Monday Worship: Epiphany
Last week we focussed on breathing with the happy tank. This week, we learnt how to reflect. We spent three minutes thinking about something that has happened to us today. Reflection time for ourselves is important and helps us to relax and fill up our happy tanks. On Friday we started our learning about the Epiphany. It took 12 days for the kings to meet baby Jesus and so the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th January. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means ‘making known’. The kings followed a big star which helped to make people know that Jesus had been born. One important thing that the festival of Epiphany reveals is that God doesn’t have favourites but welcomes people from any background and any nationality. Mrs Ham read a story from her rhyming Bible all about the kings journey and everyone joined in with actions for the repeated refrain. Thank you to our amazing actors in Year 6. Sadie, Manni, Isaac, Elsie and Carter did a brilliant job. The kings brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Gold is a gift fit for a king, Frankincense was given as it is a holy fragrance and Myrrh was given to indicate that Jesus’ death would be important. During our reflection, we thought about our special gifts. This week, we will really focus on how we can share them with others and how we can show respect for other people’s gifts. We finished our worship singing ‘We three kings’.
Year 4 Gymnastics
In our gymnastics session today we have been building further skills to develop our sequences. We have been working on straddle sit, japana, cartwheels and arabesque.
Whole School Celebration Worship
This morning during whole school celebration worship, we learnt about Epiphany and celebrated our achievements in school this week. It was lovely to hear that some of the children had used the breathing techniques that we learnt on Monday from John, the Kindness Coach's, happy tank programme over the week. Class teachers spoke about our first week back in school and how the children have settled back into our school routine brilliantly. Mrs Ham announced our amazing attendance classes of the week in KS1 and KS2. Well done Reception and Year 4! We then celebrated some fantastic sports stars, both in and outside of school!
Year 4 PSHE - Our Feelings
In PSHE we have been looking at how the different things that happen every day can make us feel good or not so good. We looked at ideas on how to deal with the ‘not so goods’ such as talking to someone, doing something to take your mind off it, breathing techniques and counting to ten.
Geography - Rainforests
We started our new geography topic - Rainforests today. We identified what a rainforest is, key features and found examples of rainforests from across the world. We then plotted the rainforests on a map of the world, highlighting country and continent.
Year 4 Smart School Council
In our Smart School Council session we discussed what is the most important thing about having a job. The children worked really well within their group and our Class leader -Harry and Key Notetaker - Josh, led the session like pros!
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Latest newsletter
Happy new year to you all! I hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday with your loved ones. It has been wonderful to have all of the children back in school although I think it was a bit of a shock to the system being back in school today and I know it certainly felt like that for myself and our staff team. Our class teachers will shortly be sharing information with you about what your child will be learning this half term. As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me via class dojo, on the school yard or via the school office. Thanks for your continued support and we are looking forward to another brilliant year at St Barnabas, Mrs Ham
Whole School Worship: Happy new year!
It was lovely to have everyone together for our first worship of 2023. Happy new year to everyone! We took a few moments as we lit our advent wreath to think about Jesus and how he came to bring hope, peace, joy and love to the world and how he wanted us live life in all its fullness. A few of our children shared their new year resolutions. Alice said she wants to eat more healthily, Tristen’s is to always have a smile on his face, Sadie is to not talk back to her parents and Kaylen’s is to go outside more. Mrs Ham shared hers which is to be happy. Mrs Ham reminded us all of the kindness coach, John Magee. She introduced us all to the happy tank. We watched a video from John who explained what the happy tank was. One of the elements is to take some time to rest. During this time, we need to focus on our breathing which can help us to find peace. We all focussed together on our breathing for 2 minutes. Beau said that it made her feel calm and Jacob said it made him feel happy. Mrs Ham shared with everybody a happy calendar that we will follow throughout January. We watched a clip from ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’. At the beginning the fox was very angry but by the end he was happy. He filled up his happy tank by the boy, the mole and the horse showing him kindness. This year we need to really focus on how we can be kind to others and to ourselves. Through that, we also need to think about how we can find happiness and spread it to others. We all said a new year prayer together and ended our worship with the song ‘Shine from the inside out’.
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Amazing Attendance Award Winners
A huge well done to our amazing attendance award winners! We are so proud of them as they have achieved over 96% this Autumn term. Well done everyone!
Christmas Service at St Barnabas Church, Lead by KS2
This morning, the whole school came together for our Christmas Service at St Barnabas Church, lead by KS2. Over this term, KS2 classes have been preparing short presentations for the service, about an element of Christmas that they have been focusing on in R.E. In Year 3, the class presented pieces of artwork, focusing on the shepherd's visiting Jesus in the stable and being in the presence of God. Year 4 looked at Christingle's and created a fantastic rap, about the meaning of the Christingle and Jesus being the light of the World. Year 5 spoke about how different countries celebrate Christmas around the World. Finally, Year 6 spoke about Advent and what it means to them. Some children also shared their hopes and dreams for the future. The WOW Group also helped to lead parts of the service and we sang a selection of Christmas Carols as a whole school. Overall, we really enjoyed learning about different elements of Christmas and KS2 presented their learning brilliantly!
Santa’s been to St Barnabas!
This afternoon our KS2 children got to choose a special Christmas present from Santa for being so good in school all year!
Year 3/4 Christmas Party
We’ve had a fab time this afternoon at our Year 3/4 Christmas Party. We played so many games including musical bumps, corners and pass the parcel. A big thank you to Mrs Ham for letting us visit’ Santa’s Grotto’ to choose a little gift too. Merry Christmas everyone!