Below are this week’s winners of the Head Teacher Award and the Opal Awards.

This week, Year 1 have been taking part in exciting drama lessons inspired by our class text, The Three Billy Goats Gruff . We had lots of fun stepping into character — some of us became the billy goats, while others took on the role of the grumpy troll! Everyone worked really hard to bring the story to life, using actions, voices, and expressions to show how the characters might feel. We finished by performing our short scenes in front of our classmates and loved watching everyone’s fantastic performances.

Today, Year 3 explored the idea of whether a picture can move. They learned how simple animation works by changing a drawing little by little. Then, they created their own flipbook (flick book) animations using sticky notes to make their pictures appear to move. They had great fun and can’t wait to start creating animations on the iPads next!

Year 5 would like to thank parents and carers for coming to their English caf é . Mrs Laverick welcomed parents in the hall and discussed English in Year 5. She then took them to the classroom, where she taught the children four new words that they had picked from Daedalus and Icarus. These words were: ferociously, obnoxious, distraught and perilously. Children then wrote an antonym, a synonym, drew a picture and wrote a sentence for these words.  We loved having you all in and would like to thank you for all your support.

Our Year 4 class had their very first visit to Forest School this week, and it was an exciting adventure from start to finish. The children loved getting outside and exploring nature, using their senses to discover the world around them. They were especially amazed by the huge variety of trees they found. The class worked together, shared their discoveries, and showed great curiosity and enthusiasm throughout the session. It was a wonderful start to their Forest School journey, and they can’t wait to return and learn even more about the natural world!

We are pleased to have some new volunteers in Year 6 for the role of RE Ambassadors.  This group will do an important job every week, supporting Mrs Yeoman in preparing and leading our whole-school Celebration of the Word. Tasks include greeting our classes, reading and setting up the prayer space, as well as helping with IT.  We are very proud of our RE Ambassadors for giving up their break time on a Monday to help with this special job.  This week, we are celebrating the feast of All Saints, so we worked together to find suitable books, posters and statues to add to our prayer space linked to this important time in our Church calendar.

At the end of last half term. Mrs Yeoman attended the Conaty Awards at the Lighthouse Project, where she enjoyed seeing the hard work and talents of so many people being recognised and celebrated, in memory of our late Parish Priest, Father Michael Conaty . It was particularly pleasing to see one of our Year 6 pupils, Rosalie, doing brilliantly in her dance performance.  We look forward to taking part in these wonderful celebrations again in the future.

Well done to our winners this week!

We had a brilliant end to the half term with our Purple Treat celebration. Everyone came in their cosiest pyjamas, and we made our own popcorn right in the classroom! There were sweets, drinks, and lots of smiles all round. It was a lovely way to celebrate all the hard work this half  term—well done, Year 2!

Years 5 and 6 have had an exciting week. They began the week by toasting marshmallows, which was a great way to bring our Forest School sessions to an end. We have all thoroughly enjoyed our outdoor learning this half term.  This was followed by a wonderful visit to Beamish on Wednesday, where we were able to enjoy some interactive learning in history. We particularly enjoyed our workshop, where we interviewed characters to help us decide whether women and children should have been allowed to work in coal mines. Visiting the Victorian school was also exciting for us, as we were able to compare this to our own school experiences. We all decided that we are lucky to live in modern times as we would not have liked some of the strict rules and punishments from those times. We rounded off the day with a purchase of some handmade sweets - what a treat! The fun didn't end there, as we enjoyed our purple treat time in our classes yesterday, as a reward for showing positive behaviour this half term.  Both classes enjoyed films and tasty treats.  What a great week it has been!

Year 3 had a fantastic afternoon for our Purple Treat! We decided to celebrate with a pyjama party and a movie. After lunch, we put on our pyjamas, ready for an afternoon of fun. We started off by playing the ukuleles and dancing to some of the familiar tunes Mr. Rudkin played on his trumpet! Afterwards, we settled down to watch a movie while enjoying popcorn and sweets. It was such a brilliant afternoon, and we can’t wait for the next Purple Treat!

The children in Nursery have had a Halloween themed week. They investigated the textures, colours, and smells of real pumpkins, scooping out seeds, comparing sizes, and even helping with gentle carving. The children have been practicing their mark making on the spooky wall and used crayons to draw pumpkins. They have enjoyed making skeletons using art straws. In our construction area, children used blocks and loose parts to build spooky houses and castles. Using seeds and creepy creatures, cauldrons, and spooky-themed containers, children practiced scooping, pouring, and measuring. With baking soda, vinegar, and a dash of magic, children created bubbling cauldrons and predicted what might happen next. They finished it off with a ‘ghost hunt’ and tongue painting bats!