Reception- Noah's Ark
During their RE unit on listening to stories Jesus heard, Reception class listened to the story of Noah's Ark. At the end of the story, God sent a rainbow as a promise. The children have really enjoyed retelling the story in our small world area, creating rainbows and drawing the key parts of the story. The children have also written their own promises such as being kind, being respectful, looking after each other and tidying up.
Reception: Snow Much Fun
Reception class have really enjoyed our Winter Wonderland. They loved making snow angels, collecting snow to create sculptures and investigating the ice too. It was a great way to introduce our learning all about the season of Winter.
Christmas Video 2025
Dear Parents and Carers, What a truly magical and festive end to an incredible first term at St Barnabas! As we reach the final day of this seven-week half term, I am filled with such pride reflecting on everything our school family has achieved. First and foremost, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you. Your partnership and engagement are vital to our children’s success, and your generosity this term—from the Macmillan Coffee Morning to our wonderful Christmas Fair—has been overwhelming. We are so lucky to have such a supportive community. To our children: you are quite simply wonderful. Whether you were settling into Reception for the first time, representing our school in sports, or shining on stage in our Nativity and "Christmas Cracker" performances, you have lived life in all its fullness. You have worked your socks off, and you truly deserve this rest. For photos of our Christmas fun, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo.../christmas-2025 and also see our weekly news: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news I also want to extend a huge thank you to our fantastic staff team. Their hard work and dedication ensure our school is a love-filled Christian family where every child can thrive. I am particularly grateful for them being such brilliant sports this week; they completely threw themselves into the filming of our annual Christmas video! The children had a wonderful time spotting themselves in the video during our church service this morning. I think the definite highlight for them was seeing exactly what the teachers get up to in school between the hours of 6- 7! We truly hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfmvpqhqag A reminder that we break up early today at 2:00 pm. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope your holiday is filled with love, laughter, and joy. We look forward to seeing everyone back, refreshed and ready for a new chapter, on Monday 5th January. Take care and God bless, Mrs. Ham
Whole School Christmas Church Service
This morning, our whole school enjoyed a joyful and reflective visit to church to celebrate the Christmas season together. During the service, children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 confidently shared the work they have been doing in class, exploring the true meaning of Christmas and the special joy, hope and kindness that Jesus brought to others. Their contributions helped everyone to pause and reflect on the importance of love, generosity and togetherness at this special time of year. We also enjoyed singing a selection of our much-loved Christmas carols, filling the church with festive cheer. A highlight was watching our whole-school Christmas video, which captured many of the wonderful activities and celebrations from the past couple of weeks. The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing themselves on screen taking part in the festivities and were especially delighted to see members of the school staff joining in and having fun. It was a warm and uplifting celebration that truly reflected the spirit of Christmas and brought our school community together. A huge thank you to Parents and to all who attended to celebrate with us. We wish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Reception: Reindeer Food
Santa and his elves left Reception class a very important job. He asked the class to make some reindeer food. The children had to listen to instructions and follow them step by step to make sure they could all make magic food to help the reindeer fly. How exciting!
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Reception class visit the Rose Garden
Reception class enjoyed their visit to the Rose garden. They looked at all of the Advent art and some of the children were proud to see their artwork. The children sang carols together and they all went to the playground as a special treat.
Whole Class Worship - Joy
This week of advent, our focus is Joy. We began by recounting the advent themes we have explored so far: Hope and Peace. Mrs Ham chose Lyla from Year 4 to come to the front to light the three advent candles and she highlighted some of the ways our school family have brought joy to others over the past few weeks. It was heartwarming to hear about some of these, including the Reception class nativity, Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Cracker, the choir singing at Acer Lodge care home, and Year 4 writing letters to the residents, plus all of those who have been supporting our latest charity campaigns. We reflected on what true joy looks like and how we can sometimes forget about the simple things when our minds are preoccupied with expensive gifts and the hustle and bustle of the season. Our focus was brought back to the gift God sent - his only son - and how Jesus’ incarnation was the joyous gift that changed our world forever.
Reception: Christmas Cards
Reception class have really enjoyed making Christmas cards for their loved ones. They have made some super cute penguin cards using different coloured paints. The children all wrote their names inside and are looking forward to giving them to their loved ones this Christmas time.
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Infant Christmas Party
Our youngest children in school had a great time at their Christmas party this afternoon. They played different games including pass the parcel and did some wonderful dancing. They also had a special visit from Santa and each received a special gift.
Reception-R.E
The children listened to the story of Simeon and Anna and the joy they felt meeting the Son of God. The children discussed why Jesus was so special helping people and changing people's lives. They talked about how they would feel meeting Baby Jesus.
Author Visit to KS1 and Year 3: Janek Puzon
We had a special visit from an author this morning, Janek Puzon. He read his new book “Dean the Baked Bean and his Karaoke Machine”. It was about a baked bean who loves singing on karaoke. The children sat amazingly whilst listening to him read the story and enjoyed it. They also asked some fantastic questions such as: How many books have you written? Do you enjoy being an author? Where do you write the books? How do you write a book? Which is your favourite book that you have written? We are very excited for our delivery of his books to our school library!
Reception: Muddy Monday
Reception class really enjoyed their Muddy Monday walk to Jacks Key reservoir today. There were lots of muddy puddles to splash in which was great fun. The children had to jump over a stream which they all enjoyed and loved talking to each other along the way.