Year 4: Down Syndrome Awareness Day 2024
In our Class Worship and PSHE sessions today, we focused on Down Syndrome Awareness Day. World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD), 21 March, is a global awareness day which has been officially observed by the United Nations since 2012.Typically, a baby is born with 46 chromosomes. Babies with Down syndrome have an extra copy of one of these chromosomes, chromosome 21. We also looked at how we are all unique and have very special qualities. This is why we are supporting this day by wearing our odd socks.
Year 4 - RE: Easter Art
We have been busy in Year 4 creating artwork inspired by the betrayals found in the Easter Story. The children chose one of the betrayals we studied, designed three symbols to represent the key events and then used Brusho paints and water to create a mottled effect on the symbols. They then created a checked background on which to mount their symbols.
Year 4 - Science: Conductors and Insulators
Our Year 4 scientists had a great time learning about conductors and insulators this week. They spent time investigating a range of materials for their ability to let electricity pass through them. They connected each material to their circuits in turn and observed the bulb to see if it lit up.
Rev Ben’s Worship: Palm Sunday
Today, Rev Ben read the story of Palm Sunday and talked about the joy of the crowd when Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. He contrasted this with the anger of the crowd when they were led to believe that Jesus lied about who he was. Determination and perseverance were two key qualities demonstrated by Jesus during that time and Rev Ben asked everyone to reflect on when they will need to show these qualities this week.
Running Club
Running club continued for the KS2 children. The children have been building their stamina and technique for long distance running. Many children have beaten their original times and are making lots of progress.
Darwen Swimming Gala
Good evening parents and carers, I’m so sorry for the late message but we are just back from the swimming gala. We are so proud to share that our swim team came 3rd overall out of 8 schools. Every child in our team won at least one medal and they were amazing at encouraging each other. Here are the medalists: 100m relay - 2nd Isaac 25m butterfly- 2nd Annabelle 25m butterfly- 2nd Isaac 25m breaststroke -2nd Sophie 25m breaststroke - 1st Isaac Boys medley relay- 3rd Boys freestyle relay - 3rd Girls freestyle relay - 3rd Thanks to Mrs Gardner for running the swimming trials and sorting the admin. Thank you to Mr Bloomfield for supporting the children with me tonight. A huge thanks to the parents and siblings who came along to cheer them along, it was a brilliant atmosphere! We have had another wonderful week at St Barnabas. For all of the news from this week, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Year 6 have an exciting week next week as we go on our visit to London and the book fair will be visiting our school. Wishing you all a fantastic weekend and thank you for your continued support, Mrs Ham
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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our celebration worship by thanking our whole school family for dressing in red to support Comic Relief. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with the help of our amazing after school clubs, a wonderful worship with Rev Matt about Jesus being kind towards Zacchaeus and by celebrating British Science Week. Mrs Ham also updated us all on our Big Lent Walk progress. Up to now, we have collectively walked 1239km and raised £215. We believe that we can continue to better this and achieve 2000km and raise even more money. We then presented Summer, Eli, Lyla, Ivy, Ruby, Hamza and Charlie as the value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning and our 4Bs. We also congratulated Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, the KS2 girls who took part in the Girls Football tournament last Friday with Mr Bloomfield to celebrate International Women’s Day and River Darwen who are our overall value award winners this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Olivia for achieving her white belt at kickboxing, Sofia for achieving her 8th birthday badge at Rainbows, Carter for achieving his stage 2 at swimming, Annabel for achieving swimmer of the month, Vienna for being awarded an amazing 50m at swimming, Elsie for her incredible swimming and Renee for achieving her Stage 1 swimming. To end our worship, we had some lovely prayers from Olivia, Olivia, Finn and Mrs Ham who prayed for those who have died , are in the midst of conflict and a prayer to encourage us to be both kind and forgiving during this time of Lent. We also sang along to ‘Sing Hosanna.’ We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Spring attendance update
Good afternoon parents and carers, please see the images for the latest attendance update for the Spring term. In the Autumn term we achieved an award for being in the top 25% of schools nationally for attendance and we are really close to our school target and government target of 96%. With your help we can ensure that your child achieves the best possible outcomes in life by coming to school every day and on time. We are looking forward to presenting Amazing Attendance certificates to all of the children who are at our 96% target and above at our Easter Service in church on Thursday 28th March at 9.15am. For further information about attendance, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/academy-life/attendance
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Year 4 DT - Designing a product to fit a set of specific user needs
In our third DT session we have been looking at how we can design a product (torch) to fit a set of specific user needs. We looked at how to factor in who our product is for and how our design must follow a success criteria. The children designed some amazing torches with lots of thought and effort. We can’t wait to start making them next week.
WOW Ambassador Training
In our very first WOW Ambassador meeting today, we met to discuss the children’s role and how they will promote this walk to school initiative throughout school. We also completed training on how to access the travel tracker and monitor each class on a weekly basis. The children can’t wait for the launch of this exciting new walking to school initiative next week!
Year 4 Number Fluency Conceptual Lesson
In our Number Fluency session this morning we focused on how to solve division facts by recalling a known multiplication fact. We watched the animations on finding into groups of two, writing and reading division equations and then practical of division facts as multiplication. The children worked really well together to identify various expressions sticking fact families together along with bar models for each representation.
Easter Singing Worship
We had a wonderful morning singing our favourite Easter hymns and songs. To finish we practised the Spring Chicken song in hope that we get a visit from the Spring Chicken at the end of term.