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 2 - Geography
In Geography, we had a closer look at the continent of Asia. I was extremely impressed with the countries we could remember such as Japan, The Philippines and Saudi Arabia! We found lots more out about Asia today such as that Asia is made up of 48 countries. I’m sure the children will remember these facts just as well.
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 2 - Gymnastics
This week in Gymnastics, year 2 continued to learn skills and movements. We also used apparatus which allowed us to perform our new skills in different ways. We will continue to develop our skills and build a routine in our next gymnastic lessons!
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 2- Science- What does a healthy balanced diet look like?
This afternoon, Year 2 scientists recapped the five food groups and expanded their knowledge of different food types. We explored the advantages of fresh foods and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of pre-cooked and processed foods. Some children participated by using the interactive board to categorise food items. We had a great discussion about processed foods like canned fish and popular choices like McDonald's and pizza. For their mission assignment, the children created healthy meal plans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
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.
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!
Gymnastics in Year 2
In our gymnastics session today we looked at building a sequence using travelling and jumps. We practiced shapes such as star, straight and tuck. We then moved onto a 1/4 turn jump which was quite tricky. Finally we learned how boys and girls present differently to begin and end a sequence and then added these to our four piece sequence.
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.