Autumn Festival 2023

A huge thank you to all who attended our annual Autumn Festival. For once, the weather was on our side and the sun shone! 

Donut bobbing was a big hit and some children managed to eat the donut in one! Many of you enjoyed s'mores around the firepit after toasting marshmallows. It was great to see so many families enjoying themselves whilst exploring the fantastic outdoor environment on the Autumn Treasure Hunt. 

Congratulations to our 100% attending pupils who's name was drawn (1 from each year group) to receive a £10 prize voucher

Easter Bonnet Competition Winners

World Book Day 2023!

We all had a great time on World Book Day! This year we brought our favourite book to school along with a prop from the book. We had a super time guessing what books the props were from. We then visited the firepit in the forest school area and had a story telling session. 

Thorn's Care in the Community Project

This year the School Council and Wellbeing Club have teamed up to spread some love and care throughout the Bacup community, planning events in the local area to make our community a great place to live.

This Christmas we decided to spread some festive cheer and visit the residents at The Laurel's Care Home, decorating cakes, crafting and signing and dancing.

I think you will agree that the children really brought a smile to their faces.

We had an amazing afternoon celebrating the joy of Christmas with you all - thank you for having us!

The School Council and Wellbeing Team!

Children in Need 2022: The Great Spotacular!

We have had an amazing time this November celebrating Children in Need and helping our friends Pudsey and Blush to raise money for those that need it the most!

This year we decided to celebrate the day alongside Kindness Week.

A big shout out to the School Council and Wellbeing Club who created some lovely painted rocks to scatted around the area as 'random acts of kindness' and created uplifting inspirational posters to pick people up when they needed it.

During the day we held a competition for the spottiest outfit - there were some amazing efforts and it was so great to see all your spots - well done to those that won prizes!

We managed to raise an amazing £256!

Autumn Fair 

It was great to see all the children, families and staff having a fantastic time at the Autumn Fair despite the drizzle which didn't dampen our spirits. The campfire was a big hit and the toasted s'mores looked and tasted delicious. There were lots of other tasty treats on offer including burgers, cakes and sweetie kebabs. All the children looked fab with their spooky face paints and enjoyed playing on the golf course and the outdoor equipment. Thank you to everyone who came and a huge thanks to all the staff and parents who made the event so successful. Looking forward to seeing you all at the Christmas Fair.

Autumn festival wreath winners! 

A huge congratulations to our Autumn festival winners of the wreath competition, it was a very tough decision as all the entries were amazing, well done!

100% Attendance Winners!

A huge well done to those children who have achieved 100% attendance this term. They have been treated to a £10 B&M voucher each! What a great example you have set of coming to school every day, on time. We are very proud of you.

School Council Election 2022!

It's been a very exciting (nail biting for some) week for Key Stage 2 as we held our annual school council elections. Out of 26 amazing applications we had the huge job of whittling it down to the final 13! A massive 'well done' to those who applied, it isn't easy speaking in front of a class and your courage and determination really shone through.

Congratulations to those that topped the polls - it's clear that your ideas and passion for contributing to the school's ethos and values really came through to your classmates!

A very warm welcome to your new school council:

3D - Madison and Purity

3/4W - Maddellyn and Adam

4B - Trent and Skylar

5F - Max and Missy

5/6W - Alfie and Elizabeth

6B - Ruby, Verity and Harriet

Look out for exciting events coming up and don't forget to speak to your school councillors if you have any ideas - I'm sure they'll be more than happy to hear your thoughts! 

100% Attendance Winners!

A huge well done to those children who have achieved 100% attendance this year. They have been treated to a 'chippy' lunch and got to order whatever they fancied. Leo nearly polished all of his fish and chips off and George couldn't wipe the smile off his face while enjoying his curry and rice. What a great example you have set of coming to school every day, on time. We are very proud of you. 

SPORTS DAY 2022

This year's Sports Day was bigger and better than ever. We had fantastic support from parents, family and friends and we were treated to a visit from Burnley's Mascot Bertie Bee and Bacup Borough's Mascot, Pedro Panda.

As you can see from the photos, everyone has so much fun and even the adults showed off their talents as they took on the challenge of the Space Hopper Race!

Thank you to our Sports Leaders for organising the activities at each station, parents, family and friends for cheering the children on and to Bacup Borough Football Club for making our Sports Day so special.

Summer Festival

_{We had a great time at our summer festival. It was lovely to see so many families having fun. There were lots of sweet treats to enjoy and the ice cream was a big success! The choir sang beautifully to entertain us all. There were some super bow and arrow skills in the archery task.}

Jubilee Celebrations

Children and staff have thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the Platinum Jubilee.

There were lots of fun activities taking place in class including painting our own commemorative plates and making a celebration card to send to the Queen.

Each class learnt about a different decade from the Queen's reign and presented what they had learnt to the school in our celebration assembly.

We all enjoyed a street party lunch at the end of the week and the gym looked fantastic decorated in the bunting made by the children.

A huge thank you to all our families for supporting our celebrations. Your bakes looked delicious and your crowns were so creative. 

OUTDOOR LEARNING DAYS WITH ABIGAIL'S TRAILS

Children from EYFS to Y6 had the opportunity to develop their skills with Abigail Thompson from 'Abigail's Trails'.

Please take a look at our photos of the children enjoying outdoor learning. From identifying bugs, making bird feeders and making bug pictures with KS1 pupils, to developing mapping skills and making Bumble Bees at KS2, you can see how much we have enjoyed our outdoor environment.

Thank you Abigail, we all had a great time.

School Council would like to say a big THANK YOU to our wonderful community for making donations to support the Ukraine refugee crisis.

Wow what a fantastic STEM week we have had here at Thorn! Once again, we LOVED our LEGO Robotics workshop where children were inspired to be different types of engineers in the future! All classes worked hard to create pieces of art that incorporated elements of maths and wow were the results impressive! We had 3D models, bridges, symmetrical art, clothes designs just to name a few, plus a breathe taking large scale dreamcatcher mobile! Upper KS2 enjoyed a science magic show and Y6 loved putting on a catwalk show for the rest of the school at the end of the week to show off their creative clothes items made from recyclable materials. What a fabulous week!

This year Thorn Primary held its own Decorate a Door Competition, each class went to so much effort, but there could only be one winner.

Congratulations to 3D!

Autumn Festival 2020

It's Autumn once again, but this year we have celebrated slightly differently. Within school, we have celebrated Autumn and learnt how Harvest is celebrated in many places around the world including Italy, India and Africa! Please look at the images on the Class Pages to see what we got up to!

Thank you to all who created and brought Scarecrows into school. See the images below of the Scarecrows made from each class. Congratulations to all our winners!

Farewell Year 6 Leavers 2020

What a year it’s been for all of you,

Not quite ending as we planned,

But, remember for the most part, we’ve learned hand in hand.

And, although the world recently,

Has turned inside-out,

You’ve shown resilience and bravery,

Which is what it’s all about.

During the next part of life’s journey,

Remember how amazing you all are,

For each and every one of you,

Shines like the brightest star.

Careers Convention

Years 4 and 6 had a fantastic time at our annual careers convention. We were visited by twelve different professionals from our local community including: solicitors, vets, photographers, caterers, police, construction and many more. The children were lucky enough to use all the equipment the professionals brought in for them. All of the children were thoroughly engaged, asked interesting questions and were exceptionally polite. We are very grateful to everyone who gave up their time to show our children just how bright their futures can be. 

World Book Day 2020

   It was another great World Book Day again this year with the children looking absolutely amazing in their favourite

  book character costumes. Congratulations to all the class winners we hope you enjoy your new books! A big thank     you to the Year 6 Reading Ambassadors who started they day off with assembly and spent the afternoon sharing      stories with all the children in Foundation and Key Stage 1 children.

Festivals of colour-Diversity week

What an exciting start it has been to our new academic year! We having been celebrating diversity this week, we thought about how we are all special, what makes us different and all the groups of people that live in the UK and the wider world. 

We were very lucky to have some fantastic faith leaders visit us this week in school. We had visitors to talk to us about Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. It was wonderful to hear their personal experiences of how they practice their religion in the UK; we were very respectful towards their different beliefs and we now know it is a great thing to be able to choose what we believe and know how to appreciate others' views.

David, our school council member and year 6 blogger, shares his and other children views on the experiences;

I asked one child from each class what was the religion was that they were learning about and what was their favourite activity. This is what i have recorded;

Year 6 Buddhism: A Buddhist came and told us all about  meditation and the different Buddhist beliefs, it was very interesting 

Year 5/6 and Year 5: Judaism.  Year 5 and 5/6 learned all about Judaism. i asked one off the pupils in year 5 if they could tell me all about what they have learned. I was told that there are 613 rules in a torah (a bible for Judaism)  also they frequently eat pomegranate

Year 4 and year 3/4 Islam. We now know that you pray 5 times a day and during fasting you are not allowed to eat before sunrise and sunset 

Facing the future-transition week

The end of the year for our children brings a big change; they are leaving their current class and moving to a brand new class.  During transition week, we meet our new teachers, decide on our class rules and set goals for the new year. We also think about other changes we are going to face in our lives as we grow older, such as the different relationships we are going to have, how our bodies will change and how we can deal with our worries and problems we will face.

Business and enterprise craft fair

Wow what a fantastic day it was! Each class worked hard to design and make their own product to sell at the craft fair. All the products were of great quality, so much so, nearly every stall was a sell out!

Year 3 made handmade board games from recycled materials.

Year 3/4 made ready mix brownie jars and Unicorn cake jars.

Year 4/5M made solar seed bombs

Year 4/5S made scented candles

Year 6 made cress and grass heads in decorated tins.

All classes made a profit and we have discovered that we most certainly have some Lord Sugars in the making!!

Business and Young Enterprise week 2019

This week in school we have been learning about how to make, save and look after money. KS1 have focussed on the importance of saving. They have been challenged to save as much as they can. At the end of the term, all the money will be collected in and the class will be able to buy themselves something they want. KS2 have been set a young enterprise challenge. Each class has been given a budget of £50 and have to design and plan a product to be sold at our annual Spring fair. The class that makes the most profit overall will get to keep all the profit made by KS2 and use the money for whatever they wish. Keep a look out for the announcement of the winner. 

3/4T and 3H were lucky enough to have Theresa from the Bacup Credit Union come into school to discuss how they could save for themselves, they discussed interest, debt and why saving is important for their future. Hopefully, we will have more children join the saving scheme following this.

Another focus of this week has been for our children to consider what career they would like to do when they are older. We held our annual careers convention and were lucky enough to have local business, such as photographers and the fire service, visit us and share their experiences of their job.

Anti-Bullying week 2018

This year we wore odd-socks to raise awareness for anti-bullying. We had some special visitors in school to enrich our learning experience. Tim from 'every action has consequences' came in and spoke to year 5/6 about the importance of thinking before you act and taking responsibility for our actions. Reception, year 1, 2, 3 and 4 were lucky enough to watch an anti-bullying show that taught us what bullying is and how to help ourselves and others who are being bullied.

If you wish to learn more about Tim and his brother Adam's story click on the following link.

http://www.eahconsequences.com/

This year the  children at Thorn took part in a mock election to elect their new school council members. Cllr Barbara Ashworth labour councillor came into school to talk to the children about the importance of voting and having their say. In KS2, each candidate had to write a manifesto and present a speech about why they should be chosen. The hall was set up as a polling station and one by one the children voted for who they wanted to sit on the school's council. In KS1, they designed a class mascot. The winning designs will be made into puppets for the class teachers to use in their PSHE lessons. It was a fantastic and enjoyable way for the children to experience democracy and hopefully will inspire them to vote when they become older.

Autumn Flower Festival 2018

It's autumn time once again and Thorn celebrated in style with a scarecrow festival. Parents, children and teachers showed their creativity with some fantastic scarecrows. The raised beds were weeded and new seeds were planted. We are looking forward to springtime when we can harvest some new crops. Children and parents enjoyed apple bobbing and roasting marshmallows in the forest school area. It was a delight to see so many families with big smiles on their faces supporting their children and the school. We look forward to seeing you at our summer festival next year!

STEM WEEK!

Well what an exciting week it's been here at Thorn! The children have been busy from start to finish with array of challenging and hands on activities including an active maths relay on the forest school area, a super maths workshop to get their brains goings and yet another amazing Lego STEM engineering workshop! On Friday children did a great job coming to school in a colour of their choice so that each class could complete their data collection challenges as part of 'Colour Day'. Over the week, each class learnt about a different famous name in the STEM industry, some being Bill Gates, Charles Darwin, Tim Peak and David Attenborough! The children did a great job showcasing what they had learnt in the STEM celebration assembly. The children were buzzing through the school all week with positive comments all around. We saw some budding engineers in the making and it was lovely to see children realize the potential careers available for their futures!

Green Hero Awards

Thorn Primary have been awarded the 'Sharing Schools' award for all the activities completed in the forest school grounds by children and their families. Eight children who have excelled in forest schools were selected to visit the Lancashire Science Festival at UCLAN to attend the awards ceremony and take part in various workshops. A great day was had by all and the children were a credit to our school.

Summer Flower Festival 2018

Children, parents and staff had a wonderful time at our annual flower festival. The sun shone and smiles were worn by all! Lots of tasty treats were on offer including delicious sausage sandwiches on the BBQ, cooling ice cream and refreshing drinks. There were lots of activities to enjoy including crazy golf, tennis, basketball and trails and challenges in the forest school area which were led by Year 6 who parents commented were 'informative, kind and helpful'. The raised beds are looking beautiful and have been updated with a 'Once Upon a Time' theme. Children enjoyed showing their parents around the gardens and were proud of their achievements. It was lovely to see our families enjoying the sunshine and having fun together and parents said they enjoyed 'getting a peek in the window of their children's school life'. Thank you to all who joined us and a huge thanks to all in the school and wider community who supported the event, including The Friends of Thorn.  We hope to see you again in Autumn for our next event. 

   World Book Day 2018

    Although World Book Day was postponed due to the Beast from the East it finally took place a week later. The children didn't 

    disappoint and all looked fabulous. They spent the day working on book related activities and had lots of fun. 

    Congratulations to all our winners.

Autumn Festival 2017

To celebrate achieving an RHS Level 3 gardening award, we held an Autumn Festival. The children put their 'green-fingers' to the test and worked exceptionally hard to weed, cut back and re-plant their classes raised bed in a spooky halloween theme. Once again, our families showed off their creativity in our pumpkin carving competition. I'm sure you'll agree we had some great entries and it was difficult to pick a winner from each class. Luckily the weather stayed fine and our families had a great time playing crazy golf and completing a spooky trivia quiz in the forest school area. Apple bobbing was a huge success along with our refreshment stall with lots of tasty autumnal treats made by the children such as pumpkin soup (EYFS), pumpkin cake (2W), parkin (1/2K) and chocolate apples (Yr6). Year 6 did a fantastic job running all the events and were a credit to the school. We are now working towards a Level 4 award and hope you join us next term for our spring festivities. Thank you for your support in making these events a great success.

Children, parents and staff had a fabulous afternoon at our flower festival. Luckily, the rain stayed away allowing everyone to follow a trail of  beautiful, and very creative, 'gardens in a box'! From wellington boot gardens to caterpillar gardens, our families produced some magnificent designs. The trail led to the wonderfully colourful and exciting class planters in the KS2 yard and in EYFS. Each class picked a theme from their year's learning and designed and made their garden:

Rec: Under the sea

Year 1/2C: Brazil

Year 1/2K: Minibeasts

Year 2: Wind in the Willows

Year 3: The Tin Forest

Year 3/4 & Year 4/5: Romans

Year 5: Bees

Year 6: World War

After admiring the gardens, parents and children enjoyed a game of crazy golf and orienteering before having a well-earned rest with a cup of tea and cake.

Science Week at Thorn 2017!

The children and staff had a fantastic time during Science week. All children visited Thorn's very own science lab where they took part in a series of 'wow' experiments with plenty of pop, fizz and bang! We all got very messy but luckily we were wearing our lab coats just like real scientists. The children used their predicting, observation, comparing, modelling and evaluation skills in the lab. Fantastic scientific vocabulary could be heard from children of all ages. 

Our science dress-up day was a huge success. The children, with help from parents, showed their creativity with fantastic costumes. We had astronauts, explorers, botanists, robots, surgeons, nurses, vets and many more. This really helped the children to see the impact of science all around them.

The week was topped off with a visit from Nick Hawken from Junior STEM www.juniorstem.co.uk. The children took part in thoroughly engaging and exciting Lego robotics workshops. Shouts of 'Wow!' and cheers of success could be heard as children successfully programmed their very own models. The importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in shaping our futures cannot be stressed enough. This workshop gave children an insight into jobs of the future and the children were inspired. Here are just a few of the children's comments:

"This is like actual engineering!"

"This is so cool!"

"I've got it! I can do it by myself!"

"I can;t believe I actually made it move!"

"I'm putting this on my Christmas list!"

   World Book Day was a great success again this year with pupils and staff dressing up as their favourite book

   characters. All the children looked great in their costumes and so did some of the staff! Winners chosen

   from each class received a prize, see them below and lots of other photographs from the day.

Fun in the Snow!

The snow may have nearly gone but we have lots of memories of the fun we had!

We thoroughly enjoyed building snowmen, dens, igloos, snow sculptures and even snow trolls!

Each class designed their own den or igloo. Miss Riding and her class had an ambitious design for their igloo which was large enough to hold the whole class!

Miss Tierney's class did really well and nearly managed to complete their roof. It's all been very exciting!

As you can see from the photos... We worked really hard and the results were fantastic!

See if you can work out which teacher is making a Snow Angel!