In The News

On Monday the 25th June, 7 children from Reid Street Primary School took part in a big event called Armed Forces Day because their parents had links to the army or the forces.
First we got ready and walked to the town centre so we could watch all the breath-taking events of Armed Forces Day. We got into pairs – Keira was the photographer and took lots of brilliant pictures. When we arrived at the Market Square we sat in the shade with the other schools because it was so hot!
Suddenly, five men marched smartly towards the middle of the Market Square and raised some colourful flags in the air. Zooming past our heads, a green jet rapidly flew past; Keira managed to get a photo of the plane. “Hello everybody,” announced the Mayor, she gave a two minute speech, we all listened carefully, then the Mayor inspected the parade as the soldiers saluted and shouted.
“WE WILL REMEMBER THEM,” we all exclaimed after the Chairman gave a few words. The bugler played the Last Post and we had a minute of silence. Everyone was silent. The flag rose, everyone cheered and we waved our flags.
Major Coatsworth, dressed in a spruce suit, told us an interesting story about a courageous soldier from Darlington, George Bradford, which we all enjoyed. Reverend Mathew Firth prayed for George and the soldiers who died.
A red blanket was covering a part of the Market Square. The Mayor slowly pulled it back to reveal a commemorative stone to celebrate George Bradford. Red poppies were placed around the stone to show respect. Then the Town Crier (who we thought looked like a pirate) requested three cheers. We all waved our flags and shouted, “HIP, HIP, HOORAY!” We all looked around the stalls and had a turn of sitting inside a police car; also we went in an army vehicle too.
Then we headed into St Cuthbert’s church hall to get a drink of juice and some delicious biscuits. We walked back to school in the boiling hot weather and we told everyone about Armed Forces Day.

​Well, what a fantastic day we had for our KS2 Sports Day. The weather could not have been better. The children had slightly longer than usual on the field and managed to complete most of the activities. It was great to see the children laughing, enjoying themselves and being so supportive of each other. Thank you very much to all of the parents, friends and family members who came to support us.

​Mrs Brown’s art club had an exciting opportunity to create some art work for a local community garden (Business Central).
We designed and decorated some compact discs in art club and the following week we took a trip to the garden to meet up with Mr and Mrs Hinde. They hung the children’s artwork from the trees and then the children enjoyed planting out vegetables and herbs.  

​The children have participated in a range of fun and exciting activities, throughout the week. Each class was given a country to focus on. First, they used their geography skills to locate their country on maps and globes and then looked at the geographical features. Next, they had to think about the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development (a government initiative to help make the world a better place) and study the positives of each country and what could be developed further.

This year, pupils have been involved in a completely different charity event.   Back in February, Steve Graham (mountaineer and local businessman) and a representative from St Teresa’s Hospice delivered an assembly which told the children about Steve’s up and coming challenge to climb Mount Everest.  Steve was hoping to raise as much money as possible for St Teresa’s Hospice and wanted our help in doing so.  To support our local charity we have currently had two successful events. 
For the first event, pupils in Year 6 (with the help of the Chair of Governors) calculated how many kilometres it would take to climb from Basecamp to the summit of Everest.  This was then divided by the number of pupils in the school – giving each pupil a distance that they would need to walk so that we as a school could achieve the total distance when combined.  Despite the poor weather, pupils and staff completed the task and ended the event with a climb across the traversing wall.   Parents and families sponsored the children for this event and a staggering amount of well over £1,000 was raised.  A fund-raiser from St Teresa’s Hospice attended and pupils’ efforts were recognised in the local paper.
The latest event saw pupils coming to school in their sports/walking clothes wearing a bobble hat for a donation.  On this day pupils had two challenges to complete.  Sporting equipment was used to recreate the route from Basecamp to the summit of Mount Everest.  Each pupil had to complete the obstacle course.  The second challenge linked to role of the Sherpa people, where pupils we required to work as a team to transport heavy rucksacks from one part of the school to another.  Throughout the day pupils learnt about the challenges linked to climbing Everest and how these impact on the local community.  The most important learning was about the Sherpa people who support those climbing Everest – this was also linked to our Global Goals learning.   This event boosted fundraising to over £2,000 in total.
All pupils had the opportunity to take part in an additional event linked to Everest at Easter.  We asked pupils to create a decorated egg linked to Everest and Nepal.  The competition entries were amazing and the winning entries received Easter Eggs.  
On the 18th May Steve Summited Everest and our school logo was on top of the world. He is back home safely and we continue with our fund-raising efforts.