Image of Year 5 -  Information text
8 Feb

Year 5 - Information text

Year 5 completed their information text about the four main peaks in the United Kingdom. The children researched all the four peaks and wrote some amazing facts about them with a report style.

Image of Aladdin Pantomime
2 Feb

Aladdin Pantomime

This afternoon our whole school family enjoyed a wonderful production of Aladdin by M&M productions. Oh no they didn't! Oh yes they did! It was fabulous to see all of the children joining in through cheering, booing, singing and dancing along to the songs. They particularly enjoyed Mr Prescott and Mr Norris' dancing! The cast said they had never had a school who joined in so well and who all stood up and danced at the end! Thank you so much to our FOSB for their donation and to all of your parent contributions, as without your support, we wouldn't be able to provide such exciting enrichment activities.We hope this has inspired some of our children to audition for our upcoming Barney's Got Talent show next half term. What a fabulous way to end a brilliant week of 'achieving great things' at St Barnabas!

Image of Year 3- Reading- A live reading session with Jane Considine
2 Feb

Year 3- Reading- A live reading session with Jane Considine

WOW! Year 3 have just had the pleasure of joining a live session with the amazing author Jane Considine. She read aloud the book Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. The children absolutely loved it.

Image of Year 4 - English: Debate
31 Jan

Year 4 - English: Debate

In Year 4, we have made a great start on our debate topic. We looked at statements linked to deforestation and decided whether each one was an argument for or against. We find far more arguments against deforestation than for it.

Image of Year 2 - English
31 Jan

Year 2 - English

As we continue learning with our book Traction Man, today we got into the role of Traction Man. We took turns being interviewed as Traction Man where we had to answer various questions posed by a partner. We wrote our responses into pieces of dialogue written in the first person.

Image of Year 3- Class Meeting- National Storytelling Week
31 Jan

Year 3- Class Meeting- National Storytelling Week

Today, James led the class meeting while Alfie took notes. We reviewed the actions from our previous meeting, set by the communication team. The primary focus was on the key question: If we had a trolley outside at playtimes with healthy snacks, would you use it? The majority of the classes voted a definite yes. Mrs. Ham took action and listened to what the students wanted, and now KS2 get fruit for break time. In our latest class meeting, we kicked off National Storytelling Week by discussing the question, "How can we enhance the enjoyment of reading in our school? The children voted in favour of revisiting Darwen Library and meeting the authors of their favourite books.

Image of Year 1- Planning a Story
30 Jan

Year 1- Planning a Story

Year 1 have been working on their own versions of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’ They had to change the original settings of the story to those of their own e.g. A desert, zoo, candy/sweet shop, beach, school and farm and change the animal from a bear to one of their own e.g. an elephant, dog, parrot, lion or dragon. Now, they are ready to get to work writing up their new version of the story.

Image of Reception: Super writing
30 Jan

Reception: Super writing

Our Ducklings have been writing sentences this week. We are super proud of their progress!

Image of Year 4 English - Debating Deforestation
29 Jan

Year 4 English - Debating Deforestation

We started our new English unit today which focuses on Debate. The debate will be all about the deforestation of the rainforest. In today’s lesson, we watched clips about deforestation and made notes on our whiteboards. Then we worked in groups to mind map what deforestation is and the impact it has on planet earth. Next we will highlight the points ‘for’ and ‘against’

Image of Year 4 - Writing Dilemma Stories
24 Jan

Year 4 - Writing Dilemma Stories

In English in Year 4, we have been reading The Balaclava Boy. This week we are writing our own versions. The children have come up with some great storylines about ‘iPhone Boys’, ‘Lipgloss Girls’ and ‘The Pokémon Crew’. The children have been crafting each sentence carefully to build an exciting text of their own. We can’t wait to read the finished pieces.

Image of Year 1 Phonics
18 Jan

Year 1 Phonics

Year 1 are working really hard in their phonics lessons to learn the alternative ways of reading and writing sounds that they already know. Today we recapped the ‘ew’ grapheme in stew, flew, crew, grew and screw before learning the ‘ue’ grapheme that is used in words such as rescue, due, true, flue and clue.

Image of Year 3- Class Worship- Is an e-reader better than a book?
18 Jan

Year 3- Class Worship- Is an e-reader better than a book?

Today in class worship, we watched this week's story on reading. Year 3 had the opportunity to read from cereal boxes, leaflets, letters, magazines, game instructions, and emails. Some children like reading on screens, especially cereal boxes during breakfast. But most think reading from a real book is better because you can touch and feel it, and some books have cool stuff you can touch and smell. We acknowledged that learning to read requires perseverance and resilience, qualities for which we can take responsibility and we are lucky to have many chances to read. Books can take us to new and exciting places, and we're thankful for the gift of reading, thanking God for everything, especially the ability to learn to read.