Friday Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our worship by signing the trinity and discussing our week in school. We reflected on our wonderful Lent worship with Rev Ben and the launch of our Big Lent Walk to fundraise for CAFOD to help to fight poverty globally and boost our mental health and well-being. At present, we have walked 129.7km and raised £91. We are confident that we can exceed our 200km target and raise even more money so please get involved and send your pictures through to Mrs Ham or Mrs Wilkinson. We then presented Olly, Charlie, James, Iris, Charlie, Lola, Neve, Rosie and Molly as our value award winners this week. Well done to those children for consistently demonstrating our 4Bs, working hard and participating whole-heartedly in class discussions. We also congratulated Reception and Year 4 on being our amazing attendance winners this week and Whitehall Park who are our overall value award winners this week with 619 points. The Year 6 Heads and Deputies announced that over the past two weeks, we have collected 2067 values points as a school-how amazing! We also said a huge well done to Luca in Year 4 who achieved his pen license this week, our Year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics who achieved 4th place in BwD just before the half-term, our KS2 gifted and talented gymnastics team who attended a competition at St Bedes before the half-term and demonstrating wonderful skill and sportsmanship and our Year 3/4 Sportshall athletics team who came 4th place last night at St Bedes. We then congratulated our out of school achievers. Well done to Charlie and Isabella for being awarded their green belt in martial arts, Grace for achieving several medals in her song and dance and improv dancing, Jacob for achieving his water skills stage 3, Lyla for achieving a medal for her incredible ballet, Finn for achieving 2k Winter Warmer running challenge, Isaac for achieving a medal for great leadership in his performing arts and taking part in some wonderful fundraising, Archie for being awarded a trophy to be proud of for exceptional darts, James for achieving his stage 1 in his swimming, Annabel for her successes in achieving stage 2 in skating and being star of the week at dancing, Naomi for being awarded her Stage 3 at swimming, Mila for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge at Rainbows, Cassidy for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge at Brownies, Annabelle for showing commitment and achievement in her keyboard lessons, Eden for achieving her ‘World Thinking Day’ badge at Brownies and Heidi for being awarded her First Aid Badge at Rainbows. We then ended our worship with a lovely prayer about being generous, especially during Lent and sang ‘Build Up.’ We thank our children for another wonderful week and we look forward to next week. Just a reminder that ‘The World Book Day competition’ entries need to handed in by next Friday 1st March so please get your entries in by then and also the Mother’s Day Breakfast that FOSB are running on Wednesday 6th March. You can find further details on Class Dojo. We thank all those who attended celebration worship and we wish the the rest of our school family a lovely restful weekend and thank you for your ongoing support too.
FOSB Disco
A huge thank you to everyone who attended our FOSB Disco. It was lovely to see all of the children dancing and having lots of fun. A huge thank you to our FOSB members for giving up their time to prepare and stay for the disco- you are all superstars! A massive thank you to DJ Dunn, one of our parent governors for providing the music and games! For all the photographs from the EYFS and KS1 disco, please look here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-eyfs-and-ks1-school-disco For photographs from the KS2 disco, please look here: https://stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/fosb-key-stage-2-disco
Year One Maths-Using a Numberline to Compare and Order Numbers
This week, Year 1 have been making use of number lines to 20 to compare and order numbers. They have subitising numbers to 20, finding these numbers on their number lines and then deciding which numbers are the greatest and smallest. They have been working on their ability to explain how they have subitised the numbers and also on how they have come to the decision that a number is greater or smaller by thinking about its proximity to zero.
Year 1 Science- Making a Prediction and Performing a Test
Today in Science, Year one learnt about floating and sinking. They learnt that generally speaking lighter objects will float and heavier objects will sink and that for an item to float, it has to contain trapped air. They also learnt that another word for float is buoyant and another word for sink is submerge. As part of their independent group work, they had to predict whether an item would sink or float and then they had to perform a test to see whether their predictions were correct or incorrect. At the end of the lesson, they got to choose some of their own items to test.
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Year 1 Phonics
Year 1 are working hard in their phonics lessons. This week, they have been focusing on the graphemes 'oy' and 'ou.' They read several words containing these two graphemes, wrote several words and dictated sentences with these two graphemes and recognised whereabouts in a word we usually see them so that they can make more informed choices in their spelling of words with these sounds in them. Well done Year One!
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Year 1- Planning an Instructional Text
Today, Year 1 have worked in teams to plan their instructional text. They gathered the equipment that they needed e.g. hurdles, hula hoop, cones, beanbags, basket balls, footballs, quoits and skipping ropes and used these to create an obstacle course. Year 1 then practised using their obstacle course so that they were able to give instructions to follow their obstacle course clearly. Tomorrow, the children will write their set of instructions.
Rev Ben’s Worship- Jesus chooses his disciples
This morning in Collective Worship, Rev Ben started with a fun game where we had to guess the superpowers that our wonderful volunteers, Walter, Lottie, Isabella, Charlie-Rose and Matthew acted out. We guessed the superpowers of speed, strength, sports, invisibility and flight. We then followed on from Jesus' 40 days in the desert and we watched a story from the Bible that showed what happened next. We watched as Jesus chose his followers, called his disciples. They didn't have superpowers and were very ordinary and often made mistakes, just like us. Rev Ben told us that the best followers of Jesus don’t have super-powers and God works today through ordinary people who love Jesus and admit it when they get things wrong. He then told us about Ash Wednesday and how that is a time to ask God for forgiveness for the things we have done wrong. Wilson, our Head Boy, volunteered to have an ash cross put on his head. We then reflected on what we can do when we get things wrong and how God will always forgive us. We finished by singing My Lighthouse and My God's the King of me. Thank you Rev Ben for another wonderful worship.
Mad Science After -School Club- Missions Nutritious
Today, in our after-school club led by a scientist, the young children investigated the energy content of food by burning a stale crisp and using the released energy to heat water. We discovered that one crisp equals 6 calories. This was super exciting to watch. The young scientists also measured their energy expenditure by jogging on the spot. For our final experiment, the children filled a bottle halfway with water and then poured in about 100ml of oil. They then observed the oil float on the water. They were fascinated by this observation. We also estimated the length of a child's intestine during the session, adding to our exploration of the human body. They're eagerly looking forward to next week's experiment with slime.
Whole-School Worship: Understanding Lent
In worship today, Mrs Ham explained that Lent is a time in the Christian calendar in which we observe Jesus’ time in the wilderness and prepare for Easter. We discussed what we could do to observe Lent. Some of the children’s suggestions included giving up sweets, chocolate, crisps, time on devices, or giving back by helping at home or making an extra effort to show kindness to others. We also learned more about THE BIG LENT WALK and how each member of our school family can contribute by walking a few kilometres over the Lenten period and raising money that will go towards ending global hunger. More information is available on Class Dojo.
The Big Lent Walk
During Lent, our school are currently fundraising for CAFOD. We are taking part in the big Lent walk where we are collectively trying to walk 200km. Please help us to raise as much money as possible by sponsoring our whole school family. If you have been on a walk, please either sponsor and leave a message with how many km you have walked or send me a message and I can update our page. We will also be walking during the school day in our classes to achieve our target so any sponsorship will be greatly appreciated. Your sponsorship can change lives. Every £1 raised through the Big Lent Walk will help fight poverty globally in countries like Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. This year, CAFOD’s Lent Appeal is helping fishing communities feed their families in Liberia, and SCIAF’s Wee Box Appeal is focused on women and girls in Rwanda facing gender-based violence. Also in Ethiopia, CAFOD and SCIAF are working together to respond to the devastating food crisis there. Years of drought caused by the climate crisis means families are no longer able to cope, but your support means we are working with people right now, providing them with water, emergency food and healthcare. With your hard work and sponsorship this Lent, we can change families’ lives for good and tell poverty to take a hike. Please access our page here where you can sponsor your child: https://schools.walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/st-barnabas-big-lent-walk Thank you for your kindness, Mrs Wilkinson
Dress to Express 2024
What a fantastic day we’ve had celebrating Dress to Express! It was lovely to get together as a whole school to raise awareness for Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. Every single member of our school family certainly dressed to express themselves and made themselves heard as we all have a voice. Well done to all of the children that spoke about why they had chosen their outfits and how it allowed them to express themselves.
Celebration Worship- Dress to Express Day
Today, we had a very special worship to celebrate Children's Mental Health Week. We all ‘Dressed to Express’ and danced our way into the hall. We discussed the theme for this year which is ‘Our Voice Matters’ and we watched a video that told us all about the rights and responsibilities that we have such as being free to choose to think what we like and have our own opinions and ideas. Mrs Ham then showed us some pictures of people that have been influential in the past for standing up for their belief. Ross and Wilson named Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parkes, Sonny named Ayanna all of whom worked to end black segregation. Darcy named Marcus Rashford who has been influential in helping to stop racism within football and Charlie added that he has also been helping to support children who are entitled to free school meals. We then heard from some children from each year group about how they’ve chosen to express themselves. Hamza expressed his love of football and fashion, Archie his love of darts, Isaac his love of BMX, Charlie-Rose her love of all things sports, Betsy her love of dancing, Mason his love of smart clothes and attending special occasions such as weddings, Archie his love of football, Grace and Lola their love of gymnastics, Sonny represented all those in the world who live with diabetes, Daisy her love of art and bright colours, Renee’s love of PJ Masks, Olivia’s love of the colour pink and Jewellery, Alfie’s love of playing and watching football, Ella-Grace’s love of dancing and sparkles, Isabella’s loves of wearing pyjamas because you can snuggle and be cosy in them, Naomi’s love of all things pink, Charlie’s love of football, Annabel’s love of Ariel, Joey’s love of Spider-Man and Elijah’s love of superheroes. Mrs Ham then asked some of our members of staff how they had chosen to express themselves. Mr Prescott and Mrs Norris chose to bring their golf clubs to express themselves as golfers, Miss Kachwalla and Mrs Lyons expressed themselves by wearing bright and bold colours to express themselves as creative and Mrs Hegarty wore an apron to express herself as a baker. What a wonderful way to end ‘Mental Health Week.’ We wish you all a restful and enjoyable half-term and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 19th February.