Year 3- Creating Ancient Egyptian Art
This afternoon, Year 3 started their first art lesson by learning about Ancient Egyptian art and how it was made. They discovered that the Egyptians didn't use plain white paper but used papyrus instead. They also learnt that the Egyptians always painted figures sideways and the most important people were shown as the largest and prominent figures. To recreate this, Year 3 artists made interesting surfaces in their sketchbooks using water-based paints, tea bags, and coffee. After watching a demonstration, they tried making their surfaces to draw Egyptian patterns and shapes and their work turned out amazing!
Year 3- Dry Swimming - Safety talk and expectations
This afternoon the class talked with one of the swimming instructors from Darwen Leisure Centre, ready for our first swimming session on FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER. The instructor answered any questions the children had about swimming lessons and explained what to expect. Year 3 are super excited and can't wait.
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.
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
Class Worship- How can communities help each other in times of difficulty?
During our class worship, Year 3 looked at a story about the summer when riots occurred in England and Northern Ireland, causing damage to cars and buildings. We defined the term 'communities' and discussed the importance of everyone feeling welcome and safe within their community. The children reflected on their differences and similarities, recognising that our school community is special because it is made up of so many different individuals with unique interests. We discussed our British value of mutual respect and tolerance, considering how our words and actions can impact others. We then sang ' When I needed a neighbour' and ended the worship by thanking God for our school community.
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!
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.
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.
Year 3- First Day in Year 3
Year 3 had a wonderful first day back at school and were full of excitement about joining the juniors! We began the day by writing prayers for the new academic year, with children expressing their hopes for sharing love and kindness, supporting their families, and fostering a caring school community. We also built upon our school’s 4 B’s — Being Kind, Being Respectful, Being Safe, and Being Ready — with thoughtful ideas from the children, such as walking safely around the school and avoiding swinging on chairs. They practised lining up in alphabetical order with great enthusiasm and did an excellent job! In the afternoon, we explored our science unit on Light, where the children explored and compared natural and artificial light sources. It was a fantastic start to the year!
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.