Mother's Day Worship at St Barnabas Church
A huge thank you to the children who came to sing at the Mother's Day Service at St Barnabas Church. You were all wonderful and really made everyone smile with your singing and beautiful words about your Mummies. Thank you to parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles who came to watch too and for bringing the children so they could represent St Barnabas. Thank you to Mrs Araujo, Mrs Gardner and Mrs Hegarty for coming to support the children too and thank you to Rev Ben for inviting us to sing and for making us all feel so welcome. Photos and videos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/mother-s-day-celebration-at-st-barnabas-church Wishing all of our families a Happy Mother's Day, Mrs Wilkinson
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. We have been extremely busy preparing for Easter in our RE lessons and in collective worships with Mrs Ham and Rev Matt, Reception led a very special worship and FOSB hosted a lovely coffee morning on Wednesday morning to celebrate Mothering Sunday, Reception and Year 1 contributed to ‘The Big Lent Walk,’ we have had enjoyed a variety of wonderful lunchtime and after schools clubs and Year 5 enjoyed a bikeability session. We then said a huge thank you to you all for continuing to support ‘THE BIG LENT WALK.’ So far, we have walked 1518km and raised £114. However, we really believe that we can surpass this. Please let either Mrs Wilkinson or Mrs Ham know if you have walked anywhere and please send photos if you can. This is a great way of giving back during Lent and supporting our mental health and well-being. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Archie, Vienna and Molly in EYFS and KS1 and Isaac, Darcy, Talia and Jake in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating great resilience, respect and kindness. Furthermore, we congratulated Carmen in Year 4 for working hard to achieve her pen license, our Year 2 and Year 4 class for being our attendance winners this week with 99.2% and 99.3% attendance, Darwen Tower as our value award winners this week with 278 points and our Year 5/6 Cross Country Team for demonstrating great resilience, determination and respect in the Darwen Primary Schools League Cross Country Event at Witton Park last night. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Thea for swimming 10m, Eleanor for achieving a Rainbows agility badge, Maggie for being a fantastic Rainbow and working hard toward her gold badge, Lyla for demonstrating great skill in her acro, Harry for being the ‘Trainer of the week’ for fantastic tackling at football, Naomi, Martha and Scarlett for making their Brownie promise at the weekend, Marley for achieving her Stage 3 and 10m swimming certificates, Isaac for achieving ‘Player of the Day’ for scoring the winning goal in a recent football game and being the ‘Player of the Week’ at Soccer HQ, Sofia for being awarded her birthday badge at Rainbows, Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week’ for her super dribbling at football, Summer for receiving a 1st in a recent gymnastics competition as part of a duo, Daisy for demonstrating great skill in a recent gymnastics competition, Tristen for being awarded his green belt in kickboxing, Carmen and Renee for being awarded their white belt in kickboxing and Lydia for being the ‘Star of the Week’ at EdStart gymnastics club. To end our worship, Mrs Ham invited us all to join a special Mothering Sunday Worship at St Barnabas Church on Sunday at 11am. Then, we all had a singalong to ‘Give Me Oil in My Lamp.’ We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend.
Year 1 History- Toys Past and Present
In history, Year 1 have been exploring toys from the past. Today, we got the opportunity to explore how toys have changed over the last 100 years. We discovered that all toys used to be made from wood, fabric and metal such as trains, dolls and board games before brightly coloured plastic toys became popular such as frisbees and Lego. We then learnt that plastic toys continued to be played with, electronics were made and became popular such as gameboys and battery controlled cars as well as toys that featured on our televisions such as Care Bears and My Little Pony. We know that this was around the time that our mummies and daddies were children. We then looked at the toys that we play with today such as figures and understood that they have become popular through being on our televisions and in storybooks. We also noticed how electronics have become more advanced as we now have app-based games. Super learning Year 1!
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today, Rev. Matt led worship and shared the second half of the Easter story, focusing on the events following Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. The children listened intently as he spoke about the resurrection, emphasising the joy and hope it brings to Christians around the world. Through engaging storytelling, Rev. Matt encouraged the children to reflect on the meaning of Easter and how it represents new beginnings, faith and God’s everlasting love. He posed thought-provoking questions, prompting the children to consider how the message of forgiveness, kindness and renewal can be applied in their own lives. The session ended with a moment of quiet reflection and a prayer, allowing the children to appreciate the significance of Easter and its impact on their faith and actions.
FOSB Mother’s Day Coffee Morning
A huge thank you for your generous cake donations yesterday and to all of the wonderful ladies in our school family that came to our FOSB Mother’s Day Coffee Morning. We were overwhelmed with the turn out and thank you for your patience. We hope you all enjoyed having a few minutes to relax and have a brew and a cake with your loved ones. Thank you so much for your generous donations and for purchasing raffle tickets. We have raised an amazing £375 to go towards upgrading our trim trail surfaces and purchasing new chrome books. Thank you for bringing to our attention the issue with some of the wrong tickets being sold by our Year 6 helpers in the raffle. We worked out the missing ticket numbers and made tickets with those numbers and added them to our tombola drum to make it fair. The winning tickets drawn out were( also see photos) : *Peach number 30- £40 ocean palace voucher * Pink ticket 982- Dolly’s Tea Room afternoon tea for 2 voucher *Blue ticket 954- £20 Mangiamo Voucher * Blue ticket 669- £20 Freya’s Grill Voucher *Peach ticket 271- Bottle of Asti & Lemon Drizzle Cake * Pink ticket 979- Bottle of Pinot Grigio & Red Velvet Cake * Peach ticket 302 - Red wine & Red velvet * Peach ticket 6- Rose wine, photo frame & blueberry cake If you have won a prize, please bring your ticket to the office to claim your prize by the end of the week. A huge thank you to our FOSB members and staff involved in planning and supporting the event as we couldn’t have done it without you. A special mention to our Year 6 helpers too who did a brilliant job. Thank you so much to Katie and Steph from FOSB who also stayed after the event to clear out the FOSB cupboards. You have done a fantastic job! There are still plenty of cakes left so children can buy one after school today to give to the special lady in their life. They will be priced at 50p a cake or 3 for £1.00. All of the photos can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-mother-s-day-coffee-morning Thank you to everyone who made this morning a success and on behalf of our whole school family I wish all of our Mums, Grandmas and Aunties a wonderful and relaxing Mother’s Day and thank you for everything you do. You are all amazing!
Collective Worship - The Garden of Gethsemane
Our collective worship began with the Year 6 class presenting their learning about Shakespeare. Thank you for sharing, Year 6! Mrs Ham then led our worship about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus spent time praying for strength from God to help Him through the events that were to follow. We spent time reflecting on all of our Lenten events so far: Lent walks, Lenten promises and our 40 acts of kindness. Finally, we took part in this week’s special Year of Prayer by all sharing what was on our minds with Jesus, considering what we are thankful for, by writing these on a leaf. Mrs Ham created a prayer tree in our entrance area with over 200 lovely prayers on leaves from all of our children and staff.
Reception, Year 1 and 2-Story Club
Today, Miss Flynn and the librarians held a story and craft club at lunchtime. The children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 listened to the story of ‘The Highway Rat’ and decorated their own mask. Many children took on the role of the highway rat and told us what they would steal. We had ice-cream, cookies, pizza, sweets, cake and chocolate being stolen.
Year 1 D&T- Making Healthy Breakfast Pots
Today was the day that Year 1 have been waiting for. They have spent several design and technology lessons building up to this final lesson (making their healthy breakfast pot). Over the last couple of weeks, they have done some taste testing, learnt and practised some cutting techniques (bridge hold and fork secure) and planned and designed a healthy breakfast pot for a friend based on their preferences. They thoroughly enjoyed putting their new skills to the test by chopping up lots of fruit, making sure that they followed their design criteria correctly and tried their best to layer their ingredients to make them look a delight to eat. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Science and RE- Spotting Signs of Spring (New Life)
This afternoon, Year 1 went to Whitehall Park to look for signs of Spring (new life). They went in search of bird nests, flower buds, flowers, blossom, birds, bees, ladybirds, squirrels and butterflies. They spotted lots of flowers including daffodils, pansies, forget me not and crocus, flower buds, seedlings, birds and were even lucky enough to spot a squirrel.
Year 1 RE- Representing the Events of the Easter Story
After spotting lots of sign of Spring (new life) on the way to Whitehall Park, Year 1 got to work on making an Easter Garden to represent the events of the Easter Story. They mainly focused on the resurrection of Jesus and went in search of a perfect place for the tomb. They were very creative and showed a brilliant understanding. Some children used a plant pot whilst others used a tree hollow or a burrow/hole in the ground. They then collected resources such as a stone to show that the tomb had been opened, sticks to make a cross for the crucifixion and leaves to represent palm leaves. Well done Year 1- they were fantastic! By walking there and back, we also collectively walked 45km to contribute to the Big Lent Walk.
Rock Your Socks For World Down Syndrome Day
Year 1 enjoyed rocking bright and funky socks today to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. We are very lucky in our class as we have Lenny who allows us to learn about and celebrate the amazing qualities of a child with Down Syndrome every day. However, we did take the opportunity to revisit and explore some of the things that we need to be mindful of and things that we can do to help children with Down Syndrome such as using gestures and signs to communicate, repeating words and phrases multiple times, being helpful, kind, encouraging and patient. We finished the day with Lenny handing out sweets for his friends to celebrate a special day. Thank you very much Lenny!
Year 3-Rock Your Socks For World Down Syndrome Day
Year 3 enthusiastically celebrated "Rock Your Socks" this afternoon for World Down Syndrome Day! Cassidy did a fantastic job teaching the children Makaton signs, and they were excited to learn new ways to communicate with Lenny, Cassidy’s little brother, who has Down syndrome. The children were fully engaged as they explored different ways to connect and communicate with individuals with Down syndrome. As part of our celebration, we learned about common misconceptions surrounding Down syndrome and took time to recognise and celebrate the incredible achievements and contributions of individuals with Down syndrome.