A PILOT has flown home to open a reading den at our school.

Children and staff welcomed Nick Walton, who now lives in North Carolina in the US, to their Easter extravaganza show.
Nick, who lived on South Church in Bishop Auckland, as a young boy, saw the school being built in 1972 before he joined two years later.
He left in year six to live in America and he is now an aeroplane pilot with American Airways. Nick recently searched the internet for our school and found our website and learned the children were raising money to stock their library. He got in touch with headteacher Nicola James and offered to buy some new books for the school.
Mrs James bought some books with his generous donation, about being an air pilot, planes and airports to put them in the “Aspirations” section of our school library.
The hope is they will inspire the children to have dreams of being a successful air pilot and see the world, just as Nick did when he lived in Bishop Auckland.
On Friday April 8, Nick and his wife Amanda, visited our school and met the children  and enjoyed our Easter celebration.
He was a guest of honour at the official opening of the school’s new Reading Den, a space where children can read and enjoy books during their playtimes and lunchtimes.
Nick said: “This is an amazing space, I wish I had had something like this when I was a boy.” His wife added: “This is where you would have found me at recess.”
Our head teacher,Mrs James, said she was delighted to welcome the couple to our school and hear the memories Nick had of being at St Andrew’s Primary School nearly half a century ago, when it was known as Henknowle Primary School, especially as they will be celebrating the 50th anniversary in November. Mrs James said: “It was wonderful to meet Nick and show him around the school and for him to meet the children and staff. The children were so proud to show off their school and tell Nick about all the things they love about St Andrew’s.”

Outside the new reading den

Ready for the ribbon to be cut

Nick Walton, Mrs James and Amanda Walton

Great Easter bonnets

Hello Iesha!

Fantastic singing by the children

The children made their own Easter Bonnets

A great atmosphere

Inside the new reading den

We welcomed parents and carers to hear the children sing Easter songs

Welcome back! School opens Thursday the 2nd September 2021

Please watch our Core Value Song for October. The song was performed by the children in their separate bubbles at different times.
Thank you to our class 4 teacher, Miss Hewson, who wrote the song especially for our school, and to her father, Keith Hewson, who arranged the music.

Please click on the following link

TikTok Parent Fact Sheet

A lot of you have been learning new skills during lock-down. This included learning how to ride a bike. You sent us some great clips and photos of you either learning to ride a bike, or showing us how you already enjoy riding your bike. See if you can spot yourself in the video.

Earlier in the year, we held our annual whole school dance assembly for parents. Each class chose a country and created a dance to some music from that area of the world. As always, our talented children entertained us with a variety of styles of dance and parents played a game to guess which country the music came from.

We had a fantastic day at Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle. In class we have been learning about the Stone Age. During the trip we looked at different artifacts, fossils and models from this age. We learnt about how bronze was found and made and even held a 10,000 year old axe! On the afternoon we made our own pottery pots from clay in the style of the Stone Age. It was amazing!