back to School
4 Sep

Monday Collective Worship-Welcome Back to School

This morning, we all met for our first collective worship of the academic year and it was lovely to all be back together again after the summer holidays. First, we reminded ourselves of our vision, our Christian values and our British values. Then, Mrs Ham then introduced our four golden rules. These are: To be ready, to be kind, to be safe and to be respectful. We then discussed what these key phrases meant. Be Ready: Jack said having a smart uniform, Miles said looking at the speaker, Ella-Grace said being at school on time, Alice said being prepared with the correct equipment and Sonny said being ready and following instructions if the fire alarm goes off.  Be Kind- Freddie said helping each other, Daisy said supporting others such as charities and refugees, Alice said encourage others to join in your games, Wilson and David said look after the environment such as not littering and making bug houses, Renee said sharing your toys and equipment.  Be Safe- Chay said always staying where an adult is, Molly said keeping safe with our equipment such as walking with scissors upside down, Charlie Rose said walking to places within school and Jack said following the instructions of the teacher.  Be respectful- Bella said let adults through the door first, Dougie said show respect towards the environment including animals, Darcy said do not talk over the teacher. Mrs Ham reminded us that we need to line up smartly so she wanted to see 'legendary lining up' and 'wonderful walking' around school by walking sensibly, smartly, safely, silently and smiling at the same time.  Mrs Ham then explained our new behaviour system. All children will start every lesson on green (ready to learn) with the aim of moving up to yellow (time to shine) throughout the day for showing good behaviour , demonstrating our Christian values and a showing positive attitude to learning. However, there will also be pink which means time to think. If a child is not demonstrating a positive attitude to learning or making the right choices then they will be given two warnings. If the behaviour still persists after these warnings then the child will move to pink and will be asked to reflect on their behaviour by filling in a pink reflection sheet during their break time. We hope that this time to reflect will allow a child to move forward positively and make better choices.  We are all looking forward to another super year at St Barnabas and are aiming to achieve great things through learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family!

Image of Year 6 Leavers Service
21 Jul

Year 6 Leavers Service

Congratulations to our amazing Year 6 class for being such superstars over the last seven years. It has been a privilege to have you as part of our school family and we are so immensely proud of you all. We wish you all the luck in the world as you all go off on your new adventure to high school and we know that you will achieve great things and shine from the inside out. I really hope today has made you realise how precious you are and that you from here with confidence. We also said thank you to our wonderful volunteers who support our school family so brilliantly. Thank you Carol, Fran and Glenda. We also said a huge thank you to Rev Ben. This time last year our WOW group interviewed Rev Ben and we have loved having him as part of our school family over the last few months. We sadly said thank you, good luck and goodbye to Miss Horsfall and Miss Wilkins, who have both been covering maternity leaves this year. They have been amazing and have fit right into our school family. We also said thank you and goodbye to Mrs Kay who is leaving her welfare role at the same time as her son leaves Year 6. Thanks for being a star Mrs Kay! We then said thank you to Miss Bentham who was with us short term and has secured a permanent role in another school closer to her home. Thanks Miss Bentham! Lastly but certainly not least, we said thank you, goodbye and good luck to Miss Ashworth, who has recently moved to Yorkshire. She has been an absolute star and we wish her all the luck in the world in her new school. We are sure she won’t miss the long commute to St Barnabas but we know that St Barnabas will always have a special place in her heart. Thank you so much to our parents and carers, you have been wonderful and we couldn’t do what we do without your support. On behalf of all of the staff I would like to thank you for your support, kind words and gifts. Finally, I would like to thank your truly amazing children for their huge smiles, enthusiasm and positivity. They have worked their socks off all year and it has been another brilliant year. I consider myself so lucky to lead such a wonderful school with the best staff team in the world, the most amazingly supportive parents and the most charismatic, delightful children who brighten up our days. Wishing you all a fabulous Summer holiday and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 4th September. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham

Image of End of Year Awards Ceremony
14 Jul

End of Year Awards Ceremony

This morning we had a very special awards Worship to celebrate all the great achievements of our children and our school this year. Quinn received an award for being our planet protector by looking after our world and God’s planet in so many different ways, thank you for your contribution Quinn! We were so proud (and some of us a bit emotional!) to present Ezmae with the Sharon Kay award for always showing kindness and generosity to her peers, what a credit to the school! For our Progress awards, we said a huge congratulations to Lola, Bobby, Tilly, Charlie, Jacob, and Eddie, who have wowed us with their progress this year. We also had our Star of the year awards where Sophie, Ruby, Sofia, Arabelle and Frankie shone like the super stars they are. Our Children’s champion awards were chosen by each class to reiterate the importance of Democracy. Well done to Lyla, Scarlett, Ivy, Lily-May, Joshua and Mason, who have clearly impressed their peers! Finally, we had our Amazing attendance awards. We can never expect children to have 100% attendance as we all get poorly sometimes or have big events in our lives, so our school target for attendance is over 96%. So many of our children achieved this target, well done! Well done to all the award winners and all our other children in school who have shone in their own way this year. We hope they are all as proud of themselves as we are!

Image of Year 3 Low Ropes and Zip Lining
13 Jul

Year 3 Low Ropes and Zip Lining

The class particularly enjoyed the low ropes course this morning, as part of their rock and river trip! We had some extra time, so the instructors opened up the zip line for the class to complete! It was great to see the pupils grow in confidence and encourage others, whilst completing the low ropes course!