Whole School Celebration Worship
This week has been full of joy, community and Christmas spirit across our school! We started our celebration worship by lighting our first Advent candle together. Mrs Ham also thanked all the children and staff for decorating Christmas trees across school and highlighted a special moment when Phoebe, our youngest child in school, put the star on top of the tree in the school hall. We also said a huge well done to Reception who did an incredible Nativity performance. We also celebrated a couple of children who proudly represented our school at a local care home, singing for the residents and spreading Christmas cheer. We also had a fantastic time at the pantomime this week so a big thanks to Mrs Wilkinson for organising it. This week, our Values Awards were presented to the following children: all of Reception for their fantastic performance, Eleanor in Year 1, Teddy in Year 2, James in Year 3, Arabelle in Year 4, Sophia in Year 5 and Isabelle in Year 6. These children have been working so hard, following our 4’Bs and demonstrating Christian values. Mr Mealor also awarded Alexis, Miles, James, Harriet and Charlie with pen licenses for excellent progress in their handwriting. We also celebrated our Team Values Points with India Mill finishing in fourth place, River Darwen in third place, Whitehall Park in second place and Darwen Tower in first place! Mr Bloomfield also announced our first Times Table Rock Stars Winners: Charlie in Year 3, James in Year 4, Ivy in Year 5 and Charlie in Year 6. Our overall winners were Year 6! Well done. We are very proud of all the children who received special sports awards this week. Ava received Squirrel of the Week for her kindness. Zachary achieved his Stage 2 swimming certificate. Charlie was named Player of the Week for his excellent goal scoring. Desmond and Iris both competed in swimming events and placed in the top three, earning several medals. Thea was recognised for her fantastic balancing skills in gymnastics. Olivia was awarded the Olivia doll at Rainbows for her hard work. Vienna achieved her Stage 5 swimming certificate for completing 400m. Finn was named Player of the Week for his good passing skills. Willow achieved an impressive 19 skills in gymnastics. Luna earned the red belt in kickboxing. James received the Wilson Cup Trophy after finishing second with fewer players and also swam an impressive 50 metres. Grace was celebrated for helping others and persevering. Mollie was awarded the Claire doll for being helpful. Jack earned Captain of the Month for his encouragement, discipline and leadership. Tristan earned both his blue and purple belts in kickboxing and completed three minutes of continuous punching. Harriet was praised for her amazing progress in MMA. Lilly achieved a distinction in her Grade 1 acting school exam. Lila reached the finals of a dance competition, placing first in improv, first in commercial and second in lyrical. Our KS2 football team also showed great resilience this week. After losing their first match 7-0, they came back stronger to draw 2-2 in their next game. The winners of the Walk to School Challenge was also won by Reception, well done! We also celebrated our attendance winners this week which are Year 2 and Year 3. We have several exciting events coming up. The Lantern Parade will take place this Saturday in Whitehall Park. Our Christmas Fayre will be held next Wednesday in the school hall. The Christmas Carol Service will take place next Sunday. We also have an Advent Art competition with submissions open until Wednesday. Year 1 and Year 2 are performing their Christmas Cracker Show on Thursday and Friday. Year 1 are continuing to collect Christmas Hamper donations for the Darwen Asylum Refugee Enterprise. We are so proud of our wonderful children and look forward to another week of joy and celebration through our Advent journey.
Year 4 Maths LBQ
Today we had a visit from Mr Bloomfield who taught us various ways to multiply and divide by 9 using LBQ. The children loved learning the most common tricks of how to understand and find the next multiple of 9.
Year 4 - Class Worship: Togetherness
In our class worship time this week we learned about the Princess of Wales’ annual carol service and the work she does to bring people from different walks of life together. We spent some time considering groups that we belong to and we used our oracy skills to share our thoughts on feeling a sense of belonging. There were some excellent points about sharing interests and feeling loved, and also about recognising when we feel ostracised or unsafe in a group, such as an online community.
Snow White Pantomime
The children had a brilliant time today at Blackburn Empire Theatre. The whole school watched Snow White. It was wonderful to see their faces light up, Christmas is in full swing at St Barnabas! All of the photos will be uploaded shortly to here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/photo-galleries/snow-white-pantomime
KS2 Football Practice
Today’s football session focused on using bounce back players to create overloads, giving the children the chance to develop their passing accuracy, movement off the ball and tactical awareness. They worked on making quick decisions, supporting teammates and finding space to keep possession under pressure.
Y4 History - Roman Formations
In our history lesson this week, we looked at Roman formations. The children created their very own shields and tested how effective the formations were whilst Mrs Gardner tried to break through with table tennis balls. The key formations are the testudo (tortoise), which is a defensive shell formed by soldiers holding their shields to create a roof and walls, and the wedge, an offensive V-shape used to charge and break. We had a great time and the children worked really well within their legions.
Year 4 DT - Seasonal Stocking Production
We are flying with our seasonal stockings in Year 4 now. The children have been working so hard to create these wonderful stockings and we are so proud of their perseverance and determination to master difficult skills such as embroidery and appliqué. We can’t wait to share the stockings with everyone at the Christmas Fayre.
Year 4 - Snow White
The Year 4s thoroughly enjoyed their trip to the Empire Theatre in Blackburn. Along with the rest of our school, we went to watch this year’s pantomime, Snow White. The excitement was building as we boarded our coach. And the fun didn’t stop the entire time we were there. The children’s highlights seemed to be singing along to K-Pop songs, shouting “6, 7” and being squirted by water pistols. There was plenty of dancing and audience participation - all the things our lively Year 4 class love. What a fantastic afternoon out!
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Seasonal Stockings Start in Year 4
In our DT session this week, we made a start on our felt stockings. After selecting which stitch we would use - either the running or overstitch, we selected which embellishment we would add first. We were able to use the templates to make it easier too. The child found it quite a challenge using the fabric scissors, especially when cutting out the smaller designs but they really persevered and we had some lovely designs by the end of the lesson which they were super proud of. Next week, we look forward to adding extra appliqué, embroidery and creating the other designs on the other side of our felt then eventually sewing them together.
Year 4 - English: Roman Vocabulary
To start our new diary unit in English we explored a range of primary and secondary sources in order to build a bank of Roman vocabulary. The children will be writing in role as a Roman soldier describing a typical day at the start of the Roman invasion of Britain.
Year 4 - French: Le Corps
After recapping the French vocabulary for common facial features, the children sang songs and labelled pictures. They then began learning the French for other parts of the body in preparation for singing ‘La Tête, Les Épaules, Les Genoux, Les Pieds’ (Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes).
Whole School Worship - The Importance of Trees
This week is National Tree Week and Mrs Ham introduced an exciting new tree-planting project that we will be undertaking as a school. Following on from Switch Off Fortnight, we will continue our Planet Protectors mission by planting trees on our school grounds and, of course, our fantastic children will be involved. To kick start the project, we had a discussion about why trees are amazing. The children gave some very thoughtful answers, such as “they give us oxygen”, “they take harmful carbon dioxide out of the air”, “they provide protection for animals”, “we love playing in the trees”, “we use trees to make things”. Mrs Ham also told us the story, The Man Who Planted Trees. It was about a shepherd who saw the barren land and wanted to improve it, so he started planting trees. He planted over 1000 acorns, and after many years, the landscape was filled with lush, green trees, rivers flowed and a town was built. We learned from this 100-year-old story that one person’s small act can make a huge difference. Just like in the Parable of the Talents, we learned that it’s important for us all to use what we’ve been given to make a positive impact on the world. We can’t wait to use the trees that have been donated to us by the National Trust to make a positive impact on our community.