What a busy end to a very busy term!

Church Carol Concert

Thank you so much to everyone who supported the children at the church for their Christmas concert. It was fantastic to see so many people there enjoying the readings and lovely singing of our children.

Wriggly Nativity

Well done to all our Reception children (and staff!) for putting on a super show for us last week. The children were very brave standing and singing in front of all the adults who came to see them.

Performing Arts

Congratulations to all who took part in the performing arts club pantomime ‘Hoodwinked.’ It was an excellent performance and was enjoyed by everyone who came to see it. Well done!

Home Grown Food Galore!

Mrs Lewis and Mrs Wilson have worked extremely hard in the garden with groups of children this term. The following fruit and veg has been grown and eaten/sold in school: cauliflowers, leeks, onions, potatoes, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, tomatoes and cabbages. The list is endless!!

Gala Theatre

All children in Y1-6 went to the Gala theatre to see the pantomime, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’ The behaviour of the children was excellent and this was commented on by the Gala staff, which makes us extremely proud. Everyone had a lovely time and joined in with the fun!

Christmas Jumper Day

Thanks to all of you who brought in £1 to help raise money for ‘Save the Children’. There were some super, sparkly jumpers from both the staff and children so thank you for your generosity.

Poppy Appeal

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Poppy Appeal by buying poppies, bracelets, slap bands etc. We raised over £100 for a very worthy cause.

Clubs

This term we have had the following clubs available for children to participate in: Y5/6 basketball, y3/4 football, Change 4 Life, Cross Country, Y5/6 Football, Recorders and Performing Arts.

Congratulations to the children who have taken part in 1 or more of these clubs this term.

It is so good to see everyone looking smart in their school uniforms and raring to go for the new school year.

Our newly painted school has brightened up the building as well as changes to our main office.

Our first events we will be holding are the Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 30^th September and our Family Big Breakfast on Friday 14^th October where we hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Very well done to our Y6 children and all the staff! Overall we achieved 93% in reading, 97% in SPAG, 100% in maths and 93% in writing.

Fantastic results!

Your children will hopefully have been coming home telling you all about the last couple of days in school where we had a company called Rock-It organising various outdoor activities for the children.They have all had the opportunity to Rock Climb, slide down the Titanic, Archery, Crazy Golf and Den Building. Nursery children have had access to a Fun-House Bouncy Castle. A great end to a busy term!

After nearly 20 years, Mrs Purdom is leaving us at the end of this term. I would like to say a huge thank you to her for the endless commitment, time and energy she has given to the children, and the tremendous support she has given to the staff. I wish her all the very best for the future.

Snakes, pygmy hedgehogs, rabbits, terantulas, bearded dragons, mice, and a Bard owl! All of these were in school for the children to see and touch! This was followed by Houghall Collage bringing their birds of prey for everyone to enjoy.

Miss Butler & the Y6 children out of Cuthbert class tackled the ‘Fiver Challenge.’ They did this very successfully raising over £100 which they spent on the children so they could have a ‘movie afternoon.’

Congratulations go to 27 of our children who have had 100% attendance this year. They all enjoyed a trip to the cinema to see ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ and then had their lunch at McDonalds.

Congratulations also go to children in Y3-6 who are in the performing arts club. They put on a fantastic performance of ‘The Rocky Monster Show.’ Thank you to all parents who came to support and spectate.

Thank you to all parents/carers who came to our Family Bingo last week. The hall was packed full and everyone had a great time. Thanks also to Alfie who was our bingo caller along with a group of Y6 who helped out too! We raised £120 for school funds.

The Y6 children who went to Robinwood all had a fantastic time trying out new activities, learning new skills and facing difficult challenges. Their behaviour and determination were excellent!

Our Y6 children attended the Leavers Service at Durham Cathedral along with 100s of other Y6 children from across the County. We proudly marched our school banner down the aisle and enjoyed the varied activities organised there. The children were a credit to us all.

I would like to wish all our Year 6 children every success for the future. They have been a fantastic group of children who have worked hard and have shown a positive attitude all year.

Well done and good luck!

It was lovely to see so many families have lunch together at our Nursery ‘café’ and Mother’s Day lunch on Friday 4^th March. It was very well supported and thanks go to Linzi and staff in the kitchen for all their hard work on that day.

A local artist from The Forge has been working with children in Penshaw class to create a mosaic about being safe online. The children designed it together first before creating it. The mosaic will be displayed in the ICT room once it is completed.

A huge well done to all children, and thank you to the many parents/carers, that took part in egg decorating. There were so many brilliant ideas and it was very well supported, it was difficult to decide upon the winners!

This year we held a special assembly about World Book Day and children did different activities in their classes. Each child also received a book token to put towards or spend on a book of their choice.

Well done to Thomas Tsang, Chloe Johnston, Archie Jamieson, Sanisha Mathew, Dylan Long and Amelyn Wood who were asked to take part in a ‘Robotics Day’ at The Hermitage. They were extremely successful with their programming as we came both 1^st and 2^nd places in the ‘competition.

We have 9 extra-curricular clubs taking place in school at the moment, ranging from different sports to recorders to performing arts. It is fantastic to see so many children taking part.

At last the nights are becoming longer and the mornings lighter!

Thank you to all parents/ carers who came with their children to have a family breakfast this term. We had an excellent turn out, and this is due to the fact that you have given your support. The children thoroughly enjoyed it too!

Our school council met with a lady from County Hall to discuss how we can be more environmentally friendly in and around school. They participated in an assembly about saving energy and what they can do to help. Our new benches on the school yard were suggested by the school council, who were giving ideas from their classes, about what the children wanted on the playground.

As part of Safer Internet Week, Claire Patterson, our local community police officer came in to school, and led an assembly to remind children to keep safe when surfing the internet or playing online games.

Children in years 5 and 6 have been training for the cross country races which begin on Saturday March 5^th. Mr Hood is impressed by the speed and determination of the team, and we are looking forward to seeing their successes when the league begins

Well done to those children who have been coming to school for 8am on Tuesdays to take part in the ‘Fisch fitness club’. All who are participating are increasing their fitness levels, and ready to start the day full of energy!

Thursday March 3^rd is World Book Day. In addition to an assembly, each class will be doing different activities related to authors and books. The children will also receive a book token that they can buy a book of their choice with.

These last few weeks have been full of Christmas activities and fundraising.

Our Christmas festivities began at the beginning of November, with M&M theatre productions coming into school to perform Peter Pan to the children. The children and staff joined in, and thoroughly enjoyed the show.

This was followed by our own performances from all our children. Well done to all our Nursery and Reception children (and staff!) for putting on a super show, ‘Wriggly Nativity.’ The children were very brave standing and singing in front of all the adults who came to see them.

Children in Years 1 to 6 read and sang beautifully at our Christmas concert in church. It was fantastic to see so many people supporting this lovely event.

Congratulations to all who took part in the performing arts club pantomime ‘Aladdin Trouble.’ It was an excellent performance and was enjoyed by everyone who came to see it. Well done!

All children in Y1-6 went to the Gala theatre to see the pantomime, ‘Cinderella.’ The behaviour of the children was excellent and this was commented on by the Gala staff, which makes us extremely proud.

Bullying is something that we, as a school try to do something about. Thank you to so many of you for the fabulous work that you did at home for our anti-bullying display. I know that many of you saw it on Target Setting day in the hall. The boards are still up in the corridor for visitors to see.

Thank you to everyone who came dressed as a hero or as a Superhero for Children In Need. We raised £227.31 for a very worthy cause.

Thanks also to all of you who brought in £1 on Christmas Jumper Day to help raise money for ‘Save the Children’. There were some super, sparkly jumpers from both the staff and children so thank you for your generosity.

For the Cross Country season this year, our aim is to see more children competing in the Chester-Le-Street Cross Country League with the first fixture being held at Bullion Lane on Saturday 16^th January. In 2014 we had 9 children competing, in 2015 18 children competed. In 2016 we would like to be the largest competing school with over 20 children racing.

This half term Y5/6 children had the opportunity to take part in cross country club. A group of 4 gifted and talented children from Y4 were also invited to attend. There has been a welcome increase attending this year with 34 runners taking part.

Happy New Year to you all!

Thank you so much to everyone who made cakes for, and attended our coffee morning. We raised £323.88 for Macmillan which is a very worthy cause.

Our Big Breakfast was very well attended on Friday with many families coming to share a healthy breakfast with their children.

The football team has been playing well so far this term. We have had a rugby coach and multi skills clubs taking place. The performing arts club is going well with rehearsals for ‘Aladdin Trouble’ underway. We also have a recorders club and a pre-youth group that meet weekly to take part in a variety of activities such as cooking, sign language, arts and crafts.

Our Halloween discos were thoroughly enjoyed by all children who came. There were some fantastic costumes, party games and some great dancing.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable half term break before we begin the Christmas season with a pantomime the first week back!

It is so lovely to see everyone looking refreshed and smart in their school uniforms after the summer break. I would like to welcome Miss Mitchell, our new year 3 teacher and Mrs Perry, teaching assistant to Bullion Lane and hope they enjoy being part of our team.

The Nursery and Reception children are settling in well and are enjoying the bright, spacious, interactive environment that we offer.

The performing arts club was attended well on Monday where we have started to prepare for our pantomime of ‘Aladdin Trouble’ which we will be performing at the end of the autumn term. Football, rugby and youth clubs are also underway.

The building work in school is almost complete and the heating system throughout will certainly improve the environment during the winter!

Our first main event of the term will be the coffee morning on Friday 25^th September where we hope to raise money for Macmillan. I look forward to seeing everybody then

I’d like to say a special thank-you to Mr Seeley who returned to help with the Seeley 5-a-side competition. The trophy was won by The Black Knights – Jayden, Kian, Gabe, Shannon and Molly. Mr Seeley refereed some of the games and presented the trophy and medals. The afternoon was enjoyed by all.

We will be proudly displaying our new school banner at the Leaver’s Service in Durham Cathedral this week.

Our fundraising activities are going well. Children especially liked buying the friendship bracelets. We are looking forward to hosting a coffee morning for families and friends on Friday morning from 9.00am until 10.30am. There will also be a tombola. Please come along for a coffee and a chat.