Whole School Worship- Year of Prayer
During our first whole-school worship after the Easter break, the children explored the power of prayer and how it can support us during difficult times. This week the focus for our Diocesan Year of Prayer was the 'robes of righteousness'. As part of the reflection, two children were gently wrapped in robes to symbolise that God is always with us—surrounding us with His love, comfort, and protection. This visual reminder helped the children understand that even in challenging moments, we are never alone. Through prayer and faith, we can experience hope, peace and life in all its fullness.
Year 2 - Hop, skip and jump
Today, Year 2 took part in the Hop, Skip & Jump. This initiative is all about making a difference to the community and supporting East Lancashire Hospice. We hopped, skipped and jumped our way around our playground. Over the last two years, the campaign has raised over £12,000 for East Lancashire Hospice and they have had over 30 local schools and nurseries involved. This year, they want to go one step further and raise over £20,000 for the hospice - so we have done our bit and what a beautiful day to take part in the sun!
Amazing Attendance Winners
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!
Whole School Easter Service in Church
This morning, we celebrated our last day of the Spring term with a fantastic Easter church service. Our KS2 classes showcased their Easter artwork and our teachers led the service ‘’The Greatest News Event Ever” in the style of news reporters. Thank you to those who could attend and we wish you all a fantastic Easter holidays.
Year 2 - Visiting the Rose Garden
Yesterday afternoon, Year 2 walked to Whitehall Park to look at the Easter artwork produced by our school in the Rose Garden. It was great to see so many lovely pieces of Artwork depicting different parts of the Easter Story. Some of Year 2 were very pleased to see their very own artwork! They also contributed collectively 70 km towards our Big Lent Walk.
Easter Singing Worship
We had a joyous start to the week with a singalong to all of our favourite Easter songs ready for our church service on Thursday morning at 9.15am. KS2 will be showcasing their Easter artwork and parents and carers are very welcome to come along and support.
Barney's Best Bits- Spring 2- Week 6
Dear parents and carers, I hope this message finds you well. As we conclude another brilliant week of achieving great things and living life in all its fullness at St Barnabas, I'm delighted to share the highlights and achievements of our school family. *Science Boffin Show: Our children were thrilled to watch an array of exciting science experiments, sparking curiosity and wonder. *Rocksteady Rock Concert: Our school rock bands showcased their incredible musical talents, providing an exhilarating experience for everyone involved. *Big Lent Walk: Several classes participated in a class Big Lent Walk. Donations to Cafod can be made online: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-ce-primary-academys-big-lent-walk and this weekend looks perfect weather to get a walk in. * Year 6 Football Festival: Our Year 6 students participated with great enthusiasm, demonstrating teamwork and sportsmanship. *Year 4 Football Team: Congratulations to our Year 4 football team for coming second in their heat in the league and just missing out on the grand final! * Year 5 Peer Mediation: Year 5 students took part in their first Peer Mediation session, and our staff also received training in this important project. * Local Governing Committee Meeting: We shared all the successes of this term with our local governing committee, receiving positive feedback and support. * Year 5 Bikeability Sessions: Year 5 successfully completed their bikeability sessions, promoting safe cycling skills. *Eating hot cross buns as part of our Year of Prayer this week.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing the trinity and reflecting on another extremely busy yet wonderful week in school. First of all, we started by saying a huge thank you to all of the children who attended St Barnabas Church last Sunday in celebration of Mothering Sunday and Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Araujo for supporting this event. We also thanked the children in the Year 4/5/6 swimming squad who represented our school in the DPSSA Swimming Gala at Darwen Leisure Centre on Friday evening and Mrs Gardner for supporting this event. Well done to these children for demonstrating courage, determination and giving each other lots of encouragement. We then thought about our highlights in school this week. We enjoyed an unforgettable science show delivered by the amazing Science Boffin Katja, a fabulous rock performance by the brilliant members of our Rocksteady Rock Bands, Year 5 enjoyed an introduction to peer mediation as well as their second bike ability session, Year 2, 3 and 5 enjoyed a walk to contribute to ‘Our Big Lent Walk’ and all of our children across school have enjoyed some fantastic clubs such as Choir, Lego Serious Play led by WOW group, Story Club led by the school librarians, Gymnastics and Dodgeball Club led by EDSTART and Craft Club led by Fred and Pearl. Other highlights include our Year 5/6 football team who played in the B team festival at Witton Park on Tuesday evening and our Year 4 football team who played their final matches in the BRFC League on Tuesday evening. Well done to these incredible footballers for showcasing incredible teamwork and finishing as proud runners-up. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Finn, Phoebe and Reneé in EYFS and KS1 and Iris, Miles, Theo and Jack in KS2. Well done to these children for demonstrating a consistently positive attitude to their learning and working hard to show the Barney’s 4Bs. Furthermore, we congratulated Carter and Nevaeh 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 99.6% and 99.2% attendance and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 354 points. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Charlie and Albie for being the Players of the Week at Little Darrener’s FC for super dribbling, Annabel for demonstrating amazing skill in her recent ballet and tap exam, Seb for being Player of the Match for his super tackling, Scarlett for demonstrating great skill in her interceptions and goal scoring at football, Summer for being a super dancer in modern jazz and tap, Brooke for achieving Player of the Match and Laila for being the opposition’s Player of the Match at football, Minnie for achieving a badge at squirrels, Olivia H for achieving a medal at gymnastics for working hard and demonstrating super listening skills, Leonora and Iris for their resilience and determination at gymnastics, Olivia R for achieving the Goalkeeper of the Week at Soccer HQ and Jack for achieving his 400m and Stage 7 swimming certificate. To end our worship, Mrs Govan told us about an upcoming Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. More information to follow on Class Dojo. We then had a joyous singalong and dance to ‘He is Alive’. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine. The slides can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-4370
Reception, Year 1 and Year 2- Story Club with Miss Flynn and the Librarians
Today in story club, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 listened to the story of ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ with Miss Flynn and the librarians. They thought about why the giant went from being the smartest giant in town to the kindest giant in town because of his generosity to all of the animals who were upset in the story. We then finished with a craft where the children made a crown (like the one that the animals made for the giant) and thought about how they can also show kindness and generosity.
Worship with Rev. Ben
Today, during Rev. Ben’s worship, the children explored the theme of living life in all its fullness through movement and storytelling. They engaged in a series of dynamic actions that brought a Bible story to life, immersing themselves in an active and reflective experience. The story they focused on was the Road to Emmaus from the Gospel of Luke. It tells of two disciples walking to Emmaus, filled with sadness and confusion following Jesus’ crucifixion. Along the way, they met a stranger who walked with them and explained the Scriptures, helping them understand God’s greater plan. As evening approached, they invited the stranger to stay and share a meal. It was only when he broke the bread that their eyes were opened—they realised the stranger was the resurrected Jesus! In that moment, Jesus disappeared, leaving them filled with renewed faith and joy. This interactive worship session helped the children connect with the story in a meaningful way, encouraging them to embrace faith, discovery and the joy of living life to the fullest.
Year 2 - Life cycle of a plant
Today, Year 2 continued their learning all about plants. Today we explored the different stages of a plants life cycle. We used technical vocabulary to describe the plant and what was happening at each stage. The stages we identified are: germination, seedling, adult plant, pollination, fertilisation and reproduction. The children were superb at remembering the stages of the cycle.
The W.O.W. Group - Lego Serious Play in Action
Our wonderful W.O.W. group led their first Lego Serious Play session this week with two children from each year group. They asked their groups to build models that would demonstrate prior learning in RE - for example, “Make a model to show how Christians celebrate Jesus’ birthday”. W.O.W. group introduced the task then gave the children ten minutes to build. During the process, they asked questions and asked children to explain their choices. They made a note of the responses and then presented the models to the group.