Celebration Worship
This week we have been learning all about peace and harmony. A huge thank you to Miss Kachwalla for delivering our inter faith workshops all about the religion of Islam. Last night, Mrs Ham went to church to welcome our new vicar, Rev Ben. We will be sharing our vicar with St Paul’s, Hoddlesden and can’t wait to see him at school soon. Today, Sophie and Lola announced our anti-bullying competition winners. There were over 200 entries across the borough and 2 prizes were awarded to our school. 3rd place went to Harlow and Eliza and 2nd place went to Wilson. A huge well done! We have had yet another busy week in school. Well done to our values points award winners: Renee, Archie, Miley, Eden, Hamza, Archie and Darci. Our overall house winner for this week is River Darwen, well done! Our amazing attendance winners for this week are Year 2 and Year 4! We celebrated our super dodgeball team and girls football team who played on Wednesday and Thursday night. We also celebrated individual achievements for swimming, football, Rainbows, dancing and kickboxing. Well done to Leonora, Isaac, Eliza, Sofia, Carmen, Noah, Annabel, Cassidy, Ted and Mason. We finished our worship by singing the song of peace.
Parents Evening Information
Dear Parents and carers, we are holding a face to face parents' evening on Wednesday 7th December in our school hall. Our teachers would also like to share your child's books with you too so that you can see how hard they have been working and you can see what they have been learning this term. Five minute appointments will be available from 2.00pm and 6.00pm. If you are flexible and can attend during school hours and after school, please select in school hours then we can give priority for the after school appointments to parents who are working through the day. Appointments can be booked through the same booking system that we used last year. A guide has been added to class dojo. Please click on the following link stbarnabasdarwen.schoolcloud.co.uk to book an appointment. Please note that the information in the software has been taken from our school management system so please use the information such as title, name, email etc that we have on your child's records. Hopefully you will be able to log in with the same details as last year as those of you who attended last time will already have an account. We politely ask that separated parents try to attend the same appointment so that our teachers don't have to repeat the same information and this also ensures that we have enough appointments for each child in school. However, if there are exceptional circumstances that require you to have separate appointments, please let our class teachers know. Our class teachers and I are really looking forward to welcoming you back into school to share how well your child has progressed this term. Please do not hesitate to message me if you have any issues booking an appointment. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
Monday Worship: Anti-Bullying Week
Today is the start of anti-bullying week. We have all worn our odd socks to show that we are all special and unique. Yesterday was world kindness day. The children said that every day should be world kindness day! We listened to Andy Day about odd socks day. The theme for anti-bullying week is reach out which means talk to somebody about bullying to say it is not ok. During anti-bullying week, we will focus on the Christian values of friendship, respect, courage and forgiveness. We will also focus on the British Values of mutual respect, individual liberty and tolerance. Bullying is when somebody does something mean and they keep doing it again and again. James said the victim would feel “really sad and emotional”. Mrs Ham explained the acronym STOP. If someone does something Several Times On Purpose then it is bullying and we should Speak To Other People. We played a game where the children had to put their thumbs up if they thought the action was bullying and thumbs down if they thought if wasn’t. Mrs Ham asked what would happen if they saw bullying taking place. James said he would tell them to stop, Eli said tell the teacher. It takes courage to do something about bullying. During our reflection we thought about how we are all different and how we need to treat each other with respect. We finished our worship by listening to Andy and the odd socks song.
Poppy Appeal
Good morning, thank you so much for your kind donations to our Poppy Appeal by the Royal British Legion. Our heads and deputies have been busy selling poppy merchandise every break time this week. Our stocks were running low but we have managed to purchase another box of poppy appeal merchandise including more slap bands. Therefore, if you would like to purchase further items such as another slap band or poppy zip tie, please send money into school tomorrow. They will be for sale during celebration worship for parents and carers and at break time for children. Many thanks for your generosity to such a worthy cause.
Online Safety: Online Bullying
Outwit the internet bullies with our #WakeUpWednesday guide
Mental Health and Wellbeing Support in School
Good morning parents and carers, please find attached the latest newsletter from the Mental Health Support Team. Mental health and wellbeing is given the highest priority in our school and is a big focus on our school improvement plan each year. We know that if children, staff or parents aren't emotionally well and happy then this can be a barrier to effective teaching and learning. In school both myself and Mrs Wilkinson are trained mental health first aiders who provide support and signpost support to children, parents and staff. We also have an Educational Mental Health Practitioner called Hazel Broadfield who works with us to provide families with support with mental health issues. We also have two trained ELSA's in school, Mrs Hegarty and Mrs Lyons, who provide emotional literacy support to specific children throughout school. Mrs Gardner, our PSHE lead also has a group of Wellbeing Warriors that help to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing and organise events. They are organising an Odd Socks day next Monday and have led a poster competition to launch Anti-bullying week. If you or your child are experiencing any issues linked to mental health and wellbeing, Mrs Wilkinson and I are always available to speak to on either informally on the yard or through arranging a meeting. Alternatively, there are also sections on our website where different services and groups linked to mental health and wellbeing are signposted. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/key-information/safeguarding https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/community-groups There are also services and groups signposted on the MHST newsletters. MHST run a Parent Support Group. It is an online group which is currently topic based. It is a space where information is shared with discussion between parents. Last group's topic was Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, where we explored what OCD is and how to support your child. There is no pressure to contribute or have your camera or microphone on, there is a chat function to contribute to the session. The next topic is Social Anxiety Wednesday 23rd November 2022 @ 6-7pm online via microsoft teams Please email [email protected] for a link to the meeting.
Monday Worship: Remembrance & Lilian Bader- One of the first black women in the Armed Forces
This week we are going to be thinking about Remembrance Day. Mrs Ham asked “why do we wear poppies?” James said that it is about the world war; Harriet said we raise money; Harlow said soldiers gave up their lives to fight for our country; Leonora said that when the war was over, poppies grew in a field; Kaylen said it is to remember those who passed away and Finn said the red of the poppy reminds us of blood. Mrs Ham lit a remembrance candle. Mrs Ham explained to the children what Remembrance Day is for which is this Friday. On Friday, we will be having a 2 minute silence to think about all of those people that died for us. Mrs Ham shared photographs of war memorials in Whitehall park and Bold Venture park. We watched a video together all about Remembrance Day. Mrs Ham then shared the story of Lilian Bader who died a few years ago, aged 97. Nobody would give her a job because of the colour of her skin. When the Second World War broke out, she was 21. Ladies were not allowed to fight in the war and only white men were allowed to fight. Lilian got a job making food for soldiers but after 7 weeks, she was told she had to leave her job as her Dad was not from Britain. Eventually, Lilian managed to get a job in the RAF and helped to fix the planes. Mrs Ham shared a video so that the children could learn more about her and the difference she made. During our reflection, we said a big thank you to everybody who sacrificed their lives in wars and conflict. We thought about our Christian values of service and peace. We finished our worship by singing a song of peace.
Invitation to Celebration Worships
Good morning, a quick reminder that parents, carers and grandparents are always very welcome to attend our Celebration Worships on Fridays at 9.15am. Potential parents of children who are due to start school in September are very welcome too. Refreshments will be served from 8.55am too. Parents of children who have received the most values points each week will be invited to attend via class dojo but other parents, carers and grandparents are very welcome to attend to hear about the great things we have been learning, attendance winners and sports stars etc. If your child has an award from an out of school club, please send it into school so they can receive their award on the golden podium and our whole school family can show them how proud we are. We look forward to welcoming you into school. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
Online Safety: Amigo parent guide
Is Amigo a friend or foe?
Monday Worship: All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls’ Day
Today is All Hallows Eve. We noticed that the word 'hallow' was in the Lord's Prayer that we sang on the way into Worship. It means Holy. Tomorrow, it is All Saints day which is a Christian celebration. A Saint is somebody who is really special and has done something really wonderful. Leonora said a Saint is somebody who follows God and Jesus’ example. On Wednesday it is All Soul’s Day and we remember everybody who has passed away. We watched a video about the origin of Halloween and All Hallow’s Eve. It was celebrated thousands of years ago by the Celts. Christians then celebrated it and honoured all of the Saints. Mrs Ham asked the children about the names of different Saints. Ella said Saint Barnabas, Matthew said Saint Paul, Miles said Saint James, Jack said Saint George, Charlie-Rose said Saint Joseph and Sofia said Saint Edward. The children noticed that Saints have halos around their heads. Mrs Ham shared some images of different Saints and which country they were the patron saint of. During our reflection, we thought about what we could do to follow Jesus, live our lives well and be Saints ourselves. We thought about what kind of person we really want to be. We ended our worship by singing ‘Oh when the Saints, go marching in’.
Whitehall Park Values Point Winner’s Disco
Whitehall Park team had a brilliant time at their disco for winning the most values points this half term through showing our Christian and British values. They showcased their best dance moves, played musical bumps, played the corners game and had some yummy sweets. I wonder which house team will win the most values points next half term?
Whole school Harvest service in Church
This morning our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children led our Harvest service in church. Our wonderful choir led the singing during the service. We gave thanks to the farmers and our WOW group reminded everybody about the charities that we are supporting, The Mother’s Union in Burundi and DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). The children made us all very proud. A huge thank you to all of the parents, carers and family members that attended too, it was lovely to see you all.
.png)