Whole School Celebration Worship
This week has been full of joy, community and Christmas spirit across our school! We started our celebration worship by lighting our first Advent candle together. Mrs Ham also thanked all the children and staff for decorating Christmas trees across school and highlighted a special moment when Phoebe, our youngest child in school, put the star on top of the tree in the school hall. We also said a huge well done to Reception who did an incredible Nativity performance. We also celebrated a couple of children who proudly represented our school at a local care home, singing for the residents and spreading Christmas cheer. We also had a fantastic time at the pantomime this week so a big thanks to Mrs Wilkinson for organising it. This week, our Values Awards were presented to the following children: all of Reception for their fantastic performance, Eleanor in Year 1, Teddy in Year 2, James in Year 3, Arabelle in Year 4, Sophia in Year 5 and Isabelle in Year 6. These children have been working so hard, following our 4’Bs and demonstrating Christian values. Mr Mealor also awarded Alexis, Miles, James, Harriet and Charlie with pen licenses for excellent progress in their handwriting. We also celebrated our Team Values Points with India Mill finishing in fourth place, River Darwen in third place, Whitehall Park in second place and Darwen Tower in first place! Mr Bloomfield also announced our first Times Table Rock Stars Winners: Charlie in Year 3, James in Year 4, Ivy in Year 5 and Charlie in Year 6. Our overall winners were Year 6! Well done. We are very proud of all the children who received special sports awards this week. Ava received Squirrel of the Week for her kindness. Zachary achieved his Stage 2 swimming certificate. Charlie was named Player of the Week for his excellent goal scoring. Desmond and Iris both competed in swimming events and placed in the top three, earning several medals. Thea was recognised for her fantastic balancing skills in gymnastics. Olivia was awarded the Olivia doll at Rainbows for her hard work. Vienna achieved her Stage 5 swimming certificate for completing 400m. Finn was named Player of the Week for his good passing skills. Willow achieved an impressive 19 skills in gymnastics. Luna earned the red belt in kickboxing. James received the Wilson Cup Trophy after finishing second with fewer players and also swam an impressive 50 metres. Grace was celebrated for helping others and persevering. Mollie was awarded the Claire doll for being helpful. Jack earned Captain of the Month for his encouragement, discipline and leadership. Tristan earned both his blue and purple belts in kickboxing and completed three minutes of continuous punching. Harriet was praised for her amazing progress in MMA. Lilly achieved a distinction in her Grade 1 acting school exam. Lila reached the finals of a dance competition, placing first in improv, first in commercial and second in lyrical. Our KS2 football team also showed great resilience this week. After losing their first match 7-0, they came back stronger to draw 2-2 in their next game. The winners of the Walk to School Challenge was also won by Reception, well done! We also celebrated our attendance winners this week which are Year 2 and Year 3. We have several exciting events coming up. The Lantern Parade will take place this Saturday in Whitehall Park. Our Christmas Fayre will be held next Wednesday in the school hall. The Christmas Carol Service will take place next Sunday. We also have an Advent Art competition with submissions open until Wednesday. Year 1 and Year 2 are performing their Christmas Cracker Show on Thursday and Friday. Year 1 are continuing to collect Christmas Hamper donations for the Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise. We are so proud of our wonderful children and look forward to another week of joy and celebration through our Advent journey.
Year 1 Science: using our sense of touch
Continuing on with our Science, we focused on our sense of touch. We understood that when we touch something or feel something on our skin, it sends a message to our brain. Sometimes this always keeps us safe from touching dangerous objects. We used our fingertips to feel different objects and describe them. Some of the words we used to describe the objects were rough, smooth, warm, cold, hard and soft. Year 1 are really enjoying learning about the human body and their scientific work is really impressive.
Snow White Pantomime
The children had a brilliant time today at Blackburn Empire Theatre. The whole school watched Snow White. It was wonderful to see their faces light up, Christmas is in full swing at St Barnabas! All of the photos will be uploaded shortly to here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/snow-white-pantomime
Year 1: Fun at the Snow White Pantomime
Year 1 had such a great time at Snow White. The ice lollies were especially good! They all joined in really well and were so sensible travelling to and from the theatre. I am so proud of their behaviour today.
Year 1 Maths: subtraction using play dough
Year 1 had so much fun in maths today using play dough to help them with subtraction. For example, for 8-2=6, they had to roll 8 balls of play dough as this is the whole, then squash 2 (a part) to find out how many were left over (6 as a part). They found this helpful as they could physically change the play dough and use it as a visual. Well done Year 1!
Year 1 Christmas Tree Decorating
Year 1 had such a fun time decorating our Christmas tree. They carefully picked two baubles each to put on the tree. We made sure we covered as many branches as possible from top to bottom. They absolutely loved doing this together and we are definitely feeling the Christmas Spirit. It also makes for a lovely Reading Corner.
Year 1 PE: Gymnastics
Yesterday, our children became Superhero Gymnasts. We discussed our favourite superheroes, such as Thor, Captain America and Spider-Man, and noticed that they use gymnastics to help people. We became superhero’s and created our own superhero gymnastics sequence. We started by travelling through flames using bunny hop, caterpillar crawl, bear crawl or frog jump. Then we had to roll under lasers using egg roll, pencil roll or rock and roll. Once we safely got through the lasers we did our superhero pose (a three-point balance) and then rolled back through the lasers. Year 1 really enjoyed this sequence, especially with our superhero action music in the background.
Year 1 Science: using our sense of taste
Today in Science, we used our sense of taste to identify, describe and rate different flavours. Firstly, we looked at each other’s tongues to spot the tiny bumps, which are our taste buds. Then, we discussed that foods have different flavours, such as sweet, spicy, bitter, sour and salty. Year 1 had to use their scientific skills to identify which flavour matched the food. They tried banana, lemon, dark chocolate, ginger biscuits and salted popcorn. They then rated the food out of 10 depending on how much they liked the flavour. It was great to see that all the children tried the foods, even if they knew that they didn’t like them. Well done Year 1!
Forest school club- Planting Trees
We have had a brilliant Forest School club tonight. We have been planting trees from the National Trust around the perimeter of school. Each child planted their own tree and then created their own name label for it containing the year the tree was planted and the class they are currently in.
Whole School Worship - The Importance of Trees
This week is National Tree Week and Mrs Ham introduced an exciting new tree-planting project that we will be undertaking as a school. Following on from Switch Off Fortnight, we will continue our Planet Protectors mission by planting trees on our school grounds and, of course, our fantastic children will be involved. To kick start the project, we had a discussion about why trees are amazing. The children gave some very thoughtful answers, such as “they give us oxygen”, “they take harmful carbon dioxide out of the air”, “they provide protection for animals”, “we love playing in the trees”, “we use trees to make things”. Mrs Ham also told us the story, The Man Who Planted Trees. It was about a shepherd who saw the barren land and wanted to improve it, so he started planting trees. He planted over 1000 acorns, and after many years, the landscape was filled with lush, green trees, rivers flowed and a town was built. We learned from this 100-year-old story that one person’s small act can make a huge difference. Just like in the Parable of the Talents, we learned that it’s important for us all to use what we’ve been given to make a positive impact on the world. We can’t wait to use the trees that have been donated to us by the National Trust to make a positive impact on our community.
Year 1 History: Putting Out The Great Fire of London
Today, we examined evidence, primary sources and artefacts to help us understand how the people of London tried to put out the fire in 1666. We learnt that Samuel Pepys wrote a diary and buried it with wine and cheese, which we still use today to understand the events of the fire. We also used pictures and artefacts, such as a leather bucket to understand ways the fire was put out. We did some role play using our buckets and filling it with water from the River Thames and throwing it onto the flames. When that didn’t work, we used a water pump to try and extinguish the flames, but that did not work either. We started to pull down houses with fire hooks to create a fire break, which did help stop the spread of the fire. Ultimately, the fire ended as the wind stopped blowing and the fire was contained. Year 1 really enjoyed stepping into the role of the people in London and understood how tricky it was to put the fire out without fire engines like today.
Meet Our Science Ambassadors
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have expanded our Science Ambassadors and now have seven passionate representatives! For the first time ever, the role was open to both KS1 and KS2 students (previously KS2 only). We were overwhelmed by the incredible enthusiasm, receiving a huge number of applications from students explaining their passion and suitability for the role. The selection process was tough, but we have chosen our final seven. These enthusiastic leaders will be crucial in supporting our upcoming science initiatives; specifically, they will play a key role in the planning session with the Science Leader for British Science Week (BSW), where the team will focus on three key areas: determining the Big Idea by aligning the BSW theme with school goals; planning engaging Shows & Activities, including booking external providers, aiding teachers during practical lessons and assisting peers with scientific investigation to foster a culture of curiosity and learning across the school. We are so proud of them and look forward to Grace, Daisy, Jack, Harry, Elijah, Oliver and Minnie shining in their new role!