The W.O.W. Group: Creating Viewfinders
This week, the W.O.W. Group created viewfinders to help us explore the beautiful natural patterns in our spiritual garden. Over the next couple of weeks, they will be showing the other children how to spend time exploring patterns in nature and they will develop further activities from this, such as observational drawing, describing and games.
Year 4 - RE: Shabbat
This week in RE, Year 4 learned about how some Jewish people observe their holy day of rest: Shabbat. The children learned that many blessings are said over the Challah, the Kiddush and as the candles are lit, but they were most fascinated by the restrictions on the use of electricity. No technology for 24 hours! We will be following this up next week by exploring why Jesus chose not to observe Shabbat and continued teaching.
Year 3- Class Worship- Hopes and Dreams
Today in our class worship, we learned about the incredible achievements of Adriana Brownlee, the youngest woman to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks. We then reflected on our hopes and dreams, both individually and as a class. We discussed the Bible's message of God's love, strength, and guidance, and how these principles can help us to pursue our aspirations. Lyla then read the prayer to the class: Thank God for always being there as we journey through life and giving us hope for the future as we learn and grow. Amen
Reception RE: The Birth Of Jesus
Today our Reception children began their Christmas unit in RE. We took part in a sensory story all about the birth of Jesus. We used Widget symbols for each part and used our senses to get involved with the story. The children smelt baby oil to understand that Mary was expecting a baby, we walked to show how Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem and we lit candles to show how dark it was. The children then used a drum to knock on the door to see if there was any room. We then used the sign for no. Finally, the children wrapped a baby in blankets to show the birth of Jesus. The children really enjoyed drawing parts of the story in our scrap book and enjoyed getting involved in the story all about the birth of Jesus. We can't wait for the children to act out this special story in their Nativity production in a few weeks time.
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!
Reception - Diwali
During today’s worship, Reception Class led a special service to celebrate Diwali. The children proudly showcased their beautiful artwork, including vibrant rangoli patterns filling the space with vibrant colours. They sang joyful songs and shared the story of Diwali with the whole school. It was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to learn about and appreciate this important Hindu celebration!
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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!
Harvest Heptathlon
Today, each class took part in our Harvest Heptathlon obstacle course challenge for the Bishop’s Harvest appeal. The course consisted of running, hurdles, travelling through a hoop, hopping, skipping, speed bounce and star jumps. A huge well done to every child that took part. They gave it their best effort. And an extra big thank you to all of the Year 6 helpers for helping to set up, replace equipment, demonstrate the course and support and encourage the younger children to complete the course. Let’s hope we can raise some much needed funds for developing classrooms and literacy in church schools in Multan, Pakistan.
Reception: Diwali
Reception have been learning all about Diwali this week. Diwali will be celebrated by Hindus on Thursday and we are looking forward to teaching the school about it on Thursday. The children learnt about Rama and Sita and how Diwali is the festival of light. They have made Rangoli patterns, cards, Mendhi, diva lamps and cards. The children have also learnt a special song all about Diwali.
Enjoying our Spiritual Garden
A huge thank you to our WOW (Worship Our Way) group, Mrs Araujo and Mr Fairbanks for planning and developing our Spiritual Garden. We are loving having time to reflect, admire God’s creations, be peaceful and connect with our friends in it at break and lunch times. Thank you to SACRE for the generous grant we received to create a spiritual garden made from mainly reclaimed and recycled materials.
Year 3- R.E- What does it mean to be called by God?
In R.E. today, the children explored what it means to be "called" and shared times when they’ve been asked or called to do something, whether by friends, family, or teachers. They discussed different kinds of tasks they’re asked to do and how they feel when it’s something important versus something they may not want to do. Some shared moments when they didn’t feel skilled enough but tried because they trusted the person asking. This led to a conversation about feeling called by God, with many children expressing that they believe God may send signs through different forms, like weather, friendships, or even a beam of light, to guide and encourage them. They felt this calling could be an invitation to try new things, make good choices, and grow in confidence. It was a wonderful session of reflection.
Harvest Church Service 2024
Thank you to our Wow group, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 classes for leading our Harvest celebration at church today. I have uploaded some videos to class dojo and additional photos can be found here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/harvest-church-service-2024 It was wonderful to see so many of our families in attendance. A huge thank you to you all for coming to watch and thank you to all of our families for your continued support this half term. Thank you for all of your kind harvest donations, these can be continued to be sent in during the first week that we are back at school. Wishing you all a wonderful half term, Mrs Wilkinson