World Book Day Worship
World Book Day Worship This morning we launched World Book Day 2025 with a lovely Worship led by Miss Flynn and the librarians. We started with a book- Do Not Open This Book by Andy Lee. The children absolutely loved listening to the story and definitely did want to OPEN THE BOOK and turn the pages so that they could read the whole book! The theme for this years World Book Day is Get Ready to Read Your Way which encourages us all to read wherever and whenever we want. Next the librarians, Walter, Elliott, Tristan and Ivy, led a quiz where the children had to guess where you might enjoy a good book from the pictures on the screen. We had some great answers which included: in the car, whilst walking the dog, at the park, in the library, in bed, in a den, outside with our friends, in the bath, in the dentist or at school. The children that guessed correctly won a special WBD prize. In the next part of the quiz, the librarians shared a slide with four pictures of our school staff with their faces covered reading books in their favourite places. There was A - Miss Kachwalla in the bath, B - Mr Bloomfield in the living room, Mrs Singleton in the staff room D , - Mrs Govan in her bedroom, E - Mr Norris on the sofa - Miss Lyon’s reading with her daughter in bed,- G - Mrs Wilkinson - sat on the sofa, H- Miss Flynn reading to her child. To end the special Worship we shared The Story of The Little Mole Who Knew It Was None Of His Business by Werner Holzwarth and Wolf Erlbruch. We can’t wait for the rest of our World Book Day activities which include a live workshop, teachers sharing their favourite books and how we can use our WBD token so that we can get a free book.
KS2 Buzz Education -National Careers Week
Today, KS2 took part in an engaging Buzz Education session, exploring the world of different careers. The children had great fun guessing various jobs from pictures and clues, sparking curiosity and discussion. This led to an in-depth exploration of a wide range of careers, where they learned about the skills and school subjects needed for each role. The session inspired the children to think about their future aspirations and how their learning in school connects to the world of work.
Little Craft Club
Today at The Little Craft Club, the children designed and decorated their own pencil cases. They thought of their favourite things so the final products represented each of them! Some of the children delved into our Imagination Station box to find things to creatively decorate the zip pull too! This activity is going to be part of a special Craft Club session at The Carus Centre in Hoddlesden during the Easter holidays. In the session, we will also be painting canvases and making bracelets/phone charms. The session is open to the public and can be booked here: https://fredandpearl.com/collections/easter-holidays
Year 5 - Air Resistance
Today, Year 5 continued their science unit on forces by investigating air resistance through class experiments. As they dropped the parachutes from a height, they carefully timed how long each one took to reach the ground, recording their results for comparison. Through their observations, the children discovered that parachutes with a larger surface area created more air resistance, slowing their descent. They discussed how this principle applies to real-life situations, such as skydiving and the design of parachutes used in space exploration. This practical investigation helped deepen their understanding of how forces interact and how air resistance plays a crucial role in everyday life.
Year 5 - Gaelic Football
Yesterday, Year 5 took part in their first Gaelic football session, where they were introduced to the fundamentals of the sport. The children explored key skills such as passing, catching and travelling with the ball, developing their coordination and teamwork. They engaged in fun, fast-paced drills to build confidence and understanding of the game’s unique techniques. Throughout the session, the children demonstrated enthusiasm and perseverance, embracing the challenge of learning a new sport.
Worship-Shrove Tuesday, Lent and Ramadan
This morning in Collective Worship we built on our knowledge of Lent from yesterday's worship and focused on things we could give during Lent, the time of preparation for Easter. Some children said they would sort their clothes and toys and give them to charity, some said they would raise money through walking for the Big Lent Walk and some said they would help others. Yesterday Leonora said she would show kindness everyday during Lent which then led us to take up a 40 day Lent generosity and kindness challenge. Over the next 40 days in school, we will take part in generous acts in order to spread kindness to others. We said our special Year of Prayer prayer today too which was about compassion and how Jesus showed compassion to others and helped them and we can be like Him and help others too. We then learned about the holy month of Ramadan that Muslims around the world are taking part in at the moment by fasting, praying to God and giving back. We discussed the similarities between Lent and Ramadan and agreed that they are both times to feel closer to God, give things up or fast and give things back. They are also times to prepare for celebrations as Christians will be celebrating Easter and Muslims will be celebrating Eid. Miss Kachwalla and Ms Lohar are both fasting at the moment during the day and we learned that Muslims fast to understand how it feels to be hungry and think about and pray for those less fortunate around the world, as well as feeling closer to God. As part of our Big Lent Walk, we can make a difference to the lives of those who don't have enough food by raising money to help them. At the end of our worship we sang some Easter hymns and shared pancakes together as a whole school family as today is Shrove Tuesday. We then reflected on how we can 'be kind' and show generosity to others this Lent.
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Cross country
This Tuesday, cross country club continued with a 20 minute run around Jack’s Key. Next week we will repeat our run and hope to improve our times. We have a few more sessions to be ready for our competition.
Netball Club Fun in the Sun
Netball Club started again this week and it was so good to see the children so keen and enthusiastic. As this is our second round of club, we went straight into games concentrating on skill development and key rules. The children rotated positions and worked hard to develop their understanding of new roles.
Collective Worship: The start of Lent
Today, Mrs Wilkinson discussed what is happening this week. Tomorrow it is Shrove Tuesday and we discussed what happens on Shrove Tuesday. We are looking forward to tasting some pancakes tomorrow during worship! On Wednesday it is the start of Lent. The children watched a video all about Lent and we discussed what it means for Christians. We discussed how it is a time of reflection and many Christians give up something or do something during Lent. Some of the children said they would give up chocolates, sweets and fizzy drinks. Some children said they'd give to charity and be kind every day. Mrs Wilkinson introduced the Big Lent Walk challenge which our school will be doing. We are aiming to raise money for Cafod and will aim to walk 200km collectively. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. The children seemed very excited to get started and thank you to those families who have donated already. To donate please click here https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-ce-primary-academys-big-lent-walk and don't forget to send photos to either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham so we can update our page. We finished our worship by singing Jesus strong and kind.
Mad Science After School Club- Living in Space
Today in Mad Science After-school club, the children stepped into astronauts' shoes and uncovered the incredible challenges of living in space. They explored why astronauts train underwater to simulate microgravity and discovered how the absence of gravity affects the human body. From floating in space to maintaining muscle strength, they learned what it takes to survive and thrive beyond Earth.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on our very busy week. This week, we launched our new behaviour focuses for this half-term which have been centred around dinner time behaviours. We have been really impressed with how much calmer our school hall is at dinner time- Well done to our whole school and thank you to Mrs Araujo and the WOW group for monitoring! This week we also saw the start of our wonderful Mad Science Club and we are really looking forward to the rest of our after-school clubs starting next week. There are still spaces to sign up to the craft club led by Fred and Pearl and the gymnastics and dodgeball club led by Edstart if anyone is interested. We then congratulated this week’s individual value award winners who have made a fantastic start to the Spring 2 term. Well done to Jess, Declan and Miley in KS2 and Albie, Harry and Thea in EYFS and KS1 for their consistently positive attitude to learning, demonstrating resilience and perseverance in their learning and showing all of our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, respectful, kind and safe). Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 3/4 Sportshall Athletics winners who competed amazingly well to achieve gold at Our Lady and St John’s on Wednesday evening, River Darwen as our value award winners this week with 396 points and Reception and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week. A special well done to Reception who achieved 100% attendance. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Ava for achieving 5m in her swimming, Thea for fantastic bar work in gymnastics, Lyla for achieving her level 2 in gymnastics, Seb for achieving ‘Trainer of the Week’ at football, Haydn for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ at football, Isabella for being ‘The Little Darreners’ Player of the Week’ at football, Archie for being awarded his green belt at martial arts, Eleanor for being awarded multiple gardening badges at Rainbows, Alessia and Piper-Jo for achieving Stage 2 in their swimming, Marley for her commitment to Brownies, Charlie for achieving 10m in his swimming, James for being a super improved player at football, Isaac for being ‘Player of the Day’ at football, Callie for being fiercely brave at Stagecoach and singing a solo, achieving several awards in her gymnastics such as gaining her level 2 grading and for also receiving Grunty the Dragon in martial arts, Alice for achieving 600m in her swimming, Peyton for achieving a badge at kickboxing, Scarlett for her fabulous commitment to Rivington Netball Club and Mason for achieving Stage 5 in his swimming. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that it’s World Book Day next Thursday 6th March where we will be dressing in pyjamas and participating in some fun and exciting reading activities and that it is also non-uniform day and a disco for India Mill and Whitehall Park on Friday 7th March for being the overall value award winners last half-term. We then had some beautiful prayers from James and Martha who prayed to keep those who are poorly and those in heaven in our thoughts. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 5 - Gravity vs Mass
Today, Year 5 conducted an experiment to explore the relationship between mass and gravity. The children carefully measured and recorded the weights of five different balls before dropping them from the same height. To their surprise, they discovered that gravity is a constant force, meaning that all the balls fell at the same speed, regardless of their weight. We then discussed the role of air resistance and how it affects falling objects. The children were fascinated to learn that if air resistance were removed—such as in a vacuum—a bowling ball and a feather would fall at exactly the same speed. This led to a great discussion about real-life examples, including astronauts on the Moon, where there is no air to slow objects down.