Whole School Harvest Celebration
This morning, we celebrated Harvest with a very special worship service at St Barnabas Church, led by our wonderful WOW group and Mrs Araujo. It was a joyful celebration filled with singing, gratitude and reflection. A huge well done to Reception, Year 1 and Year 3, who did a tremendous job of sharing what they have been learning in their RE lessons. Reception bravely opened our worship by singing ‘Thank You for the Harvest’, followed by Year 1, who expressed their gratitude to our farmers for all their hard work with a lovely rendition of ‘Thank You to the Farmers’. We also heard from Year 3, who shared beautiful prayers expressing their gratitude for all that we have, as well as leading us in a shared prayer using Makaton. We are incredibly proud of all the children for their thoughtful contributions. This year, we are supporting DARE, RotaKids and The Bishop’s Appeal. A heartfelt thank you to our school community for your generosity in donating non-perishable food items and pre-loved winter coats. Your kindness and support make a real difference to others. Looking ahead, please remember that we will be taking part in the Big Barney’s Assault Course Challenge on Friday 6th November to raise money for the Jehovah Rapha Healthcare Centre in Liwolo. The funds raised will help ensure that people can access essential healthcare. We would be very grateful if you could ask family and friends to sponsor your child and support us in this important mission. Finally, thank you for your continued support throughout this half-term. We wish all our families a wonderful and restful half-term holiday!
Year 2 RE- The Torah
This week in RE, Year 2 explored the Jewish Holy Book, the Torah scroll, discovering how it is read in the synagogue and treated with the utmost respect. The children also learned about Simchat Torah, the annual celebration that marks the completion of the yearly Torah reading cycle, and enjoyed participating in their own Simchat Torah-style festivity. Well done, Year 2!
The Great Big Barney's Assault Course Challenge
An urgent need in South Sudan! A serious healthcare crisis is emerging and support to local healthcare centres such as Liwolo will end by September, with hospital services stopping by December. Without this support, many communities will be left without accessible medical care. The nearest healthcare facilities are several hours away and remain out of reach for many families due to distance and cost. Through the Bishop's Harvest Appeal, our Diocese will support the Jehovah Rapha Healthcare Centre in Liwolo, ensuring that people are able to access essential healthcare. Each child will take part in our Great Big Barney’s Assault Course Challenge, which has been planned by our WOW group, at school on Friday 6th November. Please ask family and friends to sponsor your child to complete the course and help us raise funds for this year’s cause. We would love to see photos of your children in training over the half term ready for our assault course challenge, so please send them via Class Dojo. Donations can be made through the QR code or here: https://www.parishgiving.org.uk/donors/find-your-parish/bburn-diocesan-harvest-appeal-blackburn?fbclid=IwY2xjawVEK0JleHRuA2FlbQIxMABwZG9mAWJyaWQRMDgwVEJYN0EzQ2lGbWVYT2VzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEebvIKZ7uGENPZjIfVN8P5b-WLjoYcHdWChA0xXbNPY1YwSgVkEwXRXG-vFV0_aem_70SfP6U3cGv2vCM-UXD3YA
Celebration Worship
This morning, we started our Celebration Worship by singing a wonderful Harvest song in preparation for our Harvest Worship next Thursday at St Barnabas Church. We recapped on all the great things that we have been achieving over the last couple of weeks. We then presented our Barney’s Brilliant Beacons. A huge well done to Louie, Noah S, Indie, Chester C, Olivia and Archie in EYFS and KS1 and Millie, Alayna, Charlie, Eddie, Cassius, Scarlett, Lilly and Peyton in KS2. Well done to these fantastic children for always demonstrating the Barney’s 4Bs, demonstrating an amazing attitude to learning and being fantastic role models. Mrs Araujo and Mrs Gardner then awarded lots of children with their pen licenses. Well done to Archie and James in Year 3 and Harry, Eva, Albie, Molly, Alicie, Elijah and Eddie in Year 4 for working extremely hard to excel in their handwriting. Mrs Gardner also presented James and Archie with a certificate for excelling on TT Rockstars. We then congratulated our Year 5&6 Girls’ football team who have been playing well in the DPSSA League’s Girls Football Tournament over the last couple of weeks. We then ended our worship with some beautiful prayers from Mrs Ham, Jack and Renee and Mrs Ham reminded us that we are accepting food items for our Harvest to donation to DARE and winter coats to donate to Rota Kids.
Year 2 RE- A Visit From Rev Ben
Today, Year 2 enjoyed a wonderful visit from Rev Ben as part of our learning about the Bible. We explored why the Bible is special to Christians and discovered that it is often compared to a torch, honey and gold. Through thoughtful discussions and sharing our ideas, we concluded that the Bible is like a torch because it helps Christians find the right path in life. It is like gold because it is special and precious, and it is like honey because it is full of sweet stories about kindness and love. We then had the opportunity to ask Rev Ben some fascinating questions. We asked him about his favourite Bible story, how long he has been a vicar, why God created the world and how old the stories in the Bible are. Rev Ben also shared some of his own Bibles with us. We had the chance to look at one he received when he became a vicar, one he reads with his family and another that contains a different reading for every day of the year. We showed great respect and handled these special books with care. Rev Ben warmly invited us to visit St Barnabas Church on a Sunday, where a different Bible reading or story is explored each week. He also told us about Palm Tree, where children come together to learn more about the Bible, that runs alongside the normal Church Service. A huge thank you to Rev Ben for visiting us, answering our questions and helping us deepen our understanding of why the Bible is so special to Christians. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and learned so much!
Year 1&2- Lunchtime Games Club
This week, we held our final Games Club session, and what a blast it’s been! 🎲🎉 Over the past six weeks, we’ve enjoyed lots of fun, laughter and fantastic teamwork. It’s been wonderful to see everyone getting involved, supporting one another and, most importantly, having fun together!
Year 2- Black History Month
Today, we explored the life and achievements of Lewis Latimer as part of our Black History Month learning. We discovered how Lewis Latimer helped to improve the light bulb by developing a more effective and long-lasting carbon filament, making electric lighting more practical and accessible to more people. We then put on our thinking caps and explored other exciting innovations that have improved everyday objects. We discussed how the traditional toothbrush has evolved into an electric toothbrush, how glasses can become sunglasses in bright sunlight, how umbrellas can pop open at the touch of a button and how special goggles allow us to experience television in 3D! We also discussed how we can all be innovators, just like Lewis Latimer by using our creativity and problem-solving skills to come up with ideas that can lead to exciting innovations! To finish our session, we watched some Black History Heroes clips to learn about other inspirational Black figures, including Rosa Parks. We discovered more about her life, achievements and the lasting impact she has had on the world.
Hello Yellow Day Collective Worship
This morning, Mrs Gardner, our PSHE leader, The Wellbeing Warriors, some of our Year 4 children and our Head and Deputy Head’s led a special Collective Worship in celebration of Hello Yellow Day. They raised awareness of mental health and the importance of discussing our feelings, doing the things that we love and spreading kindness. Last week, Year 4 wrote some beautiful wonder poems in celebration of National Poetry Day and they shared these with us this morning and Thorncliffe Nursing Home last week. This was a wonderful act of kindness that brought huge smiles to the resident’s faces. They set us the challenge of spreading kindness and positivity today. We all then joined with a Hello Yellow Parade with each class showing off their amazingly yellow outfits. Thank you to our wonderful school community for all of their efforts… we were a sea of yellow. We then finished our worship with a very special prayer and sing along. What a joyous worship that helped to make us all feel brighter on a wet and miserable morning! 💛✨😁
Whole School Worship with Rev Matt
During our whole-school worship, Rev Matt explored the theme of ‘Life as a Journey’, sharing the story of Moses and how he led the Hebrew people through challenges and uncertainty towards freedom. The children reflected on how journeys can be filled with obstacles, difficult decisions and moments that test our faith, but also how perseverance, courage and trust can help us overcome these challenges. This encouraged the children to think about their own journeys through life and the importance of supporting one another along the way.
Year 2 Science- Food Chains
Today in Science, Year 2 learnt all about food chains. They explored the key vocabulary producer and consumer, before enjoying the opportunity to construct their own food chains using animals and plants from a range of habitats, including woodlands, rainforests and oceans.
Whole School Worship
Today in worship, the children were treated to an exciting online worship from Picture News exploring the importance of inclusive sport and how we can break down barriers that may prevent people from taking part. We learnt about the struggles that Stef Reid, a Paralympic athlete, faced when she lost her foot in an accident. She was determined to run again though after being a keen sportswoman before her accident and she went on to win many medals in a number of Paralympic Games events including running and long jump. She then retired from athletics but then took up figure skating and competed in Dancing on Ice. What an inspiration! The children discussed how everyone has different strengths, abilities and experiences, and explored the idea that there is always more than one way to achieve something and to never give up, just like Stef. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to think about inclusion, resilience and the importance of supporting and encouraging others.
Year 2 PSHE: Keeping Safe Online
Year 2 started by discussing what online means. We thought about computers, iPads, phones and the internet. The children shared that they use the internet for playing games, listening to music, watching Youtube, learning and researching. All of the children play games online. Some online games can be fun, creative and logical such as Minecraft or designing games. However, some games can be scary, violent, have bad language or have an online chat feature. We looked through different games on Roblox to decide if they were suitable or not. After this, we thought of some extra ways to keep private and safe online, such as not sharing our personal information (names, ages, address, school).