With Christ at our side to guide us,
we shine in all that we do.

KS2 Virtual author visit with Hannah Gold

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Key Stage 2 classes recently took part in a virtual visit from award-winning author, Hannah Gold. 

During the virtual visit, Hannah spoke about her bestselling books The Last Bear and The Lost Whale. She also introduced the children to her highly anticipated third book, Finding Bear. Hannah spoke about her exciting work and the background to her latest book, as well as answering pupils’ questions in a Q&A session.

Some of the children enjoyed listening to Hannah so much that they were motivated to write their own animal stories inspired by Finding Bear.

 

Year 4 Ferry Trip

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Year 4 spent a lovely afternoon celebrating the Pride of the Tyne, our local ferry’s, 30th birthday last week! We learned about the history of the ferry, had a trip to North Shields and visited the Captain’s control room. The children also received a goody bag of treats from Nexus!

Big Sing 2023

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The school choir took part in The Big Sing 2023 at The Sage Gateshead. They enjoyed singing a selection of songs alongside many other schools.

Dance Festival 2023

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Our Monday night dance club recently performed a medley of songs from Matilda to a packed out audience at the Customs House in the  South Tyneside Dance Festival 2023. The children have been very enthusiastic in dance club and worked extremely hard to remember all of the routine. For some of our children this was their first time on stage.

 

First Holy Communion

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Some of the children in Year 4 celebrated their First Holy Communion on Saturday 10th June.  It was a wonderful service: the children looked amazing, read well, and were supported by a packed church of family and friends.

The children enjoyed a lovely breakfast in the church hall and then carried on their celebrations elsewhere.

Please keep all of the children in your prayers as they continue their journey of faith!

 

 

Year 4’s visit to Arbeia Roman Fort

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As part of their History work on the Romans, year 4 had a fun and interesting day at Arbeia Roman Fort.  After a brisk march to the Fort, the children enjoyed their first workshop which was an object-handling archaeology investigation.  The children rifled through the leader’s ‘rubbish bag’ to find out what the items told them about life in 2023, then went on to handle Roman artefacts using their observational skills to discover what the objects told them about the life of the people who lived and worked at Arbeia Roman Fort.

Our second activity of the day was an interactive tour of the site utilising real and replica artefacts to bring the history of Arbeia and the lives of the Roman soldiers to life.  The children visited the Fort, looked at the site where the granaries were, the barracks (soldiers’ and centurion’s quarters as well as the commanding officer’s house) and the latrines!

After lots of research and lots of walking, the children were ravenous and tucked into their lunch with gusto!

The afternoon was spent in the museum, looking at various artefacts, quizzing on them and drawing them to create a beautiful frieze that we took back to display in school.

May Procession

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During the month of May we honour Mary, the mother of Jesus. On Wednesday, we held our May Procession and service in Mary’s honour, offering our prayers to her. We were blessed with beautiful weather, processing from the school grounds into the hall where the service was held. Father Bill welcomed the children at the start of the celebration and gave us a blessing at the end.

Year 4 led the celebration, with children from each class bringing flowers to place in the vase at the focal point dedicated to Mary. The children shared a reading, prayers, a litany, sang some beautiful hymns, and one of the children crowned Mary with a lovely garland of flowers.

It was a joyous occasion, and we were impressed with the children’s engagement and beautiful singing throughout.

 

Year 4 Retreat at the Emmaus Youth Village

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Year 4 enjoyed a fantastic retreat at the Emmaus Youth Village.  The retreat was based around the ‘Adventures of St Paul’ with various activities designed to bring alive his story.

The weather was great, so once we’d arrived, we headed for the playing fields within the Youth Village and played football, some games and just enjoyed being outside.  We then went up to our chalet, Bishop Kevin, settled in, ate dinner, and had our first activity.  The children enjoyed the session and were also very excited to watch a movie, spend time in their rooms and enjoy their sleepover, for many the first time away from home on their own.

After a ‘restful night’, the children were up early and raring to go.  We ate breakfast together in the chalet, being waited on by Mrs Kennedy, Mrs Welsh and Mrs McDonald and then enjoyed a wake-up activity with the leaders Jamie, Becca, Mary and Ryan.  There was a carousel of activities: a blindfolded team challenge – “We walk by faith, not by sight…”; a craft activity during which the children made friendship bracelets; a CAFOD activity thinking about our neighbours around the world; and an art activity with the children making a banner about themselves and their unique gifts and talents.

After lunch, we went for a lovely walk across the fields and into the woods.  The leaders did a meditation exercise with the children focusing on their senses then they played some games and explored scripture to crack the code to escape the YMT Escape room in time for dinner.

The Thursday evening session involved exploring St Paul’s most famous letter, 1 Corinthians 13, and what it means for us today.  We are all born with an incredible potential to share God’s love with our own gifts and talents and help make the world a better place.  Each one of us has been chosen and called by God to be a unique and important part of His plan and as St Pope John Paul II said of Christ, “His power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”

On our last morning, the children did some artwork, a little bit of writing and lots of drama (re-enacting the life of St Paul).

Intermingled throughout the retreat, there was plenty of free time – the children ran around, played football, gymnastics, and rolled down hills.

We were so proud of the children – they were very knowledgeable, learnt a lot, were well behaved, polite and got on very well!

Infant and Junior Music Festival 2023

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Some of our infant and junior children took part in South Tyneside’s Music Festival at the Customs House this week. The infant children performed in the musical ‘Two by Two in a Floating Zoo’ and the junior children performed in ‘Vikings’. They acted, sang and danced brilliantly – we couldn’t be prouder of them!

Year 4 DT – Making pasta sauce

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Year 4 had a fantastic day on Wednesday – in groups, the children designed and made their own pasta sauce.

The children tasted their wonderful creations.  The sauces were all very different but equally delicious!  Most of the children had seconds and some even enjoyed thirds!!!  We definitely have some budding chefs in the making!

 

 

© 2025 Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.