Year 3- Interfaith Week- Prag's trip to India- Hinduism
Year 3 celebrated Interfaith Week by learning about Hinduism. Prags, who was born in East Africa, shared her experiences of visiting India. She showed pictures of both traditional and modern parts of the country, highlighting its diversity. Prags also discussed the importance of recycling and her love for visiting sacred sites like the River Ganges and the Golden Temple. The girls then wore colourful, sequined skirts while the boys wore jackets and they all learned a dance routine together. The children asked insightful questions about the language and clothing and enjoyed trying the vegetable samosas that Prags brought in. It was great to learn about the traditions and religious beliefs of Hinduism.
Darwen Remembrance Service
Our Year 6 class attended the Darwen Schools Remembrance Service this morning. They were so respectful when observing the two minutes silence and joined in the prayers with enthusiasm. Our head boy and head girl laid a lovely wreath that the class had created with Mrs Stanton which had special prayers for those who gave up their lives so that we could live ours. After the service we found out that the bagpiper used to attend St Barnabas when he was younger so he let us try on his hat. We then placed poppy crosses on our adopted war graves and took some time to say our own prayers for those who lost their lives in the wars. We also prayed for some of our children's loved ones who are buried in the cemetery. What a lovely morning of remembrance!
Years 2 and 3-Outdoor Classroom Day- Remembrance Walk
This afternoon, Year 2 and 3 celebrated Outdoor Classroom Day by walking up to the WW1 Memorial Wall in Darwen Cemetery. As they gathered at the memorial wall, they paused to remember the brave soldiers who fought in the War. They thought about the sacrifices made and the courage shown by those for our freedom. Isaac, Bobby Ray, Lyla, Renee Archie, and Heidi shared heartfelt prayers and poems, honoring the memory of those who gave their lives for our country. As they walked back to school. they appreciated God's creation, the beauty of the trees, and the sweet songs of the birds.
Year 4 - How did Britons respond to the Roman invasion?
In our history lesson, we continued to focus on Roman Britain. Today we were introduced to Queen Boudicca who was Queen of the Iceni Tribe when the Romans invaded. We shared both primary and secondary sources, discussing how these portrayed Boudicca in different ways. To finish the lesson we created visual representations of Queen Boudicca.
Autumn 2 Behaviour Focus: Using Manners
At St Barnabas, we pride ourselves on promoting positive behaviour for learning. Our aim is to give your child the best start in their education and this can only happen if all children are trying their best to follow our 4Be's: Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Ready and Be Respectful. Each half term we will be focusing on a specific aspect of behaviour, which will involve teaching the desired behaviours, supporting the children to show these and awarding values points for effort. This half term, our behaviour focus is using manners. Please see the posters attached for an idea of how the use of manners is promoted around school. A special thank you to our WOW group for demonstrating these behaviours for our school. At St Barnabas, we truly believe that instilling positive behaviours has a profound impact on the children in school, at home and as future citizens. Encouraging these behaviours at home will provide your child with a greater opportunity for success, as research indicates that positive behaviour for learning often leads to better outcomes later in life. If you would like to reinforce this at home, we would appreciate your support, as always. Feel free to message with any questions.
Whole-School Worship: Remembrance
At St Barnabas, we always take the time leading up to Remembrance Day to reflect on the people who kept us safe in the past and those who keep us safe now. In worship, we heard examples of people who came from other countries to help defend the UK during the World Wars, and the courage and friendship they demonstrated in doing so. We also thought about how we would like to remember those who lost their lives in war. The children had some lovely ideas, including writing or saying prayers, drawing poppies, visiting memorial sites, attending church services, and even holding a two-minute silence at their weekend football matches. We remember those who gave up their lives for our country and also say a huge thank you to those who work hard everyday to protect us such as the armed forces, the police, firefighters and the NHS. We sang a lovely song of peace at the end of our worship in hope that the world will one day be filled with peace.
WOW Year Group Winners for October
A huge WELL DONE to Year 4 who gained the most walk to school badges for the month of October! It was great to see so many more children gaining their badges this month now we can take part in school through choosing to do the 1K A Day too. Thank you to parents and carers too for all of your support with this super initiative.
Year 6 - PSHE
In PSHE, Year 6 continued their work on relationships. They found out that sometimes we encounter challenges in friendships and that we need to try our best to resolve those challenges. Year 6 provided some fantastic examples of advice and I was extremely impressed by the levels of maturity.
Reception: Painting Skills
Our Reception children have been really working hard on painting like an artist. The children have carefully selected colours and the right amount of paint to create some Rangoli patterns for Diwali. Well done!
Year 4- Why did the Romans invade Britain?
Today we started our new history unit ‘Romans in Britain’. We looked at what an invasion is and explored vocabulary such as empire, celts, enslaved and chronology. The children highlighted key dates on a timeline from 55BC when Julius Caesar unsuccessfully invaded Britain, right up to AD 410 when the Roman army left. Finally we looked at the key reasons for the Romans wanting to invade Britain which included sourcing metals, natural resources and better farmland.
Whole-School Worship: Allhallowtide
In our first collective worship of the week, Mrs Ham looked at Allhallowtide through our three spirituality lenses. Lens 1 - Windows: we looked out into the world at a photograph from Bangladesh depicting Christians gathered around graves with lit candles on them and discussed our observations and ideas about what the people were doing and how they might have felt. We had some fabulous ideas such as it must be a place of worship as they could see a cross and candles like we have in our worship, that they might be praying and that they were remembering. Lens 2 - Mirrors: we learned about All Souls’ Day and reflected on how we might remember our loved ones. The children had some lovely ideas about lighting candles and going to a special place. Lens 3 - Doors: we learned about All Saints’ Day and thought carefully about how we could be like saints. The WOW group introduced our behaviour focus for this half term , which is using good manners around school, and the children immediately put these into action by saying please and thank you, holding doors for each other, and letting people past. What a fantastic start to the new half term!
Year 6 - School Council Class Meeting
This morning, Year 6 took part in their class meeting and discussed how their half first term had been. It was great to hear them speak with such openness and justify what they have enjoyed, what could be better and what they are looking forward to as the year progresses.