Year 6 - Hello Yellow Day
In Year 6, we celebrated Hello Yellow Day to mark World Mental Health Day. The children wore yellow and took part in a range of fun and meaningful activities to help raise awareness about the importance of looking after our mental health.
Friday Celebration Worship and Hello Yellow Day
This morning, we enjoyed an extra special celebration worship to mark ‘Hello Yellow’ Day for World Mental Health Day. We began by exploring the range of emotions we all experience and discussed ways to lift our spirits when we're feeling down, with thoughtful suggestions like listening to favourite music, taking deep breaths, watching a funny film, reading a book, singing wholeheartedly, having a cuddle, or counting to ten. To boost our mood even further, we had a joyful singalong to Golden by K-pop and lit candles to pray for those facing mental health challenges. We then celebrated our Value Award winners across the school—well done to Coban, Reggie, Olly and Percy in EYFS and KS1, and to Harry, Olivia, Carter and Jenson in KS2—for their outstanding attitudes to learning and for consistently demonstrating our Barney’s 4Bs. Congratulations also to India Mill for being our overall Value Award winners with an impressive 979 points, as well as to EYFS and Year 2 for 100% attendance in the infants and Year 3 for an excellent 99.3% in the juniors. Mrs Ham shared the fantastic news that we had 100% attendance across the whole school on Tuesday. We also celebrated the achievements of our pupils beyond the classroom—well done to Mason for swimming 5m, Chester for earning ‘Player of the Week’ as a goalkeeper at Darwen FC, Phoebe for her wonderful dancing, Callie for her gymnastics skills, Callie and Alice for completing the Summer Reading Challenge, Grace for excelling in a recent dance competition with acro, song and dance, classical and her own choreography, Harry for achieving his yellow belt in kickboxing, Thea for being named Star of the Week in gymnastics, Scarlett for being a superstar netballer and earning Player of the Match, Willow for achieving her Puffin award in swimming and Star of the Week in gymnastics, and Eleanor for earning her Stage 4 in swimming, her recycling badge at Rainbows and completing the Summer Reading Challenge. A huge congratulations also went to our brilliant Year 4/5 Girls Football Squad for their outstanding performance in the Girls DPSSA Football League, and to the group of eight Year 2 children who represented our school so brilliantly in the Key Stage 1 Multi Skills Festival. To finish our worship, Mrs Ham reminded us of the upcoming Harvest Family Service at St Barnabas Church this Sunday at 11am, and how we hope to see as many of our children there as possible for a joyful Harvest singalong. We are also proud to be supporting Year 5 and the Rotakids in their campaign to collect as many shoeboxes as possible filled with essentials for local refugees and The Bishop's Harvest Appeal 2025—please see Class Dojo for further information.
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Year 6 - History
Today, Year 6 had a visit from Diana Killey, who as a child, attended St Barnabas in the 1940s. She spoke to the children about what life was like growing up during that time and shared her experiences as a child of war. Diana described her daily life and spoke about the strong sense of community that developed during those years. The children were fascinated by her stories and asked many thoughtful questions, showing great curiosity and respect for her experiences.
Year 6 Junior Jam: Music
Year 6 had a fantastic Junior Jam music lesson this week! They listened to and appraised more songs from different genres and also continued planning and practising their own song lyrics and melodies on the glockenspiels. Some children even braved performing their songs for the rest of the class.
Year 6 Obesity Blurb Visit
This week, Year 6 had a visit from the Obesity Blurb project, who spoke with the children about healthy life and eating choices. The children looked at how food is marketed to us and can influence our choices, and also how food and our levels of physical activity can affect our physical and mental health.
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KS2 Football Club
Today in Football Club, the children took part in a series of matches with specific challenges and restrictions, such as one-touch finishes, overloads and passing forward. These activities helped them to think strategically, improve their teamwork and develop greater control and awareness during gameplay. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and growing confidence throughout the session.
Year 6 - Smart School Council Debate
This week’s Smart School Council debate was led by the children who took part in a thoughtful discussion on whether it’s more important to learn about past Black history or present-day Black history as part of Black History Month. The children shared a range of interesting opinions, with some highlighting the importance of understanding the struggles and achievements of the past, while others felt it was just as valuable to celebrate modern black role models who are making history today. The debate encouraged everyone to think deeply about how learning from both the past and the present can inspire a more inclusive and informed future.
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Year 6 - Science
Today in Science, the children created simple electrical circuits to investigate which materials act as insulators and which act as conductors. They worked carefully to build their circuits and made thoughtful predictions before testing a range of everyday materials. The activity helped them develop their understanding of how electricity flows and why certain materials are used in electrical devices.
Year 6 - Hockey
This week, Year 6 began their hockey unit, focusing on developing their passing and receiving skills. The children practised maintaining control of the ball while moving, using both push and slap passes to improve accuracy and teamwork. They showed great enthusiasm and cooperation throughout the lesson as they refined their technique and built confidence with the stick and ball.
Harvest Appeal
This morning we launched our Harvest Appeal for this year by hearing from Bishop Philip about his Pedalathon on 17th October where he will be cycling to visit and pray at a school or church in all 14 deaneries across the Diocese. We will be supporting Bishop Philip's Harvest Appeal for Christians in South Africa by joining in with his pedalathon over the next few weeks, including half term. We are encouraging our school family to cycle on bikes or scooters just like we did for the Big Lent Walk and we would love for you to send your photos in and the distance. Donations can be made on parent pay shortly. Our RotaKids are also supporting Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise (DARE) and Darwen Rotary this Harvest by creating Winter Warmer boxes filled with toiletries, packets or tins of food and warm clothing for DARE families, the elderly, isolated, poor and vulnerable people in our community . They are also collecting winter coats for the homeless and poor through Darwen Rotary club. Please send in any donations and thank you in advance for your generosity. We then sang some of our Harvest songs for our Church Harvest Festival this Sunday 12th October at 11.00am- all welcome and our school Harvest Festival on Thursday 23rd October led by our WOW group and Reception, Years 1 and 2. All welcome.
Year 6 French
In French this week, Year 6 learned the names of the different rooms in our homes. They learned a song to help them remember the new vocabulary and then were tasked with labelling a diagram of a house. They also played a guessing game, where one child drew a picture of a room in a house and the rest of the class had to guess which room was being drawn and give their answer in French.
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Year 6 Art
Year 6 are really enjoying their current art unit: "Making Our Voice Heard." This week, the children continued their work on symbolic imagery, using names and symbols from the Maya Tzolkʼin calendar that the children felt were a representation of themselves and their personalities. They created two pieces of artwork using these names and symbols, one with charcoal and one with coloured oil pastels, using masking tape to create the lettering.