Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.
Year 1 Hello Yellow Day
We loved celebrating Hello Yellow Day in Year 1. We discussed that Hello Yellow Day is raising awareness for mental health and the children shared times when they might have felt sad, lonely or scared. We read ‘I am Enough’ by Grace Byers to promote positive mental health and enjoyed lots of fun Hello Yellow activities in our areas like colouring, dot to dot and word searches.
Year 2-World Mental Health Day
Year 2 celebrated World Mental Health Day today! Everyone came dressed in yellow and spent time learning about how important it is to look after ourselves. We talked about what we can do when we’re feeling a bit down — like doing things we love, spending time with friends and family, and talking about how we feel. The children shared lots of great ideas about what makes them happy and how they can stay positive. Well done Year 2!
Online Safety: Dealing with traumatic and challenging events
Support children through adversity. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide offers compassionate advice to help young people navigate traumatic and challenging events. Download your FREE copy here: https://vist.ly/49nng
Reception: Muddy Monday
Wow! On Monday the children in Reception blew Mrs Wilkinson's and Mrs Thompson's socks off! They walked over 2km around Jacks Key. The children listened to sounds they could hear, looked at what they could see under a bridge and used their imaginations chanting trip trap and the bear hunt story. The children had lots of fun!
Online Safety: EA Sports FC 26
Kick-off caution! EA FC 26 brings back all the footballing fun – but with potential #OnlineSafety concerns around voice chat, in-game purchases and scams, our #WakeUpWednesday guide gives trusted adults the full picture. Download your FREE copy here https://vist.ly/48tux
Reception - PSHE - Hand hygiene
This week in PSHE we have been learning all about how important it is to keep your hands clean and how germs pass onto different people and objects. We used different coloured glitter on our hands and practiced hand shakes and ‘high fives’ then touching objects and pieces of fruit to see how the germs mixed and spread. We then put glitter in a bowl of water and added a drop of soap to disperse the glitter and demonstrate how the soap kills the germ and why it is important to wash our hands with soap and water.
Year 4 Picture News - Primary Park Run
In our class worship we shared Picture News which introduced the new initiative of a ‘Primary Parkrun’ which aims to bring junior running events closer to primary schools. It is inclusive and not just about fitness, but also about helping children build friendships, confidence and life skills in their local community. We then moved onto looking at community and what the bible tells us about the importance of getting together as a community. Christians believe service to others is very important, because it helps demonstrate love for God and others. We loved really like the quote from Phil Jackson who is an NBA coach as we really believe it to be true. ‘The strength of. Team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team’
Year 3- Science- Learning About UV Light and Sun Protection
Today, the Year 3 students became scientists as they carried out an investigation exploring the light that comes from the sun and how to stay safe in it. They tested the effect of sunlight on ultraviolet beads using different sun creams: SPF 15, SPF 30, SPF 50, and no sun cream at all. Our buzzing scientists made predictions about what might happen to happen to the beads coated in sun cream and without. The investigation used ultraviolet (UV) beads, which are special beads that change colour when exposed to ultraviolet light. This makes them a great tool for demonstrating the effects of UV radiation, the type of light that can cause sunburn and skin damage. Sun cream contains chemicals that absorb or reflect UV radiation, preventing it from reaching the skin. The Sun Protection Factor (SPF) number indicates how well the sun cream protects against UVB rays, the primary cause of sunburn. A higher SPF means greater protection. They then carefully recorded their observations, and thought scientifically about the results. They finally wrote conclusions explaining why it is important to use sun cream with a high SPF value to protect our skin. The higher the SPF value of the sun cream, the more effectively it blocks UV radiation. This visual and hands-on demonstration reinforces the importance of using sun cream with a high SPF to protect our skin from the harmful effects of the sun. The experiment serves as a powerful reminder that UV rays are always present in sunlight and that protection is essential, even on cloudy days
Online Safety: Youth Violence
1 in 4 young people in the UK are affected by youth violence – our #WakeUpWednesday guide with advice from the Ben Kinsella Trust offers expert advice to help parents and teachers keep children safe. Download your FREE copy here https://vist.ly/47wwn
Year 5 - PSHE
In PSHE, we studied the factors that make positive relationships. We discussed what a positive relationship looks like and how trust, honesty, respect, fun, kindness, and safety are key ingredients for a ‘relationship cake recipe.’
Reception: Muddy Monday
The children in Reception class had a fabulous first Muddy Monday session. They built dens, created bug houses and enjoyed making potions together. They showed super team work skills and their imaginations were running wild. Well done Reception!