Friday Celebration Worship
*Celebration Worship* Today, we started our celebration worship by signing this week’s Makaton sign which was ‘How Are You?’ and we thanked everyone for their enormous generosity on the lead up to Easter. We walked 2627.6km and raised a wonderful £214 for the Big Lent Walk to help fight poverty globally and we also thanked our whole school for participating in the ‘Hop, Skip and Jump’ to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. The final amount raised will be confirmed shortly. We then reflected on our highlights in school this week. We have enjoyed learning about Earth Day- thank you Year 5 for your wonderful presentation of learning, Year 3 enjoyed a visit from author and quizmaster Jay Flynn, Reception have enjoyed a visit from the dentist and we have also enjoyed joining in with the Diocesan Year of Prayer. This week it was the 'robes of righteousness' which helped us to understand that God is always with us—surrounding us with His love, comfort, and protection. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Mikey, Alayna and Annabel in EYFS and KS1 and Harry, Carter, James and Brooke in KS2. Well done to these children for showing growth, maturity and resilience in their approach to learning by working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 2 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week with 96.9% and 98.5% attendance and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with a record 720 points. River Darwen have won the half term award for receiving the most values points and they will have a non-uniform day and disco next Friday. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Ava for achieving a sleepover, swimming and adventure badge at Squirrels, Callie for achieving a medal for showing strength and technique in her amazing vault, bar, floor and beam work in a recent gymnastics competition, Beau for achieving her Stage 3 swimming certificate, Harry for being the Blackburn Eagles ‘Star of the Week’, Fletcher for being awarded ‘Beaver of the Year for 2024/25’ for being an extremely kind and respectful beaver, Lilly for achieving a super effort award during her recent Easter holiday club and making a fantastic start to her performing arts lessons at Little Voices, Annabel for wonderful projection of her voice in her singing lessons, Lyla for achieving a stage 3 award in a recent gymnastics competition, Jack for being Blackburn Eagles ‘Player of the Match’ in his first game playing for them, James for achieving his Stage 6 swimming certificate and Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week ‘ for her wonderful goalkeeping in a recent game playing for Little Darreners. To end our worship, Mrs Govan reminded us about an upcoming Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. The deadline is in 3 weeks time. Please find further information on Class Dojo. We then had a singalong to ‘Oh When the Saints Go Marching In’ for St George's Day and had some beautiful prayers from Olivia, Archie and Cici. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine.
Reception Maths - Odd and Even
This week in Maths, we have been identifying numberblocks which are odd or even. We have been sorting numberblocks 1-10 into two teams based on whether they have even tops or an odd block. We noticed that the even blocks were made of doubles, so they had equal parts in each, but the odd blocks didn’t.
Reception Bird Feeders
As part of our learning on Migration, we have been making bird feeders using multigrain cereal and pipe cleaners. We are hoping our bird feeders will attract birds who have flown back to our country after their migration and give them plenty of food to keep them full up as Spring continues. We will hang them on the trees around school and hope to see many more birds visiting us.
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Thank you parents and carers!
Thank you to everyone who attended parents’ evening last night. We had 92% of our parents attend, which was brilliant, especially with it being the first week back after the Easter holidays. It was lovely to welcome you back into school again and we hope you enjoyed hearing how your child has progressed since the last parents’ evening in December. Thank you for your patience when waiting for appointments and for your ongoing support. If you weren’t able to attend last night, please contact class teachers via class dojo to arrange a 5 minute phone call. A quick reminder that parents and carers are always welcome to join us for our Family Celebration Worship on Friday mornings. Refreshments will be available from 8.55am and worship will start at 9.05am. We look forward to seeing you and thank you for your continued support.
Reception - Bird Migration
As part of our topic on Spring this week, we have been learning about bird migration. We discussed how lots of birds migrate to warmer countries in the Winter, as it’s too cold for them to build nests and find fresh food. However, now that it is Spring and getting much warmer, the birds are returning from their migration and we are happy to welcome them back and see them in our local environment again. Today we created our own migrating birds and tomorrow we will create bird feeders to hang in our Reception yard to welcome the birds back.
Reception Dentist Visit
Reception had a visit from Darwenside Dental Practice to speak to them about their oral hygiene. They shared with us how we can look after our teeth by reducing the amount of sugary snacks and drinks we have between meals. They also spoke to us about the importance of brushing our teeth twice a day and visiting the dentist regularly for check ups. We are very lucky to have such wonderful Dentists who help us to keep our teeth healthy.
Reception: Special Places in RE
In Reception, we launched our unit special places. Today we focused on our world, which was a great day to start as today is Earth Day. We first thought about different things we were thankful for in our world. Ava said flowers, Willow said stars, Oliver said the beach and Cassius said the sun. We then focused on water, grass, sand and rocks. We discussed where we would find these objects and looked at how to describe them. We then thanked God for all of his wonderful creations.
Whole School Worship- Year of Prayer
During our first whole-school worship after the Easter break, the children explored the power of prayer and how it can support us during difficult times. This week the focus for our Diocesan Year of Prayer was the 'robes of righteousness'. As part of the reflection, two children were gently wrapped in robes to symbolise that God is always with us—surrounding us with His love, comfort, and protection. This visual reminder helped the children understand that even in challenging moments, we are never alone. Through prayer and faith, we can experience hope, peace and life in all its fullness.
Amazing Attendance Winners
A huge congratulations to all of the children who received an Amazing Attendance certificate today for achieving great things by being in school for 96% of the time or over for the Autumn and Spring terms. We are so proud of you all!
Whole School Easter Service in Church
This morning, we celebrated our last day of the Spring term with a fantastic Easter church service. Our KS2 classes showcased their Easter artwork and our teachers led the service ‘’The Greatest News Event Ever” in the style of news reporters. Thank you to those who could attend and we wish you all a fantastic Easter holidays.
Reception Hop, Skip & Jump
Reception took part in the Hop, Skip & Jump event to raise money for East Lancashire Hospice. They wore their decorative crowns as they took part on the MUGA. If you are able to, please donate whatever amount you can on parentpay.
Reception- Fundamentals and Gymnastics Fun
Reception class had a visitor to class this morning - Mrs Gardner. The children completed a variety of activities to develop their fundamental skills and then moved onto travelling, jumping and height using low level apparatus. It was lovely to see the children challenging themselves and encouraging each other.