Year 6 Square Root Day
This week, year 6 took part in an online Zoom session for Square Root Day, an unofficial holiday celebrated on days when both the day of the month and the month are the square root of the last two digits of the year. For example, the last Square Root Day was April 4, 2016 (4/4/16), and the next Square Root Day will be May 5, 2025 (5/5/25). There was a guest speaker who was a real mathematician and the children took part in discussions, submitting questions to the speakers and playing some maths games. One great quote we took away from this session was: “Mathematics is the poetry of logical thinking.”
Whole School Celebration-Living Life to the Full- Afternoon Tea
The afternoon tea, organised by the Smart School Council and RotaKids, was a wonderful celebration of our school family living life to the fullest. There was a lovely selection of cakes and biscuits, some homemade by the RotaKids the day before and some bought in. The children enjoyed chatting, laughing, and drinking hot chocolate together. We're thrilled to share that the event raised an impressive £256, which will go directly towards supporting our school. A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event and to all the staff who helped make it happen. A special thank you to our friends from Darwen Rotary who came along to support too. We look forward to hosting many more in the future!
Bee Stinger Netball Heat Winners
A huge congratulations to our Bee Stinger Netball squad who played amazing well in searing heat this afternoon and came away as heat winners. Five solid victories 11-0, 6-0, 2-0, 5-1, 6-0 . The children represented Team B brilliantly and now go on to take part in the grand final in a few weeks . A huge thank you to Mrs Gardner for her fantastic coaching and to Mrs Wilkinson for supporting and transporting.
.jpg)
Collective Worship- Songs of Praise
As part of our focus on prayer this half term, we further explored how one way we can pray is through song. We had a joyous start to the morning singing some of our favourite songs of praise and different classes were chosen to model the singing and actions at the front. We are super proud of our Reception class for showing their Build Up song as they showed lots of courage singing in front of the whole school family. We sang Waymaker, Shine from the inside out, Build up one another, Life in all its fullness and Jesus strong and kind. Most of our favourite worship songs can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-5832
Whole School Worship - Exploring Prayer
Today’s worship marked the beginning of an exploration of prayer: what it is, why people pray, how, when and where they pray, and why it is an important part of faith. We started by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and signing parts using the Makaton symbols we already knew. Jesus told his disciples this prayer twice when they asked him how to pray. We watched a short video explaining that prayer is simply talking to God and that there are no specific rules when communicating with God. We also learned that he is never too busy to listen to us. The children spent time recapping some of the ways they have prayed including through the Diocesan Year of Prayer, and thinking about what they might want to tell God. We then had some quiet time to say our own prayers to God. Some children said thank you for God’s wonderful creations, some said sorry for making wrong choices, some were thankful for their family and friends and some were grateful for their homes and food. We finished by singing our special Lord’s Prayer song with our Makaton actions.
.png)
Barney's Best Bits- Summer 1 Week 1
Dear parents and carers, I hope you all had a restful Easter break. This past week has been short but incredibly busy, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome you back and share some highlights from our week of living life in all its fullness here at St Barnabas. First, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the parents and carers who attended the parents' evening on Wednesday. We had an impressive turnout, with 92% of you attending. Your involvement is invaluable to your children's education and growth. I would also like to welcome the 30 children and their families into our school family that have gained a place at St Barnabas this coming September. We will be in contact soon with details about our transition. You are very welcome to attend our stay and play sessions over the next three Wednesdays from 9.00am. *Weekly Highlights* St George's Day Celebration: We started our St George's Day celebrations and they will continue into next week as St George’s Day has been moved to Monday 28th April by the Church of England, due to it falling during Easter Week. Reception Class Dentist Visit: Our Reception class had an informative visit from a dentist, teaching them about dental hygiene and care. Year 5 Earth Day Worship: Year 5 presented a wonderful worship on Earth Day, focusing on how we can care for our planet and God's creations. They also prayed a special Earth Day prayer written by Pope Francis, who sadly passed away this week. Year 3 Author Visit: Year 3 had the pleasure of an inspiring visit from author Jay Flynn, which greatly enhanced their understanding and writing of biographies. Voice 21 Visit. In school we have been working over the last year on developing oracy across school. We had a visitor from the Voice 21 project yesterday and she was so proud of the progress that we have made as a school family on developing speaking and listening. A huge thank you to Miss Flynn and Mrs Wilkinson for driving the Voice 21 project and to our staff for their support. It is wonderful to see how much the children’s confidence is growing when speaking in front of others which will stand our children in good stead in the future. For all of this week's news in detail, please click here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news *Fundraising Success* Big Lent Walk for CAFOD: Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Big Lent Walk. As a school family, we raised £214 and walked an impressive 2627 km collectively. Hop, Skip and Jump Event for East Lancs Hospice: We also raised £161 for the East Lancs Hospice through our Hop, Skip and Jump event. Your generosity and support are truly appreciated. *Upcoming Events* Tuesday 29th April: Rotakids and School council afternoon tea Bank Holiday: Please note that school will be closed on Monday, 5th May for the bank holiday. Thursday 8th May- Year 1 & 2 trip to Crocky Trail Red, White and Blue Day: Join us on Friday, 9th May for a Red, White and Blue Day to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Year 6 SATS: Year 6 SATS will take place the week commencing 12th May. Year 5 PGL Trip: The Year 5 PGL trip is scheduled for 12th-14th May. Year 3 Rock and River: Year 3 will have their Rock and River adventure on 15th May. All of the upcoming events can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events Thank you once again for your continued support and involvement in our school community. I wish you and your family a wonderful weekend and hopefully the sun continues to shine. Warm regards, Becky Ham
Friday Celebration Worship
*Celebration Worship* Today, we started our celebration worship by signing this week’s Makaton sign which was ‘How Are You?’ and we thanked everyone for their enormous generosity on the lead up to Easter. We walked 2627.6km and raised a wonderful £214 for the Big Lent Walk to help fight poverty globally and we also thanked our whole school for participating in the ‘Hop, Skip and Jump’ to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. The final amount raised will be confirmed shortly. We then reflected on our highlights in school this week. We have enjoyed learning about Earth Day- thank you Year 5 for your wonderful presentation of learning, Year 3 enjoyed a visit from author and quizmaster Jay Flynn, Reception have enjoyed a visit from the dentist and we have also enjoyed joining in with the Diocesan Year of Prayer. This week it was the 'robes of righteousness' which helped us to understand that God is always with us—surrounding us with His love, comfort, and protection. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Mikey, Alayna and Annabel in EYFS and KS1 and Harry, Carter, James and Brooke in KS2. Well done to these children for showing growth, maturity and resilience in their approach to learning by working extremely hard across the curriculum and always demonstrating our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready). Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 2 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week with 96.9% and 98.5% attendance and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with a record 720 points. River Darwen have won the half term award for receiving the most values points and they will have a non-uniform day and disco next Friday. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Ava for achieving a sleepover, swimming and adventure badge at Squirrels, Callie for achieving a medal for showing strength and technique in her amazing vault, bar, floor and beam work in a recent gymnastics competition, Beau for achieving her Stage 3 swimming certificate, Harry for being the Blackburn Eagles ‘Star of the Week’, Fletcher for being awarded ‘Beaver of the Year for 2024/25’ for being an extremely kind and respectful beaver, Lilly for achieving a super effort award during her recent Easter holiday club and making a fantastic start to her performing arts lessons at Little Voices, Annabel for wonderful projection of her voice in her singing lessons, Lyla for achieving a stage 3 award in a recent gymnastics competition, Jack for being Blackburn Eagles ‘Player of the Match’ in his first game playing for them, James for achieving his Stage 6 swimming certificate and Isabella for achieving ‘Player of the Week ‘ for her wonderful goalkeeping in a recent game playing for Little Darreners. To end our worship, Mrs Govan reminded us about an upcoming Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. The deadline is in 3 weeks time. Please find further information on Class Dojo. We then had a singalong to ‘Oh When the Saints Go Marching In’ for St George's Day and had some beautiful prayers from Olivia, Archie and Cici. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine.
Year 6 Class Worship
Today, year 6 took part in a class worship and discussed moments when they have felt genuinely surprised, shocked, puzzled, amazed and confused. These are emotions that Mary would have undoubtedly felt when she discovered the empty tomb and heard Jesus saying her name. We then heard from Bishop Phillip who spoke about how Jesus won victory over death and that means Christians can be friends with him forever.
.jpg)
Thank you parents and carers!
Thank you to everyone who attended parents’ evening last night. We had 92% of our parents attend, which was brilliant, especially with it being the first week back after the Easter holidays. It was lovely to welcome you back into school again and we hope you enjoyed hearing how your child has progressed since the last parents’ evening in December. Thank you for your patience when waiting for appointments and for your ongoing support. If you weren’t able to attend last night, please contact class teachers via class dojo to arrange a 5 minute phone call. A quick reminder that parents and carers are always welcome to join us for our Family Celebration Worship on Friday mornings. Refreshments will be available from 8.55am and worship will start at 9.05am. We look forward to seeing you and thank you for your continued support.
Year 6 - English
In English, year 6 have been developing their use of causal conjunctions to enhance their non-chronological report writing. They have used common causal conjunctions such as since, because and as, but have also been exposed to some more formal conjunctions such as thus, therefore, consequently and due to. Year 6 worked extremely hard to use these correctly and ensure their sentences were punctuated properly.
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 6 Hop, Skip and Jump
Year 6 took part in the Hop, Skip and Jump activity to raise money for East Lancs Hospice. They wore the Easter crowns that they had made and had a lot of fun! Donations can be made on parent pay.