Reception Maths Bingo
This week in Maths, we have been revisiting our subitising skills to play a game of bingo with our friends. We rolled a 1-3 die and subitised the pictures on the bingo board to identify the matching amount. The children are doing so well at thinking fast and can identify amounts quickly.
EYFS Stay and Play
A huge thank you to all the parents who joined us for our stay and play session! At the end of the session, it was wonderful to see the children light up as they shared their phonics knowledge with you, enthusiastically showing off the sounds they have learnt alongside all the matching actions. A real highlight of the session was listening to them proudly retell the story 'The Something' through song, where they amazed us all by weaving in fantastic vocabulary like remarkable, peered, delighted, and wondered. They were equally excited to play teacher and explain the four key parts of a story using our friendly characters—Octopus Opening, Build Up Bear, Problem Penguin, and Elephant Ending. We are so grateful for your continued support and partnership, and we hope you enjoyed seeing your children's learning in action. Our next Stay and Play session is on 12th November at 2.30pm.
Hello Yellow Day Collective Worship
This morning, Mrs Gardner, our PSHE leader, The Wellbeing Warriors, some of our Year 4 children and our Head and Deputy Head’s led a special Collective Worship in celebration of Hello Yellow Day. They raised awareness of mental health and the importance of discussing our feelings, doing the things that we love and spreading kindness. Last week, Year 4 wrote some beautiful wonder poems in celebration of National Poetry Day and they shared these with us this morning and Thorncliffe Nursing Home last week. This was a wonderful act of kindness that brought huge smiles to the resident’s faces. They set us the challenge of spreading kindness and positivity today. We all then joined with a Hello Yellow Parade with each class showing off their amazingly yellow outfits. Thank you to our wonderful school community for all of their efforts… we were a sea of yellow. We then finished our worship with a very special prayer and sing along. What a joyous worship that helped to make us all feel brighter on a wet and miserable morning! 💛✨😁
Reception - Hello Yellow Day
Our Reception class was transformed into a sea of sunshine today as we came together to celebrate Hello Yellow Day in support of YoungMinds and young people's mental health. Dressed in vibrant yellow clothing, our Reception children looked like a true ray of sunshine! Throughout the day, the children took part in a range of uplifting activities designed to boost their mood and promote wellbeing. The classroom was filled with calm and focus during mindfulness colouring sessions, where we enjoyed taking time to relax and create. We also let loose with some fun dancing to boost our energy, filling the room with smiles, music, and feel-good fun. Hello Yellow Day was a wonderful opportunity for our Reception children to learn about kindness, taking care of their feelings, and supporting one another.
Reception Mystery Reader
Our Reception children were treated to another Mystery Reader this afternoon. Liliana's Mummy joined us to read 'The Wonky Donkey' and 'There's a bear in your book!' The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to these funny stories and were so engaged. A big thank you to Liliana's Mummy for giving up her time to share these wonderful books with the children.
Reception Stay and Play
Our Reception children were thrilled to welcome so many parents and carers to their very first Stay and Play session this week! It was wonderful to see such a brilliant turnout, and we want to extend a massive thank you to everyone who joined us. The children took great pride in taking their visitors on a tour of their learning environment, showing off all the hard work they do every day in both the classroom and the outdoor area. From creative crafts and construction to exploring the outdoor learning zones, the room was buzzing with excitement and collaborative play. To top off a fantastic session, the children gathered together to perform 'Our God is. Great big God' for their special guests. Thank you once again to all the families who came along. We look forward to welcoming you back for the next one! It was great to see some pre-school children there too and thank you to the families who came to visit our school yesterday at one of our open days. It was lovely to meet you and we hope you will bring your children back to one of our upcoming stay and play sessions or open days. All of the dates can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events
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Whole School Worship
Today in worship, the children were treated to an exciting online worship from Picture News exploring the importance of inclusive sport and how we can break down barriers that may prevent people from taking part. We learnt about the struggles that Stef Reid, a Paralympic athlete, faced when she lost her foot in an accident. She was determined to run again though after being a keen sportswoman before her accident and she went on to win many medals in a number of Paralympic Games events including running and long jump. She then retired from athletics but then took up figure skating and competed in Dancing on Ice. What an inspiration! The children discussed how everyone has different strengths, abilities and experiences, and explored the idea that there is always more than one way to achieve something and to never give up, just like Stef. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to think about inclusion, resilience and the importance of supporting and encouraging others.
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Reception: RE
This week in RE, as part of our "I am Special" unit, we read the wonderful story Clever Cub and the Case of the Worries. Inspired by Phil the Philosopher, who reminds us how important it is to express our emotions, the children spent time talking about moments when they have felt worried. Georgie shared that she felt worried about her leg when she fell over, Liliana talked about feeling worried when her sister was poorly, and Alissa mentioned that she sometimes feels worried at nighttime. We then reflected on who we can trust and turn to when we feel this way: Everley said God, Matthew said Daddy, and Amelia said Jesus. Expanding on who we can speak to, Noah mentioned Daddy, Louie shared Grandpa, and Everley noted that a teacher is always there to help. To support the children moving forward, we have introduced a class Worry Monster! The children can tell their worries to the monster, who safely locks them away to help everyone feel better. They absolutely loved sharing their worries with our new helper this afternoon!
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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, Mrs Ham opened our Celebration Worship by telling us that today is World Smile Day. We talked about how smiles are infectious and how we are going to work even harder than we normally do to put a big smile on people’s faces and spread happiness, love and kindness. This week, we have enjoyed a wonderful variety of extra-curricular clubs, some fantastic worships and an extra-special day yesterday, celebrating National Poetry Day and Give Like Dolly Day. We then presented our Barney’s Brilliant Beacons. A huge well done to Reggie, Minnie, Luna, Poppy, Everley and Matthew in EYFS and KS1, and Joey, Skye, Marley, Mila, Iris, Oliver and Tristen in KS2. Well done to these fantastic children for their exemplary behaviour, exceptional attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs and our Christian Values. We are incredibly proud of you! Looking ahead to next week, we are excited to welcome families to our second Open Day for the 2027 Reception intake on Wednesday, as well as our Stay and Play session in EYFS on Thursday. We will also be celebrating Hello Yellow Day next Friday, 9th October, before coming together for a special Harvest Service at St Barnabas Church on Sunday, 11th October. We ended our worship by congratulating Year 4 on being our Walk to School Winners for September, followed by some beautiful prayers from Iris, Alfie and Mrs Ham. What a wonderful way to end another fantastic week at Barney’s! 🌟
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Reception Mystery Reader
In celebration of Give Like Dolly Day, Reception enjoyed a very special storytime session today when Theo's mummy came to visit. The children were so excited to hear the story 'I really really need a wee!' It was such a funny story and the children loved it. We would like to send a big thank you to Theo's mummy for taking the time to share this brilliant book with us!
Reception - Give like Dolly Day
Reception came together to celebrate "Give Like Dolly Day," honoring Dolly Parton and her inspiring love of reading and storytelling. To celebrate her generous spirit, the children shared their favourite stories with one another, filling our classroom with imagination and togetherness. We embraced Dolly’s joy by singing, dancing, and colouring bright, vibrant pictures to spread happiness throughout the room. It was a wonderful day dedicated to sharing kindness, celebrating books, and carrying on Dolly’s passion for bringing joy to others!
Reception Maths - Counting to 5
This week in Reception, our early mathematicians have been exploring cardinality and honing their counting skills up to 5. We have been discovering that the main reason we count is to find out "how many" objects we have in total. Through hands-on activities, the children have practised careful, one-to-one counting, learning the crucial rule of cardinality: the last number we count tells us how many there are altogether. Whether counting physical objects, actions, sounds or pictures, the children have been building strong foundations in number sense and gaining confidence in declaring the final total!
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