Class 4 have been exploring plants and flowers in art. We have looked at the artist India Flint.

For one of our art lessons we wanted to draw a detailed rose. Using pencil, we explored drawing a rose step by step. After that, the children drew another rose, only this time they coloured it in choosing colours appropriate to the rose from their chosen photographs.

The children also used light and dark shading to create a 3D effect.

I think they all did an amazing job.

What do you think?

Please watch our short video below.

Indianna’s Fun Day, in memory of Indianna-Rose Maddison, raised an incredible £2621.
Here are some photographs from the fund raising day. If you would like to purchase a picture there will be a small charge of 50p per photo, which will go towards the final total.

Please see Mr Orwin or contact the school to place an order.

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On Friday 9^th March we celebrated World Book Day. It was fantastic to see the amount of thought and effort that went into each child’s costume. The children looked amazing dressed up as their favourite book character.
Throughout the morning, each class enjoyed listening to a variety of cultural stories and completed an activity linked to each story.

We would like to thank all of the parents and carers for your on-going support.

On Monday 12th March we held a ‘Read with Mum Morning’ for Early Years and Key Stage 1 to celebrate Mother’s Day. We invited all of our marvellous mums to come in and read with their children. We were absolutely astonished by the number of mums, aunties and grandmas that turned up to share this morning with us. I am delighted that we have such wonderful parents who are fully supporting our school in promoting a love of reading.
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for your on-going support.

Ks2 children having fun in the snow!

During the two days of snow last week, some of the children were able to go outside and enjoy the snow before it very quickly melted away.

Please watch our short video.

On Monday 13^th November it was the start of anti-bullying week. We had a lesson on anti-bullying. This sparked a lot of emotions. As the children really wanted to explore this further I decided to let them create a video. I found a fantastic anti-bullying video on line and explained what I wanted them to do. The whole class were really excited at this idea. I showed the video this inspired them as it really made them think.
This week class 4 became film producers for the week. We spent most of the week in literacy planning, discussing, organising and coordinating an anti-bullying video. The most important part of this was the discussion of feelings and emotions.

The children thought about:

• What is bullying?
• How often does something have to happen for it to be bullying?
• How it would make them feel if it happened to them?
• What would they do if it happened to them?
• How could they get help?
• Everyone is different what does this mean?
• Everyone is equal what does this mean?

This term we decided to try something new and invited parents to come and see some work PE work in class assemblies. Every class performed to parents and family members on two dates.

The theme for the dance had to be linked to SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) and the children did not disappoint. They covered themes such as; war, loneliness, family and friendship.

Mrs James said afterwards that, “to stir such a range of emotions within an audience, the way that our pupils did today, is something quite special and powerful.” Parents quickly took to Class Dojo with messages, such as;

 “All the children’s performances were brilliant. The two that moved me were the bullying one and the loneliness one. Well done to all the children. Amazing,”

“I loved watching the children dance today. They all did fantastic and they all put so much effort into each of their performances. You can tell they all worked really hard to learn their routines. Well done St Andrew’s!”

With the help of Bishop Auckland Rotary Club, Durham County Council and Shildon In Bloom, the school council helped plant hundreds of bulbs very near the school grounds. When spring arrives we hope there will be a fantastic display for everyone to enjoy.

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In September we had a skiptastic day with Dave Gibson with his Skip2BFit exercise sessions. All children had a go at keeping fit and testing their skipping skills with the special counting skipping ropes. The children had a great day and learnt that ‘practice does not make you perfect but it does make you better’.
After being inspired by the Skip2BFit day we have decided to introduce a daily skip, where every child will skip for 2 minutes, every morning in the school yard at 8.55am.
A special well done to Konniegrace, who beat Dave in the “Skip Off.” Dave said, “I’ve never been beaten by a girl before!” Girl power!