Wraparound Care is coming to St Barnabas!
🎉 Exciting News! On-Site Wraparound Care is Coming to St Barnabas! 🎉 We are delighted to announce that starting in September 2026, we will be offering our own on-site wraparound care service, exclusively for our children! We have partnered with Progressive (formerly Progressive Sports) to deliver high-quality, activity-focused care right here on school grounds. Progressive is the perfect fit because: They provide a strong sports element, creative, wellness, and discovery activities—all popular choices from our parent survey! We will be working closely with them to ensure their provision meets the same high expectations for behaviour and support that we maintain during school hours. Affordable & Flexible Options: We’ve negotiated affordable rates and flexible sessions for our families: Breakfast Club (7:30 am–8:55 am, including breakfast): £5.00 per session. After School Club (3:20/3:30 pm–6:00 pm, including a snack): £8.00 per session. Reduced Session Price: Only £6.00 if attending after a school enrichment club! A 10% sibling discount is available, and Tax-free/Universal Credit childcare vouchers are accepted. Progressive will also offer holiday clubs during some school breaks. We are confident this new service will offer affordable, convenient and high-quality care. Please read the attached letter for further information.
Year 1 RE: How Do Jews Welcome Babies?
In this RE lesson, the children explored how some Jewish families and communities welcome babies. We learnt about Jewish naming ceremonies and discussed how these can differ for boys and girls. The children discovered that, in many Jewish traditions, boys may take part in a Brit Milah ceremony, while girls may be welcomed through a naming ceremony, Brit Bat, often held at the synagogue or at home. We discussed that practices can vary between different Jewish families and communities, and not all Jewish people celebrate in the same way. The children compared similarities and differences between the ceremonies, identifying that both are often joyful celebrations where the baby is welcomed into the community and given their Hebrew name. They also recognised differences in some of the traditions and rituals involved. Throughout the lesson, the children showed respect and curiosity when learning about Jewish beliefs and practices and were able to make thoughtful comparisons with other welcoming ceremonies they have studied.
Whole School Worship - Pentecost
This week, Tuesday’s worship focussed on the Christian celebration of Pentecost. Mrs Ham began by asking the children what they remember about Pentecost, to which some children replied, “When the Holy Spirit came”, “Fire on people’s heads” and “When they spoke in different languages”. We watched a film about a group of pandas waiting for a special gift of some new musical instruments. They woke very early for the delivery but they had the wrong day and the gift wasn’t due until the day after. They had a bedtime story about Jesus’ disciples waiting for a wonderful gift, but they were unsure when it would arrive. Suddenly a strong wind blew and they all had flames on their heads and a warm feeling inside, they knew God’s power had struck them and he was living inside their hearts. Jesus will always be with them and he asked them to always be with him as he was with them. They ran into the streets and Peter shouted to the people that Jesus had rescued them and that Jesus’ love is never breaking and always and forever. Even though not everyone could speak the same language, they all still understood Peter’s words. Mrs Ham told us that Pentecost is also known as the birthday of the church. We all then sang one of our favourite hymns, “He Is Alive” to finish our Pentecost celebration.
Year 1: Bird Watching
The children began their exciting day at Brockholes Nature Reserve by taking part in a bird watching activity. They explored the wetlands and carefully looked for birds that enjoy living near water, such as ducks and swans. The children used their observation skills to spot different birds and enjoyed learning about the habitats and features of wetland wildlife.
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Year 1: Plant Hunt
The children then took part in a plant hunt around the nature reserve, where they explored the different plants and wildlife living in the area. As they searched, they discovered lots of slugs and snails hiding amongst the plants and enjoyed observing them closely. During their plant watch activity, the children identified a range of wild plants including cowslip, foxglove, rosebay willowherb, daisies, nettles, reeds and holly, helping them to learn more about the variety of plants found in natural habitats.
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Year 1: Minibeast Hunt
The children explored the Viking Woods during their minibeast hunt and discovered the remains of Thor’s hammer hidden amongst the trees. They learnt about woodland habitats and discussed why woods are important places for animals to find food, shelter and safety. The children talked about the different animals that live in the woods, including deer, foxes, squirrels, hedgehogs, mice, rabbits, birds, badgers and moles. During the minibeast hunt, they learnt that invertebrates are animals without bones and that insects always have six legs. They also discovered that centipedes and millipedes have many legs. As they searched carefully through the woodland, the children found a variety of minibeasts including woodlice, slugs, beetles, spiders and a millipede.
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Year 1: Fun On The Park
After their learning activities, the children had lots of fun playing on the park. They enjoyed climbing, balancing, sliding and exploring the different equipment with their friends. The children showed excellent teamwork, kindness and confidence whilst playing together and were excited to spend time outdoors in the sunshine.
Year 1: Fire Lighting
The children also took part in a bushcraft activity where they learnt how to make sparks for lighting fires safely. They explored how friction is created by rubbing things together and noticed that when they rub their hands together, they become warm. The children were shown how to safely use the fire striker by holding the metal pieces correctly and scraping them together to create sparks. They learnt that fires need oxygen, heat and sticks to burn. The children carefully pulled the cotton wool apart to make it look like a cloud before placing it onto the block and using the sparks to light it. They were fascinated by the process and learnt how to safely put the fire out using the special fire glove.
Year 1: Den Building
To finish the day, the children worked together to take part in a den building activity. They used natural materials from the woodland to help create shelters and learnt the importance of teamwork and problem solving. The children were taught how to safely carry and position sticks by holding them in pairs when putting them up. They showed great cooperation, creativity and resilience whilst building their dens and enjoyed working together outdoors.
Mad Science After School Club-Cosmic Bubbles
In the final lesson for the after-school club today, our future scientists explored the final frontier. They looked at planets, stars, and crashing meteorites before the children invented and named their very own galaxies. They then used straws to blow bubbling, frothy cosmic art to represent their creations. It was a wonderfully messy and out-of-this-world way to finish a fantastic term of 'Mad Science Club'.
Year 1 Maths: Making Equal Groups
Today we looked at creating equal groups using our times tables to help us. For example, sorting 30 pom-poms into equal groups of 10s, 5s or 2s. This helped us to understand multiplication in a practical way as we can see how many lots of groups will make a number. For example, 30 is 3 groups of 10.
Year 1 Art: Tree of Life
Year 1 created some amazing tree of life sculptures inspired by Sidi Saiyyed Mosque’s own tree of life carving. They used lots of techniques such as rolling, folding, looping, scrunching and twisting with paper to create effective sculptures. They were especially proud that their sculptures stood independently and matched their original designs.