Year 6 - Striking and Fielding
Today, Year 6 took part in an exciting game of Quick Cricket as part of their PE striking and fielding unit. The children enjoyed practising their batting, bowling and fielding skills, while also learning the importance of teamwork, communication, and fair play. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and developed their confidence through active participation.
Year 6 Darwen Art Project
This morning Year 6 took part in the Darwen Art Project, going on the "Shop Darwen Heritage Trail" and also working with local artist Lucie Cooke to create a set of vibrant seasonal window displays in Darwen town centre. This was an absolutely fantastic activity to take part in and the children created some truly stunning artwork! St. Barnabas was the only school to brave the rain and attend, so the artwork on display is purely that of our wonderful Year 6s. Make sure to take a look at the windows of No.14 Market Street next time you walk through town!
Year 6 Art
Year 6 have begun an exciting new unit in art, called "Making My Voice Heard." This week the children were tasked with replicating patterns and experimenting with different media, such as art pencils, oil pastels and coloured pencil crayons, on a mood board of ideas.
Year 6 - Darwen Art Project
Year 6 had the amazing opportunity to take part in the Darwen Art Project. As part of this, our class worked together to design and create a stunning autumn-themed window display, showcasing our creativity and teamwork. Afterwards, we took part in a fascinating heritage walk around Darwen, where we explored the town’s past, discovered important landmarks and learned more about the history that has shaped our community. It was a wonderful experience that allowed us to celebrate both art and local heritage.
Year 6 R.E
Year 6's R.E unit this half term is "Life is a Journey." Last week we went on a spirituality walk to Jacks Key, thinking about how the natural and man-made features there could represent our life's journey, for example: bumps in the path, deciding whether to take the long road or the short cut, using a bridge to help us traverse tricky conditions, uphill struggles, etc. This week we looked at how scripture teaches us about how to tackle life's journey and live life in all its fullness.
Year 5&6 - Football Club
Today Years 5 & 6 took part in their very first football training club. The children practised key skills such as dribbling, passing and teamwork before finishing with some friendly matches.
Football Club
It was the start of the football session for Key Stage 2. The children were split into teams and played small-sided games, giving everyone plenty of touches on the ball and chances to work together.
Year 6 - Electrical Circuits
Today Year 6 explored how to solve broken circuits. They investigated why a circuit might not work — checking for loose connections, missing components or incorrect placements. Working in groups, they tested their ideas, fixed the problems and discovered how electricity flows around a complete circuit. Once they had solved the issues, they successfully made their own working circuits using bulbs, motors and switches. This helped them understand how electrical systems work in real life and built their problem-solving and teamwork skills.
Let’s go Sing Workshop
Today we took part in the Let’s Go Sing workshop with Gaynor where we learned several songs and sang together. We started by warming up our voices and building confidence as a group. Then we enjoyed singing a range of songs, from fun and simple ones that everyone could join in with, to more challenging pieces. Some of our favourites included: • “Let’s Sing a Simple Song” – a cheerful tune that helped us practise singing clearly and in unison. • “Brenda the Mender” – a playful character song that made us focus on rhythm and storytelling through music. • “The Moon” – a gentler song where we worked on expression and soft dynamics. • “The Scuttled Sloop Pirate Song” – a lively piece that let us sing with energy, actions, and a sense of adventure. The workshop showed us that singing is not just about hitting the right notes, but also about teamwork, listening to each other, and enjoying the journey of music together. We are hopeful that the workshop today has encouraged more children to join our KS2 school choir on Thursday lunchtimes and to take part in the Let's Go Sing concert at Blackburn Cathedral in March.
Sports Leaders 2025-2026
Our Sports Leaders have now been presented with their personalised hoodies and are super keen to start planning this academic years inter- house sporting events. At our first meeting, Seb, Luca, Theo, Summer, Neve and Ella discussed how they can work towards the 60 active minutes a day by planning in more structure to our beak and lunchtimes. The children are really looking forward to taking on their responsibilities and we look forward to seeing what great things they can achieve to enhance our PE and Sports at St Barnabas.
First Netball Club of 2025-2025 Season
What a super first netball club we had this evening after school. It was amazing to see such a great turn out and children really pushing themselves out of their comfort zones. Some brand new children to the game, some experienced but all there to have a fab time!
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning marked our second celebration worship of the new academic year, and what an incredible week it has been! A definite highlight was the fantastic "Treasure Island" production by M&M Productions, which truly captivated our entire school. We've also enjoyed settling into our new classes, launching into new curriculums, and electing our Smart School Councillors and Well-being Warriors. We then had the pleasure of congratulating our amazing Value Award winners for this week. These children have made a fantastic start to the new academic year by consistently demonstrating Barney's 4Bs and our Christian Values, alongside working incredibly hard across the curriculum. A huge well done to Evie and Alice in KS1, and to Charlie, Scarlett, Daisy, and Brodie in KS2! We also celebrated some wonderful out-of-school achievements: Alayna for achieving grade excellence in her recent acro exam, Maggie for earning Star of the Week for super effort at gymnastics, Haydn for demonstrating great skill and sportsmanship at a holiday sports club, earning him a huge trophy!, Hendrix for achieving Squirrel of the Week, Scarlett for her impressive achievements in Netball, Sofia for earning a distinction, the highest possible grade, in musical theatre, Annabel for being a superstar on her first day at Brownies, Samuel for showing fantastic courage in his swimming lessons, Thea for being a super Rainbow and attending the Rainbows fun day, Mikey for swimming 10m, Ava for being awarded her builders badge at Squirrels, and Eleanor and Olivia for being super creative at Rainbows this week. Additionally, we recognised Reception and Year 4 for achieving our amazing attendance award this week! Well done to Reception with an impressive 99.6% and Year 4 with 98.6%. Mrs. Ham then shared some exciting events for next week: Years 3, 4, and 6 will participate in a ‘Let’s Go Sing’ concert on Monday, Year 5 will enjoy a Move and Learn session with Blackburn Rovers, and a reminder that Wednesday is School Photograph Day and we will also have our Meet the Teacher sessions. We concluded our worship with special prayers from Harry, Minnie, and Harry, who encouraged us to show respect, spread positivity at school, and consider those less fortunate, such as those without easy access to clean water. We then shared the Grace and had a lively sing-along to ‘We Can Make a Difference.’