Give Like Dolly Day Worship
Today, we celebrate the life of the American singer songwriter Dolly Parton. The whole school has come dressed in sparkles and colours and in worship, Mrs Wilkinson told us about Dolly’s remarkable life and achievements. Dolly Parton was dedicated to allowing as many children to read as possible and founded the Imagination Library charity in 1995. Mrs Wilkinson lead a discussion on the power of reading and how it can provoke our imagination and allow us to engage with the written word all throughout our lives. We then watched a video of Dolly Parton reading a very special bed time story called Stuck in the Mud before the whole school sang and danced to her 1980s classic hit ‘9 to 5’. Her amazing legacy of music and charity will live forever and be an inspiration to us all.
Give Like Dolly Day
Wow! What a fabulous launch to our Give Like Dolly Day! The children and staff made a truly wonderful effort, and after worship, everyone brought the house down singing and dancing along to 9 to 5. The excitement doesn't stop there—every class will be treated to a mystery reader visit over the next two weeks as we gather to enjoy lots of inspiring stories, just as Dolly herself would have wanted. Thank you to everyone who has donated and for all of your support, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 3 - Give Like Dolly Day & National Poetry Day
We’ve had some fabulous outfits in Year 3 for Give Like Dolly Day, and the children have thoroughly enjoyed some story time with Mrs Hegarty. We also chose some class mystery readers to read some funny poems for National Poetry Day. They did a brilliant job of reading aloud and understanding the pattern, and we all had a little giggle about Little Miss Muffet eating a spider. We can't wait for our next mystery reader later this week!
Year 1: Give Like Dolly Day
Year 1 had a blast today. They came in bright and sparkly clothing for Give Like Dolly Day. We learnt about Dolly Parton’s generosity for gifting millions of books to children and highlighting the importance of reading. We sang 9-5 in whole school worship, watched videos of Dolly Parton reading stories and had some colourings and word searches. The favourite was definitely designing their own cowboy boots.
Year 2- Give Like Dolly Day
Today, Year 2 have enjoyed a wonderful joint Give Like Dolly Day and National Poetry Day! Throughout the day, the children have enjoyed listening to lots of poems and each performed a verse of Oh Dear by Michael Rosen. We also learned all about Dolly Parton and her incredible generosity and kindness through our Whole School Worship and by reading Little People, Big Dreams: Dolly Parton. We found out how Dolly set up her special Imagination Library, which helps to send books to children in need. To finish the day, we spent the last 15 minutes completing some lovely Dolly Parton and Imagination Library colouring activities and having a go at a Dolly Parton word search. Well done, Year 2, for all your fantastic efforts with your dressing up today and for helping us to raise money for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which gifts more than 7 million books each year! What a wonderful way to celebrate kindness, generosity and our love of books.
Year 4: Give Like Dolly Day
Today Year 4 took part in ‘ Give like Dolly Day’ and came into school dressed top to toe in sparkle and bright colours. Just like Dolly we shared our love for reading by looking at lots of different poems, same Dolly songs and learnt lots of interesting new facts about her life.
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WOW Group - Harvest Planning
We are proud to present this year’s WOW (Worship Our Way) Group, who are all raring to get started. In their first full session they got to work planning some exciting challenges for each class to take part in to raise funds for the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal. Each child will be bringing home a sponsor form soon for their harvest challenge, which they will complete in school after half term. We are sure they will have fun with this year’s appeal!
Macmillan Coffee Morning
A massive THANK YOU to all the parents and carers who attended our Macmillan Coffee Morning today! We were absolutely overwhelmed by the fantastic turnout. 💚☕ Your generosity in donating cakes was incredible! Thanks to you, every single child was able to enjoy a sweet treat today. 🧁 We still have a few spare cakes left over, which will be on sale after school, so be sure to grab one while you can! A huge shoutout to our brilliant Heads and Deputies for doing such an amazing job hosting their very first event. 👏 We also want to send a massive thank you to our hardworking support staff—we couldn’t have done it without your ongoing support and dedication. Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated to this truly worthy cause. If you would still like to contribute, donations can now be made on Arbor (apologies for the earlier technical hiccups, it’s all set up and working now!) or you can drop off cash donations after school. 💷 Check out all the wonderful photos from this morning here (and huge apologies that I didn't manage to photograph absolutely everyone—it was mad busy in the best way possible!) 📸 https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/macmillan-coffee-morning-2026
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RotaKids Careers Day Whole School Worship
Today our Whole School Worship was a little bit different as it was our RotaKids Careers Dress Up Day. All of the children and staff were dressed in their own clothes, showing what they want to be when they grow up. Mrs Ham started by asking the teachers to parade in their outfits. We had an astronaut, a singer, a doctor, a vet, a paddle coach and a baker. The children followed on and each class showed off their outfits too and there was such a range of career choices with lots of vets, hairdresser and footballers. After the parade, Mrs Ham selected the most unusual outfits and asked the children to guess what the children would like to be when they grow up. We had everything from DJ Jenson to King Jonas. It was a super Worship and we hope that today helps to broadens the children’s horizons, sparks curiosity, and helps them to link their skills to future opportunities.
Refugee Week: Year 3 Bubble Collection
As part of Refugee Week, Year 3 asked everyone to collect bubbles to support DARE. The bubble donations were picked up yesterday by the Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise (DARE). Year 3 is so proud of the fantastic response, and these items will now go directly to bringing joy and smiles to the children and families supported by DARE.
English-Year 3 Celebrate Refugee Week at the Global Tea Party!
As part of their learning this week, Year 3 have been exploring what it means to be a refugee or an asylum seeker. The children learned about some of the real challenges these individuals face, including the fact that asylum seekers are often given just under £37.00 to live on for an entire week. Discovering this really brought home the importance of our community efforts, helping the children see firsthand how much of a difference the bubble donations will make for families budgeting on so little. The children were also invited to a wonderful global tea party, where they experienced diverse cultures by tasting food from Greece, Palestine, Africa, Kurdistan, Sri Lanka and Italy. Year 3 were absolute superstars at the event, they represented the school exceptionally and truly sang their hearts out! As a special treat, the event organisers handed each child a small bag of sweets. Year 3, now fully appreciate how far our community's generosity will go in bringing joy to the children and families supported by the Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise (DARE). We are incredibly proud of their maturity and enthusiasm today!
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Smart School Councillors Raise £163 for 'The Brain Tumour Research'.
A huge thank you to all the parents and children for your incredible support at our recent bake sale; thanks to your generosity, we successfully raised £163.00 for ' The Brain Tumour Charity'. Our Smart School Councillors did a fantastic job organising the event and helping with the baking, resulting in an impressive spread of 180 biscuits and 100 fairy cakes. These funds will make a huge difference, allowing us to pay for 10 DNA preservation tubes and provide much-needed comfort to a child following their diagnosis by sending them a Brainy Bag and a cuddly bear. We are so proud of our students hard work and grateful to our wonderful community for helping us provide this vital support.
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