Foodie Friends Club: Shortcrust Pizzas
We kicked off our first Foodie Club of the half-term with a fantastic session making shortcrust pastry pizzas. Our "Great Chefs" were in their element, skillfully rolling the pastry into their own unique shapes before smothering them in sauce and loading them with a rainbow of toppings, including peppers, onions, olives, sweetcorn, and tuna. It was a joy to see the children so deeply engaged, mastering new culinary skills and exploring different flavours with such enthusiasm. By providing these hands-on opportunities to create and learn, we are helping our students build confidence and truly live life to its fullest.
100 Years of Blackburn Diocese
In order to celebrate 100 years of Blackburn diocese, we took part in a whole-school virtual assembly that focused on the many successes and achievements of the diocese over the past century. Bishop Philip welcomed schools from across the diocese and shared an engaging story about the travels of the Wise Men, linking these to themes of faith, journey and community. The children greatly enjoyed seeing and feeling connected to other schools within the diocese and were excited to take part in a shared celebration. The assembly provided a valuable opportunity for pupils to reflect on their place within the wider diocesan family, strengthening their sense of belonging and understanding of our shared faith. The event was engaging, inclusive, meaningful and it helped bring the history and mission of the diocese to life for the whole school community. We are looking forward to taking part in a variety of centenary 'All for Jesus' activities and worships over the year.
Friday Celebration Worship
What a brilliant first week back! We are so proud of all the children for settling back into school so sensibly, even with the excitement of the snow. We started by celebrating our values awards winners: Elara in Reception, Max in Year 1, Vienna in Year 2, Mila in Year 3, Lottie in Year 4, Carmen in Year 5 and Luca in Year 6. These children are always doing the right thing and working hard, well done! We also celebrated Olivia and Jacob in Year 4 who were awarded their pen licenses this week. A huge well done to all of our house teams this week for earning lots of value points. Darwen Tower came in 4th place, Whitehall Park came in 3rd place, River Darwen came in 2nd place and India Mill in 1st place. We had lots of Sports Awards this week. Well done to Callie for 25m in backstroke, Ralphi was awarded a swimming medal for 5m and a football certificate for courage against older players, Elijah was awarded a 200m swimming certificate, James was awarded a 100m swimming certificate, Renee was awarded a 5m swimming certificate and Carmen won a student of the year trophy in kickboxing and a swimming certificate for 100m and 50m. Additionally, Phoebe was awarded the Olivia doll from Rainbows for excellent colouring, Thea was awarded a gymnastics certificate for backwards and forwards on the bars, Reggie won player of the week in football for scoring 10 goals and finally Scarlett won player of the match in netball. Well done everyone! Our Year 5 and 6 football team also shared that they lost to St Paul’s 2-1 in their most recent football game, but still placed 5th out of 13 schools. This is a brilliant placement! Also, well done to Year 1 and 2 who the best attendance in Key Stage 1 and Year 4 in Key Stage 2. Mrs Ham also reminded us of our upcoming events: Let’s Go Sing, Stay and Play, NSPCC Speak Out and our visit from Harold the Giraffe. Finally, Charlie, Lilly and James said some beautiful prayers to end our worship. Have a restful weekend and please stay safe in the turbulent weather conditions.
KS2 DPSSA Football League
A huge well done to our St.Barnabas football team, who have competed brilliantly over the past few weeks. Finishing 5th out of 13 schools in a very competitive league is a fantastic achievement and they should be hugely proud of themselves. A huge thank you to Me Bloomfield for his coaching and to the parents and carers who came along to support!
Year 5 Art
Year 5 started their new art topic on mixed media portraits, this week. They used a photo of themselves to produce a self portrait comprised entirely of text. They also painted a watercolour wash background for their portrait.
Year 5 - French
In our new French topic, Year 5 began to learn vocabulary for different film genres and how to give opinions on them. This recapped prior learning (e.g. j’adore, deteste) and children used this vocabulary to ask and answer questions about their favourite films. Mrs Hayat had great praise for the children’s work ethic and behaviour. Well done Year 5!
Year 5 - Computing
Our new computing unit covers how to use spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. In this first lesson, the children learned what spreadsheets are before learning how to input data and format cells. Then the children experimented with changing the text and adding colour to the spreadsheet.
Year 5 - Gymnastics
In gymnastics, we revisited the fundamental actions such as tuck, straddle and pike. The children then practised a variety of balances with their partners, moving from simple balances where one body part is touching the floor all the way to balances involving three body parts. We then explored a number of lifts using their partner for support. The children then had the opportunity to perform a sequence to the class.
Year 5 - NSPCC
Today, we prepared for a future visit by the NSPCC by engaging in activities and discussions around the topic of how children can stay safe by speaking out about any concerns or worries they might have. We discussed the different ways that children can be harmed (e.g. emotional or physical bullying) and who the safe adults are that they can talk to inside and outside school.
Year 5 - Science
In science, we finished our materials topic by exploring the saturation points of water at different temperatures. The children found that warm water can dissolve more sugar than cold water. We related this back to the action of particles, with heat causing the bonds between sugar molecules to weaken, allowing them to spread evenly through the solvent (water). Next week, we begin our new topic of the solar system.
Christmas Video 2025
Dear Parents and Carers, What a truly magical and festive end to an incredible first term at St Barnabas! As we reach the final day of this seven-week half term, I am filled with such pride reflecting on everything our school family has achieved. First and foremost, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you. Your partnership and engagement are vital to our children’s success, and your generosity this term—from the Macmillan Coffee Morning to our wonderful Christmas Fair—has been overwhelming. We are so lucky to have such a supportive community. To our children: you are quite simply wonderful. Whether you were settling into Reception for the first time, representing our school in sports, or shining on stage in our Nativity and "Christmas Cracker" performances, you have lived life in all its fullness. You have worked your socks off, and you truly deserve this rest. For photos of our Christmas fun, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo.../christmas-2025 and also see our weekly news: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news I also want to extend a huge thank you to our fantastic staff team. Their hard work and dedication ensure our school is a love-filled Christian family where every child can thrive. I am particularly grateful for them being such brilliant sports this week; they completely threw themselves into the filming of our annual Christmas video! The children had a wonderful time spotting themselves in the video during our church service this morning. I think the definite highlight for them was seeing exactly what the teachers get up to in school between the hours of 6- 7! We truly hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfmvpqhqag A reminder that we break up early today at 2:00 pm. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope your holiday is filled with love, laughter, and joy. We look forward to seeing everyone back, refreshed and ready for a new chapter, on Monday 5th January. Take care and God bless, Mrs. Ham
Whole School Christmas Church Service
This morning, our whole school enjoyed a joyful and reflective visit to church to celebrate the Christmas season together. During the service, children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 confidently shared the work they have been doing in class, exploring the true meaning of Christmas and the special joy, hope and kindness that Jesus brought to others. Their contributions helped everyone to pause and reflect on the importance of love, generosity and togetherness at this special time of year. We also enjoyed singing a selection of our much-loved Christmas carols, filling the church with festive cheer. A highlight was watching our whole-school Christmas video, which captured many of the wonderful activities and celebrations from the past couple of weeks. The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing themselves on screen taking part in the festivities and were especially delighted to see members of the school staff joining in and having fun. It was a warm and uplifting celebration that truly reflected the spirit of Christmas and brought our school community together. A huge thank you to Parents and to all who attended to celebrate with us. We wish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!