Year 5 - Science
In science, we finished our materials topic by exploring the saturation points of water at different temperatures. The children found that warm water can dissolve more sugar than cold water. We related this back to the action of particles, with heat causing the bonds between sugar molecules to weaken, allowing them to spread evenly through the solvent (water). Next week, we begin our new topic of the solar system.
Christmas Video 2025
Dear Parents and Carers, What a truly magical and festive end to an incredible first term at St Barnabas! As we reach the final day of this seven-week half term, I am filled with such pride reflecting on everything our school family has achieved. First and foremost, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you. Your partnership and engagement are vital to our children’s success, and your generosity this term—from the Macmillan Coffee Morning to our wonderful Christmas Fair—has been overwhelming. We are so lucky to have such a supportive community. To our children: you are quite simply wonderful. Whether you were settling into Reception for the first time, representing our school in sports, or shining on stage in our Nativity and "Christmas Cracker" performances, you have lived life in all its fullness. You have worked your socks off, and you truly deserve this rest. For photos of our Christmas fun, please click here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo.../christmas-2025 and also see our weekly news: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news I also want to extend a huge thank you to our fantastic staff team. Their hard work and dedication ensure our school is a love-filled Christian family where every child can thrive. I am particularly grateful for them being such brilliant sports this week; they completely threw themselves into the filming of our annual Christmas video! The children had a wonderful time spotting themselves in the video during our church service this morning. I think the definite highlight for them was seeing exactly what the teachers get up to in school between the hours of 6- 7! We truly hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfmvpqhqag A reminder that we break up early today at 2:00 pm. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope your holiday is filled with love, laughter, and joy. We look forward to seeing everyone back, refreshed and ready for a new chapter, on Monday 5th January. Take care and God bless, Mrs. Ham
Whole School Christmas Church Service
This morning, our whole school enjoyed a joyful and reflective visit to church to celebrate the Christmas season together. During the service, children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 confidently shared the work they have been doing in class, exploring the true meaning of Christmas and the special joy, hope and kindness that Jesus brought to others. Their contributions helped everyone to pause and reflect on the importance of love, generosity and togetherness at this special time of year. We also enjoyed singing a selection of our much-loved Christmas carols, filling the church with festive cheer. A highlight was watching our whole-school Christmas video, which captured many of the wonderful activities and celebrations from the past couple of weeks. The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing themselves on screen taking part in the festivities and were especially delighted to see members of the school staff joining in and having fun. It was a warm and uplifting celebration that truly reflected the spirit of Christmas and brought our school community together. A huge thank you to Parents and to all who attended to celebrate with us. We wish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Year 5 - Christmas Party
Year 5 joined Year 6 today for the Christmas party. The children danced and played party games like musical statues, pass the parcel and musical bumps. Mr Bloomfield, DJ and party master, led the festivities with a musical set of Christmas bangers that got every child on their feet and singing along. A great time was had by all.
Whole Class Worship - Joy
This week of advent, our focus is Joy. We began by recounting the advent themes we have explored so far: Hope and Peace. Mrs Ham chose Lyla from Year 4 to come to the front to light the three advent candles and she highlighted some of the ways our school family have brought joy to others over the past few weeks. It was heartwarming to hear about some of these, including the Reception class nativity, Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Cracker, the choir singing at Acer Lodge care home, and Year 4 writing letters to the residents, plus all of those who have been supporting our latest charity campaigns. We reflected on what true joy looks like and how we can sometimes forget about the simple things when our minds are preoccupied with expensive gifts and the hustle and bustle of the season. Our focus was brought back to the gift God sent - his only son - and how Jesus’ incarnation was the joyous gift that changed our world forever.
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Year 5 - RE
Year 5 have been practising their presentation of learning for Friday’s church service. The focus is on peace and how the message of peace can be found in the two nativity stories in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. We have already made triptych drawings telling the stories and the script compares Luke’s message of a humble saviour to Matthew’s message of a king descended from Moses and David.
Year 5 - Geography
In Geography we have explored the physical aspects of mountains including how they are formed and their unique climate. Now we are moving onto the human aspects, studying the lives of people who live on them. We found out about the harsh lives of farmers who live near Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest, and how they have to supplement their income through tourism while dealing with the challenges of their isolated rural existence.
Year 5 - Whitehall Park
On Tuesday, we visited the rose garden at Whitehall Park to see the wonderful Advent art made by the talented children of St Barnabas. Afterwards, we took advantage of the dry weather by spending our break time on the swings.
Year 5 - Elf on the Shelf
Unfortunately we have had some problems in the last 2 weeks with a naughty elf causing all kinds of mischief. At various times, Alfie the Naughty Elf has hidden glue sticks, blocked the clock, messed with the cushions and eaten all the biscuits. Hopefully these Christmas shenanigans are not distracting the children too much, who continue to work hard all the way up to the holiday.
DPSSA Schools Football League
Great performances tonight! Narrowly missing out 3–1 to Avondale in a fantastic game. But showing brilliant character to bounce back with a 3–1 win over Turton Edgworth. Well done boys!
Year 5 - French
The children completed their unit on sports vocabulary by translating words from French into English before writing a paragraph in French describing their opinions towards a variety of sports using time phrases and conjunctions.
Year 5 - Science
In science, Year 5 studied which materials are soluble and which are insoluble in water. We first considered how particles move when substances are dissolved, spreading out evenly through the water. Then we defined the terms solute, solvent and solution before carrying out a practical to observe how soluble coffee, sugar, tea leaves, metal and oil are.