Year 6 - Kooth
Year 6 took part in an online workshop with Heather from Kooth yesterday who explained about the anonymous online resource available to them. The children may want to use this platform as a way to manage stress or talk about things that they may find easier saying to someone who is completely neutral. Heather also explained that stress is completely normal and that actually it can be quite a powerful tool to motivate us.
Choir Lunchtime Club
We now run Choir on Thursday Lunchtimes in the Reception classroom and have gained lots of new recruits! We were very happy to have so many new children join us across different year groups to create a bigger and more powerful choir. We are hopeful this will continue so we can arrange a summer performance to show off our amazing vocals!
Worship with Rev. Ben
Today’s worship with Rev. Ben began with a fun game where two teams raced to pass a shuttlecock around the hall and get it back to the start. This linked to the Bible story about Jesus giving us instructions to “pass it on”—just like in the game. The story focused on the Ascension—the moment when Jesus, after rising from the dead and spending time with his disciples, was taken up to heaven. Before he left, Jesus gave his disciples an important mission: to go out into the world, share his teachings, and spread the good news. He promised they would not be alone—God would send the Holy Spirit to be their helper. Even though the disciples felt unsure and a bit afraid, Jesus reassured them that he would always be with them. After the story, the children engaged in thoughtful discussions, exploring questions such as: What did Jesus ask the disciples to do? And How can you trust in Jesus’ promise to be with you, even when you don’t feel brave? Some children shared that they feel brave when they remember Jesus is with them in their hearts. Others said they can pass on kindness and love to friends and family, just like the disciples did. The worship reminded everyone that living like Jesus and sharing his message helps us experience life in all its fullness—a life filled with love, purpose and hope.
Year 6 Junior Jam
Year 6 really enjoyed their sessions with Junior Jam this week. In French, the children learned the names of jobs in French and had to write sentences containing these job names. In computing, the children were tasked with designing a new banner for the Junior Jam website, using the Logo Founder app. We have moved on to learning how to play a glockenspiel in music, creating our own 8-beat phrases.
Year 6 Maths
In maths, year 6 have been learning how to convert fractions into percentages using our multiplication and division knowledge. At first, the children thought this topic sounded tricky, but all the class have now become converting experts!
Year 6 - Year of Prayer
Continuing our Year of Prayer activities, year 6 took part in a reflective walk along the markings on the school yard. We had to follow the lines, reflecting or praying, remembering that we can trust Jesus and ask him to help us to follow the right path.
Darwen Primary Schools Cross Country
This evening, Team B took part in the final night of the DPSSA Cross country at Witton park. This time it involved all of our four squads Y3/4 Girls, Y3/4 Boys, Y5/6 Girls and Y5/6Boys. We had some super impressive finish places for all squads and a Y3/4 Individual Gold for Emily and Y3/4 Individual Silver for Carter. It was a super tough course in the heat but everyone worked so hard and pushed themselves to their limit. Big shout out to all of our wonderful supporters too.
Year 6 Square Root Day
This week, year 6 took part in an online Zoom session for Square Root Day, an unofficial holiday celebrated on days when both the day of the month and the month are the square root of the last two digits of the year. For example, the last Square Root Day was April 4, 2016 (4/4/16), and the next Square Root Day will be May 5, 2025 (5/5/25). There was a guest speaker who was a real mathematician and the children took part in discussions, submitting questions to the speakers and playing some maths games. One great quote we took away from this session was: “Mathematics is the poetry of logical thinking.”
Whole School Celebration-Living Life to the Full- Afternoon Tea
The afternoon tea, organised by the Smart School Council and RotaKids, was a wonderful celebration of our school family living life to the fullest. There was a lovely selection of cakes and biscuits, some homemade by the RotaKids the day before and some bought in. The children enjoyed chatting, laughing, and drinking hot chocolate together. We're thrilled to share that the event raised an impressive £256, which will go directly towards supporting our school. A huge thank you to everyone who supported the event and to all the staff who helped make it happen. A special thank you to our friends from Darwen Rotary who came along to support too. We look forward to hosting many more in the future!
Bee Stinger Netball Heat Winners
A huge congratulations to our Bee Stinger Netball squad who played amazing well in searing heat this afternoon and came away as heat winners. Five solid victories 11-0, 6-0, 2-0, 5-1, 6-0 . The children represented Team B brilliantly and now go on to take part in the grand final in a few weeks . A huge thank you to Mrs Gardner for her fantastic coaching and to Mrs Wilkinson for supporting and transporting.
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Collective Worship- Songs of Praise
As part of our focus on prayer this half term, we further explored how one way we can pray is through song. We had a joyous start to the morning singing some of our favourite songs of praise and different classes were chosen to model the singing and actions at the front. We are super proud of our Reception class for showing their Build Up song as they showed lots of courage singing in front of the whole school family. We sang Waymaker, Shine from the inside out, Build up one another, Life in all its fullness and Jesus strong and kind. Most of our favourite worship songs can be found here: https://www.stbarnabasdarwen.co.uk/about-us/church-and-worship#tab-5832
Whole School Worship - Exploring Prayer
Today’s worship marked the beginning of an exploration of prayer: what it is, why people pray, how, when and where they pray, and why it is an important part of faith. We started by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and signing parts using the Makaton symbols we already knew. Jesus told his disciples this prayer twice when they asked him how to pray. We watched a short video explaining that prayer is simply talking to God and that there are no specific rules when communicating with God. We also learned that he is never too busy to listen to us. The children spent time recapping some of the ways they have prayed including through the Diocesan Year of Prayer, and thinking about what they might want to tell God. We then had some quiet time to say our own prayers to God. Some children said thank you for God’s wonderful creations, some said sorry for making wrong choices, some were thankful for their family and friends and some were grateful for their homes and food. We finished by singing our special Lord’s Prayer song with our Makaton actions.