Year 1 Art- Printing
As part of their art unit, Year 1 have been inspired by Lowry. They first explored his artwork and some of the buildings in Darwen such as Darwen Library, India Mill, Darwen Market Hall, Darwen Post Office and Darwen Leisure Centre. After weeks of studying the landmarks, observing the shapes and lines that they are made up of and practising drawing and printing the shapes and lines that these buildings are made up of, Year 1 have created their final print. I’m sure you’ll agree that they have done a fabulous job.
Year 1 Maths- Estimating and Measuring the Mass of Objects
Today in their maths lesson, Year 1 were estimating and measuring the mass of objects using a balancing scale and cubes. They learnt that they should stop adding/counting cubes when the scale has balanced as this means that they have calculated the mass. They did really well with this and their estimates got better as the activity progressed as they could reason better e.g. I think this 3 glue sticks will weigh 60 cubes because they feel a lot heavier than the scissors which weighed 11 cubes.
.jpeg)
Reception: The Church as a Special Place
As part of our learning on special places, Reception class visited St Barnabas Church and met Rev Matt. Rev Matt asked us to explore the church to find things we wouldn't find at home. Reggie said he saw a cross, Harry said a microphone, Beau said the font, Cassius found some musical instruments and Will found a chalice. Rev Matt asked why is church special for people. Ava said we worship here and Thea said we worship Jesus here. Rev Matt shared the chalice and plate and explained that we have a special meal to remember Jesus known as communion or the Eucharist. Rev Matt explained that all churches look different and that is ok. We watched a video to explain why. For Christians, church is a place and a way to describe people who trust in Jesus. It is a place where people meet which makes it really special. Thank you so much Rev Matt for putting our learning into context, we really enjoyed our visit.
Year 1 English- Retrieving Information From Non-Fiction Texts
This week in their English lessons, Year 1 are preparing to write a non-fiction booklet to share information about their trip to the Crocky Trail. Today, they explored some non-fiction books. They used the contents page and/or the headings on each page to support them in retrieving answers to questions that they had been given. Great work, Year 1!
Year 1 RE- Belonging
This afternoon, Year 1 have been thinking about belonging in RE. After exploring baptism and Rev Ben explaining to us that baptism is like a badge that people wear to show that they belong to the church, we thought about other groups that we belong to, how these groups make us feel and created our own badge to represent this. We had badges to symbolise our families, after-school clubs such as Butterflies and Kidsland, our school, our church, Rainbows, Beavers, Stagecoach, swimming, dance, gymnastics, football and kickboxing. The children described these groups as making them feel special, proud, happy, excited, overjoyed and thankful and they said that if a new person was to join their family, school family, church family or club, they would make them feel welcome by learning their name, giving them a smile, giving them a high-five, handshake or hug, helping them out and showing them where things go.
.jpeg)
Reception: Collective Worship
We started our Worship across the Diocese with a call and response. God gives us wisdom all the time, Amen. We listened to a story from the Old Testament. We explored where this was in the timeline of God's big story. Mark told the story of 'A Woman's Victory'. Bishop Jill explained the story. A usual person stepped up to stop the chaos that was happening in Israel. Men usually led everything but a woman called Deborah saw an opportunity to find courage to approach and question the leader of the Israeli army. Lots of women have stepped into roles usually led by men to change things for the better. God gives courage to those people to do better for the greater good. Bishop Jill was the first woman bishop in Lancaster. Jesus wants us to be ourselves and it is really important for us to have courage and not to count ourselves out of situations. God gave Deborah the victory to succeed. We discussed things that we need courage for. Evie said writing, Zac said to build a house in our construction area, Thea said to draw a turtle and Willow said she needs courage to carry things from one place to another. We prayed to God to be ourselves and to use the gifts and talents that God has given us. We ended our worship by singing 'My Lighthouse'.
.png)
Year 3- Class Worship - Young Inventors
Today's Picture News class worship highlighted the inspiring ingenuity of three teenagers from India who developed a salt-powered fridge to aid hospitals in rural areas lacking electricity. Reflecting on this through the lens of "windows, doors, and mirrors" in spirituality, the teenagers' story served as a "window" into the needs of others and the power of innovation. We then considered the everyday items that ease our own lives, such as the convenience of a hairdryer, the ready access to running water, and the efficiency of an air fryer. This reflection acted as a "mirror," prompting us to appreciate the impact of even simple solutions on the quality of life. Inspired by the teenagers' creativity, which we saw as an open "door" of possibility, Year 3 resolved to embark on our invention journey, recognising our potential to make a positive difference in the world. This experience connected with the Christian value of hope and the biblical message of using our creativity to serve others. Isaac led a prayer thanking God for inspiring ideas and creative minds, emphasising the importance of using our abilities to make a positive impact, even through small acts of kindness and imagination.
Year 1- Year of Prayer- The World
This week as part of the Diocesan Year of Prayer, Year 1 prayed for the world. First of all, we started by singing the seven continents song (which we absolutely love) to remind us of how vast our world is. Year 1 then highlighted places on the world map that they have visited such as London, Turkey, Italy and Belfast and thought about places in the world that they would like to visit such as Brazil to visit the rainforest, the North Pole to see the reindeers and meet Father Christmas, Africa to see the desert animals, Florida to meet the Disney characters, Greece to enjoy the sunshine, beaches, churches and swimming pools and China for the experience. We then finished with some beautiful prayers from Harry, Olly and Olivia who prayed to God to thank Him for the amazing animals that He created for us to love, care for and experience as well as the varied foods that we get to experience from around the world such as Indian foods, Italian foods and beautiful, exotic fruits. We also had a prayer to remind us to care for the world that God created for us all.
Year 3- English- Describing items found in the bin-
As part of our narratives topic in English, Year 3 are reading Clive King's 'Stig of the Dump'. To help us recognise the setting for this adventure, we investigated the types of things you would find in a dump, and used expanded noun phrases to describe the objects we could see. This will help us to visualise and develop our ideas for a setting when we write our narratives.
.png)
Barney's Best Bits- Summer 1 Week 3
Dear parents and carers, I hope this message finds you well. As we wrap up a short but eventful week of living life in all its fullness at St Barnabas, I wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and partnership. Highlights of the Week: *We commemorated the VE Day 80-year anniversary with school-wide worships and a vibrant red, white, and blue day. Thank you for your generous donations to the Royal British Legion via Parent Pay. *Our Years 1 and 2 pupils visited The Crocky Trail, demonstrating remarkable courage on the huge slides and impeccable behaviour throughout the trip. *Congratulations to our Year 4 pupils for securing 3rd place in the tennis competition! * Year 1 enjoyed a visit to our church for a mock baptism, followed by a delightful party. A special thank you to Rev Ben for his support. *Our Year 5/6 netball team celebrated a fantastic achievement, winning their first three matches of the league. * Year 5 students completed their peer mediation training and are now encouraged to write a letter of application to become peer mediators. All of this week’s news in detail can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/news Coming Up Next Week: * Year 6 SATS: We are incredibly proud of the progress our Year 6 students have made. While SATS are important, they don't capture the full extent of their talents in sports, art, music, or their kindness. We encourage them to do their best, knowing they are blessed with skills beyond what SATS test. To ensure a positive start each day, a breakfast of bacon and/or sausage baps will be provided. * Year 5 PGL Residential: From Monday to Wednesday, Year 5 will be heading to Winmarleigh Hall for their PGL residential, participating in various outdoor and adventurous activities. * Year 3 Rock and River Visit: On Thursday, Year 3 will be heading to Rock and River in Ormskirk for an exciting day of outdoor activities. * Reception Class: Nightingale Farm will be visiting as part of their Spring topic, offering an enriching experience for our Reception class. * Work Experience: We will be welcoming previous Barney's students from DACA for their Year 10 work experience. All of our upcoming events can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/events As we look forward to another week filled with learning and growth, I wish everyone a wonderful weekend in the sun. Thank you once again for your unwavering support, Becky Ham
.jpeg)
VE Commemoration- Red, white and blue day
Today, our pupils and staff dressed in red, white and blue to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. We came together to remember and honour those who served, and to reflect on the importance of peace and unity. As part of our celebrations, we’re supporting the Royal British Legion. If you’d like to make a donation, you can do so easily via ParentPay. Every contribution helps support veterans and their families. Thank you for helping us make this day meaningful for our school family! #VEDay80 #StBarnabasRemembers #RoyalBritishLegion #RedWhiteBlueDay
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in a special worship, we came together to remember and celebrate Victory in Europe (VE) Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Thank you to our whole school family for dressing in red, white, and blue today to help us to show our support for this important moment in history and raise money for the Royal British Legion. We also reflected on many of our other highlights this week which have included further exploration of the Lord’s Prayer and learning about VE Day in our collective worships, focusing on reflective prayers as part of our Diocesan Year of Prayer, Reception having a visit from the Animal Garden pet shop, who brought along a fascinating collection of minibeasts for the children to explore, Year 1 visiting St Barnabas Church for a mock baptism , Year 1&2 visiting the Crocky Trail and showing extreme courage, Year 5 have enjoying another Peer Mediation session, our Year 4 tennis team who represented our school with pride and positivity at the Blackburn Northern Tennis Club on Wednesday afternoon and our Year 5/6 Netball Squad who represented St Barnabas brilliantly in the DPSSA Netball league in the first round of games. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Willow in EYFS and Oliver, Alexis, Beau and Austin in KS2. Well done to these children for showing our Barny’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready) and consistently pushing themselves to achieve great things. We also congratulated the whole of the Year 1 & 2 classes for being amazing on their trip to the Crocky Trail. They were extremely brave, encouraged each other every step of the way and demonstrated impeccable manners. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park as our value award winners this week with 161 points. We then moved onto congratulating all of our out of school achievers. Well done to Piper-Jo for achieving her white belt in kickboxing, Marnie-May for being awarded her 20m swimming certificate, Mikey and Marley for achieving their 5m swimming certificates, Eleanor for being awarded Olivia at Rainbows for super behaviour and achieving her 5m and 10m swimming certificates, Charlie for being a super football star and competing amazingly well in a recent football tournament, Olivia, Olivia and Ivy for their recent success in winning the under 8s Cup Final 2025, Eliza for achieving ‘Girl of the Game’ in her most recent football match and Grace for achieving a distinction and a merit in her recent tap and jazz exams. To end our worship, we wished our fabulous Year 6 children good luck in their SATs next week, Olivia, Lana and Percy shared some beautiful prayers and we sang happy birthday to those who have an upcoming birthday or have celebrated their birthday recently. We then invited our Year 6 children to lead us in singing the National Anthem. Thank you to all of our school family who could attend celebration worship and we thank you for your ongoing support. We send an extended thank you to the rest of our school family. We wish you all a lovely and restful weekend in the sunshine.