WOW Ambassadors October Badge Challenge
In our Wellbeing Warrior meeting today, the WOW Ambassadors worked through each year group to highlight which children had managed to complete our weekly challenge of walking or park and striding once per week. It’s fantastic to see even more children gaining their badges now that they can also do this by taking part in the 1K A day in school if needed. The WOW Ambassadors can’t wait to announce the winners of the October Challenge in tomorrow's Celebration Worship.
Year 6 - School Council Class Meeting
This morning, Year 6 took part in their class meeting and discussed how their half first term had been. It was great to hear them speak with such openness and justify what they have enjoyed, what could be better and what they are looking forward to as the year progresses.
Barney’s Break Time Snack Rules
In our Wellbeing Warrior meeting today, the children discussed what should and what shouldn’t be included in our break time snacks as we have had quite a few questions about this from both parents and children. After looking at national guidance and a healthy balanced diet, the wellbeing warriors have decided that the following foods can be brought in for a break time snack: Fruit - fresh/dry Vegetables Frubes ( tube yoghurt) Cheese ( babybel or similar) Plain /yoghurt covered rice cakes Breadsticks Crackers/cracker bread Items that we would like children NOT to bring in: Any chocolate coated items Cereal bars Nuts Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive a free piece of fruit each day. Thank you for your support and understanding. This will begin on our return after half term. If there are any medical conditions that require other items, class teachers and staff will use their discretion. Have a lovely weekend. The Wellbeing Warriors
Walk Once a Week Challenge September Winners - Year 3
Congratulations to Year 3 for having the most children who either walked, park and strode or completed the 1K a day in the month of September. They received a whopping 29 badges in total and will now take their place on the WOW hall of Fame. A huge well done and thanks to all of the parents and carers who have encouraged their children to take part in the scheme. Don’t forget - if you can’t manage the walk or park amd stride, you can always do the 1K a day with your teacher in school so that you have the opportunity to gain your badge as well! The WOW ambassadors highlighted that October is National Walk to School month so it is really important to try and travel more actively to school either in the morning or after school has finished.
Wellbeing Warriors 2024-2025
A lovely warm welcome to our newly appointed Wellbeing Warriors. Following our class vote, we are pleased to announce that Desmond, Eliza, Alice and Darcy are going to lead all our new initiatives in school including supporting with our WOW travel plan which will continue this year. We have made the challenge much more achievable by offering the children who can’t walk to school the opportunity to take part in the 1k once a week with their class teacher instead and this will count as their walk once a week and ability to gain the monthly badge. Please keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events.
Reception- Exploring our outdoor area
Our reception children had lots of fun exploring our outdoor area in their puddle suits and wellies. They enjoyed making mud pie and worm soup in the mud kitchen. They showed us their fantastic physical skills when bike and scooter riding and balancing on the assault course. Some of the children chose to built cars and super hero caves using the Lego in our construction area.
Year 3 - French Greeting and Question
Today in French we revised some basic greetings and questions such as “What is your name?” and “Where do you live?”. We filled in the blanks on a conversation between two people called Adeline and Aloïs. Daisy and Sofia then re-enacted the conversation for the rest of the class.
Reception Daddies Stay & Play
Reception invited their Daddies and the special men in their lives to come and play with them in our Reception classroom and outdoor area. It was lovely to see the children showing them what they enjoy doing at school. Thank you to everyone who attended and for getting stuck in - it looked like there was a bit of football competition on the MUGA with some of the Dads! We hope you all have a lovely Father’s Day on Sunday and get chance to put your feet up!
Walk to School Summer Worship
As part of our new Walk to School initiative, we took part in a virtual worship this morning. It was to highlight events that will be taking place over the summer term. We also looked at how children travel to school in different countries and found that some children have to go to school in a boat and some children in China have to climb 2500 ft up a mountain side using a rope ladder! The schools that took part, shared why walking to school helped us and we said that it helps us to clear our mind, be with nature, how it helps to keeps us fit and de- stress. The events that are due to take place are Walk to School Week 20-24th May and the WOW Top Ten Challenge when schools try to increase their walks and gain a top ten place on the leader board which is 3-28th June. Our WOW ambassadors are looking forward to promoting these exciting events and will be planning something very exciting!
Year 5 and 6 Rose Garden Visit
This morning, year 5 and 6 visited the Rose Garden to see the art work that each year group created to represent different elements of the Easter story. The standard of work was superb across the school. Mr Bloomfield then led a quiz based on the art work that was kindly created by Mrs Araujo.
WOW Ambassador Training
In our very first WOW Ambassador meeting today, we met to discuss the children’s role and how they will promote this walk to school initiative throughout school. We also completed training on how to access the travel tracker and monitor each class on a weekly basis. The children can’t wait for the launch of this exciting new walking to school initiative next week!
WOW Initiative Assembly Launch
Today we had our WOW assembly in which we learned all about our new walk to school challenge and how we need to try to walk to school (or find an active way) at least once a week. We met Dan who is from Living Streets. He told us how we can earn badges every month by taking part. It’s so important to walk to improve our mental wellbeing, get fit and decrease pollution. We look forward to practising with the Travel Tracker next week with our newly appointed WOW Ambassadors.
Year 6 Music
Year 6 started their new music unit which is focused around songwriting with glockenspiels. This week, they looked at target markets and how, similar to a product in DT, their song must appeal to a certain audience.
Year 6 Computing
This week, year 6 started to create their own storyboards using the programme Scratch in computing.
Year 6 Music
Year 6 really enjoyed their music lesson this week. They have been developing their skills using the boomwhackers by playing various tunes.
Year 1- No Pens Day
As part of ‘No Pens Day,’ Year One learnt the the days of the week using British Sign Language. We then played a game where I signed a day of the week and they had to sign back the day that either comes before or after it. Hopefully they can now teach someone else how to sign the days of the week too. Well done Year 1!
Year 3 - Music - Steel Drums
This term during our music lessons we will be learning how to play the steel drums. The children really loved learning all about the origin of the steel drum and they had great fun having a go.
Year 2- Computing and Music
Our first week back has been great so far. We started off our morning with computing. In computing this week we’ve been looking at creating our own music production by using the iPads.
Well-being Club
For our well-being club this week we started off by making some lovely apple doughnuts. We all enjoyed mixing the ingredients and chopping up the apples and they definitely enjoyed eating them all up after! We then went on a little walk around the school grounds listening to what different sounds we could hear and if we could find a rainbow of colours in the nature around us.
Wednesday Well-being Club
We had so much fun at our first Wednesday Well-being Club! We had a short walk in the sun gathering flowers and leaves to decorate the woven twigs that we made. We talked about using nature and the outdoor world for our health and well-being and felt very relaxed when we arrived back at school.
Year 6 music
In music, year 6 looked at call and response and how it is commonly used within many songs. This was carried through into the class song and allowed the children to practise playing the song as an ensemble.
Year 3 Music - Electric Drums
Year 3 have been building on their beat skills during music, working in pairs and showing real perseverance in picking up the beat and maintaining it.
Year 6 computing
This week, year 6 have been creating cinemagraphs on the Motionleap app. Their aim has been to make still pictures move.
Year 6 Music
In music, year 6 have been learning about the history of the drum kit and learning to play in time to a metronome using drum machines.
Year 6 Computing
In computing, year 6 have created a theme song to put into their keynote to showcase their very own superhero.
Year 6 French
In French, year 6 have been looking at household and classroom items. They needed to use their knowledge of language and apply it by labelling a classroom.
Year 1- Song writing
In music this afternoon we’ve been creating our own word boards to help us create some lyrics for our own song. Your creativity was impressive!
Year 4- Writing our own lyrics in music
In music today, we wrote our own lyrics to a scene from a short film.
Year 1- Computing
In computing this afternoon year 1 have been having a go to make their own 2D animations using whiteboards and the app stop motion capture.
Wellbeing Workshops for Parents
What is Flourishing Minds? Flourishing Minds is a community based, tiered service that empowers people to learn self-care and coping skills to enable them to better self-manage their mental and emotional health, alongside other health conditions. Lancashire Mind are working in partnership with Age UK, One Voice and The Wellbeing Service to provide a variety of activities and support to Blackburn with Darwen residents. All activities are designed to enable people to better understand their mental health and wellbeing and learn how to look after it. The overall aim of the service is to improve mental wellbeing across the population of Blackburn with Darwen. The Flourishing Minds project will identify and focus on the strengths and skills that exist in local neighbourhoods and use these resources to support lasting change. This approach will enable local people to discover and share their talents and resources to make long-term improvements to their community and their wellbeing. Who can access Flourishing Minds? Flourishing Minds is funded by Blackburn with Darwen council Public Health. You can access Flourishing Minds if: You are 18 or older You live in Blackburn or Darwen You are registered with a GP in Blackburn or Darwen You are struggling to maintain positive wellbeing What support is available? Lancashire Mind and our project partners offer a range of different types of support. This includes support groups, wellbeing coaching, social activities, wellbeing checks and signposting. As part of the Flourishing Minds project we have two free community workshops available. Our community based workshops are run as 1-hour sessions either on Zoom or at local community venues. The workshops will deliver an introduction to the five ways to wellbeing and how to better self-manage stress. The workshops are interactive, informative and relaxed with the opportunity to ask questions and meet other people in the local community. To find out more about the support our partners offer, get in touch or visit their websites using the links below. https://www.lancashiremind.org.uk/pages/205-flourishing-minds https://refreshbwd.com/
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Parent/Carer Support Group from the Mental Health Support Team
Here are the details for the next parent support group from the Mental Health Support Team (MHST).
Mental Health Support Team January Newsletter
Please find attached the latest newsletter from the mental health support team, who we work closely with in school. This month there are some great tips and signposts for ways that parents can support their own mental health and wellbeing, as well as their children's mental health and wellbeing. For all of the newsletters from the Mental Health Team, please click here https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/newsletters
Wellbeing Warriors - Idling Campaign
Our Well-being Warriors have been out and about today with their campaign posters about the prevention of Idling. See if you can spot them around our school area and encourage everyone to turn their engines off whilst waiting for their children or doing drop offs.
Mental Health Support Team December Newsletter
Good morning parents and carers, please find attached the latest newsletter from the mental health support team (MHST). Christmas can be a time of celebration but it can also come with added pressure and expectations. Finding a balance over the festive period can be tricky. The 5 Ways to Wellbeing is an evidence based approach to help us find a balance to support positive mental health. MHST have put together some ideas of things you could try with your family to support wellbeing over the festive period. There is a brilliant wellbeing advent calendar here too from Young Minds. https://www.youngminds.org.uk/media/rnyfoubg/primary-wellbeing-advent-calendar-2022.pdf The next PARENT SUPPORT GROUP is on BUILDING CONFIDENCE. Wednesday 25th January 2023 @ 6-7 Please email [email protected] for a link to the meeting. On our website you will find information about local community groups: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/community-groups and information about supporting children's mental health: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/key-information/safeguarding
Wellbeing Warriors New Campaign
Our Wellbeing Warriors have been extremely busy creating new posters to highlight ‘Idling’ around our school and the dangers of it. Idling is the term used for when a car is stationary but the engine is still running. This creates harmful toxic emissions that can make us really poorly. The Wellbeing Warriors want to spread this message, especially to our parents and carers so we will be out with our posters over the next week to promote our new campaign and record any idling that we see, especially directly outside our school boundary.
Year 6 Computing
Year 6 spent their lesson evaluating their remixes by listening to each other’s work and providing feedback.
Year 6 Music
Fantastic singing from year 6 during their junior jam session.
Year 6 computing
Year 6 have been learning about the second form of remixing by doing genre changing. They have been remixing a vocal stem and changing the genre.
Year 6 Junior Jam
Beatboxing with Junior Jam!
Refugee Week- Healing- Year 5
Year 5 took a short walk in the local area and reflected on the journeys refugee make, in celebration of Refugee Week and the Great Get Together. They also watched a short animated film about Hamid's journey from Eritrea in Africa. We then had a discussion about looking after refugees and how to make them feel welcome in our country.
Junior Jam
Year 6 took part in singing, music and computing, during their Junior Jam session.
Year 6- Junior Jam
Year 6 had a great morning with their Junior Jam teachers.
Year 6- Junior Jam
Year 6 had a great Wellbeing Wednesday learning how to play the ukulele in music and had fun on the tablets in computing.
Year 3 Computing - animation
In Computing, Year 3 are continuing work on making Animations with Mr Toal from Junior Jam.
Year 3 Music - playing the ukulele
Year 3 have begun to learn how to play the ukulele.
Wellbeing Warriors- Healthy Break time Snacks
We are very lucky to have Well being Warriors in school now and their role is to be the voice of our pupils. We believe that the wellbeing of every person in our school is fundamental to happiness and good mental health. As part of their role, the Wellbeing Warriors, along with the rest of Year 4 have been looking into improving the health of our children. We have been researching the best snacks to have at break time and what, as a school we would like to have the option of bringing. As of Monday 21st February, we would like children to only bring in a snack from the list below: - Fruit - Fresh or dried - Vegetables - Yoghurts - frubes or squishems - Cheese - Babybel , Cheese strings or something similar. We found that these snacks all offer nutritional value such as iron, calcium and vitamins and we want the children at St Barnabas to lead healthy lifestyles and make good food choices.
Children's Mental Health Support
Good morning parents and carers, this week we are focusing on children's mental health in school and the theme this year is 'growing together'. During our whole school worship this morning we talked about our mental health and discussed ways that we can grow and flourish. We thought about our school vision 'Achieving great things through learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family' and how we can support each other to grow together. On Friday, we will be taking part in ‘Dress to Express’ for Children’s Mental Health Week so we thought about our God given talents and how we can shine from the inside out to express ourselves. I have attached a mental health resource pack which has lots of useful activities to promote happiness and healthy mental health. It is a great way to get children to talk about their feelings, recognise and discuss emotions, build resilience, learn from mistakes and feel happy. This morning we thought of lots of ways to make ourselves and each other feel happy and the children came up with so many amazing ideas such as, tell each other jokes, do a silly dance, do some exercise, talk to your friends, eat chocolate etc. Included in the pack is 30 ways to feel good and there are also ideas and activities for dealing with anxiety, fear and anger. I hope you find the guide useful as one of the biggest challenges faced by parents, teachers and carers is helping children to talk about and deal with their feelings. We can help and guide our children by looking after ourselves too! Self-care is absolutely vital for parents, carers and teachers. The 30 ways to feel good is a great way for adults to take some time to focus on themselves which enables us to be happier grown ups as the saying is, 'you can't pour from an empty cup'. Take care and look after yourselves, Mrs Ham
Year 6- Junior Jam
Year 6 had lots of fun in Junior Jam, trying out accents in drama, singing and making badges on a device, to represent their interests.
Year 3 Junior Jam- Well-being Wednesday
In Junior Jam’s Drama, Year 3 have been looking at play scripts and their features. They have taken on the role of characters and a narrator. In computing, they have been looking at e-mails. In Music they have been carrying out breathing exercises in order to improve their singing.
Year 1 -Well-being Wednesday Computing
Year 1 creating their own moving videos in computing this morning
Year 1 Drama with Junior Jam
A brilliant Effort from all of year 1 this morning in Drama.
Year 1 drama
Year 1 had great fun in their drama session today. We love junior jam and well-being Wednesdays!
Wellbeing Wednesday in Year 6
Today in Junior Jam, Year 6 performed street dance moves, identified instruments from around the world and started creating their own video games, based on space invaders.
Wellbeing Wednesday in Year 6
Today during Junior Jam Year 6 have been listening to different 80’s and 90’s music. In computing they explored variables in games and they also built on their dance routine from last week.
Well-being Wednesday - Year 5
Year 5 really look forward to their sessions on Wednesday. They have the opportunity to dance, create music and do computing with Junior Jam.
Year 3 Keyboards
Year 3 have started learning how to play chords on the keyboards as part of their music taught by Miss Kennedy from Junior Jam this half term.
Hello Yellow Day Fundraising and Colouring Competition
A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to #HelloYellow Day to support Young Minds Charity. We managed to rise a fantastic £127.00. Also, congratulations to our Key Stage Winners for our Hello Yellow Day colouring competition. We had some fantastic entries, but we could only choose one winner and one runner up from each key stage.
Wellbeing Warriors
We would like to introduce you to our new ‘Wellbeing Warriors’ from Year 4. The Wellbeing Warriors will help to support PSHE ( Personal Social Health Education ) in school by promoting events such as Hello Yellow Day for mental health and Anti-Bullying Week with Odd Socks day which is coming up very soon. They will also meet weekly to discuss how we can improve our PSHE lessons, take part in pupil interviews and monitor scrapbooks. They can’t wait to start their new roles and we look forward to having them.
Art CPD at DACA
This evening we have taken part in some wonderful Art CPD at DACA. We have looked at mono printing , reverse mono printing, poly print and Lino print. What a fantastic opportunity for us as staff! We can’t wait to try it all out in our classrooms.
Wonderful Wellbeing Wednesday
What a wonderful wellbeing Wednesday with Junior Jam! We have loved playing the African drums in music, creating house music in computing and playing drama games in performing arts. We can't wait for next Wednesday!
Wonderful Wellbeing Wednesday
Year 5 had the best afternoon with Junior Jam. They loved creating house music in computing, playing African drums in music and playing drama games in performing arts.