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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by reflecting on our theme for this week which was ‘Heaven on Earth.’ Mrs Ham asked us to think about things that we have done in school this week to support this. We had answers such as encouraging each other, helping people up when they are hurt and sharing our kind words and manners. We reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included prayers for our fears and worries as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, enjoying a worship with Rev Matt on the theme of dedication and perseverance, learning the Makaton sign for ‘sad,’ Year 4 welcoming St Matthews into our school on Monday as part of their linking schools project, two of our Worship Our Way group members (Daisy and Grace) attending the Pupil’s RE Conference 2025, Year 4 delivering a whole class worship on Mental Health Awareness, our Year 5/6 Netball Squad representing our school brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league again last night and coming away with two victories, our Year 5/6 Netball team who attended the Bee Stinger Netball finals at St Bedes on Tuesday and being crowned the BwD champions, Isaac, Ivy, Charlie and Oscar attending the Times tables Rockstar competition at Belmont on Wednesday afternoon and our Year 3/4 mixed cricket team for playing brilliantly at Darwen Cricket Club on Wednesday showing super teamwork and determination. Furthermore, we congratulated Peyton and Elliott in Year 4 for working hard to achieve their pen license, our Year 1 and Year 4 classes for being our attendance winners this week and Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 393 points. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Max, Leila, Lenny and Maggie in EYFS and KS1 and Cassidy, Alfie, Reuben and Tyler in KS2, Well done to these children for working incredibly hard across the curriculum and consistently displaying exceptional behaviour through demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Ralphy for being the coach’s dream and showing super skill at football, Charlie and Isabella for achieving their red belts at kickboxing, Annabel for being a super committed Rainbow, Fletcher for being award the Player’s Player of the Match in a recent football game, Cassius for achieving Stage 2 in his swimming, Hendrix for taking part in the Squirrel’s Sports Day, Callie for swimming 25m and being award the dragon at jiu jitsu, Thea for being a superstar Rainbow and achieving Olivia doll, Olivia for achieving Stage 3 in her gymnastics and Esmae, Leonora and Desmond for competing in the micro-league at Darwen Leisure Centre. To end our worship, Mrs Ham wished us all a lovely restful holiday and we had a singalong to ‘Our God is a Great Big God’.
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Happy half term!
Dear Parents and Carers, As we reach the end of another busy half term, we want to extend our sincerest thanks for your continued support. Your partnership is invaluable, and we truly appreciate everything you do for our school family. It's been another fantastic week, full of learning, achieving great things, and fun! Here are just a few of the highlights: * Year 4 had a wonderful time welcoming visitors from their link school, St. Matthew's. They're already looking forward to visiting them on the first Monday back after the holiday! *Our incredible netball team has been on a winning streak! They won the final of the Bee Stinger Netball competition and will now go on to represent our borough – a truly amazing achievement! Our netball squad also won all of their games for the third week in a row in the netball league. *Year 3 enjoyed a fascinating session learning all about Judaism from Lennox's auntie. *Our Reception class had a fantastic time with Muddy Monday, hunting for bugs, and a brilliant forest school session building habitats and dens. *A big well done to our Year 4/5 cricket team for their outstanding sportsmanship in the cricket competition. *Reception class also enjoyed learning all about Islam from Miss Kachwalla. *Two of our WOW group members and Mrs. Araujo had a brilliant day taking part in the Diocesan RE Conference. *Year 4 led a super worship all about how we can support our mental health and wellbeing – an incredibly important topic. *We had great fun in Worship with Rev. Matt, especially with the mystery game and learning about the miracle of Tabitha being brought to life. For all of the news in detail from each class see our news page: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news You can find details of our upcoming events next half term here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Thank you to our staff team for their phenomenal hard work and unwavering dedication this half term, as well as supporting and transporting at sports competitions. Now, it's time for a well-deserved break! We wish you all wonderful two-week half term holiday. Take this time to rest, recharge, and truly live life in all its fullness! We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for an exciting next half term on Monday 9th June! Enjoy your holidays, Becky Ham
Reception- Forest School
This afternoon we have enjoyed a forest school session. We have had fun bug hunting, habitat building, role playing, and den building. The children learnt about different flowers and trees in our environment and had a great time exploring.
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Worship with Rev. Matt
Today in worship with Rev. Matt, the children began with an engaging game involving a mystery box. Selected children had to reach inside and guess the hidden item using only their sense of touch. This fun activity led into a meaningful Bible story about effort, kindness, and being present for others. Rev. Matt shared the story of a woman named Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, who lived in the town of Joppa. Tabitha was known for always doing good and helping those in need — especially widows and the poor. She spent her time sewing clothes for people in her community and showing love through her actions. Sadly, Tabitha became very ill and died. Her friends were heartbroken and sent for Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples. When Peter arrived, he prayed for her — and miraculously, she came back to life! This amazing moment reminded everyone that the good we do for others matters, and that God sees and values our efforts. The story encouraged the children to think about how they can show kindness and be a positive presence in the lives of others, just like Tabitha.
Reception- Learning all about the Mosque
On Wednesday we had the pleasure of Ms. Kachwalla teaching us all about what it’s like to be a Muslim and the differences and similarities between Christianity and Islam. We learnt all about the mosque and how Muslims pray five times a day using a prayer mat, that Muslims take their shoes off before they enter the mosque and their holy book is called the Quran.
Online Safety: Violent Content Online
Violence, viral videos and vulnerability. Most kids aren’t looking for violent content online – but they’re still seeing it. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday guide explores the impact and offers advice for trusted adults. Download your FREE copy here >> https://ow.ly/KcKr50VVJxp
Reception- Muddy Monday
Today during our Muddy Monday session, we went minibeast exploring in Jack’s Key. The children used magnifying glasses and Petri dishes to take a closer look at the amazing minibeasts our local area has to offer. They were excited to discover a variety of tiny creatures, including worms, spiders, and woodlice, carefully observing their features and movements.
Reception- Muddy Monday
During our Muddy Monday session, the children also put up their shelter, using nearby trees to help anchor and support the structure. They worked together to stretch and secure the materials, thinking carefully about how to make it stable, while also looking for mini beasts.
Whole School Worship- Your Kingdom Come
During our whole school worship, we continued looking at the special Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught us. We began by imagining what our world might look like if we were in charge for a day. The children shared thoughtful and creative ideas, such as a world filled with kindness, fairness, and care for the environment. This engaging activity led naturally into our focus on the next part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.” We took time to reflect on what God’s kingdom should look like—a place where love, kindness and peace are present in everything we do. Together, we discussed how we can each play a part in God’s kingdom through our actions and behaving the way He would want. We then turned our attention to the concept of heaven and how it connects to this line of the Lord's prayer. The children were encouraged to share with each other their thoughts on what heaven might be like. Their ideas were rich and varied, painting pictures of a world filled with happiness, joy and light. Jesus tells us through the Lord's prayer that God wants His Kingdom to be like heaven on earth so we reflected on how we could create heaven on earth in our school each day. We had some fantastic answers such as showing kindness, respect and generosity to each other. This worship helped deepen our understanding of the Lord’s Prayer and reminded us all of the role we can play in making our world a better place, starting with small, meaningful actions in our everyday lives.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by collectively signing our new Makaton signs ‘yes’, ‘no,’ and ‘happy’ and congratulating our amazing Year 6 children for their incredible efforts in their SATs and the way that they have tackled them with nothing but smiles and positivity. We are so proud of you all! We also reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included prayers for the world as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, Reception having a visit from Nightingale Farm, Year 3 visiting Rock & River, Year 5 enjoying their PGL residential, having our DACA students join our school on work experience and our Year 5/6 Netball Squad who represented St Barnabas brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league last night and came away with three victories. Furthermore, we congratulated Ted in Year 4 for working hard to achieve his pen license, our Year 2 and Year 5 classes for being our attendance winners this week with 99.2% and 100% attendance and River Darwen as our value award winners this week with 226 points. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Minnie, Elsie and Harry in EYFS and KS1 and Alice in KS2. Well done to these children for working incredibly hard, pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and showing our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). We also congratulated the whole of the Year 3 & 5 classes for being amazing on their trip to PGL and Rock & River. They were extremely courageous, encouraged each other every step of the way and represented our school amazingly. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 161 points. We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Luna for achieving her Stage 1 in swimming, Olivia, Annie and Thea for being incredibly kind and caring at Rainbows, Hollie for achieving her Stage 2 in swimming, Lyla for achieving a distinction in her recent ballet exam, Jack for being the Player of the Match and achieving the Captain’s Armband in a recent football game, Annabel for achieving an entry level award for her music performance at Rocksteady and being Star of the Week at dancing, Eliza and Darcy for their commitment to Brownies, Maggie for achieving a gold award in Rainbows alongside multiple other certificates and badges, Olivia for being the Player of the Match and achieving the Captain’s Armband in a recent football game, Haydn for incredible football and Poppy, Brooke and Laila for being the EFLA cup winners 2025. To end our worship, we collective listened to this week’s Year of Prayer, said the Grace and sang ‘Sing a New Song.’ Thank you to all of our school family who could attend celebration worship and we thank you for your ongoing support. We send an extended thank you to the rest of our school family. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine. The slides can be found on class dojo or here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
Reception Farm Visit
Today, the Reception class had a special visitor – Farmer Steph! She brought a very cute, two-week-old lamb named Olly and two chicks for the children to see. Steph talked about what it's like to look after farm animals and the jobs she has to do. The children learned that pigs are surprisingly good at digging and help turn over the soil on the farm and their chickens each lay one egg every day! Thank you to Nightingale Farm for sharing their animals with us.
Reception PE
The Reception class had a great lesson playing collecting games! They worked in teams to find ‘animal food’ and put them in their ‘nests’ to see who could get her the most. This involved listening carefully to instructions and working together as a team, sharing and helping each other. We then played ‘farmyard tig’ where the animals had to escape the farmers, demonstrating their agility and pace.