Year 1 Maths: Parts and Wholes
In our maths lesson today, we started our new topic of addition and subtraction within 10. We needed to understand that a whole has at least two parts. For example, 9 could have two parts of 5 and 4. To help us understand this we used counters and ten frames to make different parts and wholes. It was really impressive to see how well the children used the equipment to aid their learning.
Whole School-Harvest Festival at the Church – Living Life in All Its Fullness
This morning, our school community came together at our church to celebrate our Harvest Festival, a joyful morning filled with song, prayer, and thanksgiving. The service began as Naomi and Martha signed The Trinity, followed by everyone joining in a rendition of our Harvest Samba song. We also heard about Bishop Philip’s inspiring challenge, pedalling to raise money for those in need, reminding us that even small acts of kindness can have a big impact. As part of the Bishop of Blackburn’s Harvest Appeal, we have been encouraging everyone to ‘Pedal Along’ and raise money for Christians in South Africa. Olivia shared a thoughtful talk, and Darcy reminded us to keep in our prayers families and countries around the world who are suffering. We also gave thanks for the work of DARE and reflected on people using their time and energy to support good causes. The reception and Year 2 class delighted everyone with their Harvest songs. Year 1 shared Thank You for Our Favourite Food, helping us reflect on gratitude. Lilly and Sofia led us in a thoughtful final prayer. We also said goodbye and good luck to Miss Norton, April, and Eve, and shared our thanks to Mrs Araujo, Mrs Ham, and our dedicated WOW Group for helping make this service so meaningful. Our Harvest celebration at the church was a wonderful reminder of our school vision, living life in all its fullness, through thankfulness, compassion, and community. Wishing all our families a restful and joy-filled half-term break!
FOSB Spooky Discos
A huge thank you to our Friends of St Barnabas (FOSB) volunteers and Mrs Wilkinson for planning and running our spooky discos tonight. What a great way to end a busy half term! The children had a great time dancing and playing games! The photos can be found here : https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-spooky-disco-1
Year 1 fun on the outdoor gym
Year 1 loved using the outdoor gym today to exercise all different parts of their body. It was lovely to see them sharing equipment, taking turns and having fun together.
Year 1: non-chronological reports
I am so proud of all the Year 1 children for writing their non-chronological reports about Emperor Penguins this week. They made sure to include a title, headings as questions, facts, using the conjunction ‘and’ in their sentences, as well as pictures with captions. They worked really hard to remember the facts, capital letters and full stops in their writing. The final reports look brilliant. Well done Year 1
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Whole School Worship & Farewell to Mrs Norton
It is with great sadness that we are saying goodbye to our school cook of 19 years, Mrs Norton, this week. In our whole school worship we celebrated all Mrs Norton has done for us by inviting some of our children to share memories and messages of thanks. Each class made Mrs Norton a special card and Mrs Ham presented her with some gifts from our school family. We wish her well as she embarks on a new chapter. Mrs Ham also shared an update about our Harvest collections for Dare and we practised our songs for the Harvest service.
Year 1 Selecting and using apparatus
In our PE lesson today, Year 1 combined a variety of fundamental skills and performed these to move between various pieces of equipment and apparatus. The children listened and followed instructions carefully in order to keep themselves safe. It was clear to see that they have come on so much over the past few weeks and it was a joy to see!
Year 1 Art: mixed media landscapes
Today Year 1 finished their final mixed media landscape. We were so impressed with the use of materials on the landscapes which showed a lot of thought and understanding. They made sure to use appropriate colours (warm or cold colours) depending on the landscape they created. Year 1 were excited to show the landscapes to one another and they were very proud of themselves.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we began our worship by reflecting on what has been a busy but thoroughly enjoyable week. Mrs Ham started by thanking everyone for their wonderful efforts in raising awareness for mental health during last Friday’s Hello Yellow Day. She also expressed her appreciation to all the children who attended the Harvest Church Service at St Barnabas Church on Sunday, accompanied by Mrs Araujo, Mrs Wilkinson, and Mrs Govan. The children sang beautifully and truly gave it their all. We also recognised the many children supporting Rotakids by donating winter coats and shoeboxes filled with essentials for DARE (Darwen Asylum Refuge). Mrs Ham reminded us that we can continue to support important causes by taking part in Bishop Phillip’s Pedalathon, raising funds for Christians in South Africa by getting out on our bikes and putting in some miles. We are also still collecting Harvest donations for the local food bank and DARE. We took time to congratulate our individual Value Award winners this week: Poppy, Olivia and Skye in EYFS and KS1, and Renee, Lyla, Walter and Ruby in KS2, for consistently following Barny’s 4Bs, working incredibly hard across the curriculum, and showing great growth and maturity during their first half-term in their new classes. Our congratulations also went to our Year 2 and Year 3 classes for being this week’s attendance winners. A big well done to India Mill, who were our weekly Value Award winners with an impressive 236 points, and also our overall Value Award winners for the half-term. As a reward, they will enjoy a non-uniform day and disco — with the date to be announced shortly. We were delighted to recognise a number of pupils for their achievements outside of school this week. Well done to Jonas for settling in so well after recently joining Squirrels, and to Phoebe for earning a badge at Rainbows and always bringing positivity and laughter. Callie has been an excellent role model at martial arts, while Elijah was awarded Beaver of the Week for his enthusiasm and willingness to get involved. James impressed with his fantastic fielding in cricket, Lyla performed beautifully in her lyrical dancing, and Sofia was named Star of the Week at acro while also earning several badges at Brownies. Charlie achieved 25 metres in all swimming strokes, Olivia received her Silver Award at Rainbows, Willow showed amazing gymnastics skills, Lydia earned her Gold Award at Rainbows, and Eleanor achieved her Amazing Helper badge. We also congratulated our Year 4 pupils for representing the school so well at the Cidari Earth Conference at Blackburn Cathedral yesterday, and praised our girls' football team for their continued efforts in the DPSSA league. Finally, a reminder that next week is a four-day week due to an INSET day on Friday. We also have our Halloween Spooky Disco on Wednesday evening, organised by FOSB, and our Harvest Church Service taking place on Thursday morning. Please check Class Dojo for more details. Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!
Year 1 RE: God as a Creator
This afternoon, we started our new topic about Creation. The children had 5 minutes to create anything they could choose, either drawing something or building something. They then thought about how they felt when they are creative, whether they found easy or tricky and if they had an idea straight away or if their idea changed whilst they were making something. Then we learnt about the Creation story in the Bible. It took God 7 days to make our earth and all of the living things. We then sequenced the story to solidify our understanding.
Year 1 Fundamental Movement Skills
In today’s PE session, we continued to work on fundamental skills which can be viewed in stages. The children worked on bouncing and dodging through a variety of activities. With dodging we highlighted key teaching points which included bending of the knee to anticipate dodging, changing direction with verbal command and mirroring. In bouncing we discussed ineffective slapping of the ball and keeping control in a stationary position. It was super to see how the children developed their skills and became more and more confident.
Year 1 Art: Mixed Media Landscapes
This afternoon we have started to create our final piece of our hot or cold landscapes. The children used their previous plan to draw their landscape picture. They then used lots of materials such as sand, beads, plastic, cotton wool and tin foil to create their mixed media landscapes. They put lots of thought of what colour materials they were using to ensure that they were only using warm colours for their hot landscape or cool colours for their cold landscape. We cannot wait to see what they look like when they are finished. Well done Year 1!