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

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!

 

 

Scholastic Book Club Orders

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Our new Scholastic Book Club is up and running! Go to https://schools.scholastic.co.uk/st-bedes-ne33/digital-book-club to browse the latest books and order online if you wish. For every £1 you spend on this month’s Book Club, our school will earn 20p in Scholastic Rewards.

Please place your order online by April 28th, 2023. Orders will then be delivered to school and distributed. If we are lucky enough to save some rewards points, we will spend them on some more books for our classrooms and library areas.

After everyone’s generous support at our recent book fair, our fantastic school council members helped to choose some new titles with our reward points. They chose some brilliant books for children in EYFS all the way through to Year 6. Here is our first delivery for the KS2 library area:

 

World Book Day – Year 4

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Year 4 had a fantastic day on World Book Day – they dressed up as characters from their favourite books and enjoyed some fun WBD activities in class.  The teachers also dressed up as the dalmatian puppies from ‘The Hundred and One Dalmatians’ book by Dodie Smith with Mrs Devine as the infamous Cruella De Vil!

World Book Day

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This week, we celebrated World Book Day in school. We talked about our love of reading in an assembly with Mrs Devine (or Mrs De Vil in this instance!) and the benefits of sharing a story. Pupils then took part in some World Book Day activities in class.

Pupils were invited to come into school dressed as one of their favourite book characters. Everybody looked wonderful!

Children’s Mental Health Week

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This week, we’ve been celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week. Our infant classes had an assembly from Miss Dixon and our junior classes had an extra special visitor. Lisa, from BlueJay Wellness, spoke to the junior classes about how to connect with others and why our connections help our own and other people’s mental health and well-being.
In our house meetings, we created jigsaw pieces that celebrate how we all connect as a school community. These will soon be on display for all our children to see.

Safer Internet Day 2023

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Safer Internet Day 2023

Safer Internet Day 2023 will take place on the 7th of February 2023, with learning based around the theme ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online’.

Please see the attached guide with tips on how chatting to your child about their digital life can help them avoid online safety threats.

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Internet-Matters-Age-Guide-6-10s-Jan23

© 2025 Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust.