Year 1 Maths- Exploring 3D Shapes
Year 1 have really enjoyed learning about 3D shapes in maths. They have been learning to identify 3D shapes by name and sort them into groups. They have focused on recognising cubes, cuboids, square-based pyramids, triangular-based pyramids, cones, spheres, cylinders and various prisms such as a triangular prism. They have also worked exceptionally hard to sort them in different ways. For example, we have had children sorting them into can and cannot roll, does have a circular face and doesn’t have a circular face, does have 6 sides and doesn’t have 6 sides, prisms and not prisms and so on… Well done Year 1! You’ve really impressed us with how quickly you've learnt the names of various 3D shapes and been able to recognise their features.
Year 1- Christmas Cards
Year 1 have made some beautiful cards to gift to their loved ones this Christmas. I’m sure you’ll agree that they look absolutely fabulous and will bring a huge smile to the faces of those who receive them. Well done Year 1!
KS1 Christmas Cracker
We are so proud of our Year 1 and 2 children for their wonderful Christmas Cracker Concerts this morning and yesterday afternoon. It was an absolute delight to see them singing and dancing with such enthusiasm and confidence. They certainly did bring joy to everyone who came to watch. A huge thank you to Miss Flynn for her amazing role as musical director, Mr Norris for the high pressured job of playing the music, Miss Craig, Mrs Hegarty and Miss Lyons for their wonderful props, stage directions and encouraging the children with the actions and to Mr Bloomfield for filming. Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came along to show their support. Thank you also for helping the children learn their lines and for providing them with their wonderful Christmas clothes. Thank you to Rev Ben for leading us in prayer and blessing us all. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/ks1-christmas-cracker-1 The video can be found here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=usy-SsMPTGc
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Whole School Celebration Worship
During this week’s celebration worship, we reflected on the theme of joy this Advent, alongside the lighting of the peace and hope candles as part of our preparations for Christmas. We discussed how joy can be found in simple moments and acts of kindness, and the children were reminded of the many wonderful events that brought happiness throughout the week. These included the Rocksteady concert, where children showcased their musical talents, the magical pantomime Aladdin on Ice, the school Pantivity Production and the festive fun of the Christmas Fair. Our Values Award winners were celebrated with great applause: Harry in Reception, Molly in Year 1, Evie in Year 2, Chay in Year 3, Sofia in Year 4, Elsie in Year 5, and Poppy in Year 6. Their contributions to school life have been amazing and have been reflected in their awards. Year 1 and Year 4 were also recognised as the winners of this week’s attendance award for their commitment to being present and ready to learn. A heartfelt special thank you was given to all the children who contributed their creative talents to produce the stunning Christmas artwork now proudly displayed in the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park. This beautiful display adds a festive touch to the community and each class will now take a trip to the park to admire all the children’s artwork. Prayers were shared during the worship, led by the children, who asked for peace in countries experiencing conflict and war, kindness to those without food or shelter, and blessings for everyone to have a safe, warm, and joyful Christmas. The Team Values Points results were eagerly awaited, with Darwen Tower placing fourth, India Mill third, River Darwen second, and Whitehall Park taking first place for the week. In addition, India Mill was announced as the overall half-term winner, earning a well-deserved non-uniform day and disco celebration as a reward for their hard work and teamwork throughout the term. This will take place on the last Thursday of the term. We proudly acknowledged the remarkable achievements of our children. Lydia was recognised for earning her Rainbows Influencer Skills Builder badge and for taking action to make a difference, while Naomi received her Christmas badge for Brownies. Isabella celebrated swimming 5 meters, and Lyla earned a Medal with Rothwell Arts for her dedication to ballet. Marnie May was applauded for her accomplishments in tap dancing and gymnastics and Grace achieved her Bronze Award for earning multiple badges at Brownies. Olivia was named Star of the Week for her excellent performance in gymnastics and Tristen celebrated earning his blue belt in kickboxing. Scarlett shone with her Netball Shooting Award, while Oliver achieved a swimming award for swimming 5 meters. Elana was recognised for her Rainbows Influencer Skills Builder and taking action and Luna was honored as Dancer of the Day. Alice and Evie were recognised as they performed beautifully in Over the Bridge and Leonora and Desmond proudly represented their swimming competition in the regionals. Well done to all for these incredible accomplishments! The worship concluded on a high note, with everyone coming together to sing joyful Christmas songs, filling the room with festive cheer.
Whitehall Park Rose Garden Art Trail
Thank you to all the children who created fantastic Art work for our ADVENTure trail at the Whitehall Park. A selection of the Art work is now on display in the Rose Garden for everyone to see. All classes will be visiting next week to look at the Art work, talk about the Nativity story and sing some Christmas carols to get us all in the festive spirit!
Worship with Rev. Ben
During worship with Rev. Ben, the children began by playing a game of "Spot the Difference," where they had to identify which picture was missing from a selection of displayed images. Following this, Rev. Ben shared the story of Daniel and the Lions' Den. The children learned how Daniel, despite knowing that following God and continuing to pray would put him in danger, trusted in God and was unharmed by the lions. This led to a thoughtful discussion about Daniel's courage and faith. The children then reflected on how they could show courage in their own lives, drawing inspiration from Daniel’s example.
Not Getting Inn!
Our whole school was treated to a modern day version of the Nativity story. 4Front Theatre put on a wonderful production for our children. There was lots of laughter, singing and chanting throughout. Most importantly, there was a wonderful heartfelt message at the end of hope and joy. The photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/not-getting-inn-1
Year 1 Design and Technology- Moving Picture Books
After weeks of hard work designing, drawing and colouring the backgrounds and characters for their moving picture books and making sliders for each page, Year 1 finally put their moving picture books together this week. The end results were fantastic and told some great stories about Santa coming down the chimney and Santa and/or the reindeers flying through the sky. Well done Year 1! Year 1 put their moving picture books together this week.
Year 1 English- Constructing Sentences
This week in Year 1, the children have been constructing sentences to retell the events of the Great Fire of London. They have been many groups of words that they have had to form into sentences. To do this, they needed to think about starting the sentence with the subject (who?) and learnt that this could be the name of a person, place or a thing and follow this on with what the person, place or thing is doing (doing what?) to create effective sentences. For example, Thomas Farriner left a spark in the oven and Saint Paul's Cathedral burnt down. Once they had put the words into the correct order, they had to write these sentences into their books ensuring that they used capital letters for the proper nouns.
Year 1- Aladdin on Ice
Year 1 had a great time at Aladdin on Ice yesterday afternoon. They even got the added bonus of meeting lots of Christmas characters such as The Grinch and Santa Claus and also enjoyed high-fiving some of the Aladdin cast at the end of the performance. What a treat! All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/aladdin-on-ice
Whole School Worship: Joy at Advent
This week, our advent theme is JOY. We learned about the joy of Jesus’s birth and how we can bring joy into the lives of others this Christmas. We looked at the John Lewis advert about the man in the moon and how the little girl brought joy to the man, who had been very lonely. We also watched an alternative to the original advert about a girl searching for God and when she almost gave up looking, he sent to her his greatest gift: his son, Jesus. We finished with a look at all of the ways our classes have been bringing joy to each other and the community, including litter picking and singing in the local care home and reflected on how we can bring joy to to others this Christmas.
Aladdin on Ice
The children are all very excited for Aladdin on Ice at Planet Ice. We are very lucky and appear to have the best seats in the house! Oh no we haven't, oh yes we have!! All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/aladdin-on-ice
Aladdin on Ice
Our whole school family watched Aladdin on Ice this afternoon at Planet Ice. We all got involved in lots of singing and dancing at the beginning. Santa, a snowman and even the Grinch made an appearance! During the show it was wonderful to see so many talented ice dancers and actors. We enjoyed a bag of sweets as a treat and some of us even got to high five members of the cast. A well deserved Christmas treat for all of our children. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/aladdin-on-ice
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Whole School- Design Technolgy
This half term, our students have been busy creating a range of designs in Design Technology. From Reception's wooden Christmas decorations to Year 6's electronic steady hand games, our children have showcased their imaginative and creativity skills. Year 1 brought their imaginations to life, creating interactive moving storybooks using slider mechanisms. Year 2 developed their sewing skills, designing and creating a range of Christmas puppets. Year 3 designed and made festive pouches, perfect for holding small gifts or treats. Year 4 stitched up Christmas stockings, ready to hang by the chimney, finally, Year 5 created festive cushions. These creations were showcased and sold at our Christmas Fayre. We're incredibly proud of the hard work and imagination our students have demonstrated in these festive DT projects.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on another week in school. This week, we have been thinking about peace and how this is especially important at this time of the year when things can feel busy and chaotic on the run up to Christmas. We also thought about our many highlights such as watching the fabulous Nativity Performances led by Reception, the final dance sessions in KS2 with Rothwell Arts, our fabulous choir and their siblings bringing lots of festive cheer to the residents at Acer Lodge Care Home in Blackburn yesterday evening and our Year 5/6 football team for representing school at Witton Park last night and bagging several wins. We then congratulated Marnie-May, Percy and Fletcher in EYFS and KS1 and James, Desmond, Bella and Jake for being the individual value award winners this week. Furthermore, we congratulated Reception and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, River Darwen as our overall value award winners this week with 451 points and Year 3 on being the overall ‘Walk to School’ winners for the month of November. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Thea for achieving a super 5m in swimming, Ralphy for being a superstar swimmer and being awarded his Duckling 1, 2 and 3 award and his Stage 1 and 2 award, Reggie and Albie for having the best decorated tractor at the Turton Young Farmers Tractor Run at the weekend, Beau and Haydn for achieving a fabulous 10m in her swimming, James for winning ‘Player of the Match’ at Darwen FC Aces, Hollie for achieving stage 2 in her swimming, Callie for being a wonderful swimmer and achieving her 10m backstroke and butterfly, Stage 8 in her gymnastics and working exceptionally hard at Stage Coach, Archie for being awarded his orange belt in kickboxing, Harriet for achieving 200m in her swimming and Stage 4 water skills award, Grace for being awarded two medals for ballet and acro dancing, Penelope for gaining the ‘Most Improved dancer’ in Acro at Rothwell Arts, Renee for gaining her white belt at kickboxing and her Stage 2 in swimming, Eleanor for achieving her Stage 2 at swimming and Charlie for achieving Stage 4 at swimming. To end our worship, we had two beautiful prayers from Lydia and Harry who said a prayer for refugees and keeping them safe as they flee their countries. We then sang ‘We Three Kings’ and ‘Ding Dong.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely weekend.
Worship with Rev. Matt
During worship with Rev. Matt, the children began with a lively game of musical statues, setting a joyful tone for the session. They then listened attentively to the story of The Men Who Liked to Say No, which illustrated how unwavering faith can triumph over even the greatest challenges. The story emphasised the courage and resilience needed to stand firm in one's beliefs. Following the story, the children engaged in a thoughtful reflection on its message. They discussed the true meaning of Christmas, explored practical ways to do good, even in difficult situations. They shared ideas on how small acts of kindness and faith can make a big difference, connecting the lessons of the story to their own lives. It was a meaningful session that left the children inspired to carry the spirit of Christmas into their everyday actions.
Year 1- It’s Christmas Time
Year 1 enjoyed putting up the Christmas Tree in the classroom. They took turns to each add a bauble to it and it certainly feels more Christmassy in our classroom now.
Year 1- Phonics
Since Year 1 really enjoyed their matching activity last week in phonics, they were set the challenge of doing this again this but with different sounds. This week, they had to independently read words with the ‘ie’ for tie, ‘i-e’ for bike and ‘y’ for fly such as slide, lie, pine, shine, pie and cry. Some of us also did the ‘ar’ for star and the ‘igh’ for night. Well done Year 1- we are seeing lots of progress in your reading.
Year 1 English- Capital Letters
As part of their English lessons, Year 1 have been looking at when a capital letter is needed. They have built on their understanding that a capital letter is needed for the personal pronoun ‘I’ and at the start of the sentence by learning that the names of people, places, days of the week and months of the year are all proper nouns and need to be spelt with a capital letter too. We have been playing a game where we have had to sit down if the word that is called out doesn’t need a capital letter and stand up if it does. We have also completed some work in our books where we have had to identify proper nouns and write them with a capital letter. We have tried hard to use an upper case alphabet line to ensure that we’ve been forming capital letters correctly. Well done Year 1.
Collective Worship: Peace at Advent
Our school is starting to get ready for Christmas and has been decorated. There was one final job to do- our youngest child, Annie placed the star on our Christmas tree. This week we started our worship by looking at the Year of Prayer, which we will be taking part in along with lots of other schools from across our Diocese. Our WOW group explained what we would be focusing on this week in classes. All classes will have a go at alphabet prayers. The children will all think about something that brings joy to them. We then looked at our whole school focus which was on the value of peace. Mrs Wilkinson led the children in prayer. Mrs Wilkinson recapped what Christians focus on in the first week of advent: hope. She lit the first Advent candle. We then looked at what we would be focussing on this week which was peace. The children watched a video all about peace. Leonora said that if we experience conflict in school, we could walk away or not argue with our friends and remain at peace. Matthew said smiling brings us joy and peace. We all reflected on what the world would be like if it was always at peace. The children discussed how loving everyone can bring peace. We ended our worship by singing 'We Three Kings' and 'Ding Dong'.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Today, every child in school helped to decorate our real Christmas tree in the hall. They have been busy decorating their classrooms too so it really is beginning to look and feel like Christmas! On Monday, as part of our St Barnabas tradition, the youngest child in our school will place the star on top of the tree in Worship.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on another very busy week in school. On Monday, we started the week by introducing our children to the Diocese ‘Year of Prayer Challenge,’ we’ve had some fabulous clubs such as sportshall athletics, choir, lego and football training, great enthusiasm whilst rehearsing for our Christmas productions and making Christmas products in our D&T units to sell at our Christmas Fair. We then congratulated our individual value award winners. Well done to Minnie, Olivia and Marley in EYFS and KS1 and Cassidy, Peyton, Theo and Grace in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these fabulous children for consistently showing our Christian Values, Barney’s 4Bs and always demonstrating a positive attitude to learning. We also congratulated Elsie, Mollie, Haydn, Joey, Archie, Seb, Mila, Lyla and Heidi for representing school in the KS1 Multi-Skills Festival at St Bedes, our amazing Sports Leaders for supporting this KS1 Multi-Skills event and our fantastic Year 5/6 football team who represented school at BRFC Kids Cup. Despite their defeat, they bounced back amazingly and had two successes last night against St Edwards and Avondale. Well done boys! Furthermore, we congratulated Year 1 and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as our overall value award winners this week with 296 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Vienna for swimming 100m without armbands and achieving her Stage 4, Arabelle for achieving Stage 5 in her swimming, Haydn for achieving his 5m and Stage 3 in his swimming, Sofia for achieving a medal for demonstrating great perseverance in her commercial dancing, Lyla for her fabulous audition as Glinda in Wicked, Grace for her fabulous dance talent, Eleanor for being a super Rainbow, Mollie for achieving her Stage 1 water skills award, Elsie for achieving 75m without armbands in her swimming, Olivia for getting Emily at Brownies for demonstrating kindness and using her manners, Beau for being awarded her Stage 2 at swimming, James for achieving the team captain arm band this week at football and Matthew for playing and winning in a special tournament for Manchester United at the weekend. We then said a farewell to a valuable member of staff, Mrs Stanton. We thank her for her dedication over the past 18 months in her role as Key Stage 2 Teaching Assistant and previously in her role as office admin. We wish her all the best in her new role as a design and technology teacher. To end our worship, we had three beautiful prayers from Hamza, Leonora and Olivia who said prayers about appreciating all the things that we can sometimes take for granted and being grateful for everything that we receive this Christmas. We then sang ‘Ding Dong' with great enthusiasm! We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely weekend.
Year 1 - PSHE Pants Project
Today in PSHE we learned all about Pants Power and staying safe. We discussed who safe adults are that we can talk to both in school and at home. We then labelled parts of our bodies with the anatomically accurate labels. The children worked extremely hard to label their bodies and also remembered The Talk Pants Rules!
Worship with Rev. Ben
During worship with Rev. Ben, the children explored the story of Daniel and "the boys who liked to say no." Worship began with a fun game of yes or no, where the children decided which foods they would or wouldn’t eat. In the story, Daniel and his friends said no to the king’s food to show their obedience to God. Because they supported one another and remained loyal to their faith, they were granted strength and looked healthy. Rev. Ben explained that, unlike Daniel and his friends, Christians today don’t follow food rules in the same way. However, there are many ways we can remember God in our daily lives. The children reflected on how Daniel and his friends stayed faithful and considered how they could remember God this week—in their prayers, words, and actions.
Year 1 Phonics
In Year 1 this afternoon, we learnt the ‘i’ for child. We read lots of words with the ‘i’ for child in them such as behind, mind, kind, rind, find, wild and mild and matched them up to to the picture that showed the word. Some of us also did the ‘ear’ for hear and the ‘oi’ for coin. This reading activity worked perfectly on ‘No Pens Day’.
Key Stage 1 Multi- Skills Festival
We have had a wonderful morning at the Key Stage 1 Multi- Skills Festival at St Bedes. The children took part in lots of activities which were based on fundamental skills. They tried extremely hard and thoroughly enjoyed every second. Our Sports Leaders also did a great job in supporting the younger children, guiding them through each activity and encouraging them all. We even came away with a gold medal! Go Team B!
Whole School Worship - Bishop Philip’s Year of Prayer Launch
The St Barnabas school family were thrilled to join a live worship with Bishop Philip this afternoon, along with nearly 60 other church schools in Blackburn Diocese. Lisa and the Bishop met us via Zoom to talk to us about prayer, why we pray and what happens to our prayers. We were fascinated to learn that Jesus knows each and every one of us, and that he hears all of our prayers. We also learned some new ways to pray. These included quiet prayers, for which we were silent and focused on just being with our thoughts, and noisy prayers, for which we shouted out our school name and our own name as loud as we could. Over the course of this academic year, we will be focusing on a new way to pray each week in whole school collective worship, and in our classrooms. We know the children will enjoy exploring prayers along with hundreds of other children across the Diocese.
Lego Club
We had another fun week at Lego club. This week things got slightly competitive. We had a competition to see which groups could build the most sets and who could be the most creative building their own ideas.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on our busy week in school and all the fabulous snowy weather that we’ve had. We then congratulated our individual value award winners. Well done to Albie, Millie and Alice in EYFS and KS1 and Naomi, Walter, Jenson and Harry in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these amazing children for showing great enthusiasm across the curriculum, working hard to consistently demonstrate our Barney’s 4Bs and being fantastic role models. We also congratulated Martha, Declan, Harry and Tilly for representing school in the Pantathlon Bowling Competition and Charlie, Darcy, Eliza, Carter, Ivy and Edward for representing school at a Dodgeball Festival this week, Year 2 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and India Mill as our overall value award winners this week with 428 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Ava and Hendrix for taking part in Squirrels at Bold Venture Park, Eliza for achieving many rosettes for being a fabulous jockey, Reggie for doing a fantastic pass and being ‘Player of the Week’ at Little Darreners, Thea for showing amazing skill and bar work at gymnastics, Olivia for achieving the team captain arm band this week at football, Harry for achieving ‘Man of the Match’ for showing grit and determination at football, Marley for being amazingly creative, Maggie for achieving her ‘Animal Lover’ and ‘Family Tree’ badge at Rainbows, Desmond and Leonora for being super swimmers and achieving many PBs and Isabella for achieving 5m in her swimming without armbands. To end our worship, we had three beautiful prayers from Finn, Cassidy and James. Finn said a prayer for those who have sacrificed their lives in the war past and present, Cassidy prayed for those who are less fortunate than us including those without toilets and James prayed for us all to have a lovely and restful weekend and for our safe return on Monday. We then sand ‘Sing a New Song’. We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely weekend.
Year 1 Maths- Finding a Part
In maths, we have been focusing on finding a part. To do this, we had to look at the part we were given and then work out how many more we needed to count on in order to make the whole. We also figured out that we could do this by finding the difference between the whole and the part that we were given.
Rev Matt Worship
Today, Rev Matt led a fantastic worship that focused on how we can often lose sight of things that are important. He started with a challenge that involved watching a video with a focus in mind, but in doing so, we missed some other events that occurred. This linked nicely to the story ‘God Sends Fire’ as King Ahab had lost faith in God and decided to worship a false God called Baal. To show everyone that God was the true God, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. They had to build an altar and ask their God to set it on fire. The prophets of Baal danced and prayed all night, but nothing happened. Then, Elijah asked people to drench his altar with water. He prayed to God, and fire came down from heaven! It burned up the altar and all of the water. Everyone saw this and knew God was the true God. This story can help us remember to have faith in God, even when things are tough, and to always trust that He is in control.
Year 1 D&T- Christmas Themed Moving Picture Books
This week, we have made a start on our moving picture books. We have been busy colouring in pictures which will be used for our sliding mechanisms on each page and colouring in the backgrounds of our storybook. Next lesson, we will look at putting it all together and designing our front covers.
Whole School Worship - World Toilet Day
In worship yesterday, we looked through our spirituality windows and out into the world on toilets. We were shocked and saddened to find out that around 700 children under 5 die every year due to poor sanitation. We heard about Jeremiah in Kenya who doesn’t have access to a toilet. In his community, people would mostly use a hole in the ground or a plastic bag, which some people would tie up and throw on other people’s roofs. We talked about how this affects people’s health and shared ideas of what we could do to help. The children then learned about our Toilet Twinning project for which we raised money a few years go to sponsor the building and maintenance of toilets in Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, and Afghanistan. We reflected on how we should never take our toilets for granted and thought of ways we could save loo paper and water.
EYFS and KS1- Snow Much Fun
EYFS and KS1 got wrapped up and made the most of the snow this lunch time. They had great fun working together to build snowmen amongst other things.
Year 1- Children in Need
On Friday, Year 1 all made a super effort and came to school dressed in Pudsey merchandise, pyjamas or spots to help to fundraise for Children in Need. They all coloured in their own Pudsey and thought about the children who benefit from the generous donations of good people across England and Wales.
Year 1- Smoothie Bike
Yesterday, Year 1 took part in the smoothie bike experience with Aspens Catering. The children discussed different types of fruits that they liked and learned how many portions of fruit and vegetables they should eat every day. The children then helped to put the different fruits, yogurt and honey into the blender before using a special bike (with a helping hand from Donna) to blend the ingredients to create three delicious smoothie drinks. Last of all, they sampled their creations.
Little Craft Club: Dinosaur Week
This week at The Little Craft Club, it was Dinosaur week! The children used problem solving skills to make paper plate dinosaurs without instructions. They also created exploding volcanoes using paint in a spray bottle… this was lots of fun! The children finished by working together as a team to clean and tidy the Rainbow Room. Next week is the final Little Craft Club of term and the children are excited to be making some cold climate creatures.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on our very special and busy week in school. This week has seen us celebrate Remembrance Day, Anti-Bullying Week, Inter-Faith Week and Children in Need. We then congratulated our individual value award winners. Well done to Beau, Leila and Roman in EYFS and KS1 and Emily, Olivia, Mason and Daisy in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working exceptionally hard across the curriculum, demonstrating our Christian Values. We also presented Emily with an additional award for achieving her pen license, our Year 5/6 football team for bouncing back from last week’s defeat and representing school with exemplary behaviour and brilliant sportsmanship which saw them win two matches at the Darwen School’s League last night, Year 1 and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and River Darwen as the overall value award winners this week with 404 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Ava for taking part in Remembrance Day at Bold Venture Park, Callie for always listening and following instructions beautifully during her singing, dancing and acting lessons at Stage Coach, Seb for getting ‘Man of the Match’ and ‘Trainer of the Week’ at football, Elijah for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ at football for mastering a new skill called the step over, Finn for achieving ‘Player of the Day’ at Football and achieving ‘Most Improved Player’ for his cricket team, Quinn, April, Walter, Eve and Percy for attending the ‘Little Potting Club’ at Whitehall Park and achieving an environmentalist award, Beau for achieving 5m in her swimming, Jack for being awarded with his Stage 6 swimming certificate, James for attending the remembrance service with Beavers and Haydn for showing super skills in a recent football match. To end our worship, we had three beautiful prayers from Darcy, Olivia and Mason who thought about fuelling children in need with food and remembering those who sacrificed their lives for us and we sang ‘Build Up’ to reinforce the message of ‘building each other up’ this Anti-Bullying Week. We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Children in Need 2024
Our Y6 Heads and Deputies asked everyone to dress in pyjamas or spots to show our support for Children in Need this year. Yesterday we had a special visit from Pudsey Bear and Christine from Asda. They told us all about how Asda are raising money for Children in Need and they said a special thank you to us all for our fundraising to help children who are less fortunate than us. Thank you so much to our staff, children and parents for the effort you have gone to in dressing in your pyjamas or spots and thank you for your generous donations on parent pay. Together we can make a positive difference to the lives of so many disadvantaged children around our country.
Year 1 History & Art- The Great Fire of London
This week in Year 1, we set the children a challenge to act out the Great Fire of London in our Role Play Area and decorate a Tudor style house in our Creative Area during their independent learning time. They absolutely rose to the challenge and wowed us with their knowledge of the Great Fire of London and their super drama and creative skills. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 English- Story Planning
In English, Year 1 have been story planning. They have been innovating a scene from the Gruffalo which can be added into the original story. They have worked hard with their rhyming and came up with some brilliant ideas. We have had bears running away because the mouse has said that he is meeting the Gruffalo by the lair and his favourite food is chopped up bear, we have had the same but with the mouse meeting the Gruffalo by a trunk with his favourite food being fried skunk and so on.. Well done Year 1!
Year 1- Interfaith Week and Hinduism Workshop
To celebrate Interfaith Week, Year 1 had a special Hindu Workshop. They started off by taking part in a traditional Hindu dance before learning about Hindu worship known as Puja which involves all five of the senses. Our visitor, Prags showed us some of the important artefacts used as part of Puja such as the bell (used to make sure that the God knows the worshippers are there), a candle, incense stick, the Swastika symbol and the red paste which is used to make a mark on a a Hindu’s head as a sign of respect to their God. Prags also told us about some other Hindu practises such as offering food or flowers to their God known as arti, washing thoroughly before worship and taking their shoes off as they enter the temple. Since Year 1 have also been learning about how Hindus created the world in their creation unit, Prags gave them the opportunity to ask some of their own questions that they had. Harry asked, ‘Why does the God have lots of heads?’ Prags explained this was because the God needs to look all around the world and also because they have many different forms. She explained that we have many roles e.g. Phoebe is a daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend etc.. and the Gods do too and this is why they’re drawn and painted with many heads. Callie asked, ‘Why does the God have four arms?’ Prags explained that this was because they are powerful and need to be able to do lots of things/carry many things at the same time. Bella asked, ‘Why is the God shown as being blue?’ Prags explained that Shiva is blue to symbolise the world’s poisons that he drank in order to protect it and Vishnu is blue to represent his calming personality. However, Prags also said that by representing them as blue, we are celebrating colour and appreciating people’s differences.
Year 1 PSHE- Odd Socks Day For Anti-Bullying Week
Yesterday, Year 1 celebrated Anti- Bullying Week by wearing their odd socks. Following on from the Collective Worship with Mrs Ham, we continued to explore the theme of respect. First of all, we played a game of ‘Huggy Bears’ where we had to get into a trio and hug each other on command. We talked about how hugging each other made us feel. Year 1 said it made them feel happy, smiley, loved and excited. We then explored other ways to build each other up and show both kindness and respect. Year 1 suggested clearing the path by stepping aside or moving an obstacle to let someone through, smiling at each other, sharing equipment, asking someone if they would like a hug, asking someone if they are okay, lining up smartly and sensibly and putting their hand up and not shouting out as ways of being respectful, to ensure that we all feel happy, remain safe and uninterrupted in our learning. All of the children then chose one that they think they could work on.
Odd Socks Day at St Barnabas
To launch Anti-Bullying week, we celebrated Odd Socks Day in style today with some brilliant demonstrations of uniqueness. The children showed off their odd socks to their peers and shared reasons for their choices that really showed off their different preferences and personalities!
Lego Club
Everyone had a great time at Lego club again this week. We got the chance to make models we didn’t get the chance to last week and some new ones! The ice cream stand seemed to be a popular choice this week!
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on our week of remembering to honour ‘Remembrance Day.’ We said that we have been thinking about the people who sacrifice their life to keep us safe and/or bring about positive change in our world such as the soldiers, The Royal Navy, the NHS, the firefighters, the police and the charity workers and we observed a two minute silence to pay our respects. We then congratulated our individual value award winners. Well done to Tommy-Joe, Teddy and Archie in EYFS and KS1 and Rosie, Jack, Grace and Hamza in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for always being respectful, kind, well-mannered and exceptionally hardworking. We also congratulated Desmond, Eliza, Daisy, Jack, Sofia and Tristen for achieving their pen licenses, Ted, Sofia, Daisy, Alice, Darcy, Walter and Sonny for representing our school amazingly well yesterday at the Cidari Moon Conference at Blackburn Cathedral, our Year 6 JagTag team for also representing our school superbly at the Soccer Dome on Tuesday and our Year 5/6 football team for representing school well at the Darwen School’s League last night, Year 1 and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and India Mill as the overall value award winners this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Ava for her swimming certificate, Grace for passing her jazz exam, Eliza for demonstrating phenomenal skill in her horse riding mounting games and for placing 1st and 2nd in her most recent event, Olivia for achieving Player of the Match in a recent football match, Tristen for achieving his blocks badge and yet another belt in his kickboxing, Fletcher for being awarded with his green belt in genjitsu, Thomas for being a super pool player, Cassidy for being a super gymnast and achieving a silver medal for her vault work, Isaac for being an incredible captain and leading his football team with great confidence and skill, Mila, Eden and Sofia for taking part in a remembrance parade and Sofia for achieving several awards for her Brownies. To end our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us that next Tuesday 12th November is Odd Socks Day to celebrate Anti-bullying and Interfaith week and then next Friday 15th November is Children in Need and the children can wear pyjamas, spots or Pudsey merchandise. Rev Ben said a special remembrance prayer and then we sang ‘A Song of Peace’ to pray for a world of peace. We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1 Maths- Addition Sentences
This week in maths, Year 1 have been focusing on creating and writing addition sentences within 10. Today, they used their ten frames to make numbers in various ways e.g. making 6 using 6 + 0 and 0 + 6, 5 + 1 and 1 + 5 and so on. They did a tremendous job. Well done Year 1.
Year 1- Remembrance
Year 1 have been busy reflecting on the importance of Remembrance Day whilst making poppies using various media, creating Remembrance moving pictures and writing Remembrance prayers. They have thought about the soldiers that have and continue to fight for our country to keep us safe. They have also kept in their thoughts many people who work bravely and tirelessly everyday to bring about positive change and keep us safe from harm such as the police, NHS, paramedics, Royal Navy and charity workers.
Year 1- The Great Fire of London
This week in history, Year 1 have been learning about the Great Fire of London. They have been learning about where London is, why the Great Fire of London was a significant event and what happened on 2nd September 1666 and the days following it. They did a fantastic job at listening to and acting out the story and then filling in the gaps to an incomplete story of the Great Fire of London. They are excited about being able to act this out independently in our role play area next week. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Class Worship- Visiting the Spiritual Garden
Today, we took our worship outside for Outdoor Classroom Day. In the Spiritual Garden, we listened to and enjoyed each other’s beautiful remembrance prayers that we have each created in class. Percy said a prayer to thank soldiers for their bravery and keeping our country safe. Ida, Thomas and Mollie followed with a prayer to say thank you for our everyday heroes such as the NHS, paramedics and charity workers and Callie ended with a prayer about remembering those who lost their homes to the Great Fire of London and all the other refugees who are having to flee their homes. We ended our time in the spiritual garden by having a few moments to ourselves whilst we walked around and took in the sights and sounds of nature.
Christmas at St Barnabas
Good morning parents and carers, Christmas will soon be here and we know what a busy time of year it is for everyone. We have lots of exciting things planned at St Barnabas so I thought it might help to have all of the dates in one place. Here are all the important dates you need in the lead up to the Christmas holidays. Please save it to your phone or device and I will also send it to you as a message. I hope this is helpful, Mrs Ham
Whole-School Worship: Remembrance
At St Barnabas, we always take the time leading up to Remembrance Day to reflect on the people who kept us safe in the past and those who keep us safe now. In worship, we heard examples of people who came from other countries to help defend the UK during the World Wars, and the courage and friendship they demonstrated in doing so. We also thought about how we would like to remember those who lost their lives in war. The children had some lovely ideas, including writing or saying prayers, drawing poppies, visiting memorial sites, attending church services, and even holding a two-minute silence at their weekend football matches. We remember those who gave up their lives for our country and also say a huge thank you to those who work hard everyday to protect us such as the armed forces, the police, firefighters and the NHS. We sang a lovely song of peace at the end of our worship in hope that the world will one day be filled with peace.
WOW Year Group Winners for October
A huge WELL DONE to Year 4 who gained the most walk to school badges for the month of October! It was great to see so many more children gaining their badges this month now we can take part in school through choosing to do the 1K A Day too. Thank you to parents and carers too for all of your support with this super initiative.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by reflecting on the wonderful week that we have had in school. We lit a special candle for All Souls Day on Sunday to remember all those who have sadly passed away and reflected on the positive behaviour that we’re seeing around school such as holding open the doors for each other and using our wonderful manners. We also thought about all the amazing experiences that we have had in school such as Reception showcasing their Diwali learning to the whole school, Year 1 and Year 3 visiting Nightingale Farm, Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 fully embracing their dance sessions led by Rothwell Arts and the WOW group for giving the harvest donations to DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee). Firstly, we congratulated the amazing children who took part in the 6 week Cre8ability programme which has allowed them to explore many of their creative talents such as painting, sculpting and being musicians and learning about their superpower emotional intelligence. We then presented Jasper, Vienna and Maggie in EYFS and KS1 and Ella-Grace, James, Quinn and Matthew in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working extremely hard across the curriculum, showing a positive attitude to learning and using exceptional manners. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Eleanor who has recently made her Rainbows promise, Ava for achieving her Stage 1 swimming certificate, Fletcher for being awarded with his 25m swimming certificate, Lyla and Darcy for achieving a medal for their incredible gymnastic talent, Lydia and Naomi for receiving a letter from the head of royal correspondence thanking them for their very thoughtful letter to Princess Charlotte, Grace for being an amazing dancer, brownie and physicist, Olivia for being an incredible captain and leading her, Eliza for being an outstanding footballer and Sofia for achieving her intermediate award in gymnastics. We also congratulated our Year 4/5/6 girls football team who attended the DPSSA football league presentation evening last night and coming in 3rd overall, Year 2 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners, India Mill for winning the Inter-house sports competition before the holidays and River Darwen as the value award winners this week. We also congratulated River Darwen as being the half-termly award winners for last half-term. They will be awarded with a non-uniform day and disco next week. Our heads and deputies also announced that they will be selling the Remembrance Day merchandise every break time next week to raise money for The Royal British Legion. To end our worship, we sang ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’ in celebration of All Saints Day. We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1 Science and PSHE- Nightingale Farm Visit
What a wonderful time Year 1 had at Nightingale Farm on Tuesday morning. We petted the chickens and the goats, wandered around the barn exploring all of the farm animals (pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and ducks) and learnt lots about their diets. We then completed an activity where we had to choose one of the farm animals, write which animal group it belonged to (mammal, reptile, amphibian, fish or bird) and what it likes to eat. Steph answered lots of questions that we had about the farm animals too. We all thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the park so thank you to Steph for warmly welcoming us and sharing her knowledge with us all. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-1-nightingale-farm-october-2024
Year 1 D&T- Sliding Mechanisms
In D&T this week, Year 1 created their own moving mechanisms. Their models showed a rabbit coming out of a hat (up and down) and a car moving along a road (forwards and backwards). They worked incredibly hard to do this independently and their models were a success. Year 1 will be using these skills when they make their Christmas themed moving picture books in a couple of weeks.
Year 1 Science and PSHE- Nightingale Farm Visit
What a wonderful time Year 1 had at Nightingale Farm on Tuesday morning. We petted the chickens and the goats, wandered around the barn exploring all of the farm animals (pigs, sheep, goats, chickens and ducks) and learnt lots about their diets. We then completed an activity where we had to choose one of the farm animals, write which animal group it belonged to (mammal, reptile, amphibian, fish or bird) and what it likes to eat. Steph answered lots of questions that we had about the farm animals too. We all thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the farm so thank you to Steph for warmly welcoming us and sharing her knowledge with us all.
Worship with Rev. Matt
During this week’s worship, Rev. Matt engaged the children with a game of ‘Real or Fake,’ encouraging them to think carefully about what they see and question whether images are genuine or not. This led into the story of Elijah, who courageously stood against people worshiping a statue made of sticks and stones, teaching the children about the importance of true faith over false idols. To close, Rev. Matt invited the children to reflect on what they would like God’s help with, creating a moment of thoughtful prayer and connection.
Harvest Heptathlon
Today, each class took part in our Harvest Heptathlon obstacle course challenge for the Bishop’s Harvest appeal. The course consisted of running, hurdles, travelling through a hoop, hopping, skipping, speed bounce and star jumps. A huge well done to every child that took part. They gave it their best effort. And an extra big thank you to all of the Year 6 helpers for helping to set up, replace equipment, demonstrate the course and support and encourage the younger children to complete the course. Let’s hope we can raise some much needed funds for developing classrooms and literacy in church schools in Multan, Pakistan.
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Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide
In our first collective worship of the week, Mrs Ham looked at Allhallowtide through our three spirituality lenses. Lens 1 - Windows: we looked out into the world at a photograph from Bangladesh depicting Christians gathered around graves with lit candles on them and discussed our observations and ideas about what the people were doing and how they might have felt. We had some fabulous ideas such as it must be a place of worship as they could see a cross and candles like we have in our worship, that they might be praying and that they were remembering. Lens 2 - Mirrors: we learned about All Souls’ Day and reflected on how we might remember our loved ones. The children had some lovely ideas about lighting candles and going to a special place. Lens 3 - Doors: we learned about All Saints’ Day and thought carefully about how we could be like saints. The WOW group introduced our behaviour focus for this half term , which is using good manners around school, and the children immediately put these into action by saying please and thank you, holding doors for each other, and letting people past. What a fantastic start to the new half term!
Year 1 and 2 at Break Time- Recycling Leaves
At break time, Year 1 and 2 enjoyed recycling the autumn leaves to make huge bouquets to give to their family members this Harvest Time.
Harvest Church Service 2024
Thank you to our Wow group, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 classes for leading our Harvest celebration at church today. I have uploaded some videos to class dojo and additional photos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/harvest-church-service-2024 It was wonderful to see so many of our families in attendance. A huge thank you to you all for coming to watch and thank you to all of our families for your continued support this half term. Thank you for all of your kind harvest donations, these can be continued to be sent in during the first week that we are back at school. Wishing you all a wonderful half term, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 1 Class Worship- Black History Month
This week in Year 1, we have listened to the stories of some extraordinary people in Black History. We watched a video about Olaudah Equiano who worked as a slave for many years before buying his freedom. We learnt that once he was freed, he was incredibly brave and fought for black slavery to be abolished. We also learnt about an inspirational man called Laurie Cunningham who fought against many challenges to become one of the first black footballers to play for England. Finally, we read a book about Rosa Parks who was a very courageous woman who made her famous stand (while sitting) on the bus, helping to bring about freedom and equality for black people. Year 1 are looking forward to reading more of the ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ books.
Year 1 Art-Cold Landscapes
As part of their Art unit this half-term, Year 1 have been building up the art skills to create a cold landscape. They have learnt about warm and cool colours, the composition of a landscape, how to use watercolours to create a background and how to use different materials to create different textures. This week, they have completed their final piece of artwork incorporating all of these skills and I’m sure you’ll agree that the end results look amazing. Well done Year 1!
Monday Worship: Harvest Appeal
This week is Recycle Week so we will be thinking about all of the rubbish we throw away and how it could be rescued and reused or recycled. Bobby-Ray said what one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure! Thank you for all of the donations of coats we have had so far for our Rota Kids Wrap Up Appeal. Mrs Ham showed us two bin bags that at first she thought was rubbish but they were filled with coats that can be donated to the homeless. Mrs Ham then introduced the Bishop’s Harvest appeal which our WOW group have chosen to support this year at Harvest along with DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). We started by exploring our spirituality window and looked at a photo of the classrooms of a church school in Multan in Pakistan. We stopped and reflected on what is great about our classrooms. Lottie loves the amount of paper, Ella-Grace said our teachers, Callie said our books, Eleanor said our friends, Jacob said the opportunities to learn, Olivia said the view of Darwen Tower and Will said everything. There are some boys and girls in Multan in Pakistan that are unable to go to school and some who do but don't have many resources in their classroom. We took some time to look at a picture and reflect on what we could see. The classrooms in Multan do not have any chairs, tables, pictures, windows or toys. The children reflected and felt empathy for the Christian children in Multan who did not have the same experience and resources as we all do at St Barnabas. We then started to think about what we could do to make a difference to their lives. The Bishop’s Harvest Appeal has helped the children to receive books, solar panels and hand washing facilities in the past. Rosie said we could do a sponsored run and James said we could collect books. Bishop Philip has asked us all do to a Harvest Heptathlon . We need to think of seven things we could do to help the children in our area and also the boys and girls in Multan. Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking about how we can help and make a difference. We ended our worship by singing ‘I can make a difference’.
Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by thanking everyone for dressing in yellow yesterday for World Mental Health Day. What a fabulous day we had! This week, we have also been thinking about courageous advocacy. Well done to our Rotakids who are being courageous advocates by collecting coats to keep people warm this winter and our WOW group for collecting harvest donations for DARE (Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise). We then presented Ralphy, Skye and Ella in EYFS and KS1 and Lyla, Harriet, Ruby and Noah in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, being safe, being kind and being respectful) and our school Christian values. We also congratulated our Year 5/6 football team who worked exceptionally well as a team in the Kids Cup Heat on Monday during all of the group stages and will now be competing in the final in the 23rd November, our Year 4/5/6 girls football team who played amazingly well in the DPSSA football league last night, Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners for the second week running and River Darwen as the value award winners again this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Lyla and Carmen for achieving their Stage 5 in swimming, Tristen for achieving his green and white belt in kickboxing and completing the BwD Summer Reading challenge, Maggie for being a superstar rainbow and being awarded Olivia this week and Isabella for being a fantastic swimmer. Finally, we had some beautiful prayers from James, Iris and Elijah to pray for those who have been affected by the hurricane in Florida and to give thank you this Harvest time and then we sang ‘Sing a Song of Harvest.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
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Inter-House Sports Dodgeball led by Sports Leaders
A huge thank you to our new Sports Leaders who ran their very first Inter- house competition today. They chose to do dodgeball and every class thoroughly enjoyed it! The children showed each other respect, demonstrated the 4 B’s and encouraged each other every step of the way. We can’t wait to hear who the overall winners are next week
Hello Yellow Day
To celebrate and raise awareness for World Mental Health Day, all the children and staff dressed in yellow to show their support. During a special worship, the children danced to happy songs. We reflected deeply on our emotions, exploring how they shape our inner lives and how we can find strength in times of struggle. We discussed the importance of nurturing our mental well-being through kindness, prayer, and community support. This spiritual reflection reminded us that we are never alone in our challenges; by turning to our faith and embracing hope, we can find peace and resilience within ourselves.
Rev Matt’s Whole School Worship
Today, during Rev Matt’s worship, the children were captivated by a short clip showing the powerful moment when Moses received the Ten Commandments. The video illustrated how, with people's disbelief in God, dramatic lightning and clouds appeared, revealing the presence of God as he delivered these sacred laws. Through this visual and the accompanying story, the children were guided to understand not only the importance of the commandments but also the broader significance of rules in our lives. This reflection helped them recognise that rules, much like the Ten Commandments, are there to keep us safe, fostering a sense of responsibility and care for one another within our community.
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St Barnabas do Hello Yellow Day 2024
Today in school, we celebrated Hello Yellow Day 2024. Hello Yellow Day is a day when we can show our support for young people and let them know they're not alone with their mental health. Thousands of children came together to make World Mental Health Day that little bit brighter by wearing something yellow and donating to YoungMinds. Right now, the world is a really tough place for children and young people to grow up in. We want young people to know that they don’t have to go through this alone. Things can get better. Because we stand brighter, together. At St Barnabas, we celebrated through our whole school worship led by Mrs Ham and her minion friends, Harry, Hamza, Daisy and Rosie. Each class then used their PSHE session to explore Hello Yellow Day further and it was clear to see that every class made a super effort with their outfits too. What a super day being loud and proud in yellow. #HelloYellow
WOW Group- Harvest Donations
Dear parents, Harvest is almost upon us and, this year, our wonderful WOW group have chosen to support two charities. They would like to continue to support refugees in our local area through the charity D.A.R.E. (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise) and are asking for donations of non-perishable food items, toiletries and good quality clothing. Please send these into school any time over the next week (by Thursday 17th October) and we will ensure they get to D.A.R.E. More details of the second charity we have chosen will be released shortly. Thank you, Mrs Araujo :)
Year 1 Science- Mythical Creatures
In the final lesson of their current science unit, Year 1 created their own mythical creature. They had to make sure that their creature was a mix of all five of the animal groups that we have been learning about (mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish). For example, a head belonging to a mammal, feet belonging to an amphibian, a body belonging to a fish, a tail belonging to a reptile and wings belonging to a bird. Ensuring that they had included them all was a real test of their knowledge but they did a fantastic job. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 PE- Gymnastics
This week in gymnastics, Year 1 stepped up their sequences from last week by adding a roll. They all created a four part sequence. They had to start their sequence by walking along the apparatus, jumping off it using a jump of their choice (tuck, straddle or pencil), roll across the mat using a roll of their choice (egg or pencil) before completing their sequence with a travel of their choice to take them back to the start (caterpillar, bunny, frog, crab or bear). Their skills are improving week on week. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 English- Finding Key Information in Non-Fiction Texts
In their English lesson, Year 1 were set the challenge of answering questions by finding the relevant information within a non-fiction text. They learnt that using a contents page can be very useful in locating the specific information that you are looking for. Mrs Hegarty and I were so impressed with how they navigated the texts (looking for page numbers) and how they followed along with the reading of the text too. Well done done Year 1!
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.
Whole School Worship: Courageous Advocacy
Today in worship we continued to explore the meaning of spirituality, looking at adversity in the world, how it makes us feel, and talking about what we can do about it. We discussed how we can turn our sparks into flames, our ideas into actions. The children were really inspired by some of the images and shared some great ideas, such as donating warm clothing to the homeless, picking up litter so that it doesn’t hurt wildlife and donating food to local shelters and charities. We will be putting some of these ideas into action over the next few weeks, through our Harvest festival and our Rotakids initiatives.
KS1- Book Explorers
This week in Book Explorers, we read a lovely book all about friendship called ‘The Best Gift of All.’ This story is set in the Autumn and features lots of Autumn animals. We learnt about how all of these animals were amazing friends to the rabbit when she wasn’t feeling very well. We then made some wonderful Autumn wreaths to take home.
Whole School Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by thanking everyone for their very generous Macmillan Coffee Morning donations last Friday. The heads and deputies will be announcing the final amount later today. We also lit a candle for gratefulness to say thank you for all of the wonderful things that we have in our lives including our loved ones and the beautiful nature around us. We then presented Ava, Isabella, Callie and Mila in EYFS and KS1 and Martha, Carmen, Edward and Will in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, being safe, being kind and being respectful) and our school Christian values. We also congratulated Walter and Alice in Year 4 for gaining their pen licenses, all of the children who have achieved their ‘WOW’ badges this month for walking to or from school at least once a week, Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and River Darwen as the value award winners this week with 549 points. We gave our girls football team a huge round of applause for their three amazing wins last night and particularly congratulated our Year 4 members of the team who stepped up into the Year 5/6 team. Finally, we congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Beau, Jack and Lyla for completing the Summer Reading challenge, Darcy for being awarded Star of the Week at gymnastics, James and Grace for gaining their Stage 5 swimming certificates, Leonora and Desmond for their fantastic swimming whilst competing for Blackburn Centurions, Isaac for being awarded Soccer HQ Player of the Day for demonstrating fantastic football skills, Daisy for being awarded 3 medals in the Paris Olympic Competition at gymnastics, Harriet for swimming 100m in her swimming, Fletcher for celebrating his uncle, Charlie for being a super football star, Laila for being the Player’s Player of the Match at football and Brooke for being awarded the Opposition Player’s Player of the Match. Finally, we had some beautiful prayers from, Renee, Callie and Mason and sang ‘If I was a Butterfly’ in celebration of ‘World Animal Day.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Rev Ben’s Collective Worship
In today’s collective worship, Rev. Ben began by engaging the children in an interactive challenge, where three children had to use two pieces of paper as stepping stones to cross the hall. This activity set the stage for the theme of the session: perseverance and trust in challenging times. Rev. Ben then shared the Bible story of Moses and the Israelites' long journey through the desert, highlighting the struggles and faith they experienced along the way. After listening to the story, the children were encouraged to reflect and discuss key questions: 'What did God's people do during their journey through the desert?' and 'What are some positive alternatives to complaining when things get tough?' These discussions helped the children connect the story to their own lives, exploring how patience, gratitude, and faith can guide them through difficult situations.
Year 1 Art- Creating Different Shades Using Paint
This afternoon in Year 1, the children created different shades of greens and blues in preparation for painting the sea and sky on their cold landscapes. They did a wonderful job! Well done Year 1.
Year 1 Art- Painting a Landscape
After experimenting with watercolours to create different shades of blues and greens, Year 1 painted the sea and sky on their cold landscapes. They are now ready to add their cold features to this landscape and collage them.
Whole School Worship: What is Spirituality?
In our Tuesday worship, the theme was spirituality and what it means to us. Mrs Ham talked about things that we can see (physical/ material things) and things that we just feel (spiritual things). We played a fun game where we had to put on a pretend pair of binoculars if it was something physical/ material that we can see or cover our eyes if it was something spiritual that we can't see. We had things like connecting with nature, a big house', money, connecting with friends, inner peace and believing in a God. She introduced the ‘windows’ looking out on the world and how we should take time to learn, to gaze, to wonder and admire and ask ‘why?’ We looked at some of the ways we can live life in all its fullness and today we particularly focused on being 'grateful' for all of God's creations. We also explored how taking notice is one of our five ways to wellbeing too. We looked at some of God’s creations in a video and discussed our favourite ones with our partner. There were lots of 'WOWs' and 'aahhs' at some of God's amazing creations. We finished with a prayer thanking God for all of his creations and sang 'If I were a butterfly' to sing thank you to God. Across this academic year, we will continue to further explore what spirituality means to us at St Barnabas.
Singing Worship- Harvest
What a joyous way to start a new week at St Barnabas! We first discussed why we sing and we had some wonderful answers such as : to communicate with God, to learn new words and vocabulary, to learn new sign language so we can communicate with those who can't speak or hear, to have fun and to say thank you to God. Today some of our fabulous volunteers taught Reception class some of the signs and actions for some of our Harvest songs that we will be singing in our Harvest Festival on Thursday 17th October. We sang 'If I were a butterfly' and 'Sing a song of Harvest' to thank God for all of the wonderful living things he created such as animals, plants and trees.
KS1 After School Club- Book Explorers
This week in Book Explorers, we read some monster themed stories and created our own monster themed bookmark.
Year 1 PE- Fundamental Skills
In their Monday PE session, Year 1 have been focusing on their fundamental skills. Over the last few weeks, they have been practising the correct technique for bouncing, kicking and rolling a ball as well as practising an overarm and underarm throw and side-galloping, skipping, running, dodging, and jumping from two feet to two feet.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
A huge thank you to everyone who has supported our Macmillan Coffee Morning this morning with donations of cakes and/ or money. Every child in school was able to have a cake at break time thanks to your generous donations. Donations can still be made on parent pay or after school. We have some cakes left over so we will have a stall after school on the infant yard.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by thanking everyone for their very generous Macmillan Coffee Morning donations, saying a huge thank you to our wonderful teaching assistants on National Teaching Assistant day and saying a special prayer and thinking about both our Cidari family of schools and local schools on ‘National Pray for Schools Day.’ We then presented Olivia, Reggie, Joey, Lydia and James in EYFS and KS1 and Olivia, Lana, Luke, Ted, Eden, Summer, Brooke and Charlie-Rose in KS2 as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for being fantastic role model for their peers, having a fantastic work ethic and always demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs (being ready, being safe, being kind and being respectful). Then, we heard from our well-being warriors who told us about ‘Hello Yellow Day’ coming up on Thursday 10th October and asked us to make a contribution on ParentPay in return for dressing in yellow to promote positive mental health. We also congratulated Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and River Darwen as the value award winners this week with 410 points. Finally, we congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Hendrix Elijah, Maggie and Callie for completing the Summer Reading challenge, Ava for being awarded her ‘Little Puffin’ certificate at swimming, Scarlett for being achieving an award for her positive contribution to West Pennine Netball, Maggie for achieving a super drawing award, Bobby-Ray for achieving his white belt at kickboxing and stage 1 at swimming, Lyla for achieving two gold awards at gymnastics, Isabella for earning her brown belt at kickboxing and achieving all of her badges at Rainbows and moving up to Brownies, Peyton for red and white belt at kickboxing, Bella for achieving ‘The Little Darreners’ Player of the Week,’ Iris for being a super swimmer, Marley for being a yoga superstar, Charlie for achieving his brown belt at kickboxing, Olivia for achieving her Stage 6 swimming certificate and Layla for achieving a special rosette for being a super horse rider. Finally, we said the Grace and we sang ‘We Can Make a Difference.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Rocksteady Launch
This morning, we were treated to an exciting Rocksteady assembly, where children explored the world of electrical musical instruments. The children were introduced to instruments such as drums, guitar, bass guitar, and keyboard, learning how each contributes to creating music. They were captivated by the live demonstrations and enthusiastically sang along, filling the hall with energy. Mr Norris, Mr Bloomfield and Mr Prescott also got to live out their dreams as they got the chance to be in their own boyband The session offered a wonderful opportunity for the children to discover different musical sounds and rhythms, sparking their curiosity and love for music. Information about how you can sign your child up to play in a rock band will be being brought home this evening.
Year 1 Junior Jam- Music, French and Computing
Year 1 had great fun in their Junior Jam sessions this week. They focused on tempo in music, counting forwards and backwards to 10 in French and composed music in computing.
Year 1 PE-Gymnastics
This afternoon in gymnastics, Year 1 revisited the travel (caterpillar walk), roll (pencil roll) and jump (straight jump) that they were practising last lesson. They then moved on to learning a new way of travelling (bunny hop) and jumping (tuck jump) and practised these by bunny hopping across a bench and tuck jumping off.
Rev Ben’s Worship: God the Rescuer
Rev Ben came in today to talk about rescuers. He began with a dressing up challenge in which 2 teams had to create their own superhero. Mind Reader won the most votes as the best superhero. Rev Ben linked this to a great rescuer from the Bible: Moses. He told us about God recruiting Moses to talk the Pharaoh into setting his people free. It was a difficult task but, with God’s help, he achieved it. The children spent some time thinking about what made Moses a rescuer and what made Jesus the ultimate rescuer.
European Day of Languages 2024 - Harvest Songs
Today, in singing worship, the children were introduced to some Harvest-themed songs in different European languages. This was in celebration of European Day of Languages, which will take place on Thursday. We have set the children a challenge to learn part or all of one of these songs. They can do this for next week. We are not expecting them to know it by Thursday. There may be some value points available to those who try! :) Here are the links: Harvest songs Portugal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2iZZ9GBUFE Germany - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzQraV8d1Q France - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjU3YhaM_50
Friday Celebration Worship
During our celebration worship this morning, Mrs Ham began the worship by lighting the candles and reflecting on the many things we are thankful for and grateful for, which led to some children sharing their thankful moments, such as our school, our outdoor area and our families. We then moved on to celebrating a very special member of staff, Mrs Pendlebury who is sadly leaving us today to enjoy her retirement. She has been with us for over 25 years. Heads and Deputies expressed some of their fond memories shared with Mrs Pendlebury. Rosie, expressed by stating that Mrs Pendlebury is one of a kind, Daisy remembered a time when Mrs Pendlebury kindly gave her a hat to wear on a class trip to rock and River. Harry and Hamza recalled moments when Mrs Pendlbury almost fell off a chair which they found amusing. We also watched a short video celebrating Mrs Pendlebury’s time at our school, filled with wonderful memories, a true legend. Mr Bloomfield and Mr Prescott shared a few words too, though no words can capture or express how much Mrs Pendlebury has meant to the school. Her grandchildren Jack and Beau, helped present Mrs Pendlebury with gifts and flowers from the school and staff. Mrs Ham then shared the awards that children received outside of school, including achievements for Charlie, Molly and Isabelle swimming, Isabella, Annabel and Phoebe for the summer reading challenge, James football, Grace dancing and Ella-Grace scouted for Manchester United. Reception and Year 5 won the attendance award. Darwen Tower gained an extra break for the most value points received this week. We then had prayers from Naomi, Sonny and Oscar and sang Mrs Pendlebury’s favourite songs, ‘Welcome everybody’ and Our God is great big God’.
Rev Ben's Collective Worship- Moses
Collective Worship - 19.09.24 During this week's worship session, Rev. Ben shared the story of Moses and the burning bush. He explained how, when God gave Moses a mission, Moses initially struggled to obey, feeling unsure and inadequate for the task. However, God revealed his power and presence to Moses, showing him the way and helping him develop trust. With God's guidance, Moses was able to achieve far more than he ever thought possible. The children engaged in thoughtful discussions, exploring questions like: What might it look like for you to recognise God's presence in your life? Some children reflected on seeing God's presence in acts of kindness, through nature, or in moments of peace when they feel supported by their friends and family. Others spoke about sensing God during quiet times or prayer, feeling that God is guiding them in difficult situations. When asked, Why do you think Moses was hesitant to follow God's instructions? The children expressed that they could relate to Moses’ fear and uncertainty. Some mentioned how Moses might have felt unworthy or scared of failing, while others said that like Moses, they too sometimes feel afraid when they are asked to do something new or hard. The group agreed that trusting God, even when they feel unsure, can help them overcome their fears. The final question, How does it change things for you, knowing that God is always with you? brought a range of responses. Some children said it gave them comfort to know they are never truly alone, even in hard times. Others felt it gave them courage, knowing they could rely on God’s strength when facing challenges. Many agreed that just like Moses, having faith in God’s presence helps them feel more confident in the tasks they are given, knowing they have divine support.
Year 1 Geography- Identifying Hot and Cold Places on a World Map
In Geography, Year 1 have been learning to name and locate the 7 continents of the world. They have done amazingly well at this and have used their observations to help them identify which one is which. For example, they used clues such as Asia being the biggest, Africa being on the equator, Australia being the smallest and Antarctica being the South Pole. They have also explored a map and identified where the warm places are such as Africa and the top of South America which are on or near to the equator and cold places such as the Arctic (North Pole) and Antarctica (South Pole) because they are furthest away from the equator. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 Writing
Year 1 have been working hard on their writing, particularly their letter formation. In their handwriting lessons, they have learnt how to form the precursive i, l, t, a, o and c and they have been practising this in both their handwriting books and in the writing area. They have also been working hard in their phonics and English lessons to apply their knowledge of the Phase 3 phonemes to their writing. Well done Year 1.
Whole School Worship: The Good Shepherd
Today, we were learning about Jesus’s parable of the Lost Sheep. We discussed why Jesus said 'I am the good shepherd', and how he will always come to us when we feel lost. Thanks to Mr Bloomfield and some of our younger children for acting out the story so brilliantly. We reflected on how we can life live in all its fullness knowing that Jesus is always watching over and protecting us, just like a good shepherd does for his sheep.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our first celebration worship of this academic year by signing the trinity and talking about our extremely busy couple of weeks in school, especially focusing on our Barny’s 4Bs (being ready, being safe, being kind and being respectful) and our school values. We then presented Thomas and Fletcher in Years 1 and 2 and Alfie, Eliza, Ella and Leonora in KS2 with certificates for being our value award winners this week. Well done to these children for starting the academic with an amazingly positive attitude, demonstrating fantastic behaviour for learning and consistently displaying our school values. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Harry for completing the Summer Reading challenge and being awarded a huge trophy for demonstrating kindness at SportsCool Summer club, Albie, Samuel, Renee, Carmen, Olivia and James for completing the Summer Reading challenge, Grace for being awarded the lyrical and jazz winner of the week, 3rd place for song and dance and a silver medal for her acro, Sofia for achieving Star of the Week at gymnastics club, Maggie for being a super Rainbow and working exceptionally hard to achieve all of her badges and Marley for achieving all of her badges at Rainbows and moving up to Brownies. We also congratulated Reception, Year 2 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and India Mill as the value award winners this week with 427 points. Finally, we had some lovely prayers of thankfulness and appreciation from Leonora, James and Lennox and we sang ‘Shine.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1 Art- Composing a Cold Landscape
This week in their art lesson, Year 1 explored landscapes. First of all, we looked at some landscapes (particularly cold ones) and brainstormed some of the features that we could see such as mountains and icebergs. We learnt about how to draw a horizon and then an additional line for where the sea meets the land. We then cut out images of features of our cold landscapes and positioned them on our own scenes, discussing where they should go: on the land, in the sea or in the sky. Next lesson, we will be exploring textures so that we can collage our landscape appropriately e.g. collaging the mountains in a hard, rough material and the polar bear in a soft, fluffy material.
Year 1 Science- Can I Identify What Group an Animal Belongs to?
This afternoon in Year 1, we explored the different animal groups (mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish) and discussed the features of animals in each of these groups such as having hair, scales, wet skin and feathers. We then looked at a variety of animals and sorted them into each of the five groups.
Alice in Wonderland Production
Wow! Our whole school family really enjoyed watching Alice in Wonderland this morning. It was a fantastic production and it was lovely to watch all of the children’s expressions throughout the performance.
Whole School Worship: Paralympic Values
We began our Monday worship with a race this week, except the race wasn’t very fair. One person was running the race, one was hopping and one was blindfolded. We discussed why this wasn’t a fair race and then we watched some athletes’ performances from the Paralympics. We were amazed to see people with no arms playing the piano, flying aeroplanes, brushing their teeth and driving cars etc and then we reflected on how we can learn from the Paralympians and have a 'yes, I can' attitude. We learned about the Olympic and Paralympic values and how some of the values are the same or similar to our Christian Values., We discussed how we can do anything with hard work, determination and self-belief and read in the Bible that with God, all things are possible.
School Admissions
Good morning parents and carers, the applications are now open for primary and secondary school admissions for September 2025. Primary school applications are open from 3 September 2024 until 15 January 2025. Secondary school applications are open from 3 September 2024 until 31 October 2024. For further information, please click here: https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/SynergyWeb/ We will be holding a 'Stay and Play' session for children who are due to start primary school in September 2025 on Thursday 3rd October from 9.00am-10.30am. Here you will get to meet our EYFS staff team and Mrs Ham will take you on a tour of our school to meet our amazing children and staff. There is no need to book and further information will be shared shortly. If you are not able to make the stay and play morning, please contact our school office on 01254 702996 to arrange a tour with Mrs Ham at a time that is convenient for you. Parents of children who are due to start secondary school in September 2025. Here are the dates of the open evenings for our local high schools that have been released. I will share the dates of the other schools once they have been published. DACA: Wednesday 2nd October 4.00-7.00pm https://www.daca.uk.com/Open-Evening/ St Wilfrids: Thursday 26th September 4.00-8.00pm https://www.saintwilfrids.co.uk/events/academy-open-evening Darwen Vale: TBC St Bede's: TBC
Year 1 Art- Self Portraits
This week in Year 1, the children have used various paper techniques such as folding, fringing and bending to make a self-portrait. They have done a wonderful job and they will be displayed outside of our classroom. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Phonics- Phonics Bingo
Today in Year 1, the children took part in some phonics activities. First of all, they looked for sounds that Miss Flynn read out to them such as b for bag, i for insect and qu for queen. This was a great way of getting some practise in using our sound mats after the six week holidays and reminding ourselves of the pictures and actions that go with each sound. Year 1 then enjoyed a couple of games of phonics bingo. They had 6 sounds and had to listen carefully to see if they had it. It was a great way of revising the sounds that the children had learnt when they were in Reception.
Year 1 Art- Warm and Cool Colours
In their art lesson, Year 1 explored warm and cool colours. They then applied this knowledge to complete an activity where they had to sort some landscapes by the colours that had been used within them (warm or cool). The children could also choose to complete an extra activity. This was to colour a picture in and represent the warm part of the picture with colours such as orange, red and yellow and the cool part of the picture with colours such as blue, green and purple. For example, the children coloured the ocean in cool colours but a sunrise in warm colours. Year 1 will be using their understanding of warm and cool colours when they come to create their own landscape in a few weeks time.
Year 1 Science- Grouping Animals
Today in Year 1, the children made some observations about animals. The children noticed various things such as some animals having feathers and some not, some having hair or fur and some not, some having ears but some having earholes, some having scales and some not, some being patterned and some not and so on. Year 1 then used their observations to sort a group of animals in their own way. Next lesson, the children will build on this to sort the animals into their animal groups such as mammals or reptiles.
Rev Ben’s Worship- Trust
Rev Ben welcomed us back to school by reflecting on our school holiday and what we were most looking forward to this school year. He then told us the Bible story about Abraham going on a journey but he didn't know where he was going but he put his trust in God. Rev Ben said that our life can be a wonderful journey if we put our trust in God and remember that he is always with us. We then discussed with our partners how we can make the most of this year and live life in all its fullness. We finished with a lovely back to school blessing and sang a special back to school song.
Fun in the sun!
We have had lots of fun playing in the sun with our friends at lunch time!
Back with our friends
It is wonderful to be back with our friends! We have had a brilliant day so far and we had lots of fun playing with our friends at break time.
First day in our new classes
We’ve had a super first day in our new classes. Mrs Ham and our class teachers have been so impressed to see everyone following our four B’s and demonstrating our Christian Values. So many children have moved onto ‘time to shine’ and have been awarded values points. Well done everyone, it’s wonderful to have our school family back together again! We are so proud of our new Reception class children as they have settled so brilliantly and were so brave!
Whole School Worship: Jesus the Good Shepherd
We were all so happy to have everyone back for our first day of the school year. In our first worship we recapped and celebrated all of the amazing ways we live out our school vision and what Jesus meant when he said we should have life in all its fullness. We heard about His teaching of the sheep and the gate and learned that He wished for all of us to use Him as our gate to God; that we can have a good life if we follow His word. We then recapped our 4 B's school rules and our Christian Values. Our teachers will be looking for our children to demonstrate these in order to gain values points each day and get on our 'time to shine' board. We reflected on what we are looking forward to this year and how we will achieve great things and live life in all its fullness.
Whole School Awards Ceremony
This morning, we had a special award ceremony to celebrate a fantastic 2023-2024 academic year here at St Barnabas. First of all, we said a huge well done to Harvey and Miss Reynolds. We thank Mrs Reynolds for the amazing support that she has given to Harvey and the rest of our school family this year and we celebrate all of the wonderful things that Harvey has achieved. We wish him lots of luck at his new school. We then moved on to our Progress Award, Star of the Year and Children’s Champion winners in Years Reception-5. We congratulated Olly in Reception, Eli in Year One, Martha in Year 2, Alfie in Year 3, Elsie in Year 4 and Betsy in Year 5 with the Progress award, Elsie in Reception, James in Year 1, Naomi in Year 2, Alice in Year 3, Declan in Year 4 and Matthew in Year 5 as the Stars of the Year and Edward in Reception, Evie in Year 1, Alfie in Year 2, Daisy in Year 3, Annabelle in Year 4 and Harry in Year 5 as the Children’s Champion. Well done to all of these children for their incredible effort this year. Mrs Gardener and Mrs Ham also presented two of our Year 4 children with special awards. We said a massive congratulations to Annabelle who won our Protecting the Planet award. This is an award that Rev David left after retiring a couple of years ago. It goes to Annabelle for her fantastic commitment to preserving the planet. They also presented the Sharon Kay Cup for Kindness to Bella for her kind, caring, loving and empathetic nature. Mrs Ham, our current Heads and Deputies and Sports Leaders then presented Harry as our new Head Boy, Hamza as our new Deputy Head Boy, Daisy as our new Head Girl and Rosie as our new Deputy Head Girl for next academic year and Matthew, Freddie, Austin, Ezmae, Brooke and Poppy as our new Sports Leaders for next academic year. Well done to all of these children for their very successful applications-we are sure that you’ll all do a fantastic job in your new roles! Mrs Ham then presented all the children in school who have achieved 96% attendance across this academic year- a huge well done to these children for their commitment to learning. Finally, the Rotakids then presented Darcy and James as the sweet jar winners. Thank you to all of our children who guessed the number of the sweets in the jars to raise money for East Lancs Hospice and well done to Darcy and James for guessing correctly. We are so proud of our whole school family for their hard work and dedication, they really have achieved great things and lived life in all its fullness.
Whitehall Park Disco
Whitehall Park team enjoyed a disco in the school hall at break time today. They received the most house points this term. The children enjoyed some sweets, danced and also played musical bumps.
Rev Ben’s Worship: Talents
Today, Rev Ben set a task for our volunteers: to carry a balloon from one side of the hall to the other without using their hands. He shared the story of Paul and the shipwreck and talked about the Christian belief that it is their task to share the good news of God and His Son, Jesus. We also considered the talents God gave us and how these talents can be used to serve God and others.
Year 1 Panda Paramedic First Aid Bronze Award
This morning, we welcomed Dawn the paramedic into our Year 1 classroom to complete our Basic First Aid Bronze Award. First of all, Dawn asked us how we treat a burn. We knew that we needed to run it under cool water but our guesses for how long this should be done for were way out. Eventually, we came to the right answer which is 20 minutes. Dawn them showed us how we give first aid to someone with a graze. We all practised applying a plaster without touching the part of the plaster that will touch the graze. Then we learnt how to treat an open wound and got the opportunity to practise bandaging a wound for our friend. Finally, Dawn told us about anaphylaxis. We learnt that anaphylaxis is an extreme allergic reaction where there are symptoms such as extreme swelling. In this case, we found out that we need to use an EpiPen to treat someone. We practised using an EpiPen by reciting the rhyme ‘Blue to the sky and orange to the thigh’. Dawn explained that we do this for 10 seconds and that the thigh is a big muscle which is why we do it there. Dawn also said that we need to call 999 because anaphylaxis is an emergency. When you dial 999, Dawn said that the first thing you will be asked is what service you require and for a medical emergency you will ask for the ambulance. Then , Dawn said that the ambulance will ask for your home address so it’s really important that we all know this. Dawn gave us some scenarios and we had to day whether we would phone an ambulance. We said yes for someone who has collapsed and was not responding, complaining of a pain in their heart and looking pale and having an asthma attack and struggling to breathe/talk in full sentences. Dawn also explained the dangers of dialling 999 for a joke. Thank you Dawn. Year 1 learnt lots about basic first aid.
Summer Reading Challenge 2024
This morning, Angela came in to invite us all to join in with ‘The Summer Reading Challenge 2024- Marvellous Makers’. This is a national reading activity, which aims to encourage a love of reading in children and develop their literacy skills throughout the summer. To get started, drop in to either Darwen or Blackburn Library. Angela told us that once you’re enrolled, each member needs to read 6 library books (or eBooks/eAudio), with stickers or a prize being awarded for each book that is read and returned. Prizes will include origami paper and pencil crayons. Those who complete the scheme (all 6 books), will receive a medal and a certificate that they can bring into school in September and have presented in Friday celebration worship. Angela asked us why it would be amazing if we all completed the Summer Reading Challenge. Our children said that reading can help us to learn new words, increase our imagination, get us excited so our hearts will beat fast and help us to challenge our brains. We look forward to hopefully presenting lots of ‘Summer Reading Challenge’ certificates and medals in September. Extra Information To enrol, simply go to your nearest Blackburn with Darwen library and complete an application form between 1st July & 30th September. Enrolment in the scheme is free of charge, and involves children borrowing books on a library card. If your child does not yet have a library card, we would encourage you to take this opportunity to enrol them as a library member. This is a quick process, and you will simply be asked to complete and sign another form. However, those children without library cards may still join the Summer Reading Challenge, and temporary arrangements will be put in place to allow them to borrow books.
Year 1 Maths- Telling the time to the hour
This morning in Year 1, we have been learning to tell the time to the hour. We made various o’clock times e.g. 6 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 11 o’clock and then we made various o’clock times using clues such as the time that we go to bed, wake up in the morning and have our dinner.
Year 1 Enjoy Their Last Euro’s Training Session
This afternoon, Year 1 had their last Euro’s training session with coaches Ste and Lily Walker. For the last four weeks, they have been practising skills such as stopping the ball, walking and running with the ball, passing, tackling and shooting and today they got the opportunity to play a 5 a side football match. Coach Ste also gave them all a ‘CONFIDENCE’ tennis ball. The idea of the ball is to promote positivity, build the children’s confidence and support them in developing a growth mindset by catching their own confidence throwing the tennis ball up and down and catching it, throwing it against a wall and catching it and throwing the ball around with friends. It is also for using whilst saying positive affirmations to yourself. Thank you Ste and Lily for 5 wonderful weeks of coaching.
Year 1 English
This week, Year 1 have explored riddles. They have practised writing their own clues using adjectives, verbs, adverbs, similes and conjunctions. They are now really excited to write their own riddle containing all of the grammatical features that they have been practising. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 RE- Joseph
In RE, Year 1 have been learning about the story of Joseph. They have learnt about Joseph being a dreamer, a prisoner and eventually a ruler. In their most recent lesson, Year 1 discussed what they had learnt from this story and a couple of the things that the children said that they had learnt was that God is always with you and will support you in achieving your dreams and it is worth being resilient and overcoming challenges to achieve something that you really want. It tied in really nicely with the whole school worship that we had on Tuesday morning about growth mindset. To end the lesson, the children thought about their own dreams and shared these with their friends.
Rev Matt’s Worship - Seeking Truth
Rev Matt shared with us the fantastic news of his recent ordination. Some of the children even helped with a little re-enactment. He explained that his duty as a Christian is to live a life of truth. We listened to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego; three men of faith who were punished for refusing to turn their backs on God in order to worship an image of the king. Rev Matt spoke about how it isn’t always easy for us to stand by our beliefs and we discussed times when this might be particularly difficult.
Growth Mindset Assembly
Today, our school had a very special assembly by Liz from Growth Mindset. The children explored the differences between fixed and a growth mindset. The children understood the advantages of growth mindset and how we can channel our growth mindset to overcome challenges and hurdles that we face daily. Liz shared a story about her uncle David who overcame many challenges to compete in the Para Olympic Games which demonstrated the powers of growth mindset. The children were faced with a variety of scenarios and shown how a growth mindset can help achieve and succeed. Just remember: “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step” A huge thank you to Liz from Grow Your Mindset!
Fundraising - East Lancs Hospice
A huge well done to the whole of St Barnabas, we have raised a massive £277.30 for the East Lancs Hospice through our Hop, Skip and Jump event and our Barney's Got Talent Show. The money will be used to help care for those in need and will support the wonderful staff that do an amazing job within the health care system.
Friday Celebration Worship- Whole School
Today, in celebration worship, we began by signing the Trinity and discussing the busy week. Mrs Ham thanked the children who sang at Blackburn Cathedral for the celebration of Cidari's 10-year anniversary. These children were recognised for demonstrating our Christian value of courage. All classes were praised for their transition day to new classes. They showed bravery and respect throughout. The class teachers presented value awards to the following students for always doing the right thing and trying their best in everything: Joey from reception, Harry from Year 1, Harry from Year 2, Darcy and Ivy from Year 3, Eden from Year 4 and Brooke from Year 5. Well done!. Year 1 and Year 4 won the attendance award this week. Well done for ensuring you are always in school, ready to learn. We also celebrated children for their extracurricular activities outside of school. Many showcased their trophies, medals and certificates in swimming, football, ballet, brownies, dancer for the year, gymnastics, performing arts, horse riding, Iron Kids Run, and lifeguarding skills. The Wellbeing warriors presented the children with walk to school badges and we sang' School Rules' which the children enjoyed. To conclude our worship, prayers were led by Lilly, Olivia and Mrs Ham.
Year 1 Transition Day
Reception enjoyed their transition day in Year 1. In the morning, they had computing, French and music sessions led by Junior Jam. in the afternoon, they explored the classroom. Miss Flynn read the children a story about a caterpillar called Cody who didn’t want to change into a butterfly but when she found the strength and courage to do so, she loved it. They learn that although change can seem scary, it can also be really exciting. The children then went on to make their own beautiful butterflies. They also accessed many other activities in the classroom such as making a house out of Lego or construction straws and putting their family inside so that Mrs Hegarty and I could get to know them, drawing themselves, making CVC words out of magnetic letters, colouring by number and building using the multi link.
Year 1 Transition Morning- Junior Jam
As part of their transition morning in Year 1, the reception children enjoyed a music, French and computing session with Junior Jam.
Year 1 Local Geography
This week in history, Year 1 compared a map of Darwen Market St in the 1950s with a map of Darwen Market St in 2024. They spotted noticed lots of differences such as the high street used to have several tailors, shoe shops and banks. Whereas now we don’t have any of those and instead we have takeaways, supermarkets, bargain stores and charity shops. They did notice a similarity which was both the high street in 1950 and the high street now have a pharmacy.
Rev Ben’s Worship - Living a Life of Truth
This week, in Rev Ben’s worship, we learned the importance of telling the truth and we discussed the consequences of lying. We found out that part of being a Christian is aiming to live a life of truthfulness. We also reflected on ways we could stay truthful in our daily lives.
Year 1 Inter-House Sportshall Athletics
This morning, Year 1 enjoyed their Sportshall Athletics session. Thank you to the sports leaders and Mrs Gardner for organising this.
Year 1 History- What types of Shops are on Darwen’s High Street?
As part of their history unit, Year 1 are comparing Darwen’s high street in the 1950s to present day. This morning, they went down to Darwen Town Centre to explore the types of shops that there are on Market St and Duckworth St and tally the types of shops that they could see e.g. pharmacy, supermarket, takeaway/cafe and charity shop. They noticed that there are a lot of takeaways, hairdressers, barbers and beauticians in the present day compared to none that we could see on the photographs of the 1950s, they noticed that there were more banks in the 1950s and there were a lot of tailors and shoe shops in the 1950s compared to none that we could find today.
Year 1 Science- A Pattern Seeking Investigation
This week in science, Year 1 carried out a pattern seeking investigation. In groups of 5 or 6, they had to investigate whether the children who had the biggest hand spans could hold the most amount of counters or cubes and whether the children who had the longest feet could jump the furthest. Some teams found this to be true and other teams found this to be false. Therefore, Year 1 decided that overall as a class there can sometimes be a pattern/link between these two factors but not always. They said that they would like to try out some further investigations such as can people with the biggest hand span throw the furthest? Or can people with the longest feet kick the furthest?
Year 1 Maths- Making quarter, half, three quarter and full turns
After their learning about halves and quarters in their unit on fractions, Year 1 had to apply this learning to their most recent maths lesson to make quarter, half, three-quarter and full turns. They did this with various shapes such as triangles and rectangles.
Year 1 D&T- Making Windmills
This week in Year 1, the children made their windmills. They had to attach the sails to the structure (that they created last week) and secure it with pipe cleaner.
Barney's Got Talent
To celebrate World Music Day, Mrs Ham supported by our Heads and Deputies (Lucy, Skye, Isaac and Wilson) presented a very special Barney's Got Talent this morning. We are collecting donations that will be going to East Lancs Hospice to support the wonderful work they do. All of the talents that we witnessed from our school family were absolutely incredible and we commend all of the children for being so courageous and sharing these talents with such a large audience. A huge well done to Callie the Tangled Twin , Super Summer the Gummy Bear, Haydn and Percy as the Football Friends, Olivia and Lydia as the Barbie Girls, Ballerina Annabel dancing to the instrumental version of ‘Dance Monkey,’ Super Ted and Electric Elijah with their amazing street dancing, The Friendship Band of Iris and Naomi singing ‘This Girl is on Fire,’ Jack, Ella-Grace and Chay as The Conga Monkeys, Miles, Daisy and James as The Brilliant Believers singing Believer by the Imagine Dragons, Toffee Tristen singing Pure Imagination dressed as Willy Wonka, Sparkly Sofia singing ‘Beautiful Things’ by Benson Boone, Dramatic Darcy singing ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri, Mason and James as the MJ Boys singing ‘Shotgun’ by George Ezra, Amazing Annabelle as a magician , Graceful Grace dancing to ‘ABC’ by the Jackson 5, Beau, Jess, Laila, Brooke, Charlie-Rose and Betsy dancing to ‘Who Runs the World? (Girls)’ as the 6 Golden Stars, Eliza as The Joyful Joker, Outstanding Oscar playing and singing ‘Believer’ on the Piano, R’Kid Seb singing ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis, Archie the Arrow thrashing Mr Bloomfield at darts and The WWE Wrestlemania team of Charlie, Carlton and Alfie. Wow! What a lot of talent. Thank you to the parents who could attend our Barney's Got Talent, we hope you enjoyed the performances. For those who couldn’t, Mr Bloomfield kindly recorded it and this will be shared with you all. We wish you a lovely restful weekend. Thank you for your continued support.
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Year 1- Euros Football Session
This afternoon, Year 1 enjoyed their first football session of 4 with Steve and Lily. What a fabulous way to celebrate and join in with the Euros 2024! They practised lots of skills such as passing, dribbling and shooting. Thank you to coaches Steve and Lily- The children absolutely loved the session!
Mrs Ham's Highlights
Dear parents and carers, wow, another super busy week of living life in all its fullness at St Barnabas! The highlights of the week have been: *Our Barney’s Got Talent show this morning. We are so proud of our super talented and courageous children who took part in it. Thank you so much for all of the parents and grandparents who came along to support. Thanks so much for your kind donations to East Lancs Hospice. You can still make a donation on parent pay if you would like to. Photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/barney-s-got-talent-june-2024 *Learning about refugees in class worship as part of refugee week and Years 3 and 5 have special visits from two refugees from DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise. * Our high fives netball team winning the league and will now go on to represent BWD in the Lancs school games. *Our boys cricket team crowned champions of the DPSSA cricket competition. * Our tennis team did brilliantly at the tennis tournament. *Our new after school clubs started with Little craft club and Little Voices. *We had a carbon monoxide safety assembly for the whole school and workshops in Years 5 and 6. * Our WOW group have started to create our Spirituality garden with the help of Mr Fairbanks, Mr Ham and Mrs Ham’s son. We still welcome donations of pots and plants if you have any spare ones lying around at home. Next week we are looking forward to our Sports Day on Friday. Fingers crossed this lovely weather stays. The Infants ( Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) will go first at 9.15am- 10.30am and then the Juniors (Years 3,4,5 and 6) at 10.45am- 12.15pm. Parents are very welcome to attend and we are hopeful that we will be able to have our Mums, Dads and toddler races too. Work will begin next week on a new canopy on our Reception class yard. Therefore the Reception class yard will be closed and children will need to walk around the outside path to get to and from their class, rather than through the Reception yard. Further information will be sent out on Monday about where to drop off and collect Reception children from. Yesterday I sent out information about our children being invited to sing at a ‘Cidari 10 Year Celebration’ on Wednesday evening. I’m aware this clashes with out of school activities for some of our older children. Therefore, I have opened this up to children in any year group and they do not need to be choir members, just anyone who enjoys singing. We will be singing songs that we already know and sing in worship. We would really appreciate your support. If you would like your child to take part, please fill out the following google form and further information can be found on my previous post. https://forms.gle/sahNa3JH1UFz88Vu6 A polite reminder to please park considerately to our neighbours. This morning a white car parked on one of our resident’s drives to drop off, which meant the resident’s visiting family couldn’t park on their drive. Wishing you all a fantastic weekend and thank you for your continued support, Mrs Ham
Whole School CO Safety Worship
Steph visited us to talk about how we can stay safe at home. We watched a video of Safety Seymour and the CO crew and learned about the dangers of CO - Carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas that can’t be detected by our senses alone. We have to be careful if we have gas fires or log burners and check them yearly to make sure they are clean. If we suspect there is a CO leak, then we must contact the gas emergency services to come and check. We must also check our boilers and gas cookers for any changes - if the flame turns floppy and orange it means CO is being produced and a gas safe engineer needs to look at it. Always get an adult to turn it off straight away. If we breathe in CO we might feel unwell and it can be very dangerous so we must remember the 3 safety steps: have our appliances tested regularly, look for signs and symptoms of feeling unwell and install a CO alarm at home.
The Little Craft Club
After school today, Becky, the owner of Fred and Pearl, ran ‘The Little Craft Club!’ at our school for the first time. It was a huge success and the children created some amazing crafts. The theme for this week was vehicles and the children made a boat, hot air balloon and car. They used a range of colours and materials and they all looked incredible. Well done to the EYFS and KS1 children that attended this week for being so creative in their designs.
Rev Matt’s Worship: God’s Great Creations
Rev Matt began his worship this week with a challenge for us all to vote for “the best one for the job”. He showed two people or animals and asked which would be the best runner, the best fire fighter, the best world leader etc. He then read a poem from the Bible about nature and how precious God’s creations are. We spent some time discussing our favourite creations and how we could take care of them.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we started by signing the trinity and discussing a very busy first week back after the half-term holidays. This week, we have had a worship about St Barnabas, the encourager and how St Paul was originally called Saul and how he changed his behaviour, a worship from Rev Ben about Jesus being a compass and helping us to find the way when things become difficult and a wonderful Father’s Day Stay and Play in Reception Class. This week also saw a group of our Year 6 children taking part in The Darwen Primary Schools Netball Finals event at Darwen Vale and coming away with joint first but second on goal difference, a group of our Year 6 children for taking part in a BwD cricket competition at Darwen Cricket Club and coming an overall 8th and Year 5 class for being the class who walked to school the most in May. This week, we also said a huge well done to Haydn, Carter, Bluebelle, Miles, Elsie, Ruby and Isaac who were awarded as our value award winners this week for always striving to do their best and showing respect and kindness and we also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our attendance winners and Darwen Tower as our overall value award winners this week with 275 points. We then moved on to hearing about what great things our children at St Barnabas have been achieving outside of school. Well done to Charlie for achieving his brown belt in martial arts, Ella-Grace for being awarded with a trophy for demonstrating fantastic football skills, Callie for working extremely hard and showing amazing skill in her gymnastics, Carter for achieving his silver award at swimming, Amelia for running 5k in the Race For Life and raising £600 for Cancer Research, Olivia for being an amazing Brownie, Daisy for achieving 2nd place at a recent gymnastics competition, Finn for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ at football, Lyla for achieving 10m in her backstroke, Isabella for achieving her brown belt in martial arts and 20m in her swimming, Eliza for achieving ‘Player of the Season’ in her football and being invited back to Blackburn Rovers after trialling out for their girls team, Leonora for swimming amazingly for the centurions and achieving both ‘The Funkiest Hairstyle’ and ‘Heart of Gold Award’ from the club she went to while on holiday, James for achieving a silver medal at Jiu Jitsu for demonstrating very powerful kicks and punches, Maggie for achieving a fantastic 50m in her swimming, Edward for being a super reader and achieving 100% in his reading eggs quiz, Tristen for achieving yet another impressive kick-boxing belt, Miles for achieving 3rd place in a recent football tournament, Annabel for being an incredible tap dancer and achieving her first steps certificate and Summer for achieving a first class medal for demonstrating incredible skill in her gymnastics. Finally, we ended our worship with two beautiful prayers from Jack and Leonora thanking all of our amazing staff for all that they do and praying for those who are in the midst of war and conflict. We also sang, ‘Build Up' as this week we have been thinking about how we can be like St Barnabas and encourage each other and build each other up. Thank you as always for those who could attend celebration worship today and we send an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for their continued support. We wish you all a lovely weekend when it arrives and we hope all of the Dads and Grandads have a wonderful Father's Day on Sunday.
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Year 1 Science- Identifying a Variety of Common Wild and Garden Flowers
This afternoon, Year 1 went on a walk to identify a variety of common garden and wild plants. For the garden flowers, Year 1 found lavender, roses, pansies, marigolds and petunias. Roses were certainly the most popular garden flower that they found. They also spotted lots of wild flowers including buttercups, daisies, poppies, foxglove, dandelions, ivy, cow parsley, stinging nettles and forget me not. Well done Year 1 for super listening and identifying!
Year 1 D&T- Creating a Stable Structure
Yesterday in their D&T lesson, Year 1 learnt about three different types of windmills (Windmill, Wind Turbine and Pin Wheel) and their features. They then discussed the meaning of a structure and created their own stable structure which was the base of the windmill using paper cups and moulding clay. At the end of the lesson, they tested their structures for strength and stability and concluded that the structure was more stable when it was heavier (contained clay).
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Year 1 English- Creating a Non-Fiction Book About BeWILDerwood
This week in their English lessons, Year 1 have been working on their own Non-Fiction book about BeWILDerwood. Year 1 visited BeWILDerwood before the holidays and we thought that the trip and our experiences of it would be a good stimulus for writing. The children have created their own book with a front cover, contents page and three further pages about the activities that BeWILDerwood offer. On these pages, the children made sure that they included a heading, picture and a very informative caption. They have really enjoyed this-well done Year 1.
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Year 1 Geography- A Local Area Messy Map
To finish their most recent geography unit on their immediate local area, Year 1 worked together to create a messy map. Over the last half-term Year 1 have explored the features of our local area through both mapwork and fieldwork and this led them onto being able to create the wonderful messy map that they did. On their messy map, the roads were represented as were many other features such as our local park, chemist, shops, church, post-office, laundrette, detached houses, semi-detached houses, terraced houses and cemeteries.
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Rev Ben’s Worship: Jesus is Our Compass
This week, Rev Ben joined us for worship to talk about seeking the truth. He began with a true or false quiz in which the options become progressively more difficult. We discussed why sometimes it’s hard to know what’s true and how it feels to feel lost. We learned that Christians believe that Jesus will always guide them to the truth if they put their trust in him.
St Barnabas Day Collective Worship
It was wonderful to welcome our school family back again this morning after the half term break. Tomorrow it is St Barnabas day so we focused on St Barnabas, the Encourager this morning in our Collective Worship. We also looked at how St Barnabas and St Paul became friends and we thought about how Rev Ben is the vicar at both St Barnabas and St Pauls in Hoddlesden. We learnt how Paul was originally called Saul and he was mean and didn't like followers of Jesus. One day Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and after that Saul became a good person, changed his name to Paul and spread the word of God. Barnabas met Paul and encouraged others to listen to him and to give him another chance as he always saw the good in others. Barnabas and Paul went on lots of missionaries together to spread the word of God and the good news of Jesus. We reflected on how we could be like St Barnabas and encourage each other in the coming weeks. We discussed the bible quote 'encourage one another and build each other up' and had some wonderful answers. We thought about how our vision 'achieving great things through learning and growing together in a love-filled family' can only be achieved if we encourage each other and build each other up. We then finished with a prayer and sang 'Build up one another'.
Year 1 and 2 visit BeWILDerwood
Our Year 1 and 2 classes had a fantastic time at BeWILDerwood in Cheshire. They showed lots of courage when taking part in a variety of challenging activities such as den building, wobbly wires, slippery slopes, the mish mash maze, the broken bridge, storytelling and crafts. For all of the photos, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-1-2-bewilderwood-trip-may-2024
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and talking about our extremely busy week in school. This week, we saw The Little Voices after school club showcase their amazing learning over the last six weeks, Year 1&2 visit BeWILDerwood in Cheshire, Year 2&4 visit St Barnabas Church to learn about the symbols of the church with Rev Ben, amazing learning in computing, music and French through our Junior Jam sessions, and two wonderful worships with Mrs Wilkinson about mental health awareness and Rev Matt about Pentecost. We then presented Percy, Isabella, Euan, Hamza and Archie as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for demonstrating an amazing attitude to their learning. Miss Flynn then presented all of Year 1 as value award winners this week for challenging themselves to try new activities at BeWILDerwood and representing school amazingly well by showing an amazing amount of courage, friendship and teamwork and Mr Norris presented all of Year 2 as value award winners for approaching their recent tests with amazing smiles on their faces and a huge amount of perseverance as well as being amazing on our trip to BeWILDerwood yesterday. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, Whitehall Park as the overall value award winners this week with 329 points, Annabelle, Mason, Jenson and Elsie for achieving ‘Rock Legend’ status for being able to rapidly recall their timetables and to Lily-May for achieving her pen licence for amazing handwriting across all of her subjects. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Callie for being awarded a certificate and trophy for demonstrating high standards of courtesy, respect and a black belt attitude at martial arts, Leonora for her certificate of recognition for her effort in working towards an award in her gymnastics, Iris for achieving her stage 1 grading at gymnastics and all of her hard work that has gone into achieving this, Ella-Grace for being a super football star and being selected as the manager’s player in her football team, showing amazing commitment to her training at Manchester United and achieving 20m in her swimming, Ed for achieving 25m in his swimming, Isaac for playing for being voted as the players’ player in his football team, Archie for running 2km in the Winter Warmer at Witton, Maggie for being awarded Olivia at Rainbows for being a superstar and always being kind, caring and showing wonderful behaviour, Lyla for her commitment to Rainbows and achieving lots of badges, James for achieving his Stage 2 swimming certificate, Annabelle for achieving an incredible gold award in swimming, Sofia for achieving her Stage 1 gymnastics award and Lucy for being awarded the manager’s player of the year. Her manager said although she’s younger than the other players, she certainly makes up for it on the football pitch. To end our worship, we had a message about Barney’s Got Talent from our heads and deputies. They told us that auditions for this will be W/C 10th June and the showcase of these amazing talents will be on Friday 21st June. Finally, we had some lovely prayers from Sofia and Olivia in Year 3 and we sang ‘Our God is a Great Big God.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely and restful half-term holiday.
Happy half term
Good afternoon parents and carers, I can't believe that we only have a half term left in school and it feels like this year has flown by. We have had a brilliant last week of the half term and the highlights have been: *Year 1 and 2's visit to BeWILDerwood in Cheshire. All the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/year-1-2-bewilderwood-trip-may-2024 *Year 2 and 4's visit to our church For all of the news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Our Heads and Deputies told our whole school about the Barney's Got Talent show that they will be hosting on Friday 21st June. If children would like to enter, they have the next two weeks to practise their talents and auditions will be held the first week back. A reminder that our FOSB are selling Father's Day breakfast in bed boxes that can be collected on Friday 14th June. These can be purchased through parent pay until Monday 10th June. They will not be able to accept orders after this date as the boxes will need to be prepared. As Thursday 4th July is now a General Election, we will be closed on this day for all staff and children as our school is used as a polling station. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. I would like to say a huge thank you to our staff team for their support and dedication to our school family. I hope they all have a well deserved rest and chance to recharge. Thank you so much for all of your continued support and I hope that you all have a wonderful half term break. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday 10th June and I hope the weather is kind to us all, Mrs Ham
Rev Matt’s Worship - Pentecost
Today Rev Matt came in to lead a worship all about Pentecost and being filled with the Holy Spirit. As a challenge, a group of children were chosen to blow up a balloon as large as possible in 30 seconds. He told us about the events of Pentecost and how the disciples received the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is considered the birthday of the church.
Year 1 English- Non-Fiction Books
As part of their English unit, Year 1 have been exploring the features of non-fiction books. After seeing and reading a number of non-fiction books and familiarising themselves with the features, they independently looked for the features in a non-fiction book themselves. They looked for the title page, the contents page, the glossary, labels, captions and headings. They are looking forward to creating their own information booklet on BeWILDerwood after visiting on Thursday.
Year 1 Maths-Sharing Equally
Today in their maths lesson, Year 1 shared equally. To do this, they took their time and made sure that each of the groups that they were sharing into had the same amount of cubes or counters. Some children grouped theirs into rows and/or columns like an array to help them see more clearly and others even managed to make the connection between multiplication and division (sharing) e.g. 40 shared between 4 will be 10 because I know that there are 4 groups of 10 in 40. Impressive!
Year 1 Art
Today in their art lesson, Year 1 combined their knowledge of secondary colours and printing to make an overlapping printed pattern. To start their lesson, they mixed primary colours to make secondary colours. Following this, they printed repeating patterns in primary colours only using various shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, hexagons and semi-circles. Finally, they overlapped their printed pattern with another primary colour to turn the colours in their patterns from primary colours to secondary colours e.g. overlapping red with blue to make purple and yellow with blue to make green. This overlapping didn’t create the secondary colour as well as we would have expected and we decided that next time we would mix the secondary colours with a paintbrush beforehand and then print using these secondary colours instead. Year 1 worked amazingly well and printed some wonderful repeating patterns.
Mad Science After School club- Making slime
During our final after-school Science Club session, the children had a blast making slime with the Mad Scientist. They creatively mixed colours to make their slime unique. This half term, they have thoroughly enjoyed exploring various aspects of science. We definitely have future scientists among us!
Monday Worship: Mental Health
Last week was mental health awareness week and the theme was find your moments for movement. We began our worship by thinking about what mental health is. Isaac said it is about how you feel, Lucy said it was all about your emotions and Seb said it was about how you feel inside, not outside. We watched a video all about how people can look ok but actually may feel scared, worried or anxious and it is important to talk to someone, to exercise or to take time out for yourself. David told everybody how he felt worried about his SATs but he came into school smiling so people may not have known. Mrs Wilkinson led a mindfulness activity for everybody to really focus on their body. We then discussed how we can move more. The children suggested that we could play outside, go swimming, play football and dance. We then took part in a moodbuster get active workout where we all jumped, did star jumps, squatted and ran on the spot repeating affirmations. We then reflected on how we can move more and how we can promote mental health to ourselves and others. We ended our worship by singing Lighthouse to remind us that Jesus is always there to listen to us.
Forest school club
This week the children had a great time building dens which opened so much up for their imaginative play. The children created leaf tickets to enter the den. They gave each other different roles within the game. It was great to see the children all playing cooperatively together and using brilliant team work.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and talking about our extremely busy week in school. This week, we saw Year 6 showing an amazing amount of courage as they faced their SATs, Year 5 having a wonderful 3 day PGL residential at Winmarleigh Hall and lots of amazing lunch time and after school clubs such as Cricket, Little Voices, Mad Science, Choir, Netball and Story and Craft. We also congratulated our wonderful Year 4 tennis team (Jenson, Summer, Annabelle and Quinn) for performing amazingly on Wednesday afternoon and coming in 2nd place out of 8 schools in BwD. What an achievement! Thank you to Mr Foy for training up the tennis team in his lunch times and Miss Baxendale for taking them to the competition. We also congratulated our Year 5/6 Netball team who competed in the DPSSA Netball League on Thursday night. We are hopeful that they will qualify for the final in a few weeks. We then presented Lenny, Archie, Rosie, Layla, Neve and Millie as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for impeccable manners, an amazing attitude to learning and working extremely hard across the curriculum. Mr Bloomfield then presented all of Year 5 as value award winners this week for challenging themselves at PGL and showing an amazing amount of courage, friendship and teamwork and Mr Prescott presented Year 6 for approaching SATs with amazing smiles on their faces and a huge amount of perseverance. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners this week with 208 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Summer for being an incredible gymnast, Grace for achieving Star of the Week at Little Voices after school club, Annabel for achieving a Certificate of Excellence from Butterflies After School Club for pushing herself out of her comfort zone by trying new things, Isaac for achieving an amazing 25m in his swimming, Teddy for achieving his red stripe belt at kickboxing, Sofia for achieving an honours in her musical theatre and being highly commended, Lottie for showing incredible swimming talent and achieving her level 4, Archie for achieving his black shirt in darts, James for starting Beavers this week and being awarded Beaver of the Week, Archie for demonstrating a wonderful attitude at football, Oscar for being a super scientist and taking part in various science (biology, chemistry and physics) investigations, Elliott for demonstrating an amazing attitude and wonderful behaviour during his football training and Darcy for being an incredible gymnast. To end our worship, we heard from Rev Ben who congratulated our wonderful Year 6 team for completing their SATs, Year 5 for an incredible few days at PGL and a lovely prayer thanking God for being with us and giving us the love, strength and power we all need. We then sang, ‘My Lighthouse’ with lots of enthusiasm and thanked all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely weekend.
Year 1 Maths
Today in maths, year 1 made arrays with counters and/or cubes. They had to think about whether they were going to organise their groups into rows or columns before making their arrays. Well done year 1.
Year 1 Art- Printing
This afternoon in art, Year 1 created a print of their chosen building in Darwen. They worked carefully to print the outline of their building and the smaller details such as the windows and doors. Year 1 made sure that they used the right amount of paint, placed their blocks down gently when printing and chose to print with shapes that represented the windows and doors of their buildings as well as the patterns that they could see on their buildings. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 PE- Bouncing and Catching a Ball
Today in their PE lesson, Year 1 focused on the fundamental skills of bouncing and catching a ball. When they were catching, Year 1 made sure that their eyes were focused on the ball, they moved their body into the path of ball and their hands moved to meet the ball. They practised their throwing skills using two different sized balls. When Year 1 were bouncing the ball, they made sure that they pushed the ball down and used their fingers and controlled the bounce with their wrist. They even managed to change the speed and height at which they bounced the ball. Well done year 1!
Year 1 Geography- Ordnance Survey Map Symbols
In their geography lesson, Year 1 have been looking at what the Ordnance Survey Map symbols mean. They had to look for clues within the symbols to make accurate judgements. They found the toilet, post office, school, telephone box, place of worship and carpark easier to guess from the symbol than the road, train station, foot path and footbridge. Year 1 then looked at an ordnance survey map of our immediate local area (Whitehall) and circled the symbols that they could see.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2- Story and Craft Club
Today in Story and Craft Club, our school librarian Matthew chose the story, ‘A SUPERPOWER LIKE MINE’ by Dr Ranj and Miss Flynn read it to some of the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children. The story was all about a little girl called Femi who discovers all the special powers that her, her friends, and the incredible people around her, bring out in one another every day. We had a great discussion about the superpowers that we all have such as being creative, imaginative, kind, caring, amazing at solving problems, loving, helpful and an extremely good friend and then the librarians helped the children to make their own superhero mask.
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Little Voices after school club
Our Little Voices after school club had lots of fun playing games to develop their confidence and they then practised the song that they will be performing to their parents next week.
Year 1- Road Safety Visit
This afternoon in Year 1, we had visit from Road Safety Officer Katie. We learnt the Green Cross Code which is to only Cross the road when we have stopped, looked, listened and thought. Katie then talked to us about how we should put this into practice when we are making decisions concerning our roads. Katie then spoke to us about the dangers of having our shoe laces undone, being on an electronic device and wearing headphones whilst crossing the road as well as running across a road and following a ball or other object that has rolled into the road. We discussed these in depth and decided that anything that would result in us being distracted, not being able to hear properly or potentially resulting in us falling and being stranded in the middle of the road would be incredibly dangerous and we should take precautions so that they don’t happen . Katie then shared one of the most common ways for people getting hurt whilst crossing the road. This is when people cross the road between two parked cars. We learnt that by doing this, you can’t see the oncoming traffic properly and the oncoming traffic can’t see you. Therefore, Katie told us that we must cross the road in a safe place where you have full visibility of the road and the oncoming traffic has clear visibility of you. Late at night, this would mean that you would also need to wear fluorescent and reflective clothes and/or accessories. Katie gave us lots of these- thank you! Throughout the lesson, we took to the crossing and practised some of these road safety skills that we had learnt. To end the lesson, Katie talked to us about the importance of a seat belt. She told us that the seatbelt should sit positioned between our shoulder bone and hip bone and then securely fastened. Katie also told us that we needed to be a certain height in order for this seatbelt to fulfil its job of keeping us safe. All of us were measured and we all discovered that we need a booster seat to ensure that we are the appropriate height for the seatbelt to do it’s job. Thank you to Katie for a very informative session.
Year 1- Performance Poetry
Today, Year 1 recited and performed the poem ‘Oh Dear’ by Michael Rosen. They have been working on their performance skills and today they did brilliantly at putting these into practice during their performance. They worked hard to project their voice, speak clearly and with expression and use the appropriate facial expressions. Well done Year 1!
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and talking about how we have lived life in all its fullness this week. We kickstarted the week on Tuesday with Rev Ben and his worship about the ascension and we’ve enjoyed a variety of lunch time and after school clubs such as Cricket, Little Voices, Mad Science, Choir, Netball and Story and Craft. We also congratulated our wonderful Year 5/6 netball team for performing amazingly on Wednesday night in the DPSSA Netball League and winning both of their matches. As it stands, they are unbeaten and look forward to competing against St Peter’s next week. We then presented Millie, Molly, Cassidy, Nevaeh, Seb, Daisy and Lucy as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for always their amazing attitude to learning and consistently demonstrating the 4Bs and our Christian Values. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as the overall value award winners this week with 143 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to sisters Lydia and Naomi for getting Olivia at Rainbows for being superstars, Callie for being awarded Bruno Bear at Stagecoach for being a super brave performer, Cici for being this week’s Little Voices after school club superstar, Archie for achieving a certificate for the level of bravery that he showed whilst getting his bloods taken at the hospital, Lyla for achieving highly commended in her Musical Theatre exam, Bluebelle for achieving a fabulous 25m in her swimming, Evie for being awarded with a trophy for her wonderful gymnastics, Olivia for achieving her Stage 5 at swimming, Bindi and Elsie for swimming an amazing 50m, Jenson for being able to swim a phenomenal 800m and his Bronze swimming award, Nevaeh for achieving level 4 in her gymnastics, Tristen for gaining his orange belt in kickboxing and we congratulated Lucy for winning the East Lancs Final whilst playing for her football team Lammack. To end our worship, we had some beautiful prayers from Darcy, Oscar and Harry who prayed for people who are less fortunate and those in countries that are currently faced with war and uncertainty. We then sang, ‘Sing a New Song to the Lord.’ We thank all those who could attend celebration worship and we said an extended thank you to the rest of our school family for all of your continued support. We wish you all a lovely (and hopefully sunny) weekend!
Glorious Golden Time
This afternoon our children have enjoyed a glorious golden time outside. We are so lucky to have such large grounds to explore and play in. We have had some children playing sports on the MUGA, some on the outdoor gym and trim trails, some building and playing in the sand, some getting creative and some playing Jag Tag. The children work their socks off in class each week, follow our Four B's and complete their reading and homework to earn their golden time each Friday. What a fantastic afternoon!
Mrs Ham's Weekly Highlights
Good afternoon parents and carers, we hope that you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend. We have had another short but busy week of living life in all its fullness at St Barnabas. The highlights have been: *Reception class farm animal visitors from Nightingales Farm * Year 1's mock Baptism and party at our church with Rev Ben * Two more brilliant wins for our netball team * Our WOW group leading our KS2 class worships * Continuing learning how to play the keyboard in Junior Jam * A glorious golden time outside in the sun this afternoon Coming up next week: *Our Year 6 children are very much looking forward to their free breakfasts as we have the KS2 SATs. We know that they will try their very best and make us all proud. We also know that our children have been blessed with skills and qualities that SATs don't test. *Our Year 5 class are very excited as they are going on their three day PGL residential to Winmarleigh with Mr Bloomfield, Miss Kachwalla and Rev Ben. We are sure that they will make some amazing memories. *Years 1 and 3 have road safety officer workshops. *Year 2 have a visit from the fire service. *The Year 3/4 mini tennis competition. * Years 4, 5 and 6 have a PSHE RSE session from Coram Life Education *Our netball team have more matches. As the weather is warming up, please ensure that your child has a water bottle in school each day and that they put on all day sunscreen before coming to school. Sunhats would be brilliant too for playtimes and lunchtimes. Thank you for your continued support to our school family. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend in the sunshine with your loved ones, Mrs Ham
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Story and Craft Club
Yesterday lunch time, the school librarians led a story and craft club for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. The children listened to ‘No-BOT The Robot With No Bottom’ and then did some robot crafts. The children came up with some wonderful names for their robots such as Rainbow, Simon, Love-Bot and Pow-Bot.
Year 1 Science- Naming the Parts of a Plant
This afternoon in Year 1, the children learnt the names of the different parts of a plant and in what order the parts are formed from the plant starting out as a seed to flowering. The children then used this knowledge to create their own video illustrating this using a programme called 2animate on PurpleMash. The videos clearly showed us the seed starting out, becoming a seedling as it developed its roots and shoot and then developing its first leaves and flowering some children even added a bee to show pollination. Great effort Year 1.
Year 1 RE- Mock Baptism with Rev. Ben
On Tuesday afternoon, Year 1 wore their celebration clothes and went to St Barnabas Church. We learnt all about Baptism and welcoming babies, teenagers and adults into Christianity. Year 1 named their baby Snowflake and Rev. Ben showed them what it would be like if Snowflake was baptised. We learnt that baptism is like a badge that people wear to show they belong to the church. We also learnt about why water is used as part of a baptism and we witnessed Rev.Ben pour water over baby Snowflake’s head which came from the font. Snowflake received a baptism candle and a Bible. We then came back to school for a baptism party. The children enjoyed a dance, a cup of juice and a biscuit. Thank you Rev.Ben for creating a memorable experience for our children.
Year 1 Class Worship
Today in class worship, Year 1 explored the question, ‘How are you the same as and different to your friends?’ First of all, the children spoke to a partner and had to tell them something that they like, have or enjoy doing and ask them whether they liked, had or enjoyed doing it too e.g. I have a brother, do you? I enjoy playing football, do you? Or I like to eat pizza, do you? After this discussion, the children had to feedback to the whole class on similarities and differences that they had found. Following on from this, we discussed how we realise that we are all similar in a lot of ways but also very different. The children then completed an activity in pairs where they had to explore colouring 6 trainers in different ways but using the same 3 colours. This highlighted exactly what we had just been talking about. To end our lesson, we touched on the second question which was, ‘How can shops make sure everyone feels represented?’ We talked about how this is important to make everyone feel included despite our differences. The children came up with some wonderful suggestions such as making mannequins have different skin tones, disabilities such as prosthetic legs, being in a wheelchair or missing a limb and displaying mannequins of different heights and sizes. Well done Year 1.
Mad Science After school Club- Magnetic Magic
This afternoon, the future scientists embarked on a magical journey exploring the wonders of magnets. They learned about how magnets work in everyday life and did tests to see how magnets make things move. Then, they used what they learned to conduct experiments that seemed like magic, like making things levitate!
Rev Ben’s Worship: The Ascension
Rev Ben spoke about the exciting events between Jesus’s crucifixion and his ascension. Many see Jesus’s ascension as a sad time, but Rev Ben explained that Christians believe that, although Jesus helped many people whilst he was here on Earth, he can help all of us from heaven. We also spent time thinking about when someone was helpful to us and how we can be helpful to others.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and talking about how we have lived life in all its fullness this week. We kickstarted the week on Monday with two amazing science shows, had a wonderful worship about ‘The Road to Emmaus’ with Rev Matt on Tuesday and enjoyed a variety of lunch time and after school clubs. We also congratulated our wonderful Year 5/6 netball team for performing amazingly on Wednesday night at the High 5s Bee Stinger Qualifiers. They will be attending the grand final in a few weeks. We then presented Alessia, Ella, Bobby-Ray, Desmond, Edward, Jacob and Sophie as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for always working exceptionally hard and demonstrating great enthusiasm, respect and kindness. We also congratulated Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and River Darwen as the overall value award winners this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Alessia for achieving her stage 1 swimming certificate, Hayden for winning ‘The Little Darreners’ Player of the week,’ James for also achieving ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper for his football team, Elsie for achieving a fabulous 25m in her swimming, Annabel for showing both generosity and courage to complete a swimathon to raise money for Marie Curie and Cancer Research, Marley for being awarded with the Rainbow Bronze award, Harry for achieving his green stripe at kickboxing, Molly for being awarded her green belt at jui jitsu, Darcy for achieving her Stage 4 at gymnastics, Daisy for participating in a gymnastics competition in Lancaster and taking 2nd place, Grace for achieving an honours in her classical ballet exam and we congratulated Archie for winning the East Lancs Cup alongside the rest of his football team. We then presented all of the children in school who have achieved their WOW badges this month. Well done to these children for their efforts in walking to school. Finally, we ended our celebration with a wonderful prayer from Rev Ben and a sing along to ‘Shine from the inside out.’ Thank you to those who attended celebration worship and we wish our whole school family a lovely and restful extended weekend.
Mrs Ham's Weekly Message
Good afternoon parents and carers, we have had a short but busy week due to the school being used as a polling station yesterday. We hope all of our school family had an enjoyable day in the sunshine. This week the children have continued to achieve 'great things' and have lived life in all its fullness. The highlights of the week were: * The fantastic Science shows on Monday. Thank you Miss Kachwalla for organising them. * Our high fives netball team won their Bee Stinger qualifier by winning every game so are through to the grand final. Thanks Mrs Gardner for training the team and supporting at the matches, even on your days off. * Year 2 visited Four Seasons Garden Centre to learn more about plants and growing. * We had great fun learning about perseverance by trying to keep two giant inflatables off the floor in Worship with Rev Matt on Tuesday. * We've had some fantastic clubs such as Little Voices, Cricket, Jag Tag, Netball, Forest Schools and Mad Science. Miss Flynn and our librarians also ran a wonderful lunchtime story and craft club too. * Year 5 and 6 had another brilliant Jag Tag session each this afternoon. For all of this week's news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news On Monday we won't be in school as it is bank holiday Monday but we look forward to welcoming our school family back to school on Tuesday. Wishing you all a wonderful bank holiday weekend and thank you for your continued support, Mrs Ham
Reception and KS1- Story and Craft Club
At lunchtime today, Miss Flynn and the school librarians led a story and craft club for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. They read ‘Room on the Broom’ and then led a craft activity which involved the children decorating their own witches hat. Both the school librarians and the children in the infants really enjoyed themselves.
Forest school club
What a lovely day for forest school, today we went foraging for natural materials. The children made spring crowns, where they stuck their flowers, leaves and sticks to a strip of card to make their crown. The children also made some natural paintbrushes and then tested them out using watercolours.
Super Phonics in Year 1
Year 1 are working extremely hard with their phonics. They are learning lots of new alternative graphemes for sounds that they already know so that they can read and spell words with these more difficult spelling patterns. This week, they have explored ‘wr’ and ‘w(a)’ and revised some of their split digraphs.
Year 1 Art- Printing
In their art lesson this week, Year 1 were asked to look back at the sketches (of a building) that they created last lesson to look for shapes and patterns within it. They then had to practise printing with these shapes in preparation for creating a whole print of their building next lesson. They used building blocks and duplo to print with. They chose their shapes carefully e.g. choosing semi-circle shapes if their building had arched windows, doors or domes and rectangular and square shapes for standard windows and doors and the outline of their building. They also carefully applied the paint to their duplo and blocks in order to print with them. Well done Year 1.
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Mad Science After School Club- Lights, Colour, Action.
Today at the club, the budding scientists explored what's hidden in regular light and witnessed cool chemical reactions. They also tried on special glasses that made rainbows look awesome. Plus, they had fun making drawings on black paper light up by shining a torch on them.
Rev Matt’s Worship - The Road To Emmaus
Rev Matt asked us to participate in the story of the disciples walking to Emmaus and talking about the sad events of Jesus’s death. We learned about the stranger who joined them and later revealed himself to be Jesus resurrected. Rev Matt involved all of the children in an activity in which they had to work together to keep an inflatable off the floor. He used this to explain the importance of believing, especially without proof, in God and His Son, and that it is this that keeps faith going.
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2-Science Show
This morning, Reception and KS1 had a special science assembly about light and sound led by Adrian. First of all, we started by learning about shadows. We learnt that the closer that we get to the light source, the bigger the shadow gets and the further away that we get from the light source, the smaller the shadow gets. Some volunteers came up the front to show us this using puppets and the projector. Adrian then asked us to predict whether we thought that one person could make two shadows and most of us said no. However, Adrian showed us that this is in fact possible by using two light sources. We were amazed! Adrian then asked us to think about a window. He asked us whether a window lets light through or not and we said no because it is made from glass. From this, Adrian then showed us the shadow for a magnifying glass and how the plastic on the outside made a circular shadow but the glass in the middle made no shadow. We then explored colour mixing. Adrian chose a volunteer to come and colour a bottle of clear water. Yellow and blue were added and then Adrian asked us to predict which colour they would make once they were mixed together. Most of us predicted green and we were correct. Adrian explained that these colours had been mixed in water so we couldn’t undo them. However, he showed us how we can mix colours using a spinning propellor controlled by a motor and undo the colour mixing by stopping the motor. We had great fun predicting what colours would be made when the motor was turned on and the colours were mixed together. Then Adrian wowed us all by making a rainbow on the ceiling using light and water. This was definitely one of our favourite parts. For the second part of the assembly, we learnt all about sound. We started off by listening to same rain shakers. We then thought how we could make a rain shaker louder. The children predicted that we can either shake it harder or add more objects into the rain shaker e.g. peas. We then listened to the difference between a shaker with 1 pea, 10 peas and 100 peas and found out that our prediction was correct. Wow the 100 peas were loud! Adrian then showed us how you can make quiet objects louder by scraping them against hard materials, by using our mouth or by adding more force. Lyla demonstrated adding more force to make things louder by hitting a drum with a tube. We then explored high and low sounds using the keyboard. We listen to Adrian’s sound on the keyboard in a high pitched voice and a low pitched voice using different sides of the piano and we also listened to Adrian making high and low pitch sounds by changing the length of the straw whilst blowing into it. Finally, Adrian left us with two challenges. He asked us to think about the following questions next time it is sunny: How can you make your shadow not touch your feet for a moment? How can you make your shadow disappear? If any of the Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 children complete any of the experiments themselves at home to show you, please send any pictures via Class Dojo as we would love to see them.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and talking about how we started our week on Monday by celebrating World Earth Day and having a special worship with Willow the guide dog. Some other highlights from the week have been our wonderful worship about forgiveness with Rev Ben on Tuesday, Leonora and David attending the RE conference and our wonderful Year 5/6 netball team for performing amazingly last night and winning their match against St Edwards 13-0. We then presented Thomas, Evie, Martha, Miley, Brodie, Bella, Jake and Jay as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning, always showing kindness and respect to their teachers and friends and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We also congratulated Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as the overall value award winners this week with an a wonderful 226 points. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Callie for achieving 3rd place out of 28 people in her recent gymnastics competition on the vault and beam, James for taking part in the St George’s Parade as a Beaver and achieving the chief scout’s special bronze award, Lyla for trying incredibly hard in her dancing, Charlie for achieving the ‘Little Darreners’ Player of the Week award, Renee and Carmen for being brave and challenging themselves on the high rope and the zip wire at Go Ape, Carmen for being very thoughtful at Little Voices after school club, Archie for concentrating and working extremely hard towards achieving his red belt at martial arts, Noah for achieving a trophy for demonstrating incredible skills in his football, Finn for being awarded a certificate for showing skill in his football, Tristen for achieving his orange belt at kickboxing, Luke for being awarded ‘Man of the Match’ in his most recent football match, Jack for achieving his Stage 4 and Stage 5 swimming certificates, Lola for achieving several medals for her dancing including one for completing a recent exam in her acro and another for her commitment to dancing, April for achieving her 200m swimming certificate after working extremely hard to progress to that level, Elsie for attending Brownies for a year, Daisy for her commitment to Brownies by attending for 2 years and achieving lots of badges such as her recent aviation and Scarlett for demonstrating amazing concentration in her jiu jitsu. To end of our celebration worship, we had some lovely prayers from Seb, Lilly, Darcy and Mrs Ham for those caught in war, prayers of thankfulness and prayers about protecting our planet and we sang ‘We Can Make a Difference.’ Finally, we thanked all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Year 1 and 2- Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancs Hospice
This afternoon, Year 1 and 2 hopped, skipped and jumped 1k (18 laps around the infant playground) to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They showed lots of perseverance to complete all 18 laps- well done to them all! If you haven’t yet donated, please consider donating to this very deserving charity.
Mrs Ham's Weekly Message
Good afternoon parents and carers, we have had another wonderful week of living life in all its fullness. The highlights of the week have been: *Celebrating World Earth Day through crafts at lunchtime and special class worships * A visit from Willow, a guide dog for the blind, as part of National Pet Month * WOW group members David and Leonora represented our school at the Pupils' RE conference * Our netball team won their first match of the league 13-0 against St Edwards * All of our children took part in the hop, skip and jump event today to help raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They all received a chocolate treat too. Donations to this very worthy cause can be made via parent pay. To hear about all the great things we have achieved this week in Celebration Worship, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news/2024-04-26-friday-celebration-worship For all of this week's news, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news A quick reminder that school is CLOSED on Thursday as our school is used as a polling station. Thank you for all of your support and dedication to our school family. Wishing you all a lovely weekend and I hope the sun shines for you all, Mrs Ham
Year 1 Science- Exploring Seeds
Today in Science, Year 1 learnt about what happens to a seed. They looked at lots of different seeds and had to predict what type of tree, fruit or vegetable it would grow into. We talked the importance of plants including trees for survival. Year 1 came up with some amazing ideas such as plants providing us with food, helping us to breathe, providing wood for furniture and houses, providing us with paper, providing a habitat for animals and making the environment a brighter place. We also talked about how many plants are used in medicines. Tomorrow, they will be planting a tomato seed and we will hopefully get the chance to see it grow over the next couple of months. We hope to see the roots, stem, leaves and fruit (tomatoes) that it will develop as it grows.
Year 1- Capacity and Volume
Today in maths, Year 1 learnt about capacity and volume. They learnt that the capacity of a container is how much it can hold and the volume is how much it is currently holding. First, they looked at some containers and had to decide which ones they thought would have the greatest capacity and why. After that, they learnt how to describe volume using the language of empty, nearly empty, full and nearly full. Then they had to use this language to describe the volume of liquid that they could see in various containers and use water to fill various containers using the language that they were given e.g. Pour water into this container until it is nearly full.
Year 1- Local Geography Fieldwork
Year 1 are studying their local area as part of their most recent geography unit. Yesterday, they were busy exploring their local area with the help of a map. There were various symbols on the map and they had to investigate what human features the symbols were representing e.g. Whitehall Park, Bolton Rd Laundrette, St Barnabas Church and the cemetery. As part of their fieldwork, they also identified and created a tally of the types of houses that they could see on route e.g. terraced, detached, semi-detached and bungalows. When we got back to school, we discussed what types of houses were most popular in the area of Whitehall and we came to the conclusion that it was terraced houses. We thought that this might be because we can fit more terraced houses into a small area which means that more people can live there. We also linked this back to our previous learning on the Victoria era when Darwen was a very popular cotton town. We thought that maybe Darwen would have needed to provide somewhere for all the factory workers to live in those times hence why there are so many terraced houses.
Collective Worship-Forgiveness
This morning in Rev Ben’s worship, we started with a challenge. Dougie and Jake had a minute each to catch as many fish as possible using a rod and transfer them to another bowl at the other side of the room. The whole school gave them lots of encouragement which spurred them on enormously. This then led us on to a story of a fisherman called Peter. In the story, Peter realised that Jesus was more than a friend, he was God as he did such amazing things such as save him from drowning and heal his mother. When Jesus told Peter that he would betray him by not knowing him three times before the cockerel crowed, Peter didn’t believe him. Peter told Jesus that he would never betray him as he was his best friend. However, later in the story Peter did in fact betray Jesus when he denied knowing him three times. Then, the cockerel crowed. This is when Peter had the realisation that he had betrayed Jesus after all and he was extremely upset with himself. He wasn’t sure if Jesus would ever forgive him but Jesus did because Jesus loved him very much. Peter became a forgiven man and he spent the rest of his life telling everyone about Jesus and how amazing he was. He spread the word of God. Rev Ben asked us about the story and what we could learn from this. A lot of our Year 6 children shared their views and said that making mistakes can be good as you can learn, grow and improve and that Jesus will always forgive you for the mistakes that you make. We ended our worship with a lovely prayer and a sing along to ‘Jesus Strong and Kind.’
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Whole-School Worship - Guide Dogs
As it is National Pet Month, Mrs Ham invited some special visitors from the guide dogs charity into our collective worship. They came to tell us all about how guide dogs are selected, how they are trained and how they support blind people in their daily lives. Keith asked us to put our hands over our eyes in order to imagine what it must be like to be blind. Haydn said you might not see things on the floor so might trip up and Cici said you wouldn't be able to see where you were going. We were also introduced us to Willow, a working guide dog, and he showed us how to spot a guide dog by their harness. He also showed us how to spot if a blind person is in need of help. The children asked some great questions about blindness and about the charity. They were especially shocked to learn that each guide dog costs around £55,000! Two of our children have already sponsored a guide dog puppy and hopefully more families might choose to do the same. We ended our worship talking about Earth Day and how we can look after God’s creations. We all agreed that everyday should be Earth Day and we finished by singing 'I can make a difference in this world of ours'.
Earth Day- EYFS and Key Stage 1 Lunchtime
The children enjoyed celebrating Earth day this lunchtime as a reminder to look after our planet by making their own Earth creation using collage materials.
WOW Badge and Class Winners for March 2024
A huge well done to all 120 of our WOW badge winners for March 2024. What a super effort everyone has made. We have all tried really hard to either walk or park and stride once a week in the month of March which was a little taster session as we did it over the 2 weeks! A big congratulations to Year 5 as they have the most badge winners. We look forward to seeing who has earned a badge for April in a couple of weeks.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by talking about why we are all wearing blue today which is for Autism Awareness Day at St Barnabas as part of Autism Awareness Month. Finn very bravely stood up in front of the whole school and told us a little bit about his brother Declan who has Autism. He told us that Declan doesn’t like walking in the rain as he doesn’t like the sensation and he told us that he doesn’t like very loud noises and will therefore sometimes wear his ear defenders. Despite this, Finn said that Declan leads an amazing life and it’s wonderful having a brother with Autism. Harvey, who has autism, also came to the front to show everyone his t-shirt which spread awareness for Autism and he loved blowing the worship candles out. We heard a little about how Harvey loves to sing rhymes and songs just like many of us. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with our wonderful worships led by both Mrs Ham and Rev Matt and all of our wonderful after school clubs including Little Voices, Mad Science Club, Forest schools and Cricket and Rounders Club. We then presented Hollie, Lydia, Frankie, Iris, Oliver, Olivia, Talia, Charlie, Betsy and Jake as our individual value award winners. Well done to these children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning, always showing kindness and respect to their teachers and friends and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, Jack and Sofia for receiving their pen licenses, Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners this week with an amazing 611 points, the children that completed the big plastic count for being super eco warriors, all of the children who have achieved their badge as part of the WOW initiative which involves walking to school or from school at least once a week and we said a special well done to Year 5 who have won the schools walk to school challenge by completing the most walks or park and strides so far. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Lenny for achieving his starfish swimming badge, Ella-Grace for achieving a trophy for coming first in her recent 3x3 football tournament, Sonny, Charlie, Leo and Desmond for winning the cup in their recent football tournament, Iris for being a wonderful gymnast and swimming several lengths to raise awareness for diabetes, Sofia for achieving her level 4 in gymnastics, making her promise at Brownies, being part of Brownies for two years and achieving an award at musical theatre, Betsy for being awarded a medal for amazing ballet, Isaac for being awarded a merit in his swimming, Lyla for achieving her Stage 4 certificate at swimming, Eliza for achieving several rosettes in her horse riding, Alexis for making her Brownie promise and achieving 100m in her swimming, Alice and Grace for achieving their Brownie Promise badge, Annabelle for gaining her silver certificate for demonstrating several skills at swimming, Lydia and Ella for achieving their Level 1 at swimming, Leonora for achieving her 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke in her swimming, Harry and Eli for being awarded their 100m certificate at swimming, Archie for getting Man of the Match during his semi-final football match, Eden for attending Brownies for a year and achieving her Brownie Eid badge, Mila for achieving her badge for visiting the Fire Station at Rainbows, Marley for getting Olivia doll at Rainbows for being kind, Thomas for getting his 15m swimming certificate, Callie for achieving Stage 4 in her swimming and Cassidy for making her Brownie Promise and being awarded her badge. Wow, what a busy week of celebrations that we had! Rev Ben then led us in prayer and to end our celebration worship, we thanked all those who attended and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Mrs Ham's Weekly message
Good afternoon parents and carers, it has been another wonderful week at St Barnabas! It was brilliant to hear in Celebration Worship about how each class has lived life in all its fullness and about all the great things that have been achieved this week both in and out of school. Please click here to read all about it: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news/2024-04-19-friday-celebration-worship Thank you to everyone for your support for autism awareness today by dressing in blue. A special thanks to Finn for being courageous by telling us all about his big brother Declan, who has autism and to our Harvey who loved showing us his special blue autism awareness t-shirt and how he loves to blow out our worship candles. This week we found out that 30 new children will be joining our school family in September and we can't wait to welcome them. Next Friday we are looking forward to our Hop, Skip and Jump in support of East Lancs Hospice. Donations can be made via parent pay. For all of this week's news, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Thank you for your wonderful support and in particular with our walk to school initiative, which saw lots of children being awarded with their first WOW badge this morning. I would like to wish you all a fabulous weekend and I hope the weather is kinder to us next week. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham
Year 1- Measuring the Mass of Objects
Today in their maths lesson, Year 1 were estimating and measuring the mass of objects using a balancing scale and cubes. They learnt that they should stop adding/counting cubes when the scale has balanced as this means that they have calculated the mass. They did really well with this and their estimates got better as the activity progressed as they could reason better e.g. I think this object will be 30 cubes because it feels heavier than the scissors which were 16 cubes.
Little Voices After School Club
What a super first session with Little Voices! Our little superstars played several games that helped to develop their confidence and they learnt and performed an amazing song! Well done everyone! There are still places available if you would like your child to take part for the next five weeks on Tuesday evenings. CONTACT HAYLIE: Email: [email protected] Mobile: 07717 711715
Forest school club
In forest school we have been discussing the birds coming back from migration and what we could do to help them. We decided to make bird feeders using pipe cleaners and cereal. We then went on a walk around school to decide which trees were the best to hang the bird feeders in.
Year 1 Maths- Measuring with a Ruler
Today in Year 1, the children have been learning to measure objects accurately using a ruler. They learnt that in order to measure accurately, they needed to make sure that the start of the object that they were measuring with was lined up with 0 and that they counted along until the number that their object ended at. They also learnt that they were measuring in centimetres.
Year 1 PE- Kicking and Controlling a Ball
This week in PE, Year 1 have been focusing on controlling and kicking a ball. First of all, they practised kicking the ball with the inside of their foot and stopping it with the top of their foot to maintain control. They then practised kicking the ball in a straight line at a target and along a straight line to a partner. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 English- The prefix ‘un’
In English, Year 1 explored the meaning of the prefix ‘un.’ They learnt that when ‘un’ is added to the front of a root word, it changes its meaning to mean the opposite (not). For example, unfair means not fair and unkind means not kind. The children got given either the root word or the root word with ‘un’ added to it and they had to find each other. Then they had to write some sentences using words with the prefix ‘un’ e.g. It is untrue that my name is Bobby. It is unfair to leave someone out of a game.
Rev Matt’s Worship: The Resurrection
Rev Matt came in to lead our worship today and tell us about the biggest surprise in the Bible: the resurrection. Rev Matt began with a mystery box game in which children had to feel an object in a box and guess what it was. He talked about how, even though we may worry about what’s coming, the surprise can often be the best thing. This is how the women felt when they visited Jesus’s tomb after his death. They were worried when they noticed Jesus was missing and the ground began to shake, but were overjoyed when Jesus appeared and spoke to them.
Mad Science After School Club- Optical Illusion
The Science after-school club got off to an exciting start as the young scientists dove into optics, reflection, and sight! They had a blast learning about light and vision, even using mirrors to draw pictures and understand how things reflect.
Collective Worship- Road to Emmaus
This morning in our Collective Worship, we watched the latest Worship Together video from Blackburn Diocese. Lisa asked us to think about a time that we have run to share some exciting news with our friends or family. Archie said when he received a darts contract, Ella-Grace said when she won in a football 3x3 competition, Seb said when he won a dance competition, Luca said when he got a 171 in darts, Scarlett said when it was her birthday, Lyla Grace said when she got a fish and Alfie said when his team scored a goal. We then heard about the story of Jesus appearing to some of his followers on the road to Emmaus and how they ran back to tell the disciples. We then delved deeper into the story by watching a cartoon of the story to help us visualise what it must have been like for Jesus' disciples when he appeared to them and then disappeared. Bishop Philip explained how the disciples were happy as they knew that Jesus would always be with them and He is with us all the time. Lisa led us in a running prayer today and we all joined in with lots of enthusiasm. To finish our Worship we sang 'Let me walk beside you', said Jesus one day, which helps to explain how Jesus is with us when we are walking, sitting, standing and resting and we had some wonderful volunteers to show the younger children the actions. We then reflected on how we have lived life in all its fullness this week and Annabelle shared that she volunteered to be pushed into the freezing cold water during the Year 4 residential, Charlie said he jumped into the water twice, Jenson said he was brave in the water which felt like -25 and Isaac shared that he took part in some filming which pushed him out of his comfort zone. I wonder how we will live life in all its fullness this week?
Thank you parents and carers!
Thank you to everyone who attended parents’ evening last night. We had 85% of our parents attend which was great, especially with it being the first day 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. There will be NO Celebration Worship tomorrow morning sorry due to the shorter week and Year 4 being on their residential trip to the Anderton Centre. A quick reminder that parents and carers are always welcome to join us for our Family Celebration Worship on Friday mornings, which will start next Friday. 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.
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Easter Reflection Worship
It was wonderful to welcome our school family back after our Easter break. In our collective Worship we reflected on the events of Holy Week and joined in with a rhyming Bible story about when Jesus appeared to his disciples and we watched 'The Awesome Easter Surprise' video. We reflected on how Jesus must have felt telling his friends that he would be leaving them but we discussed how this was all part of God's plan and how God sent his son Jesus as a rescuer and saviour. We looked at our God's Big Story canvases and identified that the Easter story came in the salvation part. We then thought about how Jesus asked his disciples to love one another and live life in all its fullness. We talked to our partner about how we can live life in all its fullness, which is our school vision, and make Jesus proud of us. We had some really thoughtful answers such as: show love and respect to everyone including your pets, neighbours and parents, look after our world by picking up litter, donate clothes, toys and food to those who don't have as much as we have, challenge yourself, go outdoors and look at God's creations, be happy, play nicely with your friends and be grateful for everything we have. We finished our Worship with a prayer and sang Give me oil in my lamp to sing Hosanna to Jesus.
Easter Church Service
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Easter Service this morning. I’ve added some videos and photos to class dojo for parents who weren’t able to join us. Thank you to our Heads and Deputies for leading the service with me and to our KS2 classes for leading the singing. A special thanks to Rev Ben too for leading us in a special Easter prayer. We’ve had a wonderful few weeks in school in the lead up to Easter. Please click here to see all the Easter fun we have had: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/easter-2024 Thank you so much to our children for the amazing walking they have been doing both in and out of school for our Big Lent Walk challenge. As a school family we have walked a fantastic 2383km and raised £215 so far to help fight global poverty! Sponsor money can still be paid in on the following link: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk A quick reminder that we break up early today at 2.00pm and return back for the Summer term on Wednesday 10th April.
Amazing Attendance Winners - Spring Term
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!
Year 1 Easter Egg Hunt
After celebrating Easter in church this morning, Year 1 came back to school and enjoyed an Easter egg hunt on the KS1 playground.
Year 1 Easter Cards
Year 1 made some Easter cards by printing either a bunny, Easter egg or chick to the front of them.
Year 1- Visit to the Rose Garden
This week, Year 1 visited the Rose Garden to explore the Easter artwork that our whole school have been busy creating. They spotted artwork that showed Palm leaves to represent Palm Sunday, artwork to represent Judas’ betrayal to Jesus and artwork to represent the last supper, the crucifixion and the resurrection.
Rev Matt’s Worship: Good Friday
Rev Matt’s worship this week began with a drawing challenge. A Year 4 child was shown a picture and they had to draw the picture on the back of a Year 5 child. This child then had to draw what they thought the picture was on the back of a Year 6 child, who had to attempt to draw it on flip chart paper. Rev Matt then explained that messages sometimes become distorted when we don’t see the full picture, but it is important to stay hopeful. This mirrors the sadness of Jesus’ death on Good Friday. We must remember that it was all part of God’s plan to save mankind.
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Collective Worship- Salvation
This morning in Worship we learnt about Palm Sunday with Mrs Ham and then we watched the Easter Worship Together across the Diocese video with Lisa and Bishop Philip. We looked at our school timeline of God's Big Story and found where salvation was in the New Testament. We then learnt all about Jesus being our salvation, our rescuer and saviour. We looked at our sorry tree and Mrs Ham read out some of the things we are sorry for (sins) and we asked for God’s forgiveness. We finished with an Easter prayer and Years 3 & 4 performed the songs they will be singing in our Easter Service on Thursday morning.
Mad Science After-School Club- Magnetic Magic
Our future scientists had a blast using paper clips, strings, and a magnetic board for hands-on exploration. They immersed themselves in the world of magnets, conducting experiments and discovering the fascinating properties of magnetism in a fun and engaging way.
Easter Artwork Trail in the Rose Garden
The St Barnabas Easter trail is now ready for visitors! Our whole school family has worked hard to represent a different part of the Easter story through art and we have selected some for our community to enjoy when they visit the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park. Our pictures have brought a lovely splash of colour to the garden to celebrate this joyous time in the Christian calendar. We hope that they will bring joy to all visitors.
Inter House Dodgeball Event
The Inter House Dodgeball competition was a huge success. Every single child across school took part and represented their house teams. It was fantastic to see the children getting involved, working as a team and having lots of fun. A massive thank you to the Sports leaders who ran the event and congratulations to both of our winning houses which were the yellow and green team - Whitehall Park and Darwen Tower
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by thanking our whole school family for wearing odd socks yesterday for World Down Syndrome Awareness Day and all of our children who have contributed to our Big Lent Walk this week including Year 6 who have walked all over London and Year 1 who walked 3 and a half miles around Darwen on their local history walk. We then presented Fletcher, Maggie, Ella-Grace, Isabelle, Edward, Brooke and as the value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning and demonstrating all of the 4Bs. Then Mr Prescott presented all of Year 6 as value award winners this week for representing the school amazingly well in London. Mr Prescott said that they all got along amazingly well, were incredibly well mannered and showed a genuine interest in all of the places they visited and things that they got to see. Well done Year 6. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 6 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, River Darwen who are our overall value award winners this week and our amazing swimming gala team made up of children from Year 3,4,5 and 6 for coming 3rd place overall and also achieving lots of individual placings. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Holly for achieving both her Stage 3 and 4 swimming certificates, Callie for being awarded the special teddy at stage coach for amazing singing, dancing and acting, Ella-Grace for being being successful in getting into the Man United Girls Football Team, Grace for receiving a letter from the King regarding her letter about the closing down of Waddow Hall, Maggie for showing wonderful commitment to Rainbows by attending for two years, Lola for showing generosity and raising money for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital by completing 50k in March, Annabel for completing her promise at Rainbows, Betsy for achieving a gold medal for ‘throwing herself into the deep end’ in her acro dancing, Scarlett for showing wonderful commitment to Rainbows by attending for two years, Marley for showing wonderful commitment to Rainbows by attending for one year, Arabelle for working hard to achieve her Stage 4 at swimming, Vienna for being awarded her water safety certificate, Harriet for achieving her Stage 4 in swimming, Thomas for being awarded his Level 1 First Aid certificate, being a super chef and a brilliant builder, Annabelle for achieving her Blue Peter Badge for reading and taking part in an orienteering competition, Leonora for completing seven swimming events in a 50m pool last weekend. To end of our celebration worship, we heard from Rev Ben who reminded us all about the Palm Sunday Church Service this weekend where our school choir will be singing and an Easter egg hunt that the church have organised on Good Friday. Mrs Wilkinson also reminded us about the Scholastic Book Fair which is running tonight, Monday and Tuesday after school. We also sang along to ‘Gospel Medley.’ We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Mrs Ham’s Weekly Message
Good evening parents and carers, well what a busy week it has been at St Barnabas and we sure have been living life in all its fullness! The highlights have been: *The Year 6 London trip *Odd Socks day for Down Syndrome Awareness Day *Year 5 class releasing the trout they have grown into River Darwen *Reception class visits from a firefighter and two dentists *Year 1 Victorian history walk *Inter-house dodgeball led by our Sports Leaders today Each class has been busy creating wonderful Easter artwork and a selection of it will be displayed in the Rose Garden in Whitehall Park. Each class will have the opportunity to visit it and it will be there over the Easter holidays if you would like to visit it as a family. For all of this week’s news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news On Sunday everyone is welcome to Rev Ben’s Palm Sunday service at 11.00am and our choir will be singing. Any of our school children can also join in too. Next week we will be celebrating Holy Week in school and everyone is welcome to our Easter Church Service on Thursday morning at 9.15am. We break up early for the Easter holidays on Thursday at 2.00pm. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with your loved ones and I hope our Year 6 children rest and recharge after a busy couple of days in London, Mrs Ham
Year 1 Class Worship- World Down Syndrome Day
In class worship this morning, Year 1 watched a video to learn and understand more about Down syndrome and then listened to the story ‘This is ME!’ This story helped us to understand that we are all different and have many different interests and qualities that make us all unique. To end our worship, we had some lovely prayers from Annabel and Elijah about showing kindness to each other and appreciating all of our differences that make us unique.
Well-being Club
For our final session, we walked to Jack Keys and enjoyed a nature walk! It was lots of fun and it was lovely to enjoy the outdoors with everyone.
Year 1 RE Artwork
This afternoon, Year 1 created their artwork for the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park. Their artwork was based on the resurrection of Jesus. The hands on their artwork represent Jesus rising from the dead and the butterflies, flowers, dragonflies and bunny rabbits represent new life.
Year 1- Local History Walk
In their history lessons, Year 1 have been learning about the positive impact that Queen Victoria had on Britain during her reign. They learnt that Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert, supported Britain in becoming more developed. During her reign, trams and trains being developed meant that people and goods could move around the country and machinery that could be powered by coal and water could produce materials such as cotton, paper and metals very quickly that could then be shipped to other countries to support Britain becoming wealthier. Today, Year 1 went on a walk around Darwen to see the impact that Queen Victoria’s reign had on their hometown. They saw many factories that have now been repurposed but were once cotton or paper mills such as Radford Mill on Bolton Road, Hilton’s Old Paper Mill which is now Kenleys and Brittania Mills. They also saw several sights were cotton factories used to be that are now housing estates such as the site where Bowling Green Mill used to stand and where Waterfield Mill used to be. From visiting so many locations where cotton and paper mills used to be, it helped year 1 to understand just how much of a part Darwen used to play in producing cotton especially. They also learnt that this cotton used to get shipped over to India to make Britain wealthier and this is why Ghandi visited Darwen. As well as this, Year 1 also saw the original tramway track which was built and in operation during Queen Victoria’s reign and the concrete capping on Clough Street which tells us that there was a coal mine in his area which would have been used to generate the power for both the trams, trains and machinery. Year 1 walked over 3 miles during our local area history lesson which is a great contribution to our ‘Big Lent Walk’ challenge too- well done Year 1.
Rev Ben’s Worship: Palm Sunday
Today, Rev Ben read the story of Palm Sunday and talked about the joy of the crowd when Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. He contrasted this with the anger of the crowd when they were led to believe that Jesus lied about who he was. Determination and perseverance were two key qualities demonstrated by Jesus during that time and Rev Ben asked everyone to reflect on when they will need to show these qualities this week.
Spring attendance update
Good afternoon parents and carers, please see the images for the latest attendance update for the Spring term. In the Autumn term we achieved an award for being in the top 25% of schools nationally for attendance and we are really close to our school target and government target of 96%. With your help we can ensure that your child achieves the best possible outcomes in life by coming to school every day and on time. We are looking forward to presenting Amazing Attendance certificates to all of the children who are at our 96% target and above at our Easter Service in church on Thursday 28th March at 9.15am. For further information about attendance, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/academy-life/attendance
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Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our celebration worship by thanking our whole school family for dressing in red to support Comic Relief. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with the help of our amazing after school clubs, a wonderful worship with Rev Matt about Jesus being kind towards Zacchaeus and by celebrating British Science Week. Mrs Ham also updated us all on our Big Lent Walk progress. Up to now, we have collectively walked 1239km and raised £215. We believe that we can continue to better this and achieve 2000km and raise even more money. We then presented Summer, Eli, Lyla, Ivy, Ruby, Hamza and Charlie as the value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning and our 4Bs. We also congratulated Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, the KS2 girls who took part in the Girls Football tournament last Friday with Mr Bloomfield to celebrate International Women’s Day and River Darwen who are our overall value award winners this week. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Olivia for achieving her white belt at kickboxing, Sofia for achieving her 8th birthday badge at Rainbows, Carter for achieving his stage 2 at swimming, Annabel for achieving swimmer of the month, Vienna for being awarded an amazing 50m at swimming, Elsie for her incredible swimming and Renee for achieving her Stage 1 swimming. To end our worship, we had some lovely prayers from Olivia, Olivia, Finn and Mrs Ham who prayed for those who have died , are in the midst of conflict and a prayer to encourage us to be both kind and forgiving during this time of Lent. We also sang along to ‘Sing Hosanna.’ We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Easter Singing Worship
We had a wonderful morning singing our favourite Easter hymns and songs. To finish we practised the Spring Chicken song in hope that we get a visit from the Spring Chicken at the end of term.
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!
Well-being Club
This week the children worked together to make playdough. They decided to colour the playdough purple and used a variety of different coloured glitters. The children decided on an orange scent for their playdough. They enjoyed playing with it after and made tacos, wraps, houses, pizzas and lots of other creative objects!
Year 1 Science- Reflective Materials
In their science lesson, Year 1 were exploring reflective materials. They took a variety of materials (tin foil, dull black paper, shiny black paper, mirrored plastic, newspaper, brightly coloured paper, brightly coloured fabric and dark fabric) into a dark tent to see whether they were or were not reflective. They shined the torch at the material to see whether the light did or didn’t bounce back. They decided that all of the materials reflected some light. Therefore, to help us to decide the properties of the most reflective items, we used a data logger. By using the data logger, we found out that tin foil and mirrored plastic were the most reflective and black dull paper was the least reflective. We came to the conclusion that the most reflective materials are shiny and bright.
The W.O.W. Group: Messy Church
Last week, W.O.W. Group delivered a very exciting infant Messy Church on the theme of creation. They read a short story about creation and then they took the participants outside to appreciate God’s creations and create their own nature bracelets. The children were very proud of the bracelets and marvelled at all the gorgeous colours in the plant life around us.
Year 1- Music
This week in music, Year 1 created some music on the glockenspiels to play alongside a story.
The W.O.W. Group: Messy Church
This week was our final week of Messy Church and the W.O.W. Group have thoroughly enjoyed planning and delivering these interactive sessions. Our final week was based on creation again. The children watched a video about God creating the world and then chose, from a range of activities, to create something with a partner. All sorts of materials were available so that they could let their imaginations run wild.
Year 1- Exploring Recounts
Today in English, Year 1 read a recount in groups using their phonic knowledge to decode it and then acted this out as though they were the person who had written it. We then thought about what language features we had noticed within the recount texts such as time conjunctions, first person pronouns (I, we) and how they are written in the past tense.
Year 1 PE- Athletics
Year 1 enjoyed their athletics session today. They practised ‘rolling a goal’ to score points, tracking the distance that they could hop, skip and jump and completing a relay that involved part balancing a beanbag on their head and part sprinting. Well done Year 1.
Rev Matt’s Worship: The Story of Zacchaeus
This morning Rev Matt began our worship talking about soft and hard materials and how some materials can be softened. This led nicely into the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who had a hard heart and did not treat people very well. However, when Jesus called Zacchaeus to Him and requested to go to Zacchaeus’s house, Zacchaeus changed and had a softer heart. The story taught us that those who struggle are the ones who need our kindness most.
Mad Science After- School Club-Watts-Up!
The future Scientists had a blast this afternoon: They learned about static electricity, exploring its properties and involvement in natural phenomena. They also created indoor lightning and conducted hair-raising experiments with an electrostatic generator.
Values Points House Team Winners - Spring 1 2024
A huge well done to our Values Awards Winners for Spring Term 1 2024 - Team Whitehall Park. Today they celebrated their win with a special non- uniform day, sweet treats and a disco. It was lovely to see each and every one of them dancing and having lots of fun! Well done Team Whitehall Park on another successful half term win!
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by wishing all of the wonderful women in our school family a Happy International Women’s Day. We then thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with a lovely Mother’s Day breakfast hosted by FOSB, a special Mother’s Day celebration in Reception class, a fantastic author visit from R.K. Alker, an amazing day celebrating World Book Day, a visit to King George’s Hall Let’s Go Sing concert for our amazing choir and lots of amazing extra curricular clubs. We then presented Vienna, Charlie, Archie, Carter, Declan, Grace, Bobby and Sienna as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently showing our Christian Values and working incredibly hard across the curriculum. We then had a phenomenal performance from our incredible choir of ‘Dancing on Air’ which was one of their songs at Let’s Go Sing concert. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week, our Year 5/6 football team who attended the Football Festival on Tuesday evening, our amazing librarians for all of their effort and enthusiasm on World a book Day and Grace, Annabelle and James in Year 4 for designing badges for the launch of the WOW initiative. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Jenson for achieving his 400m at swimming, Daisy for getting Emily the doll at Rainbows for being incredibly kind and thoughtful, Eliza for being awarded player of the match in her football match at the weekend, Skye and Rosie for demonstrating incredible skills in their horse riding lessons, Isaac for achieving a 100m medal in a swimming competition, Cassidy for being awarded gymnast of the session and Scarlett for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge. To end our worship, we had a lovely prayer from Rev Ben, sang happy birthday to those children who are celebrating birthdays today and this weekend and we had a sing along to ‘We Have a King Who Rides a Donkey.’ Mrs Ham also reminded us that it is dress in red for Comic Relief next Friday 15th March. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
The Big Plastic Count
THE BIG PLASTIC COUNT We're excited that our school is joining the Big Plastic Count initiative from March 11th to 17th. The issue of plastic waste affects us all, and our young ones must have a say in finding solutions. Click on the link below for more information. https://youtu.be/x0nQHO7Mw-k?si=76vpk8Hf9wXOKqn1 During this initiative, your children will play a vital role in gathering evidence about what happens to our plastic waste. This information will be used to advocate for change at national and global levels, urging UK ministers, supermarkets, and major brands to take action towards phasing out plastic production. In the coming days, your child will receive a ‘Let’s count tally sheet’. Count as you throw from Monday 11th March morning until Sunday 17th March! Simply mark every piece of plastic package as you throw it away on the tally sheet. We encourage you to support them in this activity, and they can then input their findings at home using the unique class link provided on their class page between 18-31 March. Once all the results are in, we'll create our class footprint and share it with the children. We appreciate your continuous support in involving our pupils in these significant initiatives. Thank you, Smart School Council and Miss Kachwalla
Mrs Ham's Weekly Message
Dear parents and carers, wow, what another busy week of 'achieving great things' and 'living life in all its fullness'! The highlights have been: *Choir Let's Go Sing concert at King George's Hall *Reception class firefighter visit and Mother's Day Worship *Years 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Big Lent Walks *Year 5 and 6 football festival *An author visit- RK Alker *FOSB Mother's Day Breakfast- Thank you FOSB! *Year 3 visited by a baker and made apple crumble * World book day- the word costumes were amazing! *International Women's Day girls football tournament *Whitehall Park house team winners non-uniform day and disco *WOW walk to school launch Next week we have a slightly quieter week but are looking forward to: Monday: Launch of the Big Plastic Count Wednesday: Rhyme and story time for Reception class and younger children Thursday: Cross Country competition for our cross country team Friday: Dress in red for Red Nose Day, Comic Relief Darwen Swimming gala for our swimming squad. Thank you so much for your donations and support towards our Big Lent Walk. We have now walked 1088km. Please keep sending in your walks and sponsorship money can be donated here: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk For all the latest photos in our gallery, please click here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-gallery-category/our-gallery For all of the latest news from each class, please click here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news or see our facebook page. I've attached a photo of the upcoming church Easter services and your child should come home with an invitation today. We are looking forward to our choir singing on Palm Sunday 24th March and everyone is welcome to come and support. Happy International Women's day to all of our wonderful Mums, Grandmas, female staff and young ladies in our school family. We hope that all of our Mums and Grandmas have a wonderful relaxing day on Mothering Sunday. Rev Ben is leading a special church service at 11.00am on Sunday and everyone is welcome. Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and thank you for your ongoing support, Mrs Ham
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.
World Book Day- Dress as a word
Happy world book day! The children have loved seeing all of our staff team dressed as different words and have had great fun guessing their lords. We have had some brilliant challenging vocabulary from onomatopoeia to metamorphosis! Can you guess the words?
Forest School Club
In forest school club we have been making stick people. The children found the sticks they wanted to use and thought about how they wanted their stick people to look. We learned how to do a square lashing to hold the sticks together. When we finished our stick people the children chose to have a game of stick in the mud.
Year 1- Mrs Ham Reads to Year One on World Book Day
Year One loved listening to Mrs Ham, our headteacher, read them stories today as part of our World Book Day celebrations. Mrs Ham read, ‘When Cookie Crumbled’ and ‘When Jelly Had a Wobble.’ We talked about times when we have felt anxious or nervous like Jelly and how we can show kindness to our friends to reassure them if they feeling anxious or worried. We also reflected on how it is great to be unique and express ourselves however we like, just like the cookie.
KS1 Wellbeing Club
Today at wellbeing club, our Year 1 and 2 children made Mothering Sunday cards. Their cards doubled up as hanging decorations so that their mummy’s could remove these from the cards and continue to display them even when the Mothering Sunday cards are taken down.
World Book Day in Year 1
Year 1 made a fantastic effort for World Book Day. They all dressed as a word of their choice such as palaeontologist, scientist, energetic, artistic, athletic, heroic, fairytale and confused. We had a vocabulary parade where each of the children came into the middle of the circle and the rest of the class had three guesses to try to figure out the word that the person was representing. Well done Year 1!
World Book Day- Reading for Pleasure
As part of our World Book Day celebrations, all of our teachers and teaching assistants swapped classes and read to a group of children in a different year group. The children loved being read to by a different adult to usual and our teaching staff thoroughly enjoyed promoting reading for pleasure.
KS1 World Book Day Assembly
Thank you to our wonderful KS1 children for their fantastic enthusiasm and excitement in this morning’s World Book Day assembly. Mrs Ham introduced the worship by telling the children all about the word that she had come dressed as which was ‘onomatopoeia.’ The children then joined in with a picture book quiz. During the first round, the children had to identify the title of a book by looking at the front cover. This included book titles such as The The Smartest Giant in Town, Elmer, The Squirrels Who Squabbled, Who Pooed in my Loo, My Dad is a Grizzly Bear and The Highway Rat. The second round consisted of playing emoji Pictionary with books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Giraffes Can’t Dance, The Gruffalo and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. All of the books that were on the quiz were books that we have in our library so we are hoping that our children now feel inspired to sample a book that they haven’t yet read. Our librarians also awarded Emily and Molly with their book tokens as they were the KS1 winners of our ‘Design a Bookmark with Your Favourite Book Title’ competition.Molly’s bookmark showed her love of the ‘Who Pooed in my Loo?’ picture book and Emily’s showed her love of ‘Stickman.’
Year 1 Science- Perform a Test
In their science lesson this week, Year 1 performed a test to find out whether a material was waterproof or absorbent. This was because they wanted to know which material would be the most appropriate for an umbrella. Out of the materials that they tested, four of them were waterproof which meant that they could potentially be a suitable material for an umbrella. The next step was deciding the other properties that the material needed to be so that it was suitable for an umbrella. Year 1 decided that the material needed to be flexible, strong and light as well as waterproof. In the end, they came to the conclusion that plastic would be the best material.
FOSB Mother’s Day Breakfast
A huge thank you to our members of FOSB and staff who supported at our special Mother’s Day breakfast this morning. Thank you to everyone who came and we hope you enjoyed it. Wishing all of our school family Mums and Grandmas a wonderful relaxing Mother’s Day on Sunday. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-mother-s-day-breakfast
KS1 Author Visit
This morning, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had a visit from children’s author, R.K.Alker. He told us that he hadn’t always been an author but he had also worked in many other professions. Whilst working as a paramedic, he had hurt his leg and could no longer do this anymore so he was suddenly struck by the idea of becoming a children’s author. He believes that God has called him to become a children's author. It was something that he’d dreamed of for 30 years and became incredibly excited by the idea. He told us that he writes a story by writing it and then going back to edit and improve it by making sure that he’s told the author who, what, where, when, why and how, using his his five senses and re-reading his writing to check it makes sense. He then read chapter 7 of his story, ‘My Grandad Vs the FangaZOO’ and we met a mischievous little boy called Zac who set off the emergency alarm on the aeroplane. Rich then did a question and answer session. Renee asked how many books Rich had published, Jack asked what Rich’s favourite part of his story was, Isaac asked how long it took Rich to write a book, Cassidy asked where Rich had got his inspiration for writing from, Lottie asked how long Rich had been writing books and Elijah had asked what Stretch the Dragon (who features in Rich’s story) likes to do at the weekend.
World Book Day Competition
A few weeks ago, our school librarians set a whole school competition. This was to design a bookmark with their favourite book and explain why. Today, the school librarians and our English link governor have been judging our World Book Day competition ready to announce in our World Book Day assembly tomorrow.
Year 1- The Easter Story
As part of their RE unit, Year 1 are exploring the Easter Story. This week in their RE lesson, they acted out the story from Palm Sunday until Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Big Lent Walk: both targets achieved!
Wow! We have achieved both of our targets already for the Big Lent Walk. A huge thank you to our wonderful children and families for taking part to help us to travel 385.4km (so far!!) Thank you to everyone who has sponsored us so far- our families, friends and the community. Your generosity means so much. We still have just under 4 weeks of Lent left so I am sure we can continue to add more km to our distance travelled and raise more money for this wonderful cause. You are not too late to get involved so please send your pictures and total km walked to either myself or Mrs Ham. Donations can still be made here: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk?utm_medium=email&utm_source=PostOffice&utm_campaign=DS_EVENTS-LFC_Trans_NthDonation Thank you for your kindness and generosity,
Rev Ben’s Worship- Jesus welcomes the children
This morning in Collective Worship Rev Ben started with a fun game where we all had to touch our nose, then stand on one leg, then whilst hopping, then whilst turning around and finally whilst shouting 'Good morning Mrs Ham'. We discussed how the busier you get, the harder it can be to do things. He then read us a story from the Bible about how everyone wanted to see Jesus and how his disciples thought he was too busy and important to see the children. However, they were wrong as Jesus welcomed the children and said that adults could learn from the example of children and that he is never too busy. We reflected on how we are sometimes so busy but it helps us to know that Jesus is never too busy to listen to us. We finished by singing Jesus strong and kind and My God's the King of Giants. Thank you Rev Ben for another brilliant Worship!
Mad Science After- School Club- Optical illusion
Today, the children in the science club observed changing images firsthand through a camera obscura while delving into the fascinating realms of optics, reflection, and sight.
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Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship discussing the ‘Big Lent Walk’ challenge that we are currently participating in as a school to fundraise for CAFOD to help to fight poverty globally and boost our mental health and well-being. At present, we have exceeded our 200km target and we are confident that we can double and maybe even triple it so please get involved and send your pictures through to Mrs Ham or Mrs Wilkinson. We also thought about how we’ve lived life in all its fullness this week with the help of our amazing science, running, well-being and messy church clubs and all the wonderful learning in our classes. We then presented Olivia, Renee, Roman, Penelope, Isaac, April, Luca, Ella, Joshua and Oliver as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently following the 4Bs and demonstrating a wonderful attitude to learning. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, River Darwen who are our overall value award winners this week and Tristen, Daisy and Desmond for achieving their pen licenses. We also said a huge well done to Carter, Ivy, Rio, Molly, Luca, Daisy, Charlie and Matthew for participating in our SIG5 times tables competition and pushing themselves out of their comfort zone. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Eliza and Carmen for showing commitment and achievement in their keyboard lessons, Eliza for demonstrating fantastic skill in her football, Tristen for a achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Mila for getting Olivia at Rainbows for showing lots of kindness and being both helpful and creative, Marley and Maggie for achieving their ‘World Thinking Day’ and some other badges for their commitment to Rainbows, Elsie, Eden and Grace for completing their promise at Brownies and achieving lots of badges for attending Brownie camp and completing several challenges and also to Elsie for working exceptionally hard at her English tuition lessons. We then ended our worship by saying the grace altogether and listening to a song called ‘You’ve Got to Sing’ by the choir that they will be performing at KGH next week. Just a reminder that it is the Mother’s Day Breakfast run by FOSB next Wednesday 6th March at 8.15am-8.45am. The cut off for purchasing tickets will be Monday. It is also World Book Day next Thursday 7th March and we have asked the children to dress up as a word for example courageous, athletic, mythical and disciplined. We can’t wait to see what you come up with. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Year 1-Making a Breakfast Pot
Year 1 made their breakfast pots (yogurts, cereals and fruits layered in a pot) for a friend this afternoon after spending a couple of afternoons this week learning how to cut fruits safely, taste testing a variety of fruits, cereals and yogurts and planning and designing a pot for a friend. They did a wonderful job and made sure that they only used ingredients that their friend liked. Well done Year 1!
Our School Art Gallery
Take a look at our amazing school Art Gallery! The children have worked really hard on their final pieces which are proudly showcased in our KS1 corridor and school hall. We can really see the progress children are making in Art across school and how hard they are working to master new and different skills.
Wellbeing Club
Mrs Wilkinson really enjoyed spending time with some children from Years 1 and 2 for the start of their wellbeing club. They discussed why it is important to look after ourselves and how we can be kind to ourselves. We then made friendship bracelets and looked at affirmations and coloured in some affirmation posters.
CAFOD: Lent Big Walk Update
Wow, we have already met our target of 200km!!Well done to everybody who has contributed so far! Who thinks we can double our distance by the end of Lent? If you are up for the challenge, please continue to send your photos in to either myself or Mrs Ham . So far we have raised £94. Please ask your family and friends to see if they will sponsor us so that we can reach our target of £200 for a worthwhile cause. Donations can be sent here: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you so much, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 1 PE- Athletics
Today in PE, Year 1 did the first lesson of their athletics unit. They practised various skills such as over arm throwing, rolling a ball, hopping, jogging and balancing a quoit or beanbag on their head.
Year 1 Food Technology- Planning and Designing a Breakfast Pot
Today in Year 1, the children got into partners and had to plan and design a healthy breakfast pot for each other. To do this, each member of the class had to fill in a sheet containing lots of different fruits, yogurts and cereals to state whether they liked or disliked them and then handed this sheet to their partner. From this, the children could then plan and design a breakfast pot for a friend knowing that they were going to enjoy the ingredients.
Rev Matt’s Worship: Perseverance
Rev Matt’s worship began with a balloon challenge this morning. The aim was for the children to persevere and keep the balloon up in the air for as long as possible. All three contenders did extremely well. He then shared the story of the man through the roof, in which the sick man’s friends had persevered in seeking help for him. After bringing their friend to Jesus they discovered the house was overcrowded, but they refused to give up. Instead they made a hole in the roof and lowered him in so that Jesus might heal him. We spent time reflecting on how we could help our friends, and those in need.
Year 1 Food Technology
Today in their food technology lesson, Year 1 explored two types of cutting techniques. They practised the bridge cutting technique and fork secure cutting technique. This will help them to safely and successfully prepare their fruit for their healthy breakfast pots as part of the end outcome for this unit. Year 1 also did some fruit tasting so that they could express their preferences with regards to which fruit they would like to be included in their healthy breakfast pot. They tasted honeydew melon, grapefruit, peaches, pineapple and dried apricots as well as lots of other fruits. They will be giving these preferences to another member of the class who will be making their breakfast pot for them.
Year 1 PE- Demonstrating an Overarm Throw
In PE, Year 1 have been working on their technique for overarm throwing. They had to concentrate well so that they could successfully aim for their target to ensure accuracy.
Year 1 Food Technology- Cutting Techniques
Today in their food technology lesson, Year 1 explored two types of cutting techniques. They practised the bridge cutting technique and fork secure cutting technique. This will help them to safely and successfully prepare their fruit for their healthy breakfast pots as part of the end outcome for this unit. Year 1 also did some fruit tasting so that they could express their preferences with regards to which fruit they would like to be included in their healthy breakfast pot. They tasted honeydew melon, grapefruit, peaches, pineapple and dried apricots as well as lots of other fruits. They will be giving these preferences to another member of the class who will be making their breakfast pot for them.
Easter Singing Worship
What a joyous start to the week! This morning we practised some of our Easter songs ready for our Easter church service in a few weeks. Each class took a turn to show our Reception and Year 1 classes the actions. We sang 'When I think about the cross', 'Give me oil in my lamp', 'This is the story of the cross' 'We have a King who rides a donkey' and our favourite Easter song 'Lord of the Dance'. Well done everyone for your amazing actions, beautiful singing voices and wonderful enthusiasm!
Mad Science After-School Club. We made slime!
The scientists picked their favourite colours in today's session and had a blast making slime. They learned about cool stuff like polymers and how mixing two liquids can turn into gooey slime. They were excited to take it home to show their parents and carers.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by signing the trinity and discussing our week in school. We reflected on our wonderful Lent worship with Rev Ben and the launch of our Big Lent Walk to fundraise for CAFOD to help to fight poverty globally and boost our mental health and well-being. At present, we have walked 129.7km and raised £91. We are confident that we can exceed our 200km target and raise even more money so please get involved and send your pictures through to Mrs Ham or Mrs Wilkinson. We then presented Olly, Charlie, James, Iris, Charlie, Lola, Neve, Rosie and Molly as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently demonstrating our 4Bs, working hard and participating whole-heartedly in class discussions. We also congratulated Reception and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week with 619 points. The Year 6 Heads and Deputies announced that over the past two weeks, we have collected 2067 values points as a school-how amazing! We also said a huge well done to Luca in Year 4 who achieved his pen license this week, our Year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics who achieved 4th place in BwD just before the half-term, our KS2 gifted and talented gymnastics team who attended a competition at St Bedes before the half-term and demonstrating wonderful skill and sportsmanship and our Year 3/4 Sportshall athletics team who came 4th place last night at St Bedes. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Charlie and Isabella for being awarded their green belt in martial arts, Grace for achieving several medals in her song and dance and improv dancing, Jacob for achieving his water skills stage 3, Lyla for achieving a medal for her incredible ballet, Finn for achieving 2k Winter Warmer running challenge, Isaac for achieving a medal for great leadership in his performing arts and taking part in some wonderful fundraising, Archie for being awarded a trophy to be proud of for exceptional darts, James for achieving his stage 1 in his swimming, Annabel for her successes in achieving stage 2 in skating and being star of the week at dancing, Naomi for being awarded her Stage 3 at swimming, Mila for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge at Rainbows, Cassidy for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge at Brownies, Annabelle for showing commitment and achievement in her keyboard lessons, Eden for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge at Brownies and Heidi for being awarded her First Aid Badge at Rainbows. We then ended our worship with a lovely prayer about being generous, especially during Lent and sang ‘Build Up.’ We thank our children for another wonderful week and we look forward to next week. Just a reminder that ‘The World Book Day competition’ entries need to handed in by next Friday 1st March so please get your entries in by then and also the Mother’s Day Breakfast that FOSB are running on Wednesday 6th March. You can find further details on Class Dojo. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Year One Maths-Using a Numberline to Compare and Order Numbers
This week, Year 1 have been making use of number lines to 20 to compare and order numbers. They have subitising numbers to 20, finding these numbers on their number lines and then deciding which numbers are the greatest and smallest. They have been working on their ability to explain how they have subitised the numbers and also on how they have come to the decision that a number is greater or smaller by thinking about its proximity to zero.
Year 1 Science- Making a Prediction and Performing a Test
Today in Science, Year one learnt about floating and sinking. They learnt that generally speaking lighter objects will float and heavier objects will sink and that for an item to float, it has to contain trapped air. They also learnt that another word for float is buoyant and another word for sink is submerge. As part of their independent group work, they had to predict whether an item would sink or float and then they had to perform a test to see whether their predictions were correct or incorrect. At the end of the lesson, they got to choose some of their own items to test.
FOSB Disco
A huge thank you to everyone who attended our FOSB Disco. It was lovely to see all of the children dancing and having lots of fun. A huge thank you to our FOSB members for giving up their time to prepare and stay for the disco- you are all superstars! A massive thank you to DJ Dunn, one of our parent governors for providing the music and games! For all the photographs from the EYFS and KS1 disco, please look here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-eyfs-and-ks1-school-disco For photographs from the KS2 disco, please look here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-key-stage-2-disco
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Year 1 Phonics
Year 1 are working hard in their phonics lessons. This week, they have been focusing on the graphemes 'oy' and 'ou.' They read several words containing these two graphemes, wrote several words and dictated sentences with these two graphemes and recognised whereabouts in a word we usually see them so that they can make more informed choices in their spelling of words with these sounds in them. Well done Year One!
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Year 1- Planning an Instructional Text
Today, Year 1 have worked in teams to plan their instructional text. They gathered the equipment that they needed e.g. hurdles, hula hoop, cones, beanbags, basket balls, footballs, quoits and skipping ropes and used these to create an obstacle course. Year 1 then practised using their obstacle course so that they were able to give instructions to follow their obstacle course clearly. Tomorrow, the children will write their set of instructions.
Rev Ben’s Worship- Jesus chooses his disciples
This morning in Collective Worship, Rev Ben started with a fun game where we had to guess the superpowers that our wonderful volunteers, Walter, Lottie, Isabella, Charlie-Rose and Matthew acted out. We guessed the superpowers of speed, strength, sports, invisibility and flight. We then followed on from Jesus' 40 days in the desert and we watched a story from the Bible that showed what happened next. We watched as Jesus chose his followers, called his disciples. They didn't have superpowers and were very ordinary and often made mistakes, just like us. Rev Ben told us that the best followers of Jesus don’t have super-powers and God works today through ordinary people who love Jesus and admit it when they get things wrong. He then told us about Ash Wednesday and how that is a time to ask God for forgiveness for the things we have done wrong. Wilson, our Head Boy, volunteered to have an ash cross put on his head. We then reflected on what we can do when we get things wrong and how God will always forgive us. We finished by singing My Lighthouse and My God's the King of me. Thank you Rev Ben for another wonderful worship.
Mad Science After -School Club- Missions Nutritious
Today, in our after-school club led by a scientist, the young children investigated the energy content of food by burning a stale crisp and using the released energy to heat water. We discovered that one crisp equals 6 calories. This was super exciting to watch. The young scientists also measured their energy expenditure by jogging on the spot. For our final experiment, the children filled a bottle halfway with water and then poured in about 100ml of oil. They then observed the oil float on the water. They were fascinated by this observation. We also estimated the length of a child's intestine during the session, adding to our exploration of the human body. They're eagerly looking forward to next week's experiment with slime.
Whole-School Worship: Understanding Lent
In worship today, Mrs Ham explained that Lent is a time in the Christian calendar in which we observe Jesus’ time in the wilderness and prepare for Easter. We discussed what we could do to observe Lent. Some of the children’s suggestions included giving up sweets, chocolate, crisps, time on devices, or giving back by helping at home or making an extra effort to show kindness to others. We also learned more about THE BIG LENT WALK and how each member of our school family can contribute by walking a few kilometres over the Lenten period and raising money that will go towards ending global hunger. More information is available on Class Dojo.
The Big Lent Walk
During Lent, our school are currently fundraising for CAFOD. We are taking part in the big Lent walk where we are collectively trying to walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
Celebration Worship- Dress to Express Day
Today, we had a very special worship to celebrate Children's Mental Health Week. We all ‘Dressed to Express’ and danced our way into the hall. We discussed the theme for this year which is ‘Our Voice Matters’ and we watched a video that told us all about the rights and responsibilities that we have such as being free to choose to think what we like and have our own opinions and ideas. Mrs Ham then showed us some pictures of people that have been influential in the past for standing up for their belief. Ross and Wilson named Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parkes, Sonny named Ayanna all of whom worked to end black segregation. Darcy named Marcus Rashford who has been influential in helping to stop racism within football and Charlie added that he has also been helping to support children who are entitled to free school meals. We then heard from some children from each year group about how they’ve chosen to express themselves. Hamza expressed his love of football and fashion, Archie his love of darts, Isaac his love of BMX, Charlie-Rose her love of all things sports, Betsy her love of dancing, Mason his love of smart clothes and attending special occasions such as weddings, Archie his love of football, Grace and Lola their love of gymnastics, Sonny represented all those in the world who live with diabetes, Daisy her love of art and bright colours, Renee’s love of PJ Masks, Olivia’s love of the colour pink and Jewellery, Alfie’s love of playing and watching football, Ella-Grace’s love of dancing and sparkles, Isabella’s loves of wearing pyjamas because you can snuggle and be cosy in them, Naomi’s love of all things pink, Charlie’s love of football, Annabel’s love of Ariel, Joey’s love of Spider-Man and Elijah’s love of superheroes. Mrs Ham then asked some of our members of staff how they had chosen to express themselves. Mr Prescott and Mrs Norris chose to bring their golf clubs to express themselves as golfers, Miss Kachwalla and Mrs Lyons expressed themselves by wearing bright and bold colours to express themselves as creative and Mrs Hegarty wore an apron to express herself as a baker. What a wonderful way to end ‘Mental Health Week.’ We wish you all a restful and enjoyable half-term and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 19th February.
Dress to Express 2024
What a fantastic day we’ve had celebrating Dress to Express! It was lovely to get together as a whole school to raise awareness for Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. Every single member of our school family certainly dressed to express themselves and made themselves heard as we all have a voice. Well done to all of the children that spoke about why they had chosen their outfits and how it allowed them to express themselves.
Year One- Listening and Following Instructions
To kickstart their new English unit on instructions, Year One had to listen to a series of instructions and carry them out. They thoroughly enjoyed this and were absolutely incredible at it. They did this in the context of creating and then completing an obstacle course. E.g. Firstly, crawl under the hurdle. Secondly, run between the cones. Next, put the hula hoop over your head. After that, side gallop to the quoit. Then, throw the quoit in the air and catch it. Finally, drop the quoit and run back to your team. Year One spotted that instructions need both a time conjunction and a verb. They will also learn about using adverbs as part of their instructional writing and retelling too. What a fantastic start to our unit and even better that it was during mental health week as we know how important exercise is to keep us happy and healthy.
Year 1- Dress to Express
Year 1 made a wonderful effort for ‘Dress to Express Day.’ We had children dressing as their favourite Disney character or princess, dressing as superheroes, dressing in party clothes as they love to party and attend celebrations , dressing as a unicorn, wearing their favourite colours, wearing all things sparkly, wearing football kits and sport clothes to express their love of sports and wearing pyjamas to express their love of relaxing and being snuggled up. Well done Year 1. We loved hearing how you like to express yourselves.
St Barnabas Big Lent Walk
Good morning, Next Wednesday 14th February, is the start of Lent. During Lent, our school will be fundraising for CAFOD. We will be taking part in the big Lent walk where we will collectively try and walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
Safer Internet Raps
*PROUD POST* A huge well done to Years 1-4 for their fantastic safer internet raps this morning & to Year 5 for introducing our safer internet worship. Please have a watch of the videos on class dojo. After the Safer Internet Day worship on Tuesday, Mrs Wilkinson set them the challenge of performing a rap to the whole school to advise them how to keep safe online. This week is also Children’s Mental Health week and the theme is My Voice Matters so this was a great opportunity for the children to use their voice. Some of the children were nervous about performing in front of the whole school but they showed lots of courage and did brilliantly. Over the next few years we are going to be involved in an oracy project with our Trust called Voice 21. This will develop our children’s oracy skills and develop their confidence when speaking in small groups and large groups. Well done, you are superstars!
Year 1 Art- Hundertwasser
Year 1 have been working extremely hard this week to produce a piece of artwork in the style of Hundertwasser. To produce this piece of artwork, they had to use and apply the skills that they’ve been learning in art over the last few weeks such as exploring with various lines (curved, wavy, horizontal, vertical, diagonal and swirls) and shapes (circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, semi-circles and pentagons). Their pieces of artwork are now on display ready to be viewed so please take a look. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Science
Year 1 have had a challenging science lesson this week exploring whether materials are manufactured or natural. First, we explored natural materials and described these as materials that can be found out in the world either by being collected, farmed or harvested. Examples of these are materials such as wood, rock, iron, wool and sand. We then talked about manufactured materials which are those that don’t exist naturally and have to be created by being heated or by mixed with other substances. Examples of these are materials such as plastic, polyester and paper. What we found very tricky is learning that some materials can be both. For example rubber can be natural if it is the sap that has come directly from the tree but it can also be manufactured using plastic and some metals are natural such as iron but others are manufactured such as steel. Year 1 also watched polyester being made in a factory from recycled bottles and found out that their school polos were made 65% polyester.
Safer Internet Day
This morning our whole school enjoyed a special worship, focusing on how to stay safe on the internet to celebrate Safer Internet Day. We discussed why it is important to raise awareness. We looked at what technology looked like compared to now. We then looked at what can happen online and how important it is that we know what to do if we come across something that makes us feel uncomfortable. The children discussed how we can speak to Mrs Ham, Mrs Wilkinson, our teachers, our sports coaches and our families if we feel we have seen something we shouldn’t have. We also discussed why our parents might check our devices and how our grown ups, including our teachers always want to keep us safe. We then joined lots of other schools from all around the country on a special assembly to discuss safe and unsafe things which may happen online. The importance of passwords, checking the settings so they aren’t sharing information with people they don’t know and also what to do if people they don’t know try to contact them online. Every Wednesday, we post guidance on how to keep safe online. Please have a look and discuss the National Online Safety posters with your children. The online world can be wonderful as long as we know how to use it safely.
Rev Matt’s Worship - Temptation
Today in whole-school worship, Rev Matt talked about temptation and how the devil tried to tempt Jesus in the desert. We thought about what tempts us and what we might do if we wanted to celebrate Lent.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by signing the trinity and discussing our week in school. We reflected on our very joyous singing worship that we had on Monday with Mrs Ham and our wonderful worship with Rev Ben about ‘Turning To God’ on Tuesday. We then presented Edward, Ella, Joshua, Luke, Eden, Bella, Ivy, Archie and Isaac as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for demonstrating kindness, compassion and an excellent attitude and commitment to learning. We also congratulated Year 4 and Year 1 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park who are our value award winners this week. We then moved on to our out of school achievers. Well done to Holly for achieving her Stage 3 at swimming, Sofia for working hard to achieve lots of new badges at Rainbows including her performance badge, Archie for giving 100% during his football training, Dougie for achieving his white belt at jiu jitsu, Isaac for celebrating his successes in drama and performance with achieving a part in Waterloo Road, Tristen for working hard to achieve his yellow belt in kickboxing, Grace for demonstrating incredible talent in both her acro and lyrical dancing, Jack for achieving Stage 4 in his swimming, Scarlett for getting Rainbow Bear at her netball sessions for demonstrating incredible footwork, Matthew for being awarded with a huge celebratory gold cup for his commitment to a recent tournament whilst representing Manchester United U10s football club, Finn for being elected as the sixer at cubs, Ivy and Betsy for their commitment to both lyrical and acro dancing and also performing an incredible duet together. We then ended our worship with a lovely prayer from Rev Ben and a sing along to ‘Build Up.’ We thank our children for another wonderful week of achieving great things and we look forward to next week. Just a reminder that it is our ‘Dress to Express Day’ next Friday 9th February. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Aladdin Pantomime
This afternoon our whole school family enjoyed a wonderful production of Aladdin by M&M productions. Oh no they didn't! Oh yes they did! It was fabulous to see all of the children joining in through cheering, booing, singing and dancing along to the songs. They particularly enjoyed Mr Prescott and Mr Norris' dancing! The cast said they had never had a school who joined in so well and who all stood up and danced at the end! Thank you so much to our FOSB for their donation and to all of your parent contributions, as without your support, we wouldn't be able to provide such exciting enrichment activities.We hope this has inspired some of our children to audition for our upcoming Barney's Got Talent show next half term. What a fabulous way to end a brilliant week of 'achieving great things' at St Barnabas!
Rev Ben's Worship: Turning to God
This week, Rev Ben told us the story of John the Baptist and how he preached about the importance of turning our lives to God. We spent some time thinking about what it means to turn to God.
Year 1- Planning a Story
Year 1 have been working on their own versions of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’ They had to change the original settings of the story to those of their own e.g. A desert, zoo, candy/sweet shop, beach, school and farm and change the animal from a bear to one of their own e.g. an elephant, dog, parrot, lion or dragon. Now, they are ready to get to work writing up their new version of the story.
Year 1 PSHE- Valuing Difference
As part of their PSHE lessons, Year 1 are learning to not only understand that we are all different but also appreciate and celebrate each other’s differences. They started their lesson by looking at a picture and recognising some of the similarities and differences between Derek, Harold and Kiki. They spotted similarities such as all three of them being mammals, having body features such as arms, legs, eyes and a mouth and all of them being able to smile but they also spotted differences such as them being different heights, having different eye colours and also having different body features such as Harold having a long neck and Kiki having floppy ears. Then they watched a video and discovered that they also were different on the inside because they had different interests and hobbies. To end our lesson, we played a game where Year 1 had to stand up and swap places if one of the statements applied to them e.g. they had brown hair, they had blue eyes etc.. We recognised that we didn’t all stand up for every single statement that was read out because we are all different. We discussed how it’s good that we are all different because the world would be pretty dull if we were all the same. We also talked about how learning new games, facts and developing new hobbies from other people is both interesting and fun.
Songs of Praise Worship
We had a joyous start to the week with our songs of praise singing worship. We practiced a selection of our favourite songs including My Lighthouse, Build Up, Jesus Strong and Kind, the School Rule song, May you find peace and Sing a new song to the Lord. Each class got the chance to choose a song and perform the actions at the front for our Reception class to copy as some of the songs are new to them.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by signing the trinity and discussing our week in school. We reflected on our ‘Mad Science’ assembly which was amazing and also discussed our learning about Jesus being special in collective worship. We then presented Samuel, Piper-Jo, Emily, Peyton, James, Grace, Austin and Wilson as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for working exceptionally hard , consistently demonstrating the 4Bs and demonstrating our Christian Values. We also congratulated our Year 5\6 football team who represented Darwen in the County Football Finals last Friday and made it to the semi-final, our Year 5\6 Sportshall Athletics squad who represented our school amazingly well at St. Bedes on Wednesday evening and celebrated a win ready to compete in the final, Summer, Grace and Charlie-Rose for achieving their pen licenses, Reception and Year 3 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and India Mill who are our overall value award winners this week with 322 points. We then moved on to our out of school achievers. Well done to Charlie for achieving 10m in his swimming, Leonora for achieving her honours swimming challenge for swimming 40 lengths in under 20 minutes, Desmond for being awarded with his 25m in swimming, Jacob for being Player of the Week at Judo, Seb for being awarded with a trophy for Darreners Player of the Week at football, Olivia B, Olivia R and Darcy for getting through to the final of their football competition, Cassidy for achieving two new additions to her Rainbow badge collection and moving up to Brownies, Vienna for sponsoring a dog called Sage to become a guide dog, Harriet for being awarded with Morris Dancer of the Week for incredible marching and Lola, Summer and Quinn for wonderful gymnastics. Lola has been working extremely hard to perfect her backwards roll, Quinn has been persevering to achieve a cart wheel and Summer has been using her fantastic gymnastic skills to guide others. We then ended our worship with a lovely prayer from Rev Ben and sang along to ‘My Lighthouse.’ We thank our children for another wonderful week and we look forward to the next two weeks of this half-term. We have some exciting things planned such as a pantomime of Aladdin next Friday 2nd February and ‘A Dress to Express Day’ on Friday 9th February. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
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Mrs Ham's Highlights
Good afternoon parent and carers, what another busy week at St Barnabas! The highlights have been: * the super Science show yesterday, * Year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics team winning their heat and getting through to the finals, *Creating terrific tie-dye t-shirts in Year 3, *Playing on the outdoor gym, *A money matters session in Year 5 and some of their trout eggs have hatched! Next week we have our Aladdin Pantomime to look forward to on Friday afternoon. We kindly ask for a small donation of £3.00 which can be made on parent pay. Thank you to our FOSB for their contribution in order to keep the cost down. For all of this week's news from each class and this morning's celebration worship, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news For all of the upcoming events, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events I would like to wish you all a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham
Mad Science Show
This morning our whole school family had a super Mad Science Show led by Scientist Sarah. The focus was on energy and she showed us all some really exciting experiments that create different forms of energy. A huge well done to our chosen volunteers James, Annabelle and Archie!
Year 1- Geometric Art
This afternoon, Year 1 have been drawing around a variety of 2D shapes and overlapping them to create their own geometric piece of artwork. They had to experiment with a variety of shapes and media (felt tips, wax crayons, oil pastels and colouring pencils) in their piece of artwork. They also referred to the colour wheel and tried to use complementary colours e.g. green and pink and orange and blue next to each other to make their artwork pop.
Year 1- Rolling a ball
In their PE lesson, Year 1 enjoyed learning the correct technique for rolling a ball accurately. They had to make sure that they swung their hand back and down whilst their chest faced forwards, opposite foot to rolling arm stepped forward and they bent their knees before releasing the ball. Year 1 practised this skill and then applied it to some games where they had to aim at a target such as skittles or marker cones.
Bee Yourself: A brilliant online platform designed to promote mental health and wellbeing for young people living in Blackburn with Darwen
Bee Yourself: We've just been made aware of a brilliant online platform designed to promote mental health and wellbeing for young people living in Blackburn with Darwen. It offers a range of resources and activities to help young people feel good and have fun while providing information and support for parents, carers, and practitioners working with young people. The platform is divided into several sections, including the ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ section, which provides information on local activities and opportunities linked to the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. The 5 Ways to Wellbeing are a set of evidence-based actions that promote wellbeing and include connecting with others, being active, taking notice of your surroundings, learning new things, and giving back to the community. The Parent/Carer Area – Honeycomb – offers health and wellbeing information for parents, carers, and families by topic. It includes links to support and resources for further information on topics such as managing stress, dealing with anxiety, and building resilience. Bee Yourself offers The Big Ask section for young people with questions or concerns. This area provides answers to questions generated by young people through various focus groups, supported by health and wellbeing partners. The section aims to help young people understand and manage their mental health and wellbeing. The Worries Away area is another section that provides health and wellbeing information by topic. It aims to help young people understand and manage common concerns such as anxiety, stress, and depression. The section includes information on how to recognise the signs of mental health issues and what steps to take to get help. Bee Yourself is a valuable online platform that offers a range of resources and activities to promote mental health and wellbeing for young people in Blackburn with Darwen. With sections for children, parents and carers, practitioners, and young people themselves, Bee Yourself has something to offer everyone. It’s an excellent resource for those who want to learn more about mental health and wellbeing and take steps to promote it in their own lives and in the lives of those around them. www.bee-yourself.org
Year 1 Maths
Year One are focusing on numbers to 20. They have been identifying and representing numbers in many different ways for example with Rekenreks, Numicon, tally, ten frames and base 10.
Collective Worship- The boy in the temple
We started our Monday morning worship by singing Jesus strong and king and then by signing the trinity and the lighting of the candles. We then watched a video from the Worship Together Collective Worship led by Lisa from Blackburn Diocese. We heard the story ‘the boy in the temple’, which taught us about a twelve year old Jesus who went missing and was found in the temple. He said to Joseph when he was found “ you should have known I was here, it is my father's house after all.” Bishop Philip told us how in this story Jesus tells us who he is and what he has come to do. We then watched an animation of the story and discussed how Mary and Joseph must have felt when Jesus was missing for three days and how Jesus was a little child, just like us. We then finished our worship by singing and signing to two of our favourite songs about Jesus, Waymaker and My Lighthouse.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by signing the trinity and discussing our week in school. We reflected on our learning about courage and Martin Luther King in collective worship and how much fun we had in the snow on Tuesday. We then presented Ida, Fletcher, Bindi, Harriet, Annabelle, Alice, Alfie and Sophie as our value award winners this week. Well done for being extremely conscientious and hardworking. We also congratulated Maliki, Alfie, Zac and Rio for representing our school amazingly well at a Bowling Competition this week on Monday morning, Ruby, Daniel, Jessica for being rewarded with their pen licenses, Year 1 and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week with 287 points. We then moved on to our out of school achievers. Well done to Isaac for achieving Player of the Match for showing an immense amount of courage by taking the role of goalkeeper in a recent football match for the first time, Arabelle for being extremely generous and sponsoring a dog called Crumble by donating money that she has raised through her swimming to support Crumble in becoming a guide dog, Cassidy for achieving a trophy for showing wonderful perseverance in her bar work at gymnastics, Eliza for achieving a trophy for showing lots of courage and hard work during her football training and matches and Annabelle for working extremely hard towards her bronze award in swimming. We then presented all of our teachers with their first aid qualifications. Finally, we heard some lovely prayers from Jacob, Olivia and Ivy who prayed for peace in our world. We thank all those who attended celebration worship- it is always lovely to see so many of our families attend and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
Year 1 Maths- Using rekenreks
Year 1 have been working hard in their maths lesson this morning. They have been making 11, 12 and 13 using the rekenreks to help them to understand that these numbers are made up of tens and ones.
Year 1 Phonics
Year 1 are working really hard in their phonics lessons to learn the alternative ways of reading and writing sounds that they already know. Today we recapped the ‘ew’ grapheme in stew, flew, crew, grew and screw before learning the ‘ue’ grapheme that is used in words such as rescue, due, true, flue and clue.
Year 1 Science- Sorting Materials
Year 1 started their unit on exploring materials in science today. They had to sort the objects by the material that they are made from (wood, plastic, fabric and plastic) and talk about why those objects are made from those materials. For example they said that a quilt is made from fabric because it needs to be soft, comfortable and breathable, a key is made from metal because it needs to be strong and rigid and a chair can be made from plastic or wood because they are strong, sturdy and easily wipeable. They are looking forward to learning about some other materials and their properties and completing some experiments in the weeks to come.
Year 1 Dance
Today in PE, Year 1 have been focusing on facial expressions and body language to express feelings as part of their dance unit. Then they had to create a sequence (stillness, travel, stillness) to show the relationship between Forky and Woody.
Where has Darwen Tower gone?
We can’t see Darwen Tower this morning as there is so much snow in the sky. Thank you so much to all of our parents and carers who took extra time and care this morning on the school drop off. Everyone got into the warmth of school safely and sensibly. Please take extra time and care during pick up at hometime.
KS1 having fun in the snow
Year 1 and 2 had great fun in the snow during their break time today.
Friday Celebration Worship- Spring 1 Week 1
This morning, we started our worship by signing the trinity and discussing our first week in school of 2024. We reflected on our learning about The Epiphany in collective worship, how much fun we’ve had exploring the new outdoor gym and all of our learning during the Life Education sessions with Harold the giraffe. We then presented Skye, Seb, Alfie, Jack, Walter, Tilly, Daisy, Lucy and Amelia as our value award winners this week. Well done to these children for being incredible role models. We also congratulated Oscar and Ivy on achieving their pen licenses and Year 2 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week with 436 points. We then moved on to our out of school achievers. Well done to Ella for achieving the Christmas Cup for being an exceptional team player at football, Charlie for achieving Stage 3 and 25 meters in his swimming, Eliza for achieving several badges at Pony Club including learning how to groom horses and provide them with first aid, Marley for achieving 10 meters in her swimming and a badge at Rainbows, Scarlett for getting Olivia at Rainbows for being a team player and doing wonderful tidying up, Sophie for achieving a trophy for Athlete of the match and several medals for representing Blackburn Harriers as part of Lancashire, Annabel for achieving Skate Excel’s grade 1 in her ice skating and Daisy for being a wonderful gymnast. We then heard from Rev Ben who finished our worship with a lovely prayer. We thank you all again for your continued support this week and we wish you all a lovely restful weekend.
Year 1- Exploring the Outdoor Gym
Year 1 absolutely loved exploring the outdoor gym this afternoon and they made sure that they were using the equipment safely and sensibly at all times. They are really looking forward to starting to make use of it during their lunchtimes. Well done Year 1!
Year 1-Using Purple Mash on the tablets
Year 1 have been using the tablets to complete their 2dos on Purple Mash today. They really enjoyed using the tablets in class and we’re looking forward to using them more in the coming weeks. They completed challenges linked with 2D and 3D shapes and linked to spelling common exception words.
Year 1- Life Education Session
Today, we had a life education session with Harold the Giraffe. We learnt that there are lots of different food groups that we need to eat to have a balanced diet. We learnt about dairy products which are good for our teeth and bones, protein which is good for our muscle growth, fruits and vegetables which give us vitamins and minerals to help us to keep fit and healthy and fight illness and carbohydrates which are good for giving us energy. We then talked about our organs. We learnt that our heart and lungs are protected by our rib cage. Our heart pumps blood around the body to give us energy and our lungs help us to breathe. We then learnt that when we’ve eaten our food it goes into our stomach to be digested and the ‘good stuff’ is taken in by our bodies to give us energy and the ‘other stuff’ leaves our body when we go to the toilet. We then had a look at a packed lunch that Harold the Giraffe had made to take to the park. We talked about how his lunch box included carbohydrates(bread), tuna (protein), a yogurt (dairy) but he didn’t have any fruits or vegetables so he was hoping that his friends at the park might have some to give to him. When they got to the park, Derek had made a huge fruit sculpture out of some fruit but Kiki destroyed it when she thought she was being kind to Harold by getting a piece of fruit. This made Kiki really upset and Derek really angry as his hard work had been destroyed. We talked about how this situation could be made better. Year 1 said that Harold needs to explain the situation to Derek of him wanting some fruit and Kiki trying to help him get some but accidentally destroying his sculpture in the process and then Kiki and Harold should offer Derek a hand to rebuild his sculpture. Year 1 said the lesson that they had learnt from that story is to make sure that they think very carefully before they do something to check that it won’t upset anyone. Then, Year 1 had to think about what foods they would include in a packed lunch. The rules were that the packed lunch had to included foods from different groups so that they were having a balanced diet. Archie said that he would pack a chicken sandwich, a cheese string and some cucumber and tomatoes which was a fantastic balance. Finally, we finished our session thinking about the importance of sleep and with a visit from Harold and listened to him singing us a song.
Year 1 Maths- Repeating Patterns
This week, Year 1 have been exploring 2D and 3D shape patterns. They made their own repeating patterns using 3D shapes.
Rev Ben’s Worship: Courage and Epiphany
This morning, Rev Ben came in to talk about courage and how the wise men showed courage on their journey to meet Jesus. The children shared their bravest moments and they enjoyed joining in with the Bible story and especially Rev Ben’s impression of a grumpy and mean King Herod. We reflected on how the wise men showed courage, how we can show courage this week and how it helps us to know that Jesus is always with us. This doesn't mean that the fear goes away but Jesus helps us to face our fears and be courageous, just like the wise men.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Good afternoon parents and carers, what a fantastic last week we have had at St Barnabas celebrating Christmas. Each class has visited the Rose Garden in Whitehall Park to see the lovely Christmas art work and enjoyed singing Christmas carols. Our Christmas parties were great fun and the infants got a special visit and gift from Santa & the children in KS2 were left special presents from him too. This morning we had our Christmas church service and this afternoon we presented our amazing attendance winners with their certificates and had a singalong to our Christmas video. To see all of our latest news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news I’m delighted to let you know that Sean Dunn is our new parent governor and you should be able to spot him in our Christmas video along with some of our other governors, our staff and children. It wouldn’t be Christmas at St Barnabas without our special Christmas video to wish you all a merry Christmas from our whole school family. Here it is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EaMCS8bGFvc On behalf of our whole staff team, we would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and we hope that it is filled with moments of peace, love and joy. Thank you so much for your kind words, cards and gifts. We look forward to seeing you all next year when the Spring term starts on Monday 8th January. Merry Christmas and best wishes to you all, Mrs Ham and the St Barnabas staff team
Whitehall Park Values Winner Disco
Well done to all of the children in Whitehall Park as they collectively received the most values points this half term. As a treat, they were rewarded with a disco! They had a super time and all enjoyed a chocolate lolly too.
Year 1 and 2 visit to Whitehall Park
Yesterday, Years 1 and 2 went to the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park to admire the Christmas artwork created by some of our children as part of the Home Bargains competition. We then had a play on the playground equipment as an end of term treat.
KS1 Christmas Cracker
We are so proud of our Year 1 and 2 children for their fantastic Christmas Cracker performances. To see all of the photos, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/ks1-christmas-cracker Here is the video of the dress rehearsal : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NtkPAWaaymw Please see class dojo for the secure links to the videos. Thank you so much to everyone who came along to support and for the wonderful Christmas clothes that you provided for your child. A huge thank you to our KS1 team, Miss Flynn, Mrs Hegarty, Miss Baxendale and Mr Norris for all of their efforts to create such an amazing show! Our children certainly brought lots of joy to everyone who watched and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Well done Year 1 & 2, you are little singing superstars!
Friday 15th December- Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by lighting our advent candles and reflecting on this week’s theme for advent which is joy. Mrs Ham said that our choir brought lots of joy to Darwen Market Hall yesterday and how this week we have also taken part in the Christmas Fayre and Christmas lunch which have also brought lots of joy to us all. We then presented Elsie, Marley, Arabelle, Sonny, Talia, Charlie-Rose and Molly as our value award winners this week. Well done to these children who have been displaying an incredible amount of kindness, respect and trying incredibly hard with their learning. We also congratulated Tyler, Bobby, Ella, Jenson and Talia who have achieved their pen licenses and Reception and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week. Whitehall Park are our overall value award winners this week and are also this half-terms overall winners. We then said a huge well done to four of our Year 2 children who attended a Curling competition. Unfortunately, they just missed out on achieving medals but they represented school amazingly - well done to Isaac, James, Emily and Olivia! We then said well done to our out of school achievers. Well done to Olivia for being an incredible mascot at the weekend during the Ladies’ Blackburn Rovers Football game, Isaac for achieving a medal at performing arts, Ruby for attending Brownie Camp and achieving a gold award in Brownies which is the highest award that a Brownie can achieve and also lots of medals and a trophy for her survival skills in swimming, Alexis for achieving 50m in her swimming, Isaac for achieving 50m in his swimming and his younger brother Teddy for achieving Ducklings stage 3 in his swimming, Alfie for swimming 5m backstroke, Grace for attending Brownie Camp and trying lots of new activities such as caving, zip wiring and climbing, Betsy for achieving a medal in her ballet, Callie for swimming 5m, Carmen for achieving her stage 4 in swimming, Thomas for achieving stage 2 in his swimming and Eden for achieving the bronze award at Brownies and attending the Brownie Camp at the weekend. We then said a huge thank you to our Friends of St Barnabas who continue to run lots of events in school, such as our Christmas Fayre on Wednesday, to fundraise money for school to purchase lots of new and exciting things for our children. We can’t wait for our new outdoor gym. We then heard some lovely prayers from Sofia, Elijah and Mrs Ham and listened to our amazing choir who sang to us all. We thank you all again for your continued support this week and we wish you all a lovely festive weekend.
Year 1- Sorting 2D Shapes
In maths, Year 1 have been exploring the different ways that 2D shapes can be sorted. They sorted them by their shape (circles, triangles rectangles, squares, pentagons and hexagons) and also by the number of sides and corners that they have e.g. 3 or less sides and 4 or more sides or 4 or less corners and more than 4 corners. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 RE- The Nativity Story
Year 1 loved watched the Reception class perform the nativity last week so this week they have really enjoyed using the figures to act out the story themselves. Well done Year 1.
Whole School -Design Technology- Christmas Fayre
This term in Design and Technology (D.T.), children from every class have been busy creating special things with a purpose. They showed off their creations at our school's Christmas fayre. Reception made cute Christmas decorations, Year 1 made Christmas-themed characters that move from a book, Year 2 put together yummy fruit kebabs, Year 3 crafted pouches, Year 4 made stockings, Year 5 created comfy cushions, and Year 6 invented their own steady hand game. Everyone should be proud of what they made because when parents and visitors saw the products, they were amazed! Each class did a fantastic job turning their creativity into awesome projects.
Christmas Lunch 2023
We had a fantastic Christmas lunch together as a school family! A huge thank you to Mrs Norton, Mrs Beech and Miss Norton for the meal. Thank you so much to our staff team for all of your help. It was wonderful to see all of our children eating and having festive fun together. We loved your singing too!
Year 1 Visit Nightingale Farm
What a wonderful time Year 1 had at Nightingale Farm this morning. Steph taught us lots about what pigs, sheep, goats and chickens like to eat and how they like to spend their time. Steph let us stroke a chicken, feed the goats and wander around the barn to look at all of the animals. Steph also ran a competition where we had to draw one of the barn animals, write which animal group it belonged to (mammal, amphibian, bird, reptile or fish) and what it liked to eat. Steph answered lots of questions that we had about the farm animals too. We all listened and joined in amazingly and came home with a treat bag each. Thank you to Steph at Nightingale Farm for welcoming us into her barn, sharing her knowledge with us all and being so lovely.
Friday 8th December- Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by lighting our advent candles and reflecting on this week’s theme for advent which is peace. Mrs Ham asked us to reflect on how we can create peace both at home and in school. We had suggestions such as helping around the house, helping out with younger siblings, making our own bed, tidying up after ourselves and showing kindness to everyone. We then presented Leila, Alice, Chay, Elliott, Quinn, Mason, Harry and Oscar as our value award winners this week. Well done to these children who have been working incredibly hard and showing impeccable manners. We also congratulated Year 1 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week. We then said a huge well done to four of our Year 4 boys who attended a Boccia competition. Unfortunately, they just missed out on getting to the final but they represented school amazingly - well done boys! We then said well done to Ella for achieving her puffin award at swimming which includes swimming 5m, James for becoming the captain of his football team, Tristen for being awarded the best newcomer at kickboxing, Leonora for swimming her first ever 100m and achieving several PBs in her swimming, Desmond for attending his first ever session with Darwen Centurions, Grace for achieving several badges at Brownies, Maggie for a badge at ar Rainbows for attending the ‘Magical Christmas Experience’ and achieving Stage 2 in her swimming, Annabel and Scarlett for also attending the ‘Magical Christmas Experience’ at Rainbows, Sofia for achieving a medal for her incredible dancing, Jacob for attending a magical Christmas experience at the North Pole, Matthew for achieving Student of the Year at Organised Chaos Kickboxing club, Jessica and Amelia for achieving lots of rosettes and certificates for demonstrating amazing talent in their horse riding and Ivy for demonstrating fantastic talent in her gymnastics talent. We ended our worship by saying the Grace and singing ‘We Three Kings’ and ‘Ding Dong.’
Year 1- Maths
Year 1 have been exploring 3D shapes. This week, they have been recognising, naming and building them. Today they have sorted them into groups. They sorted them into groups by their shape name but also by their features e.g. does and doesn’t have a square face, rectangular face, circular face, triangular face and rounded/curved face. Well done year one.
Year 1&2- A Christmas Cracker Concert
Year 1 & 2 have been busy learning the songs and actions for their ‘Christmas Cracker Concert’ which they will be presenting to our whole school and their families in a few weeks. How exciting!
Year 1 French- Learning Colours
Year One are really enjoying learning how to say the different colours in French. They sat in a circle singing a colour song whilst passing around a teddy. When the music stopped, the person who had the teddy had to say the colour that was on the screen in French. They then went on to complete a colouring challenge which allowed them to independently apply their knowledge of French colours. Well done Year 1.
Whole School Peace Chain
During our second week of Advent, we are focussing on praying for peace. Throughout the last week, all classes have created a whole school peace chain. Continuing from yesterday’s worship, we discussed different ways that we can find peace. Ruby said that she had listened to her mum this morning to create a peaceful home environment. Darcy said she had shown peace to her younger sibling. Isaac said he had helped his parents and Percy said he had gone to bed earlier. We will continue to focus on peace throughout this week and the whole of Advent. Our peace chain is displayed in our school entrance for you all to see.
Foodie Friends Club- Christmas shaped biscuits
The Foodie Friends Club had a fabulous time today baking Christmas-shaped biscuits. Despite a bit of dough sticking to the table, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Using various cutters, they created biscuits in the shapes of stars, Christmas stockings, snowmen, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees.
Celebration Worship- 1st December 2023
This morning in celebration worship, we started our worship by lighting a candle of hope to represent the first week in advent. We then presented our value award winners with their certificates for showing an exceptional work ethic and demonstrating the Christian Values. Well done to Teddy, Heidi, Isaac, Daisy, Alice, Lily-May, Jake and Rio. We then said a huge well done to River Darwen who were our overall value award winners this week and Reception and Year 5 for being the amazing attendance winners this week. We then moved on to our wonderful out of school achievers. We said a huge well done to Tristen who achieved his red and yellow belt at kick-boxing, Lydia who has got Olivia from rainbows for super tidying up, Seb for achieving his 5m without armbands in his swimming, Elliott for achieving a trophy for incredible football, Evie for being awarded a medal for demonstrating incredible skills in her gymnastics, Grace for achieving a medal in her lyrical dancing, Alby for achieving 50m in his swimming, Ed for achieving 20m in his swimming, Betsy for working extremely hard in her ballet lessons and working hard towards achieving her point shoes and Summer for achieving 20m in her backstroke. To end our worship, we had some beautiful prayers from Lilly, Wilson, Isaac and Sofia and a prayer from Mrs Ham about remembering the true meaning of Christmas. We also sang ‘Come and Join the Celebration’ and ‘Little Donkey.’ Thank you for all of your support this week and we wish you all a lovely weekend.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
All of our children helped to decorate our real Christmas tree today at lunch time. It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
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 1- Dance
Today in PE, Year 1 experimented with travelling dances. They each had a scarf (flame) and had to travel around the room in different ways. They threw the flame into the sky, wiggled the flame up and down, ran with the flame trailing behind them and spun around with the flame. As they practised these movements, the children moved around the room varying the speed, direction and the level at which they moved.
Rev Ben’s Worship- Jeremiah : Down in the well
This morning Rev Ben led our Worship about God's Compassion. We started with a fun listening game where Rev Ben blind folded some children and the rest of us had to make the animal noise of the animal on the screen. The children who were blindfolded were able to realise what it was like to not be able to see, just like the person in this week's Bible story, Jeremiah. We listened and joined in with the Old Testament Bible story all about Jeremiah being stuck in a deep, dark well. We loved joining in with the repeated refrain and we learned that God helped Jeremiah get out of the well. We reflected on how God can help us when we are feeling stuck or in a dark place. We then thought about how God sent His saviour, Jesus to rescue us all and how at this time of Advent, we are thinking about the special birth of Jesus. We finished our Worship singing 'Jesus, strong and kind'.
First week in Advent- Hope Collective Worship
This morning in our collective Worship we focused on Hope as it is the first week in Advent. Lucy and Charlie lit the first candle on our advent wreath and we said special prayers of hope. We watched a lovely video showing how God promised to send his special son Jesus and people had to wait in hope a very long time for Him but 'Good things come to those who wait'. We then discussed with our friends what we were hopeful for in the future and we had some wonderful answers such as 'For there to be peace across the whole world and for everyone to show kindness to each other.' Over the next four weeks we will be focusing on the hope, peace, joy and love that Jesus brought to the world and how we can show that to others too. We finished our Worship by singing a number of Christmas songs to remind us of the importance of Christmas, when baby Jesus was born. Thank you to our wonderful singers who volunteered to model the actions to the younger children.
Foodie Friends Club- Making chocolate apples
Today, in our foodie friends club, we made chocolate apples. After melting the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, the children pushed a stick on their apple and dipped it into the melted chocolate. The children had a choice of coating the apple in dark or white chocolate. To give that extra touch, the children decorated it with marshmallows and sprinkles. And, of course, there was plenty of chocolate licking.
Year 1 PE- Simple tactics
Year 1 have been applying the simple tactics of looking one way and throwing the other way and pretending to throw one way but throwing the other way. They did this as part of a game involving an attacker who had to aim to throw a beanbag into a stationary hoop and a defender who had to try to stop the beanbag from landing in the hoop. They tried very hard to use a good underarm throwing technique during the game and outwit their opponent using the simple tactics that they’ve been taught. Well done Year 1.
Celebration Worship - 24/11/23
This morning in celebration worship, we started our worship by presenting our value award winners with their certificates. Well done to Joey, Archie, Olivia, Ivy, Ella, Esme, Wilson and Ross for consistently demonstrating an exceptional attitude to learning and always showing respect, kindness and friendship. Mrs Ham also awarded a special bravery award for Sonny in Year 3. Today marks one year since he was diagnosed with diabetes. This past year, he has taken all of the hospital trips and disruptions to his usual routines in his stride and shown an immense amount of courage. We are so proud of you Sonny! Our head and deputies then awarded Darwen Tower as the overall value award winners this week and Mrs Ham announced Reception class and Year 6 as the amazing attendance winners this week. We then celebrated lots of children who have been achieving great things out of school. Well done to Mila for achieving her drawing badge at rainbows, Eliza for being a superstar horse rider, Annabelle for achieving her drawing badge at rainbows and the rainbows theme award for expressing herself, Desmond for being a super swimmer, Marley for showing kindness, Archie for achieving 20m front crawl swimming, Callie for achieving her stage 3 award at swimming, Penelope for achieving a rosette in her horse riding, Poppy for achieving a trophy for being a fantastic footballer and Skye for displaying lots of new skills in her horse riding lessons. We then applauded Alice in Year 3, Poppy in Year 5, Wilson, Charlie, Lucy and Jacob in Year 6 for their successful entries into the ‘Happy News competition’ which was launched in school a few weeks ago. Mrs Govan then launched our current competition. Mrs Govan explained that Home Bargains are accepting entries into a Christmas card competition that we would love our children to enter into. The winner of the competition will get their Christmas card printed and sold in Home Bargains and the money raised will go to Alder Hey Hospital. What a fantastic cause to support. Finally to end our worship, Rev Ben then said a beautiful prayer and Mrs Ham reminded us about non-uniform day next Friday in exchange for chocolate or a toy for our FOSB School Christmas Fair on Wednesday 13th December. We thank you all for your continued support and we wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
Christmas Card Competition
This morning in our Celebration Worship I shared the details of our Christmas Art Competition in Aid of Alder Hey Children’s hospital. The competition is for the children to design their own Christmas Card on a square piece of paper (please see the image above for more details and last year’s winners!) All entries will be submitted to the competition, and if selected, the winning entries will be sold as Christmas cards in Home Bargains stores across the UK, with all proceeds going to Alder Hey. School can also win a craft hamper and £100 voucher for resources too! We will also be selecting a handful of amazing entries to copy and display in the Rose Garden at Whitehall Park for our Christmas ADVENTure trail, so any Nativity related entries would be lovely to see. Please can we ask that all entries be handed to class teachers by no later than Wednesday 13th December. We are able to provide squared paper for entries if needed, please just ask your class teachers. If you have any further questions then please ask. We look forward to seeing some wonderful designs! Thank you, Mrs Govan
Year 1- Can you create a rhyming pair?
Year 1 have been working extremely hard in their English lessons. They have been generating and matching their rhyming pairs such as lair and bear, log and frog, mud and pud, poop and soup, high and pie, hole and mole, rake and cake and trunk and skunk. They have been using these rhyming couplets to create their own scene such as ‘Where are you meeting him? Here by this lair and his favourite food is roasted bear. Roasted bear? I’m off, said the bear’ and ‘Where are you meeting him? Here by this log and his favourite food is chopped hedgehog. Chopped hedgehog? I’m off said the hedgehog.’ We are so impressed, well done Year 1.
Year One Collective Worship
In collective worship, Year One created their paper chain for the ‘Let’s spread Peace Picture News Campaign.’ We reflected on all of the conflict in the world at present. We said some prayers for all of the people and families that are being affected by the war at the moment and therefore aren’t experiencing peace. We then thought about how we could help to create peace in our communities through displaying regular acts of kindness. We came up with ideas such as holding the door open for people, helping people up when they fall, saying kind things to people, asking people to join in our games, sharing our equipment, forgiving people for their mistakes and spreading love through hugs and smiles. We then drew these ideas on a strip of paper and joined all of our strips together to make a whole class paper chain. We can’t wait to connect out paper chain to create one huge one with the whole school.
Year 1 D&T
In D&T, Year 1 used the plan that they created last lesson to create the backgrounds for their moving pictures. They had to create two backgrounds. One of the backgrounds will be used as picture 1 and 2 in their moving story book and the second background will be used for picture 3 in their moving story book. We had the sky for reindeers to fly in, skies for Santa and his sleigh to fly in, chimneys for Santa to get into children’s houses, the roofs of houses for Santa and his sleigh to land on and fireplaces for Santa to land beside and deliver presents. Next lesson, year one will cut the sliders into their backgrounds and create the characters for the moving part of the picture.
Rev Ben’s Worship: Samuel and David
This week in Rev Ben’s Worship, we learned the story of Samuel, Jessie and David. We talked about the qualities God looks for in a king and the importance of having a kind heart.
WOW Group Worship: Respect and Tolerance
Well done to our fantastic WOW Group, who led their first whole-school worship this year today. In recognition of Inter Faith week, they talked about respecting each other’s differences and they taught us about tolerance and how we can show it to one another.
Foodie Friends Club- Pitta Pizzas
Our after-school club was a success today! The children had a blast chopping peppers and tomatoes to prepare the sauce for their pitta pizzas. It was an adventure for some as they tasted olives for the first time, and reviews were mixed. I was extremely proud of them for embracing something new. Not only are they fantastic chefs, but they also excel at keeping things neat. The excitement does make them a bit giddy, but it adds to the fun they have.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by ‘Making a Noise’ as that has been our focus this week during anti-bullying week. We did this whilst dressing in spots and all things Pudsey in support of Children in Need. We then said a huge well done to our superstar value award winners this week who were Iniya, Eli, Lyla in EYFS and KS1 and Sofia, Summer, Lola, Tyler and Archie in KS2. We were also exceptionally pleased to present Millie, Annabelle, Matthew and Bella for getting their pen licenses and Charlie for being a Times Table Rockstars Champ. We then said a huge congratulations to our Year 5/6 football team who achieved the title of Darwen Schools league football champions last night, Whitehall Park for winning the Inter-house dodgeball competition last Friday, our KS1 sports team who attended the multi sports skills festival at QEGS last Friday, India Mill who were overall value award winners this week with 283 points and Year 1 and Year 4 for being our amazing attendance winners this week. Our Well-Being Warriors then presented Edward, Molly, Lottie, Elliott, Grace, Betsy and Isaac for having the best odd socks and shoes on Monday to launch anti-bullying week and we celebrated the achievements of our out of school sports award achievers. Well done to Cali for her ice skating, Albie for achieving his 10m swimming award, Arabelle for being awarded her 50m in swimming, Lyla for achieving a medal for incredible ballet dancing, Sofia for super concentration and accuracy in her dancing, Peyton for achieving her white belt in kickboxing, Quinn for his commitment to tennis, Molly for achieving her fourth belt in martial arts, Betsy for achieving medals for incredible ballet and commercial street dancing, Grace for achieving a medal for her lyrical dancing and Lola for showing improved steps in her acro dancing. Finally, Mrs Ham reminded us about the Scholastic Book Fair being open after school next Monday and Tuesday after school. We then heard from Rev Ben who ended our celebration worship with a beautiful prayer about compassion and kindness. We wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
Scholastic book fair
Our Scholastic Book fair will be back in school on 20th and 21st November after school. Children will be visiting the fair over the next few days and will bring home a wish list of potential books they’d like to buy at the fair. You can purchase books at the fair from 3.30-4.30pm next Monday and Tuesday (20th and 21st). It is the perfect time to purchase books ready for Christmas! Card payments will only be accepted, we unfortunately cannot accept cash.
FOSB Christmas Fayre Stalls and Raffle Prize Donations
St Barnabas CE Primary Academy will be hosting an Annual Christmas Fayre on Wednesday 13th December 3.30-5.30pm. We are looking for stall holders and local businesses to donate raffle prizes so please email if you are available to help in any way: [email protected] If you would like a stall, they are priced at £10 plus a donation to our raffle. If you would like to help by donating a raffle prize then that would be very much appreciated! It will be a wonderful event for our community, any support would be really appreciated. Thank you.
Year 1 Interfaith Week- Learning about Shabbat
As part of interfaith week, Year 1 enjoyed a visit from a lovely Jewish lady called Samantha. Samantha told us all about Shabbat which she explained as the Jewish day of rest when Jewish people remember the story of creation where God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. Samantha told us that Shabbat happens each week on a Friday evening through to a Saturday evening. We learnt that it involves a Friday evening meal where the table is laid ready for a three course meal, a candle is lit and a prayer is said over wine or grape juice which is called Kiddush. We also learnt that Jewish people enjoy a bread called Challah during the Shabbat meal which is covered by a special cloth. Samantha even brought some Challah in for us all to try-we really enjoyed it! We also learnt that Shabbat involves a trip to the synagogue to pray. Samantha told us that the Torah is read out when the Jews visit the synagogue and it has its own special ark where it is stored when it is not in use. We also learnt that Jewish men often wear a kippah and a tallit to the synagogue and a Jewish married woman will wear a hat. Samantha also told us that because Shabbat is the day of rest, Jewish people are not allowed to work with the exception of some professions such as doctors. We learnt that hoovering, washing up, doing the laundry and building are all things that Jews should not do on Shabbat. As well as this, we learnt that Jews are not allowed to use electronics such as phones, computers, iPads, PlayStations etc.. on Shabbat and should spend quality time talking and playing games with family members.
Year 1 History- What happened on 2nd September 1666?
As part of history unit on the Great Fire of London, Year 1 acted out what happened during the 2nd September through to 6th September 1666. We had the baker Thomas Farriner going to bed and leaving a spark in the oven which then caused a fire to break out, children acting as the fire jumping from house to house, children using leather buckets, water squirters and fire hooks attempting to put the fire out and others escaping London in boats on the River Thames just as residents did at the time of the GFoL, children acting as the fire getting ever nearer to the Tower of London where people had stored their possessions for safekeeping, children acting as St Paul’s Cathedral and being defeated by the flames, children acting as King Charles II ordering gunpowder to be used, children acting as the buildings which were blown up with gunpowder to create a fire break to stop the fire and finally children acting as the last flames which died out.
Whole-School Worship: Odd socks day to launch Anti-Bullying Week
Today, to mark the start of Anti-Bullying Week, we were all invited to come to school in odd socks and shoes to express our individuality. We learned how to spot the signs of bullying and what to do if we think someone is being bullied. We saw some brilliant acting skills from some of the children who acted our some bullying scenarios. We talked about the Christian and British values we should be showing to each other at all times. At St Barnabas, bullying is not welcome so we made a noise by shouting that out in different year groups and we loved joining in with Andy and the Odd Socks 'Make some noise' song.
Foodie Friends Club- KS1
Today, the children had a blast creating their delicious chocolate chip cookies. We started the baking adventure by measuring the flour and sugar separately. Some children took turns cracking the eggs and skillfully blending the ingredients until the mixture became light and fluffy. After we mixed the dough, we made little balls and baked them in the oven for 10 minutes. They were very giggly when they saw that some of the cookies had stuck together.
KS1- Anti-bullying week lunch time crafts
Today at lunch time we decided to set up on station for children who wanted to get creative. We created our own odd socks to follow on from this morning’s worship about anti-bullying week and Odd Socks Day.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning we started our worship by thinking about remembrance. We put all of the people who serve us each and everyday with great strength and courage in our thoughts. Our heads and deputies said some some lovely prayers for all of those who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives to fight in the wars and all of those who are caught in conflict at the moment. We then observed a two minute silence. Following this, we presented our value award winners for this week. Well done to Lucy, Freddy, Elsie and Alfie in the Juniors and Lennox, Evie and Harvey in EYFS and KS1. We also said a huge well done to River Darwen for being our overall value award winners this week and Year 1, 2 and Year 4 for being our amazing attendance winners. We then moved onto celebrating our Year 5/6 football team who are through to the finals of the Darwen schools league next week after playing exceptional football through the league and we also celebrate our out of school achievers. Well done to Issac for being a super scout and swimmer, Sofia for being a wonderfully creative brownie and designing and making her own t-shirt, Annabel for working extremely hard in her ballet lessons and being a wonderful ballerina, Grace for being a fantastic gymnast, Poppy for achieving athlete of the week and ‘man of the match’ in her most recent football game, Ivy for pushing herself out of her comfort zone in her dancing and achieving a medal and Amelia and Jess for showing super courage and talent in their horse riding lessons. Finally, we ended our celebration worship by singing happy birthday to Alice, Elsie and Sophie and singing ‘A Song of Peace.’ Please remember that we are wearing odd socks and shoes on Monday to celebrate the launch of Anti-Bullying week. Our Well-Being Warriors announced that there will be a winner per class for the funkiest choice of odd shoes. We wish you all a wonderful weekend.
KS1 Multi-Skills Festival
This morning a group of super stars from KS1 took part in a multi-skills festival at QEGS in Blackburn. We were so impressed with how well the children represented our school as they behaved brilliantly and really got stuck into every activity. Our head boy Wilson and head girl Lucy accompanied them and encouraged and supported them throughout the morning. A huge thanks to Miss Baxendale for coaching the children.
EYFS/KS1 Remembrance lunch time crafts
Our EYFS & KS1 children really enjoyed creating Remembrance themed crafts at lunch times. St Barnabas remembers!
Year 1- We Will Remember Them
Year 1 have been thinking about all of the soldiers that have unfortunately died or been injured in the war. They have also been thinking about all of the soldiers that are fighting at the moment and all of families that are being affected by the wars in Gaza, Israel and Ukraine. They have independently printed some pictures in the creative area, created some models in the construction area and shared some lovely prayers with the class.
Year 1- Can you use the clues to predict which story we will be focusing on next?
Today, year 1 had to solve some clues involving rhyme to work out the location of the item they were looking for or the name of the item itself that they were looking for. After solving the rhymes, they found a wooded area which they thought meant that the setting of the story was a woodland or forest, some oranges with a black centre which they decided must have been eyes\eyeballs, a mouth with teeth which they decided must belong to some form of mammal and a paw with claws which they decided must belong to a mammal with paws and claws. Using this evidence, they predicted which story they thought that we might be focusing on as part of our English unit. Some children thought it was Goldilocks and the Three Bears because of the forest setting and the sharp claws, some children thought it might be the hungry caterpillar because of the woodland setting, some children predicted that it would be Little Red Riding Hood because of the forest setting and because they thought that the paws with claws belonged to a fox, one children predicted that it was My Dad is a Grizzly Bear because of the forest setting and because of the paws with claws and some other children predicted the Gruffalo because of the forest setting, the sharp claws and teeth and the orange eyes.
Year 1 D&T- Can you independently make a moving picture on the theme of remembrance?
In the creative area, Year 1 were set the challenge of independently applying their learning from their last D&T lesson to make a moving picture using sliding mechanisms. They tied this in with the theme of remembrance and made some poppies growing on the battlefield after the war, some soldiers moving side to side on the battlefield as they fought and continue to fight in the war and army aircraft moving through the air.
Odd Socks Day
On Monday 13th November we will be launching Anti-Bullying Week with our usual ‘ODD SOCKS DAY’. After our weekly meeting our Wellbeing Warriors would also like to make it ‘ODD SOCKS AND ODD SHOE DAY’. They will be on the look out for the strangest, most unique socks and shoe combo and there will be a prize for a child in each year group. This will be announced in Celebration Worship on Friday 17th November when the team will be giving an overview of the day and how we have promoted Anti- Bullying Week in school.
Rev Matt’s Worship: God’s Compassion for Gideon
Rev Matt’s Worship this week was about victory against the odds and staying faithful to God. He told us the story of Gideon and how he defeated the Midianites, even though his army was small. He trusted in God and God showed Gideon compassion. We also discussed how we can show compassion to people who need our help.
Save the Date for our Christmas Fayre
Our wonderful FOSB will be hosting our Annual Christmas Fayre on Wednesday 13th December 3.30-5.30pm. Please save the date and come and enjoy lots of stalls, food and games. Our children’s Design and Technology products will also be available to purchase. FOSB are looking for stall holders and local businesses to donate raffle prizes so please email if you are available to help in any way: [email protected]
Whole-School Worship: Remembrance
With Remembrance Day fast approaching, Mrs Ham began the week with a worship about why and how we remember those who have died due to war and those who serve our country and protect us. She explained the significance of the poppy and we discussed which Christian and British values are shown by people in the armed forces. We ended our worship time with a prayer of thanks to those in the armed forces and prayed for peace around the world as we sang ‘A song of peace’.
Foodie Friends Club
Today, after school, the Year 1 and Year 2 children in our 'Foodie Friends Club' had a great time. They made yummy cornflake cakes. The best part was when they broke the chocolate bar into pieces and saw it melt in the microwave. They had so much fun licking the extra chocolate from the spoon and bowl. They've decided that next week, they want to make chocolate chip cookies.
Poppy Appeal 2023
From Monday our Heads and Deputies will be selling Poppy Appeal merchandise at break times. The suggested donation for zip ties and reflectors is 50p, standard wristbands £1.00 and slap bands £1.50. Poppies will also be available to purchase for a small donation. Next week we will be focusing on Remembrance Day in our Worships and our Year 6 Heads and Deputies plus some of our WOW group members will be taking part in a special Remembrance Service in Darwen Cemetery. We will remember them.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today we started our worship by lighting our very special candle for those in Israel and Gaza who have very much been in our thoughts this week. Mrs Ham reminded us that we will be focusing on remembrance next week. We will be thinking about all of the soldiers that have fought in the war past and present and all of those that have and are being affected by the war. The heads and deputies told us some of the things that they will be selling next week to support the Poppy Appeal. We then presented our value award winners with their certificates. Our winners this week were Callie, Mila, Alby, Carmen, Matthew, Seb, Layla and Sophie and we also said well done to Matthew, Layla and Will who gained their pen licenses. We then said a huge well done to our out of school achievers. Congratulations to Albie for achieving his 5m certificate in his swimming with no armbands, Annabel for getting Olivia at Rainbows this week for super tidying up and achieving super star status in her ballet and acro, Darcy for achieving stage 3 in her swimming, Daisy for achieving 2nd place in her gymnastics competition, Callie for achieving 10m in her swimming with no armbands, Cassidy for achieving 3 gold medals in her gymnastics vault, floor and all around routines and an additional overall gold medal, Iris for achieving 10m in her swimming and stage 1 in her gymnastics, Desmond for stage 4 and 10m in his swimming, Eliza for achieving girl of the game as goalkeeper in her football, Annabelle for entering in the 18+ category in orienteering and coming in first place, Alfie for scoring a hat trick in a recent football game, Bobby-Ray for achieving the brown and white belt in Karate, Finn for being a cricket superstar, Charlie for achieving the batter of the year in his cricket, Archie for achieving batter of the batter and fielder of the year in his cricket, Grace for achieving several medals and a trophy for her acro expertise and Elsie for achieving a certificate in her tutoring lessons. We said a well done to Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week with 407 points and Year 2 and Year 5 for being the amazing attendance award winners this week. Finally, we ended our worship with some lovely prayers for those in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza and a song about peace. Thank you to those who could attend our celebration worship this week and we wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
Year 1 English
Year 1 are preparing to write their non-chronological reports. Today, they were set the challenge of matching a caption to its correct picture. They then wrote their own captions for some animal pictures using capital letters, full stops and some of the vocabulary that they have learnt in their science lessons such as mammal, amphibian, bird, reptile, fish, hairy, scaly, fury, slimy, herbivore, omnivore and carnivore.
Year 1- Solving additions within 10.
This week, Year 1 have been solving addition problems within 10 using their ten frames and completing a challenge involving number bonds within 10 using dominoes.
Year 1 Art- Arctic Landscape Collages
As part of their Art unit last half-term, Year 1 have been building up the skills of collage for several weeks. They have learnt about warm and cool colours, the composition of a landscape, how to use watercolours to create a background and how to use different materials to create the different textures of a landscape. Their final piece of artwork incorporates all of these skills and they have done a wonderful job. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 D&T- Sliding mechanisms
Year 1 explored sliding mechanisms in their first D&T lesson. They had to make the car move backwards and forwards along the street and the bunny rabbit move up and down in the hat. They are working towards planning and making their own moving pictures.
Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
Rev Ben taught us all about the value of thankfulness this week. He told us the story of the Jews being freed from slavery and how they lost sight of the good things God had given them, so they were left to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The children loved interacting with the story and shared their ideas on how we can focus on the good.
Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide & Praying for Peace
This morning Mrs Ham reminded us of the Christian season of Allhallowtide starting with All Hallows’ Eve tomorrow - Hallow means Holy and it is a time to be mindful of the good we can do in the world, All Saints’ Day on Wednesday - when Christians remember the good the saints have done, and All Souls‘ Day on Thursday - when we think of those who have died and are in heaven. We discussed Remembrance day which is coming up shortly, where we remember soldiers who have died in the wars. We also thought about the conflict in Israel and Gaza and prayed for those who are suffering in this war. We watched some newsround videos to learn about how children in Gaza and Israel are being affected and we thought of some ways that we can be like saints and help. Peyton said we can pray to God for them and Darcy, Jack and Naomi said we can donate money, clothes and toys to the children who have lost their homes and belongings. To finish we sang a 'Song of Peace' where we wished for a world where hate and war would cease and the everyone in the world could live in peace.
Harvest Church Service 2023
A huge well done to our WOW (Worship our Way) group and our choir for leading our Harvest Church service and to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 for their wonderful contributions. Thank you so much for your generosity shown towards Darwen Food Larder and DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/harvest-church-service-2023 and the videos are posted on classdojo.
Whole-School Worship: Moses Saves God’s People
This week, Rev Ben led our worship, teaching us all about the story of Moses parting the Red Sea, and how that was all a part of God’s great rescue plan. The children loved acting out the story. We also spent some time reflecting on God’s generosity towards the Israelites.
Week 5 - Sports Club
For our final week at Sports Club, we combined all of our skills learnt over past half-term. We hopped, balanced, threw, jumped, side stepped and curled. A fun last week for our sports stars!
Whole School Celebration Worship
To start our celebration worship this morning, we reflected on another busy week. We talked about a couple of highlights such as our ‘Hello Yellow Day’ to celebrate World Mental Health Day, A Let’s Sing Together workshop and library visits for years 3 and 5. We then presented our value award winners for this week. Well done to Harry, Eva, Scarlett, Arabelle, Darcy, Reuben, Will and Isaac for demonstrating the 4Bs. We then said congratulations to India Mill for achieving the most value points this week and an even bigger congratulations to River Darwen who are our overall value award winners for this half term who will celebrate with something of their choice next Thursday. Our well-being warriors then announced the six winners for our ‘Hello Yellow’ self affirmations poster competition who were Molly, Mila, Summer, Lucy, Lilly and Alice. Also, we said a huge congratulations to our Y5/6 football team for their superb talent and sportsmanship last night as they won both matches, Reception and Year 5 for being the super attendance award winners this week and Jake in Year 5 for getting his pen license. We then celebrated our out of school achievements. Well done to Marley for her drawing certificate that she achieved at Rainbows, Harriet for achieving 75m in her swimming, Grace for achieving a special honours award in her Jazz, Poppy for getting player of the match in her football, Layla for her football award that she achieved by attending Blackburn Rovers, Alby for reading 6 different books as part of the summer Reading challenge and Vienna for achieving 20m in her swimming without armbands. We ended our worship with a lovely prayer from Rev Ben and a reminder about our Harvest Celebration at St Barnabas Church next Thursday 19th October at 9.30am. Everyone is welcome and we would really appreciate some donations for the local food bank. Thank you for your continued support and we wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
Week 4- Sports club
This week we worked in teams to create our own obstacle courses for our team and the rest of the club to try. Each group got the same set of equipment and had 5 minutes to create a fun and interesting obstacle course for the rest of the teams to try. We had so much fun!
Year 1 Science
Year 1 have been investigating poo this week. They have been looking for clues to decide whether they think the poo is from a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore. The clues included fur, bones, leaves, twigs, shell, hair and nuts. They have also been looking at the teeth of animals and deciding whether they think the animal is a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore before sorting them into a Venn diagram.
Year 1 Art
This afternoon, Year 1 have been exploring different textures in art. They had to choose appropriate materials to represent the texture of different parts of their image such as rocks, a polar bear, mountains, the sea and the sky. The children really impressed us with their well thought out choices. They chose wool, felt, fluff and feathers for the polar bear and glittered paper, rocks, corrugated paper and varied wallpapers for the mountains. Some children chose corrugated paper, wallpaper or glittered paper to reflect a rough sea but others chose foam, tissue paper and plastic if they wanted a smoother sea. Well done Year 1.
Whole-School Worship: Jacob and Esau and God’s Forgiveness
Rev Matt joined us for worship today. He talked about good and bad, and then read the story of Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob. We then reflected on how God taught Jacob to be truthful and how He showed forgiveness.
Whole-School Worship: Hello Yellow Day
Today we are celebrating Hello Yellow Day for World Mental Health Day by dressing in yellow. In worship, our Heads and Deputies dressed as Mrs Ham's Minions and they explained all about Hello Yellow Day. We learnt that we all have mental health and there are things we can do when we don't have good mental health. We made each other smile and feel happy by dancing and singing together with the minions to 'Happy'. We then joined a special live assembly with lots of other primary schools in Blackburn and Darwen, which was led by the Mental Health support team. We talked about our worries and how we can shrink them using mindfulness techniques. Thank you to everyone for dressing in yellow to raise awareness of mental health and remember that it is good to talk to our friends, parents, teachers and other trusted adults if we are worried about anything.
Year 1- Creating and Writing Questions
Year 1 have been busy creating and writing sentences using the 6 key questions words (who, what, when, where, why and how). They have worked hard to ensure that their questions have capital letters, fingers spaces and questions marks and start with one of the question words. They came up with questions such as ‘What do they eat?’ ‘Where do they live?’ ‘How much do they weigh?’ ‘How long do they live for?’ ‘How do they move?’ ‘When do they sleep? and ‘What type of animal are they?’ Tomorrow they will answer questions similar to these by recalling information from film clips and eventually they will use these sorts of questions in a non-chronological report.
Celebration Worship
This morning, Rotakids welcomed us into celebration worship as we came in dressed in the colours of the Moroccan flag. They thanked us all for supporting our non-uniform day to raise money for Morocco who have recently faced an earthquake. They explained that our money would go towards medical supplies and other essentials such as blankets, food and shelter for those who were affected in the earthquake on September, 8th. We then said goodbye to Mr Tierney for his 7 years of service as our fantastic site supervisor. It was clear from the children’s memories that they shared and the video that Mrs Ham had made that Mr Tierney has had a hugely wonderful impact on our whole school family and that he will be greatly missed, especially for the joy and humour that he spreads on a daily basis. The children absolutely loved your goodbye song dressed as Santa Claus… what a way to end your time here at St Barnabas! We also said thank you very much to our amazing choir who sang at The harvest Festival on Sunday. We then said well done to Cici, Phoebe, Renee, Scarlett, James, Grace, Matthew and Charlie who were our value award winners this week and Isaac, James, Mila, James, Naomi, Lydia and Layla for being our out of school sports achievers. Well done to Isaac for showing good sportsmanship at football, James for being beaver of the week, Mila for attending rainbows for one year, James for achieving his stage 4 in swimming, Naomi for being extremely kind at rainbows and getting Olivia, Lydia for joining in and being a superstar at rainbows and Layla for being a wonderful footballer. We then congratulated River Darwen who are our value award point winners this week, Reception and Year 5 who are our amazing attendance award winners this week, our Year 5/6 football team for wonderful sportsmanship last night and winning all 3 games, our play leaders for completing their training and Eden and Esme for achieving their pen licenses. Finally, we ended with some lovely prayers wishing Mr Tierney all the best at his new job at Blackburn college and for those who are facing hardship in Morocco due to the devastating impact of the recent earthquake. Just a reminder that next Tuesday 10th October is Hello Yellow Day so all children are asked to wear something yellow to celebrate World Mental Health Day. We wish you an enjoyable weekend and thank you for all of your support this week.
Year 1-Making a Sukkah
Year 1 have been learning about the Jewish Festival of Sukkot. In the creative and construction areas they have been building a sukkah. They have learnt that some Jews celebrate harvest by building a sukkah and spending time in there during their harvest festival (Sukkot). For example, they might enjoy a meal to give thanks or to say a prayer of thankfulness. They do this to remember all of the Jews that had to sleep in the wilderness as they fled from slavery and to give thanks for many things such as food and shelter.
Super sports club- Week 3
Week 3 was all about football. We learnt a very important word “control”. We learnt how to stop a moving ball, passing with the correct part of our foot and learning to dribble with control.
Year 1 meet Author and Illustrator Ursula Hurst
Year 1 had an amazing morning meeting author and illustrator Ursula Hurst at Darwen library. They enjoyed looking at lots of the books that Ursula has illustrated over the years such as Roo and Sarge to the rescue, The Angry Giant, Zed Ted, Bea and Monah Lot. Ursula also read us a story called Drawing Hope which she was both the author and illustrator of. It was about a young girl called Hope who loved drawing and painting and had a dream of turning the gloomy town in which she lived into a bright and colourful place and with the help of Mrs Green, she did just that. Year 1 loved seeing how the town and characters turned from grey with lots of worries to bright and worry free throughout the story. Thank you to Darwen Library for such a wonderful opportunity and to Ursula Hurst for inspiring our children.
Year 1- illustration Worksop with Ursula Hurst
After meeting Ursula Hurst and looking at many of her illustrations in various children’s books including her very own book, ‘Drawing Hope,’ Year 1 had a lesson in illustration. Ursula showed the children how to create different characters with expressions such as sad, shocked and happy and various hairstyles and clothing. Thank you to Darwen library for this wonderful opportunity.
Week 2 of super sports club
Our second session at sports club we looked at the correct hand position, the ‘W’ position. Then we moved onto using the correct hand position whilst passing the ball. Then we looked at a chest pass followed by a bounce pass. They worked really hard on these two passes before moving on to a game of netball.
29th September- Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our celebration worship by congratulating our value award winners this week for always demonstrating the the 4Bs, wonderful manners, an incredible attitude to learning and working extremely hard across the curriculum. Well done to Eddie, James, Finley, Jack, Jenson, Evie and Beau. We then said well done to River Darwen for being our value points winners this week putting them in 1st place and Year 1 and 3 for being the amazing attendance award winners this week. Our well-being warriors then told us all about World Mental Health Day 2023 on the 10th October to raise awareness for mental health. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. These were Annabel for being very sensible at rainbows and her character work as Rapunzel, Noah being this week’s player of the match at football, Mila and Cassidy for being extremely creative and drawing wonderful pictures at Rainbows and Layla for getting player of the match at football. We then followed by congratulating our play leaders on completing their play leader training yesterday. They learnt how to set up and manage lots of practical activities that they can lead on the infant yard with the infants. We ended today’s worship by singing happy birthday to Marley, Bobby-Ray, Noah and Beau and with some lovely prayers from Seb, Darcy and Noah. Darcy and Seb prayed for the people facing hardship in Ukraine and Morocco and Seb said a prayer of gratefulness to say thank you for everything that we have. Thank you for all of your support this week, and your very kind donations to our MacMillan coffee morning. Thank you to those that could also attend. We wish you an enjoyable weekend.
Year 1-Art
Year 1 have been identifying the key features of a cold landscape such as icebergs, glaciers, mountains, rocks, trees and animals such as penguins, polar bears, walruses, arctic hares, arctic foxes and snowy owls to use in their own landscape. Then they had to draw lines to represent the horizon and the sea and compose their cold scene using the shapes provided and their own imagination. We are looking forward to being able to collage them next lesson.
Year 1 Music
Year 1 have been enjoying their Junior Jam sessions. In music, they have been learning to play different pitch patterns on the ukuleles.
Year 1 Phonics
Year 1 are working incredibly hard in their daily phonics lessons. They are recapping several phase 3 sounds before we move on to phase 4&5 and we are starting to see some great progress in their reading and writing, Well done Year 1.
Year 1 PE- Fundamental Skills
Year 1 have been working on their fundamental skills in PE. Today, they practised an overarm throw as well as doing some hopping, jogging and running.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started saying thank you to our teachers for starting their after school clubs this week. We have had choir, football, foodie friends, performing arts, netball and an infant sports club and the children have thoroughly enjoyed them. We still have a few places left in choir so please sign up if your child is interested. We then said well done to our value award winners this week for always demonstrating the Christian values particularly friendship, respect and courage and working exceptionally hard across the curriculum. These children were Lottie, Leo, Eden, Daisy and Alfie. We then congratulated River Darwen for gaining 250 value points this week putting them in 1st place, Year 1 and 5 for being the amazing attendance award winners this week and David, Archie, Carlton, Skye, Daisy, Ruby, Leonora, Annabelle, Luca and Grace for being our new WOW group members for this academic year. We look forward to you all taking a lead in various worships and helping to organise events in the Christian calendar. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Annabelle for her blue Peter badge for her music, Jenson for achieving his 100m in swimming, Scarlett for lots of amazing rainbow badges and a swimming badge, Archie for achieving 20m in his swimming and ‘smashing it’ at Go Ape, Isaac for his perseverance over the last 5 years at Scouts, Oliver for demonstrating lots of new skills and achieving a new belt at kickboxing and Annabel for gaining a certificate for always working hard on many new skills at acro. We ended our worship with a lovely prayer centred around thankfulness from Rev Ben and a singalong to ‘If I was a butterfly.’ Please remember that we will be having our MacMillan coffee morning next Friday 29th September after celebration worship and you would be all very welcome. Cake donations would be very much appreciated and a donation to Macmillan can be made on parent pay. Thank you for all of your support again this week and we wish you an enjoyable weekend.
Year 1 Maths-Comparing Numbers
This morning, Year 1 have been comparing numbers using the greater than , less than and equal to symbols. They did amazingly well at using the language of greater than, less than and equal to within sentences such as 8 is greater than 5 and 5 is less than 8.
Year 1- Completing our Challenges
This week, Year 1 have been busy completing challenges in the areas. They have used their knowledge of the different animal groups to classify animals in the investigation area, completed number sequences in the maths area, used warm and cool colours to colour in pictures in the creative area, consolidated the sounds ‘ng’ and ‘th’ in the phonics and writing area, completed a jigsaw containing the 7 continents in the construction area and used their observations of the shapes and sizes of the continents to make them on the peg boards e.g. making Asia very big and Australia much smaller.
Year 1- Precursive handwriting
Year 1 have been working hard in their handwriting sessions to form percursive letters. They have been learning how to form the letters i, l, t, u, w, e, c, o and a. Well done Year 1.
Year 2- P.E
This week we linked our P.E lesson to the story ‘Jack and the beanstalk’. We took parts of the story into our lesson to practice different skills such as climbing and over arm throwing just like Jack's mum throwing the magic beans out of the window.
Multi skills sports club
Our first week of multi skills club and what a great time we had! We had lots of different stations set up to practice our fundamental skills followed by a very exciting game of bench ball.
Collective Worship with Rev Ben - Noah’s Ark
Today, we started with a fun game of floating and sinking in our collective Worship with Rev Ben. He then told us the story of Noah and his Ark and his mission to rescue God’s creation. We considered how we could help to take care of God’s world.
Collective Worship- In the beginning
This morning in Collective Worship, we continued learning about God's Big Story with Worship across the Diocese. Today we started right at the beginning of the Bible and focused on God's creation. This built on our Worships with Rev Ben and Rev Matt as we have been focusing on God's generosity in creation. After watching and joining in with the Worship across the Diocese video, we also watched a cartoon about God's creation. We then reflected on our favourite creations and Mrs Ham threw the inflatable earth and asked us to share our favourite creations with the whole school if we caught it. We shared so many of our favourite wonderful creations such as trees, flowers, people, food, fish, mountains, the sea, the sun and the sky. We then sang one of our favourite songs about creation, 'If I were a butterfly' where we thanked God for all of his wonderful creations.
After school clubs- Autumn 1
Good morning parents and carers, here is a reminder about the after school clubs for this half term. Some of the clubs are nearly full but there are still places at several clubs. If your child will be attending a sports based club, they will need to bring sports clothes to wear and suitable trainers or football boots for football club. If the club is on their PE day, they can stay in their PE kit. A reminder that the children in Years 1 and 2 need to be collected from the circular infant yard at 3.20pm and children in Years 3-6 need to be collected from the circular infant yard at 3.30pm. If you give them permission to walk home, please message the club leader. A quick note that the performing arts club is for Year 6 at the moment to give them priority for the end of year production and to cast the main parts. However, if we have low numbers then it will be opened to older year groups.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our celebration worship by saying a huge well done to our value award winners this week for showing the Barney’s 4B’s, hitting the ground running in their new classes and always having a positive attitude to their learning. Well done Albie, Naomi, Walter, Daisy, Walter, Annabelle, Leonora and Seb. We then said a special well done to Whitehall Park this week who were our award winners this week, Reception and Year 5 for being the amazing attendance winners this week and Hamza, Harry and Daisy in Year 5 for gaining their pen licenses. We then moved on to say a huge congratulations to our out of school superstars. Well done to Alice for achieving 20m in her swimming, Alexis for achieving lots of badges at Rainbows, completing the Summer Reading Challenge and achieving 25m in her swimming, Carmen for completing the Summer Reading challenge and even reading an extra 9 books than she needed to, Renee for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Frankie for completing the Summer Reading challenge and achieving stage 2 in his swimming, Annabelle for being awarded a special badge for her keyboard playing, a Blue Peter Badge for her musical talent and and a ‘Swim England’ award and medal, Summer for being awarded 50m in her swimming, Elijah for achieving 100m in his swimming without armbands, Eliza for achieving 4 rosettes in her horse riding, Jack for achieving 5m, 10m and stage 3 in his swimming, Ruby for participating in a 2 week swim and lifeguard camp and achieving her level 1 and 2 in snorkelling and her bronze and silver awards at Brownies and Charlie for achieving his 5m at swimming. We ended our worship with a lovely prayer from Rev Ben and a singalong to ‘Our God is Great Big God.’ Thank you for all of your support this week and we wish you an enjoyable weekend.
Year 1 Art- Warm and cool colours
Year 1 have been exploring warm and cool colours in their Art lesson this week. They needed to explore a range of pictures and decide whether they were of a warm or cool landscape. They also had to use a colour wheel to select warm and cool colours to use in their sketchbooks. Over the next few weeks, they will continue to build up skills and knowledge to create a cold landscape.
Year 1 Maths
Year 1 have been counting forwards and backwards in their maths lessons this week. They have been completing unfinished sequences using their knowledge of counting forwards and backwards to help them. They have had to write the numbers as both numerals and as the written word. They have enjoyed playing true and false games such as, ‘Will I say the number 7 if I count forwards from 8?’ Or ‘Will I say the number 2 if I count backwards from 5?’ They have also had to solve problems such as, ‘What number will I not say if I’m counting forwards from 6?’ Or ‘What numbers will I say if I’m counting backwards from 2?’
Year 1- Be Internet Legends
Year 1 watched the ‘Back to School- Be Internet Legends Assembly.’ We learnt and discussed some very important ways of staying safe on the internet. We know that we should not share information such as our full name, the school we go to or where we live with anyone over the internet and that we should have a tricky password that is hard to guess when we are creating one.
Year 1- Lunch time on the MUGA.
We had our first session of this term on the MUGA on Tuesday and we had so much fun. We played lots of different games that worked on 2 of our fundamental skills, skipping and jumping.
Tuesday Collective Worship with Rev Matt
Rev Matt came to lead our worship and told us the story of Adam and Eve, and how God showed his generosity, staying with them even after they disobeyed his orders. We also discussed how we can show generosity this week.
Monday Collective Worship- God’s Big Plan
We started our worship by paying respect to all of the victims who lost their lives 22 years ago in the devastating 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. We lit a candle and said a prayer. Mrs Ham then reintroduced God’s Big Story to us and we looked at each concept and discussed what they mean: Creation (the beginning of the world), Fall (when people started to sin) , People of God (People in the Old Testament of the Bible), Incarnation (Jesus was sent to create peace on Earth), Gospel (spreading the good news of Jesus), Salvation (Jesus is crucified and appears as a spirit) and The Kingdom of God. We then watched a video which started with creation. We talked about our favourite things that God created. Rio said’ The sun and the moon to create light and dark,’ Sienna and Elliott said ‘The people’, Maliki said ‘The animals’ and Sonny said ‘The food.’ Followed by the Fall when people started to destroy the world. Then God gave us the People of God such as Moses and Abraham who were sent to teach us how to be good people. However, people didn’t listen so God sent Jesus to us in the flesh and this is what incarnation means. Bishop Philip explained that incarnation means that Jesus came as one of us, to share our life and so that we could share in his life and learn from his actions, stories and explanations. Bishop Philip then explained the definition of Salvation as Jesus coming to save us from a place of danger (the fall) by dying on the cross. As Jesus died on the cross and came back to life, he was our rescuer. He died for all of us brought us to a place of safety. We all look forward to learning more about God’s Big Plan in our collective worships and our RE lessons this academic year. Finally, we ended our worship by singing, ‘Our God is a Great Big God.’
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our first celebration of the year by reminding ourselves of our 4 B’s (Be ready, be kind, be respectful and be safe). We then talked about some highlights of the week including the production of the Jungle Book. We talked about our favourite parts. Daisy said, ‘When the lion fought the tiger and defeated him,’ and James said, ‘When Mowgli burnt the tiger's bottom off.’ We then celebrated the wonderful out of school achievements that our St Barnabas children have achieved over the summer holidays. We said well done to James for swimming 5m, Tristen for his red belt in kickboxing, Carter for being a fantastic fox at football and achieving stage 1 in his swimming, Eliza for being amazing at football and winning a football competition during the holidays and for wonderful horse riding, Poppy for running for Blackburn Harriers, Annabelle for being an amazing archaeologist, completing the summer reading challenge and achieving her stage 7 at swimming, Leonora for her super swimming, Grace for coming 3rd in her song and dance and completing the summer reading challenge, Jenson for achieving his 50m at swimming, Isaac for coming 4th in the British Championships in Derby for his BMX racing, Betsy for achieving the most points at Sports cool summer club for helping out with the younger children and always showing kindness, Finn for his trophy at football and achieving his 100m at swimming, Molly and Annabel for completing the summer reading challenge, Annabel for finding her brave and skydiving in the summer holidays with her brother and Renee for completing the summer reading challenge and achieving her stage 4 at swimming. We then congratulated Reception and Year 4 for being the amazing attendance winners this week and introduced Neve, Eden, Annabelle and Ella as our well-being warriors for this academic year. Finally we ended our worship with a beautiful prayer from Rev Ben and a sing along to ‘Shining From the Inside Out’ as a whole school. Thank you to those parents who could join us for celebration worship this week and we wish you all a lovely weekend when it arrives.
The Jungle Book
Years 1-6 have had an amazing morning watching The Jungle Book production. They joined in so well and were transfixed throughout. Our Year 6 children got to take part in a special workshop afterwards where they learnt about the different roles that are needed in a theatre production as they will be performing The Jungle Book at the end of the year. A huge thank you to our FOSB for their generous donation towards the cost of the production and a massive thank you to you all for supporting our FOSB events. Without your generosity we wouldn’t be able to provide these sort of memorable opportunities for our children, as our school budget is very tight. For all of the photos, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-gallery-category/our-gallery
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Celebration Worship Begins
Dear Parents and Carers, You're very welcome to join us for our first Celebration Worship of the year tomorrow morning at 9.05am. Our class teachers will be letting our children know how impressed they are with how well they have started the year. We have had a fantastic start so far and we are proud of all of the children. We have seen wonderful walking, legendary lining up and the children have been following our Barney's Brilliant Behaviour Be's (4B's)- Be ready, Be Kind, Be Safe and Be Respectful. As ever, if your child has an award from out of school, they are very welcome to bring it into school so we can present it to them on the golden podium. From next week our Heads and Deputies will be counting up the Values points from each class and the Values Winners will be awarded in Celebration Worship on Fridays. Parents will be informed on Wednesdays if their child is the values winner. However, you are all welcome to attend our Celebration Worship every week or whenever you are free.
Our First Week in Year 1
We have had a busy first week in Year 1. The children have been busy sorting objects into groups in maths, writing sentences to describe the penguin in the story of Lost and Found in English, creating self portraits using lots of different paper techniques such as folding, bending and fringing in art and completing lots of independent challenges in the areas. Well done Year 1.
Collective Worship with Rev Ben and Rev Matt
In worship today, Rev Ben got us all thinking about being creative and our greatest and most generous creator - God. We enjoyed watching two teams of children compete to create the best animal from just sticky tape and newspaper. We also reflected on how we can be generous with our creations in school this week.
Monday Collective Worship-Welcome Back to School
This morning, we all met for our first collective worship of the academic year and it was lovely to all be back together again after the summer holidays. First, we reminded ourselves of our vision, our Christian values and our British values. Then, Mrs Ham then introduced our four golden rules. These are: To be ready, to be kind, to be safe and to be respectful. We then discussed what these key phrases meant. Be Ready: Jack said having a smart uniform, Miles said looking at the speaker, Ella-Grace said being at school on time, Alice said being prepared with the correct equipment and Sonny said being ready and following instructions if the fire alarm goes off. Be Kind- Freddie said helping each other, Daisy said supporting others such as charities and refugees, Alice said encourage others to join in your games, Wilson and David said look after the environment such as not littering and making bug houses, Renee said sharing your toys and equipment. Be Safe- Chay said always staying where an adult is, Molly said keeping safe with our equipment such as walking with scissors upside down, Charlie Rose said walking to places within school and Jack said following the instructions of the teacher. Be respectful- Bella said let adults through the door first, Dougie said show respect towards the environment including animals, Darcy said do not talk over the teacher. Mrs Ham reminded us that we need to line up smartly so she wanted to see 'legendary lining up' and 'wonderful walking' around school by walking sensibly, smartly, safely, silently and smiling at the same time. Mrs Ham then explained our new behaviour system. All children will start every lesson on green (ready to learn) with the aim of moving up to yellow (time to shine) throughout the day for showing good behaviour , demonstrating our Christian values and a showing positive attitude to learning. However, there will also be pink which means time to think. If a child is not demonstrating a positive attitude to learning or making the right choices then they will be given two warnings. If the behaviour still persists after these warnings then the child will move to pink and will be asked to reflect on their behaviour by filling in a pink reflection sheet during their break time. We hope that this time to reflect will allow a child to move forward positively and make better choices. We are all looking forward to another super year at St Barnabas and are aiming to achieve great things through learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family!
Our First Day in Year 1
This morning, Year 1 did a treasure hunt in their classroom. They had to find out where all of the resources are kept so that they are able to get them out and put them back independently when they need them. They looked for things such as rulers, pencils, rubbers, whiteboards, whiteboard pens, whiteboard rubbers, tricky word mats, phonics mats, colouring pencils, construction straws, magnets and story books. Well done Year 1!
Back with our friends
We have had great fun in the sun with our friends. It’s been great to catch up and reconnect after the Summer holidays.
Legendary lining up
Today we showed Mrs Ham our legendary lining up after discussing our school rules this morning in Worship. We know that we need to line up sensibly and smartly to keep ourselves and others safe and to be ready to learn. We have also been showing our wonderful walking around school. Well done everyone!
First day back
We have had a fantastic first day back in school. Our teachers are so impressed with how well we have settled into our new classes and we have all been showing brilliant behaviour.
Year 6 Leavers Service
Congratulations to our amazing Year 6 class for being such superstars over the last seven years. It has been a privilege to have you as part of our school family and we are so immensely proud of you all. We wish you all the luck in the world as you all go off on your new adventure to high school and we know that you will achieve great things and shine from the inside out. I really hope today has made you realise how precious you are and that you from here with confidence. We also said thank you to our wonderful volunteers who support our school family so brilliantly. Thank you Carol, Fran and Glenda. We also said a huge thank you to Rev Ben. This time last year our WOW group interviewed Rev Ben and we have loved having him as part of our school family over the last few months. We sadly said thank you, good luck and goodbye to Miss Horsfall and Miss Wilkins, who have both been covering maternity leaves this year. They have been amazing and have fit right into our school family. We also said thank you and goodbye to Mrs Kay who is leaving her welfare role at the same time as her son leaves Year 6. Thanks for being a star Mrs Kay! We then said thank you to Miss Bentham who was with us short term and has secured a permanent role in another school closer to her home. Thanks Miss Bentham! Lastly but certainly not least, we said thank you, goodbye and good luck to Miss Ashworth, who has recently moved to Yorkshire. She has been an absolute star and we wish her all the luck in the world in her new school. We are sure she won’t miss the long commute to St Barnabas but we know that St Barnabas will always have a special place in her heart. Thank you so much to our parents and carers, you have been wonderful and we couldn’t do what we do without your support. On behalf of all of the staff I would like to thank you for your support, kind words and gifts. Finally, I would like to thank your truly amazing children for their huge smiles, enthusiasm and positivity. They have worked their socks off all year and it has been another brilliant year. I consider myself so lucky to lead such a wonderful school with the best staff team in the world, the most amazingly supportive parents and the most charismatic, delightful children who brighten up our days. Wishing you all a fabulous Summer holiday and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 4th September. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham
Year 1 Building Homes Jesus’ World, Our World
This week in our RE lessons we have been comparing the buildings Jesus would have lived in and around. We have built our own cuboid homes and made a year 1 village. We recognise that when Jesus was on Earth there was no electricity, houses were not made from bricks and they often had flat roofs and no glass in the windows.
Year 1 Maths Measuring in Minutes and Seconds
Yesterday Year 1 learnt how to use stopwatches and measured themselves doing different activities in partners. They really enjoyed seeing how many seconds or minutes and seconds activities took. They also did specific exercises for 1 minute to recognise how long this was.
Year 1 Maths Telling The Time To The Hour
Year 1 have used mini analogue clocks today to practice telling the time to the hour. They understand the different between the hour and the minute hand and that the minute hand must be at the 12 to be o’clock. They have completed other activities matching different analogue clocks to the correct times and drawing the hands on clocks to show different times too.
Year 1 English and Phonics: The Prefix ‘re’
Year 1 have been learning about the prefix ‘re’ through our Bug Club Phonics resources today and have written different words using this prefix. They understand that ‘re’ means to do again and have enjoyed spelling different words on the smart board today.
Year 1 DT Baby Bear’s Chair
Year 1 have been working really hard today to try and build a chair out of only card and masking tape for a teddy bear to sit on. They have been making nine cylinders and trying to connect them with masking tape to create a suitable and stable structure. They have shown great resilience and kindness towards each other when faced with this challenge. Well done Year 1!
End of Year Awards Ceremony
This morning we had a very special awards Worship to celebrate all the great achievements of our children and our school this year. Quinn received an award for being our planet protector by looking after our world and God’s planet in so many different ways, thank you for your contribution Quinn! We were so proud (and some of us a bit emotional!) to present Ezmae with the Sharon Kay award for always showing kindness and generosity to her peers, what a credit to the school! For our Progress awards, we said a huge congratulations to Lola, Bobby, Tilly, Charlie, Jacob, and Eddie, who have wowed us with their progress this year. We also had our Star of the year awards where Sophie, Ruby, Sofia, Arabelle and Frankie shone like the super stars they are. Our Children’s champion awards were chosen by each class to reiterate the importance of Democracy. Well done to Lyla, Scarlett, Ivy, Lily-May, Joshua and Mason, who have clearly impressed their peers! Finally, we had our Amazing attendance awards. We can never expect children to have 100% attendance as we all get poorly sometimes or have big events in our lives, so our school target for attendance is over 96%. So many of our children achieved this target, well done! Well done to all the award winners and all our other children in school who have shone in their own way this year. We hope they are all as proud of themselves as we are!
Year 1 DT Super Structures Part 1
This week in our design and technology lessons we have been looking at different 3D shapes and seeing which shape is the strongest. The children have enjoyed testing the shapes and finding out that the cylinder was the strongest shape because it has no corners. We then started a super structure in teams using card and masking tape.
Year 1 DT Super Structures Lesson 2
Year 1 have now finished their super structures in their second design and technology lesson using lots of cylinders. They are now ready to test the strength and stability of their finished structure.
Year 1 DT Testing our Super Structures
Year 1 have really enjoyed testing their super structures today with heavy objects and celebrating their successes as a team.
Year 1 Brockholes Nature Reserve Trip
Year 1 have had an amazing time on their school trip at Brockholes Nature Reserve this week. They went pond dipping, bird watching and went on an amazing outdoor adventure playground in two smaller groups. Then after lunch in the lookout together, the whole class went into the Viking Woods to learn about different types of plants and trees. We played lots of games and went on a scavenger hunt too. It was an amazing day and we all absolutely loved learning about nature in such an exciting and fun way.
Year 1 Pond dipping at Brockholes
Year 1 were in three different groups to carry out this super activity at Brockholes Nature Reserve on their trip. They found different types of interesting creatures such as water snails, beetles, bugs, shrimps and nymphs when participating in the pond dipping activities. They used a classification sheet to help them identify creatures and magnifying glasses too as some creatures were very small.
Year 1 Brockholes Adventure Playground PE on our School Trip
Year 1 really enjoyed doing PE within the different areas of the outdoor adventure playground at Brockholes Nature Reserve whilst on their trip this week. They had to climb, run, swing, push, pull, hang, hold on and balance on different equipment. A super time was had by everyone!
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, Mrs Ham started by praising all of our children for their courage and positivity during our whole school transition day yesterday. All of the teachers were super impressed with the creativity, attitude to learning, behaviour and manners that all of the children showed in their new year groups. We then said well done to our Reception and KS1 value award winners who were Connie, Bobby-Ray, Jack and Eliza and our KS2 value award winners who were Edward, Alice, Oscar and Freya. We said a huge well done to our High 5 netball team who represented BwD at the Lancashire School Games at Stanley Park on Tuesday and got through to the quarter final. We also celebrated lots of out of schools sports award winners. Well done to Ruby and Archie for entering and competing the Iron Kids Competition, Daisy for being a fantastic gymnast, Lyla and Sofia for their ‘Going Places’ dancing trophy and Sofia for being outstanding at Musical Theatre, Eliza for demonstrating wonderful football skills, Isaac for his ‘potential and success in the arts’ trophy, Peyton and Cassidy for being superstars at rainbows, Summer for achieving stage 6 at swimming and level 2 at gymnastics and Grace for wonderful improvement in her ballet, a gold award in jazz and being the overall classical dancer of the year. We congratulated Reception and Year 6 for being the attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park for being the Value Award House Point Winners this week. Lastly, we heard some beautiful prayers from Hamza, Sofia and Jack and sang Sing a New Song to the Lord. Thank you to the those who could join us for celebration worship this week and we wish you all an enjoyable weekend.
Year 1- Golden time
We’ve had a brilliant time in golden time this afternoon. We played with water, chalk and paint to create some beautiful mark making in our outdoor area. We played with cars, bricks and action figures. We’ve all had a lovely afternoon! ☀️
Whole School Collective Worship- Archdeacon David
This morning in worship, we welcomed Archdeacon David who visited our school to lead collective worship. Archdeacon David asked us what we think it means when we say that Jesus is the light of the world. We had responses such as it means that Jesus leads us and guides us in the right way, that Jesus lights up the world and makes it a nicer place for us all to live and Jesus is the light of the world by encouraging us to be peaceful, respectful and kind. Archdeacon David told us that we also have the special power of being the light of the world too. He reminded us that Jesus said, ‘When I go back to heaven, I will leave you a special thing called the holy spirit. I want you to shine as a light in the world to make the world a better place.’ Archdeacon David left us to reflect on how we can achieve this. He said that next time he visits, he will give us the opportunity to tell him how we have been shining as a light in the world just as Jesus does and asks us to do. We finished our worship by singing 'Shine from the Inside out'.
Year 1-2 Transition day
What an AMAZING day we have had getting ready to move into our new Year 2 class. Year 1 have worked so hard making our own “all about me” poster so Mr Norris can learn even more about them. All the children showed off their amazing writing! Everyone in our class was so excited to show Mr Norris around our school and even more excited to show him where we get to play on the trim trail and MUGA. We can’t wait to welcome you all back through the year 2 door in September for our new journey!
Monday Worship: St Barnabas and St Paul and Welcome to Rev Matt
Today, Rev Ben led our worship and we welcomed Rev Matt who will be working at St Barnabas Church too. We began our worship by thinking about a time where something happened to us and where we couldn’t wait to tell others about it. Amelia couldn’t wait to tell others when her Mum had a baby. Mason couldn’t wait to tell others that he had been on the television! We thought about how St Barnabas and St Paul were generous about the message about Jesus and how they told Jesus’ story to people for the first time. Rev Ben shared a video with the children about their story. On Saturday, Matt became Rev Matt and was ordained at Blackburn Cathedral. Rev Matt wanted to become a vicar because he wanted to spread the word of Jesus and to find out more about Jesus. Rev Matt spent three years at vicar school. He said he was most excited to learn more and for the children to learn with him. We gave Rev Matt a huge St Barnabas welcome. We ended our worship by singing ‘story of the cross’.
Year 1 Science Investigating Smells
Year 1 have been learning about the different human senses in science and this week we were focussing on smell and describing what different items smelt like. The children really enjoyed investigating what nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, lemon, coffee and some other different dried herbs smelt like. They recorded the information from our investigation in a table using adjectives to describe the different smells.
Year 1 DT Exploring Stability
Year 1 used playdough, card and rulers to measure the stability of different 3D shapes in partners during their DT lesson today. They looked at spheres, cubes, pyramids and cuboids and tried to measure the height at which these objects would roll down a piece of card. We compared the results in class and they were then set a challenge to create a small standing structure using the playdough and the knowledge of the 3D shapes they had investigated.
Friday Celebration Worship
Wow! We have had another week with lots to celebrate both in and out of school. The Rotary Club came in to praise and thank our year 5 children for their contribution to the community, their school and the wider world. They were presented with a certificate for all of their fundraising for our school and supporting a number of charities this year including Cancer Research, The Teddy Trust and DARE (Darwen Asylum Seeker and Refugee Enterprise). They also raised money for Turkey, Nigeria and Ukraine. Well done Year 5! Also a huge well done to our value award winners this week who have been working hard across the curriculum and demonstrating a wonderful attitude to learning. These were Mila, Piper-Jo, Lennox and Carter in the infants and KS1 and Ruby, Daniel, Freddy, Isaac, Harlow and Louie in the Juniors. We also celebrated lots of in school sporting success. Our Year 5/6 boys and girls gymnasts for attending a competition as two separate teams at St Bedes High School on Tuesday. They were amazing! Our Year 5/6 cricket team who came 3rd overall at a recent cricket competition, our Year 6 tennis team who came 1st overall, the Year 4 football team who took part in a festival and won every game and the Year 3/4 and Y5/6 DPSSA cross country team for their determination and courage and coming 2nd place overall. We also congratulated our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Ella-Grace for trying her absolute best and getting Star of the Week during her football training and competition, Isabella and Charlie for getting their orange belts at martial arts, Carter for getting the Fantastic Fox of the day at football, Lyla for gaining level 1 in her tap dancing, Jenson for completing his stage 6 at swimming, Marley for her kindness at rainbows, Olivia for getting the managers player of the year trophy at football, Isaac for his trophy for demonstrating fantastic football skills, Charlie Rose for being a superstar gymnast and Ivy for being a superstar cheerleader, Georgie for taking part in her first competition for dancing, Harriet for completing her 10m in butterfly and 10m in breaststroke, Eliza for getting to the finals of her football competition at the weekend and Eva, Katie, Sadie and Charlotte for coming 1st place in their recent football tournament. We said a final well done to Reception and Year 3 for winning the amazing attendance this week and India Mill for achieving the Value Award Points Winners this week. Thank you to our parents and grandparents that could attend and we wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Forest school week 3
We had lots of fun this week in our Forest School Club, we put up a shelter, continued to build our den and we also used some special tools. We spoke about how to use outdoor tools safely and what they can be used for, including using sticks to make tent pegs!
Year 1 History Walk in Darwen High Street
Year 1 have really enjoyed walking around Darwen High Street identifying different types of shops and finding out which type of shops used to be around many years ago. With the help of an expert from the Darwen Heritage Centre, they were shown different places that used to be bakers, butchers, grocery stores, pharmacies, shoe shops or different types of clothes shops (such as hat shops). They also walked through Darwen Market Place and found some placards explaining which shops used to exist in the 1800s.
Year 1 Local History Lesson in Darwen Heritage Centre
Year 1 had a super history lesson learning about the changes that have happened within Darwen Town Centre in the past couple of centuries. Our expert (Albert) from the Darwen Heritage centre showed the children a range of different historical images and photographs of the town centre many years ago and was able to explain what is in place of them geographically today. The children couldn’t believe that a few live bears and their keepers roamed the streets of Darwen for entertainment purposes years ago, or that the butchers hung their meat outside their shops! They got to handle and see artefacts including olden day money and a wooden cash register too.
Year 1 History Challenge in the Darwen Heritage Centre
After their super history lesson at the Darwen Heritage Centre, Year 1 were challenged to find the words for different types of shops around the two rooms inside the centre and also the corridor linking them. They were looking for these particular words: baker, boots & shoes, butcher, chemist and clothes. They had to tick how many words they could find on a worksheet. The exact amount of shops in Darwen from the olden days had been put around the rooms. The children found that they all had the most ticks for the clothes shops. They also really enjoyed looking at the giant models of Darwen Tower and all the unique historical artefacts that the heritage centre has within in.
Year 1 Maths Using Tens and Ones to Make Numbers to 100
Year 1 have been making different 2 digit numbers up to 100 using dienes to help them identify how many tens and ones there are within the numbers. They have worked in pairs to create numbers and then made their own numbers so they can compare them too. Tomorrow they will look at one more and one less than any number up to 100.
Summer Reading Challenge
This morning, Angela from Blackburn and Darwen library service, came to talk to us all about an exciting Summer reading challenge and the wonderful prizes that can be won for reading 6 books over the holidays. Dear Parent / Carer, Your child has been invited to join Ready, Set, Read! the Summer Reading Challenge 2023. This is a national library reading game, which will introduce your child to the joy of reading for pleasure and help to develop his/her literacy skills throughout the summer holidays. Once enrolled each member reads 6 library books (or eBooks / eAudio), with stickers or a prize awarded for each book that is read and returned. Those who complete the scheme will receive a medal and a certificate. To enrol, simply come to your nearest Blackburn with Darwen library and complete an application form between 1st July & 30th September. Your nearest library is: Darwen Library, Knott St, Darwen, BB3 3BU. Website & map: www.blackburn.gov.uk/libraries/libraries-blackburn-darwen/blackburn-central-library Enrolment in the scheme is free of charge, and involves children borrowing books on a library card. If your child does not yet have a library card, we would encourage you to take this opportunity to enrol them as a library member. This is a quick process, and you will simply be asked to complete and sign another form. However, those children without library cards may still join the Summer Reading Challenge, and temporary arrangements will be put in place to allow them to borrow books. We look forward to welcoming you and your family to our libraries during the summer. Yours faithfully, Adele Karwat, Service Manager: Libraries & Archives
Year 1 Visit to St Barnabas Church
Today Year 1 went to St Barnabas Church as part of their RE unit: Our world, Jesus’ World. Rev Ben helped us to learn more about Jesus’ world and let us think and discuss how it is different living on Earth today compared to when Jesus was alive. The children really enjoyed listening to the story of the prodigal son and either watching others act out the story or being actors and actresses themselves. They looked for images of Jesus within the church and we looked at the clothes and signs of different lifestyles people would have had back then. Year 1 have certainly enjoyed having their RE lesson with Rev Ben in church today.
W.O.W. Group - Messy Parables - The Mustard Seed
Last week was the W.O.W. group’s first Messy Parables session. We read the Parable of the Mustard Seed, talked about how one little thought or belief can grow into something great, and made our own self-belief badges. All in all, a brilliant first session, with a few biscuits thrown in for good measure. This week, the parable is The Unforgiving Servant.
Year 1 Handwriting
Year 1 are working very hard to improve their cursive handwriting. We are very proud of you Year 1. Keep up the amazing work and concentration.
EYFS and KS1 Sports Day 2023
This morning, EYFS and KS1 classes competed in our annual sports day competition. The races included egg and spoon, sprint, sack race and an obstacle race. The children were fantastic at showing resilience and they were great supporters for their friends, cheering each other on and clapping! Each race winner received a medal and all children cooled off with an ice pop at the end as a treat. Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended and supported, it was a brilliant morning!
Whole School Multiplex Movie Night-
We would like to take this opportunity to thank parents, carers and staff for your incredible support and enthusiasm during our recent movie night. We are thrilled to inform you that our dedicated Rotakids, along with our smart school councillors, have fulfilled their promise and successfully completed their final project. Through their combined efforts and hard work, organising a successful multiplex movie night, together we have managed to raise an impressive sum of £580.60 after the cost of food! This significant amount will contribute towards the school minibus, which will greatly benefit our students by facilitating transportation to sports events, competitions, and other important activities. This achievement is a testament to the incredible community we have at our school. Your dedication and willingness to contribute have made a significant impact on our fundraising efforts. Together, we have not only created a memorable and enjoyable event but also managed to raise much-needed funds.
Year 1 Class Worship- World Refugee Day
On World Refugee Day, we watched an assembly held by World Vision who allowed us to learn about the lives of refugees and how we can support them. We listened to some refugees from a camp in Jordan who had to flee from Syria. Despite having to leave their homes, they remain very positive and grateful for having a safe place to grow up within the refugee camp. We heard from Seedra, a Syrian refugee, who told us about a typical day for her at the refugee camp. Similar to us, she goes to school, learns to speak English, plays with her friends and then returns home to do her homework and watch some TV. Charities such as World Vision have allowed her to be able to do this and they are very thankful for charities such as this. We were very inspired by Seedra as she continues to hold on to her hope and dream for the future of being a doctor and study hard to achieve this even though she has had a lot of upset in her life. We ended our worship with some beautiful prayers. We prayed to end war in places such as Syria and Ukraine, to keep refugees safe in refugee camps and to thank people for giving things such as clothes, food and toys to help give refugees a better life.
KS1 Forest schools- Week 2
What fun we have all had in Forest school this week! We walked up to Jacks Key, gathering sticks, leaves and grass as we went. Once we found a nice sheltered area the children started to create their nature pictures and faces. Once our art was finished we explored, climbed trees, jumped into lovely mud and washed our wellies in puddles.
Monday Collective Worship with Rev Ben
This morning, Rev Ben led our Monday Collective Worship. Our theme for this worship was St Barnabas and his generosity. We started off by playing a game called, ‘Guess the Value.’ We had two teams at the front who had to guess the price of various items such as a tin of beans, a playstation 5, a loaf of bread, a car and Harry Kane. The audience then had to say whether they thought that the cost was higher or lower. This gave us all an insight into the value of various items, big and small. We learnt that all the first Christians were generous but St Barnabas was especially generous. He owned a field and sold this to give to the church and therefore to other people. He did this because he wanted to do as Jesus had done and give to others. Rev Ben asked us how we could be generous just as St Barnabas was. We said that we can give something that we don’t want or use anymore to charity such as clothes and toys, do a sponsored walk, run or a bake sale to raise money for charity or buy an extra item when we go shopping to give to someone less fortunate. Generosity is one of the fruits of the spirit so this is the song that we sang to end our worship.
Year 1 English- Collecting Adjectives and Writing Noun Phrases
Year 1 watched the Literacy Shed clip ‘Something Fishy,’ and collected adjectives to describe some of the sea creatures. They described the fish as bright, luminous, stripy, sock-like, boomerang-like, small and fast, the shark as evil, scary, frightening, humongous, large, hungry, ravenous, starving, creepy, angry, nasty, unkind, terrifying, powerful, strong and dark blue and they they described the octopus as springy, bouncy, t-shirt like, bunny-like, kangaroo-like, light blue, stripy, spotty and long legged. Then they chose their two favourite adjectives to write a noun phrase. Well done Year 1.
Friday Celebration Worship
Wow! What a busy first week back into our final half term of this academic year. Our theme this week has been encouragement and Mrs Ham asked us to reflect on how we have encouraged each other this week, and how we will continue to focus on this as we enjoy the last few weeks of the school year and support each other as we transition into our new year groups and up to high school for our Year 6 class. We had lots of out of school stars to celebrate this week. Well done to Ella-Grace, Ivy, Leo, Olivia, Sonny, Charlie and Jack and Desmond for their wonderful football skills, Jake, Will, Bobby and Austin for coming runners up in a football tournament in St Anne’s, Manni and Bobby for their attendance and skill at a recent football tournament, Matthew for his recent success in the Premier League writing competition, Harry for his swimming and cricket success, Lyla for her musical theatre singing performance, Isaac for his piano playing, Iris and Leonora for being fabulous gymnasts, Finn and Ruby for running the race for life and Ruby for also completing the couch to 5k, Grace for performing on the main stage at Darwen Music Live, Mila for showing kindness at Rainbows and Mason for his sensational kickboxing. We also celebrated lots of success in school. As always, we heard from our teachers who presented their Value Award Winners. Well done to Eve, Isabella, Miley, Euan, Ruby, Charlie, Katie and Elsa. We also said a huge well done to our group of our Year 4 children who attended a Quad Kids competition and came second place out of 17, our Year 5/6 cricket team for excellent participation and sportsmanship on Wednesday, our Year 5/6 Netball team who came 2nd place out of all the schools in BwD, Reception class and Year 6 for the best attendance this week, India Mill for being the award winners this week and to Lola, Jake, Esme, Harry, Mathew, Daisy, Freddie and Bobby for gaining their pen licenses. We ended our worship with some lovely singing and dancing to ‘Build Up.’ What wonderful way to end the week!
Latest Newsletter
Good afternoon parents and carers, we have had a super busy week back at St Barnabas. Please see our newsletter for a round up of last half term and photos of our teaching teams for September here. A huge thank you to our FOSB for the wonderful Father’s Day Breakfast on Tuesday and to all of the Dads and Grandads who came along. Thanks also to the Dads and Grandads who came along to the special Reception class Father’s Day Celebration this afternoon. It was lovely to see you all and the children loved telling you why they love you and enjoyed playing with you in their outdoor area. We wish all of our Dads and Grandads in our school family a lovely Father’s Day on Sunday! We have had a very busy week of sports with our Year 3/4 quad kids team coming 2nd out of 17 schools, our year 5/6 cricket team just missing out on the final and our netball team came 2nd in the Darwen netball league. Well done to you all and a huge thank you to Mrs Gardner and Mr Bloomfield for supporting the children and thanks to parents who supported. Next week we are looking forward to our Sports Day on Friday morning. You are very welcome to come along to show your support and encourage your child. Reception class and Year 2 had great fun at Blackpool Zoo on Tuesday. For all of the photos, please click here. For all the class news from this week, please click here. For all the upcoming events, click here. Thank you so much for your generous bottle donations for our FOSB Summer Fayre. We really appreciate your support. Wishing you all a fabulous weekend and thank you for your continued support, Mrs Ham
Year 1 Maths Position and Direction: Turns
Year 1 have been learning about positions and directions this week in their maths lessons. On Tuesday they practised full turns, quarter turns, half turns and three quarter turns outside. The children then looked at turning different shapes using these different turns in their maths books.
Year 1 Phonics Revision
This week, Year 1 have been working really hard to revise their sounds during phonics lessons through a selection of activities including alien and real word games. We have looked at different graphemes that make the same sound and how to read and write these words too. They have completed their Year 1 phonics quizzes and we are very proud of them and how well they have done.
Forest school
Today during our Forest school club we have had so much fun exploring our Forest school area, adding to the existing dens and decorating them. The children also played games and climbed trees. We tried to keep the children in the shade as much as possible, we also had regular drink and fresh fruit breaks. We’re already looking forward to next week!
Whole School Worship: Encouragement
This morning in worship, we started with an encouragement song with the lyrics 'we all need encouragement, like the air that we breath'. Mrs Ham explained that yesterday was St Barnabas day and he was known as a great encourager. She then reminded us of how we have a special connection with St Paul's in Hoddlesden as we share our vicar, Rev Ben with and how St Barnabas and St Paul had a special connection in the Bible too. We then learnt about how St Paul became a follower of Jesus with the encouragement of his friend, St Barnabas. We then discussed how we can all show courage like St Paul and encourage each other like St Barnabas in the many upcoming events such as sports day, transition days, end of year assessments and productions. We are looking forward to learning more about St Barnabas and St Paul from Rev Ben in his worships over the next few weeks.
Celebration Worship
This week during celebration worship we discussed and reflected over the week of Pentecost. The children enjoyed listening to what each class has been doing over the week and celebrated their achievements and successes during the week. We also had a visit from one of our Cidari Trustees, Jo Venn and it was lovely to show her the great things we have been achieving. A huge well done to all of our values award winners, you are a credit to yourselves and our St Barnabas family.
Sports Stars
A huge congratulations to all of our sports stars this week. Many children participate in a variety of sports and events outside of school. A massive well done to our school's netball team who won the high 5’s netball final this week and our cross country team who worked extremely hard and showed huge amounts of determination to complete the course. Other sporting achievements included, gymnastics, dancing, performing arts, skiing and many more.
Year 1 Geography and Science Walk
Year 1 have been learning about their local area and have been making key observations about where they live ready to create a map of the local area after the half term. We have been learning about different types of plants in science and spotting different deciduous and evergreen trees as well as wild flowers. There has also been lots of opportunities to discuss the changes from Winter to Spring and to think about the changes that will be happening soon as we move from Spring to Summer.
Whole School Worship: Pentecost
Today in our worship we learned about the events of Pentecost and how the church began. We had some fab actors acting out when the Holy Spirit descended and flames appeared on the disciples’ heads. We sang a special song to welcome the Holy Spirit into our Worship and reflected on how excited the disciples must have felt when they received the Holy Spirit. We thought about how we could show Jesus' love through our words and actions this week.
Year 1 Art Clarice Cliff Plates
Year 1 created their own version of Clarice Cliff’s famous pottery plate design using primary and secondary colours. They mixed their own colours and then used black watery paint and a straw to blow the paint into the shape of a tree as a silhouette against the other coloured concentric circles on their paper plates.
Year 1 Athletics
Year 1 have been working hard on their running technique ready for sports day next half term and also practised throwing the foam javelins using a straight aim during their PE lesson on Friday.
Celebration Worship
In Celebration Worship this morning, Mrs. Ham highlighted some of the wonderful key points from our GOOD Ofsted report and thanked everyone for their part in making our school a great place. We also celebrated our values winners across KS1 and KS2. India Mill came first place for the overall points of 562. Lucy and Mason received a pen licence for demonstrating an excellent standard of writing across all subjects. Mrs. Ham gave out awards to the children for taking part in extracurricular activities, this week, the children have taken part in swimming, rugby, darts, karate, brownies, gymnastic, netball, football, horse riding, and Olivia from Rainbow. Year 2 and Year 4 received the 'Amazing Attendance' alert this week. We finished our worship with prayers led by Mrs. Ham and we sang 'Shine from the Inside Out'.
Mad Science Club
Today was the last session of Mad Science Club and the children all really enjoyed learning about the density of different liquids today. They carried out group experiments and watched our science expert carry out an experiment too, whilst learning about how different liquids in our seas and rivers can affect the environment. They experienced first-hand, how difficult it is to get oil out of water and got to take home a little souvenir from the lesson at the end of it too.
Year 1- lunch time MUGA session.
We fit lots of fun activities into our MUGA session today.
Year 1 Colour Mixing
Year 1 have been using two primary colours and making different shades of a secondary colour through experimentation. They have really enjoy making different shades of orange and purple using different amounts of the primary colours.
Year 1 Human and Physical Features in our Local Area
Year 1 have been exploring our local area and finding different human and physical features in their house colour teams. Their team leaders have recorded this information as we have walked around our local area. We also got the opportunity to talk about the seasonal changes happening from Spring to Summer and identified different wild flowers that we have been learning about within our plants science topic.
Year 1-Adjectives and nouns
Year 1 have been exploring adjectives and nouns. They watched the Literacy Shed clip ‘Marshmallow’ and listed some of the features of the monster such as eyes, tentacles, teeth, horns and ears. We talked about how these are nouns. They then described the features using adjectives. They then went on to create their own monster and described the monster’s features using adjectives. We had stripy bodies, sharp and pointy teeth, shark like teeth, pencil like teeth, razor sharp teeth, comfy fur, soft, multicoloured fur, bulging, yellow eyes, bright red eyes, a bumpy tail and bendy tentacles. They tried to use two adjectives and separated them with a comma. Well done Year 1.
Year 1- When should I use a capital letter?
Year 1 have been learning when to use capital letters. As well as using them at the start of a sentence, Year 1 have been learning that capital letters are needed for the names of people, places, days of the week and the personal pronoun, ‘I’. First, they corrected some sentences to make sure that they included capital letters correctly and then they went on to create some of their own sentences using capital letters. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 Art Colour Mixing
Year 1 have been learning about the primary colours and how to mix them to make secondary colours. We then mixed the three secondary colours to make the colour brown and painting trees using all of the colours.
Year 1 Bug Club Phonics
Year 1 have been using chrome books to log onto Bug Club Phonics and complete different activities linked to the sounds and tricky words they have been learning in class.
Year 1 Writing a Short Narrative
This week we have finished writing our short narrative for the ‘Dogs Don’t Do Ballet’ story and the children have used images to help them structure their sentences. They have been saying it out loud first and tried hard to use the correct punctuation at the beginning and end of their sentences.
Year 1 RE Baptism pictures
Year 1 have been drawing and painting their own version of a baptism or christening as part of our current RE topic. They have included a child being christened, the vicar, godparents, family and friends.
Year 1- Mock Baptism
This afternoon, Rev Ben welcomed us into St Barnabas Church to experience a baptism first hand. Rev Ben baptised baby Ben Barnabas and made the parents, godparents and other guests make promises to look after Ben and teach her to be kind and respectful. We also made a promise to be good role models to her. Rev Ben showed us the font and blessed Ben with the water to symbolise that he had been baptised. Rev Ben told us that it isn’t only babies that get baptised but you can in fact be baptised at any age. Rev Ben also showed us the baptism candle which represents the light of God and the bible you get given when you’ve been baptised. We said thank you to Rev Ben for showing us what happens at a baptism and making us feel so welcome. We then went back to school and had a little party to celebrate Bens baptism. We enjoyed a drink of juice, a cake and played some fun party games.
Mental Health Parent Webinars
The week commencing 15th May is ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’. After much success of hosting some parent webinars back in February for ‘Children’s Mental Health Week’, the Mental Health Support Teams are rolling out some more. The topics for the week will be: My anxious child Helping with exam stress Psychoeducation around worry They’ll take place at 10am and 6pm, Monday 15th to Thursday 18th May and it’s for parents, teachers, carers, children and young people, in fact anyone can join.
Celebration Worship: King Charles III
This morning during celebration worship, we learnt all about the coronation of King Charles III, which will be happening this weekend. We spoke about some of the important things to look out for during the coronation and what it will be like when King Charles is coronated. We also spoke about some of the celebrations that are happening in Darwen this weekend, such as a street party on Monday in the town centre and a party in Whitehall Park on Sunday! We also celebrated all of our successes and achievements in school this week, such as TriKidz and our coronation picnic lunch! We finished our Worship by singing the National Anthem to the new King whilst waving our special coronation flags that our school have bought us. Our Trust have also bought us some special gifts of a commemorative coronation coin, a bookmark and sticker. Thank you Cidari Multi Academy Trust!
Year 1- The Coronation photo booth!
We had a super worship this morning all about the King's Coronation followed lots of activities linked to the Coronation. Wishing you all a super weekend celebrating!
Year 1- Trikidz
Year 1 have all tried their hardest in our TriKidz triathlon challenge. We are so proud of them all for trying hard in every section. They loved cheering on Miss Wilkins when she went head to head with Mr Bloomfield.
Year 1- Handwriting Heroes
Year 1 have been trying so hard with their handwriting as it is difficult to form cursive letters. We can see so much improvement. Well done Year 1!
Year 1- Coronation PE activities
We’ve played lots of games in P.E. linked to the King’s Coronation on Saturday. We had so much fun!
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Celebration Worship- Whole School
Another amazing week from everyone. We celebrated amazing attendance awards, awards for extra curricular activities such as; rugby, swimming, beavers and to Oscar for his dedication and outstanding commitment to piano lessons. Isaac was celebrated for receiving a distinction in playing the cornet from Trinity College London. The class teachers gave out value awards to the children that have worked their socks off in and out the classroom and have demonstrated our Christian Values. Whitehall Park received the most value points which put them in first place.Well done! The Year 4 class received the 'National Outdoor Learning Award' for being brave and showing great teamwork at Anderton Centre. The attendance award this week went to the Reception class and Year 4. We ended worship by singing the butterfly song and prayers led by James, Darcy, Luca and Mrs Ham. What a fabulous week. Well done everyone!
Year 1 Planting Seeds
This afternoon, with the help of one of our year 5 science club team, Year 1 planted four different types of seed as part of our science curriculum where we are learning about different plants. We bought these seeds from the garden centre we visited last half term and now we are going to be able to water them regularly and watch them grow. Hopefully in a few weeks we will have some runner beans, tomatoes, cornflowers and sunflowers. We can’t wait to see what happens.
Mad Science Club Forces
Today Mad Science Club were learning about forces with Scientific Sarah. The children got to investigate forces using different equipment such as metal spinning tops and large coin machine spinners. They have really enjoyed themselves and can’t wait for next week!
Year 1- French
In French we’ve learnt all about colours, animals and the names of fruit. This week we learnt how to say “I like” and “I don’t like”. We were so impressed that we can now say a sentence in French.
Year 1- Internet safety.
This week in computing year 1 have looked at how to stay safe when playing or using the Internet. We looked which information is safe to share online and we also looked at what types of passwords would be classed as safe.
Year 1- Hop, skip and jump!
Year 1 took part in the hop, skip and jump challenge in order to help raise money for the East Lancashire Hospice, which the children have been learning about today during their class worship. They have really enjoyed the activity and wearing their Easter crowns!
Year 1 Counting in tens
This week we are starting to look at multiplication by counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. The children have been using number squares to help them count forwards and backwards in tens from different multiples of ten.
Latest Newsletter
Good morning from a very sunny St Barnabas, please find attached the latest newsletter with upcoming dates and events. The sporting news and visits and visitors can be found here as the files are too large to load onto class dojo sorry. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/newsletters A quick reminder of the dates that school is closed in the coming weeks. They are all on our website and class dojo events. Monday 1st May- May Bank Holiday Thursday 4th May- School used as a Polling Station Monday 8th May- King's Coronation Bank Holiday Red, white and blue day is next Wednesday 3rd May to celebrate the King's Coronation. The children will be having a special Coronation Afternoon Tea Picnic. Further details of the menu will be sent shortly. Wishing you all a lovely day, Mrs Ham
Charlotte from Elektec visit: EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2
Charlotte from Elektec came to visit Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 today. The children watched a video to show how electricity is made. The children found out how electricity is made in a power station and the pylons help to carry the electricity to our houses. Charlotte asked the children what happens if you touch electricity. James said that you could get electrocuted which is absolutely right. Charlotte showed a photograph and the children had to guess what it was. Well done to Eliza who explained they are solar panels. Charlotte explained how they work and how sunlight heats the solar panels to make electricity. Charlotte also showed an electric car and showed a charging point. Charlotte explained that we will need to have a lot of electricians to help install the charging points and solar panels. Charlotte explained that Elektec is managed by herself and her husband. Charlotte and Carl’s children also work for the company and create videos. Charlotte shared a video of her Electots explaining what their company does. The Prince’s trust has helped set the company up and Charlotte has even met the king! Tristen, Sofia, Ella-Grace and Harry helped Charlotte to show how electricians keep safe. Glasses protect our eyes, a hard hat protects our head, a high vis jacket is worn so that everybody can see the electrician and a warning sign is used when an electrician is working on site to keep everybody safe. Charlotte showed a picture of the electricians that work in her company who are all men! This makes Charlotte sad and she explained to the children that girls can be just as good as boys and girls can be electricians too. Charlotte explained that to be an electrician you have to be good at Maths, be friendly, be good at puzzles, be able to follow the rules and be able to stay safe. Charlotte discussed what construction meant and she showed how a new house is built and the people who are involved from architects to decorators. Again, there aren’t many girls who work in construction. Charlotte shared her book called ‘When I grow up’ which explains how you can be anything that you want to be. Thank you so much to Charlotte for visiting, we had a wonderful time and left feeling inspired.
Year 1 Lego printing
Year 1 have been exploring different ways of creating patterns and using different colours when printing. They have painted Lego blocks using poster paint and printed different patterns in different colours.
Amazing Attendance Winners : Spring Term
Well done to all of our children who have attained 96% attendance in Spring Term. We are really proud of you all!
Year 1- fruit and yogurt pots in D.T.
After food tasting and designing our yogurt pots today was the day we got to make them and eat them! We’ve had such an great time making them and an even better time eating them!
Year 1- Fruit and yogurt pots.
After food tasting and designing our yogurt pots today was the day we got to make them and eat them! We’ve had such an great time making them and a even better time eating them!
Year 1- Easter egg hunt.
All of year 1 had so much fun taking part in the Easter egg hunt today!
Whole School Worship with Rev Ben
Today in Worship, Rev Ben spoke about the awe and wonder in the events of Easter Sunday. He asked us about how the resurrection changed Mary Magdalene’s life and how the Easter story may make a difference in our lives.
Easter Artwork in Whitehall Park
The children have all been learning about Easter in RE. As part of their learning, they have created some Easter artwork which is displayed in Whitehall park. It will be displayed over the holidays so it is a great opportunity for you to visit with your family.
Year 1 Planning Recounts
Today Year 1 were planning their recounts ready to write tomorrow. They have chosen a special celebration to write about and many children had photos of their special event to help them plan their recount. We planned an example about a birthday party together before the children went off to carry out their own plans in their books.
Celebration Worship Sports Stars
A huge well done to all of our sports stars who were presented with awards in Celebration Worship this morning. This week Mrs Ham presented awards for the following out of school sports or activities and the children got to stand on the golden podium with pride: Swimming, gymnastics, orienteering, dancing, writing, rainbow badges and the beaver and rainbow of the week. We congratulated our cross country team for their courage and determination at last night's Darwen Cross Country Competition. We thanked our Year 6 Sports Leaders for their successful KS2 inter-house sports competition yesterday as they planned and led it all.
Celebration Worship
Celebrating all of our amazing children in their year groups who received the most value points this week. A special well done to: Reception - Whole class Year 1 - Chay Year 2 - Whole Class Year 3 - Luca Year 4 - Grace Year 5 - Alfie Year 6 - Kaylen Well done to the Reception class who had 100% attendance this week so were the amazing attendance winners along with Year 6! Whitehall Park were out values points winners this week. Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who joined us.
Year 1 DT Healthy and unhealthy foods Walk to Sainsburys
Today Year 1 walked to a local supermarket to look at different types of foods that are unhealthy and healthy for breakfast. In design and technology lessons we are looking at different types of breakfast foods and where foods come from. The children enjoyed finding different types of food in the aisles in Sainsburys and seeing the variation of products on offer. They had a super walk in their wellies where we got a better look at India Mill chimney and even got to go down the slide in the park on the way home too.
Whole School Assembly - Dogs Trust
Today’s assembly was led by Andrew from the dogs trust charity and his mascot ‘Duggie’. Andrew started the assembly by asking the children if they knew what the charity does, the children were keen to answer and said “it’s a charity for dogs who aren’t looked after properly.” Andrew explained that the trust takes in dogs who’s owners can no longer look after them, he said they then re-home the dogs to the most suitable owners to give the dogs the best life. Andrew told us that dogs trust re-home around 14,000 dogs a year. Andrew explained to the children that this assembly is all about learning how to be safe and act sensibly around dogs. Ella,Andrew and ‘Duggie’ demonstrated how to safely act around dogs and showed that you must always ask the owners permission before you stroke a dog.
Year 1 Measuring in Centimetres
Today year 1 moved on to measuring in centimetres in their maths lesson and really enjoyed measuring different objects in our classroom using rulers.
Year 1- Computing
In computing this week Year 1's task was to make a wanted poster using the iPads. They had to create their own character and type up what their character was wanted for.
Year 1- History walk
In history this afternoon we went on a walk to see the Steam Tram Turning Triangle. It was one of the first steam trams to open in the whole country during the Victorian times. We are currently learning about inventions in the Victorian times in our local area.
Year 1 Measuring Using Non-standard Measures
Year 1 have been measuring classroom objects using non-standard measures today which included dienes, cubes and counters. They compared the results when they all measured their exercise books with different non-standard methods too. On Friday we will move onto measuring using centimetres (standard units).
Whole School Celebration Worship
In our Celebration Worship this morning we commemorated Year 6's trip to London, as well as the wonderful achievements of our pupils across all year groups. The class teachers gave out awards to pupils who have demonstrated our Christian values such as kindness, respect, and courage. We recognised the hard work and dedication of pupils who have excelled in various extracurricular activities, including our recent swimming gala and the Year 4 children for being brave and showing courage at Junction 4 skatepark. We also awarded the amazing attendance award to our Year 1 and Year 3 pupils, who have shown a commitment to their education and a passion for learning. Congratulations to the yellow team (Darwen Tower) for gaining a total of 317 points. This is a great achievement and a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone involved. Well done and keep up the good work! We are incredibly proud of all our pupils and their accomplishments, and we know that they will continue to achieve great things. We want to thank Rev Ben for leading us in prayer and for reminding us of the importance of faith and community in our daily lives. To celebrate our students' achievements, we sang "Shine from the inside out," a fitting tribute to the incredible talents and hard work of our pupils.
Year 1: Easter Story
Year 1 have been looking at correctly sequencing pictures from the Easter story. They have been remembering significant events including the resurrection and created some artworks to reflect this.
Year 1 Toy Story Dance
Year 1 have been practising different dance moves for different characters in the Toy Story movies. They worked in their house teams today to create their own moves and performed these to the rest of the class. We all got to learn the dance moves from each team at the end of the lesson and they loved it!
Year 1- Science Volcano experiment
Wow what a exciting afternoon we had on Monday. We made a volcano by using bicarbonate of soda, food colouring, water and vinegar. We mixed all our ingredients inside before taking it outside to watch it explode. Look closely at our pictures to see our shocked faces!
Year 1- Garden Centre Visit
On Tuesday morning we walked down to ‘Four Seasons Garden Centre’ in preparation for our next science topic about plants. We found out lots of information about plants and the seasons they grow in. At the end of our tour around the garden centre we purchased some seeds to bring back to school to watch them grow.
Year 1: Garden Centre Visit Thank you!
We would like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone at “Four Seasons Garden Centre” for making us all feel welcome. Sonia said she was really pleased with how we respected the garden centre and how well they represented our school. Sonia gave us some free gifts to bring back to school (Planters, soil and flowers) we can’t wait to plant these.
Year 1- Sound of the day!
Today’s sound of the day ‘z’. We sounded out lots of words with the ‘z’ sound. Super sounding out year 1!
Year 1 Police Safety Talk
Today Year 1 met PCSO Gail, PCSO John and PCSO Darren the bear to talk about what the police do, stranger danger and how to stay safe in our community. They asked some super questions, tried on a police vest and were shown the equipment the police wear to communicate and capture evidence whilst working. We looked at how the police get around and the different vehicles they might use. We also all got a photo and cuddle with Darren the bear.
Year 1 Phonics Different Ways of Making the ‘ea’ Sound
Last week in phonics we looked at the different ways to make the phase 5 ‘ea’ sound and practised reading and writing words with these different graphemes. We also played some Bug Club games to see if we could read words with different amounts of syllables in them using the various different ways to make the ‘ea’ sound and looked back at the ‘ee’ sound they learnt in Reception last year.
Year 1- Creating a structure for testing
In Science this week we have created our own house made from different materials. We had to create a house that would be waterproof and strong enough to survive a hurricane. We used cardboard, tinfoil, cello tape, fabric, and cellophane.
Year 1 Science- Testing the strength of materials
So now it was time to test our houses. We used a jug of water to see if our houses were waterproof and a hair dryer to see if it could survive the hurricane. We loved creating and testing our houses to see which materials would be the most suitable in a hurricane.
Year 1- Science week live lesson
Year 1 watched a science farm live lesson as part of British Science Week. Our lesson was all about tractors and the materials they are made from and why they are made from that material. We had lots of questions to answer throughout the lesson all about materials. We also found out lots of interesting facts about farming life, plants and tractors!
Year 1- Phonics
A bunch of superstars practicing our ‘v’ sound this morning.
FOSB Mother’s Day Cream Tea
Thank you to all of our wonderful special ladies for attending our Mother’s Day cream tea. A huge thank you to our wonderful FOSB. They are all volunteers and juggle work to make the events a huge success. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes and it is really appreciated by us all. We are very lucky to have you. If anybody would like to help volunteer for any events then we would be really grateful. We hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day on Sunday.
Science Club- Colour mixing experiment with Year 1
A huge THANK YOU to the children in science club yesterday lunchtime for leading such a fun experiment! They led a colour mixing experiment using skittles. It was so much fun!
North West Air Ambulance Visit
We had the pleasure of welcoming Laura from North West Air Ambulance Charity today. Laura explained that the air ambulance colours are yellow and blue. North West Air Ambulance service is a charity and Laura’s job is to help raise money to keep the ambulances in the sky. The charity looks after over 8 million people and provides free emergency pre-hospital care. In addition to helicopters, the charity also has emergency vehicles. They are used when it is foggy, at night or when it is deemed not safe to fly. Darcy held the emergency bag that the crew carry. It is heavy and has everything they need to treat an injured person. The ambulance also carries blood on board. Wilson showed everybody the jacket that the crew wear and Harry showed the helmet that the crew required to wear. We watched a video which showed an air ambulance in action. Laura explained to us what happens in an emergency. We played Simon says to role play what we should do. If we notice somebody has hurt themselves, we would look around to check if it was safe and then go and find a trusted adult to call to 999. If there wasn’t a trusted adult around, it would be up to us to call. The crew would then be dispatched. Once the helicopter lands, there is a Lucas machine that can perform CPR if necessary so that the paramedic and doctors hands are free to help the patient further. Laura said it is brilliant that we have our invacuation procedure to help air ambulances land safely. Thank you to Mrs Price for teaching the children what to do in an emergency. Air ambulances can land on a beach, a field, a stadium, a car park and a helipad. Laura thanked everybody and said that St Barnabas are now part of the crew! Donations can still be made on parent pay to support this charity and during Lent it is the perfect time to give something back. The charity needs to raise 12 million pounds each year in order to provide the amazing service and it relies solely on donations. Thank you to everybody who has donated so far.
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Parents' Evening
Dear Parents and carers, we are holding a face to face parents' evening on Wednesday 5th April in our school hall. Our teachers would also like to share your child's books with you too so that you can see how hard they have been working and you can see what they have been learning this term. Five minute appointments will be available from 2.00pm and 6.00pm. If you are flexible and can attend during school hours and after school, please select in school hours then we can give priority for the after school appointments to parents who are working through the day. Appointments can be booked through the same booking system that we used last year. Please click on the following link stbarnabasdarwen.schoolcloud.co.uk to book an appointment. Please note that the information in the software has been taken from our school management system so please use the information such as title, name, email etc that we have on your child's records. Hopefully you will be able to log in with the same details as last year as those of you who attended last time will already have an account. We politely ask that separated parents try to attend the same appointment so that our teachers don't have to repeat the same information and this also ensures that we have enough appointments for each child in school. However, if there are exceptional circumstances that require you to have separate appointments, please let our class teachers know. Our class teachers and I are really looking forward to welcoming you back into school to share how well your child has progressed this term. Please do not hesitate to message me if you have any issues booking an appointment. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
School closed due to the snow
Good morning parents and carers, Mr Tierney and I are in school now and have assessed the snow situation. The roads around school are awful as there is ice underneath the snow and the road near school hasn’t been gritted. It is still snowing now and not due to stop for several hours. We have taken the difficult decision to close, which those of you who have had children at St Barnabas for a while know, we haven’t taken lightly, as we always try to stay open. However as the children know, my number one job is to keep everyone safe and that includes the children, staff and parents. Several of our staff live far away and are unable to get into school safely and it isn’t safe for our children or parents to be travelling to school. The snow is drifting in places as we seem to have our micro-climate up at St Barnabas! Our teachers will be in touch with remote learning and you are all welcome to join virtual celebration worship at 9.05am. Further details to follow. Please keep safe and I hope the children are able to enjoy the snow once it is safe to do so. Thank you in advance for your understanding. ❄️ ⛄️
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Virtual Celebration Worship
Please join us for our virtual Celebration Worship on Zoom at 9.05am. Mrs Ham is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Virtual Celebration Worship Time: Mar 10, 2023 09:05 AM London Join Zoom Meeting https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74490000410?pwd=59agL0Z2XxE89HVTBtMpzNy4EnaaJZ.1 Meeting ID: 744 9000 0410 Passcode: 8CX4At We look forward to seeing you there.
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Support for Turkey and Syria- non-uniform day
Smart School Councillors Subject: Fundraising for Turkey and Syria Earthquake Relief. Following our last class meeting, the children voted to hold a fundraising event on Friday 17th of March, where they will wear the flag colours of Turkey and Syria to show their support for those affected by the earthquakes. We are asking for a minimum donation of £1.00 for each child who participates in this cause, via parent pay. The colours are red, black, green and white. Do not go out to buy anything new, please wear what you have at home. All funds raised will be donated to a reputable charity actively working to provide relief to the earthquake victims. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns. Thank you for your continued support. Smart School Councillors and Miss Kachwalla
World Book Day Competition
During World Book Day, we held a whole school competition to create a book cover. All of the entries were excellent! Well done to: Cassidy in Year 1 Nevaeh in Year 2 Matthew in Year 4 Sienna in Year 5 Charlotte in Year 6 The children will all receive a £5 voucher to spend at our Scholastic book fair which will be at school between 15th-21st March. A huge well done to our winners and for everyone who took part. Just a reminder that our author Raysa Farah’s book is still available on parent pay to purchase. The last date to purchase the book will be next Friday.
Year 1- 1K a day
What a beautiful day for the 1K a day!
Year 1 Counting in Tens
Today year 1 were counting in tens using different actions, games and songs. They counted up in tens and used base ten equipment. They ended the lesson with a game to see how many tens they could score using an underarm throw.
Year 1 Medicine Safety
Year 1 have been learning about medicine safety and looked at different empty medicine boxes. They discussed what the different types of medicine were and looked at the difference between harmful and helpful items. We discussed the importance of adults always administering medicine and looked at different scenarios where medicine might be administered safely. The children then worked in groups to sort items into harmful, helpful or both of these categories.
Scrooge by Charles Dickens
This morning all of the children enjoyed watching a theatrical production of Scrooge, which is a stage adaptation of the classic story 'A Christmas Carol', which was written by Charles Dickens. We were so proud of how well they joined in and the performers said they were a fantastic audience and couldn’t praise our school enough for the warm welcome they received. The children said 'It was even better than the film', 'It was amazing', 'I loved the songs' 'Everyone needs to show kindness' and our Year 6 children said this had made them even more excited to go and see the Lion King in London with school in a couple of weeks! The classic story highlighted our school focus on kindness as mean Scrooge learnt to be kind after being visited by three spirits who showed him the error of his ways. A huge well done to Daisy for showing lots of courage when she was chosen to join the actors on stage. Thank you so much FOSB for paying for the performance. It was a delight to see the childrens' faces as they were a picture and made several of our staff team, including myself, rather emotional watching them. What a great end to world book day week!
Year 1 Traditional Tales
Today we looked at different traditional tale settings, book titles and characters. Year 1 then tried to spot different objects and characters that might feature in a traditional tale. A great start to the beginning of our new English unit this half term.
World Book Day- Staff Swap
As part of our World Book Day celebrations, our teaching assistants swapped classes and read a bedtime story to the children. It was lovely to see different staff members in each class and the children enjoyed seeing a new face too. Our FOSB donated chocolates for every child to enjoy whilst they listened to the story. Thank you.
World Book Day 2023
Today we celebrated world book day to show how amazing books are and the theme of this year’s celebration is bedtime stories and stories that fill our happy tank. During worship, Mrs Wilkinson, our reading leader, shared a variety of books through ‘the masked book’ quiz. Our school librarians shared clues from their favourite bedtime stories and asked the school to guess their book. Mrs Ham showed us one of her favourite stories, Oliver Twist, and read a 'Little people, big dreams' book about the author Charles Dickens. We learnt how he developed his love of books and became a successful author, writing stories with powerful messages. We are looking forward to a production of one of Charles Dickens famous stories tomorrow, A Christmas Carol, but in a special adaptation called Scrooge. Charles Dickens wanted everyone to know that everyday can feel like Christmas, if we show kindness and fill up each other's happy tanks. Children enjoyed stories from other teachers across the school who shared their favourite bedtime stories or stories that fill their happy tank. A special author came into school to read her latest book. The lion who lost its mane. She shared her amazing story and the message behind the story and her inspiration for making her book. Throughout the day children completed many activities to celebrate this year's themes for world book day, favourite bedtime stories or stories that fill your happy tank. This included: competitions for creating the best book cover, creating art work and reading their favourite stories to each other. Thank you to Mrs Speak, our English link Governor for joining us in our special World Book Day Worship. Happy World Book Day 2023!
EYFS & KS1: Author visit
EYFS and Key Stage 1 enjoyed an author visit this afternoon. Raysa Farah came into school to read her story, ‘A cub without a mane’. She explained how her son has leukaemia and lost his hair. Whilst in hospital, she decided to write her book. Raysa explained that no matter how you look, you are still special and a wonderful person. Our children had the opportunity to ask questions. Darcy asked if she had written any other books. Raysa said she had written one other book and it is awaiting approval to be published. Raysa is also a florist so Daisy asked if she liked making flowers. Lyla asked how long it took for Raysa to write her story. Raysa explained it took around a month to write. Eliza asked if Raysa drew the pictures. Raysa explained the role of an illustrator. Her publisher found an illustrator. Raysa then asked the children to draw anything that makes them happy and feel good. We loved your visit and the children left feeling inspired- thank you so much. Raysa’s book will be available to buy on parent pay for a discounted price. Further information to follow.
World Book Day: The Cub Without a Mane
Today, we welcomed Raysa Farah into our school to read and talk about her new book as part of our World Book Day celebration. Raysa is a successful florist who has now written a story after her little boy was diagnosed with leukaemia. 'My little boy S'aad was diagnosed with ALL in Spring 2022 at the age of two. From this experience I have found strength in writing an empowerment book for children and their carers. I want to help empower young children to feel like they’ve got a voice. The book follows a lion cub who loses his big, wild mane after developing leukaemia, but shows bravery to continue being himself and not let his illness get him down'. If you would like to order a copy of the book Raysa has offered a special price of £6.50, payment can be made through ParentPay. Thank you, Mrs Wilkinson
Year 1 World Book Day
A super start to the day in Year 1 for World Book Day! The children were all wearing their pyjamas and bought their own books in to celebrate their love of reading bedtime stories and to share with the class. They enjoyed being read to by Mrs Pendlebury and they helped retell the Gruffalo story as a whole class. It was super to look back at this book and for them to retell and remember the words from our story writing in Autumn 2. They then had a chocolate snack (thank you FOSB) whilst listening to another favourite book by Julia Donaldson: Stickman.
Sharing Our Love Of Reading in Year 1
During World Book Day, Year 1 read and shared their books from home and our school library with great enthusiasm. They each stood up in front of the whole class to show their chosen book that either ‘fills their happy tank’ or is a great bedtime read. The children read and shared their books with their friends and designed a book cover for their favourite book too as part of a competition. In the afternoon an author came in to read their new children’s story to them and they were able to ask questions and take part in an activity celebrating their uniqueness in their house groups. We also made book buddies that they have taken home with them today amongst other activities.
World Book Day- Staff Swap
As part of our World Book Day celebrations, our teaching assistants swapped classes and read a bedtime story to the children. It was lovely to see different staff members in each class and the children enjoyed seeing a new face too. Our FOSB donated chocolates for every child to enjoy whilst they listened to the story. Thank you.
Live Production of Scrooge
Dear Parents and Carers, on Friday morning we have M&M theatrical productions in school performing Charles Dickens, Scrooge to all of the children. We are really looking forward to the performance and it is a great way to end World Book Day Week. A huge thank you to our FOSB for paying for the production so that all of our children can enjoy a live theatre performance. There will be no celebration worship this Friday so Values points will be rolled over to next week. If your child has an out of school award, please bring it in next week. On Friday Darwen Tower house team (yellow) have voted to have a non-uniform day and disco for achieving the most values points last half term. They can come to school in their non-uniform and they will have a disco and sweets at break time.
Year 1- Toy story dance.
On Friday in PE we use 4 characters out of toy story to try out some moves to put towards our dance routine. We used Forky, Woody, Slinky and Buzz as our characters. We came up with some amazing moves!
Celebration Worship
Well done to all of our children this week on another busy week in school, working so hard and showing all our Christian values and gaining so many value points. A huge congratulations to Reception and Year 3 for being the amazing attendance winners again this week! Well done Darwen Tower team for winning the overall value points prize which you get to choose, will it be a disco, non uniform, or maybe an extra MUGA session with coach Baxendale? A massive well done to all our class Value Award winners, your hard work and determination really does show both in the classroom and around school, we hope you are super proud of yourselves.
Year 1- Rolling a ball with accuracy
In P.E yesterday we looked at rolling a ball with the correct technique.Then our session got a lot harder when we added a target. We spoke about what we need to roll the ball to hit the target. We all agreed we need good hand-eye coordination.
Year 1- Food origins
In PSHE yesterday afternoon we had a look at different food origins. We had a really good discussion about where our food comes from. We had a go at putting foods into Origins. This will eventually help Us to create a healthy breakfast in a couple of weeks time.
Year 1 Find the Difference
Yesterday in maths, Year 1 were looking at finding the difference in partners using pegboards. The children had different coloured pegs and lined them up in rows. They each had a different amount of pegs and compared the amounts in order to find the difference between the two amounts. We have been looking at subtraction within 20 before the half term and we are finishing our subtraction unit this week.
World Book Day Information
Next Thursday, 2nd March we will be celebrating World Book Day. This year the theme is bedtime stories and stories that can fill your happy tank. We would love for all children to come dressed all cosy and warm in their pyjamas. Children will take part in a variety of exciting book related activities and competitions and will listen to stories throughout the day. There will also be a book cover competition which the children will complete in school where the children will have the chance to win a £5 book voucher. During World Book Day, a local author, Raysa Farah will visit each class. Once Raysa has been into school, the children will have the opportunity to purchase her book 'The cub that lost its mane' for a discounted price. Further information will be sent out after World Book Day. The children will all receive a £1 token. This can be used at our book fair which will be held between 15-21st March. Between the 15-17th March, the children will all have the opportunity to look at the books in school and they will create a 'wish list' which will be sent home. You can then purchase these books either using the web address on the wish list or by coming into school to purchase books on Monday 21st March and Tuesday 22nd March from 3.30pm. Payment will only be able to be taken by card or contactless payment. We can't wait to celebrate next week and further promote our love of reading.
Year 1- Darwen Library Visit
Today we walked to Darwen town centre to visit the library. It was a super trip and everyone enjoyed exploring the different areas of the junior library. There are over 4000 books in the junior library and every child found at least one book that they enjoyed reading, from shark books and comic books to stories about horses or beast quests. We had a librarian explain about the different areas of the library and she read the class a story linked to our new English unit: Traditional Tales. Over half the class got their new library membership cards too!
Year 1- Music
In music year 1 have been learning all the different parts of the drum and what each part does. Year 1 then had a go on an electric drum machine working in pairs.
Year 1- Signs of spring
Yesterday we walked to Whitehall park to look out for some signs of spring. In science we looked at the changes between winter and spring. Our walk also linked in with our R.E lesson (Easter unit) as we were looking for signs of new life.
Year 1- Fruits in French
Year 1 are impressing me on a Wednesday afternoon with their amazing french lessons with Mrs Hayat! We’ve learnt colour names, animal names and now we are learning the names of fruit in french.
Online Safety: Spotify
Is Spotify hitting the right #OnlineSafety notes?
Year 1- Analysing rhymes
In English we carried on with our traditional rhymes from yesterday but today we analysed some rhymes. We highlighted rhyming words, punctuation, capital letters and repetition.
Rev Ben’s Ash Wednesday Worship
This morning Rev Ben led our Worship. First he lit our special candle and we had a moment's silence to pray for the families in Turkey and Syria who have been affected by the devastating earthquakes. Rev Ben asked us who was the greatest out of four celebrities, Marcus Rashford, Taylor Swift, Princess Kate and Rishi Sunak. The children had a discussion with a partner about who was the greatest and why. We had some super answers and several reasons why each one was the greatest. We then watched a video about the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee which was a story that Jesus told to some people who thought they were great and looked down on others. The Pharisee thought he was the greatest and looked down on others but the tax collector was actually great in God's eyes as he asked for help and forgiveness. Rev Ben explained that Ash Wednesday is when Christian's ask for help and for their sins to be forgiven by God. Rev Ben then talked to us about Christian greatness and we had some time to reflect and discuss what Christians think being great is all about and how we can put that greatness into practice. Again we had some brilliant answers such as showing kindness, friendship, generosity and service to others. We finished our worship with a special prayer led by Rev Ben and sang and danced to My Lighthouse, to symbolise that God is always there to hear our prayers of help and forgiveness.
Shrove Tuesday
As today is Shrove Tuesday, Mrs Ham bought our whole school family pancake bites to eat to symbolise the start of Lent tomorrow. They went down a treat and many of the children were excited to have pancakes at home this evening too. We are looking forward to seeing lots of different ways that we can all give this Lent through demonstrating our Christian values of service, friendship and generosity.
Whole School Worship: Shrove Tuesday and Lent
To begin our worship, we lit a special candle and prayed for everyone in Turkey and Syria. As we entered worship, we watched a video all about when Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. Tomorrow it is Shrove Tuesday. On Wednesday, our altar will change to the colour of purple as we enter Lent and prepare for Easter. Mrs Ham asked the children ‘what makes you you?’ Neve said her freckles, Oscar said playing the piano and cello, Jake said his fingerprints and Grace said her flexibility. Our personality, emotions, behaviour, clothes, family and belongings all make us unique. Mrs Ham then asked ‘what made Jesus Jesus?’ Eliza said he was the son of God, Grace said his abilities to perform miracles, Ella said that he came down from heaven, Finn said his kindness and Leonora said when he rose from the dead. On Wednesday, Lent beings where we remember how Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. We watched a video all about this time. Jesus was tempted by the devil during his time but he trusted in God and didn’t give in to temptation. Jesus knew there was a plan for him. He knew that he was going to die on the cross so that all of our sins can be forgiven. During our reflection, we had a think about what we could do or give up to help us to feel closer to God. Eva said she is going to give up chocolate, Elsa said sweets, Carter said fizzy drinks, Isaac said he will give some of his toys to charity and Declan said his clothes to the charity shop. We also thought about how we could show kindness and which Christian values we could show during Lent. We finished our worship by singing ‘our God is a great big God’.
Year 1- R.E
In R.E we had a discussion about what makes Jesus special. We created some valentines hearts to give to someone who is special to us.
Year 1- Traditional rhymes
In English we are now looking at traditional rhymes. This morning we’ve used a rhyme time bag and different props to help us remember and sing some traditional rhymes.
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Whole School- Celebration Worship
Wow! We had lots to celebrate today. During our Celebration Worship this morning, the class teachers celebrated by presenting a value award to the children who have been demonstrating our Christian Values. This week, our overall house values point winner was Darwen tower with 258 points. We also celebrated Years 3 and 4 for their winning at sportshall athletics. Well done to the reception class and Year 3 for this week's best attendance. We also celebrated the children that have taken part in extracurricular activities, well done to everyone! We finished our worship with Rev Ben leading a prayer.
Year 1- Gymnastics
What a fun P.E lesson we had on Friday. We had lots of different stations that included climbing, balancing, jumping, and different rolls. Some of us found some of the stations tricky so we had to show lots of courage. A huge well done to all of year 1!
Wellbeing Warrior Workshops for Children’s Mental Health Week
As part of Children’s Mental Health Week 2023, our Well-being Warriors have been going into Foundation and Key Stage 1 to deliver workshops around mental health. They have looked at the story ‘Lucy’s Blue Day’ and highlighted how it’s ok to have good and bad days. The children then completed an activity on a feelings jar which they loved.
Year 1- Safer Internet day
Today for Safer Internet Day we discussed games and personal information online. We looked at lots of scenarios and we decided whether that was safe to share online or not. Year 1 made some very sensible comments about what we should do. We finished the day with a story about Smartie the penguin and his tablet. We learnt that you should always tell a trusted adult if you have any problems online.
Year 1- Does it sink or float?
In science we looked at objects that sink or float. We went to Jack’s Key to test some objects in the river. We collected sticks, leaves and stones on our way and tested them to see if they sank or floated. We also took a apple, a orange, a coin and some bread from school.
Safer Internet Day
During our worship today we celebrated safer internet day. Safer internet day is celebrated all over the world and it helps children to understand ways of being safe online as the internet is growing as well as social media. Children discussed all the amazing things that they use the internet for and understand that it is an amazing platform to use with lots of positives. Although the internet is a great tool, we have to be careful that we: remain safe, understand age limits, only play games with those who you know, avoid online bullying and be able to recognise ‘fake news’. Children discussed many ways in which we can avoid these negatives and to enjoy using the internet for all its all amazing uses it can have such as: - Do not believe everything you see online - Do not post anything that isn’t kind - If I see something that makes me feel uncomfortable tell a trusted adult, report it and block it - Play with people we know - Most importantly keep having fun! - Understand age limits and respect those limits - Keep microphones and cameras off when online gaming with people who you do not know. One of the aims of the session was to keep talking and to be very open with a trusted adult about your online activity. Whether you have seen something that makes you uncomfortable or whether you have done something you believe is wrong. A trusted adult will always be able to help you and help you to remain safe online. Most importantly we recognised that the internet is an amazing tool that can be used to help us gain knowledge, communicate with people and have fun. As the internet grows and gets more advanced we understand that it is not going away. But remaining safe is the key.
Whole School Worship: Children’s Mental Health Week Launch
What is mental health? Elsie said it is about your mind, Darcy said it is your feelings. Everybody has mental health. Sometimes our mental health might feel poorly like our bodies can feel poorly. One way to help our mental health is through our happy tank. Today we learnt all about happy tapping. We practised together as a school and then repeated after John whilst tapping. Mrs Ham explained how it is ok to feel different emotions. The children showed different emotions such as sad, scared, lonely, upset, ashamed, worried and guilty. Mrs Ham asked the children how you can exercise your brain. Isaac said by learning, Kaylen said by pushing passed your limit and Sophia said by eating healthily. This year, children’s mental health week is all about connecting. Connecting with others is vital for our wellbeing and can support our mental health. This links to our Christian value of friendship. Mrs Ham asked how have we all connected to others this morning. Darcy said she has hugged her Mummy, Harlow said she tickled her brother, Edward said he made his Dad a bacon sandwich, Harry said he spoke to his friend and Iris played with her brother. We listened to a poem called ‘together’. We discussed together why being together is so important. Lyla said if you don’t feel together and feel lonely, you could ask a friend to join in playing. You do not need to be a grown up to change the world. We can make a difference. During our reflection, we are going to have a think about how we can connect more to others. On Friday, we will all come together and will dress to express to show how we are unique and special.
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!
Online Safety: Digital lives
#SaferInternetDay is coming!
Whole School Worship: Rev Ben
The children in year 6 played a game at the start of our worship. The game wasn’t as easy as it looked! Our children showed the Christian value of encouragement to help the children complete the task. Today, we learned about a man called Daniel. Daniel was taken far from his home and asked to work in a place where nobody believed in God. Rev Ben asked the children to think about how they would feel if that happened to him. Daniel found ways to keep trusting and God looked after him. Daniel showed the king that God was important. In the Bible, when people face a hard time, they praise God and they sing. Rev Ben asked the children why they feel it is important. Jack said that it will fill up your happy tank, Leonora said it will make you feel calm and relaxed, Carter said it can change your mood and Jenson said it can help you to express how you feel. When we find things tough, lifting our eyes up to God can really help us. Rev Ben asked the children to think of a time that it is hard to feel thankful. Iris said that when your Mummy and Daddy say that you can’t have chocolate it is hard to feel thankful. Rev Ben said in those difficult times, to remember that God is always with us. We finished our worship by singing my lighthouse.
Year 1 - Material hunt
Following on from learning about materials we’ve been on a walk to find some materials out and about in our local area.
Year 1- Human and physical features in Darwen
Yesterday we went on a walk to find some human and physical features in Darwen. This afternoon we’ve discussed what we found and wrote about the differences between human and physical features.
Year 1- Number bonds to 20
In maths we’ve progressed onto number bonds to 20. We worked in pairs to find different ways to make 20 with maths equipment.
Year 1- What makes a balanced diet?
In PSHE we looked at what foods we should eat to help us stay healthy. We talked about a balanced diet and what foods we should eat to make our diet balanced. We also learnt some big words such as carbohydrates, protein and fibre. We finished off by creating our friend a balanced lunch.
Year 1-Bossy verbs
Yesterday we went on a walk to Jack’s Key to find a suitable route to write instructions for Reception class to guide them on a walk. Today we looked at bossy verbs and acted some out in practice for our instruction writing tomorrow.
Monday Worship: God’s Promise
Last week for our happy tank, we thought about affirmations. Mrs Ham shared Harlow’s affirmation, “You are worth it and are loved”. This week, we learnt about gratitude. We took a few minutes to think about what we are grateful for. Leonora said she was grateful for her life, Eliza said she is grateful for the staff, Ella said she was grateful for her family and Aisha said she is grateful for her hair. Mrs Ham explained how in the bible, God made up to 7000 promises. In Noah’s Ark, God made a promise to not flood the earth again. God’s promise to show this was a rainbow. God promised Mary that she was going to have a baby. God made lots of promises to us all. He said he will love us forever, he will comfort us, he will never leave, he will keep us safe and he will keep his promises. We watched a video that retold the story of Noah’s Ark. God wanted to see kindness. During our reflection, Mrs Ham asked for us all to think about a time when we made a promise and broke it. We had a think about how we felt and what we could do next time. Mrs Ham also asked for us all to think about a time that a promise has been broken and how we felt. We finished our worship by singing Waymaker.
Year 1- Lunch time MUGA session
Year 1 had such a fun Muga session! Thank you to the sports leaders for planning such a fun lunchtime session!
Year 1- Art
In art we’ve been looking at drawing and colouring with different media. We’ve used 2D shapes to draw around before adding colour using paint, pastels, charcoal, pencils and felt tips to make our artwork look effective.
Online Safety: Roblox
We have received reports of a viral post circulating on social media about an alleged self-harm ‘game’ being shared on popular gaming platform Roblox. Known as ‘The Game’, the post claims that the game appears through private chats in an attached Word document that contains the rules and instructions. While it is unclear who made the original post and who took the screenshot of the document, it has been noted by several media outlets and concerned parents and carers, which has increased the sharing of the screenshot. There are multiple risks that come with this, including potential physical harm to children and young people, as well as inadvertent exposure to harmful online content. Currently, online safety experts have not been able to substantiate reports on the validity of this so-called ‘game’ or the claim that children and young people are sharing it. Due to the potentially dangerous and worrying nature of this game, we understand the concerns that parents, carers, and safeguarding professionals may have. That is why we have provided you with practical advice to help you care for the children and young people in your life.
Year 1- Amazing handwriting
Year 1 have been having a go at cursive handwriting and getting ready to apply it into their work.
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.
Year 1- Describing materials of objects
Yesterday afternoon in science we looked at some objects and what materials they are made from. We looked at objects made from wood, metal, fabric and plastic. We then looked at the properties of the materials such as bumpy, hard, soft, stretchy, opaque and transparent.
Super skills after school club
How much sport can you fit into an hour? A LOT! What a busy and fun club on Thursday. We had a go at lots of different sports including gymnastics, basketball,football and some target over arm throwing.
Monday Worship: Forgiveness and Friendship
This week, we began our worship with our happy tank. We learnt all about affirmations. An affirmation is when we say a positive thing about ourselves. Our heads and deputies helped Mrs Ham to show what an affirmation was. Our job this week is to think of affirmations to say to make us feel good. Mrs Ham’s affirmation to share was “I am amazing!” The children all joined in with this affirmation. The heads and deputies read lots of affirmations which the children copied to help fill up their happy tanks. Charlotte read an affirmation that said ‘it is ok to make mistakes’. Bobby read out “It is ok to ask for help” and Elsa read the affirmation “I matter in this world”. Today we focussed on our Christian values of friendship and forgiveness. Mrs Ham asked the children if they had ever broken anything. Lots of things can be broken but most of the time they can be fixed. If a book has a rip, Ella suggested that we could use cellotape instead of throwing it away. If a handle falls off a mug, Alfie said that we could use superglue. If we hurt ourselves, Jack suggested that we could use a plaster. Mrs Ham asked the children to think about what we could do to fix a broken friendship. Jesus said if somebody does something mean, you should always forgive them. Jesus told a parable called the unforgiving servant. Our heads and deputies helped Mrs Ham to retell the story. If we do not forgive others, then God will not forgive us. Jesus said that we should forgive people 70 x 7= 490 times! We shouldn’t keep track, we should forgive every time. God always forgives us for big and little things so we need to do the same to each other. For our reflection this week, we are going to have a think about how we can mend a broken friendship and how we can show forgiveness. We finished our worship by singing ‘As one’.
Friday Celebration Worship
We had so much to celebrate this week in our special celebration worship, it was lovely to see so many grown ups attending too. Mr Prescott stepped in this week and announced our attendance winners, well done to Reception and Year 5 classes. After our trials for Sports Hall Athletics we took all 31 children to compete this week. We received amazing feedback that our students were so respectful and represented the school superbly, so well done to you all. Their resilience and determination brought them into second place so we are so proud of you all. Thank you for bringing in your out of school achievements, it is lovely to share your success out of school and see such a wide variety of activities being enjoyed. A huge well done to all of our values winners this week who have demonstrated our Christian and British Values. You are all superstars!
Year 1- Gymnastics
Today in PE we did gymnastics. We worked in pairs to help each other to balance on large body parts (side, back, tummy, hips, shoulders) and focused on stillness. We had a go at lots of movements today but we learnt a couple of new ones “The dish” and “The Arch”. We finished off by creating our own gymnastic routines using new moves we had learnt today. Well done year 1!
Year 1- Under the sea- Mark making
WOWZERS Year 1!! What a great afternoon we’ve had. This afternoon we having been looking at different kinds of mark making to make the perfect under the sea picture. We’ve used oil pastels, chalk, wax crayons and soft pastels to make the waves. We talked about using different shades of blues and greens to make our pictures look effective. We finished off by adding our own sea creatures.
Year 1- Throwing and catching.
This afternoon we have done lots of games that included our fundamental skill this week which is throwing. We did under and over arm throwing and I was really impressed with the technique of our over arm throw.
National Online Safety: Twitter
New year, new Twitter?
Whole School Worship: Thankfulness
It was wonderful to have our worship led by Rev Ben today. Today, we are going to be thinking about thankfulness. To begin our worship, we played a game of guess the animal. Well done to David, Carter, Ivy, Neve and Aisha for taking part. We are so thankful for God’s wonderful creations which include a frog, monkey, a fish, a panda and a lion. As we guess those wonderful animals, they are all very different. Some are big, some are small, some are colourful, some are loud and some are quiet. However, we are not always good at looking after God’s creation. When we don’t look after God’s creation like we should, he will always forgive us. Rev Ben gave us time to think about what we want to thank God for and we also had a think about how we can show our thankfulness for the amazing world we live in. Archie said he is thankful for us, Alice said she is thankful for all of the trees, Sadie is thankful for food and Carter is thankful for nature. Harlee said we shouldn’t litter, Daniel said we need to switch the lights off and Iris said that we need to care for the animals. Rev Ben led us in prayer and we joined in with a new song called ‘God of Science’. We loved the song! A huge thank you to Rev Ben.
Year 1- Human and Physical features
This afternoon in geography we have been looking at human and physical features in the UK. We decided to have a wander up to Jack Keys to see if we could spot some human and physical features in Darwen.
Year 1- Writing using our phonics
Continuing with the story ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ we had a go at writing sentences independently. We all had a sound mat and used our phonics to sound out our sentences. I was very impressed Year 1!
Whole School Worship: Martin Luther King Jr Day
We started our worship with our happy tank and we practised our kindness today. We then thought about what Jesus meant when he said you should love your neighbour as yourself. Elsie said your neighbour means everybody. Mrs Ham read a book ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ all about Martin Luther King Jr. It is important to stand up for what is right and love your neighbour, just like Martin Luther King Jr did. If people like Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks hadn’t stood up for what was right then the world wouldn’t be a nice place to live in. Martin Luther King Jr had a dream that people would judge people on their character rather than their skin colour. We had a think about our character today and how others may describe our character. If we show all of our Christian values then we will have a great character. This week we will focus on treating each other fairly. We will also have a think about how we can help other people to make their lives better and we will focus on showing love and kindness towards each other. Freddie said we could be brave and stand up for what is right, Alfie said we could be respectful, Grace said we could donate items to other people, Jack said we could show friendship and Lyla said we could show courage. We then thought about what our dream for the world would be and we had some wonderful ideas such as no violence, no wars, living in peace. everyone being treated fairly and with kindness etc. We finished our worship by singing ‘Make a difference’.
Year 1- Exploring materials
In science we have been on a hunt to find objects made from materials such as metal, wood, plastic, glass and fabric. We found lots of objects made from these materials. I was so impressed with the work they produced in their science books this afternoon. Well done year 1!
Year 1- Friendship and kindness
In PSHE today we looked at friendship and some scenarios we might get into at home or at school. We acted out some of the scenarios and thought how we might feel if this happened to us and how we could deal with it. We had some very grown up conversations about being good friends and being kind to each other.
Year 1- 1 less
In maths this morning we were looking at numbers up to 20 and if we could find out what was 1 less. We worked really hard as a team on the carpet to support each other to find out 1 less before going off to work independently. I was very impressed!
Year 1- Capital letters,full stops and exclamation marks.
This morning in English we focused on the bear hunt story. Today’s task was to put in the punctuation that was missing. Year 1 felt really grown up because they all used a purple polishing pen for the first time today.
Whole School Celebration Worship
During our whole school Worship this morning, a few of our children shared their special gifts from God; being good at skating, swimming, football, gymnastics, basketball and rugby and some children said having loving and caring parents was their special gift from God. It was also lovely to hear that the children have been reflecting on their daily choices which was our Happy Tank focus for this week. The class teachers presented a value certificate to the child/children that has been demonstrating our Christian and British values and making the right choices. Prizes were given out to our 'Road Safety' winners, the entries were from last year and the children were thrilled with their winnings. Mrs Ham celebrated our sports stars for their dedication and commitments for taking part in extracurricular activities. Our amazing attendance classes this week were reception and Year 3 and the winning team for getting the most value points was Whitehall Park, putting them in first place. Rev Ben ended our Worship with a lovely prayer and blessing. What another brilliant week at St Barnabas and the children really have been achieving great things!
Online Safety: Warcraft
#WakeUpWednesday meets World of Warcraft ⚔
Year 1- feelings and healthy living workshop
In year 1 we had a visit from Megan and Harold the giraffe. Megan discussed our feelings and emotions and how we can deal with them. We also spoke about many ways in which we can live a happy and healthy life and year 1 did a great job coming up with lots a creative ideas of how we can stay happy and healthy. Thank you Megan and Harold!
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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).
Year 1- Epiphany
On Friday we learnt about Epiphany. It took 12 days for the kings to meet baby Jesus and so the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th January. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means ‘making known’. The kings followed a big star which helped to make people know that Jesus had been born. One important thing that the festival of Epiphany reveals is that God doesn’t have favourites but welcomes people from any background and any nationality. Year 1 painted images of the 3 kings on their journey to find baby Jesus.
Year 1- Road Safety
Year 1 had a visit from Andy yesterday to learn all about road safety. We learnt lots of things such as be bright and be seen when outside and what things we could wear to be seen. A huge thank you to Andy for providing our class with a high viz vest and key ring. We also learnt how important a car seat is and that we need a car seat until we reach 135cm or we reach our 12th birthday. Andy measured all of our children and we all got a special sticker as none of the class were 135cm so all need to sit in a car seat.
Year 1- Gymnastics
In Gymnastics we have been looking at different jumps using different shapes. We had a look and tried the tuck jump, pencil jump, star jump and then we had a go at making up our own unique jumps. What a bunch of superstars!
Monday Worship: Epiphany
Last week we focussed on breathing with the happy tank. This week, we learnt how to reflect. We spent three minutes thinking about something that has happened to us today. Reflection time for ourselves is important and helps us to relax and fill up our happy tanks. On Friday we started our learning about the Epiphany. It took 12 days for the kings to meet baby Jesus and so the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th January. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means ‘making known’. The kings followed a big star which helped to make people know that Jesus had been born. One important thing that the festival of Epiphany reveals is that God doesn’t have favourites but welcomes people from any background and any nationality. Mrs Ham read a story from her rhyming Bible all about the kings journey and everyone joined in with actions for the repeated refrain. Thank you to our amazing actors in Year 6. Sadie, Manni, Isaac, Elsie and Carter did a brilliant job. The kings brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Gold is a gift fit for a king, Frankincense was given as it is a holy fragrance and Myrrh was given to indicate that Jesus’ death would be important. During our reflection, we thought about our special gifts. This week, we will really focus on how we can share them with others and how we can show respect for other people’s gifts. We finished our worship singing ‘We three kings’.
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
Coram Life Education & SCARF workshops
Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools. Over the next couple of days all of our children in school will have a fun and interactive PSHE workshop delivered by Megan and her friend Harold the Giraffe, from Coram Life Education. Reception: All About Me Year 1: Feelings Year 2: My Wonderful Body Year 3: Meet the Brain Year 4: It's great to be me Year 5: Friends Year 6: Decisions The children really enjoyed the workshops last year and they learnt a great deal. These sessions are part funded by the local authority and the school have contributed the rest. Our staff will also be having training on Coram resources that can be used in PSHE lessons. If you would like to speak to Megan and learn more about the workshops or how you can support your child with their personal, social and health education, you are very welcome to call into school from 8.45-9.00am this Wednesday morning. There is also a website with information for parents about how you can support your child's wellbeing, help them develop a growth mindset and how to talk to them about sensitive issues etc. https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/family-scarf
Whole School Celebration Worship
This morning during whole school celebration worship, we learnt about Epiphany and celebrated our achievements in school this week. It was lovely to hear that some of the children had used the breathing techniques that we learnt on Monday from John, the Kindness Coach's, happy tank programme over the week. Class teachers spoke about our first week back in school and how the children have settled back into our school routine brilliantly. Mrs Ham announced our amazing attendance classes of the week in KS1 and KS2. Well done Reception and Year 4! We then celebrated some fantastic sports stars, both in and outside of school!
Year 1- Junior Jam
Year 1 have been working in pairs to create their own moving animation videos using equipment from around the classroom.
Year 1- Ball skills
In PE year 1 have been looking at different types of ball skills. This week we’ve been practising rolling and throwing the ball.
Whole School Worship: Happy new year!
It was lovely to have everyone together for our first worship of 2023. Happy new year to everyone! We took a few moments as we lit our advent wreath to think about Jesus and how he came to bring hope, peace, joy and love to the world and how he wanted us live life in all its fullness. A few of our children shared their new year resolutions. Alice said she wants to eat more healthily, Tristen’s is to always have a smile on his face, Sadie is to not talk back to her parents and Kaylen’s is to go outside more. Mrs Ham shared hers which is to be happy. Mrs Ham reminded us all of the kindness coach, John Magee. She introduced us all to the happy tank. We watched a video from John who explained what the happy tank was. One of the elements is to take some time to rest. During this time, we need to focus on our breathing which can help us to find peace. We all focussed together on our breathing for 2 minutes. Beau said that it made her feel calm and Jacob said it made him feel happy. Mrs Ham shared with everybody a happy calendar that we will follow throughout January. We watched a clip from ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’. At the beginning the fox was very angry but by the end he was happy. He filled up his happy tank by the boy, the mole and the horse showing him kindness. This year we need to really focus on how we can be kind to others and to ourselves. Through that, we also need to think about how we can find happiness and spread it to others. We all said a new year prayer together and ended our worship with the song ‘Shine from the inside out’.
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Latest newsletter
Happy new year to you all! I hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday with your loved ones. It has been wonderful to have all of the children back in school although I think it was a bit of a shock to the system being back in school today and I know it certainly felt like that for myself and our staff team. Our class teachers will shortly be sharing information with you about what your child will be learning this half term. As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me via class dojo, on the school yard or via the school office. Thanks for your continued support and we are looking forward to another brilliant year at St Barnabas, Mrs Ham
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Amazing Attendance Award Winners
A huge well done to our amazing attendance award winners! We are so proud of them as they have achieved over 96% this Autumn term. Well done everyone!
Year 1-A visit from Santa!
Wow what a day! Year 1 have had a visit from Santa and all received a special gift for being superstars all year.
Year 1- Christmas party
Year 1 had a great time at our christmas party!
Year 1- DT project
Year 1s DT project is now complete! ✔️ So proud of year 1 as lots of time and effort was put into these. Planning✔️ Painting ✔️ Sawing ✔️ Cutting ✔️ Glueing ✔️ You name it we did it! Great job you bunch of superstars!
Online Safety: Staying safe over Christmas
‘Tis the season to … stay safe online!
Christmas Fair
TODAY IS OUR CHRISTMAS FAIR!! Join us today, Wednesday the 14th December 2022 between 3.30-5.30pm.
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Design and Technology- Christmas Fair
In D.T this term, the whole school have worked their absolute socks off. The children have made wooden reindeer ornaments, festive fruit kebabs with choc drizzle and marshmallows, fire engines, photo frames, festive sausage rolls, seasonal stockings and Christmas themed cushions. The children then had the opportunity to purchase their products at our school Christmas fair.
Year 1- Inter house sports event
A massive thank you to our amazing sports leaders for leading a great inter house dodgeball competition this morning. Year 1 had a great time!
Inter- House Sports in FS and KS1
What a fantastic opportunity we had this morning taking part in the Inter- House Dodgeball Competition. Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 loved every second and we saw some great sportsmanship and tactical decision making. A huge thanks to The Sports Leaders for organising and running the event too!
Celebration Worship
In Celebration Worship this morning we looked at how our children continue to work so very hard in promoting our Christian and British values. We are all so very busy preparing for the Christmas Fair, school performances and Christmas Worship. We had our House Team Winners announced for this half term - Whitehall Park for the second consecutive time- well done. It is so lovely to see all of the children celebrating each others success as we had lots of awards for out of school sports today.
Year 1- Phonics
Year 1 have been working so hard in phonics this week! We are very proud of them!
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Year 1- colours in French
Year 1 have been trying so hard to learn their colours in French. Well done Year 1!
Parents' Evening Reminder
Dear parents and carers, Just a quick reminder that it is parents' evening tomorrow from 2.00pm-6.00pm. We have 90% of our parents booked so far so thank you if you have already booked. If you haven't booked yet, please either click on the following link or send me a class dojo message by 5.00pm today with your available times and I will book you an appointment. https://stbarnabasdarwen.schoolcloud.co.uk/ * Please enter and leave school via the main entrance and all appointments will take place in the hall again. *Please do not park on the carpark as that is for staff only and there will be parents walking across it. *Please be aware that appointments are only 5 minutes long so if there is something that you would like to discuss for longer than that, please arrange a phone call at another date in order to not hold up other appointments. We ask for your patience with appointments as they may not run exactly on time. * A selection of your child's books will be available in the centre of the hall along with class RE and PSHE scrap books. Our class teachers and I are really looking forward to welcoming you into school to share how well your child has settled into their new class and the progress they have made. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
Whole school worship: Peace during Advent
Last week we lit our hope advent candle. Today, Manni lit our peace advent candle. Katie, Eva and Jenson read out our peace prayer. Jesus was sent to bring peace to the world and he is known as the prince of peace. Today, we watched the new John Lewis Christmas advert. Lucy said that the man tried to learn how to skate to make the foster child feel welcome as the child may have felt a little frightened or worried. At the end, the child smiled as they had something in common and she would have felt at peace. For our reflection this week, we need to think about how we can find peace but also how we can bring peace to others.
Christmas Fair 2022
FOSB POST
Christmas Fair 2022: Raffle
FOSB POST
Online Safety: Social media and mental health
You know about social media influencers ✌
Year 1- Christmas fun!
Year 1 have loved getting into the Christmas spirit this week. Our room is looking very magical!
Year 1- DT
Year 1 have been working so hard on their fire engines this week. They have been sawing and painting. We've been so busy and our room has been super messy, but we can't wait to show you the final product!
Year 1- Buddy the elf!
Wow! It was magical in year 1 this morning. Santa sent Buddy the Elf all the way from the North Pole to year 1. He looks super naughty though!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
Every child in school helped to decorate our real Christmas tree this afternoon. It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Our youngest child in school will place the star on the tree tomorrow in Celebration Worship.
Help us keep children safe from button batteries this Christmas
This Christmas, homes will be filled with light-up decorations, festive tea lights, singing Santas and flashing Christmas wands. But these – and many other toys – are powered by button batteries that can badly hurt or kill a child if swallowed. Please see the attached images for further information about how you can keep your child safe from button batteries.
Monday Worship: Advent
Our new vicar Rev Ben joined us for Worship today. We welcomed him into our school family by showing him our huge welcoming smiles. Good things come to those who wait. We are waiting for Christmas and now Advent has started. Advent is a time to prepare. Christians needed to have hope when they waited for Jesus to arrive. During lockdown, we saw lots of rainbows. God kept sending rainbows which gave us hope that there would be better times. During Advent, we need to see children showing kindness, friendship, respect, generosity and all of our Christian and British values. Mrs Ham asked the children what their hope is for the future. Elsa’s hope is to travel to every continent in the world, Sadie’s is to be successful in her job, Ruby’s is for peace and harmony, Grace’s is to get good results, Darcy’s is for peace around the world and Seb’s is to be an engineer. We watched a video about the special hope that was sent to the world: Jesus. We lit our first candle on our Advent wreath and prayed for hope. During our reflection, we thought about how we could turn somebody feeling sad into somebody feeling glad. We had a think about how we can show love and kindness to bring hope to others. We finished our worship by singing ‘may you find peace’.
Celebration Worship
This week we have been learning all about peace and harmony. A huge thank you to Miss Kachwalla for delivering our inter faith workshops all about the religion of Islam. Last night, Mrs Ham went to church to welcome our new vicar, Rev Ben. We will be sharing our vicar with St Paul’s, Hoddlesden and can’t wait to see him at school soon. Today, Sophie and Lola announced our anti-bullying competition winners. There were over 200 entries across the borough and 2 prizes were awarded to our school. 3rd place went to Harlow and Eliza and 2nd place went to Wilson. A huge well done! We have had yet another busy week in school. Well done to our values points award winners: Renee, Archie, Miley, Eden, Hamza, Archie and Darci. Our overall house winner for this week is River Darwen, well done! Our amazing attendance winners for this week are Year 2 and Year 4! We celebrated our super dodgeball team and girls football team who played on Wednesday and Thursday night. We also celebrated individual achievements for swimming, football, Rainbows, dancing and kickboxing. Well done to Leonora, Isaac, Eliza, Sofia, Carmen, Noah, Annabel, Cassidy, Ted and Mason. We finished our worship by singing the song of peace.
Year 1- DT
Last week in DT we had a look at all the equipment we needed to create our own fire engines. Today we designed our fire engines ready to create them next week! We can't wait to show you our finished product
Year 1- Inter Faith Week
Year 1 had a special workshop yesterday afternoon (Thank you to Miss Kachwalla.) They learned all about Islam. The children found out about the 5 rules that Muslims need to follow, about the Arabic language, the name of the holy book and all about the 2 special Eid celebrations. Year 1 then went back to class to try some Sunnah food in class.
Monday Worship: Inter Faith Week
This week we are going to be thinking about how we can bring peace to the world. This links to our British Value of tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Mrs Ham asked the children which biscuit, superhero and toy they preferred. Mrs Ham explained even if you like different things, you can still be friends and we can tolerate each other. Mrs Ham explained how we are all different which is called diversity. We all watched a film where some characters were unkind. The birds treated the other bird differently because he looked and sounded different. They were not showing tolerance. Peace begins with tolerance and respect for everyone. This week we will be also be showing our Christian value of respect to learn all about Islam as part of Inter Faith week. Our very own Miss Kachwalla will be sharing her faith with all of the children in school. This week we are really going to focus on how we can show tolerance and acceptance to everyone. We finished our worship by singing One World.
Parents Evening Information
Dear Parents and carers, we are holding a face to face parents' evening on Wednesday 7th December in our school hall. Our teachers would also like to share your child's books with you too so that you can see how hard they have been working and you can see what they have been learning this term. Five minute appointments will be available from 2.00pm and 6.00pm. If you are flexible and can attend during school hours and after school, please select in school hours then we can give priority for the after school appointments to parents who are working through the day. Appointments can be booked through the same booking system that we used last year. A guide has been added to class dojo. Please click on the following link stbarnabasdarwen.schoolcloud.co.uk to book an appointment. Please note that the information in the software has been taken from our school management system so please use the information such as title, name, email etc that we have on your child's records. Hopefully you will be able to log in with the same details as last year as those of you who attended last time will already have an account. We politely ask that separated parents try to attend the same appointment so that our teachers don't have to repeat the same information and this also ensures that we have enough appointments for each child in school. However, if there are exceptional circumstances that require you to have separate appointments, please let our class teachers know. Our class teachers and I are really looking forward to welcoming you back into school to share how well your child has progressed this term. Please do not hesitate to message me if you have any issues booking an appointment. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
Year 1-Super phonics
Year 1 have been working really hard in phonics. Today’s new sound was “oa”. I'm so proud of all of your sounding out and blending year 1!
Monday Worship: Anti-Bullying Week
Today is the start of anti-bullying week. We have all worn our odd socks to show that we are all special and unique. Yesterday was world kindness day. The children said that every day should be world kindness day! We listened to Andy Day about odd socks day. The theme for anti-bullying week is reach out which means talk to somebody about bullying to say it is not ok. During anti-bullying week, we will focus on the Christian values of friendship, respect, courage and forgiveness. We will also focus on the British Values of mutual respect, individual liberty and tolerance. Bullying is when somebody does something mean and they keep doing it again and again. James said the victim would feel “really sad and emotional”. Mrs Ham explained the acronym STOP. If someone does something Several Times On Purpose then it is bullying and we should Speak To Other People. We played a game where the children had to put their thumbs up if they thought the action was bullying and thumbs down if they thought if wasn’t. Mrs Ham asked what would happen if they saw bullying taking place. James said he would tell them to stop, Eli said tell the teacher. It takes courage to do something about bullying. During our reflection we thought about how we are all different and how we need to treat each other with respect. We finished our worship by listening to Andy and the odd socks song.
Year 1- Remembrance walk
On Friday afternoon we visited Whitehall park and Darwen cemetery to pay our respects for Remembrance Day. We are so proud of year 1 for showing lots of respect!
Year 1- Odd socks day
❌We have kicked off Anti bullying week with odd socks day. We started off the day with an amazing worship about how important it is to reach out to stop bullying. ❌
Poppy Appeal
Good morning, thank you so much for your kind donations to our Poppy Appeal by the Royal British Legion. Our heads and deputies have been busy selling poppy merchandise every break time this week. Our stocks were running low but we have managed to purchase another box of poppy appeal merchandise including more slap bands. Therefore, if you would like to purchase further items such as another slap band or poppy zip tie, please send money into school tomorrow. They will be for sale during celebration worship for parents and carers and at break time for children. Many thanks for your generosity to such a worthy cause.
Librarian Club
Our librarians have been very busy today. They have tidied the library and read stories to key stage one at lunchtime. It has been wonderful to see how enthusiastic they all are.
Year 1- Music
This afternoon in year 1 they have been learning about timbre and different sounds in music. They experimented on the keyboard using different sound effects.
Online Safety: Online Bullying
Outwit the internet bullies with our #WakeUpWednesday guide
Year 1 - DT
This afternoon year 1 have been exploring wheels, chassis’s and axles in our DT lesson. We are looking forward to putting all of our skills together to create our own fire engines in a couple of weeks.
Monday Worship: Remembrance & Lilian Bader- One of the first black women in the Armed Forces
This week we are going to be thinking about Remembrance Day. Mrs Ham asked “why do we wear poppies?” James said that it is about the world war; Harriet said we raise money; Harlow said soldiers gave up their lives to fight for our country; Leonora said that when the war was over, poppies grew in a field; Kaylen said it is to remember those who passed away and Finn said the red of the poppy reminds us of blood. Mrs Ham lit a remembrance candle. Mrs Ham explained to the children what Remembrance Day is for which is this Friday. On Friday, we will be having a 2 minute silence to think about all of those people that died for us. Mrs Ham shared photographs of war memorials in Whitehall park and Bold Venture park. We watched a video together all about Remembrance Day. Mrs Ham then shared the story of Lilian Bader who died a few years ago, aged 97. Nobody would give her a job because of the colour of her skin. When the Second World War broke out, she was 21. Ladies were not allowed to fight in the war and only white men were allowed to fight. Lilian got a job making food for soldiers but after 7 weeks, she was told she had to leave her job as her Dad was not from Britain. Eventually, Lilian managed to get a job in the RAF and helped to fix the planes. Mrs Ham shared a video so that the children could learn more about her and the difference she made. During our reflection, we said a big thank you to everybody who sacrificed their lives in wars and conflict. We thought about our Christian values of service and peace. We finished our worship by singing a song of peace.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Support in School
Good morning parents and carers, please find attached the latest newsletter from the Mental Health Support Team. Mental health and wellbeing is given the highest priority in our school and is a big focus on our school improvement plan each year. We know that if children, staff or parents aren't emotionally well and happy then this can be a barrier to effective teaching and learning. In school both myself and Mrs Wilkinson are trained mental health first aiders who provide support and signpost support to children, parents and staff. We also have an Educational Mental Health Practitioner called Hazel Broadfield who works with us to provide families with support with mental health issues. We also have two trained ELSA's in school, Mrs Hegarty and Mrs Lyons, who provide emotional literacy support to specific children throughout school. Mrs Gardner, our PSHE lead also has a group of Wellbeing Warriors that help to raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing and organise events. They are organising an Odd Socks day next Monday and have led a poster competition to launch Anti-bullying week. If you or your child are experiencing any issues linked to mental health and wellbeing, Mrs Wilkinson and I are always available to speak to on either informally on the yard or through arranging a meeting. Alternatively, there are also sections on our website where different services and groups linked to mental health and wellbeing are signposted. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/key-information/safeguarding https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/community-groups There are also services and groups signposted on the MHST newsletters. MHST run a Parent Support Group. It is an online group which is currently topic based. It is a space where information is shared with discussion between parents. Last group's topic was Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, where we explored what OCD is and how to support your child. There is no pressure to contribute or have your camera or microphone on, there is a chat function to contribute to the session. The next topic is Social Anxiety Wednesday 23rd November 2022 @ 6-7pm online via microsoft teams Please email [email protected] for a link to the meeting.
Invitation to Celebration Worships
Good morning, a quick reminder that parents, carers and grandparents are always very welcome to attend our Celebration Worships on Fridays at 9.15am. Potential parents of children who are due to start school in September are very welcome too. Refreshments will be served from 8.55am too. Parents of children who have received the most values points each week will be invited to attend via class dojo but other parents, carers and grandparents are very welcome to attend to hear about the great things we have been learning, attendance winners and sports stars etc. If your child has an award from an out of school club, please send it into school so they can receive their award on the golden podium and our whole school family can show them how proud we are. We look forward to welcoming you into school. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
Year 1- English Hunting for the Gruffalo
On Monday we went for a walk to Whitehall park to hunt for clues to introduce this term's story for English. We hunted high and low for clues of the story until we found the Gruffalo.
Year 1- Whitehall park visit
Our Gruffalo hunt on Monday finished with a trip to the park. Year 1 showed some super fundamental skills while we played on the park.
Online Safety: Amigo parent guide
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Monday Worship: All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls’ Day
Today is All Hallows Eve. We noticed that the word 'hallow' was in the Lord's Prayer that we sang on the way into Worship. It means Holy. Tomorrow, it is All Saints day which is a Christian celebration. A Saint is somebody who is really special and has done something really wonderful. Leonora said a Saint is somebody who follows God and Jesus’ example. On Wednesday it is All Soul’s Day and we remember everybody who has passed away. We watched a video about the origin of Halloween and All Hallow’s Eve. It was celebrated thousands of years ago by the Celts. Christians then celebrated it and honoured all of the Saints. Mrs Ham asked the children about the names of different Saints. Ella said Saint Barnabas, Matthew said Saint Paul, Miles said Saint James, Jack said Saint George, Charlie-Rose said Saint Joseph and Sofia said Saint Edward. The children noticed that Saints have halos around their heads. Mrs Ham shared some images of different Saints and which country they were the patron saint of. During our reflection, we thought about what we could do to follow Jesus, live our lives well and be Saints ourselves. We thought about what kind of person we really want to be. We ended our worship by singing ‘Oh when the Saints, go marching in’.
Whole school Harvest service in Church
This morning our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children led our Harvest service in church. Our wonderful choir led the singing during the service. We gave thanks to the farmers and our WOW group reminded everybody about the charities that we are supporting, The Mother’s Union in Burundi and DARE (Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise). The children made us all very proud. A huge thank you to all of the parents, carers and family members that attended too, it was lovely to see you all.
Whitehall Park Values Point Winner’s Disco
Whitehall Park team had a brilliant time at their disco for winning the most values points this half term through showing our Christian and British values. They showcased their best dance moves, played musical bumps, played the corners game and had some yummy sweets. I wonder which house team will win the most values points next half term?
Year 1- Hand hygiene
Year 1 have been learning the importance of hand hygiene this morning. We did a couple of experiments to show how important it is to wash our hands. Kasim showed our hands under the special lamp and then showed them again after washing our hands with soap and water. Year one were amazed at the results!
Meet our Key Stage 1 Librarians
Here are our wonderful key stage one librarians. They all had to write Mrs Wilkinson a letter stating why they think they would be a good librarian. The children really impressed Mrs Wilkinson and are excited about starting their new role next half term.
Whitehall Park- Values Winner's Disco and Non-uniform Day
A huge congratulations to WHITEHALL PARK (Green) house team for the most value points this half term for demonstrating our Christian and British Values. The children have voted for their prize and they would like a non-uniform day this Thursday 20th October with a disco at break time. All other house teams still come to school in their uniform on Thursday please and PE kits if it's a PE day.
Monday Worship: Blackburn Diocese Harvest Appeal 2022
During the start of our worship, we discussed what literacy and numeracy meant. We then discussed if any jobs do not require us to read and write. It was really interesting which jobs the children thought didn’t require you to read and write but Mrs Ham proved the children wrong! All jobs require you to read and write. Reading is like a key. If you can’t read, you can’t unlock all of those possibilities. You wouldn’t be able to be a teacher, cook, builder etc. We discussed the British Value of individual liberty. We all have rights. We have the right to education and it is free. This year, the Bishop of Blackburn’s Harvest appeal is supporting the Mother’s Union. The Mother’s union is a Christian charity but it shows the British value of tolerance of all faiths and helps everybody. Mrs Ham showed the children 4 tools and the children explained what each tool does. Mrs Ham explained that in some countries, they do not have the tools to do things that we take for granted: our reading and writing. The Mother’s Union helps people in Burundi which is one of the poorest places in the entire world. In Burundi, families live on £1.50 per day. Our Wow group have set us a challenge to raise £1.50 each to help to support families in Burundi. Wow group explained that we can do chores to help raise the money. Monies can then be paid on parent pay. We can also collect tins and cans for Dare. Mrs Ham has also asked if we can write prayers for families in Burundi. This week, we need to think about how we can help other people and help to make a difference. Our choir group led our song at the end ‘The Harvest of Love’.
Year 1- Autumn walk
This afternoon year 1 have been on a walk around Jack Keys looking for signs of Autumn
Celebration Worship - Value Awards
In Celebration Worship this morning we saw lots of children who had demonstrated our Christian values and British values and have worked hard to achieve great things. We can’t believe how quickly six weeks has gone by and all of our children are growing in confidence and maturity by the day! It’s lovely to see how they all support and respect each other both in and out of the classroom. Well done to all of our Value winners this week.
KS1 - Multi skills festival
On Friday morning we took a team to the KS1 multi skills festival at QEGS Sports Hall. Everyone represented school brilliantly and most importantly had so much fun! We are so proud of everyone for trying their best even if they found something difficult. A massive thank you to Riley and Eva, our Sports leaders who came along to support 11 sports stars!
Year 1- Hello yellow hunt
What a fun session we had today, we went on a hunt to look for 10 yellow objects that had been hidden around our school. The excitement and competitiveness was on another level! Well done to red team for finding all the objects and being the first ones back.
Reception- 1k a day
Wow what a bunch of superstars! Reception’s first time doing the 1k and they were amazing! Hopping, jumping, running like a tigers, stomping like elephants and many more laps of fun!
Year 1- what’s special to us?
On Monday year 1 brought in pictures or objects that are special and unique to them, this linked in nicely with Hello yellow day as they also spoke about their feelings and how their special person or object made feel.
Year 1- Mixing colours
In Art year 1 have been using primary colours to make different shades of a secondary colour.
Year 1-Harvest.
In R.E we have been talking about harvest around the world. Wow what an amazing variety of food God has provided us. We tasted a few different fruits but also different varieties of the same fruit. We tasted red and green apples and discussed if they tasted and smelt the same.
Online Safety: Fortnite
It has been brought to our attention, that a number of our children are playing Fortnite. Please find attached some information about the game and the age recommendation is 13+. You can also find further information on our online safety page: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/useful-links/online-safety
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The Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal- Burundi Harvest Challenge
This morning in worship, the WOW group launched our Harvest appeal challenge. We are asking for donations of £1.50 from parents in exchange for the children completing 3 helpful challenges at home. Each challenge is worth 50p. The challenges can be any of those mentioned in the poster, or any that you and your child decide at home. Donations will go to the Bishop of Blackburn's Harvest Appeal and this year they are supporting the Christian charity, Mothers' Union, to support the delivery of literacy and numeracy programs to women in Burundi so that they can help earn money to support their families. Donations will be collected by next Thursday 20th October on Parent pay. We are also collecting tins and packets for our local Darwen Refugee and Asylum Enterprise (DARE) to support refugees who have had to flee their homes due to conflict. Please send any donations into school next week. Parents and carers are welcome to join us at our Harvest Festival next Thursday 20th October at 9.30am at St Barnabas church. Our WOW group, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes will be leading the service and the rest of the school will be joining in with songs and prayers.
Year 1- Hello Yellow.
What a super busy day we’ve had in year 1. We loved dressing up in yellow and talking about our feelings. We had a special worship for hello yellow day ran by the minions which was amazing ,they told us it’s ok to not feel ok and to speak up if we ever feel like this.
Monday Worship: Hello Yellow Day
Wow, what an uplifting worship we had. We began our worship with our trinity. Mrs Ham then called upon her minions to help her with today’s special worship. We began by dancing along to ‘Happy’. The roof blew off with all of the fabulous singing and dancing. The minions started by asking the children to show different feelings, for example, tired, happy, sad and loved. The minions explained how you are not alone with your mental health and it is important to talk to somebody. The minions explained that Young Minds is a great campaign about opening up about your mental health. The children watched a video about mental health. It explained how we all have feelings that come and go every day. If feelings become too big then it is important to talk to somebody about them. The minions shared some morning affirmations that we can use. If you say an affirmation, it can make you feel happy, brave, confident, strong and determined. The children said affirmations together such as ‘today is going to be a great day’, ‘I am kind’ and ‘I matter in this world’. The minions explained that you can donate to Young Minds which helps provide a service to help young people with their mental health. The minions have created a competition to design your own emoji. The winning emoji will receive a special hamper prize! This week, we will also have a hello yellow hunt on the MUGA every lunchtime. We finished our worship by singing ‘build up’. A huge thank you to our minions- our head boy, head girl, deputy head boy and deputy head girl.
FOSB Remembrance Day Art Competition
FOSB Remembrance Day Art Competition £1 entry on ParentPay 3 Hamper prizes to be won! Deadline: Friday 4th November Art work will be on Display in the School Hall on Friday 11th November during Celebration Worship and some pieces at Whitehall Park
Celebration Worship
Wow what a jam-packed celebration worship we had this morning - our children have certainly be living life in all its fullness this week! We started by sharing smiles with each other in aid of World Smile Day - Mother Theresa taught us that ‘peace starts with a smile’, so let’s smile at one another and continue spread joy and kindness around our school. There have been so many achievements across school this week! We say a big well done to this weeks value point winners Albie, Bluebelle, Alice, Lola, Bobby, Lucy And Eliza who continue to demonstrate our Christian values throughout school. River Darwen are our Value point champions this week. Keep it up! And what fantastic Sports stars we have in our school - well done to Charlie, Miles, Annabel, Penelope, Leonora, Isabella & Charlie, Eliza, James and Lyla. Congratulations to our DPSSA football team for their 10-2 victory against St James, what a result! Well done Rosie for your super reading too. Year 2 and Year 5 are our attendance winners this week - let’s keep up that fantastic attendance to school. We also shared our Remembrance Day art competition with the school and look forward to seeing some fantastic entries for the chance to win a prize hamper. It was lovely to have Lillian back in school with us to finish with a blessing and a prayer. Thank you. What another tremendous week!
Year 1- English
In English year 1 have been looking at the features of an information text.
Year 1-Science
In science year 1 have been looking at the differences and similarities of different animal groups such as mammals and reptiles.
Monday Worship- Black History Month
Last week we focussed on being kind to our neighbour. When we came into worship, we listened to ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin. We discussed what this meant and looked at how it was one of our Christian values and our British Value, mutual respect. Mrs Ham told us about how many years ago, Africans were captured and taken to America to be slaves. The children all agreed that this was unfair. Mrs Ham then role played with Declan and Elsie to show the children how slaves were treated. They weren’t treated nicely which was very unfair. In 1865, slavery was completely banned. In 1926, Carter Woodson created black history week and now we celebrate black history month every October. We watched a video which showed how Ayanna Najuma who was just 7 years old changed the world! Ayanna did a peaceful protest and went into a white only restaurant and waited until they were served. Ayanna asked for a hamburger and a coke but the waitress said no. They went back on day 2 and 3. By day 3, they were served food and the restaurant became integrated. Ayanna said “my voice was little but it was just as important as everybody else’s voice”. Martin Luther King Junior also stood up for what was right and he fought for a long time for everybody to be treated equally. Finally we watched a song video about Rosa Parks and how she fought for change. This week, Mrs Ham asked the children to reflect on anything that we have experienced that seemed unfair. Did we have the courage to speak up? Can we do this going forward? We finished our worship by singing ‘Make a difference’.
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Celebration Worship and Celebrating Values
During our Celebration Worship, Mrs Ham reminded everyone about spreading kindness at school and at home. The children shared some of the kindness that they have been sharing at home, such as, cleaning their bedroom, helping their parents carry in the shopping, opening the doors for teachers and pupils and looking after the environment. We also celebrated the value certificate for each classroom presented to, Year 6 - Eva, Year 5 - Rio, Year 4 - Laila, Year 3 - Grace, Year 2 - Sofiya, Year 1 - Harry and Emily, Reception - Sienna and the winning team this week, Whitehall Park. They have all demonstrated our Christian and British Values throughout the school. A huge well done to everyone. The worship came to an end with a prayer led by Mrs Ham and three children.
Year 1- lunchtime MUGA session.
Lunch time MUGA session for year 1 - Learning how to control the ball in football and using the correct part of their foot to pass the ball to their partner.
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Sports Awards- Celebration Worship
During our celebration worship this morning, the children were presented with their sports awards. Last night, a group from Years 5 and 6 represented DPSSA football. They played superbly and gained 1 victory and a narrow defeat. A massive well done to all of our children who also celebrated awards that they brought in from taking part in activities outside of school. We had awards for gymnastics, running, swimming, dancing, reading and martial arts.
Message from Mrs Ham
Good afternoon parents and carers, I hope you're all well. We have had another brilliant week at St Barnabas this week. To see what has been happening, please see our news page on our website. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news We had our Macmillan Coffee morning on Thursday which wasn't as well attended as in previous years, however we appreciate that many of our parents are busy working and less parents are now working from home. If you would like to donate to such a wonderful cause, you can do via parent pay. A huge well done to Years 2 and 5 for the best attendance across school this week. They will receive an extra fun session on the MUGA with Miss Baxendale. All parents have a legal obligation to ensure their child attends school regularly and on time. Unfortunately we still have children and parents arriving onto the school grounds at 8.55am or after, despite several reminders. We want all of our children to have the best start to their day and to be ready to start their morning learning tasks at 8.55am, which is our official start time. All children are expected to be in their classroom with their coat and bag away for 8.55am, not walking through the school gates at this time. Any child who isn't ready in their classroom at 8.55am will be marked as late in our register. Every second counts so when children are late or off school they are missing valuable learning time. We have several events coming up in the lead up to half term including Hello Yellow day for World Mental Health Day and our Harvest Festival. Please see our events page for further information. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Thank you for your continued support and if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to me on the yard or send me a dojo message. I hope you all have a lovely weekend and I hope this rain eases off and the sun comes out, Mrs Ham
Year 1- Creating freestyle music
Year 1 have been working in pairs to create their own freestyle music using the app garage band.
Online Safety: Green with tech
Make a positive impact that lasts for years, by getting involved in #GreatBigGreenWeek!
Year 1- writing sentences
Year 1 have been writing sentences for the beginning of the story “Lost and found”.
Year 1- labelling features of birds and mammals
Year 1 have been looking at the differences and similarities of birds and mammals, they worked in groups to label the features of these animals.
Monday Worship- Jesus taught us to be kind to everyone
It was lovely to see Reception join us for their first Monday Worship. This morning we looked at two stories that Jesus told. Elsa told us that these stories are called parables. The first parable we listened to was ‘The Good Samaritan’. We discussed how the Samaritan was the loving, kind neighbour. Harry said that your neighbour is everybody. We should be kind to everyone, no matter if they like different things, follow a different religion or look different to us. Next we listened to the parable, ‘The Lost Sheep’. We learnt that we need to care about each other. God loves everybody no matter what. Reception class told Mrs Ham that we are all unique and we should celebrate this. During our reflection, Mrs Ham asked us to think about how we can show kindness all of the time. We finished our worship singing ‘when I needed a neighbour’.
Year 1- fundamental movement skills
Year 1 have worked their socks off this week! In P.E today we have been working on fundamental movements; over arm throwing, under arm throwing, hopping and jumping. Little superstars!
Year 1- Super movers
Year 1 have been travelling in different ways and perfecting their pencil and egg rolls.
Year 1- Busy bees
Year 1 have really settled into their new school routine. We are so proud of them!
Year 1- Counting in french.
Year 1 have been trying really hard in french this week. They have learnt numbers 1-6 in french.
Online safety: Managing grief
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Anti-Smoking and Vaping- Whole School Assembly
This morning, we had a visitor from public health Blackburn and Darwen. The children were asked a series of questions related to keeping ourselves healthy. All the children got involved and asked lots of questions and listened attentively. We all learnt that a recent study which was carried out in Blackburn and Darwen that shops were selling illegal vaping and illegal cigarettes. These drugs can be very harmful, they can cause heart disease, lung disease, cancer, hearing loss, dental problems and it can kill us. The children ended the assembly by singing "We can all make a difference in this world of ours". So, no to smoking and vaping!
Week 2 -Celebration worship
We had a wonderful celebration worship this morning, recognising those children who achieved the most individual value points along with the team winners, Whitehall Park! It was lovely to see mums, dads, grandparents and carers, joining us. If you are able, please do come along it would be lovely to see you. A brew and a biscuit will also be available.
Amazing Awards in Celebration Worship
We celebrated our sports and reading stars this week in ourn Celebration Worship. We had awards for a number of out of school sports such as rugby, highland games, swimming, dancing and horse riding. It was lovely to see so many children pushing themselves out of their comfort zone to achieve great things and encourage others. What little superstars! We also had our amazing attendance winners for the week and they were Year 1 and Year 4!
Year 1- Lost and found
This week year 1 have been a bunch of of superstars! We have looked at the story lost and found. In English we have acted out the story and identified the main characters.
Collective Worship- Launching Our 30 Day Kindness Matters Challenge
This morning, Mrs Ham started our worship by lighting a special candle to remember Her Majesty who sadly died on Thursday after serving our country for 70 years and to think about and pray for our new King Prince Charles III. We also started off our worship by singing the song ‘Kindness’ by Fischy Music to start off our theme of Kindness. Mrs Ham told us that to kickstart our new academic year, we will be taking part in the Kindness 30 day challenge just as we did last year. We discussed why being kind is so important because it can make people feel loved. It is also contagious and can create a ripple effect. We listened to John the Kindness Coach who introduced the 30 day challenge to us and day one of the challenge which is, ‘Don’t say mean words or perform mean gestures to others.’ We then watched a video and talked about the acts of kindness that we could see. Ella-Grace said she saw the man sharing his money so that the little girl could go to school, Harry said he helped the plants to grow by watering them, Carter said he fed the hungry dog and Seb said that he helped the lady with her very heavy cart. Mrs Ham asked us what the effect of this man’s kindness was and we said that people felt loved, valued and special and this is exactly why we should all be kind. We then listened to a story called ‘Kindness Grows’ which shared a special message about friendship and looked at our new display in the library which supports the message that we are all one huge family and need to love and support one another through kindness. Finally, Mrs Ham asked us to reflect on what we can do this week and every week moving forward to create that ripple effect of kindness to make our school an amazing place to be and we sang ‘Rich in Kindness.’ It was also lovely to have Lillian back in worship with us to give us all a blessing.
Our school family tree
Our whole school family created their own unique circle for our family tree. It represents our vision of everyone 'Achieving great things through learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family'. We love that all of the circles are special and unique, just like our children that God created.
Celebration Worship- Celebrating the life of Queen Elizabeth II
This morning in worship, we celebrated the life of our longest service monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. We held a special two minutes silence and looked at some photographs of Queen Elizabeth II throughout her reign as Queen. We watched a special edition of Newsround that told us all about the Queen's life. We also looked at a lovely picture of several rainbows that were sent by God yesterday on the day of her death. We recognised this as a sign of her now being at peace with her late husband Phillip in heaven. We thought about the Christian value of service and how our Queen has served our country and the commonwealth for over seven decades which included her carrying out her state and national duties well into her 90s. We discussed how we can take inspiration from Queen Elizabeth II as she lived life in all its fullness just as our school vision encourages all of us at St Barnabas to do so. We then sang the national anthem. The first verse we honoured Queen Elizabeth II in heaven by singing ‘Queen’ and for the second verse, we sang it with ‘King’ to commemorate the new King, King Charles III. We ended our worship with some beautiful prayers from Sofia, Mason, Harlow and Seb who prayed for Queen Elizabeth II in heaven, King Charles III and the people of Ukraine. We also joined the choir in singing the song ‘Sing’ which was created by Gary Barlow to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
First week message from Mrs Ham
Good afternoon parents and carers, we have had a fantastic first week back at St Barnabas. We have loved seeing the children looking so smart in their school uniforms and they have been learning lots in their new classrooms. We started the week with a special celebration of our school being 50 years old and sadly ended the week celebrating the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a lovely worship this morning where we sang the National Anthem together for the last time for the Queen and for the first time for the new King Charles III. Thank you to everyone who joined us this morning. In the coming days we will be creating a community prayer space, similar to the Pray for Ukraine prayer area where our school family can leave their thoughts and prayers for Her Majesty the Queen and her family. There is likely to be a bank holiday on the day of the funeral so school will be closed on that day. I will let you know as soon as I find out the date. For further information about what your child has been learning this week and about our special worship this morning, please see our news section on our website. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news or our individual class pages. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/classes-curriculum/class-pages On Monday we will be sending you further information about the curriculum that your child will be taught this half term and meet the teacher videos. For all upcoming events, please see the following page. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events We wish you all a wonderful weekend with your loved ones. Take care and God bless the Queen, Mrs Ham
Celebration Worship- Fridays at 9.15am
Dear Parents and Carers, you are very welcome to join us for our Celebration Worship each Friday at 9.15am. Refreshments will be served in the hall from 8.45am. This week class teachers will be sharing how well the children have settled into their new classes. From next Friday we will be presenting awards to the child who receives the most Values Points in each class and there will also be class attendance awards. Parents will be contacted on the Wednesday evening and invited to Celebration Worship on Friday. Please send in any awards from home such as sporting clubs, library challenges etc and we will present them to the children and they can stand on the golden podium whilst our school family shows them how proud we are of them. Please note that the Reception class will not be joining us this Friday or next Friday as they are being settled into big school.
Year 1- 50 years of St Barnabas
This afternoon we had a walk to the old sites of St Barnabas and observed some changes such as the old school (old culvert school) now being a Nursery and the old St Barnabas across the road is now apartments and St Barnabas house nursery being the old canteen where the school children had to cross the road to collect their dinner. We also talked about how different our school is as we have much more space and many more facilities.
Year 1- Muga fun this lunchtime.
Today on the MUGA year 1 have been working on improving their hand eye coordination. Little superstars! ⭐
Collective Worship- Our Values
This morning in worship, we started our worship by reading our school vision, ‘Achieving things through learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family’ and ‘That they shall have life, life in all its fullness’ (John 10:10). We discussed what this meant and Eva and Harlow said that it means enjoying your life and making the most of it, Mason said it means trying hard and striving to do your best and Jake said it means being the best person that you can be and looking out for others. Mrs Ham then reminded us that in order to achieve our school vision and to make St Barnabas a special environment to grow and learn, we must follow our School Christian Values of courage, friendship, service, forgiveness, generosity, respect and encouragement and the British Values of Democracy, Rule of Law, Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs, Mutual Respect and Individual Liberty. We learnt how each finger on our hand refers to each individual British Value. Mrs Ham then explained that all members of our St Barnabas staff will be looking out for our children demonstrating these Christian Values and British Values and rewarding this behaviour. Please click to read more.....
Our First Whole School Worship- Celebrating 50 Years of St Barnabas
This morning, Years 1-6 gathered together for our first whole school worship of the new academic year and it was wonderful to have all of our children back together again looking smart in their school uniforms. Mrs Ham told us all that our current school building was 50 years old yesterday and this week we will be taking part in some activities to celebrate this. Please click to read more.....
First day fun!
What a super first day back in school! It’s been lovely to see the children’s huge smiles when meeting back up with their classmates! They have all settled brilliantly into their new classes and we are so proud of them.
Welcome back to school
Good morning parents and carers, we hope you and your child/ren have had a wonderful Summer holiday and have made some lovely memories together. Please click to read the rest.
Summer reading challenge
Don’t forget to sign your child up to the 2022 #SummerReadingChallenge at one of our local Darwen or Blackburn libraries. The challenge is FREE. If you send in your certificate in September, we will present it to your child in Celebration Worship. #welovetoread #summerfun
Celebration Worship and End of Year Awards
Wow, what a celebration worship! We started off by saying a huge well done to The RotaKids for their fundraising efforts this year. Together with Miss Kachwalla and Mrs Lyons, they have raised an amazing £939.00. With this money, they have bought playground equipment for KS1 and KS2, board games for wet playtimes and donated money to Macmillan Cancer support, Christian Aid and East Lancs Hospice. We then had heard from our Reception to Year 5 teachers who presented their end of year awards for progress, star of the year and pupils’ pupil. A huge well done to all of these children, you have certainly worked extremely hard this year and deserve all the success that you have achieved. A special well done to Sophie in Year 4 for being awarded the Sharon Kay cup for Kindness. What an achievement! We then celebrated and said well done to our children who have achieved success out of school this week. We congratulated Freddie for winning a football tournament, Lyla-Grace who will be starting reception next year for her super tap dancing, Isaac for success at beavers, Lola who received a letter from the queen to say thank you for her jubilee celebration card, Lola, Scarlett, Penelope and Carmen for their swimming success, Eliza for her football and cricket success, Grace for her dance success, Archie for players’ player for football and his darts success and Amelia for her gymnastics success. We also said a huge well done to children who have achieved awards in school. We congratulated our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children who attended Witton athletics on Monday evening for wonderful sportsmanship, encouragement and coming 1st place, our Year 3 swimmers for their efforts this year during their swimming lessons and the Year 6 children said a very special thank you to Mrs Gardner for all of her time, continued effort and sports coaching during their time at St Barnabas. They brought her close to tears. Finally, we ended our worship with some beautiful prayers and a blessing from Lillian.
Year 1 Maths- Telling the time to the hour
Today in Year 1, we have been telling the time to the hour. We read and made o’clock times and had a go at drawing the hands on clocks to represent various o’clock times. We even had a go at matching daily events and activities to the correct times e.g. bedtime at 7 o’clock and starting school at 9 o’clock. Well done Year 1.
Monday worship: Hope
Today in our sunny outdoor Monday worship, we looked at the word ‘hope’. Mrs Ham read out a bible passage about hope. During these next few weeks, we will be thinking about our Year 6 and we hope they will continue to shine when they move to high school. We discussed our hopes. Lyla said that she hopes she can go in her paddling pool, Harry hopes that everyone has a roof over their heads, Dominic said he hopes that COVID stops and Aidan hopes to be a doctor. Mrs Ham shared a piece of artwork by Banksy that says ‘there is always hope’. Some children agreed with this but some children didn’t. Ella said “things don’t always go your way”. Instead of just saying ‘I hope’, we could do something to make things happen. We could also ask God for help if we ever think there is no hope. We ended our worship by singing ‘we need hope’.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we heard from our Infant and Junior teachers about how all of our wonderful children have been living life in all its fullness and preparing to move up to their new year groups in September. We also heard about the amazing time that our Reception and Year 2 children had on their trip to Blackpool Tower and Blackpool Zoo and our Year 6 children on their recent trip to London. Well done to these year groups for making the most of the experiences and representing St Barnabas amazingly well. We heard from some of the children in Year 6 who shared their London highlights. Dominic enjoyed the absolutely incredible acting during the Matilda performance, Noah enjoyed the boat cruise and learning about all of the famous landmarks and Sienna enjoyed singing the national anthem outside Buckingham Palace. We then congratulated many of our children for their sporting achievements. In the infants, we celebrated James, Lottie and Grace with certificates for their swimming success, Martha for being the star of the week at gymnastics, Alice for super listening and concentration at Rainbows and Eliza for taking part in the Bolton Iron Kids 1K run last weekend and gaining 9th place. In the Juniors, we celebrated Ted on for his sports success at Turton young farmers and our Year 6 Bee Stinger Netball Team who represented Blackburn with Darwen at Lancashire School Games on Tuesday. Mrs Gardner commented that the team embraced the experience and had a blast. Finally, we ended with some beautiful prayers from Mason, Seb and Lily and a blessing from Lillian. Also, just a reminder that it is our St Barnabas Summer Fair. FOSB have been working incredibly hard to make this a success and they look forward to welcoming you all tomorrow for a fun filled day on the school field.
Year 1 PE
Earlier in the week, Year 1 took part in an adventure trail as part of their PE session. They had to work together as a team to identify and recall objects that they found along the way.
Monday Worship: The Lord’s Prayer
Today we discussed where the Lord’s Prayer came from. It is a special prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. We discussed how we will hear this throughout our lives. To start our worship, we said the Lord’s Prayer altogether. We then discussed what this prayer meant in more detail. We discussed what having the best Daddy in the world would be like. David said “funny”, Mathew said “helpful”, Dominic said “cool”, Jacob said “playful”, Kaylen said “someone who listens” and Elsie said “brave”. Mrs Ham continued and said someone who is strong, patient, gentle and dependable. Everyone in the whole world has a special Dad in heaven. God is there to support you, help you and will always listen to you. Today we watched a video called ‘The Prodigal son’. We learnt that one son spent the money on nice clothes, a holiday, parties and nice food. After he has spent all of his money, he had to go back to his dad. He felt miserable, full of regret and embarrassed. Instead of his Dad punishing him, he welcomed him back with open arms. His Dad forgave him for his actions. Mrs Ham explained that in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask for forgiveness when we do things wrong. God will always forgive us as long as we ask for forgiveness and learn from our mistakes. We reflected today on how sometimes we use God’s name inappropriately. We need to think carefully about how we use those words as they are very special and very holy. We then watched a video of the parable of the mustard seed. We discussed what we think about heaven. Grace said “dreamy”, Lily said “calm”, David said “fluffy clouds”, Ella said “peaceful” and Seb said “comfortable”. The mustard seed grew into a big bush and all of the birds were welcome to come to it. This is just like heaven where everybody is welcome. Small things can make a huge difference. This links with our kindness tree, small acts of kindness can make a huge difference and our school can reflect heaven on earth. This week we will focus on how we can live life in all its fullness just like God would want us to. We ended our worship by singing ‘The Mustard Seed’.
Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we heard from our EYFS, KS1 and KS2 teachers about how we have been living life in all its fullness. All of our teachers mentioned how all of the children showed wonderful resilience and encouragement at our sports day last week. We then celebrated some sports achievements that have been happening in school. On Tuesday, we had three of our Year 5 children take part in a gymnastics competition at St Bedes and on Thursday, we had some boys attend the Year 4 Football Festival at Green Lane. Both teams represented school amazing well and showed true St Barnabas spirit. Then we celebrated some out of school sports awards. In the infants, we awarded Lyla in with a certificate for swimming 15m without armbands, Elliott for player of the week at football, Alexis for super listening at Rainbows, Eliza for achieving brilliance in her horse grooming, Annabelle for improving her speed in cycling and Eden for attending the Jubilee Sports Day in the Lake District. In the the Juniors, we celebrated Archie, Ross and Charlie for their footballing abilities . They played at a tournament in Blackburn and got to the finals for Mill Hill Juniors. They didn’t come first but they got the fair play award which is absolutely amazing- Well done boys! We also congratulated Manni for achieving a yellow belt in jiu jitsu. Finally, Lillian ended our worship. She asked us what we were thankful for and we said thank you for our teachers and school staff, our houses, our amazing world, our school, our trees, everyone that is alive, churches, our families, our food and drink, our toys and teddies. We also said a beautiful blessing, ‘May God bless you and keep you.’
Year 1 Local History
Year 1 have been exploring modern-day Darwen. We have been looking at the different types of shops that we currently have on our local high street, and we will be comparing these to the types of shops that we had in the 1950s. We discovered that we have takeaways, supermarkets, shops that sell electronics, pharmacists, hairdressers, beauticians, charity shops and discount stores. We wonder how this will compare to the 1950s?
Online Safety
The biggest-selling video game of all time
Darwen Library- Summer Reading Challenge 2022
This morning, Angela who works at Darwen library visited school to invite us all to participate in ‘The Summer Reading Challenge 2022.’ The challenge is free of charge and involves children reading 6 library books between 1st July and 30th September, including picture books and audio books. There are various prizes awarded for each book that is read and returned, and those who complete the challenge will receive a certificate and a medal. If your child completes the challenge, we would love for them to be bring these into school so that we can present them during whole school celebration worship. Anglea told us that there is something for everyone at the library. However, if there is a specific book that the children are looking for but they don’t have it, it’s her promise that they will get it for them on request. If your child does not yet have a library card, the library can quickly and easily enrol them as a library member for free and no ID is required. Children without library cards may still join the Summer Reading Challenge, please enquire at Darwen Library about this. We hope that as many of our children as possible will take on the challenge. Happy reading!
Year 1 - Refugee Week
In Year 1, we watched an animation called ‘Make them Feel at Home.’ This video told a story about a young refugee named Santa and a toy dinosaur named Dino and their difficult journey to find safety in the UK. The video helped us to understand how difficult and nerve-racking it must be for refugees having to leave their home and move to a new place that is unfamiliar to them. We reflected on this video and thought about ways in which we can help to make refugees feel at home, and we also thought of some beautiful prayers.
EYFS & KS1 Sports Day
Our Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes showed lots of courage this morning in our Sports Day. They were just like St Barnabas- the Encourager too as they cheered each other on and supported each other.
Monday Worship
Today we learned that we are going to be sharing a vicar with St Paul’s Primary School. We found out all about Saint Paul. Saint Paul was not a very nice man and as a result, he was blind for 3 days. After this time, he spent the rest of his life finding out about God and telling everybody about Jesus. St Paul found Saint Barnabas, the encourager. He encouraged people to like Saint Paul and they went out together to spread the word of God. Saint Paul changed and became a better person. Everybody can change and can do the right thing. Leonora said “we can forgive them”, Ella-Grace said “we can include them” and Jack said “we could share with them”. At our school, we are all encouragers. This week it is national sports week and the theme is belonging. We can all encourage each other and we can all help each other to feel a part of our school family. By doing this we can live out our vision by learning and growing together in a love-filled Christian family. Mason said “we can support each other”, Aisha said “we can give them a thumbs up” and Grace said “we can cheer and encourage everybody”. This week we are going to think about how we can build each other up and how we can be like Saint Barnabas the encourager. We finished our worship by singing ‘Build up’.
Friday Celebration Worship
This week in celebration worship, we heard from our class teachers about how we have been living life in all its fullness. We also congratulated our Year 1 children on completing their phonics screening check and our Year 4 children on completing their times table check with nothing other than courage and determination. We then celebrated all things sports. We celebrated a huge variety of out of school individual award successes. Well to done to Lennox, Albert, Lola, Sofia and Charlie for their swimming successes, Jack for trying new foods at Butterflies after school club, Eliza for her duathlon and football, Elliott for his football, Isaac for his biking, Harry for his goal keeping and Mathew for playing football against various academies. We also celebrated the success that we’ve been having with our sports achievements in school and there has been a lot! Well done to our High 5s netball team who will be representing BwD borough in the Lancashire School Games in July, Our DPSSA netball silver medalists after their success last night at DVHS, our DPSSA cross country team who have recently completed three very gruelling courses over the past few months and were presented with both individual and group medals as well as coming 2nd overall as a team, our Year 3/4 Quad kids team who came 3rd place out of 14 schools, our Year 6 orienteering team who came 5th out of 14 schools and our gifted and talented netball players who took part in a session at BRFC on Monday. Wow, Team B are unstoppable! Finally, we needed our worship with some lovely prayers and a sing along.
Year 1 Science
Today in science, Year 1 measured their hand spans and the length of their feet. They worked in groups to construct a bar chart so that they could easily compare the measurements. In some groups, it was true that people with the longest feet had the biggest hand spans and people with the smallest hand spans had the shortest feet but in other groups it wasn’t. Therefore, we decided that it is only sometimes true. We are going to continue our pattern seeking in science next week by exploring questions such as do people with the longest feet jump the furthest? And can people with the biggest hand spans hold the most sweets? We are excited to continue our investigations.
Year 1 Platinum Jubilee Afternoon Tea
Year 1 really enjoyed their Platinum Jubilee afternoon lunch today.
Year 1 Geography- Creating a Messy Map
Year 1 have been looking at the immediate local area in their geography lessons. They have collaboratively worked together to create a messy map to represent this. They have included our school, Everest Pharmacy, The Tramway Cafe, The bowling green, Whitehall Park, The Park Pub, St Barnabas Church, the local shop, the post office, the graveyard, the hairdressers, bungalows, terraced houses, detached houses, semi-detached houses and Jack’s Key Clough with its reservoir and footbridge.
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration Day
On Friday 27th May we will be having a special day to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Children may come to school dressed in red, white and/ or blue or they may want to wear a queen, princess, king or prince clothing. Please do not go out and buy anything new though. In the morning we will have a special 'Royal Variety Performance' with 20 talented acts. The Mayor and Mayoress of Blackburn with Darwen will be attending and parents are welcome to come and watch too. At lunchtime we will be having a Royal Variety Afternoon Tea and weather permitting we will have a picnic outside. Each child will receive a special commemorative Platinum Jubilee Coin from our Trust and a special Jubilee book. What a great way to end such a brilliant term and to show our thanks to her Majesty the Queen for her service to our country over the last 70 years!
Celebration Worship
This morning we had lots to celebrate in our Worship. Year 4 and 5 received their certificates for their courage and commitment at PGL. We had plenty of sports stars with our high fives netball team storming through to the finals next week and we had plenty of personal achievements with super swimmers in the infants, cycling awards, gymnastics, Morris dancing and athletics. We also announced the 6 winners of the Darwen Rotary Club competition for the Queen’s Jubilee - a big well done to Alice, Summer, Ella, Wilson, Isaac and Eva for their entries and a big well done to everyone who entered. We will keep you updated with any further developments in the competition and the date for when the winning entries will be displayed in Darwen.
Community Groups
We have lots of different community groups and activities for children and/or adults that meet either in our school or in our local community. Please see our community groups page for further information. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/community-groups We are always looking for different opportunities for our children to be involved in a variety of activities out of school and we love hearing about their achievements in our weekly Friday Celebration Worship. If you run a community group or club and you would like us to promote it, please send any flyers to [email protected] and we will add them to our website.
Gift for the Queen Competition Entries
We have had so many fantastic entries for the Jubilee gift competition with Darwen Rotary Club! Lots of children have made such thoughtful gifts for the Queen, so a big thank you to all those who entered. Unfortunately, we can only select 6 finalists to submit to Darwen Rotary Club for judging and we will be announcing these in Celebration Worship tomorrow with a small prize for each winner.
Year 1 Art- printing with with Lego Duplo
As part of their art unit, Year 1 have been inspired by Lowry. They first explored his artwork and some of the buildings in Darwen such as the library, India Mill, the laundrette as a part of terraced houses and Darwen Market Hall. Today, they used their drawings and turned them into prints using black paint and Duplo Lego.
Year 1 Phonics- real and nonsense words
Year 1 have been practising reading real and nonsense words in some extra phonics sessions.
Year 1- Monday Lunchtime on the MUGA
Year 1 enjoyed their lunchtime on the MUGA yesterday lunchtime. They played different variations of tig including mega tig and dodgeball tig.
KS1 Story and Craft Club
Today in after school club, we read The Rainbow Fish. We had a great discussion about the book which reinforces important messages about friendship and kindness. We then decorated our own rainbow fish using a weaving technique and added further decoration using felt tips. The children were very creative in their designs.
Year 1 Class Worship- Christian Aid Week and The Good Samaritan
Today in class worship, Year 1 listened to the story of ‘The Good Samaritan.’ We learnt that Jesus told this story to help us know how to be good friends to people in need which is particularly fitting this week during Christian Aid Week. After the story, we reflected on ways in which we can be a Good Samaritan. The children suggested donating their old clothes, toys and books to children in need or selling these and donating the money to charities such as Christian Aid and saying prayers for people in need around the world. They also suggested giving each other hugs, smiles, a helping hand, compliments and sharing their equipment with each other. To end our worship we had some beautiful prayers where we asked God to help us to be a Good Samaritan and to pray for people around the world with unclean water and no shelter. We also sang, ‘We Can Make a Difference’.
Year 1-Local Area Walk
Year 1 went on a local area walk this afternoon as part of their geography unit. They explored the area and recorded the types of houses (semi-detached, terraced, detached, bungalow, caravan and flats) that they saw on their journey. They also had to follow a map to find some of the human and physical features that are local to our school such as the post office, the shop, the chemist, Jack’s Key Reservoir, Whitehall Park and the hairdressers. As we were walking past our local shop (Bargain Booze on Bolton Road), a very kind lady who worked in the shop gave each of us a galaxy chocolate bar. We were very thankful for her kindness and enjoyed our chocolate bar sat down at Whitehall Park.
Collective Worship- Christian Aid Week and Courageous Advocacy
This morning in worship, we introduced Christian Aid week. First we discussed the phrase, ‘Your Kingdom Come.’ Mrs Ham asked us to imagine what heaven was like. We said that we imagine it as peaceful and calm and when we use the phase, ‘Your Kingdom Come,’ this phrase means that God would like our world on earth to represent heaven where the world is fair and at peace. Then Mrs Ham discussed the term ‘Courageous advocacy’ with us all which is the act of speaking out against injustice (wrongdoing) and then we watched and listened carefully to a video to see some of the injustice that is happening in the world. The children shared what they saw. Lily saw a sea turtle trapped in a fishing net, Skye said that there were people who were hungry, Jack said there were people without clothes, Harlee and Manni said they noticed people who were extremely thirsty, James said that he saw a man who didn’t have much furniture in his house and Lucy said there were people living in unclean places. Mrs Ham asked us what Jesus would like us to about this injustice. Desmond said we should try to be like Jesus and love our neighbour. Mrs Ham agreed and discussed how we all need to be a courageous advocate and love our neighbours as Jesus did. We then looked at some inspirational people who were courageous advocates and spoke out for those who didn’t/don’t have a voice such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, David Attenborough and Marcus Rashford. We also recognised some children in school who have recently stood up for something that they believe in. These courageous advocates were Neve, Lily, William and Charlotte who recently promoted initiatives to raise money for Ukraine and East Lancs Hospice. Lastly, we ended our worship with a video called ‘Starfish’ which summed up the message that small things can make a huge difference and Mrs Ham asked us to reflect on small things that we can do in the next week and beyond to help to make a difference such as donating to the local food or clothes bank and reusing and recycling plastic.
Year 1 Maths- Sharing equally into groups
This morning, Year 1 were introduced to the symbol divide and have been sharing counters and cubes into equal groups.
EYFS and KS1 Mental Health Workshop
This morning, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had the pleasure of welcoming Erika and Pete from the Lily Jo project for a fun and energetic workshop focusing on our mental health and wellbeing. Erika talked about our three types of health. The first which was our physical health, the second which was our spiritual self and the third which was our mental health. Erika told us that today we would be focusing on our mental health. She explained that our mental health is our our thoughts, feelings and emotions and it is our responsibility to look after it. However, sometimes we struggle with this like being on a rollercoaster. Sometimes we are on the top of the rollercoaster feeling amazing, somewhere in the middle or on the bottom of the rollercoaster feeling down and blue. After this, we learnt how to become a hero of our mental health. We learnt all of the tricks and tips for this. They were: 1) Helping others. We shared ideas such as sharing your toys, giving people a hug, helping at home with the dishes, asking your teacher if they need help and standing up for something that is wrong. 2) Exercising such as taking part in swimming, cycling, play football, running, jogging, jumping or playing with your friends. 3) Relaxing such as watching TV, having a nap, reading a book, having a bath and doing breathing exercises. 4) Opening up by talking to a grown up about how you are feeling. Helping, exercising, relaxing and opening up spells the secret code of HERO. Then, Erika introduced her three very special friends who shared their experiences with us to help us become unstoppable heroes. Marcus was feeling sad because he was being bullied online. People were leaving him nasty comments online. However, he stood up against this and chose to be kind to people to show that kindness is stronger than hate. Jade was feeling worried because she wants to be an amazing singer. However, she got worried about standing on the stage in front of lots of people. She then opened up to someone she trusted to conquer her fear and be brave enough to display her talent. Tyler was feeling angry because he doesn’t know how to express his feelings and emotions. However, he found the strength to open up to someone close to him which made him feel positive and more confident talking about his feelings. Then we listened to and joined in with a couple of songs. The first one was called ‘Unstoppable’ and we said I am unstoppable (pointing at ourself), you are unstoppable (pointing at a partner) and we are unstoppable (pointing in the air). We watched a video of an unstoppable child called Skye Brown who loved to skate and sing. Although people said she was too small to skate, she proved them wrong and went on to be a very successful skater in the Olympics. This proves that with hard work and determination we can be successful. The second song was called ‘Be the Change’ and we all had a boogie and sing along as exercising and singing is good for our mental health. We also enjoyed the message of us being in control of our own mental health.
Year 1- Experiencing a Mock Baptism
This afternoon, Lillian welcomed us into St Barnabas Church to experience a baptism first hand. Lillian baptised baby Poppy and made the parents, godparents and other guests make promises to look after Poppy and teach her to be kind and respectful. We also made a promise to be good role models to her. Lillian showed us the font and blessed Poppy with the water to symbolise that she had been baptised. Lillian told us that it isn’t only babies that get baptised but you can in fact be baptised at any age. Lillian also showed us the baptism candle which represents the light of God and the baptism register which has all of the names of people that have been baptised in St Barnabas church for many many years. We said thank you to Lillian for showing us what happens at a baptism and making us feel so welcome. We then went back to school and had a little party to celebrate Poppy’s baptism. We sang the song ‘Shine From the Inside Out,’ enjoyed a drink of juice, a biscuit and played some fun party games.
Year 1- Lowry Inspired Artwork
This afternoon, Year 1 have been looking at artwork by LS Lowry. We noticed that his artwork was often based around a city landscape. We spotted buildings such as terraced houses, churches, shops and factories. We were then inspired by Lowry to draw some of these types of buildings that feature in Darwen such as India Mill, the row of terraced houses where the laundrette is positioned and Darwen Market Hall. First, we took our time to draw the outline of our building/s thinking about the size and shapes and then we took our time to add details to our buildings such as windows, roofs and doors. We can’t wait to use Duplo next week to make a print of our chosen building.
FOSB Summer Fayre
Calling all local business, youth clubs, charities, entertainers (ALL STALLS WELCOME!!!)
Year 1 Science
As part of their science unit on plants, Year 1 went on a hunt to find wild plants. They saw yellow dandelions, white dandelions, daisies, stinging nettles, bluebells, foxgloves, poppies, violas, forget-me-nots, buttercups and primroses. Next week, they'll be looking at garden plants.
Year 1 Maths- Making Arrays
Today in maths, Year 1 have been making arrays.
Year 1-Class Worship
Today in our class worship, we talked about and celebrated differences. We read Danielle’s story from Picture News about her experiences of living with dwarfism. We talked about how Danielle doesn’t deserve the mean comments or laughter that she sometimes faces from strangers and how this must make her feel upset, devastated, uncomfortable and angry. We then read a story about Esther’s first day at school. Esther started a new school where she had been judged before people got to know her so we talked about how we must get to know people’s likes and dislikes rather than making our own judgements about them. To end our worship, we had some beautiful prayers from some children who held those with mental and physical disabilities in their prayers and prayed for the world to show kindness and respect to others.
Friday Celebration Worship
Despite it being a very short week in school this week, we still had lots to celebrate in Worship this morning. We reflected on how we have been showing generosity this week and shared our well wishes for Year 6 in preparation for their SATs next week. There were sports stars galore on the golden podium, as we had many children showing us how they are living life in all its fullness. A big well done to Charlotte who has raised £710 for East Lancs Hospice by running a mile a day! We also had football achievements (with a signing for Manchester United) and awards for swimming, cycling, martial arts and cubs! Wow, what another brilliant week at St Barnabas!
Year 1-PSHE
During their PSHE lesson, Year 1 have been learning about how to dial 999 if there is an accident or emergency and what to say.
Year 1 Maths
Year 1 have been learning about identifying and making equal groups in their maths lesson.
Whole school Worship: Generosity
Today during our worship we discussed what generosity means and why it is important to be generous. The children discussed how we can be generous. They said we can give to charity, help others, smile and make others happy. We looked at how important it is to give up our time to be generous and reflected on what this means. The children said they could stop playing on their games and could stop watching TV so that they would have more time to give to others. We looked at Mother Teresa and how she dedicated herself to helping others. This week we will be reflecting on how we can be generous and to see if we can create a positive ripple effect. We will also reflect on being truly grateful for anything that we receive.
Friday 29th April- Celebration Worship
Today in celebration worship, we reflected on Monday’s worship about St George and how we have shown our Christian value of courage this week just as he did. Annabelle in Year 2 said she showed courage by diving into the swimming pool and Oscar in Year 3 challenged some behaviour that he didn’t think was right. Then, our wonderful choir performed the song ‘Time to Shine’ for our whole school as they did last night at Ewood Park for an audience of 4,200. We then heard from our cross country team who participated in the DPSSA cross country on Tuesday night and showed amazing sportsmanship and our netball team who played against St Peter’s in the DPSSA netball league and won 11-0. A special well done to Kaycie who was voted player of the match for her determination. We then celebrated our out of school award winners. Well done to Katie, Harlow and Eva in Year 5 for their team success in coming 2nd in their football tournament, Eliza in year 1 for her success in horse riding and achieving trainer of the week in football, Daisy in Year 1 and Grace in Year 2 for earning a special badge at rainbows for learning sign language and Charlotte in Year 5 for her yellow belt in jujitsu and for fundraising for East Lancs Hospice. She has raised £600 by running a mile a day for 40 days. Amazing work Charlotte! We heard from our teachers who shared their highlights from the week. A huge well done to our whole school for their achievements and successes in class. Finally, Mrs Ham reminded us about the upcoming Royal Variety show that we’ll be having in school on 27th May to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee and we had some beautiful prayers from David and Lucy to end our worship.
Year 1 Science- Plants
This afternoon, Year 1 have been exploring the different stages of plant growth. They created their own animations on Purple Mash to illustrate these stages and then played them back to enjoy watching their plant grow. Some children even added visiting bees to their plants to pollinate them, their plant being watered and seeds dropping off their plants to form new ones. They also explained what the different parts of the plants do such as the stem transporting the water and the nutrients from the roots to the plant.
Year 1- Science Results
This afternoon, Year 1 had a look at the results of their science investigation. The children discovered that our plant that was given sunlight, water and soil grew to be healthy, our plant without water didn’t grow, our plant without soil didn’t have the correct nutrients to grow and our plant without sunlight did grow but it died and didn’t have a green colour.
Year 1- Exploring Volume and Capacity
Today, Year 1 were introduced to volume and capacity. They had to fill the containers with the correct volume of water to match the following descriptions: full, empty, nearly full, nearly empty, more than half full and less than half full.
Year 1 Geography
This afternoon, Year 1 took part in some fieldwork as part of their geography unit. They used to a map to locate and identify some of the human and physical features of our school ground. Then they completed an activity where they had to describe the location of some of the human and physical features that we had seen and other areas of school from our classroom e.g. the rainbow room, the staff room and the office. They had to identify those that were near such as the MUGA and the staff room, some that were further away such as the junior playground and the woodland and some that were the furthest away such as our field.
St George’s Day Worship
As we entered worship today, we listened to ‘Jerusalem’. On Saturday it was St George’s day. We discussed what we think of when we think about England. Carlton said “football”, Ted said “the sea”, Jake said “Formula 1” and Oscar said “our home” to name a few! We looked at a few favourites from England which included apple crumble, roast beef dinner, cups of tea, Charles Dickens, the white cliffs of Dover and Stonehenge. We looked at how things have changed in England. In the past, ladies did jobs at home whereas now ladies can have careers. We used to have lots of factories for workers but now many people work in jobs to provide services. We learnt about St George. St George died from what he believed in. He believed in God and St George stood up for what was right. We looked at our British values and how we follow them in school. We discussed how we are tolerant, how we respect each other, how our opinions are important, how we can make our own choices and how we need to follow the rules in school. During our reflection we thought about when we have had to show courage. This week we re going to focus on showing courage and standing up for what is right.
Celebration Worship
Today, we welcomed our parents back to Celebration Worship after two years. It was wonderful to have you all back. We then introduced our whole school worship by talking about Earth Day. We discussed how it's important to show respect to the earth as God created it for us. We were especially proud of Year 2 who did some litter picking around Darwen yesterday during their local area walk in Geography, and our other classes are looking forward to some further reflection on the importance of looking after the earth in their classes later today. We then celebrated some in and out of school achievements. We heard from our class teachers about how our children are living life in all its fullness. We said thank you to some boys across school who came into school in the holidays to take part in a darts competition and we also said a huge thank you to WOW group for their success in leading their first messy church on Tuesday this week. Well done WOW group! We then celebrated some individual sports superstars. Well done to Archie in Year 4 for his darts and football achievements, Jason, Lennox, Cassidy and Isaac for their swimming success, Cassidy for her gymnastics success, Olivia for very good listening and being sensible at rainbows and Mason for his dance talent . We had some notices from Mrs Govan and our Head and Deputy Head girl. Mrs Govan told us about the competition that is currently running linked to the Queen's Jubilee. Please see Class Dojo for further details. Our Head and Deputy Head girl told us about the new playtime equipment that they have ordered with some of the money that we raised as a school from the movie nights before half term. Finally, we ended our worship with some lovely prayers from Lily and Mason.
Parents’ evening -thank you!
Thank you to everyone who attended parents’ evening last night. We had 89% of our parents attend which was great. 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 phone call or meeting. A quick reminder that parents and carers are now welcome to join us for our Family Celebration Worship on Friday mornings. Refreshments will be available from 8.55am and worship will start at 9.15am. We look forward to seeing you.
Year 1- Lunchtime on the MUGA
Year 1 enjoyed their session on our Multi-Use Games Area at lunchtime with Miss Baxendale. They all joined in exceptionally well and worked as part of a team. Well done Year 1.
Year 1- Exploring what plants need to grow.
This afternoon, Year 1 set up an experiment in their science lesson. They are investigating what will happen to the growth of cress in 4 different conditions. The first is with soil, sunlight and water, the second is with soil and sunlight but no water, the third is with soil and water but no sunlight and the forth one is with sunlight and water but no soil. They are looking forward to observing the results.
Tuesday Collective Worship
Today, we recapped what happened at the last supper. Jesus gave a commandment on Maundy Thursday. He told everybody to “love one another as I have loved you”. Jesus also told everybody to live life in all its fullness. We should give our kindness to everybody, do good things and have fun! We watched ‘the super cool story of Jesus’. The video reminded us that Jesus gave his life and love so we can really live. Jesus came onto earth to show us how God loves. We discussed how we can live life to the full. Archie said “we can live in peace”, Emily said “we can live in harmony”, David said “we need to take care of ourselves”, Mason said “we can show love” and Ruby has cut her hair and given it to charity to spread kindness. Ruby also slept out to raise money for the homeless. She has shown how we can live life in all its fullness- we are very proud of how she has put other people first. We ended our worship by listening to a biblical story called ‘no more crying’. This week, we need to think about how we can love one another and how we can forgive others who may upset us. We also need to think about how we can live life in all its fullness.
Darwen Rotary Club - Create a gift for the Queen Competition
Good Morning, As you can see from the poster, we have a fantastic competition being run by Darwen Rotary Club, and we would love for the children in our school to take part. We are inviting the children to create a gift for the Queen to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, this is to be completed at home. The gift can be of any style they wish. We are looking for originality and inspiration from the children. Possible ideas are a poem, a song, a model, a piece of artwork - the list goes on! Please can all gifts be completed and brought into school ready for judging by Wednesday 11th May. We will judge the best 10 pieces for KS1 and the best 10 for KS2 and then arrange for a Rotarian to call into school and choose the final 3 winners for each category. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places from each Key Stage. All the winning entries from each school will then go on display in Darwen Market Hall on the Jubilee Bank Holiday Weekend, and on Saturday 4th June, 2 overall winners (1 for KS1 and 1 for KS2) will be selected from all the 1st place entries and the winners will win a tiled mural for their school! This is a very exciting opportunity and we would love for our children to get involved, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask. We look forward to seeing some fantastic gifts for the Queen! Mrs Govan- Art and Design Leader
Summer 1 After school clubs
Here are the clubs available next half term. They can be booked on parent pay and are on a first come first serve basis. For further information and photos for last term's clubs, please click on the following link. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/academy-life/clubs
FOSB Easter egg decorating competition
A huge well done to the winners of the FOSB Easter egg decorating competition. We were overwhelmed with the time and effort that had been put in. Mrs Ham, Mrs Price and Mrs Wilkinson found it very difficult to judge. Thank you so much to Mrs Isherwood for presenting the prizes and to all of the FOSB volunteers for organising the competition and buying every child a chocolate bunny.
Happy Easter to our whole school family!
It wouldn't be Easter at St Barnabas without a visit from the Spring Chicken! Who do you think it was this year? Please click on the links to see the fun we had during our Easter singalong this afternoon. What a brilliant way to end such a wonderful term! Spring Chicken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neQs54K6Xec Give me oil in my lamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSHy7KNuEes We have a King who rides a donkey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRaTXCw5Dko On behalf of all of our staff team I would like to wish you all a wonderful Easter half term holiday. See you all on Tuesday 19th April. Take care and God bless, Mrs Ham
FOSB Easter egg decorating competition!
Thank you to all of the children who have entered our FOSB Easter egg decorating competition. Winners will be announced tomorrow! ⭐️
Movie Night - RotaKids
The reception,Year 1 and Year 2 have had an absolute blast watching the Disney film ‘Luca’. It was a funny film which had elements of friendship, courage, and acceptance. The night was organised by the RotaKids to raise money for their latest local project.
Whole School Celebration Worship
Today for our Celebration worship we celebrated lots of achievements across school. We have come to the end of our Kindness Challenges, but talked about how important it is to continue to show the kindness we have been showing the last few weeks, even without our daily reminders. Our cross country team shared their achievements from the DPSSA cross country competition yesterday, with some of the boys and girls winning 1st and 2nd place - Well done! We also had many children sharing their own personal sporting awards in horse riding, Olympic sport clubs, martial arts and a pentathlon. All of our class teachers shared how the children have been living life in all its fullness through our curriculum this week, with talks of perseverance, diversity, success and ensuring we show respect to everyone in school. What another brilliant week!
Farm school
Farm school welcomed into school a 2 day old baby goat this week. All children had the chance to choose a name for him which was selected from a bucket. The winner was ‘pebbles’ chosen by Seb. Farm school children also painted their chicks and carrots, planted peas and made art work for Farmer Georgie to take and put up on her farm. At the end of the class each child was presented with a certificate, we have all had so much fun, the children have been brilliant with all of the animals and shown kindness and respect throughout. Well done Farm School!!
Farm school
Farm school welcomed into school a 2 day old baby goat this week. All children had the chance to choose a name for him which was selected from a bucket. The winner was ‘pebbles’ chosen by Seb. Farm school children also painted their chicks and carrots, planted peas and made art work for Farmer Georgie to take and put up on her farm. At the end of the class each child was presented with a certificate, we have all had so much fun, the children have been brilliant with all of the animals and shown kindness and respect throughout. Well done Farm School!!
Farm school
Farm school welcomed into school a 2 day old baby goat this week. All children had the chance to choose a name for him which was selected from a bucket. The winner was ‘pebbles’ chosen by Seb. Farm school children also painted their chicks and carrots, planted peas and made art work for Farmer Georgie to take and put up on her farm. At the end of the class each child was presented with a certificate, we have all had so much fun, the children have been brilliant with all of the animals and shown kindness and respect throughout. Well done Farm School!!
Farm school
Farm school welcomed into school a 2 day old baby goat this week. All children had the chance to choose a name for him which was selected from a bucket. The winner was ‘pebbles’ chosen by Seb. Farm school children also painted their chicks and carrots, planted peas and made art work for Farmer Georgie to take and put up on her farm. At the end of the class each child was presented with a certificate, we have all had so much fun, the children have been brilliant with all of the animals and shown kindness and respect throughout. Well done Farm School!!
Year 1- Making our Breakfast Pots.
This afternoon, Year 1 got to work on making their breakfast pots for their friend. First they had to follow some important hygiene routines such as rolling up their sleeves or taking their jumpers and cardigans off, tying back longer hair, taking off any watches, putting their aprons on and washing their hands. Using their design sheets from the previous lesson, they then got to work preparing their ingredients safely and hygienically. This involved using the bridge and fork secure cutting techniques that they had previously learnt and layering up the various parts of their pots (yogurt, cereal and fruit). Finally, they gave them to their friend to enjoy.
Year 1- Exploring Information Books
Year 1 have been reading information books, finding the answers to questions in information books and exploring the features of information books. They looked for the headings, captions, fact boxes, index, glossary and contents page. They are now working on their own information books to showcase their knowledge and understanding of the Victorians.
Year 1 Phonics
In the phonics area, some of the children have been independently practising the reading of words with the ai, ay, a-e and ey graphemes as this is what they’ve been learning in their phonics sessions.
Year 1- Food Tasting and Planning and Designing our Breakfast Pots.
As our D&T unit for this half-term, Year 1 are working towards making a breakfast pot for a friend. Today, they food tasted some ingredients such as grapefruit, redcurrants, blackcurrants, pineapple, apricots, peaches, shreddies, special flakes and weetabix. The children then had to create a checklist of the ingredients that their partner did and didn’t like to inform the planning and designing of the breakfast pot they were making for them. As well as this, they had to include at least 3 of our 5 a day to ensure that it was healthy. Year 1 can’t wait to get making them next lesson.
Palm Sunday Worship
Today we learnt about Palm Sunday. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he didn’t arrive in a fancy carriage but on a little donkey. People waved palm branches and were so pleased to see him. Many people gave him a warm welcome but some people were not impressed and were filled with feelings of jealousy. Mason said they could be feeling cross and Leonora said they could be angry. We helped Mrs Ham retell the story of Palm Sunday. Mrs Ham showed everybody a palm shaped as a cross. The crowd shouted Hosanna to welcome Jesus. Later in the week, leaders who were angry turned people against Jesus and he was crucified. This was all in God’s plan and on Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead. In times of sadness, we can all be kind to cheer everybody up. Our Wow group led our singing and we sang ‘ We have a king who rides a donkey’.
Farm School
Farm School were visited by farmer Georgie’s farm dog ‘Betty’. The children learnt all about the jobs Betty does to help out on the farm, this included, herding chickens and ducks and helping to find lost sheep. The farm school class also planted ‘golf ball carrots’ and even coloured in some carrot pictures too.
Online safety warning- Huggy Wuggy
Dear parents and carers, we wanted to make you aware of a character named ‘Huggy Wuggy’ that some of the children are talking about. Please see the photo and links for further information. https://www.parents.com/news/what-parents-need-to-know-about-huggy-wuggy-and-the-poppy-playtime-game-taking-over-elementary-schools/ https://oursaferschools.co.uk/2021/12/03/poppy-playtime-online-safety-review/
Celebration Worship- Living life in all its fullness
It was wonderful to hear from all of our class teachers this morning how their class has been 'achieving great things' and 'living life in all its fullness' this week. We have had several visitors in school this week including an author, two dentists, a radiographer and the Dog's Trust and we were so proud to hear how the children welcomed them into school and showed them kindness. We also reflected on how we can show the special ladies in our lives how much we love them and say a big thank you for everything they do for us. Wishing all of our mummies and grandmas a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday. What another fantastic week at St Barnabas! To see the powerpoint from today's worship, please click on the following link. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
Year 1 D&T- using the fork secure technique and the bridge hold technique to cut fruit.
As part of their D&T unit, Year 1 learnt some new techniques for cutting fruit today. They learnt how to cut strawberries using the bridge hold technique and how to cut pear slices using the fork secure technique. They listened really well and performed the two techniques very carefully. They can’t wait to apply their skills next week as they prepare and make their breakfast pot of fruit and yogurt. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 Maths- Measuring using a ruler
As part of their maths unit on measuring length and height, Year 1 were introduced to measuring with a ruler today. The concentration as they measured various lines of different lengths was amazing. They were very accurate with their measuring, always making sure they had the beginning of their line starting at 0cm. Well done Year 1.
Commonwealth Baton Relay Handover to St Pauls
Following the collection of the baton from St Peter’s yesterday, our Year 6 Heads and Deputies took charge with the handover to St. Paul’s today. Year 5, Year 4, Year 2 and Reception made flags and banners to cheer them on their journey. We can’t wait for the games to start now and have loved the experience! Thanks @LancSchoolGames #Lancsbatonrelay22
The Dogs Trust Visits Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
Today, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had a visit from Dogs Trust. They learnt about how to stay safe around dogs. We learnt that dogs have feelings just like us and they can get angry, sad, anxious and nervous which can cause them to show certain behaviours such as biting. We learnt the following rules for keeping safe around dogs to prevent them from harming us: We should leave a dog alone when they are resting, we should leave a dog alone when they are eating, we should always stay quiet around dogs, we should stroke a dog rather than hug it as dogs prefer a gentle stroke to a hug and we should tell a grown up if a dog takes something that belongs to us such as a toy, a shoe or a sock. Finally, all of the children were quizzed on all of the rules they had learnt and they remembered them really well. Well done Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
Receiving The Commonwealth Games Baton
Today we had the privilege in taking part in the Commonwealth Games Baton Relay as part of the lead up to the Commonwealth Games which will take place in Birmingham this year. We received the baton from St Peters this afternoon, with our Year 6 Sports Leaders in charge of the safe hand over. Year 6, Year 3 and Year 1 classes were there to provide a warm welcome and wave their flags. Tomorrow, Year 5, Year 4, Year 2 and Reception class will be there to wave the baton onto its next journey to St Pauls Hoddlesden. What an experience! Thanks @LancSchoolGames #Lancsbatonrelay22
Collective Worship led by WOW group
Today our worship was led by our WOW group who previously took suggestions from our whole school about what they enjoy about worship such as acting out and singing and incorporated these into their Easter worship. The WOW group retold the following parts of the Eater story: Good Friday, The Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane, The Road to Calvary, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. Following on from this, they quizzed the whole school on questions linked to The Easter Story. For answer A, the children had to put their hands on their heads and for answer B, they had to put their hands on their shoulders. The whole school really enjoyed being quizzed on the story. We ended the worship with the whole school singing ‘Lord of the Dance.’ Thank you for a wonderful worship WOW group.
FOSB Mother’s Day Gift Shop
The children have all really enjoyed visiting the Friends of St Barnabas Mother’s Day gift shop today. Every child will be bringing something home for a special lady in their life. A huge thank you to our FOSB members for making it a huge success.
Author and Illustrator Sean Perkins visits St Barnabas
Today, Year 1 and Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed a visit from the local author and illustrator Sean Perkins. The children absolutely loved listening to his picture book ‘Oscar and Ben,’ meeting the characters and joining in with a song about the book. The children described the characters as mischievous, cheeky and sneaky as they got up to lots of mischief on their adventures.
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Whole School Worship- Supporting Ukraine Day
Today in collective worship, we were joined by the Worshipful, the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Councillor Derek Hardman as we gathered together for our ‘Support for Ukraine’ day. Our whole school were either dressed in yellow and blue to reflect the colours of the Ukraine flag or red to support The Red Cross who we are supporting today through raising money for Ukraine. Our heads and deputy heads led our whole school worship today. They made us all think about what essentials we need to survive such as food, water, homes, safety, warmth, love and kindness. This led them on to a discussion about how people all over the world are stepping up to help Ukraine at the moment as they are having to escape their country and leave behind their homes, schools, family members, toys and other possessions. They made the whole school reflect on how they must be feeling and we came up with feelings such as devastated, terrified, heartbroken and worried. We watched a video and looked at how Poland are helping Ukraine at the moment by providing the refugees with a warm welcome, houses, toiletries, schools and friendship. We then talked about how the smallest act of kindness can save a life and how we are very proud of the children in our whole school. We said a huge thank you to Neve, William and Lily for showing our Christian values of generosity, service and friendship during this Ukraine crisis. Neve came up with an idea to make and sell cakes and William will be selling lots of bath bombs to our whole school family. They will be donating the money that they make in school today to The Red Cross. Lily asked for shower gels, shampoo and shower gel which her family friend will be taking over to Ukraine as they are short of these essentials at the moment. We also said a huge well done to our whole school for making such an effort with their clothing, giving donations of toiletries and donating money on Parent Pay. The heads and deputy heads shared how our whole school donations will help to fund hot food, hot drinks, chlorine tablets, toiletries including nappies , medical supplies and lots of other essentials for Ukraine. They also shared a message of hope for the refugees. They made us aware of some well known refugees who had to flee their home but have gone on to achieve amazing things such as Jesus, Mo Farah, Rita Ora, Judith Kerr and Magid Magid. We also heard from two of our very own incredible St Barnabas children, Aisha and Hamza, who told us their experiences of being refugees. They told us about how their family were brought to England by The Red Cross who decided it was much too dangerous to stay in their hometown in Somalia. We felt very proud of the courage they showed in sharing their story with the rest of the school and we feel incredibly proud of them. Finally, we ended our worship by celebrating some out of school awards from Luca, Summer and Finn for darts, gymnastics and donating hair to The Prince’s Trust. We also heard from the Mr Mayor. He told us about how schools are his favourite places to visit and how he was very proud of the efforts from the children, parents and staff of St Barnabas for their efforts in supporting Ukraine.
Year 1- St Patrick’s Day Worship
Today, Year 1 had their class worship on St Patrick’s Day. They watched a video about St Patrick bringing his Christian faith to Ireland by spreading the word of God. We learnt about how the people of Ireland are very thankful for this which is why they have a day in celebration of Him. We learnt that there are lots of parades, singing and dancing on St Patrick’s day and we also learnt that the shamrock in a symbol of Ireland. Lastly, we heard an Irish blessing which was really beautiful and reminded us to take the positives in our lives and be grateful for them. Lots of the children shared positives about their day such as making a big house with a friend, learning a new skill at play time and seeing their teachers.
Year 1 History- Victorian Transport
As part of our history learning in Year, we 1 have been learning about the Victorians. We have already explored Victorian toys and schooling and compared these to modern day toys and schooling. Today, we explored Victorian transport. We created a timeline to see how Victorian transport developed during the Victorian times from 1837 to 1901. We looked at how to the early Victorians travelled by steam train and horse and carriages and then how the horse and carriages evolved into omnibuses. We looked at how the later Victorians had cars. We also compared Victorian transport to modern day transport. We talked about how technology has evolved and today we have electric cars and trains.
Year 1- Creating a High Visibility Vest
After the year 1 had a visit last week of Andy from Blackburn with Darwen council about keeping safe on the roads, he set the children a challenge to design their own Hi Vis jackets. He had already spoken to them about how they need to be very bright and have reflective panels or parts so that the people wearing them can be seen in the dark. Year 1 have been very busy designing these in the creative area this week thinking very carefully about making them as bright and reflective as possible. Well done Year 1.
Support for Ukraine Day
Good morning parents and carers, we are trying to do as much as possible at St Barnabas to make a difference to the lives of those affected by the conflict in Ukraine. The children suggested that we can pray for peace in Ukraine and can ask God to look over all of the boys and girls in Ukraine. Therefore we have created a community prayer space at the front of our school and each child in school has added a blue or yellow ribbon and said or written a prayer. There are extra ribbons in a basket on the pavement side for parents, carers and members of our community to add a ribbon and say a prayer too so please feel free to add a ribbon. On Friday we will be having our special 'Support for Ukraine Day'. The Worshipful, the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Councillor Derek Hardman will be joining us for a special Worship and will be adding a ribbon to our community 'Pray for Ukraine' prayer space. Children may come to school dressed in blue and yellow or red as we will be supporting the British Red Cross. Donations to the British Red Cross can be made via parent pay. For every £1.00 we raise, the Government will match this. It has been wonderful to see several of our children coming forwards with their own ideas to raise money for the British Red Cross. Neve in Year 2 will be selling cakes as her friends and family have kindly donated cakes and our infants will also be making cakes. These can be purchased on parent pay at 50p. Any left over cakes will be sold after school on the infant yard. William in Year 6 will be selling the type of bombs we like to hear about- bath bombs. There will be a bath bomb lucky dip for £1.00 which is also available on parent pay. Any leftover bath bombs will also be sold after school. Lily in Year 6 has asked for donations of shampoo, shower gel or hair brushes. These will be taken to Ukraine next week. Please help us to support Ukraine by donating what you can. Together we can really make a difference. Many thanks for your support, Mrs Ham
Pray for Ukraine- Infants
Our infant classes have helped to create a community ‘Pray for Ukraine’ prayer space at the front of our school. Each child has tied a blue or yellow ribbon, a prayer they have written or a hand print to the railings. We are hopeful that members of our community and all of our school family will tie a ribbon and say a prayer for the people of Ukraine.
Friday 11th March Celebration Worship
Today, we started off by reflecting on Monday’s worship when we read the story of ‘Jesus Feeding the 5000,’ and thought about how nothing is too small to share. The children shared some examples of things that can be shared such as food, clothes and kindness. Kindness is always important at our school but particularly at the moment as we are currently completing ‘The 30 Days of Kindness Challenge,’ as a school. We reflected on the kindness challenges for this week which were helping an elderly member of our community, asking people how their day has been, asking someone if you can help when they’re upset, helping the teacher to hand out and collect in books. Today’s challenge is making a thank you card for someone. The children said they would make one for their teachers including their after school club teachers, their older siblings, their parents and Mr Tierney (our site supervisor). We then celebrated some in school achievements. We heard from our class teachers, the librarians announced our World Book Day competition winners for the books bunting and Mrs Ham presented the winners of the Blackburn Rovers Gifted and Talented completion to four of our Year 3 boys who showed a wonderful attitude and brilliant sportsmanship. We followed on from this with out of school achievements such as swimming, football, rainbows, young farmers rifle shooting and sailing. Finally, the heads and deputies shared a reminder about showing respect for the playground equipment and Lily in Year 6 shared a way of us helping Ukraine by bringing shampoo, body wash and hairbrushes next Friday. She will collect these in and pass them on to someone she knows who is travelling to Ukraine.
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Fun at Farm School
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Year 1-Easter and New Life
Year 1 have been learning about new life in their RE lessons in preparation for linking it to the Easter story. We have been completing some jigsaws to show the life cycle of a frog and chicken, and we have also been sequencing and writing about the life cycles of butterflies and chickens. We have started to explore the Easter story and making links with new life for example Jesus dying and being in the tomb being similar to a seed deep in the ground, the chick being inside an egg or a chrysalis and Jesus rising from the dead being similar to a beautiful flower flourishing, a chick hatching from an egg or a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Year 1 have also been making their own Easter gardens. They have been exploring ways to create the crucifixion, the tomb, the stone being rolled from the tomb and the resurrection.
Year 1 PE- Rolling a Ball
Year 1 have been learning how to roll a ball with accuracy. First, we looked at rolling a ball to a partner with our arm beside us, then rolling a ball with to a partner between our legs. We discussed which one allows us to be more accurate. Finally, we practised rolling a ball with accuracy through a target (between two cones).
Year 1 PE- Rolling a Ball
Year 1 have been learning how to roll a ball with accuracy. First, we looked at rolling a ball to a partner with our arm beside us, then rolling a ball with to a partner between our legs. We discussed which one allows us to be more accurate. Finally, we practised rolling a ball with accuracy through a target (between two cones).
Year 1- World Book Day
Year 1 enjoyed World Book day yesterday. As a whole school, we were focusing on the story ‘Journey by Aaron Becker.’ In the story the girl visited lots of settings such as a medieval city and the woods. Year 1 brainstormed ideas for their own settings. They came up with ideas such as a water park, a cave, a fairground, a toy museum, and a jungle. They even came up with ideas that meant that we would need to go back in time such as the Victorian times and the time when dinosaurs were alive. Eventually, we settled on a candy land. They then brainstormed ideas for getting to their destination. The girl in the video used a hot air balloon, boat and magic carpet. Year 1 came up with lots of ideas such as a witch’s broomstick, a zip line, a quad bike, a helicopter, a unicorn and a surfboard. We decided on a quad bike. Year 1 then did a piece of collaborative artwork to showcase their candy land setting and wrote some wonderful descriptive phrases to describe the setting using adjectives. Year 1 also took part in the whole school competition and decorated their own bunting with their favourite book. We had bunting decorated with The Gruffalo, Oi Frog, The Gingerbread Man, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, The Day the Crayon’s Quit, The Scarecrows’ Wedding, Funny Bones, The Runaway Pea, Rumpelstiltskin, Lost and Found, Stickman and Peace at Last. We can’t wait to have our bunting displayed in the library. We are hoping that it will encourage other children to choose our favourite book and take it home to read as their library book.
Year 1-Road Safety
Today in Year 1, Andy came into our class to teach us all about road safety. He talked to us about The Green Cross Code. We learnt to stop, look and listen before we cross the road and to continue to look and listen as we cross the road. We talked about giving ourselves plenty of time to cross a road, making sure there is space to reach the pavement at the other side, where it safe to cross a road avoiding bends, crossing between parked cars or close to the top of a hill. We also talked about the importance of high visibility clothing when we are crossing a road. We practised crossing the road safely at a zebra crossing and Andy checked whether we should be using a booster seat. Year 1 can’t wait for their goody bags to be delivered which will contain items to help us to keep safe on the roads such as high visibility key rings.
World Book Day- Different teacher story time & fair trade hot chocolate
This afternoon each class enjoyed a story read by a different teacher whilst snuggled up in their pyjamas drinking fair trade hot chocolate and marshmallows. We love reading at St Barnabas!
Friday Whole School Worship
Today in worship, we reflected on our the kindness challenges that we have completed this week such as washing our hands, wiping our feet and helping to tidy up our classrooms and houses. We talked about why we should be kind and looked at our new kindness tree in the hall where we can add examples of kindness that we have seen and shown. This led us onto a discussion about Russia invading Ukraine and how Putin isn’t showing kindness. We talked about how places such as America and the UK are coming together to support Ukraine through sanctioning Russia to encourage them to stop the fighting and resume peace once again as we want to keep the people of Ukraine safe. We also talked about how we ourselves can support Ukraine through asking God to watch over the people of Ukraine and keeping them all in our prayers. We had a look at how we can use our fingers to pray for different things such as people who are closest to us, people who are poorly and people who are in charge of our country. We also had ideas such as donating clothes to refugees and giving refugees a warm welcome. Finally, we ended with some sports award celebrations. Well done to our Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6 sports hall competitors and our individual sports winners. The sports leaders also announced the winners for the inter-house dodgeball competition which was India Mill (red team).
Year 1- A trip to Judges Lodgings Museum to learn about the Victorians.
Yesterday, Year 1 visited Judges Lodgings in Lancaster. They got into character as Victorian children at school and Victorian slaves at work. They learnt lots about Victorian schooling such as sitting sensibly at desks, saying prayers, recalling times tables, writing on blackboards, learning about Queen Victoria and what would happen if you misbehaved. They learnt about the jobs of those who were slaves for the judge such as polishing candle sticks, kettles and cutlery, emptying buckets that Victorians did their toileting in, setting the table for the judge and his guests and folding napkins. Well done Year 1.
Year 1-A trip to Judges Lodgings Museum to learn about toys from the past.
As well as learning about Victorian work and schooling, Year 1 also learnt about toys from their past on their class trip. They played some Victorian style games and explored the toy museum. In the toy museum, they looked at toys ranging from the 1900s to the year 2000. They had to think about which ones were the old ones and which ones were the new ones and why. We now have a Victorian toy museum in our class and we are looking forward to playing with some of the toys that the Victorians played with such as the cup and ball, spinning top, whip and top, whizzer, yo-yo, Jacobs Ladder, marbles and lots of others.
Amazing Art
Reception, Year 1, Year 5 and Year 6’s amazing art work is up in our Art Gallery in the hall. They have been focusing on different artists and different art elements and skills over the half term and this is their end outcome. The work looks amazing and so individual and unique.
Year 1-Internet Safety Day 2022
Year 1 started their amazing Internet Safety Posters this afternoon to share their top tips for keeping safe online. We enjoyed Mrs Ham’s worship this morning on showing respect and kindness online and learnt about the importance of sending only kind messages and blocking and reporting any unkind behaviour. We also enjoyed reading ‘Digiduck and the Magic Castle’ and ‘Oscar’s Adventures in the Online World.’ From these books, we have learnt about the importance of having strong passwords that contain symbols, letters and numbers so nobody can guess them and not accepting or continuing with a message that we don’t understand as this could cost us money, give our device a virus or show us something inappropriate. We also learnt about information that is okay to share such as our favourite food or music and information that is not okay to share such as the school we go to, our address, our full name or our password.
Friday Celebration Worship
This week in celebration worship, we have been thinking about how we have been shining our light just as Jesus does and we also sang ‘Shine From the Inside Out’. Reception class also sang the whole school a song in celebration of Chinese New Year. We heard from our teachers about how we have lived life in all its fullness and we had lots of awards to celebrate from outside of school too.
Year 1 English- Constructing our own set of instructions.
Year 1 have been busy creating their own obstacle courses. Tomorrow, they will be writing a set of instructions to explain how to use it.
Year 1 Geography-Human and Physical Features
In Year 1, we have been exploring the United Kingdom. Today, we learnt what a human and physical feature is. We then went on to sort the human and physical features of our hometown, Darwen. We looked at features such as Darwen Tower, India Mill, Darwen Market, DACA, The River Darwen, Darwen Moors, Everest Pharmacy and Whitehall Park as well as lots of others. Next week, we will explore some of the physical and human features of our capital cities in the UK.
Year 1 Geography-Human and Physical Features
In Year 1, we have been exploring the United Kingdom. Today, we learnt what a human and physical feature is. We then went on to sort the human and physical features of our hometown, Darwen. We looked at features such as Darwen Tower, India Mill, Darwen Market, DACA, The River Darwen, Darwen Moors, Everest Pharmacy and Whitehall Park as well as lots of others. Next week, we will explore some of the physical and human features of our capital cities in the UK.
Year 1- Instructions
Over the last few days, Year 1 have been following, reading and looking at the features of instruction texts. We have looked at time conjunctions, imperative verbs and adverbs. On Thursday, we will start to construct and write our own set of instructions. We will be creating our own obstacle courses and constructing a sequence of steps for them.
Year 1 Class Worship
Following on from Mrs Ham’s whole school worship on Monday, Year 1 learnt some more information about WWII and how the Jews were mistreated. We learnt that the Jews had little freedom and were banned from doing certain jobs, from having pets, from going to parks and restaurants, from schools and from riding a bike amongst lots of other things. We reflected on how this must have made them feel. We also read a book about Anne Frank and the children were shocked to find out that she and her family along with many other Jewish families had to stay in hiding for a long time in fear. We then sang a song about peace and thought about how we can help to make a kind and peaceful world. We talked about sharing our beautiful smiles, helping each other, greeting each other kindly and sharing with each other regardless of people’s race or religion. We finished with some beautiful prayers for those who lost their lives and were mistreated in WWII and praying for a more peaceful and kinder world. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 Art- Primary and Secondary Colours
Yesterday, Year 1 explored primary and secondary colours in their art lesson. First, they made the secondary colours by mixing small balls of plasticine in the primary colours. They then went on to making the secondary colours by mixing paint. Well done Year 1.
Year 1 Class Worship
Following on from Mrs Ham’s whole school worship on Monday, Year 1 learnt some more information about WWII and how the Jews were mistreated. We learnt that the Jews had little freedom and were banned from doing certain jobs, from having pets, from going to parks and restaurants, from schools and from riding a bike amongst lots of other things. We reflected on how this must have made them feel. We also read a book about Anne Frank and the children were shocked to find out that she and her family along with many other Jewish families had to stay in hiding for a long time in fear. We then sang a song about peace and thought about how we can help to make a kind and peaceful world. We talked about sharing our beautiful smiles, helping each other, greeting each other kindly and sharing with each other regardless of people’s race or religion. We finished with some beautiful prayers for those who lost their lives and were mistreated in WWII and praying for a more peaceful and kinder world. Well done Year 1.
Parent Governor Vacancy
Dear Parents and Carers, just a quick reminder that we have an upcoming parent governor vacancy. The governors play a vital role in supporting and shaping our school and it is a great way to become more involved in the life of our school. Parent governors hold the unique position of having a parental viewpoint of the school. Through their children, they have a first hand experience of the delivery of the curriculum and how the school is perceived from the 'consumers' point of view. If you are interested in joining our local governing committee then please see the attached letter from our Chair of Governors, Jen Frankish. For further information please see our school website: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/key-information/governance For an application form please contact our school office at [email protected] or 01254 702996. The deadline for applications is this Friday 28th January 2022. We look forward to welcoming a new parent to our friendly and supportive local governing committee, to help make St Barnabas the best school it can be. Yours Sincerely, Mrs Ham
Safer Internet Day-Poster Competition
We will be taking part in 'Safer Internet Day' on Tuesday 8th February 2022 and would like to ask the children to take part in an Online Safety poster competition which is being promoted by Blackburn with Darwen. The children are asked to design a poster about online safety for children and young people. More details are provided on the link below and the closing date is Thursday 10th February. Please take a look at our online safety webpage that has an abundance of resources and key information regarding internet safety and keeping up to date with guidance. https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/useful-links/online-safety
Year 1 Class Worship- Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks
Following on from Mrs Ham’s whole school worship earlier this week on Martin Luther King, Year 1 did some further learning and reflecting in their class worship time. We learnt about how black people were treated differently because they weren’t allowed to use the same toilets, same restaurants or go to the same schools as white people. We learnt about how black people had to sit at the back of the bus and give up their seats for white people. We thought about how this must have made the black people feel and we came up with the words heartbroken, sad, upset, angry and devastated. We also thought about how this would have made some of the white people feel having to leave the black people out as they didn’t have a choice and just had to do as they were told or they would be fined. We described Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks as amazing and brave people as they fought for the world to be a fairer place where black and white people could be friends and live in a more peaceful and kinder world. We thought about how this fairer world is a much better place to live. Well done Year 1 for super acting and reflection.
Year 1- working towards running 1K
Year 1 are working towards running 1K in their weekly run. 1K is 18 laps around the infant playground. We did 10 laps today which is 2 laps more than last week. However, some children opted to continue the run in their play time and got to the 1K mark. Next week, we are aiming for 11-12 laps and we will continue to keep building on the number of laps that we do.
Year 1 Science- Investigating Material Properties
Year 1 really enjoyed their science lesson this week. We explored the different properties of materials. We used the words: shiny, dull, rough, smooth, hard, soft, waterproof, absorbent, brittle, opaque and transparent. We then investigated different materials to see whether they could bounce, absorb water, bend, twist or be squashed. We also talked about how a sponge is useful for cleaning our cars because it’s soft so it won’t damage our cars and it can absorb soap and water to clean them. However, a rock wouldn’t be very good for cleaning a car because it is hard so it would scratch our car and it can’t absorb the water or soap that we need to clean our cars.
Year 1-Life Education Visit.
We enjoyed our visit from Harold the giraffe today. We learnt about how to keep our bodies healthy. We learnt about having a balanced diet which must include protein, fruits and vegetables, dairy and energy foods and how exercise, keeping hydrated and sleep helps us to live a healthy lifestyle too. They listened and joined in amazingly well. Well done Year 1.
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 Science
Year 1 have been identifying the materials that objects are made from. We have been exploring wood, metal, rubber, plastic, glass, fabric, wool and cardboard. We created Venn diagrams. We learnt that the middle section of our Venn diagram was for materials that were made from both of the materials that we had chosen e.g. scissors are both plastic and metal. We found that some objects are made from three materials such as the Rekenreks which were made out of metal, plastic and wood.
Year 1 drama
Year 1 had great fun in their drama session today. We love junior jam and well-being Wednesdays!
Year 1 English- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Last week in Year 1, we created a story map for ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and now we can retell the story from our memory. Over the last couple of days, we have been changing the first three settings (the grass, river and mud) to develop our own versions of the story. Some of the settings we have had are swamps, meadows, deserts, candy shops, and farms. We can’t wait to get started with writing our new stories. Well done year 1!
Year 1 Art
Year 1 have been exploring line in their art lesson today. They created vertical, horizontal, diagonal, wavy and spiral lines as well as some others. We are working towards producing a piece of artwork inspired by Hundertwasser.
Year 1 Maths
Year 1 have been making numbers between 10 and 20 on their bead strings. They have been looking at ways to do this with more efficiency e.g. for 17, you move 5 and 5 which is 10, then another 5 followed by a 2. Great work Year 1.
FOSB Christmas Gift Shop
The children have really enjoyed buying items from our Christmas gift shop. A huge thank you to our FOSB group for making it such a huge success!
A special visit from Father Christmas
Our infant classes were over the moon to have a special visit from Father Christmas after their parties. They all received a special gift for working so hard and behaving so well.
Infant Christmas lunch
Our infants really enjoyed their Christmas lunch today. It was wonderful to see them cracking crackers with their friends and wearing their party hats. We had a singalong to some of our favourite Christmas songs too. Thank you Mellors for the lovely Christmas lunch!
Year 1’s visit from Santa
Year 1 had a magical visit from Father Christmas after their Christmas party. The look of excitement on their faces was priceless.
Year 1 Nativity
Our Year 1 children made us all so proud with their wonderful Nativity. They sang beautifully and said their lines clearly and with confidence. The parents and grandparents loved it. You are all superstars!
Year 1- 2D and 3D shapes.
Year 1 have been sorting 2D and 3D shapes in different ways. They sorted them in many different ways e.g. those that can and can’t roll, those that have triangular faces and don’t, those that have circular faces and don’t and those that have square faces and don’t.
Year 1 Maths- Making 3D shapes
Year 1 have been making 3D shapes in the construction area. They can recognise cylinders, cones, spheres, cubes, cuboids, triangular prisms, square-based pyramids and triangular-based pyramids.
Year 1 Phonics- learning new graphemes.
Year 1 are working very hard on their phonics. They are learning new graphemes for sounds that they already know. They now know lots of ways of writing the ai, ee and igh sounds. We will now be working on applying these new graphemes in our writing. Well done Year 1.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Every child in school helped to decorate the Christmas tree yesterday. This morning in Worship, Iris, our youngest child in school got to put the star on top of the Christmas tree. It certainly is starting to look, feel and sound like Christmas at St Barnabas.
FOSB Christmas Gift Shop
Our PTFA will be running a Christmas gift shop where the children can buy their Christmas presents for somebody in their family. There will be a selection of presents for adults and children. It will be £5 and with this they will be able to purchase 2 gifts. The presents will be wrapped with a gift tag so it will be a surprise for whoever they have chosen to buy a present for. Money can only be paid on parent pay and you have until Friday 10th December to purchase a ticket to enter the gift shop. The gift shop will be held on Thursday 16th December.
Year 1 RE- Giving to others
As part of their RE unit, Year 1 have been making their calendars in the independent creative area. Tomorrow they will be taking these home and gifting them to their families. Next week, we will be reflecting on how this act of giving has made us and our families feel. Additionally, we are now in December so we have had some kindness elves visit our classroom. Everyday, the kindness elves are leaving a gift to add to a hamper. In the last week of school, we will gift this hamper to our local refugees in the hope that it will make them smile and bring them some comfort over the Christmas period. Again, we will reflect on how this act of giving has made both us and those who receive it feel.
Year 1- Great Fire of London Workshop
Year 1 throughly enjoyed a visit from The Freshwater Theatre company this afternoon. Alison the facilitator was amazing and she took the children back in time to 1666 where they heard from Mary Porter who had experienced the fire first hand. They took part in various drama activities to really bring the topic alive. It was a wonderful experience.
Advent Art Competition
After the success of last year's Advent Art competition, we have decided to run another one for this Christmas. This is a chance for the children to get creative at home and get into the festive spirit! We are asking the children to create a piece of Art work to show a part of the Christmas story, e.g. The 3 wise men, the star of Bethlehem, baby Jesus - There are lots of ideas online for inspiration. The Art work can be created using a variety of media such as painting, drawing, photographs, collage, etc but we ask that it is no larger than A3 in size and flat enough so that we can laminate them. 24 entries will be selected to go on display at Whitehall Park for an Advent Adventure trail and there are prizes to be won! The deadline for all entries is Monday 6th December, judging will take place shortly after this to select the final 24. Please give any entries to Class Teachers when they are complete.
Year 1- Making Tudor Houses
Year 1 were set the challenge of independently making a Tudor house in the creative area this week. They have used scissors, sellotape, staples, glue and masking tape independently to do this. Well done Year 1.
Year 1- Decorating our Fire Engines
This afternoon, Year 1 added the final touches to their fire engines as part of their D&T unit. They checked that they had included all the key features of a fire engine such as a hose, ladder, windscreen and siren before painting them.
Year 1- Designing and Making Fire Engines
Year 1 have had an afternoon of designing and making their fire engines in D&T. They decided on their body of fire engine and then planned out what materials and items they were going to use for the, headlights, ladder, windscreen, door and hose to decorate their fire engine. Finally, they joined them together using sellotape, masking tape, staples and glue. Now they need to add the finishing touches such as paint.
Year 1- Interfaith Week
Thank you to Prags for visiting us during Interfaith Week and giving our Year 1 children an insight into Sikhism. They found out lots of new information about Sikhism and the Gurdwara.
Inter-House Dodgeball Event
What a great day we have all had taking part in the inter house dodgeball competition that was organised by The Sports Leaders. Every single class gave their all and it was great to see the smiles in everyone’s faces. We can’t wait to hear who the winners are next week in Celebration Worship. Massive thanks to The Sports Leaders for taking the time to organise and run the event.
Year 1 Design and Technology
As part of our making fire engines D&T unit, Year 1 have been exploring how to make the base of their fire engine using wheels, axles, washers and a chassis. We can’t wait to make the body of our fire engine next week.
Year 1- The Gruffalo
Year 1 have been focusing on the story of The Gruffalo in their English lessons. We have been working on a story map in pictures to help us recall the story and we’ve been describing the character of the Gruffalo. We can’t wait to post a video of us telling the story when we’ve finished our whole story map! We have also played a ‘roll and draw’ game in our continuous provision time against a partner showing super turn taking and understanding of the Gruffalo’s characteristics.
Year 1- Poppy Collages
In their art lessons, Year 1 have been learning about the different textures of materials that can be used within collages and how these materials can be cut, torn and ripped to produce artwork. This week in continuous provision, they have independently applied these skills to create their own poppy collages ready for Remembrance Day next week.
EYFS and KS1 Harvest Worship
Today, our infants led our Harvest worship. They were all superstars and they explained the importance of Harvest. Thank you to all who came to watch.
The Jewish Festival of Sukkot in Year 1
Year 1 have been learning about Sukkot. They have been thinking about how the Jews were held as slaves long ago and they’ve been building Sukkahs just as many Jewish people still do today.
Hello Yellow Day 2021
We have had a brilliant day in school today with all of our children and staff dressing in yellow for Hello Yellow Day. It was topped off with leaving school dancing to the minions ‘happy’ song and being bopped with inflatable bananas by Mrs Ham! Banana #HelloYellow @YoungMindsUK
Year 1 Geography- Hot and Cold Places of the World.
Year 1 have been looking at a map of the world and learning about where the hot and cold places are.
Year 1 PE
Year 1 have been focusing on fundamental skills in their PE lessons.
Year 1 Maths
Year 1 have been comparing numbers using the greater than, less than and equal to symbols. They have also been estimating the position of numbers on a number line.
Classifying Animals in Year 1 Science
Year 1 have been learning about the different animal groups that there are and sorting animals to reflect their learning.
Year 1 Phonics
Our Year 1 children have been working so hard in their phonics sessions and have been impressing us with their segmenting and blending.
Year 1 Art
Year 1 have been exploring warm and cool colours in Art.
Year 1's super self-portraits!
Look at Year 1's fabulous self- portraits. Well done Year 1, we are so proud of you as they look amazing!
First Day Fun!
Our infant classes had a brilliant first day back in school. Our Reception class settled in brilliantly into their new school. Well done Ducklings, we are so proud of you!