On Friday, years 4 and 5 from the Level 3 County School Games Event at Durham University’s Maiden Castle Sports Centre as the invited representatives of the Wear Valley and Teasdale Area.  They took part in a carousel of inclusive participation activities during the morning to develop skills in cricket, dodgeball, skipping, football, circuit training and last, but not least, QUIDDITCH!  The afternoon was spent completing personal challenges within an orienteering focused activity around the whole of the sports grounds.  The meeting ended with a closing medal ceremony, involving all competitive and participatory teams.  The invitation to attend gave the children an opportunity to experience a large scale County wide event that can be difficult for them to access from a small school through the competition structure of School Games.

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On Thursday 20^th June our Year 5 and 6 children took part on an over-night Stephen Hawking Foundation Space Camp Project. The aim being to inspire a greater number of young people to have aspirations for careers in scientific fields.

All KS2 children were involved in a range of scientific activities throughout the day linked to the Solar System and the 50^th anniversary of the first moon landing which will be celebrated on 20^th July this year. This included having the opportunity to go into an inflatable Planetarium, kindly provided by Durham University.

At 8 p.m. the Year 5 and 6 children returned to school for a ‘space-over’! Throughout the evening children completed a variety of space related activities including Art, English and Science.

Here are some quotes from our children:-

“Space Camp was a really good experience for all of us. We learnt lots about space while having fun doing the activities.” – Pippa

“It was the best time of my life. We were able to sleep in school and learn so much about the moon landing.” – Libby

“It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had at school. Learning about space and the history of the moon landing was fun as we did experiments and thanks to our teachers, we were able to stay at school overnight to learn even more. – Joel

“It was ‘space-tacular!” –  Grace

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Congratulations to the football team for coming second in the Teesdale small schools league with 35 points. As always, the boys showed impeccable manners and excellent sportsmanship. Well done!

Last week we had a visit from Scout Leader – Gary Ingham. He delivered an outdoor session to Class 3 which resulted in them making feather sticks, building a fire, cooking sausages and toasting marshmallows. Yum! A big thank you to Gary for spending the morning with us.

Whilst this was going on Mrs Colegrove led a budding team of gardeners in a mission to bring some colour into our playground.

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Class 2 are taking part in an OASES School of Rocks project to support the children’s understanding of rock formations in our local area.

During the first session, practical activities were undertaken to aid understanding of the timescale of the formation of the Earth and when various forms of life appeared, investigations to identify and name rocks as well as when the carboniferous period (which will be studied during the project) was.

The children learnt about the animals and plants that would have lived then in the tropical swamp that would have covered Ramshaw and compared them to those today.

An activity to try and make coal aided their understanding of the formation of this valuable resource.

Looking at sandstone and lead ore furthered their knowledge of the types of rocks in the North Pennines area.

The session ended with a quick active quiz to assess the children’s learning.

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The children in Classes 1 and 2 enjoyed an afternoon of cricket taster activities with Darren Brown from Durham County Cricket Club.  These included personal challenge throwing and catching activities as well as games designed to encourage accurate bowling and batting skills.  Darren then explained how the children could continue to enjoy these kind of activities by joining an 8 week All Stars Cricket Programme at their local cricket club, the nearest one being Evenwood Cricket Club.  This programme would include equipment, delivered to the children’s homes to allow them to also practice their skills at home.

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Amazing! Our school has achieved the prestigious Active 20 Award!

You can take a look at it here

We’re now all officially superfit and superhealthy.

Next……. Active 30…!

Wishing all our children, families and friends a very happy and joyful Easter.

Look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 23rd April.

On Wednesday morning Helen from ‘Flat Stan First Aid Training’joined us to teach the children vital first aid skills. The children were taught how to respond to choking, an unconscious casualty, burns and wounds.  We used the Flat Stan manikins to carry out chest compressions and maneuvers should someone be choking.

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Supporting Your Child During Exam Time (Young Minds)

As we start to move towards exam season, Young Minds have launched advice for parents about supporting their children.

Tips include:

• Encourage your child to take revision breaks and find a balance between studying and doing things they find enjoyable and relaxing.
• Make sure they are eating and drinking at regular intervals.
• Reassure them – reinforce that you are and will be proud of them no matter what happens.
• Remain positive and hopeful!
• Let them know their feelings are valid and normal, but also offer support and solutions where possible.
• Anxiety is often worst at night and this means it is useful to encourage good bedtime routine

You can find out more here: https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/for-parents/parents-guide-to-support-a-z/parents-guide-to-support-exam-time/