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Whole School Worship- How to make an enjoyable lunchtime?
Our whole school worship today began with the signing of the Trinity by the Heads and Deputies. Mrs. Araujo then led the worship, introducing our new behaviour focus: creating a calmer and more enjoyable lunchtime experience, while continuing to practice the good manners we have already learned. Mrs. Ham highlighted the importance of feeling safe at school, emphasizing that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure a secure and supportive environment for all. To help improve lunchtimes, Mrs Araujo used a data logger to measure noise levels in the dining hall, which ranged from 79.5 to 80.5 decibels as loud as a truck! Many children noted that the high noise levels were overwhelming, made them want to cover their ears, and could prevent them from hearing important instructions in an emergency. During the worship, children worked with talk partners to discuss the question: If we use good table manners, how could this improve our lunchtimes? Through these discussions, they identified key areas for improvement, such as sitting properly at the table, using a knife and fork to eat, and avoiding walking while eating to reduce choking risks. The WOW group played a key role in visually demonstrating positive lunchtime behaviours. They were featured in photos and role-play scenarios, modelling both the correct and incorrect ways to behave in the dining hall. These demonstrations helped reinforce the importance of eating safely and respectfully. To support these changes, new posters have been placed around the school, reminding everyone to face the table while eating, lean over trays or lunchboxes to avoid spills, and wait until they have swallowed their food before getting up. These expectations will continue to be reinforced through modelling, praise, and reminders, ensuring that lunchtimes are a safe, calm, and enjoyable experience for everyone.
Year 1 Science- Floating and Sinking
Today in Science, Year one learnt about floating and sinking. They learnt that when something is floating, it can be described as buoyant and when something has gone beneath the surface of the water, it can be described as being submerged. Year 1 learnt that generally speaking lighter objects will float and heavier objects will sink. However, they also learnt for an item to float, it must contain trapped air. This was illustrated through the example of a submarine. When the submarine was filled with air, it floated on the water but when this air was replaced with water, the submarine sunk. We saw some examples of this in our own classroom too. When a glass bottle was empty and filled with air, it floated but when this air was replaced with water it sunk. Likewise, we experimented with some cotton wool which presented the same results. Year 1 also predicted and tested many other objects to see whether they would sink or float such as a feather, rock, paper clip, lolly stick and a metal spoon.
Amazing Art Displays
We have some amazing Artwork up on display around school as Reception, Year 1, Year 5 and Year 6 have completed their Art units for this half-term. We can really see the different Art skills the children have developed in their units and how hard they have worked to create a fantastic final piece.
Friday Celebration Worship
Our celebration worship today began with the signing of the Trinity by the Heads and Deputies. Moving onto expressing our gratitude to everyone who supported the school's Valentine's Disco, which promoted love and kindness. We also acknowledged Safer Internet Day, which classes have been focusing on this week. The whole school also enjoyed a fantastic science show presented by Mad Science. The children were buzzing with excitement as we witnessed multiple experiments involving, an egg, fire and a red cabbage. The children in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 shared their thanks for wonderful dance and gymnastics sessions led by Rothwell Arts. We've also had a great half term of extra-curricular clubs, including Foodie Friends Club, Craft Club, Basketball, SATS and Multi-Sports. Next half term's clubs include Mad Science Club, Edstart Dodgeball and Gymnastics, Craft Club, Performing Arts, SATs Club, Choir, Cross Country, and Netball. Sign up soon, as spaces are limited! All class teachers presented value awards to children in their class that received the most value points this week, Luna, Joey, Lyla, Chloe, Lilly, Isabelle, and Daisy for demonstrating our 4 Bs: being respectful, kind, safe, and ready along with our Christian Values. Well done to these children for their excellent attitude and commitment to learning. The WOW group announced the ‘Wow Badge Winners’ for their amazing badge creations: Reception: Eva, Year 1: Elsie, Year 2: Renee, Year 3: Cassidy, Year 4: Alexis, Year 5: Bella, and Year 6: Daisy. They all received a big bar of chocolate for their entries. Well done to Year 2 and Year 5 for their amazing attendance this week! We also celebrated our out-of-school achievers: Hayden (good tackling), Hendrix (key game at Squirrels), Maggie (Rainbows badges), Olivia (gymnastics), Annabel (Rainbows badges for healthy mind), Grace (song and dance), Molly (swimming), Jack (swimming, Stage 7), Olivia (player of the match), and Tristan (imaginary green belt for kickboxing). Our Sports Hall Athletics team came 3rd in the final! Well done to the whole squad! Our house teams with the highest points will be rewarded with a house points disco and non-uniform day after the holiday. Congratulations to the Green (Whitehall Park) and Red (India Mill) teams tied with an overall score of 11 points for the half term. This week Darwen Tower placed 4th, India Mill came 3rd place , 2nd place Whitehall Park and 1st place River Darwen. Mrs Ham read out a special prayer called the Lord is my Shepherd which focuses on Jesus being like a shepherd by guiding us and always being there for us and Lydia placed the “ Year of Prayer” sticker on our special chart. We thank all those who attended the celebration worship and wish our school family a lovely, restful half-term break. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Inter- House Bench Ball
What a great Inter- House Bench Ball event we have had today. From Reception to Year 6 every child in school took part. The Sports Leaders led the event and managed each class really well . All of the children engaged with the year group sessions and were really enthusiastic, encouraging each other and working hard to develop their skills. Well done to everyone and a special thanks to The Sports Leaders. Another great event that involved every single child in school!
Year 1 PE- Inter-House Bench Ball
This afternoon, Year 1 took part in the inter- house bench ball which was led by our super sports leaders. The children thoroughly enjoyed playing with their house team and it was fantastic to see everyone joining in and being amazing St Barnabas encouragers.
Year 1 English- Nursery Rhymes
Over the last few days, Year 1 have been exploring nursery rhymes. They understand that nursery rhymes tell a story, include repetition to make them easy to learn and often contain rhyming words to make them enjoyable and fun to join in with. They recited and performed various poems such as ‘Little Bo-Peep’ and ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’. They will now look at the nursery rhyme ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’ and create their own version of this poem.
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today, we had a worship session with Rev. Matt, where the children began with a team game of “the wave.” They had to follow the movement and actively participate, reinforcing the idea of unity, direction, and how we are all connected. Rev. Matt then showed a video clip of Jesus at the Last Supper, highlighting the true power of prayer. He explained that, just like in the wave game, we need guidance in our prayers—someone to lead and show us the way. He reminded the children that Jesus prays for us all, giving us strength and support even when we don’t realise it. Following this, the children reflected on their own prayers, thinking about what they could pray for and the impact those prayers could have. They considered how prayer could bring comfort, hope, and change in their own lives and the lives of others. This time of reflection allowed the children to quietly offer their thoughts and prayers, reinforcing the importance of faith and reflection in their daily lives.
Year 1 PE- Street Dance
Year 1 enjoyed their sixth and final dance lesson with Miss Jess today. To start off the session, they put their space suit, boots and helmet and stepped into their rocket ship before embarking on an exciting space adventure. Year 1 then practised and performed the full dance sequence that they have been working on for the last 6 weeks for the very last time. They were incredible and it’s amazing to see the progress that the children have made from their very first dance session. They were able to link various movements and ways of travelling to perform a sequence with control. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 RE- Leading by Jesus’ Example
This half-term in RE, we’ve been learning about Jesus and many of the miracles that he performed (The Stilling of the Storm, Feeding the Five Thousand, Turning Water into Wine at the Wedding in Cana and The Calling of the Disciples). These stories have helped us to understand Jesus’ strength and power and his ability to be there for others when they feel seemingly hopeless. Today, we explored how Christian’s today lead by the example of Jesus. We listened to some stories about about how Christian Aid work tirelessly to support those in desperate need. We saw Christian Aid helping those in third world countries to gain access to safe, clean drinking water, an education and starting up a business such as making and selling butter with the help of a cow. The children understood that although we can’t perform miracles, we can certainly bring about positive change. They described Christian Aid as being kind, loving, generous, caring and helpful and decided that we can also be all of these things too. We finished off with the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’ as the children were fascinated that people in third world countries carry large quantities of water on their head as they may live miles away from a water pump so we thought that the children would be interested to find out that the same happens when they collect large quantities of food too.
Year 1 PE- Underarm throwing
Mrs Ham had the pleasure of teaching PE in Year 1 this week and she was really impressed with the underarm throwing skills that the children have developed over the last few weeks with Miss Flynn. We started with a fun Mr Men warm up to get our body ready and Mr Tickle was definitely the favourite one! We then recapped and practised the skills of underarm throwing with accuracy with a partner. We then applied these skills in a small game where one child was an attacker who had to throw the beanbag into a hoop and one was a defender. We thought about the tactics we could use such as looking or moving the opposite way to where we intended throwing the bean bag. We then put all these skills into practice with a couple of games of dodgeball and we saw some brilliant underarm throwing and tactics being used. Well done Year 1, I’m sure you will be amazing at our inter house benchball competition on Friday!
Year 1- Year of Prayer
This week, the theme for the ‘Year of Prayer’ was making foam. The children in Year 1 created foam using fairy liquid and hot water. They experimented whisking the solution to see what would happen. They discovered that the solution became more foamy and bubbly as they added more and more energy. Whilst doing this, we said thank you to God for energy that allows us to move and be active. Children thanked God for giving them the energy to dance, use a skipping rope, play football, do cartwheels and play with their friends. We also had some prayers to say thank you to God for giving us the energy to learn and think wisely. Well done Year 1!