With Christ at our side to guide us,
we shine in all that we do.
Today Durham University brought Ancient Egypt alive in our Y3 classroom!
The children became Egyptologists, as they used their historical enquiry skills to form theories about what ancient artefacts were used for thousands of years ago. We also made creative amulets from clay, explored mummies and took part in a drama weighing of the heart ceremony in a fun packed day!
To help us prepare to celebrate Easter, the children have been invited to join our special project called ‘The Easter Mystery’. Starting this week, each child will take turns bringing home a pack to share with their families.
By sharing the Easter story, we remember the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and, as a family, take time to stop and think about the true meaning of Easter.
Children in KS1 will bring home the Easter story, while children in KS2 will bring home ‘The Way of the Cross’ booklet detailing Jesus’ journey during the last week of his life.
Today three teams of St. Bede’s basketballers enjoyed the prestigious Hoops4Health Tournament at the Vertu Motors Arena, the home of the Newcastle Eagles. Amazingly, one of our teams qualified for the District Grand Finals event that takes place on Friday 8th March (before & during the Eagles match against the Manchester Giants).
I was firstly super proud that everyone came to school for the event in the half term holidays! In preparation, all of the children had trained enthusiastically over the winter months at lunchtimes. The children’s performances today really showed that practice pays off; as two of our teams reached the afternoon play-offs!
Throughout the day it was lovely to see our teams display good sportsmanship by shaking hands with their opponents after games. Meanwhile, it was up lifting for the children to see how many parents and family members who had travelled to Newcastle to support them at the event.
Thank you to our brilliant parent helpers who enabled us to have so many teams involved in the tournament. Finally, thank you to all of the children for the determination and skills displayed, which carried you all a long way on a wonderful day. I was extremely proud of you all as you have put so much into your basketball in recent months!
Year 5 recently visited South Shields town centre as part of their work on settlements. Their fieldwork included comparing how some areas of the town were in the past to how they are now. Year 5 carefully completed some sensory mapping and will use this in their topic work back in school. Well done, Year 5!
The Mini Vinnies hosted their first coffee morning today after Mass. The children made some delicious cakes and brought in some great prizes for the Tombola stall.
After setting up the church hall in preparation for the coffee morning, the Mini Vinnies attended Mass and then were put to work! The morning was a huge success, with the Mini Vinnies raising £134.42 towards repairs for the church roof.
Everyone had a fantastic day and Fr Bill was thrilled with the money raised! Well done Mini Vinnies!!!
This week in house meetings the children thought carefully about what matters most to them. In the middle of the spiral the children wrote or drew pictures of what matters to them day to day. As they moved further out of the spiral they thought about what matters to them in the wider world. It was lovely to hear the children sharing their different views and ideas and to know that there voices really do matter.
Today the children came into school wearing their own clothes to express themselves as part of Children’s Mental Health Week!
The school council have worked extremely hard this week completing a school safety map activity. The children followed a map of the school and thought about how safe they felt in each area. They coloured an area green if they always felt safe, orange if they sometimes felt safe and red if they did not feel safe. We are looking forward to meeting up again after half term to discuss our findings and to work together to make our school the safest it can be.
In the Autumn term, we asked for children to volunteer to become Mini Vinnies. We were astounded by the huge number of applications received from our KS2 children. It was so difficult to choose between the thoughtful applications of those children wanting to make a difference in their community, so, with over 40 applications, we decided to run 2 Mini Vinnies’ groups. Here they are being commissioned today.
As part of our Local Church topic in RE, we were fortunate to welcome Mrs Brown into school to talk about the role the laity plays in Church. It was very interesting – the children learned a lot about how we are all called to serve God in our own way, and the commitment and responsibility involved in people volunteering.
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