Merry Christmas Everyone!
Good afternoon parents and carers, what a fantastic last week we have had at St Barnabas celebrating Christmas. Each class has visited the Rose Garden in Whitehall Park to see the lovely Christmas art work and enjoyed singing Christmas carols. Our Christmas parties were great fun and the infants got a special visit and gift from Santa & the children in KS2 were left special presents from him too. This morning we had our Christmas church service and this afternoon we presented our amazing attendance winners with their certificates and had a singalong to our Christmas video. To see all of our latest news from each class, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news I’m delighted to let you know that Sean Dunn is our new parent governor and you should be able to spot him in our Christmas video along with some of our other governors, our staff and children. It wouldn’t be Christmas at St Barnabas without our special Christmas video to wish you all a merry Christmas from our whole school family. Here it is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EaMCS8bGFvc On behalf of our whole staff team, we would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and we hope that it is filled with moments of peace, love and joy. Thank you so much for your kind words, cards and gifts. We look forward to seeing you all next year when the Spring term starts on Monday 8th January. Merry Christmas and best wishes to you all, Mrs Ham and the St Barnabas staff team
Key Stage 2 Christmas Party Fun
What a fab afternoon Key Stage 2 have had at their Christmas party. Games galore, dancing and singing. Everyone had a huge smile on their faces and enjoyed every second! Huge thanks to the elves who brought every child a gift which is so kind. Hopefully the children will have exhausted themselves and sleep well tonight ahead of our final day of school tomorrow.
Whitehall Park Values Winner Disco
Well done to all of the children in Whitehall Park as they collectively received the most values points this half term. As a treat, they were rewarded with a disco! They had a super time and all enjoyed a chocolate lolly too.
Santa’s Workshop for Key Stage 2
Last week, our heads and deputies created a list for Santa of toys that our key stage 2 children would like. After Santa visited key stage 1, he left toys for our key stage 2 children to choose from. They all enjoyed choosing from a selection of gifts. What a treat!
Year 3- Class Worship- Are decorations an important part of celebrations?
During today's class workshop, Year 3 discussed the significance of decorations in celebrations. Some children express that decorations are important as they bring joy and help spread the purpose of the celebration. However, the majority felt that spending money on decorations is worthwhile only if they can be reused each year. As we reflected on the discussion, we reminded ourselves that Christmas is a special time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is considered the most precious gift. We thanked God for the festive season and, most importantly, for the gift of Jesus. The children decided to end class worship by singing the carol 'Away in a Manger.'
Year 3- Whitehall Park- Singing Christmas songs and admiring the Artwork
This morning, Year 3 have been out admiring the wonderful artwork created by some of the children from our school. During the visit, they sang Christmas songs, spreading festive cheer to the members of the gardening club. They were amazed by how well they sang their hearts out. They also had the opportunity to have a play in the park before heading back to school.
Year 3- Whitehall Park- Singing Christmas songs and admiring the Artwork
This morning, Year 3 have been out admiring the wonderful artwork created by some of the children from our school. During the visit, they sang Christmas songs, spreading festive cheer to the members of the gardening club. They were amazed by how well they sang their hearts out. They also had the opportunity to have a play in the park before heading back to school.
Friday 15th December- Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by lighting our advent candles and reflecting on this week’s theme for advent which is joy. Mrs Ham said that our choir brought lots of joy to Darwen Market Hall yesterday and how this week we have also taken part in the Christmas Fayre and Christmas lunch which have also brought lots of joy to us all. We then presented Elsie, Marley, Arabelle, Sonny, Talia, Charlie-Rose and Molly as our value award winners this week. Well done to these children who have been displaying an incredible amount of kindness, respect and trying incredibly hard with their learning. We also congratulated Tyler, Bobby, Ella, Jenson and Talia who have achieved their pen licenses and Reception and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week. Whitehall Park are our overall value award winners this week and are also this half-terms overall winners. We then said a huge well done to four of our Year 2 children who attended a Curling competition. Unfortunately, they just missed out on achieving medals but they represented school amazingly - well done to Isaac, James, Emily and Olivia! We then said well done to our out of school achievers. Well done to Olivia for being an incredible mascot at the weekend during the Ladies’ Blackburn Rovers Football game, Isaac for achieving a medal at performing arts, Ruby for attending Brownie Camp and achieving a gold award in Brownies which is the highest award that a Brownie can achieve and also lots of medals and a trophy for her survival skills in swimming, Alexis for achieving 50m in her swimming, Isaac for achieving 50m in his swimming and his younger brother Teddy for achieving Ducklings stage 3 in his swimming, Alfie for swimming 5m backstroke, Grace for attending Brownie Camp and trying lots of new activities such as caving, zip wiring and climbing, Betsy for achieving a medal in her ballet, Callie for swimming 5m, Carmen for achieving her stage 4 in swimming, Thomas for achieving stage 2 in his swimming and Eden for achieving the bronze award at Brownies and attending the Brownie Camp at the weekend. We then said a huge thank you to our Friends of St Barnabas who continue to run lots of events in school, such as our Christmas Fayre on Wednesday, to fundraise money for school to purchase lots of new and exciting things for our children. We can’t wait for our new outdoor gym. We then heard some lovely prayers from Sofia, Elijah and Mrs Ham and listened to our amazing choir who sang to us all. We thank you all again for your continued support this week and we wish you all a lovely festive weekend.
Choir Christmas Carols at Darwen Market
A huge well done to our amazing choir and Year 6 singers for a wonderful performance today! Thank you to Darwen Market for inviting us. Thanks to everyone who came to watch. We hope we spread some festive cheer and joy to you all!
Whole School -Design Technology- Christmas Fayre
This term in Design and Technology (D.T.), children from every class have been busy creating special things with a purpose. They showed off their creations at our school's Christmas fayre. Reception made cute Christmas decorations, Year 1 made Christmas-themed characters that move from a book, Year 2 put together yummy fruit kebabs, Year 3 crafted pouches, Year 4 made stockings, Year 5 created comfy cushions, and Year 6 invented their own steady hand game. Everyone should be proud of what they made because when parents and visitors saw the products, they were amazed! Each class did a fantastic job turning their creativity into awesome projects.
Year 3 - Maths- Making equal groups
This week in their maths, Year 3 have explored various multiplication methods using counters. They have been using concrete materials to demonstrate their understanding of both multiplication and division of given numbers.
Year 3- A visit to Nightingales Farm
The children had an inspiring morning at Nightingales Farm today, where they saw pigs, goats, sheep, and many chickens. The children were set on a fun activity where they had to guess the number of chickens in the barn and were astonished to discover that they had over 400 chickens. They were fascinated to learn that a chicken's health could be determined by the colour of its comb – a red comb indicates good health and a peach comb chicken needs care. Steph, also assessed the children's understanding of their recent classroom lessons on bones, challenging them with questions about the human and animal skeletal system. The children displayed exemplary behaviour and respect, and actively participated in discussions about animal diets, demonstrating their keen interest and knowledge.