Year 1- Children in Need
On Friday, Year 1 all made a super effort and came to school dressed in Pudsey merchandise, pyjamas or spots to help to fundraise for Children in Need. They all coloured in their own Pudsey and thought about the children who benefit from the generous donations of good people across England and Wales.
Children in Need 2024
Our Y6 Heads and Deputies asked everyone to dress in pyjamas or spots to show our support for Children in Need this year. Yesterday we had a special visit from Pudsey Bear and Christine from Asda. They told us all about how Asda are raising money for Children in Need and they said a special thank you to us all for our fundraising to help children who are less fortunate than us. Thank you so much to our staff, children and parents for the effort you have gone to in dressing in your pyjamas or spots and thank you for your generous donations on parent pay. Together we can make a positive difference to the lives of so many disadvantaged children around our country.
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Whole School Thursday Worship with Rev Ben and Pudsey
In our Thursday Whole School Worship,Christine Baldwin, Community Champion from Asda Bolton kindly brought Pudsey Bear to visit us and say a big THANK YOU for our fundraising for Children in Need. They are currently working on a Fuelling Food Programme so that no child will grow hungry in the school holidays. Asda Bolton have raised ver 34 million pounds for Children in Need. The children were very excited to hear all about the project as well as meeting Pudsey. Following on from the visit, Rev Ben took over and we all showed respect by putting ourselves in our reflective prayer place. We began with the Trinity and focused our first discussion on what does it mean to treat someone with respect. Our answers included: being kind, treating someone just as you would like to be treated,when you are ok with difference and treating people equally. Our Bible story today was - A Jar and A Jug. The story focused on Elijah - Gods special messenger and his struggle with the drought. He trusted God that he would get through it with help from the widow and her son. The widow who believed in another God, didn’t believe they would live until she trusted in Elijah and his promise. God saw the widow as someone important and gave her a special job- to look after Elijah. It means listening to others, caring for them and seeing them how God sees them. We then looked at the important message “ Do to others as you would have them do you” Luke 6;31 We finished our Thursday Whole School Worship with a prayer and then we sang ‘ I can make a difference’
Christmas at St Barnabas
Good morning parents and carers, Christmas will soon be here and we know what a busy time of year it is for everyone. We have lots of exciting things planned at St Barnabas so I thought it might help to have all of the dates in one place. Here are all the important dates you need in the lead up to the Christmas holidays. Please save it to your phone or device and I will also send it to you as a message. I hope this is helpful, Mrs Ham
Poppy Appeal 2024
Our Heads and Deputies have been around to all of the classrooms today to show all of the children the poppy appeal merchandise that will be on sale from Monday at break times. The suggested donation for slap bands is £1.50, bracelets £1.00 and poppy reflectors 50p. Please send money into school in a named envelope or bag. Thank you in advance for your generosity to this worthy cause. Next week we will be focusing on Remembrance Day in our Worships and Year 6 will be taking part in a special Remembrance Service at Darwen Cemetery. We will remember them.
WOW group Harvest Donations to DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)
Our WOW (Worship Our Way) group would like to say a huge thank you for your generous donations to DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). Patsy from DARE came to collect the donations yesterday and sent a lovely thank you message on behalf of everyone at DARE. Thank you for your kindness and generosity as your donations will really help to make a difference to the lives of others.
Monday Worship: Harvest Appeal
This week is Recycle Week so we will be thinking about all of the rubbish we throw away and how it could be rescued and reused or recycled. Bobby-Ray said what one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure! Thank you for all of the donations of coats we have had so far for our Rota Kids Wrap Up Appeal. Mrs Ham showed us two bin bags that at first she thought was rubbish but they were filled with coats that can be donated to the homeless. Mrs Ham then introduced the Bishop’s Harvest appeal which our WOW group have chosen to support this year at Harvest along with DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). We started by exploring our spirituality window and looked at a photo of the classrooms of a church school in Multan in Pakistan. We stopped and reflected on what is great about our classrooms. Lottie loves the amount of paper, Ella-Grace said our teachers, Callie said our books, Eleanor said our friends, Jacob said the opportunities to learn, Olivia said the view of Darwen Tower and Will said everything. There are some boys and girls in Multan in Pakistan that are unable to go to school and some who do but don't have many resources in their classroom. We took some time to look at a picture and reflect on what we could see. The classrooms in Multan do not have any chairs, tables, pictures, windows or toys. The children reflected and felt empathy for the Christian children in Multan who did not have the same experience and resources as we all do at St Barnabas. We then started to think about what we could do to make a difference to their lives. The Bishop’s Harvest Appeal has helped the children to receive books, solar panels and hand washing facilities in the past. Rosie said we could do a sponsored run and James said we could collect books. Bishop Philip has asked us all do to a Harvest Heptathlon . We need to think of seven things we could do to help the children in our area and also the boys and girls in Multan. Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking about how we can help and make a difference. We ended our worship by singing ‘I can make a difference’.
WOW Group- Harvest Donations
Dear parents, Harvest is almost upon us and, this year, our wonderful WOW group have chosen to support two charities. They would like to continue to support refugees in our local area through the charity D.A.R.E. (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) and are asking for donations of non-perishable food items, toiletries and good quality clothing. Please send these into school any time over the next week (by Thursday 17th October) and we will ensure they get to D.A.R.E. More details of the second charity we have chosen will be released shortly. Thank you, Mrs Araujo :)
Rotakids - East Lancashire Wrap Up Warm
Good afternoon, In order to support East Lancashire Wrap Up, RotaKids have decided to collect coats to clothe the homeless. Please can you donate any winter coats that are no longer of use and these can be collected into the box above. The coats will be collected, sorted and delivered to local charities throughout East Lancashire. The campaign will run from the 1st October until 31st October 2024. There will be collection box in the hall for all the coats to be collected. Please can we also try and collect glasses too to continue to help developing countries. Thank you for your support Year 5 RotaKids
Macmillan Coffee Morning
A huge thank you to everyone who has supported our Macmillan Coffee Morning this morning with donations of cakes and/ or money. Every child in school was able to have a cake at break time thanks to your generous donations. Donations can still be made on parent pay or after school. We have some cakes left over so we will have a stall after school on the infant yard.
Fundraising - East Lancs Hospice
A huge well done to the whole of St Barnabas, we have raised a massive £277.30 for the East Lancs Hospice through our Hop, Skip and Jump event and our Barney's Got Talent Show. The money will be used to help care for those in need and will support the wonderful staff that do an amazing job within the health care system.
Reception- hop, skip and jump
Today we have decorated our crowns for the East Lancashire Hospice. We wore our crown to do a 1 mile hop, skip and jump around our school playground which was a total of 18 laps. The children did so well and tried so hard.
Year 3- Hop, Skip and Jump
This morning, Year 3 have taken part in the Hop, Skip and Jump challenge in their crowns to raise money for the East Lancashire Hospice.
Year 4 Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancs Hospice
This morning, Year 4 completed their Hop, Skip and Jump for The East Lancashire Hospice Challenge . The children all wore their decorated crowns whilst making their way around our 1k course in order to raise money for this wonderful cause. Donations can be made on parent pay for all those who took part and received their special chocolate treat.
Year 1 and 2- Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancs Hospice
This afternoon, Year 1 and 2 hopped, skipped and jumped 1k (18 laps around the infant playground) to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They showed lots of perseverance to complete all 18 laps- well done to them all! If you haven’t yet donated, please consider donating to this very deserving charity.
Year 5 - Hop, Skip and Jump
Year 5 completed the Easter Hop, Skip and Jump around the 1k track to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. The children decorated Easter crowns and hopped, skipped and jumped our schools 1k track.
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Year 5&6 Big Lent Walk
Today, Year 5&6 completed their big lent walk. The children walked through Jacks Key and around the local area and completed 4.5km each so that's 265.5km towards the school's 2000km target.
Big Lent Walk: both targets achieved!
Wow! We have achieved both of our targets already for the Big Lent Walk. A huge thank you to our wonderful children and families for taking part to help us to travel 385.4km (so far!!) Thank you to everyone who has sponsored us so far- our families, friends and the community. Your generosity means so much. We still have just under 4 weeks of Lent left so I am sure we can continue to add more km to our distance travelled and raise more money for this wonderful cause. You are not too late to get involved so please send your pictures and total km walked to either myself or Mrs Ham. Donations can still be made here: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk?utm_medium=email&utm_source=PostOffice&utm_campaign=DS_EVENTS-LFC_Trans_NthDonation Thank you for your kindness and generosity,
CAFOD: Lent Big Walk Update
Wow, we have already met our target of 200km!!Well done to everybody who has contributed so far! Who thinks we can double our distance by the end of Lent? If you are up for the challenge, please continue to send your photos in to either myself or Mrs Ham . So far we have raised £94. Please ask your family and friends to see if they will sponsor us so that we can reach our target of £200 for a worthwhile cause. Donations can be sent here: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you so much, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 4 - 1K for the Big Lent Walk
Year 4 class are doing their bit towards the Big Lent Walk with a 1K run on the Key Stage 2 playground. This week and last, each child completed their 1K, racking up a total of 54km between them. They will continue to do this each week.
FOSB Disco
A huge thank you to everyone who attended our FOSB Disco. It was lovely to see all of the children dancing and having lots of fun. A huge thank you to our FOSB members for giving up their time to prepare and stay for the disco- you are all superstars! A massive thank you to DJ Dunn, one of our parent governors for providing the music and games! For all the photographs from the EYFS and KS1 disco, please look here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-eyfs-and-ks1-school-disco For photographs from the KS2 disco, please look here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-key-stage-2-disco
Reception: Muddy Monday
Our Reception class really enjoyed our Muddy Monday session at Whitehall park. We looked at some habitats for different minibeasts that we found and also enjoyed creating dens and continued to take risks climbing trees. They walked 3.84km and enjoyed contributing to the Big Lent Walk!
The Big Lent Walk
During Lent, our school are currently fundraising for CAFOD. We are taking part in the big Lent walk where we are collectively trying to walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. 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. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
St Barnabas Big Lent Walk
Good morning, Next Wednesday 14th February, is the start of Lent. During Lent, our school will be fundraising for CAFOD. We will be taking part in the big Lent walk where we will collectively try and walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. 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. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
Thank you from DARE ( Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)
Thank you so much to our staff team and our Year 1 kindness elves for donating Christmas items to Darwen Asylum and Refuger Enterprise. The donations have been used to create Christmas hampers for families in need. They were distributed at the DARE Christmas party and were gratefully received.
FOSB Christmas Fayre
A huge thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas Fayre yesterday and to our FOSB for their support in organising and running the event. A special thank you to our choir and the children who joined them on stage. You certainly brought lots of joy and festive cheer to everyone.
Reception Children in Need
Reception have enjoyed coming to school in their spots for Children in Need Day. We talked about why we have a day for Children in Need and how it helps lots of children in the UK to feel safe and access the support they need. We completed some Pudsey bear activities in our provision too.
Year 5 - Darwen Rotary Visit
This week Darwen Rotary visited Year 5 to gain an insight into the work that they have been doing as part of RotaKids. The children discussed their international protect which was raising money for the devastating earthquakes that happened in Morocco. The children then discussed their plans and ideas for their community project which is donating books, toys and coats to local charities to help people who are less fortunate than ourselves.
MacMillan Coffee Morning
A huge thank you to everyone who came to our Macmillan Coffee Morning this morning. Thank you so much for all of your generous cake donations which meant that every child in school was able to enjoy a cake. Thank you for your very kind donations to Macmillan. If you would still like to make a donation please do so via parent pay.
FOSB Summer Fair
A huge thank you to everyone who came to our Summer Fair this evening. The rain certainly didn’t stop us having fun, even though it was a squash and a squeeze in the hall and year 1 classroom. Thanks for all of your kind donations over the last couple of non-uniform days. Your generosity and support tonight has led to raising an amazing £979.97. This will be going to our mini bus fund and will also be used to purchase special leavers gifts for our Year 6 classes each year. Congratulations to Grace in Year 6 for winning the raffle hamper and Alfie S in Year 1 for winning the guess the lego game. A massive thank you to our FOSB for all of their planning and support and to our staff team for their help and for being good sports. I think Mr Prescott and Mr Bloomfield will still be drying off now!
Whole School Multiplex Movie Night-
We would like to take this opportunity to thank parents, carers and staff for your incredible support and enthusiasm during our recent movie night. We are thrilled to inform you that our dedicated Rotakids, along with our smart school councillors, have fulfilled their promise and successfully completed their final project. Through their combined efforts and hard work, organising a successful multiplex movie night, together we have managed to raise an impressive sum of £580.60 after the cost of food! This significant amount will contribute towards the school minibus, which will greatly benefit our students by facilitating transportation to sports events, competitions, and other important activities. This achievement is a testament to the incredible community we have at our school. Your dedication and willingness to contribute have made a significant impact on our fundraising efforts. Together, we have not only created a memorable and enjoyable event but also managed to raise much-needed funds.
FOSB Father’s Day Breakfast
A huge thank you to our FOSB for organising a very successful Father’s Day Breakfast. We hope you all had a wonderful time.
East Lancashire Hospice Cheque Presentation
Today we welcomed Jackie from East Lancashire Hospice to present a cheque for our hop, skip and jump fundraiser. We raised £373.50. Thank you to you all for your kind donations.
Year 1- Hop, skip and jump!
Year 1 took part in the hop, skip and jump challenge in order to help raise money for the East Lancashire Hospice, which the children have been learning about today during their class worship. They have really enjoyed the activity and wearing their Easter crowns!
Reception - Hop Skip and Jump for East Lancashire Hospice
Today the children took part in East Lancashire’s ‘Hop Skip and Jump’ challenge. Thank you for your donations so far for the Hospice, donations can be sent in via parent pay. The children had a wonderful time!
Thank you from DARE
Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise have sent their thanks to our school family for our generous Easter Egg donations. They were given out this week to families in need. Thank you to everyone who donated an easter egg and helped to put huge smiles on the children’s faces.
Easter Eggs for DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise)
A huge thank you to everyone who donated an Easter egg as part of our Lent challenge of showing generosity and kindness to others. On Wednesday they will be given to families in need in our community.
Whole School Assembly - Dogs Trust
Today’s assembly was led by Andrew from the dogs trust charity and his mascot ‘Duggie’. Andrew started the assembly by asking the children if they knew what the charity does, the children were keen to answer and said “it’s a charity for dogs who aren’t looked after properly.” Andrew explained that the trust takes in dogs who’s owners can no longer look after them, he said they then re-home the dogs to the most suitable owners to give the dogs the best life. Andrew told us that dogs trust re-home around 14,000 dogs a year. Andrew explained to the children that this assembly is all about learning how to be safe and act sensibly around dogs. Ella,Andrew and ‘Duggie’ demonstrated how to safely act around dogs and showed that you must always ask the owners permission before you stroke a dog.
FOSB Mother’s Day Cream Tea
Thank you to all of our wonderful special ladies for attending our Mother’s Day cream tea. A huge thank you to our wonderful FOSB. They are all volunteers and juggle work to make the events a huge success. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes and it is really appreciated by us all. We are very lucky to have you. If anybody would like to help volunteer for any events then we would be really grateful. We hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday.
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Support for Turkey and Syria- non-uniform day
Smart School Councillors Subject: Fundraising for Turkey and Syria Earthquake Relief. Following our last class meeting, the children voted to hold a fundraising event on Friday 17th of March, where they will wear the flag colours of Turkey and Syria to show their support for those affected by the earthquakes. We are asking for a minimum donation of £1.00 for each child who participates in this cause, via parent pay. The colours are red, black, green and white. Do not go out to buy anything new, please wear what you have at home. All funds raised will be donated to a reputable charity actively working to provide relief to the earthquake victims. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns. Thank you for your continued support. Smart School Councillors and Miss Kachwalla
FOSB Christmas Fair Update
We are delighted to announce that we raised an incredible £1242.90 at our Christmas Fayre! This will be added to the existing and ongoing Friends of St Barnabas fund, with the ultimate aim of purchasing a mini bus for use by the school, as well as funding smaller projects throughout the year. Thank you to the parents, children and staff for your generosity in both time and money attending the Fayre and donating tombola items and a BIG shout out to Tesco Blackburn and Turners Butchers for the wonderful raffle prizes. Please continue to support future FOSB events and if you have any ideas or suggestions, or simply wish to get involved, email [email protected]. Don’t forget about our Valentine’s disco on 9th February. Tickets are available to purchase on parent pay for £2.50 which includes a drink and a snack. EYFS and KS1’s disco will be from 5-6pm and Year 3-6 disco will be from 6.15-7.15pm.
Christmas Fair - Thank you!
A huge thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas Fair this evening. It was the first one since the pandemic so it was overwhelming to see such a brilliant turn out and a return to normality. Please see the photos for the winners of the raffles. Please message me if you have a winning ticket and send a photo of your tickets. Thank you so much to our choir for entertaining us. I’m sure you helped to get everyone in the festive mood. A massive thank you to our friends of St Barnabas (FOSB) volunteers and staff for manning the stalls. Also, a huge thank you to all parents and carers for your generosity over the last few weeks with your donations of bottles, toys and chocolate. A special mention to the Merry family for donating the proceeds of their hand made decorations to school too. Thank you so much for your generosity. We have raised a wonderful amount of money to put towards our school mini bus, which like I have mentioned before, will help to reduce the cost of trips for all of our parents and enable us to enter more events and competitions. We have some things leftover from our tombolas and nativity concerts so we will be donating them to DARE( Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) and the local food bank. These will be passed on to children in need this Christmas. Many thanks for your continued support and generosity. You truly are wonderful parents and your children are simply amazing, Mrs Ham
Rotakids- Toy Collection
The Year 5 Rotakids have fulfilled their promise of helping the community and the world. Over the past few weeks, the children have been collecting used toys and soft toys for the needy families of Darwen and refugees living in Darwen. Some of the toys will also be sent to children in Ukraine, who have lost almost everything in the war. Amazing achievement from families, staff, and children.
Year 2- Teamwork on the MUGA
Last week the weather wasn't on our side so we did our Pudsey hunt this week and what great fun we had! We had to work as a team and find the pieces of Pudsey that had been hidden and bring them back to the MUGA to stick him back together and complete Pudsey!
Celebration Worship- Children in Need
Today is Children in Need day so we have all dressed in spots to raise money and make a difference to children in need. Our Well-being Warriors thanked everyone for their support for our anti-bullying week by wearing odd socks on Monday. They also told us all about bullying and about their next project that they will be tackling in school, idling in cars outside school. A huge congratulations to all of our Values winners this week. We are so proud of you all for demonstrating our British and Christian Values. Congratulations to Years 2 and 3 for winning the amazing attendance award this week for the best attendance in each key stage.
Children in Need 2022
Today we raised money for Children in Need by wearing spots. Together, we can make a difference! Donations can be made via parent pay.
Poppy Appeal
Good morning, thank you so much for your kind donations to our Poppy Appeal by the Royal British Legion. Our heads and deputies have been busy selling poppy merchandise every break time this week. Our stocks were running low but we have managed to purchase another box of poppy appeal merchandise including more slap bands. Therefore, if you would like to purchase further items such as another slap band or poppy zip tie, please send money into school tomorrow. They will be for sale during celebration worship for parents and carers and at break time for children. Many thanks for your generosity to such a worthy cause.
Remembrance Day Art in the Rose Garden, Whitehall Park
We have been overwhelmed with the entries for the Remembrance Art competition. We have displayed some in the hall and some in the Rose Garden in Whitehall Park. You are welcome to view the entries in the hall tomorrow morning in celebration worship and I’m sure the children would love to visit the park over the weekend. It has been extremely difficult to judge them as all of the entries are so unique and special. We will be revealing the winners next week when Mrs Govan and a member of FOSB are in school. I won’t be in school tomorrow as I’m attending a training course but Mr Prescott and Year 6 will be leading our celebration worship and will be holding a two minutes silence for Armistice Day.
Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal
On Friday in Worship, our Heads and Deputies told the whole school about the poppy related items they will be selling at break times all this week, to raise money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. *Slap bands are £1.50 *Poppy reflector key rings are 50p *Poppy zip tags are 50p *Wrist bands are £1.00 *Poppies are for a minimum 10p donation If you would like your child to purchase any of the poppy items, please send cash in a named envelope or bag into school from tomorrow. Stocks are limited so will be on a first come first serve basis and children are only allowed to purchase one of each item, E.g. they are unable to buy three slap bands etc to make it fair and enable more children to purchase them.
Celebration Worship
This morning we had our whole school celebration worship. We celebrated all of the fantastic work that the children at St Barnabas had completed and announced our KS1 and KS2 attendance winners! Well done Year 2 and Year 5! Each class teacher presented the values award to a pupil in the class who had achieved the most values points this week. We also had some super sports achievements! Finally, Mrs Ham thanked all of the children who had entered the remembrance art competition and the heads and deputy’s spoke to the school about the remembrance shop and how we can support the poppy appeal this year.
Rotakids- Year 5
Year 5 has shown respect, trust, and service and demonstrated our British Values (democracy) by voting for the students they think are best suited for the position of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The votes were counted and verified by Mrs. Lyons and the Rotary Club. We now have Isaac as (President), Archie (Vice President), Charlie (Secretary), and Lola (Treasurer). Over the course of the academic year, the RotaKids will engage in important, lively activities that will make a positive difference to our school, local community, and globally.
Whole school Harvest service in Church
This morning our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children led our Harvest service in church. Our wonderful choir led the singing during the service. We gave thanks to the farmers and our WOW group reminded everybody about the charities that we are supporting, The Mother’s Union in Burundi and DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). The children made us all very proud. A huge thank you to all of the parents, carers and family members that attended too, it was lovely to see you all.
Autumn 1 Newsletter
Dear Parents and Carers, Here is the newsletter for this half term. I have tried to upload it as a PDF but it is too large due to the photos on the last two pages. However, I have sent the PDF of the first three pages and it can also be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/newsletters All of our latest news can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news All of our upcoming events can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Wishing you all a lovely half term holiday with your loved ones, Mrs Ham.
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The Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal- Burundi Harvest Challenge
This morning in worship, the WOW group launched our Harvest appeal challenge. We are asking for donations of £1.50 from parents in exchange for the children completing 3 helpful challenges at home. Each challenge is worth 50p. The challenges can be any of those mentioned in the poster, or any that you and your child decide at home. Donations will go to the Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal and this year they are supporting the Christian charity, Mothers' Union, to support the delivery of literacy and numeracy programs to women in Burundi so that they can help earn money to support their families. Donations will be collected by next Thursday 20th October on Parent pay. We are also collecting tins and packets for our local Darwen Refugee and Asylum Enterprise (DARE) to support refugees who have had to flee their homes due to conflict. Please send any donations into school next week. Parents and carers are welcome to join us at our Harvest Festival next Thursday 20th October at 9.30am at St Barnabas church. Our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes will be leading the service and the rest of the school will be joining in with songs and prayers.
Year 1- Hello Yellow.
What a super busy day we’ve had in year 1. We loved dressing up in yellow and talking about our feelings. We had a special worship for hello yellow day ran by the minions which was amazing ,they told us it’s ok to not feel ok and to speak up if we ever feel like this.
FOSB Newsletter
Here is the latest newsletter from our Friends of St Barnabas (FOSB) PTFA.
Monday Worship: Hello Yellow Day
Wow, what an uplifting worship we had. We began our worship with our trinity. Mrs Ham then called upon her minions to help her with today’s special worship. We began by dancing along to ‘Happy’. The roof blew off with all of the fabulous singing and dancing. The minions started by asking the children to show different feelings, for example, tired, happy, sad and loved. The minions explained how you are not alone with your mental health and it is important to talk to somebody. The minions explained that Young Minds is a great campaign about opening up about your mental health. The children watched a video about mental health. It explained how we all have feelings that come and go every day. If feelings become too big then it is important to talk to somebody about them. The minions shared some morning affirmations that we can use. If you say an affirmation, it can make you feel happy, brave, confident, strong and determined. The children said affirmations together such as ‘today is going to be a great day’, ‘I am kind’ and ‘I matter in this world’. The minions explained that you can donate to Young Minds which helps provide a service to help young people with their mental health. The minions have created a competition to design your own emoji. The winning emoji will receive a special hamper prize! This week, we will also have a hello yellow hunt on the MUGA every lunchtime. We finished our worship by singing ‘build up’. A huge thank you to our minions- our head boy, head girl, deputy head boy and deputy head girl.
Year 3- Hello Yellow Day
Year 3 have had an amazing Hello Yellow Day! We discussed how important mental health is to everyone. We went around the classroom and each child said something kind to the person sat next to them. This gave each child a boost of confidence and positivity.
Reception: Hello Yellow Day
The children have really enjoyed raising awareness for mental health by wearing yellow. We discussed what makes us happy. Eddie said football makes him happy, Renee said playing with her sister and Maggie said kissing Mummy. We also spoke about what we should do if we ever feel sad. We looked again at the story of the colour monster to describe our feelings.
Hello Yellow Day- Year 5
Today, we celebrated 'Hello Yellow Day', to support the young people in our lives and raise funds for Young minds. We discussed why it is vital that we ask for help and talk to someone that we trust or a professional. We also watched a short clip about a young girl called Katie who was constantly worrying and overthinking things. However, after speaking to someone and asking for help she can now move on and enjoy her life. As a class, we made a soothe box. The box contains a picture of ourselves with some information about our favourite memories and things we like doing which help us stay calm and relaxed.
Thank you!
Thank you for your generous cake donations and to those who came to our coffee morning this morning. Each child was given a sweet treat today such as a cake, cookie etc and they seemed to go down well. Thank you to everyone who has already donated. There is still time to make a donation on parent pay if you are able to. A huge thank you to Amy and Lucy from FOSB for giving us their time to prepare and serve refreshments. Any left over cakes will be served to parents and carers before tomorrow’s celebration worship and donations are most welcome.
RotaKids- Year 5
ROTAKIDS The children in year 5 have put their hearts and soul into RotaKids. Their dedication throughout this project has been immense and we are so proud of each and every one of them. They have expressed themselves with the utmost energy, enthusiasm, and determination. The role of a RotaKid is to raise funds to support local, national and international good causes. During Christmas, every year group sent a Christmas e-card to our local care homes. This was something that the Rotakids organised. They felt it was vital for everyone to receive a card on Christmas day because not everyone has a family. This certainly put smiles on their faces and a few happy tears. For the Spring term, we were given an Entrepreneurial Project. We were given £100.00 to start a small business the money was to be transferred back if we made any profit. This was a competition running between four schools. We were definitely in it to win it! The Rotakids came up with some great ideas. All of the ideas were planned during breaks. We successfully ran two movie nights, one for KS1 and KS2. This is something that we will most definitely consider doing again next year. The children absolutely loved it! Following on from this, we did ' Guess How Many Sweets In The Jar' which was a huge success. Some children had four or five guesses. Every child walked away with a treat and a smile. So for the final bit, we raised a total of £939.00! We came joint first. We were then able to buy outdoor equipment for KS1 and KS2 playtimes, board games for wet playtimes, and give a donation to Christian Aid, Macmillan Cancer Support and East Lancs Hospice.
Easter Eggs for Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise (DARE)
A huge thank you to everyone who donated Easter Eggs to DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterpise). They were collected today and we were given these special thank you cards for our support to enable children in our community have a lovely Easter.
Easter Egg Appeal
Good morning parents and carers, we have been contacted by DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) as they are in urgent need of Easter Eggs to ensure that refugees in our community have a cracking Easter. Some of the children suggested buying an extra Easter egg this weekend or gifting one of their own Easter eggs. If you would like to help to make a child's Easter, please send in an Easter Egg by next Wednesday. Many thanks for your continued support, Mrs Ham
Thank you for your generous donations for our ‘Support for Ukraine Day’
A huge thank you to you all for your kindness and generosity towards our support for Ukraine day on Friday. Our special visitor, The Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, Councillor Derek Hardman was so impressed with the effort that our children had put into the day and he thanked them all for their generosity. Our cake sale planned and led by Neve in Year 2 raised a wonderful £148.36 after she also sold the left over cakes to her neighbours. William in Year 6 raised an amazing £106 with his bath bomb lucky dip! Tyler in Year 6 made a wonderful banner in support of Ukraine. Lily in Year 6 arranged for a collection of shampoo, shower gel and hairbrushes. These are being packed at the moment and will be take to Ukraine tomorrow. A fantastic £526.49 was raised through the Red Cross Appeal for wearing blue and yellow non uniform. The money has all been added together and £780.85 will be sent to the British Red Cross. The government will then also match each pound we have raised. Thank you so much for the effort you all put into the day and for your generous donations. Together we really have made a difference!
Support for Ukraine Day
Good morning parents and carers, we are trying to do as much as possible at St Barnabas to make a difference to the lives of those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. The children suggested that we can pray for peace in Ukraine and can ask God to look over all of the boys and girls in Ukraine. Therefore we have created a community prayer space at the front of our school and each child in school has added a blue or yellow ribbon and said or written a prayer. There are extra ribbons in a basket on the pavement side for parents, carers and members of our community to add a ribbon and say a prayer too so please feel free to add a ribbon. On Friday we will be having our special 'Support for Ukraine Day'. The Worshipful, the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Councillor Derek Hardman will be joining us for a special Worship and will be adding a ribbon to our community 'Pray for Ukraine' prayer space. Children may come to school dressed in blue and yellow or red as we will be supporting the British Red Cross. Donations to the British Red Cross can be made via parent pay. For every £1.00 we raise, the Government will match this. It has been wonderful to see several of our children coming forwards with their own ideas to raise money for the British Red Cross. Neve in Year 2 will be selling cakes as her friends and family have kindly donated cakes and our infants will also be making cakes. These can be purchased on parent pay at 50p. Any left over cakes will be sold after school on the infant yard. William in Year 6 will be selling the type of bombs we like to hear about- bath bombs. There will be a bath bomb lucky dip for £1.00 which is also available on parent pay. Any leftover bath bombs will also be sold after school. Lily in Year 6 has asked for donations of shampoo, shower gel or hair brushes. These will be taken to Ukraine next week. Please help us to support Ukraine by donating what you can. Together we can really make a difference. Many thanks for your support, Mrs Ham
Jesus as a Miracle Worker Worship
In Worship, we focussed on Jesus as a miracle worker. Today we read the story of ‘Jesus and the 5000’. Mrs Ham and the children acted the story out and we also watched a video. Jesus only had 5 loaves and 2 fish but thanks to the little boy sharing his food, Jesus performed a miracle and was able to feed 5000 people! During our reflection, we discussed the importance of sharing and giving to others. This is so important during Lent. Edward suggested that he would share his PlayStation with his siblings, Isaac suggested that we could share our money with charity, Kaylen suggested we could share our time and Dominic suggested we could share our kindness. At the end, Neve came to the front and shared her fundraising cake sale idea with the school to help those in Ukraine. It is a super idea and we can’t wait to buy lots of cakes to support her fundraising and to help those and give back. We also read some prayers about compassion that Year 5 wrote to remember all of those that are affected in Ukraine.
Support for Ukraine Day
In light of the current devastating situation in Ukraine and the wonderful generosity and compassion of Neve in Year 2, we have decided to change our red nose day on Friday 18th March to a 'Support for Ukraine Day' supporting the British Red Cross. As well as dressing in red (or children may want to wear yellow and blue like the Ukrainian flag), we will also be holding a cake sale. Neve and her friends and family will be baking cakes along with some of our infant classes. All of the money raised will go to the British red cross and every pound donated by the UK public will be matched by the UK government through its Aid Match scheme up to the value of £20 million. This support will double the impact of the public’s own donations and will ensure that charities working on the ground can reach those in urgent need. You can either donate on parent pay or via the red cross website. You will also find out more information of other ways you can support families in Ukraine. https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal If you have already purchased red noses or red nose merchandise then they can still be worn in school on the 18th and the money you used to pay for them has already gone to support Comic Relief.
Pray for Ukraine
We have been having discussions in Year 6 regarding the current situation in the Ukraine. They decided to create some prayers which will be on display at the front of the school. We have been discussing how we are able to help those in need by donating clothes, toys and time.
Celebration Worship
This morning in our whole school worship, we celebrated all of the amazing things that have been happening across school this week. Each class shared highlights from the week, including world book day, kindness challenges and shrove Tuesday. We also shared special prayers for Ukraine and thought about how we can help those who are most in need at the minute.
Dress to Express Worship for Children's Mental Health Week
This morning in our Worship we focused on our mental health and the theme 'growing together'. We also all dressed up in different ways to 'Dress to Express', to raise awareness of mental health. We learnt ways that we can grow physically and emotionally and activities we can do to make us feel happy if we are feeling sad. Our Wellbeing Warriors led a section of Worship by sharing with us the ways they are helping to support our wellbeing in school. They shared the wonderful things we have been learning throughout this week on how to keep safe and be respectful online. They also shared with us their findings of their research on healthy break time snacks and let everyone know which healthy snack they are allowed to bring to school after half term.
Reception dress to express!
Reception have had a great day expressing themselves in their costumes and have enjoyed the inter-sports competition with the sports leaders. We have talked about our feelings and how we can deal with our worries by talking to grown ups about them to make them smaller.
Christmas gift shop
The children in Year 3 have visited the Christmas stalls to choose their gifts. They will be taking them home today. Thank you for all your support!
Thank you from Children in Need
A huge thank you to you all for putting on your spots and for your generous donations to Children in Need last Friday. You have raised a fabulous £256.50 so have helped to make a positive difference to the lives of many children in the UK.
Year 2 Supporting Children in Need
Year 2 have had a great day supporting and raising money for Children in Need!
Children in Need- Year 5
Year 5 love dressing up. We supported ‘ Children in Need’ by wearing something spotty.
Children in Need
This morning in Worship we focused on Children in Need and looked at what heroes are. We learnt that we can all be heroes by supporting children in need and by treating each other with kindness and respect. We then took part in a special workout quiz challenge with Joe Wicks. Thank you to everyone who dressed in spots today and donated to Children in Need via parent pay. Your generosity will help to change the lives of many children around the UK.
Reception Children in Need
Our Reception class put on their spots for Children in Need today. They loved listening to a Pudsey bear story and took part in a variety of Pudsey themed crafts.
Year 3 Children In Need
On Friday 19th November we had a Children in Need Day. All the children dressed in spots or Pudsey clothes and we thought about children who are less fortunate and how the Children in Need Charity helps them.
Rotakids - Year 5
We now have a President ( Charlotte), Vice President ( Freya), Treasurer ( Bobby) and a Secretary ( Louie ) for Rotary Club. Year 5 have pledged to be fair to all, to serve their community and to show respect for others. Over the following weeks, we will have meetings to discuss and collate ideas and find ways to support our community.
Thank you for your generosity this Harvest!
Thank you so much for your generous donations for Harvest this year. Darwen Asylum & Refugee Enterprise (DARE) were overwhelmed with your support and generosity. The donations were created into care packages along with the children’s maps of the local area, welcome to Darwen posters, prayers and poems which enabled refugees to receive a warm welcome to Darwen.
Hooray for Harvest!
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 were amazing in our Harvest Festival today. Thank you to all those who attended or donated generous gifts of food or toiletries for local refugees. We were fortunate to be joined by John, Patsy and Shameem from DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) who have taken all of your donations, the children’s welcome posters, local maps, prayers and poems. They will be sorted into parcels for refugees who have joined our community in order to give them a warm welcome and will also be shared with others in need in our community. We heard a harrowing account from Shameem, who fled from Afghanistan seven years ago due to being persecuted as a female teacher there. She has only just managed to get two of her children here seven years later and they are now attending our local high school and are being supported by one of our past pupils, who remembers Shameem visiting St Barnabas several years ago. We are so thankful for the work that John and Patsy are doing to support people in our community who are in need and so grateful for your donations. We are so proud of our children for showing our Christian Values of generosity, friendship and respect through the warm welcome they have shown refugees through their prayers, poems, welcome posters, maps and songs.
A huge Harvest thank you!
Thank you so much for your generosity this Harvest! We were overwhelmed with your kind donations of food, clothes and toiletries for DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). They were presented to John, Patsy and Shameem from DARE. Thank you for helping to make a difference!
Hello Yellow Day Fundraising and Colouring Competition
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to #HelloYellow Day to support Young Minds Charity. We managed to rise a fantastic £127.00. Also, congratulations to our Key Stage Winners for our Hello Yellow Day colouring competition. We had some fantastic entries, but we could only choose one winner and one runner up from each key stage.
Wellbeing Warriors
We would like to introduce you to our new ‘Wellbeing Warriors’ from Year 4. The Wellbeing Warriors will help to support PSHE ( Personal Social Health Education ) in school by promoting events such as Hello Yellow Day for mental health and Anti-Bullying Week with Odd Socks day which is coming up very soon. They will also meet weekly to discuss how we can improve our PSHE lessons, take part in pupil interviews and monitor scrapbooks. They can’t wait to start their new roles and we look forward to having them.
Thankful for Harvest!
We started our harvest celebrations today learning about where our breakfast comes from and reflecting on what we are thankful for. We thought about how we could show our Christian values of generosity, service and friendship this Harvest by sharing what we have with others. The children have chosen to donate packets and tinned food for our local food bank and toiletries for refugees who have recently joined our community.
Hello Yellow Day for World Mental Health Day
What a wonderful #HelloYellow Worship we have had this morning. Year 4 really got the message across and raised awareness of mental health. We are so proud at St Barnabas to say we are working hard to make a difference to young people’s mental health @YoungMindsUK
Wellbeing Bingo
Year 2 have had lots of fun this morning playing Wellbeing Bingo for Hello Yellow Day! @YoungMindsUK #HelloYellow
Hello Yellow in Year 5
Year 5 have had a wonderful week this week. We have finished for the weekend by raising awareness of mental health. We hope you all have a fabulous weekend. #HelloYellow2021
Staff say 'hello yellow'!
Our amazing staff team dug their yellow clothes out of their wardrobe to celebrate 'hello yellow' day by bringing smiles to everyone's faces and raising money for young minds charity.
Hello Yellow Day 2021
We have had a brilliant day in school today with all of our children and staff dressing in yellow for Hello Yellow Day. It was topped off with leaving school dancing to the minions ‘happy’ song and being bopped with inflatable bananas by Mrs Ham! Banana #HelloYellow @YoungMindsUK
Year 3 say 'hello yellow'!
Year 3 have had a fantastic day celebrating hello yellow day. They created friendship chains and loved dancing along to the 'happy' song in Worship.
Reception say 'hello yellow'!
Reception loved our ‘Hello Yellow’ day and enjoyed designing their own ‘worry eggs’ - the children took these home to use when they are feeling worried to share their feelings. #HelloYellow2021 @YoungMindsUK
Year 2 dress in yellow for 'hello yellow day'
Year 2 have had such a great hello yellow day to raise awareness of mental health and raise money for @YoungMindsUK . #HelloYellow2021 #HelloYellow
Thank you!
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported our Macmillan coffee morning last week. We are very pleased to let you know that we raised a fantastic £398.23. This is amazing and is down to all of your contributions, which made it a huge success. Thank you!
Macmillan Coffee Morning
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported our Macmillan coffee morning today either through your generous cake donations or through buying cakes. We were overwhelmed with the number of cakes and it was so lovely to welcome parents and grandparents back into school. It’s great to see that several parents have signed up to our Friends of St Barnabas PTFA too. Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Araujo can’t wait to start planning fun social events with our new volunteers.