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Reception's First Week!
What a fantastic first week it has been! We could not be prouder of how our new Reception children have settled into school life. They have already proven to be a wonderful addition to our school family. Over the past few days, the children have been achieving great things—building new friendships, exploring their classroom, and showing incredible courage as they adapt to new routines and big changes. Seeing their confidence grow each day has been an absolute joy. We are so excited for a full week next week packed with fun, discovery, and learning!
Behaviour Update
Dear Parents and Carers, welcome back everyone! It has been wonderful to see the children looking so smart in their uniforms and being ready to learn. They have all come into school beautifully and behaved so well in worship this morning. A special welcome to our new Reception children who settled so well this morning and we are looking forward to our second group of children this afternoon. It was fantastic to see so many of our previous Year 6 children as they came to say hello and have a hug before starting at high school tomorrow. We wish all of our previous Year 6 children all the luck in the world as they start their high school journey this week. Remember, keep achieving great things and living life in all its fullness! Please find attached to class dojo a behaviour update document, which details some exciting updates to our school behaviour policy. We officially launched this new system during worship this morning! Because of this, you may have already noticed instant notifications popping up on your Class Dojo app today when your child was awarded a point. As outlined in the letter, we are moving away from our traditional "values points" and will now be using Class Dojo points to track and reward positive behaviour across the school. This means you will no longer have to wait for physical values awards to come home; instead, you will be able to see daily updates of your child's wonderful behaviour at the click of a button. Please take a few minutes to read the letter in full to learn more about: *How children earn points (such as following the "Four Be's" and demonstrating our Christian Values). *The exciting new individual, class, and house rewards. * Important adjustments to our Friday Celebration Worship and how we celebrate out-of-school achievements. Thank you for your continued support and we welcome your feedback!
Welcome Back Worship
It was wonderful having all of the children back today in worship. Mrs Ham welcomed everybody back to school and reminded us of our Christian values. We linked them to our school rules and recapped how to show our best behaviour around school. We also learnt about our new class dojo behaviour system. Some of the children were invited to the front to demonstrate their favourite morning greetings, and we ended the worship with our much-loved school rules song.
Welcome Back: Supporting Children's Return to Routine
School reopens for our children on Wednesday 2nd September. Returning to school after a break can be a significant adjustment for children and young people, particularly when routines, concentration and social confidence need time to rebuild. Our latest #WakeUpWednesday guide supports families, carers and education professionals with practical ways to make the transition smoother. The guide explores: • Restoring sleep and morning routines gradually • Creating predictability through clear expectations • Preparing school essentials in advance • Encouraging responsibility in age-appropriate ways • Supporting healthy nutrition, wellbeing and self-regulation • Reconnecting with learning, friendships and familiar routines With expert insight from Adam Gillett, Associate Vice Principal for Personal Development at Penistone Grammar School, this resource offers supportive ideas to help children return to school feeling more confident and prepared. Access the guide: https://vist.ly/5g6hq #Education #StudentWellbeing #BackToSchool #Safeguarding
Reception Amazing Attendance Award
A Huge Congratulations to our Reception children for receiving the 'Amazing Attendance Award'. We are so incredibly proud of you. By showing up ready to learn every day, you've made great progress!
Goodbye and Thank you
This morning, as part of our Leavers' Worship, we took the opportunity to say some very special goodbyes. We thanked Lucy for her many years of hard work and dedication to Friends of St Barnabas, Miss Kachwalla for her seven years of commitment to our teaching team, Mr Carter for his fantastic work teaching our Year 2 class this year, and Summer, who is relocating and moving to a new school. Here is the special thank you video that some of our staff and children created to say thank you and goodbye to Miss Kachwalla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsO8FEbXHQA We are incredibly grateful for everything each of you has contributed to our school community and wish you every success and happiness as you embark on your exciting new adventures. Good luck—you will all be greatly missed!
Whole School Worship- Spreading God's Love and Sharing Our Talents
During today's whole school worship, we had a session led by Rev Ben, who signed the Holy Trinity before we began a fun balloon race to reach the finishing line, where Mason, Summer, Peyton, Arlo, Charlie, Seb, and Willow weren't allowed to use their hands at all, which was highly entertaining to watch! After that, we thought about the "race of life" and St Paul, with Rev Ben reading us the story of Paul getting shipwrecked while the children joined in by repeating the words "not at all" throughout. There was a thoughtful moment aimed right at our Year 6's too, getting them to think about their next steps with the big question, "What is your task as you leave this place?" and they had some brilliant answers, saying their tasks were to spread the word of God and Jesus, show His love, and be a good friend to anyone feeling lonely at their new secondary schools. After the children shared some of their amazing talents, we ended worship with a prayer and singing "My Lighthouse" together.
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Reception- Circus Workshop
The hall was transformed into a bustling big top today as Reception took part in an incredible circus workshop! The children absolutely loved unleashing their inner acrobats and showed off some seriously impressive coordination. Throughout the workshop, they whirled and twirled as they balanced spinning plates, danced gracefully with colourful ribbons, juggled soft scarves, and bravely took to walking on stilts. They even practiced their laser focus by balancing delicate feathers, and there were endless giggles as they attempted to ride some very tricky bikes with no handlebars! What an absolute treat of a morning. Everyone had a brilliant time, and it is safe to say we have some future circus stars in our midst!
Summer Reading Challenge Assembly
Today, Jackie from the Library Service came in to talk to us about the Summer Reading Challenge. She told us about lots of exciting challenges and prizes, so look out for some more information coming home this week.
End of Year Awards and Celebration
We ended the year with pride at our annual awards ceremony, celebrating our children who have achieved great things and have been living life in all its fullness. It’s important to recognise that all of our children across school have been on an incredible journey this year and each and everyone one of them should be immensely proud of their accomplishments and the commitments they have shown to our school family. A huge well done to Our award winners this year: Reception - Star of the Year: Coban, Progress Award: Ronan, Children’s Champion: Poppy Y1 - Star of the Year: Marnie-May, Progress Award: Freddie, Children’s Champion: Albie Y2 - Star of the Year: Phoebe, Progress Award: Teddy, Children’s Champion: Joey Y3 - Star of the Year: Harry, Progress Award: Alice, Children’s Champion: Elijah Y4 Star of the Year: Finley, Progress Award: Lana, Children’s Champion: Emily Y5 - Star of the Year: Desmond, Progress Award: Miles, Children’s Champion: Olivia For our specialised awards this year, congratulations to Lottie on her acceptance of the Sharon Kay Kindness Award and Elijah for receiving the Planet Protector Award. What incredible achievements. We then excitedly announced the new roles and responsibilities for the upcoming Year 6 class. Please join us in saying well done to our new Heads, Deputies, Sports Leaders and Play Leaders for next year! Head girl: Olivia Deputy girls: Darcy and Sofia Head boy: Arlo Deputy boys: Desmond and James Sports leaders: Daisy, Alice, Eliza, Charlie, Carted, Ted. Play leaders - Alfie, Alexis, Nevaeh, Elliot, Leo, Peyton, Carmen, Miles, Layla, Heidi, Sonny, Harriet, Eliza, Daisy, Olivia. Lillie, Darcy, Sofia, James, Jack, Luke and Desmond - with more yet to be confirmed! We would also like to say a huge congratulations to our Netball team who came 2nd in the DPSSA Netball, and of course to the Overall Winners for DPSSA Witton Athletics - well done on representing our school amazingly well and your contributions to sports in school. Go Team Barnys! Lastly, we said an emotional Goodbye and Good luck to Miss Kachwalla, a valued and loved member of our school family, who is sadly relocating and leaving this year. It was clear to see what a wonderful impact Miss Kachwalla has had on our school and we thank her for the dedication, love and support she has provided to our children over the last few years. She leaves with a special place in all our hearts, but we know she will continue to shine in her next venture. Thank you Miss Kachwalla, we will miss you dearly!
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Reception- PSHE- Working Together Makes Us Stronger
In our PSHE lesson we looked at how working together as a team can make things better. In class we watched a video which showed us how teamwork makes us stronger but only when it’s good teamwork. We went outside and practiced our own teamwork games using the parachute.
RE - Buddhism - How other faiths pray
Today we looked at how other faiths pray and specifically Buddhism. We then watched how the Buddhist monks chant their prayers and meditate to seek enlightenment. Then we all had a go at meditation together.