Year 4 - PE: Battleships
It was our final dodgeball session and so the children had the opportunity to use the dodgeball skills they have learned over this half term in a game of battleships. The teams used overarm throws, aimed at targets, defended by blocking the ball and talked strategies to try and be the first to knock over all of the opposition's cones.
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!
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.
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Cidari Earth Conference
Seven Year 4 children represented our school family brilliantly at the Cidari Earth conference at Blackburn Cathedral. They participated in activities addressing environmental challenges like plastic pollution, war and conflict, and global warming. The children made new friends by working in groups with students from other schools in the Trust. Rev Ben led an opening worship about God's creation and our responsibility to care for it. After activities, they admired the "Gaia" Earth installation and listened to Bible stories like David & Goliath and Jesus calms the storm, which emphasised faith and courage in tackling these "insurmountable giants." Each group also created prayer stations, which will be displayed in The Temple Gallery at the Cathedral over half term. Families are encouraged to visit and see the Earth installation, photographs, and prayer stations. Some of the children said “It’s been the best day ever!” A huge thank you to Mrs Araujo for planning and leading one of the activities
Year 4 - Science: Animal Adaptations
Year 4 worked investigatively this week in science to find out how a chosen animal is adapted to its habitat. The children chose Polar bear, flamingo or tortoise and created a zine to record the adaptations and how they are useful for survival.
Year 4 English - Prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs
As part of our English we have been looking at developing our use of grammar. Today we have focused on prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs. Using our toolkits, the children developed their own sentences which incorporated prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs. The children then uplevelled their sentences by purple polishing and checking for capital letters, use of commas and more interesting vocabulary.
Year 4 Geography - The Amazon Basin Fact Files
Over the course of this half term, we have been studying The Amazon in our Geography lessons. Today we worked in small groups to create fact files all about different aspects of the Amazon basin. We first created sub headings which included tribes, human and physical features of South America and the Amazon river. Next the children added information to each section using their books and search engines on the Chromebook's. It is amazing to see how much they have learnt over the past few weeks and how this was brilliantly showcased in the fact files.
Year 4 - French: Quelle Heure Est-il?
This week in French, the children used their knowledge of numbers and combined this with new learning about telling the time in order to answer the question, “Quelle heure est-il?” To embed the vocabulary, the children created French clocks and played lots of speaking and listening games before writing down useful phrases.
Foodie Friends Club-Making Scones
For our final Foodie Club session this half term, the bakers had a great time making fruit and plain scones. They practised important skills such as weighing ingredients accurately, cutting butter into the flour, and using cutters to shape the scones. They showed great teamwork and enthusiasm, carefully following the recipe and enjoying the hands-on experience of baking. By the end of the session, everyone had created their own beautifully shaped scones, ready to take home and share. The club demonstrates a wonderful example of the children living life in fullness, embracing learning, creativity, and the joy of sharing with others.
Hello Yellow Day in Year 4
We have had a great day in Year 4 trying to raise the profile of World Mental Health Day by taking part in Hello Yellow Day! Hello Yellow Day is a campaign to show support for young people's mental health and let them know they aren't alone.
Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.
DPSSA Girls Football
Our St Barnabas girls’ team did amazingly well today! They showed great teamwork and determination, earning hard-fought draws against St James’ Lower Darwen and St Cuthbert’s, before securing a fantastic 1–0 win against St Paul’s. We’re so proud of their effort, skill and sportsmanship throughout the matches.