Today, Year 5 have been working with Gary and Naomi from the DLI. They produced art work, composed and sang their own songs and rounded the day off with a special performance alongside children from St.John’s. This workshop follows on from our focus on Remembrance at Christmas. The children were very enthusiastic, thoughtful and inspired by the stories they have encountered around life in wartime. Have a look at a few of our pictures to see what they got up to.

Anna Short from Year 6 has put her great artistic talents to good use, to be a winner in a County wide art competition. The competition asked children from Durham County Schools to design a poster, warning about the dangers of parking illegally outside schools. She did a great job, and her poster has been professionally made into a sign that is proudly displayed on our railings. 

Our school was asked to begin the Bishop Auckland Advent Windows project this year, with a window designed around the theme of The Annunciation. Year 2 did a brilliant job of creating Angel Gabriel and Our Lady for The Tower window in The Market Place. On Saturday, children from Y1 and 2 showed what a talented bunch they are, with their joyous singing and acting at the unveiling by Mrs Jane Ruffer. Thank you so much to the staff, children and their families who turned out on such a miserable day (weather wise) to make this occasion such a success!

Our children really enjoyed packing shoeboxes for less fortunate children around the world. Thank you so much for your generosity. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of lovely items sent in. We sent 40 shoeboxes off to make a child smile somewhere.

Pudsey Bear paid us a visit today, and he was really happy to see how brilliant we all looked in our spots! We raised a fantastic £157, and have all had fun taking part in Pudsey activities throughout the day. Thank you!

This week, fire officers from Bishop Auckland Fire Station came to talk to all of the children about staying safe over the bonfire season. They showed us how to STOP, DROP and ROLL in the case of a fire accident, we got great advice for using sparklers safely, and lots of important messages to ensure we all enjoy a happy bonfire night. Ask your child about what they learnt – they are experts now!

Yesterday, Cheryl from the NSPCC came into school to talk to our children about the important message – ‘Speak out, Stay safe!’ She used the idea of a bag of worries to explain how telling a trusted adult can help with any thing that they are concerned about. She will be returning next week to work with our Y5 and 6 children, as part of our whole school safety week . Each class will be raising funds fore the NSPCC next week too. Our School Council have worked with their class to choose an NSPCC Buddy’s Workout to undertake on Thursday. We are asking for a donation of one pound per family and hope to raise  £150, which would pay for 30 calls from vulnerable children to be answered by childline.

The NSPCC are also delivering a free parent workshop with O2, on Friday 21st September in school, 2-3pm. Come along, and then get a Friday Flyer by taking your child as soon as the workshop ends.

Welcome to the new school year! We hope everyone has had a wonderful summer. School reopens on Monday 3rd September at 8:45am. Breakfast club will be available from 7:45am on Monday and all after school clubs will begin the following week, beginning 10th September.

Well done to our Y5/6 football team. After a slightly rocky start to the season we soon gained confidence and were on form winning games and scoring goals. As always the team were always courteous and played as good sports people. At the end of the season we have finished 5th in the league, which is a great achievement and every member of the team should be very proud of themselves.

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came to support us!

What a lovely day we had at Sports Day last week in the sunshine. Well done to all of the children who took part, and huge congratulations to The Green Team, our 2018 champions!