Year 6 - VE Day 80
This morning, year 6 took part in a live assembly to commemorate VE Day. They discovered that although it is a day to celebrate, the end of the war heightened the sense of sadness in people as they reflected on the people they had lost. The children were shocked to hear that 70,000,000 people worldwide lost their lives during the conflict. They also heard from Frank Chester, a 108 year old war veteran, who spoke of his experiences of WW2. A truly remarkable human!
Year 4 British History - Exploring the features of a Viking longboat
In our history lesson this week we have been exploring the features of a Viking longboat, describing how these features contributed to Viking success and identifying the most important parts of the boat. Whilst researching, we found that the Vikings built longboats to raid, battle, explore and transport goods. They were between 13 and 23 metres long and were long, narrow and light so they could move around quickly. The children worked hard to identity the key features by adding labels following watching a short clip.
Year 4- Why did the Vikings come to Britain?
Today we started our new history unit - Vikings in Britain. We looked at reasons as to why the vikings invaded Britain, sequenced key events and then created a timeline. We worked in groups to mark the beginning and end of the Viking period from 793AD to 1066AD and then we worked and sorted through all of the events to ensure that they were in chronological order. Towards the end of the lesson, the children presented what they had found and shared key information about where the Vikings had come from, how they got to Britain and how things changed for the Anglo Saxons when they arrived.
Year 4 - Linking Schools: Why Social Action?
As our Linking School project continues, the Year 4s have been considering things in their relationships, the school, the local area, the environment and the wider world that they care about. In today’s session, we listened to the Starfish Story and talked about how small, kind actions can have a big impact on others. We looked at the world around us and decided on some actions we could take to improve it. After sharing our ideas, we voted and decided that we would like to go on a class litter pick, and write to residents of a local care home. We will be carrying out our actions over the Summer Term.
Year 4 Hop, Skip and Jump for East Lancashire Hospice
Today Year 4 took part in the Hop, Skip & Jump initiative that promised fun, laughter, and a chance for the children to get creative; all whilst making a difference to the community and supporting East Lancashire Hospice. We hopped, skipped and jumped our way around the MUGA. Over the last two years, the campaign has raised over £12,000 for East Lancashire Hospice and they have had over 30 local schools and nurseries involved. This year, they want to go one step further and raise over £20,000 for the hospice - so we have done our bit and what a beautiful day to take part in the sun!
.jpeg)
Year 4 History - Was King Alfred really ‘ Great’?
In our history lesson this week we have been studying Alfred the Great. We were learning about the threat that the Vikings posed to the Anglo- Saxons, exploring sources for bias and deciding whether or not Alfred was a ‘great’ king. The children watched several clips in order to gather information about King Alfred and recorded their notes on whiteboards. Next they discussed key questions as to why he became king, which parts of England he ruled and who were his enemies. We found out lots of key facts and then added these to our sheets. We now know that King Alfred only became king as his two other brothers died and he was next in line, he ruled Wessex as it was the only kingdom left and Guthrum the Viking Leader was his arch enemy.
DPSSA Swimming Gala
What an incredible evening we had last night at Darwen Primary Schools Swimming Gala at Darwen Leisure Centre. Team B absolutely smashed it with such courage and determination. We had lots of children stepping out of their comfort zones, with quite a few still only in Year 4 and representing Team B in such an immense way! We came away with a huge medal haul and it was such an honour to support and watch our children at a great event. Well done and many thanks to all of the parents, carers and families who came down to support - we were definitely the smallest yet loudest team by far. Go Team B!
.png)
Year 2 - Class Worship
This week in our Class Worship, we heard some news about the government. They're going to open 750 new breakfast clubs all over the country. This made us think about something really important, the United Nations Rights of a Child. One of these rights says that all children should have healthy food to eat. We talked about how the government is trying to help all children have a healthy breakfast, and these new breakfast clubs are one way they can do that. Then, we thought about how lucky we are to have healthy food to eat. We talked about how we don't always have to worry about having breakfast. Finally, we said a prayer to say thank you for all the healthy food we have. It was a time to be grateful for what we have!
Year 6- Houses of Parliament
Our Year 6 class were so fortunate to be able to visit the Houses of Parliament to learn all about our British Values and in particular, democracy and the rule of law. We had a tour and watched a live debate in the House of Commons. The Foreign Secretary David Lammy also gave an announcement. We visited Westminster Hall, which we recognised from seeing on the news when the Queen was lying in State after her sad death. We then took part in a workshop about how laws are created and we learnt all about Parliament and the houses of Commons and Lords through a fun activities. We also got to explore democracy through voting and debating. Finally we were visited by our local Member of Parliament, Andy McNae and had a great question and answer session. We are so proud of the thoughtful questions the children asked him. We are sure that we have a few future MPs amongst our Year 6 class!
Year 4 History- Making Inferences about who was buried at Sutton Hoo
This week in history we have been trying to make inferences about who was buried at Sutton Hoo and what evidence it gives us about Anglo Saxon life. We researched artefacts such as a helmet, having bowl, shoulder clasps, belt buckles and sceptres. We each selected an artefact to look at in more detail and answered questions directly related to it. We described it, added what we thought it was made from, what it may have been used for, who its owner may have been and what it tells us about Anglo-Saxon England.
Year 4 History - Who were the Angles, Jutes and Saxons?
This half term we will be looking at how easy it was to invade Britain. Today we focused on the next period of history following on from Roman Britain which was the Anglo Saxon invasion. In groups we researched who the Angles, Jutes and Saxons were and which countries they came from. The children worked really hard to develop their understanding of the routes that each of the groups took and which parts of Britain they invaded first.
Children’s Mental Health Week and Dress to Express Worship
Today was our special ‘ Dress to Express’ Worship to celebrate Children’s Mental Health Week. The theme of Dress to Express this year is ‘Know Yourself and Grow Yourself’. Children's emotional well-being is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health helps them develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into well-rounded, healthy adults Our Heads and Deputies led the worship this week and started by telling everyone how they express themselves and they asked us all how we express ourself best. We heard that some children express themselves through playing football or other sports, dancing, listening to music and art etc. Mrs Ham showed us photos of how she likes to support her mental health through walking up huge fells with her dogs and her family. We then watched a clip from Inside Out the movie when Riley looked at various memories. We met sadness, joy, fear, disgust and anger. The children and Mrs Ham then acted out an emotion and the rest of the children had to guess what it was. We all feel different emotions but these affect our mental health. 5 Ways to Well-being are a great way to support our mental well-being such as: being physically active, connecting with others, learning new skills, giving to others and paying attention to the present moment (mindfulness). A question that the children presented asked ‘ How well do we really know ourselves?’ The children really enjoyed watching the clips and guessing the emotions that the characters were showing. The children shared when they too had experienced the emotions and how it made them feel. In another clip, we learnt about a boy named Malaki who felt like he was bad at everything he tried. Malaki was encouraged to ‘level up’ by his friends and people around him who cared for him. He was challenged to try a new skill which included skiing and ballet and tried his best with both. Although he wasn’t great at ballet he was awarded recognition for his determination and resilience. The children were asked what they had learnt from the video and the responses were: to keep going even if you aren’t the best, to not fall at the first hurdle and you can do anything that you set your mind to. We are all unique and special and God gave us many talents, some of yet we might not have discovered. We should let our light shine for all the world to see. We said our special Year of Prayer about our talents again and thanked God for the talents we have and the ones we are yet to discover. Our Heads and Deputies then finished with a special prayer for Children's Mental Health Week. To end our Worship we had the pleasure in listening to Renee, Molly, Alice and Lyla who read their acrostic poems ‘ Being Me’ and we sand 'Shine from the Inside Out' with our best singing voices and actions. What a wonderful way to start our day and a great end our Children's Mental Health Week, although we know that we need to focus on our mental health and wellbeing every day, not just this week.