Year 4 Geography - The Amazon Basin Fact Files
Over the course of this half term, we have been studying The Amazon in our Geography lessons. Today we worked in small groups to create fact files all about different aspects of the Amazon basin. We first created sub headings which included tribes, human and physical features of South America and the Amazon river. Next the children added information to each section using their books and search engines on the Chromebook's. It is amazing to see how much they have learnt over the past few weeks and how this was brilliantly showcased in the fact files.
Year 4 - French: Quelle Heure Est-il?
This week in French, the children used their knowledge of numbers and combined this with new learning about telling the time in order to answer the question, “Quelle heure est-il?” To embed the vocabulary, the children created French clocks and played lots of speaking and listening games before writing down useful phrases.
Foodie Friends Club-Making Scones
For our final Foodie Club session this half term, the bakers had a great time making fruit and plain scones. They practised important skills such as weighing ingredients accurately, cutting butter into the flour, and using cutters to shape the scones. They showed great teamwork and enthusiasm, carefully following the recipe and enjoying the hands-on experience of baking. By the end of the session, everyone had created their own beautifully shaped scones, ready to take home and share. The club demonstrates a wonderful example of the children living life in fullness, embracing learning, creativity, and the joy of sharing with others.
Hello Yellow Day in Year 4
We have had a great day in Year 4 trying to raise the profile of World Mental Health Day by taking part in Hello Yellow Day! Hello Yellow Day is a campaign to show support for young people's mental health and let them know they aren't alone.
Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.
DPSSA Girls Football
Our St Barnabas girls’ team did amazingly well today! They showed great teamwork and determination, earning hard-fought draws against St James’ Lower Darwen and St Cuthbert’s, before securing a fantastic 1–0 win against St Paul’s. We’re so proud of their effort, skill and sportsmanship throughout the matches.
Year 4 English - Information Texts
Over the past few weeks in English, we have been building an information text based on The Amazon which links with our current geography unit. This week, we have been using all of the key pieces of information that we have collected and adding these to a grid which includes a page title, headings, subheadings, opening statement, diagrams. Bulletin points and text boxes. We also added in specific grammar content which included determiners including quantifiers and demonstratives, commas for clauses and paragraphs. The end product was super and the children loved sharing their examples with each other and used peer evaluation confidently.
Year 4 Art - Optical Illusions Part 2
In the second part of our art lesson on optical illusions, we finished our designs. First we collected our packs that we had prepared in the previous lesson which included our A3 folded card, picture one chopped into strips and picture two chopped into strips. Next we took out the card and our first picture laying the strips one by one onto the card. Once we knew there were all correct in the right order and the right way up, we glued them down with pva glue. We then repeated this process with the other picture to complete the piece. The children have worked so hard on this art project and we can’t wait to see them up in the hall to showcase every individual work of art.
Year 4 - Black History Month
In our class worship this week, the Year 4s joined in with the Great Big Live Assembly to learn about Black History Month. This year’s BHM assembly began with a look at current issues in our localities. They addressed the division becoming more apparent within communities and raised the questions: ‘What does the St George’s flag mean to you?’ and ‘How can we help to make everyone welcome?’ The children had some lovely, heartfelt answers about the flag being a symbol of pride, of peace and of our amazing sports teams. As usual, there were many ideas for welcoming visitors and people new to our school. Being welcoming is definitely a strength of our fantastic children.
Year 4 - PE: Throwing to a Target
The Year 4s are a competitive bunch, particularly in dodgeball sessions. This week our character development focus was ‘respect’. We briefly discussed how we can respect our opponents as well as our teammates. We spent some time practising throwing a ball through a hoop using an overarm throw. We then applied this skill in a game of ‘Cross the River’, in which a team had to get all their players across the hall without being hit by the dodgeball. Many of the children demonstrated their target practice to great effect, managing to get out multiple people.
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KS2 Football Club
Today in Football Club, the children took part in a series of matches with specific challenges and restrictions, such as one-touch finishes, overloads and passing forward. These activities helped them to think strategically, improve their teamwork and develop greater control and awareness during gameplay. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and growing confidence throughout the session.
Harvest Appeal
This morning we launched our Harvest Appeal for this year by hearing from Bishop Philip about his Pedalathon on 17th October where he will be cycling to visit and pray at a school or church in all 14 deaneries across the Diocese. We will be supporting Bishop Philip's Harvest Appeal for Christians in South Africa by joining in with his pedalathon over the next few weeks, including half term. We are encouraging our school family to cycle on bikes or scooters just like we did for the Big Lent Walk and we would love for you to send your photos in and the distance. Donations can be made on parent pay shortly. Our RotaKids are also supporting Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise (DARE) and Darwen Rotary this Harvest by creating Winter Warmer boxes filled with toiletries, packets or tins of food and warm clothing for DARE families, the elderly, isolated, poor and vulnerable people in our community . They are also collecting winter coats for the homeless and poor through Darwen Rotary club. Please send in any donations and thank you in advance for your generosity. We then sang some of our Harvest songs for our Church Harvest Festival this Sunday 12th October at 11.00am- all welcome and our school Harvest Festival on Thursday 23rd October led by our WOW group and Reception, Years 1 and 2. All welcome.