On Wednesday 9th December, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 went on visits to Burnhill nature reserve. It was a very blustery day to be walking down to the cabin but everyone persevered against the wind and arrived to find a surprise visitor – Santa! Santa read a story to the children and then they drew a picture of him. They decorated gingerbread men and ate them with some tasty hot chocolate. Thank you to Mr Bell and Santa for giving the children such a memorable morning/afternoon visit.

On Monday 7th December the school councillors held a very important meeting with the ‘eXtreme Group’. This group involves young people with special needs giving advice on how schools can work with them to fulfil their ambitions. Our school councillors showed the young people around our school and they gave us suggestions on how accessibility in our school could be improved. Many thanks to the young people involved in the eXtreme Group for attending the meeting and also to ‘The Pantry’ in Tow Law for donating the buffet.

In the run up to Christmas, different groups across the whole school have been involved in this project organised by ‘Europe Direct’. The school council group have coordinated the project within school. KS1 children created the decorations during art lessons and KS2 children created an information booklet about English Christmas customs during IT lessons. Throughout December, parcels have been arriving in school and the children have loved opening them to find out about Christmas traditions across Europe. Thank you to all the schools across Europe who have sent us beautiful decorations which have been put together on our ‘European’ Christmas tree in the entrance hall.

On Wednesday 25th November, the pantomime of ‘Robin Hood’ was performed brilliantly in school. The children from Nursery up to Year 6 went into the hall to watch it and absolutely everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!

On Friday 27th November, the whole school went to St Phillip and St James Church for our Christingle service. The children said their words in the service very clearly and everyone sang beautifully. The highlight of the service was the lighting of the christingles and the children holding them while singing ‘Hope of Heaven’. Thank you to the adults who volunteered to make the christingles before the service and also to the parents who attended the service.

On 12th and 13th November, every class in school learnt about the Hindu festival Diwali. They learnt the story of Rama and Sita, cooked traditional Diwali food and made Diwali crafts such as Diva lamps and rangoli patterns.

Last academic year 2014-2015, Class 4 won the accelerated reader competition. The children from Class 4 are now in the current years 2 and 3. These children received their reward on Wednesday 4th November 2015. They went on a trip to Seven Stories in Newcastle where they learnt about Nursery rhymes from around the world. They learnt songs, games and looked around the exhibition. After lunch, they really enjoyed their winners treat of a quick stop at the park! Well done to all of Class 4 (current years 2 and 3) for winning the accelerated reader competition last year!

On Friday 18th September, Clair from Tesco (Genesis Walk, Consett) came into school to paint some poppies with the children from Class 4. This was part of Tesco’s community work and the children thoroughly enjoyed it. Our poppies, along with other schools, will be made into a piece of artwork. This will be installed outside Tesco at Consett and some children from our school will be going to view them.

On Friday 2nd October we held our Harvest Festival service at St Phillip and St John’s Church. The children had learnt songs linked to harvest within their classes and also as a full school. The children sang beautifully in the church and said their words really clearly.

The whole school learnt about the Jewish New Year festival: Rosh Hashanah. Children from reception to year 6 explored the symbolism, cultures and traditions of the festival. At the end of the two day exploration of this religious festival, all classes in school presented their work in family assembly on Friday afternoon. Have a look at the pictures below to see some of the work that the children completed!