PSHE Feelings Reception
This afternoon Reception took some time in PSHE to think of others, to recognise how someone may be feeling and discuss what they could do to help. We had some lovely suggestions including making a cake. We then took our idea outside and took turns to make a special cake to give to someone. The children enjoyed mixing, encouraging their friends and also decorating the cakes so they are all unique just like us.
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Whole School Worship & Farewell to Mrs Norton
It is with great sadness that we are saying goodbye to our school cook of 19 years, Mrs Norton, this week. In our whole school worship we celebrated all Mrs Norton has done for us by inviting some of our children to share memories and messages of thanks. Each class made Mrs Norton a special card and Mrs Ham presented her with some gifts from our school family. We wish her well as she embarks on a new chapter. Mrs Ham also shared an update about our Harvest collections for Dare and we practised our songs for the Harvest service.
Reception: Diwali Super Learning Day
We have had a super Diwali learning day today! We made Rangoli patterns with natural resources that we created, made cards, created Mendhi, made Diva lamps, sang, learnt a Bollywood dance and explored lots of different Hindi artefacts too. What a brilliant day!
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we began our worship by reflecting on what has been a busy but thoroughly enjoyable week. Mrs Ham started by thanking everyone for their wonderful efforts in raising awareness for mental health during last Friday’s Hello Yellow Day. She also expressed her appreciation to all the children who attended the Harvest Church Service at St Barnabas Church on Sunday, accompanied by Mrs Araujo, Mrs Wilkinson, and Mrs Govan. The children sang beautifully and truly gave it their all. We also recognised the many children supporting Rotakids by donating winter coats and shoeboxes filled with essentials for DARE (Darwen Asylum Refuge). Mrs Ham reminded us that we can continue to support important causes by taking part in Bishop Phillip’s Pedalathon, raising funds for Christians in South Africa by getting out on our bikes and putting in some miles. We are also still collecting Harvest donations for the local food bank and DARE. We took time to congratulate our individual Value Award winners this week: Poppy, Olivia and Skye in EYFS and KS1, and Renee, Lyla, Walter and Ruby in KS2, for consistently following Barny’s 4Bs, working incredibly hard across the curriculum, and showing great growth and maturity during their first half-term in their new classes. Our congratulations also went to our Year 2 and Year 3 classes for being this week’s attendance winners. A big well done to India Mill, who were our weekly Value Award winners with an impressive 236 points, and also our overall Value Award winners for the half-term. As a reward, they will enjoy a non-uniform day and disco — with the date to be announced shortly. We were delighted to recognise a number of pupils for their achievements outside of school this week. Well done to Jonas for settling in so well after recently joining Squirrels, and to Phoebe for earning a badge at Rainbows and always bringing positivity and laughter. Callie has been an excellent role model at martial arts, while Elijah was awarded Beaver of the Week for his enthusiasm and willingness to get involved. James impressed with his fantastic fielding in cricket, Lyla performed beautifully in her lyrical dancing, and Sofia was named Star of the Week at acro while also earning several badges at Brownies. Charlie achieved 25 metres in all swimming strokes, Olivia received her Silver Award at Rainbows, Willow showed amazing gymnastics skills, Lydia earned her Gold Award at Rainbows, and Eleanor achieved her Amazing Helper badge. We also congratulated our Year 4 pupils for representing the school so well at the Cidari Earth Conference at Blackburn Cathedral yesterday, and praised our girls' football team for their continued efforts in the DPSSA league. Finally, a reminder that next week is a four-day week due to an INSET day on Friday. We also have our Halloween Spooky Disco on Wednesday evening, organised by FOSB, and our Harvest Church Service taking place on Thursday morning. Please check Class Dojo for more details. Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!
Reception- PE- Jumping
In our PE session we started with a warm up game of ‘traffic lights’ to help focus the children and develop their listening skills. We then went on developing the fundamental skill of jumping by bending both our knees, swinging our arms and keeping our feet together to take off and land steadily in a position with both feet together.
Reception Autumn Activities
This week has been all things Autumn in Reception! We have been looking at seasonal change and how the environment around us is starting to look and feel different. We created hedgehog collages, counted Autumn treasures, finger painted Autumn leaves and used Autumnal colours to create patterns on leaves.
Reception PSHE - Who can I ask for help?
This week in PSHE, we have been following on our learning about Special People and have been thinking about who we can ask for help when we feel sad, worried, scared or unsafe. With help from our friend Harold the giraffe, We talked about who we would go to for help at home and at school and what to do if those people are busy.
Reception: Muddy Monday
For our Monday Monday this week the children in Reception have been finding Autumn treasures. They loved finding and exploring why the leaves have changed colour and saw a variety of different Autumnal leaves. The children also learnt what deciduous and evergreen trees were. We also found conkers and acorns. Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Thompson were really impressed with the children's walking as they walked all the way to Whitehall Park. Well done!
Reception - Hello Yellow Day
Reception have enjoyed raising awareness for Young Minds through wearing yellow today and taking part in lots of activities that enhance our happiness. We took part in some cosmic yoga to calm our minds, created beautiful pictures and talked about different feelings from the film ‘inside out.’ The children were very thoughtful about their feelings and what we can do when we are feeling sad, scared or angry.
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.
Reception Maths - Subitising Bingo
This week in Maths, Reception have been really focusing on their subitising skills and have applied this quick thinking to a game of Bingo! We took turns to roll a die of 1-3 and subitised the images on our boards to match the numeral to the amount. Once we had covered all the images on our board we shouted ‘Bingo!’ We really enjoyed playing this game together.
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!
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