Football Club
This week at Football Club, the children took part in game-based sessions, giving them the opportunity to showcase and refine their skills in realistic match situations. They worked on teamwork, communication, and tactical awareness, all in preparation for the upcoming league fixtures.
After School Foodie Club- Choc Chip Cookies
Today at the After-School Club, Years 3 and 4 bakers made delicious chocolate chip cookies. They carefully weighed out the sugar and flour, and the children especially loved cracking the eggs, one of the highlights of the session. Apparently, one of the best cookies they've ever had!
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we took a moment to reflect on what has been a busy and wonderful third week of school. Our week began with a focus on God’s Big Story in Whole School Worships, where we came together to deepen our understanding. Year 6 had a fantastic time creating artwork in the Darwen Town Centre, while Years 3, 4, and 6 took part in a Let’s Go Sing Choir workshop, which has inspired even more children to sign up for our school choir. Year 5 enjoyed a Move and Learn session with BwD, and our entire school embraced the excitement of the new clubs that started this week, including Foodie Friends, Football, Fred & Pearl Craft Club, Choir, Netball, and Forest Schools. We also took time to celebrate our individual value award winners, with a huge well done to Zachary and Hollie in KS1, and Eva, Emily, Jack, and Elsie in KS2, for their dedication across the curriculum, their embodiment of our Barney’s 4Bs and Christian Values, and for spreading joy throughout the school. In addition, we were pleased to award India Mill as our Value Award winners for the second consecutive week, and Year 6 as the winners in KS2 with 100% attendance, while Reception and Year 1 in EYFS and KS1 earned recognition with a fantastic 99.3% attendance. Next, we celebrated our out-of-school achievers, including Albie for earning his 5m and 10m swimming certificates, Evie for her bravery in attending Rainbows for the first time, Alice for being awarded Cheerleader of the Week, Peyton for winning Star of the Week at gymnastics, Grace for achieving a highly commended in her recent acro exam, Charlie for being named Student of the Week at Junior Dragons Martial Arts Club, Ava for being awarded Squirrel of the Week, Mason for being runner-up in a recent darts tournament, Lyla for receiving a certificate of excellence for her gymnastics and acro talent, and Annabel for being named Star of the Week at her dance school. Finally, we ended our worship with some heartfelt prayers from Mason, Ella, and Zachary, who prayed for those affected by war and conflict, for those suffering from illnesses, and for those who don’t have enough food—especially as Harvest approaches. We also sang “Our God is a Great Big God.” A quick reminder from Mrs. Ham: Next Friday, September 26th, we’ll be hosting the Macmillan Coffee Morning. All donations will be greatly appreciated.
Blessed with beautiful views in Year 4
Today, Year 4 took some time to admire what beautiful views we have from our classroom window, especially when rainbows appear! A rainbow is often a sign of hope, the beauty after the storm or good fortune and this led us wonderfully into our lunchtime prayers.
Year 4 - RE: What is Prayer?
This half term, the Year 4s are on a RE quest to discover what prayer is. We began by studying images of people around the world from different faiths praying. We recorded our best ideas and also posed questions for Sally the Social Scientist about how the people were behaving. We then studied some quotes from the New Testament and tried to uncover Jesus’ teachings about prayer. The children will be choosing where they want their quest to go in next week’s lesson.
Year 4 - Times Tables
Look at those proud faces! Our rockin’ Year 4s have had a fantastic start to their TT Rock Stars journey. They trialled some of the single player games and earned coins to spend on their rockstar avatars. We talked about the benefits of doing our times tables little and often, but I think it’s going to be more hardworking keeping some of the class off this app!
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Let’s go Sing Workshop
Today we took part in the Let’s Go Sing workshop with Gaynor where we learned several songs and sang together. We started by warming up our voices and building confidence as a group. Then we enjoyed singing a range of songs, from fun and simple ones that everyone could join in with, to more challenging pieces. Some of our favourites included: • “Let’s Sing a Simple Song” – a cheerful tune that helped us practise singing clearly and in unison. • “Brenda the Mender” – a playful character song that made us focus on rhythm and storytelling through music. • “The Moon” – a gentler song where we worked on expression and soft dynamics. • “The Scuttled Sloop Pirate Song” – a lively piece that let us sing with energy, actions, and a sense of adventure. The workshop showed us that singing is not just about hitting the right notes, but also about teamwork, listening to each other, and enjoying the journey of music together. We are hopeful that the workshop today has encouraged more children to join our KS2 school choir on Thursday lunchtimes and to take part in the Let's Go Sing concert at Blackburn Cathedral in March.
Soap Sculptures in Year 4
In art this week, we created soap sculptures with the theme of rainforest animals. We first drew a design for a three-dimensional piece and then we began to carve using a variety of tools to model and refine our sculptures. We discussed how to use the tools safely and that only carving small pieces at a time prevented the soap from cracking and breaking. Some of the children realised that to enhance their pieces they could dip their fingers into water and make the soap smoother. The finished articles were super impressive!
Years 3 and 4-Foodie Friends After School Club -Wholemeal Pitta Pizzas
Our After-School Foodie Friends Club returned today for its first session of the year, and the chefs had a fantastic time making wholemeal pitta pizzas. They worked together to prepare fresh ingredients, including basil, sweetcorn, tomatoes, and peppers. Some children chose to add tuna, while others kept it simple with tomato sauce and cheese. In addition to being fun and creative, the session provided the children with an opportunity to learn essential cooking skills, including preparation, teamwork, and making healthy food choices, valuable skills they can carry with them for life.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning marked our second celebration worship of the new academic year, and what an incredible week it has been! A definite highlight was the fantastic "Treasure Island" production by M&M Productions, which truly captivated our entire school. We've also enjoyed settling into our new classes, launching into new curriculums, and electing our Smart School Councillors and Well-being Warriors. We then had the pleasure of congratulating our amazing Value Award winners for this week. These children have made a fantastic start to the new academic year by consistently demonstrating Barney's 4Bs and our Christian Values, alongside working incredibly hard across the curriculum. A huge well done to Evie and Alice in KS1, and to Charlie, Scarlett, Daisy, and Brodie in KS2! We also celebrated some wonderful out-of-school achievements: Alayna for achieving grade excellence in her recent acro exam, Maggie for earning Star of the Week for super effort at gymnastics, Haydn for demonstrating great skill and sportsmanship at a holiday sports club, earning him a huge trophy!, Hendrix for achieving Squirrel of the Week, Scarlett for her impressive achievements in Netball, Sofia for earning a distinction, the highest possible grade, in musical theatre, Annabel for being a superstar on her first day at Brownies, Samuel for showing fantastic courage in his swimming lessons, Thea for being a super Rainbow and attending the Rainbows fun day, Mikey for swimming 10m, Ava for being awarded her builders badge at Squirrels, and Eleanor and Olivia for being super creative at Rainbows this week. Additionally, we recognised Reception and Year 4 for achieving our amazing attendance award this week! Well done to Reception with an impressive 99.6% and Year 4 with 98.6%. Mrs. Ham then shared some exciting events for next week: Years 3, 4, and 6 will participate in a ‘Let’s Go Sing’ concert on Monday, Year 5 will enjoy a Move and Learn session with Blackburn Rovers, and a reminder that Wednesday is School Photograph Day and we will also have our Meet the Teacher sessions. We concluded our worship with special prayers from Harry, Minnie, and Harry, who encouraged us to show respect, spread positivity at school, and consider those less fortunate, such as those without easy access to clean water. We then shared the Grace and had a lively sing-along to ‘We Can Make a Difference.’
Y4 English - The Explorer by Katherine Randell
In English today, Year 4 focused on using adverbials for place. We learnt that a fronted adverbial is when the adverbial word or phrase is moved to the front of the sentence, before the verb. The children worked really hard to collect adverbs and then add a comma to start their sentences. Next they used key events from the start of the story to finish their up levelled sentences, correcting along the way with their purple polisher.