Year 1 Collective Worship- VE Day 80th Anniversary
Today in class worship, Year 1 were introduced to VE Day and explored its meaning. They learnt that it means ‘Victory in Europe Day’ and how tomorrow (8th May) will mark this by celebrating 80 years since the end of World War II. Year 1 understood the significance and joy that this would have brought to everyone in Europe. They looked at pictures of people having street parties, dancing and singing and understood that this would have been a time of great relief and happiness where people could live more peacefully and not have to fear for their own lives or the lives of their friends and family. Year 1 are looking forward marking the occasion on Friday by wearing the colours of the Union Jack.
Whole School Worship - V.E. Day & The Lord’s Prayer
Our worship began with an introduction to V.E. Day. Mrs Ham gave a short explanation about the Second World War and the celebrations that took place after Europe’s victory in 1945. There will be a number of worships and activities taking place across the week to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II, including our Red, White and Blue day on Friday. Mrs Ham and Mrs Araujo then launched this week’s Year of Prayer activities. Our focus was then directed to The Lord’s Prayer. Mrs Ham spent some time explaining the first few lines to make sure everyone in our school family understands what they are praying about when they recite The Lord’s Prayer. We focused particularly on the word “hallowed” and that this means holy. We shared our ideas of how we can carry out God’s wishes and that we can all try to be like saints. The children had some extremely thoughtful ideas about welcoming people and why it is important to make others feel welcome. We finished by reciting The Lord’s Prayer once more and then singing one of our favourite worship songs, My Lighthouse.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our celebration worship by signing this week’s Makaton sign which was ‘please’ and thanked everyone for their enormous generosity in supporting Miss Kachwalla, Mr Bloomfield, Rota Kids and School Council with their Afternoon Tea. Thank you to Darwen Rotary Club for also attending and supporting this event. An impressive £256 was raised which will go directly towards supporting our school. We also reflected on some of our other highlights this week which have included exploring the Lord’s Prayer, the Ascension and Songs of Praise in collective worship, our Diocesan Year of Prayer focusing on following in Jesus’ path and putting our trust in Him to guide us down the right path, Year 5 have enjoyed another Peer Mediation session, Year 3,4,5 and 6 enjoyed celebrating Square Root Day and we have enjoyed a relaunch of Choir. We then moved onto congratulating this week’s individual value award winners. Well done to Zac, Inaiya and Elijah in EYFS and KS1 and Scarlett, Elliott, Isabelle and Ruby in KS2. Well done to these children for showing working hard to consistently demonstrate our Barney’s 4Bs (being kind, safe, respectful and ready) and producing an exceptional standard of work across the curriculum. Furthermore, we congratulated our Year 1 and Year 5 class for being our attendance winners this week with 97.9% and 99.2% attendance, Whitehall Park and India Mill as our joint value award winners this week, Our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children who took part in the DPSSA Cross Country at Witton Park last night for pushing themselves to their limits despite the heat, our Year 5/6 Bee Stinger Netball Squad who represented St Barnabas brilliantly on Tuesday evening and came away as heat winners and Year 2 for being the the ‘WOW (Walking to School)’ champions for the month of April. We then moved on to congratulating our out of school award winners. Well done to Ella for achieving her Stage 2 swimming certificate, Olivia for achieving her special ‘Healthy Minds’ badge and making her promise at Rainbows, Beau for being awarded Olivia at Rainbows for being extremely kind and helpful, Reggie for being the Little Darreners’ Player of the Week, Darcy, Sofia, Grace and Lana for being super Brownies and achieving a variety of badges including badges for World Earth Day, First Aid and Taking Action, Daisy for representing Brownies in the St George’s Day Parade, Olivia B, Ivy, Olivia R and Eliza for representing their football teams and winning the East Lancashire cup, Ava for being a super squirrel and completing all of her badges, Callie for being the Star of the Week at the Edstart Striking and Fielding Club and being a super consistent gymnast, Phoebe for being able to ride her bike without stabilisers, Isaac for representing his football team on a tour to Italy and achieving the team player award and special future champion cup award, Harry for successfully competing his grading and achieving his white belt in kickboxing, Lilly for being the pupil of the month at Little Voices for showing up to every lesson with a smile and being a superstar creator at the Youth Zone and Jack for achieving the star performance whilst playing football for Blackburn Eagles. To end our worship, Mrs Govan reminded us about the Art Competition led by Spring Value Ramblers Club to celebrate their 130th anniversary. The deadline is on the 21st May. Please find further information on Class Dojo. We then had a singalong to ‘Shine from the Inside Out’ and had some beautiful prayers from Marley and Hamza. We wish you all a lovely and restful May Bank holiday weekend in the sunshine.
River Darwen’s Team Winning Disco
Today, the River Darwen team celebrated their success with a special non-uniform day and disco after earning the highest number of Value points last half term. Their hard work, positive attitude and teamwork truly paid off – well done to everyone in River Darwen! A huge thank you to Mr Bloomfield for leading the disco and to Miss Lohar for her support!
Year 1 Art- Observational Drawing
In their Art lesson this week, Year 1 took part in some observational drawings of local landmarks such as the Leisure Centre, India Mill, Darwen Market Hall, the Post Office and Darwen Library. In order to do this, Year 1 replicated the shapes and lines that they could see (and identified last lesson) using good control of their pencil. They started with the outline of the building before adding finer details such as the windows and doors.
Worship with Rev. Ben
Today’s worship with Rev. Ben began with a fun game where two teams raced to pass a shuttlecock around the hall and get it back to the start. This linked to the Bible story about Jesus giving us instructions to “pass it on”—just like in the game. The story focused on the Ascension—the moment when Jesus, after rising from the dead and spending time with his disciples, was taken up to heaven. Before he left, Jesus gave his disciples an important mission: to go out into the world, share his teachings, and spread the good news. He promised they would not be alone—God would send the Holy Spirit to be their helper. Even though the disciples felt unsure and a bit afraid, Jesus reassured them that he would always be with them. After the story, the children engaged in thoughtful discussions, exploring questions such as: What did Jesus ask the disciples to do? And How can you trust in Jesus’ promise to be with you, even when you don’t feel brave? Some children shared that they feel brave when they remember Jesus is with them in their hearts. Others said they can pass on kindness and love to friends and family, just like the disciples did. The worship reminded everyone that living like Jesus and sharing his message helps us experience life in all its fullness—a life filled with love, purpose and hope.
Year 1- Year of Prayer (Follow the Lines)
This week as part of the Diocesan Year of Prayer, Year 1 went outside onto our playground and ‘followed the lines.’ Before doing so, they thought about how we try our best to lead our lives by Jesus’ example. We thought about all the amazing things that Jesus did such as sharing his power to perform miracles such as healing the sick and feeding the hungry. We thought about the Christian Values that this shows such as kindness, generosity and friendship and how we can live out these values each and everyday. Year 1 suggested that we can lead by Jesus’ example by helping each other when we fall over, holding the door open for one another, complimenting each other to spread love and joy and supporting one another with our work. We followed the various lines (the correct paths) on the playground as we thought about all of the things that we had discussed. We also thought about what we can do when we are finding things a challenge. We said that we could pray to Jesus and ask him to help us to make the right decision to take the right path.
Year 1 Maths- Measuring using Non-Standard Units of Measurement
Today in Maths, Year 1 measured the length of various objects using non-standard units of measurement. To do this, they used counters, cubes and paper-clips. Year 1 were extremely accurate in their measurements as they made sure that they started at the very beginning of the object and lined up the counters, cubes and paper-clips accurately without leaving any gaps until they got to the very end of the object.
Whole School Celebration-Living Life to the Full- Afternoon Tea
The afternoon tea, organised by the Smart School Council and RotaKids, was a wonderful celebration of our school family living life to the fullest. There was a lovely selection of cakes and biscuits, some homemade by the RotaKids the day before and some bought in. The children enjoyed chatting, laughing, and drinking hot chocolate together. We're thrilled to share that the event raised an impressive £256, which will go directly towards supporting our school. A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event and to all the staff who helped make it happen. A special thank you to our friends from Darwen Rotary who came along to support too. We look forward to hosting many more in the future!
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Collective Worship- Songs of Praise
As part of our focus on prayer this half term, we further explored how one way we can pray is through song. We had a joyous start to the morning singing some of our favourite songs of praise and different classes were chosen to model the singing and actions at the front. We are super proud of our Reception class for showing their Build Up song as they showed lots of courage singing in front of the whole school family. We sang Waymaker, Shine from the inside out, Build up one another, Life in all its fullness and Jesus strong and kind. Most of our favourite worship songs can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-5832
Year 1 Geography- Map Work
Today in their geography lesson, Year 1 had to read a map to navigate their way around the school grounds to identify different human features such as the MUGA, peace garden, KS1 playground, carpark and trim trail. In doing so, they used positional language such as in front of, behind, between and next to and describe features of the school grounds that were close to their Year 1 classroom and slightly further away.
Whole School Worship - Exploring Prayer
Today’s worship marked the beginning of an exploration of prayer: what it is, why people pray, how, when and where they pray, and why it is an important part of faith. We started by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and signing parts using the Makaton symbols we already knew. Jesus told his disciples this prayer twice when they asked him how to pray. We watched a short video explaining that prayer is simply talking to God and that there are no specific rules when communicating with God. We also learned that he is never too busy to listen to us. The children spent time recapping some of the ways they have prayed including through the Diocesan Year of Prayer, and thinking about what they might want to tell God. We then had some quiet time to say our own prayers to God. Some children said thank you for God’s wonderful creations, some said sorry for making wrong choices, some were thankful for their family and friends and some were grateful for their homes and food. We finished by singing our special Lord’s Prayer song with our Makaton actions.