Head of Steam

Posted November 6th, 2018

​Year 3 took a trip to the Head of Steam in Darlington. Whilst there, we investigated jobs and people from Darlington and their roles during WW1. We looked at secondary sources to discover evidence and build profiles about individual people. We also tried on replica hats and arm bands which would have been worn during that time.
We also had fun looking around the museum for clues about WW1 and the railway. We saw shells made on North Road, clothing worn by individuals, Christmas cards sent during the war and 2236 poppies stitched to commemorate those who worked for the North Eastern Railway Company and gave their lives in the war. We had an excellent time and learnt lots of interesting facts!

Autumn Walk

Posted October 25th, 2018

​On Thursday 25th October, Foundation Stage went on their first school trip. They walked to the Denes Park and enjoyed spotting signs of autumn. The children found many different signs of autumn including: leaves, conkers, acorns and squirrels!
In the park, there were clues attached to the trees. The children helped to read the clues and followed them. At the end of the clues, they found a bear! We had fantastic fun bear hunting! The children enjoyed a play in the park before returning to school. Once back at school, the children explored the items they had collected and voted to name the bear! 

Tag Rugby

Posted October 25th, 2018

​The year 3 and 4 tag rugby team travelled to Mowden Park on Thursday 25th October to compete in a tag rugby festival. The day involved friendly matches against schools such as Rydal Academy, Harrowgate Hill and Mowden as well as skill based sessions. The children thoroughly enjoyed the day. Their behaviour was excellent and they demonstrated a positive attitude throughout the whole event.
Lily, who has been to this event for the last two years, said: “I really enjoyed the event this year because we got to play matches and scored some tries. I’m looking forward to trying to get in the girls tag rugby team for next year.”

Harvest Festival

Posted October 24th, 2018

Harvest Festival
The harvest festival theme this year was land/water use in the UK linked to the food it produces. Mrs Rankin decided to base the harvest on different types of farming too. Each year group had a different topic.

Year 4: Arable farming – crops of wheat etc.
Year 1: Meadows – dairy herds.
Year 6: Pastoral farming for meat.
Year 2: Mountains – sheep for wool.
Reception:  Our seas – fish.
Year 3: Our rivers – salmon, trout etc.
Year 5: Marshland – lamb
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We all learned many interesting facts .The Gardening Club have also harvested their produce, which was grown at the plot donated to the school by Pierremont Methodist Church. As usual, we have collected food for King’s Church food bank which was greatly received.

Tag Rugby

Posted October 24th, 2018

​The year 3 and 4 tag rugby team travelled to Mowden Park on Thursday 25th October to compete in a tag rugby festival. The day involved friendly matches against schools such as Rydal Academy, Harrowgate Hill and Mowden as well as skill based sessions. The children thoroughly enjoyed the day. Their behaviour was excellent and they demonstrated a positive attitude throughout the whole event.
Lily, who has been to this event for the last two years, said: “I really enjoyed the event this year because we got to play matches and scored some tries. I’m looking forward to trying to get in the girls tag rugby team for next year.”

Stay and Play

Posted October 22nd, 2018

​This week, Year 1 have had their very first ‘Stay and play’.  The children had designed their own version of a fairy tale house from the Jolly Postman story and today they got to work with somebody from their family to make it.  Very excited children worked alongside family members in an afternoon to treasure.

PIE Challenge Reward

Posted October 18th, 2018

​We, the P.I.E challenge team, went to ROF 59 to celebrate our victory on Thursday 18th October. It was brilliant!
 Last term, we were crowned the most enterprising school in the North East so as a reward for our hard work Mrs Davison booked ROF 59. We all had lots of fun on the trampolines. We enjoyed playing dodge ball altogether – thankfully the score was even. Even the teachers joined in with us. The rope swing was a fun activity that most of us loved too. After all the bouncing and playing for an hour, we had an option of pizza or hotdogs for our tea. As well, we got to have some popcorn and chips. We  all thought it was delicious!
This was a great opportunity to celebrate our victory and we are looking forward to spending and investing more of our money.
By Melissa McWhinnie and Abi Bright Y6

Dwaine’s Dash

Posted October 18th, 2018

Today, KS1 and KS2 watched the play Dwaine’s Dash – Love Your Drain. We learnt that only toilet paper, pee and poo goes down the loo! We sang a song and all learnt the actions. We also found out that wet wipes, cotton buds, nappies and other unflushables can cause great damage to the environment. The amount of unflushables sent down toilets each year is as high as Mount Everest. Dwaine Pipe also showed us things that shouldn’t go down our sink and pipes. These included oil, grease and fat as these make a fat berg. Sometimes, these fat bergs can be as high as a double decker bus. For more information and games you can check out Northumbria Water’s website www.loveyourdrain.co.uk
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Teddy Bear Picnic

Posted October 17th, 2018

​Our first topic in Reception has been “All about me!” During this topic, the children have spoken about their family, learned body parts and how to keep our bodies and minds healthy. Some of the children’s favourite stories throughout this topic have been: Funnybones, Oliver’s Vegetables, The Large Family and We are Going on a Bear Hunt! As a finale for our topic, the children sorted healthy food and food we should only have as a treat. They then decided which healthy filling they would like to put in a sandwich. They then used tools carefully to spread and cut to make their sandwich. What great fun they had sharing them with their favourite Teddy during our Teddy Bear Picnic. 

Mapping

Posted October 17th, 2018

In Year One, as part of our ‘Fairy Tale Town’ topic, we have been looking at maps and our local area. We began by looking at our classroom and creating a simple map. After this, we used ‘Google Maps’ to look at Darlington and the key features of our town. We took a journey around our local area and managed to find our school. We looked at some of the landmarks then tried to recreate them using different building materials. ​Finally, we learnt about bird’s-eye views and tried really hard to draw maps from that point of view. We also included a key to show different landmarks.