World Book Day in Year 4
What a wonderful World Book Day we have had in Year 4. The theme for this year's World Book Day is Get Ready to Read Your Way which encourages us all to read wherever and whenever we want. This morning we started our celebrations with a whole school worship which was led by Miss Flynn and the librarians. The children loved joining in with the quizzes and interactive games. Next we took part in an online workshop with the author Pamela Butchart. She also wrote A Monster Ate My Packed Lunch and The Great Crisp Robbery. The most recent book that Pamela has written is Diary of a Future Billionaire and she talked about how she created this fantastic story. It’s about being at home rather than school. Pamela was worried that her new book might not be as popular as her Izzy books. The main character is called Ben and here are his thoughts: So here's the thing about me. I'm a billionaire. An actual REAL-LIFE billionaire! And you know how some people who get rich say stuff like, "I can't believe it!" and "I never thought it would happen to me!" Well ... I CAN believe it. And I KNEW it would happen to me. Because I PLANNED IT. I PLANNED to become the world's RICHEST ten-year-old. And you know what? It WORKED The children have asked if we can buy the book and read it as our next class novel so this shows how enthusiastic they were about the whole workshop. Following this we played match the teacher to their favourite book which we found rather interesting and then we went to various classes around school to listen to St Barnabas school staff read their favourite books. It was so nice to hear the children come back and talk so enthusiastically about what they had listened to. Finally this afternoon, we created special WBD bunting with our favourite novel on and discussed why we had chosen these. What an amazing experience and huge thanks to Miss Flynn for organising!
Year 3- Class Worship- Is it important to feel proud of where you come from?
The Times newspaper recently surveyed young people aged 18 to 27 about their perspectives on life and living in the UK. The results revealed a range of opinions, with 4 out of 10 respondents expressing pride in being British. Year 3 engaged in a discussion, unanimously agreeing on the importance of treating everyone fairly, as they believed this is what Jesus would want. The Bible and other sacred books teach that everyone is valued and has a place in the world. Following this, the children were asked to thank God for helping them appreciate the good in their surroundings and celebrate the uniqueness of each place. To end the worship, the children sang This Little Light of Mine.
Year 3- 40 Days of Kindness – Day 1
Following this morning’s school worship, where Mrs. Ham introduced the 40-day kindness challenge, we began Day 1 today. As we explored the similarities between Lent and Ramadan, we discussed how both are times to feel closer to God, give things up or fast, and give back to others. To start our challenge, each of the 31 children drew a picture, some chose suns, love hearts, stars, rainbows, books, cups, flowers, and even ice creams. At the end of the day, Chloe went around with a basket and handed each child a picture created by someone else. This small but thoughtful act brought smiles to everyone’s faces and reminded us how simple gestures can brighten someone’s day. We also spoke about the importance of kindness, especially during break and lunchtime when small disagreements can happen. Instead of only giving to our best friends, we challenged ourselves to give selflessly and spread kindness to others, seeing the joy it can bring. This discussion helped us reflect on how our words and actions shape the friendships and community around us.
Year 6 R.E - Who Was Jesus?
In R.E, Year 6 have been thinking about how Christians describe Jesus. They used the Bible and watched a video of the story of Zacchaeus as sources. The children also thought about their own opinions on who they think Jesus is.
Year 5 Debt Aware
This week, Year 5 had a visit from Debt Aware. The focus was on the question - what is a budget? The children learned that a budget tells us three things: where the money comes from, where the money goes and how much is left over. These are better known as income, outgoings and disposable income. The children had to plan a budget based on wants vs needs. They also role-played being members of a family and thought about which wants/needs each person would have. The children really enjoyed this session and learned a lot about managing money sensibly.
Year 6 Class Meeting - How Safe Do You Feel Online?
Year 6 had a fantastic pupil-led class meeting, this week. The focus was online safety and centred around the key question - how safe do you feel online? The children watched a Newsround interview discussing online safety and had group discussions and debates around the key question.
Year 3- Debate- How safe do you feel online?
During our class debate, led by Ella and Alfie, the children unanimously agreed that they only feel safe online some of the time. This led to an important discussion about the steps we can take to feel safer in our daily lives. We emphasised the importance of speaking to a trusted adult when feeling uncertain or uncomfortable, as well as the need to use only age-appropriate apps and online platforms. Through this conversation, we reinforced the message that staying safe is a shared responsibility and that making informed choices can help protect ourselves and others.
Year 6 - Debt Awareness
Year 6 had a visit from Debt Aware, this week. The focus of this session was gambling and borrowing. The children looked at how the government and families spend money; explored the ways in which people can borrow money and why; talked about the potential dangers of short-term (pay day) loans and thought about what to look for when deciding whether to borrow money. In addition to this, we thought about what gambling is, the different types of gambling and why people might gamble. We played a few games and watched the Grand National, placing bets with pretend money.
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Whole School Worship- How to make an enjoyable lunchtime?
Our whole school worship today began with the signing of the Trinity by the Heads and Deputies. Mrs. Araujo then led the worship, introducing our new behaviour focus: creating a calmer and more enjoyable lunchtime experience, while continuing to practice the good manners we have already learned. Mrs. Ham highlighted the importance of feeling safe at school, emphasizing that it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure a secure and supportive environment for all. To help improve lunchtimes, Mrs Araujo used a data logger to measure noise levels in the dining hall, which ranged from 79.5 to 80.5 decibels as loud as a truck! Many children noted that the high noise levels were overwhelming, made them want to cover their ears, and could prevent them from hearing important instructions in an emergency. During the worship, children worked with talk partners to discuss the question: If we use good table manners, how could this improve our lunchtimes? Through these discussions, they identified key areas for improvement, such as sitting properly at the table, using a knife and fork to eat, and avoiding walking while eating to reduce choking risks. The WOW group played a key role in visually demonstrating positive lunchtime behaviours. They were featured in photos and role-play scenarios, modelling both the correct and incorrect ways to behave in the dining hall. These demonstrations helped reinforce the importance of eating safely and respectfully. To support these changes, new posters have been placed around the school, reminding everyone to face the table while eating, lean over trays or lunchboxes to avoid spills, and wait until they have swallowed their food before getting up. These expectations will continue to be reinforced through modelling, praise, and reminders, ensuring that lunchtimes are a safe, calm, and enjoyable experience for everyone.
Year 6 - Safer Internet Day
This year’s Safer Internet Day is based around scams. Year 6 discussed what a scam is, the types of scams we can come across on the Internet and what we can do to keep ourselves safe, for example double-checking things that we see online and telling a trusted adult if we are unsure about anything. The children discussed with their partners how online scams made them feel and how the Internet is an excellent tool, if used correctly.
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.
Year 3- R.E-Understanding the Rich Young Man: Lessons on Wealth, Faith, and Modern Perspectives
In today's R.E. lesson, the children explored the story of The Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30), from 'The Children's Bible'. We began by reminding ourselves of the Ten Commandments and reflecting on their meaning. The children discussed why Jesus’ response saddened the rich young man and whether they believed he tried to change. They also considered the challenges of wealth and why it can be difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. As part of our discussion, we examined Jesus’ metaphor of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, debating whether it is still a relevant example today. Working in pairs, the children devised modern phrases to express a similar idea, such as: Trying to fit an elephant through a doorway, fitting all your holiday clothes into a tiny backpack or putting a football through a keyhole. They all worked incredibly well in small groups and pairs.