Whole School Collective Worship- Archdeacon David
This morning in worship, we welcomed Archdeacon David who visited our school to lead collective worship. Archdeacon David asked us what we think it means when we say that Jesus is the light of the world. We had responses such as it means that Jesus leads us and guides us in the right way, that Jesus lights up the world and makes it a nicer place for us all to live and Jesus is the light of the world by encouraging us to be peaceful, respectful and kind. Archdeacon David told us that we also have the special power of being the light of the world too. He reminded us that Jesus said, ‘When I go back to heaven, I will leave you a special thing called the holy spirit. I want you to shine as a light in the world to make the world a better place.’ Archdeacon David left us to reflect on how we can achieve this. He said that next time he visits, he will give us the opportunity to tell him how we have been shining as a light in the world just as Jesus does and asks us to do. We finished our worship by singing 'Shine from the Inside out'.
Year 1-2 Transition day
What an AMAZING day we have had getting ready to move into our new Year 2 class. Year 1 have worked so hard making our own “all about me” poster so Mr Norris can learn even more about them. All the children showed off their amazing writing! Everyone in our class was so excited to show Mr Norris around our school and even more excited to show him where we get to play on the trim trail and MUGA. We can’t wait to welcome you all back through the year 2 door in September for our new journey!
Year 1 DT Exploring Stability
Year 1 used playdough, card and rulers to measure the stability of different 3D shapes in partners during their DT lesson today. They looked at spheres, cubes, pyramids and cuboids and tried to measure the height at which these objects would roll down a piece of card. We compared the results in class and they were then set a challenge to create a small standing structure using the playdough and the knowledge of the 3D shapes they had investigated.
Year 1 Science Investigating Smells
Year 1 have been learning about the different human senses in science and this week we were focussing on smell and describing what different items smelt like. The children really enjoyed investigating what nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, lemon, coffee and some other different dried herbs smelt like. They recorded the information from our investigation in a table using adjectives to describe the different smells.
Monday Worship: St Barnabas and St Paul and Welcome to Rev Matt
Today, Rev Ben led our worship and we welcomed Rev Matt who will be working at St Barnabas Church too. We began our worship by thinking about a time where something happened to us and where we couldn’t wait to tell others about it. Amelia couldn’t wait to tell others when her Mum had a baby. Mason couldn’t wait to tell others that he had been on the television! We thought about how St Barnabas and St Paul were generous about the message about Jesus and how they told Jesus’ story to people for the first time. Rev Ben shared a video with the children about their story. On Saturday, Matt became Rev Matt and was ordained at Blackburn Cathedral. Rev Matt wanted to become a vicar because he wanted to spread the word of Jesus and to find out more about Jesus. Rev Matt spent three years at vicar school. He said he was most excited to learn more and for the children to learn with him. We gave Rev Matt a huge St Barnabas welcome. We ended our worship by singing ‘story of the cross’.
Forest school week 3
We had lots of fun this week in our Forest School Club, we put up a shelter, continued to build our den and we also used some special tools. We spoke about how to use outdoor tools safely and what they can be used for, including using sticks to make tent pegs!
Friday Celebration Worship
Wow! We have had another week with lots to celebrate both in and out of school. The Rotary Club came in to praise and thank our year 5 children for their contribution to the community, their school and the wider world. They were presented with a certificate for all of their fundraising for our school and supporting a number of charities this year including Cancer Research, The Teddy Trust and DARE (Darwen Asylum Seeker and Refugee Enterprise). They also raised money for Turkey, Nigeria and Ukraine. Well done Year 5! Also a huge well done to our value award winners this week who have been working hard across the curriculum and demonstrating a wonderful attitude to learning. These were Mila, Piper-Jo, Lennox and Carter in the infants and KS1 and Ruby, Daniel, Freddy, Isaac, Harlow and Louie in the Juniors. We also celebrated lots of in school sporting success. Our Year 5/6 boys and girls gymnasts for attending a competition as two separate teams at St Bedes High School on Tuesday. They were amazing! Our Year 5/6 cricket team who came 3rd overall at a recent cricket competition, our Year 6 tennis team who came 1st overall, the Year 4 football team who took part in a festival and won every game and the Year 3/4 and Y5/6 DPSSA cross country team for their determination and courage and coming 2nd place overall. We also congratulated our out of school sports award winners. Well done to Ella-Grace for trying her absolute best and getting Star of the Week during her football training and competition, Isabella and Charlie for getting their orange belts at martial arts, Carter for getting the Fantastic Fox of the day at football, Lyla for gaining level 1 in her tap dancing, Jenson for completing his stage 6 at swimming, Marley for her kindness at rainbows, Olivia for getting the managers player of the year trophy at football, Isaac for his trophy for demonstrating fantastic football skills, Charlie Rose for being a superstar gymnast and Ivy for being a superstar cheerleader, Georgie for taking part in her first competition for dancing, Harriet for completing her 10m in butterfly and 10m in breaststroke, Eliza for getting to the finals of her football competition at the weekend and Eva, Katie, Sadie and Charlotte for coming 1st place in their recent football tournament. We said a final well done to Reception and Year 3 for winning the amazing attendance this week and India Mill for achieving the Value Award Points Winners this week. Thank you to our parents and grandparents that could attend and we wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Year 1 Local History Lesson in Darwen Heritage Centre
Year 1 had a super history lesson learning about the changes that have happened within Darwen Town Centre in the past couple of centuries. Our expert (Albert) from the Darwen Heritage centre showed the children a range of different historical images and photographs of the town centre many years ago and was able to explain what is in place of them geographically today. The children couldn’t believe that a few live bears and their keepers roamed the streets of Darwen for entertainment purposes years ago, or that the butchers hung their meat outside their shops! They got to handle and see artefacts including olden day money and a wooden cash register too.
Year 1 History Walk in Darwen High Street
Year 1 have really enjoyed walking around Darwen High Street identifying different types of shops and finding out which type of shops used to be around many years ago. With the help of an expert from the Darwen Heritage Centre, they were shown different places that used to be bakers, butchers, grocery stores, pharmacies, shoe shops or different types of clothes shops (such as hat shops). They also walked through Darwen Market Place and found some placards explaining which shops used to exist in the 1800s.
Year 1 Maths Using Tens and Ones to Make Numbers to 100
Year 1 have been making different 2 digit numbers up to 100 using dienes to help them identify how many tens and ones there are within the numbers. They have worked in pairs to create numbers and then made their own numbers so they can compare them too. Tomorrow they will look at one more and one less than any number up to 100.
Year 1 History Challenge in the Darwen Heritage Centre
After their super history lesson at the Darwen Heritage Centre, Year 1 were challenged to find the words for different types of shops around the two rooms inside the centre and also the corridor linking them. They were looking for these particular words: baker, boots & shoes, butcher, chemist and clothes. They had to tick how many words they could find on a worksheet. The exact amount of shops in Darwen from the olden days had been put around the rooms. The children found that they all had the most ticks for the clothes shops. They also really enjoyed looking at the giant models of Darwen Tower and all the unique historical artefacts that the heritage centre has within in.
Year 1 Visit to St Barnabas Church
Today Year 1 went to St Barnabas Church as part of their RE unit: Our world, Jesus’ World. Rev Ben helped us to learn more about Jesus’ world and let us think and discuss how it is different living on Earth today compared to when Jesus was alive. The children really enjoyed listening to the story of the prodigal son and either watching others act out the story or being actors and actresses themselves. They looked for images of Jesus within the church and we looked at the clothes and signs of different lifestyles people would have had back then. Year 1 have certainly enjoyed having their RE lesson with Rev Ben in church today.