Reception: Visiting our Spiritual Garden
Today we are celebrating outdoor classroom day. Reception class are always on the go but we had a wonderful time to sit and reflect in our spiritual garden during our collective worship time. This serene outdoor space was perfect for our children to contemplate love, gratitude, and remembrance. The children were encouraged to reflect on the people they love to foster empathy and connection. The children said that they loved their family, friends and teachers. They also expressed gratitude for God’s beautiful creation, a reminder of the wonders that surround us daily. Beau said that she loved God, Ralphi said he loved the planet, Evie said she could hear the trees blowing in the wind and Oliver said he could hear the birds singing during our moments of silence. We then remembered our poppies and why we were wearing them. Will told everybody it was to remember the soldiers in the war. The class took a moment to remember the soldiers as a sign of respect. As a symbolic gesture, the children used a bubble machine to release bubbles into the sky to heaven. The children really enjoyed this spiritual experience and we are looking forward to the next time we can visit the garden.
Autumn 2 Behaviour Focus: Using Manners
At St Barnabas, we pride ourselves on promoting positive behaviour for learning. Our aim is to give your child the best start in their education and this can only happen if all children are trying their best to follow our 4Be's: Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Ready and Be Respectful. Each half term we will be focusing on a specific aspect of behaviour, which will involve teaching the desired behaviours, supporting the children to show these and awarding values points for effort. This half term, our behaviour focus is using manners. Please see the posters attached for an idea of how the use of manners is promoted around school. A special thank you to our WOW group for demonstrating these behaviours for our school. At St Barnabas, we truly believe that instilling positive behaviours has a profound impact on the children in school, at home and as future citizens. Encouraging these behaviours at home will provide your child with a greater opportunity for success, as research indicates that positive behaviour for learning often leads to better outcomes later in life. If you would like to reinforce this at home, we would appreciate your support, as always. Feel free to message with any questions.
Whole-School Worship: Remembrance
At St Barnabas, we always take the time leading up to Remembrance Day to reflect on the people who kept us safe in the past and those who keep us safe now. In worship, we heard examples of people who came from other countries to help defend the UK during the World Wars, and the courage and friendship they demonstrated in doing so. We also thought about how we would like to remember those who lost their lives in war. The children had some lovely ideas, including writing or saying prayers, drawing poppies, visiting memorial sites, attending church services, and even holding a two-minute silence at their weekend football matches. We remember those who gave up their lives for our country and also say a huge thank you to those who work hard everyday to protect us such as the armed forces, the police, firefighters and the NHS. We sang a lovely song of peace at the end of our worship in hope that the world will one day be filled with peace.
Year 3- Class Worship- Hopes and Dreams
Today in our class worship, we learned about the incredible achievements of Adriana Brownlee, the youngest woman to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks. We then reflected on our hopes and dreams, both individually and as a class. We discussed the Bible's message of God's love, strength, and guidance, and how these principles can help us to pursue our aspirations. Lyla then read the prayer to the class: Thank God for always being there as we journey through life and giving us hope for the future as we learn and grow. Amen
Remembrance Singing Worship
This morning in our singing worship we focused on songs of peace as we will be remembering all those who bravely gave their lives in the wars this week. We will also be thinking about people around the world who are still be affected by war and conflict and how we can help them. We will remember them!
Year 6 - PSHE
In PSHE, Year 6 continued their work on relationships. They found out that sometimes we encounter challenges in friendships and that we need to try our best to resolve those challenges. Year 6 provided some fantastic examples of advice and I was extremely impressed by the levels of maturity.
.jpeg)
Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide
In our first collective worship of the week, Mrs Ham looked at Allhallowtide through our three spirituality lenses. Lens 1 - Windows: we looked out into the world at a photograph from Bangladesh depicting Christians gathered around graves with lit candles on them and discussed our observations and ideas about what the people were doing and how they might have felt. We had some fabulous ideas such as it must be a place of worship as they could see a cross and candles like we have in our worship, that they might be praying and that they were remembering. Lens 2 - Mirrors: we learned about All Souls’ Day and reflected on how we might remember our loved ones. The children had some lovely ideas about lighting candles and going to a special place. Lens 3 - Doors: we learned about All Saints’ Day and thought carefully about how we could be like saints. The WOW group introduced our behaviour focus for this half term , which is using good manners around school, and the children immediately put these into action by saying please and thank you, holding doors for each other, and letting people past. What a fantastic start to the new half term!
Harvest Heptathlon
Today, each class took part in our Harvest Heptathlon obstacle course challenge for the Bishop’s Harvest appeal. The course consisted of running, hurdles, travelling through a hoop, hopping, skipping, speed bounce and star jumps. A huge well done to every child that took part. They gave it their best effort. And an extra big thank you to all of the Year 6 helpers for helping to set up, replace equipment, demonstrate the course and support and encourage the younger children to complete the course. Let’s hope we can raise some much needed funds for developing classrooms and literacy in church schools in Multan, Pakistan.
Year 6 - School Council Class Meeting
This morning, Year 6 took part in their class meeting and discussed how their half first term had been. It was great to hear them speak with such openness and justify what they have enjoyed, what could be better and what they are looking forward to as the year progresses.
Year 6 - Maths
Today, Year 6 focused on the ability to be flexible in maths and were encouraged to try out different mental strategies to find one that suits them. We discussed that we can often revert back to strategies that we feel comfortable with, but sometimes, if we step out of our comfort zone, we can discover more efficient ways of completing a task. It was great to see plenty of mathematical talk! Well done year 6!
Reception: I am Special
This week in PSHE, we thought about how we are all special. Beau said we are all unique. We discussed how we are all not the same and that is ok. Jasper said we all look different. Cassius said we all like different things. We sang a song about being special and thought about things we like and dislike. Some of the children liked things that their friends did not. We discussed how this is ok as we are all special.
Year 3- R.E- What does it mean to be called by God?
In R.E. today, the children explored what it means to be "called" and shared times when they’ve been asked or called to do something, whether by friends, family, or teachers. They discussed different kinds of tasks they’re asked to do and how they feel when it’s something important versus something they may not want to do. Some shared moments when they didn’t feel skilled enough but tried because they trusted the person asking. This led to a conversation about feeling called by God, with many children expressing that they believe God may send signs through different forms, like weather, friendships, or even a beam of light, to guide and encourage them. They felt this calling could be an invitation to try new things, make good choices, and grow in confidence. It was a wonderful session of reflection.