Parent/Carer Support Group from the Mental Health Support Team
Here are the details for the next parent support group from the Mental Health Support Team (MHST).
Coram Life Education & SCARF workshops
Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools. Over the next couple of days all of our children in school will have a fun and interactive PSHE workshop delivered by Megan and her friend Harold the Giraffe, from Coram Life Education. Reception: All About Me Year 1: Feelings Year 2: My Wonderful Body Year 3: Meet the Brain Year 4: It's great to be me Year 5: Friends Year 6: Decisions The children really enjoyed the workshops last year and they learnt a great deal. These sessions are part funded by the local authority and the school have contributed the rest. Our staff will also be having training on Coram resources that can be used in PSHE lessons. If you would like to speak to Megan and learn more about the workshops or how you can support your child with their personal, social and health education, you are very welcome to call into school from 8.45-9.00am this Wednesday morning. There is also a website with information for parents about how you can support your child's wellbeing, help them develop a growth mindset and how to talk to them about sensitive issues etc. https://www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/family-scarf
Mental Health Support Team January Newsletter
Please find attached the latest newsletter from the mental health support team, who we work closely with in school. This month there are some great tips and signposts for ways that parents can support their own mental health and wellbeing, as well as their children's mental health and wellbeing. For all of the newsletters from the Mental Health Team, please click here https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/parents/newsletters
Monday Worship: Epiphany
Last week we focussed on breathing with the happy tank. This week, we learnt how to reflect. We spent three minutes thinking about something that has happened to us today. Reflection time for ourselves is important and helps us to relax and fill up our happy tanks. On Friday we started our learning about the Epiphany. It took 12 days for the kings to meet baby Jesus and so the Epiphany is celebrated on the 6th January. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means ‘making known’. The kings followed a big star which helped to make people know that Jesus had been born. One important thing that the festival of Epiphany reveals is that God doesn’t have favourites but welcomes people from any background and any nationality. Mrs Ham read a story from her rhyming Bible all about the kings journey and everyone joined in with actions for the repeated refrain. Thank you to our amazing actors in Year 6. Sadie, Manni, Isaac, Elsie and Carter did a brilliant job. The kings brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Gold is a gift fit for a king, Frankincense was given as it is a holy fragrance and Myrrh was given to indicate that Jesus’ death would be important. During our reflection, we thought about our special gifts. This week, we will really focus on how we can share them with others and how we can show respect for other people’s gifts. We finished our worship singing ‘We three kings’.
Year 5 - Invasion Games- Hockey
In our invasion games unit this half term, we are going to look at hockey skills of sending and receiving a ball and small-sided games to develop and apply invasion game tactics. This afternoon, the children learnt how to pass a ball to a teammate using a hockey stick.
Year 5- A Visitor From The Local Library
Year 5 had a fantastic morning with Angela. Angela works for Blackburn with Darwen Libraries. She came to our classroom to encourage our children to join and visit the Library for free. The children were amazed to learn about the services offered by the Library. You can get help with homework, research an area that you have an interest in and school holiday activities, and out-of-school hours, for all age groups. Angela finished the session by reading one of David Walliams's popular story books, 'The World's Worst Children'.
Whole School Celebration Worship
This morning during whole school celebration worship, we learnt about Epiphany and celebrated our achievements in school this week. It was lovely to hear that some of the children had used the breathing techniques that we learnt on Monday from John, the Kindness Coach's, happy tank programme over the week. Class teachers spoke about our first week back in school and how the children have settled back into our school routine brilliantly. Mrs Ham announced our amazing attendance classes of the week in KS1 and KS2. Well done Reception and Year 4! We then celebrated some fantastic sports stars, both in and outside of school!
Year 5- Art- A walking Line
This afternoon in Art, we have been taking a line for a walk, work inspired by Paul Klee. To improve mastery of art, the children took a black and white photocopy of a textured material centred on an A4 page and using an art pencil, extended their drawing outwards.
Year 5- Junior Jam- Songwriting
This week in music, Year 5 have been improving their song-writing ability. Over the course of the term, the children will be introduced to different techniques to help write lyrics and improve vocal melodies. They also worked really hard in French and Computing.
Latest newsletter
Happy new year to you all! I hope you've had a lovely Christmas holiday with your loved ones. It has been wonderful to have all of the children back in school although I think it was a bit of a shock to the system being back in school today and I know it certainly felt like that for myself and our staff team. Our class teachers will shortly be sharing information with you about what your child will be learning this half term. As ever, if you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me via class dojo, on the school yard or via the school office. Thanks for your continued support and we are looking forward to another brilliant year at St Barnabas, Mrs Ham
Year 5- Science- Exploring the Solar System
This term in science, Year 5 will have the opportunity to star-gaze by learning more about the Earth and the celestial bodies in our solar system. This afternoon we explored the Solar System and the characteristics of the planets in detail.
Whole School Worship: Happy new year!
It was lovely to have everyone together for our first worship of 2023. Happy new year to everyone! We took a few moments as we lit our advent wreath to think about Jesus and how he came to bring hope, peace, joy and love to the world and how he wanted us live life in all its fullness. A few of our children shared their new year resolutions. Alice said she wants to eat more healthily, Tristen’s is to always have a smile on his face, Sadie is to not talk back to her parents and Kaylen’s is to go outside more. Mrs Ham shared hers which is to be happy. Mrs Ham reminded us all of the kindness coach, John Magee. She introduced us all to the happy tank. We watched a video from John who explained what the happy tank was. One of the elements is to take some time to rest. During this time, we need to focus on our breathing which can help us to find peace. We all focussed together on our breathing for 2 minutes. Beau said that it made her feel calm and Jacob said it made him feel happy. Mrs Ham shared with everybody a happy calendar that we will follow throughout January. We watched a clip from ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’. At the beginning the fox was very angry but by the end he was happy. He filled up his happy tank by the boy, the mole and the horse showing him kindness. This year we need to really focus on how we can be kind to others and to ourselves. Through that, we also need to think about how we can find happiness and spread it to others. We all said a new year prayer together and ended our worship with the song ‘Shine from the inside out’.