Whole School Worship: Thankfulness
It was wonderful to have our worship led by Rev Ben today. Today, we are going to be thinking about thankfulness. To begin our worship, we played a game of guess the animal. Well done to David, Carter, Ivy, Neve and Aisha for taking part. We are so thankful for God’s wonderful creations which include a frog, monkey, a fish, a panda and a lion. As we guess those wonderful animals, they are all very different. Some are big, some are small, some are colourful, some are loud and some are quiet. However, we are not always good at looking after God’s creation. When we don’t look after God’s creation like we should, he will always forgive us. Rev Ben gave us time to think about what we want to thank God for and we also had a think about how we can show our thankfulness for the amazing world we live in. Archie said he is thankful for us, Alice said she is thankful for all of the trees, Sadie is thankful for food and Carter is thankful for nature. Harlee said we shouldn’t litter, Daniel said we need to switch the lights off and Iris said that we need to care for the animals. Rev Ben led us in prayer and we joined in with a new song called ‘God of Science’. We loved the song! A huge thank you to Rev Ben.
Whole School Worship: Martin Luther King Jr Day
We started our worship with our happy tank and we practised our kindness today. We then thought about what Jesus meant when he said you should love your neighbour as yourself. Elsie said your neighbour means everybody. Mrs Ham read a book ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ all about Martin Luther King Jr. It is important to stand up for what is right and love your neighbour, just like Martin Luther King Jr did. If people like Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks hadn’t stood up for what was right then the world wouldn’t be a nice place to live in. Martin Luther King Jr had a dream that people would judge people on their character rather than their skin colour. We had a think about our character today and how others may describe our character. If we show all of our Christian values then we will have a great character. This week we will focus on treating each other fairly. We will also have a think about how we can help other people to make their lives better and we will focus on showing love and kindness towards each other. Freddie said we could be brave and stand up for what is right, Alfie said we could be respectful, Grace said we could donate items to other people, Jack said we could show friendship and Lyla said we could show courage. We then thought about what our dream for the world would be and we had some wonderful ideas such as no violence, no wars, living in peace. everyone being treated fairly and with kindness etc. We finished our worship by singing ‘Make a difference’.
Whole School Celebration Worship
During our whole school Worship this morning, a few of our children shared their special gifts from God; being good at skating, swimming, football, gymnastics, basketball and rugby and some children said having loving and caring parents was their special gift from God. It was also lovely to hear that the children have been reflecting on their daily choices which was our Happy Tank focus for this week. The class teachers presented a value certificate to the child/children that has been demonstrating our Christian and British values and making the right choices. Prizes were given out to our 'Road Safety' winners, the entries were from last year and the children were thrilled with their winnings. Mrs Ham celebrated our sports stars for their dedication and commitments for taking part in extracurricular activities. Our amazing attendance classes this week were reception and Year 3 and the winning team for getting the most value points was Whitehall Park, putting them in first place. Rev Ben ended our Worship with a lovely prayer and blessing. What another brilliant week at St Barnabas and the children really have been achieving great things!
Online Safety: Warcraft
#WakeUpWednesday meets World of Warcraft ⚔
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Parent/Carer Support Group from the Mental Health Support Team
Here are the details for the next parent support group from the Mental Health Support Team (MHST).
Coram Life Education & SCARF workshops
Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools. Over the next couple of days all of our children in school will have a fun and interactive PSHE workshop delivered by Megan and her friend Harold the Giraffe, from Coram Life Education. Reception: All About Me Year 1: Feelings Year 2: My Wonderful Body Year 3: Meet the Brain Year 4: It's great to be me Year 5: Friends Year 6: Decisions The children really enjoyed the workshops last year and they learnt a great deal. These sessions are part funded by the local authority and the school have contributed the rest. Our staff will also be having training on Coram resources that can be used in PSHE lessons. If you would like to speak to Megan and learn more about the workshops or how you can support your child with their personal, social and health education, you are very welcome to call into school from 8.45-9.00am this Wednesday morning. There is also a website with information for parents about how you can support your child's wellbeing, help them develop a growth mindset and how to talk to them about sensitive issues etc. https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/family-scarf
Mental Health Support Team January Newsletter
Please find attached the latest newsletter from the mental health support team, who we work closely with in school. This month there are some great tips and signposts for ways that parents can support their own mental health and wellbeing, as well as their children's mental health and wellbeing. For all of the newsletters from the Mental Health Team, please click here https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/newsletters
Monday Worship: Epiphany
Last week we focussed on breathing with the happy tank. This week, we learnt how to reflect. We spent three minutes thinking about something that has happened to us today. Reflection time for ourselves is important and helps us to relax and fill up our happy tanks. On Friday we started our learning about the Epiphany. It took 12 days for the kings to meet baby Jesus and so the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th January. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means ‘making known’. The kings followed a big star which helped to make people know that Jesus had been born. One important thing that the festival of Epiphany reveals is that God doesn’t have favourites but welcomes people from any background and any nationality. Mrs Ham read a story from her rhyming Bible all about the kings journey and everyone joined in with actions for the repeated refrain. Thank you to our amazing actors in Year 6. Sadie, Manni, Isaac, Elsie and Carter did a brilliant job. The kings brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Gold is a gift fit for a king, Frankincense was given as it is a holy fragrance and Myrrh was given to indicate that Jesus’ death would be important. During our reflection, we thought about our special gifts. This week, we will really focus on how we can share them with others and how we can show respect for other people’s gifts. We finished our worship singing ‘We three kings’.
Whole School Celebration Worship
This morning during whole school celebration worship, we learnt about Epiphany and celebrated our achievements in school this week. It was lovely to hear that some of the children had used the breathing techniques that we learnt on Monday from John, the Kindness Coach's, happy tank programme over the week. Class teachers spoke about our first week back in school and how the children have settled back into our school routine brilliantly. Mrs Ham announced our amazing attendance classes of the week in KS1 and KS2. Well done Reception and Year 4! We then celebrated some fantastic sports stars, both in and outside of school!
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Latest newsletter
Happy new year to you all! I hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday with your loved ones. It has been wonderful to have all of the children back in school although I think it was a bit of a shock to the system being back in school today and I know it certainly felt like that for myself and our staff team. Our class teachers will shortly be sharing information with you about what your child will be learning this half term. As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me via class dojo, on the school yard or via the school office. Thanks for your continued support and we are looking forward to another brilliant year at St Barnabas, Mrs Ham
Whole School Worship: Happy new year!
It was lovely to have everyone together for our first worship of 2023. Happy new year to everyone! We took a few moments as we lit our advent wreath to think about Jesus and how he came to bring hope, peace, joy and love to the world and how he wanted us live life in all its fullness. A few of our children shared their new year resolutions. Alice said she wants to eat more healthily, Tristen’s is to always have a smile on his face, Sadie is to not talk back to her parents and Kaylen’s is to go outside more. Mrs Ham shared hers which is to be happy. Mrs Ham reminded us all of the kindness coach, John Magee. She introduced us all to the happy tank. We watched a video from John who explained what the happy tank was. One of the elements is to take some time to rest. During this time, we need to focus on our breathing which can help us to find peace. We all focussed together on our breathing for 2 minutes. Beau said that it made her feel calm and Jacob said it made him feel happy. Mrs Ham shared with everybody a happy calendar that we will follow throughout January. We watched a clip from ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’. At the beginning the fox was very angry but by the end he was happy. He filled up his happy tank by the boy, the mole and the horse showing him kindness. This year we need to really focus on how we can be kind to others and to ourselves. Through that, we also need to think about how we can find happiness and spread it to others. We all said a new year prayer together and ended our worship with the song ‘Shine from the inside out’.
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Amazing Attendance Award Winners
A huge well done to our amazing attendance award winners! We are so proud of them as they have achieved over 96% this Autumn term. Well done everyone!
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