Sporting Times

Hall Lane, Houghton-le-Spring DH5 8DA tel: 0191 5536523 fax: 0191 5536535 web: www.bernardgilpin.com

Welcome to the second summer edition of Bernard Gilpin Primary School’s newsletter.

SCHOOL CELEBRATE NATIONAL SPORTS WEEK IN STYLE

July 2014

The children have enjoyed another exciting and action packed Sports

Week. They have had the opportunity to experience a wide variety of

sporting activities.

Foundation Stage visited

Finchale View Riding School.

Each child was able to ride a

horse, they trotted round the

paddock, then had a try at an

obstacle course. The children

were also able to try the horse

simulator. A farrier visited the

stables and demonstrated to

the children how a horse shoe

is made.

Year 1 enjoyed a visit to

Goals Soccer Centre at Bede

College, Sunderland. They

played lots of fast and fun

games at the impressive

facility and finished the day

by playing small sided

games.

Year 2 visited Finchale View

Riding School. The children

had a great time guiding

their ponies over some

jumps, through a maze,

stopped on the bridge and

trotted the length of the pad-

dock.

In addition to this all

year groups were

fortunate to experi-

ence various sports

including, kickbox-

ing, judo, ju-jitsu,

cheerleading, street

dance, zumba,

athletics, gymnas-

tics, archery, hand-

ball, futsal, football, netball,

volleyball, tennis, golf, multi-skills and tag-rugby.

The year 6 children also took part in a Trans-Pennines

Competition. They competed against children from

Norman Street Primary School, in Carlisle in a tag-

rugby and football competition. All year 6 children

showed great sportsmanship throughout and repre-

sented our school with pride.

Year 3 visited Silksworth Snow

Sports Centre in Sunderland to

develop their skiing skills includ-

ing snowploughing, stopping and

turning. The more adventurous

skied over some impressive

ramps!

Year 4 visited the Ten pin bowl-

ing alley in Washington. They

played two full games in teams

of four and quickly developed

into skilled bowlers.

Year 5 enjoyed a morning learning to

surf at Flowrider at Heworth Leisure

Centre.

Year 6 visited Go Karting North

East. This was a really fun expe-

rience, which was thoroughly

enjoyed by all.

Thank you to all

the children who

participated in

the Penalty

shoot out.

Some fantastic

shooting skills

were demon-

strated on the

day. The money

raised will be put towards the school fund.

A huge thank you to the many families who sup-

ported the children on Sports Day. It was a brilliant

day, with fantastic team spirit amongst the partici-

pants. The children competed in their house teams

and the winning team was Napoleon. Bulls eye!

The race is on. Handball

Year 3 visited Worm Hill to see where the Lambton Worm allegedly

terrorised the local people. They also visited Cafe Rouge in the Metro

Centre to experience some French cuisine where they sampled citron

presse, baguettes and honey. They also improved their French

vocabulary through reading the menus.

Year 4 visited Auckland Castle where they investigated the Tudor

exhibit. The children enjoyed the Tudor portrait trail as well as seeing

King Henry VII‘s bed. The children wrote detailed recounts of their visit

and created a self-portrait in the Tudor style when they returned to

school. They also visited Sainsbury‘s where, based on their research

of Italy, created (and very willingly ate!) their own pizzas. The children

also completed an Italian food trail around the supermarket, finding

and calculating the cost of different Italian meals.

Year 5 visited the Hatton Art Gallery where they learned to create

Manga style comic strip art, linked to the work which they have been

doing on Japan. They also visited Sainsburys where they completed a

maths trail around the store.

Year 5 /6 visited Sainsburys where they identified foods from Australia,

Chile, Spain and the Netherlands. They also visited Captain Cook‘s

Museum where they discovered all about Captain Cook‘s voyages to

Australia.

Year 6 visited Sainsburys where they identified foods from Brazil and

completed maths activities in store.

Foundation Stage visited Sunderland Minster as part of their

learning about Christianity. They were given a guided tour and

were able to identify features such as the windows, and door.

The children also visited Roker Beach and park. The children

were really brave and took off their socks and shoes and splashed

in the sea. Lots of sandcastles were built, and the day was fin-

ished off with an ice-cream.

Year 1 visited Saltwell Park to support learning in numera-

cy. They discovered many shapes around the park and they had

so much fun in the maze using directional language. It took a

while but the children eventually found their way out and deserv-

edly earned ten minutes in the play park in the glorious sunshine.

They also explored Warkworth Castle in Northumberland. They

had a great time learning about the features of the castle, made

observational drawings of the keep and used the experience to

describe a castle in a fantasy story back at school.

Year 2 visited the Academy of Light as part of a maths activity.

After collecting data they returned to school to solve problems. To

support their work in Science on Variation, the children in year 2

visited Pets Corner in Jesmond Dene. They read all the infor-

mation boards about the animals to find out what makes them

similar and different.

.

THE LEARNING CONTINUES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Year 1 at Saltwell Park Year 2 at the Academy of Light

KIELDER The children in Year 6 enjoyed a residential visit to Kielder Forest this

term. During this visit they went on a fantastic boat trip around the lake,

went swimming, saw birds of prey at close hand, visited a maze, went

walking and generally enjoyed the beautiful countryside. Learning was

enhanced with maths in the supermarket, calculating quantities and

costs of the provisions needed for the week, and writing in the form of a

daily diary, documenting the children‘s experiences.

NEW STARTERS The children and staff at Bernard Gilpin Primary School were really

pleased to welcome the new starters and their Parent/Carer. We invited

the children and their Parents/Carers into school to look around the

classroom and garden, as well as letting them sample a school meal

and meet their new teachers. We really look forward to seeing them

start school in their new uniform. Once again thank you for choosing

Bernard Gilpin Primary School.

DIRECTORS VISIT THE SCHOOL The Director of Education and the Director of Peoples Services have

both visited the school this half term. They were both very impressed

with the standard of the school and all the enrichment activities that are

on offer for the children and the wider community.

MULTI CULTURAL WEEK All the children took part in lots of different activities during Multicul-

tural Arts Week. The aim of this

week was to explore and learn

about some of the different

cultures and religions around

the world through art, dance,

music and drama. Art activities

included completing Indian

fabric pictures and African

masks pictures. Every child in

the school made a head dress

and enjoyed being part of the whole school Bernard Gilpin Carnival

around the playground. Music sessions included Gamelan from Indo-

nesia and Jazz from Harlem. The Choral Scholars performed African

spirituals to the whole school. Great fun was had by all when learn-

ing Samba, Flamenco and Bollywood dances. We also learnt from a

chef about different foods and cultures and sampled Spanish, French,

Indian and African foods.

BERNARD BEAR TODDLER GROUP Outdoor play has been the theme of Toddlers this Summer term.

Children, Parents and Carers have enjoyed planned activities such as

Sports week, Zumba, as well as football, water play, mini golf and

tennis. To celebrate Multi cultural week, the children tasted food from

a variety of countries, they made their own pizzas too. The final week

the children celebrated the end of term with a Teddy Bear‘s picnic.

The children brought their own bears, and had stories and a picnic

outside.

FIRST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS Bernard Bear Toddler Group is celebrating it first year of opening on

Monday 8th September. The staff are planning a big celebration, with

a large ball pool, refreshments and Birthday cake. Please come and

join the team in a celebration. Look out for the flyers in shops and the

library in Houghton, as well as on the website.

Year 3 at Café Rouge

Amy meets a pelican Year 6 at Kielder

CLUBS ARE BOOMING

Monday Football—CNS

Film Club - Mr Moore

Lego Club— Mrs Russell

Martial Arts Steve

Tuesday Ballet - Abbie Brown (Houghton Dance School)

Football/ Futsal - CNS Coaching and Fast feet Academy

Wednesday Dance– Nicola and Emily

Cookery - Miss Bennett, Miss Craggs and Mrs Martin

Football - Mr Bainbridge

Cricket—Mr Adey

Thursday Football –CNS Coaching

Gymnastics - Emily

ICT - Mr Berry and Miss Bridle

Friday Judo/Martial Arts - Kevin (British Olympic Coach) and Steve

Muisc—Mrs Stevenson

Drums—Mr Nichol

All clubs begin at 3:15 p.m. and end at 4:15 p.m. All children need to be collected afterwards by a responsible adult from the main entrance.

TWO WHEELED TUESDAY Just a reminder that the Two Wheeled Tuesday scheme is still running. Please remember, bikes need to be taken to the P.E changing room entrance (at the rear of the school). Each time a child comes to school on ‗two wheels‘ their name is entered into a prize draw. SCHOOL FOOTBALL After a long, hard season we have now completed our football fixtures for this academic year. The team were extremely successful and won the area league and went on to finish third overall in Sunderland. Mr Adey and Mr Bainbridge would like to thank those children for their efforts.

SCHOOL CRICKET TEAM Children from year 5 played in the Hetton Kwik Cricket Festival at Het-ton Lyons Cricket Club on Friday 20th June 2014. We competed against local schools and played some good cricket, finishing in 5th position. SUNDERLAND DANCE FESTIVAL Our dance team participated in the annual Sunderland Empire Dance Festival 2014. All children showed off their talented performance and were fortunate to be cheered along by other dance team mem-bers. This breath taking experience was appreciated by hundreds of spectators. STAFF TRAINING FOR P.E. Twenty five members of staff took part in P.E. training. It was both practical and theory based, staff learnt about Physical development of young children up to teenage years and how to teach and coach them in weekly lessons. A DEMENTIA NEWS Much fun and laughter takes place on Tuesday afternoons in The living Room as people with dementia and their car-ers enjoy many different activities in-cluding Singing for the Brain, Dementia, Café, Intergenerational choir and Danc-ing. This week Kayley Cares treated the group to a fabulous performance of songs from wartime and different dec-ades.

Mr BAINBRIDGE VISITS HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT Mr Bainbridge was invited to meet Mr Speaker at the Houses of Parlia-ment, Westminster Palace, London. He was there for the launch of the first Global Dementia Friendly Parliament. BACK TO SCHOOL DAY Once again, an overwhelming response from Parents/Carers to our Back to School Day. The staff and children really appreciate you tak-ing the time to attend. The children took great pleasure in talking about all the activities they have participated in and the learning that takes place during the class assemblies. They particularly enjoyed demon-strating their sporting talents too. Many thanks to the Parents/Carers who had a turn in goal at the Penalty shoot out.

SUMMER FAYRE A huge thank you to Friends of Bernard Gilpin school, who organised the School fayre. A tremendous amount of time and effort goes into the organisation. The staff and children really appreciate it. Money raised will be used to assist Educational visits in the next academic year.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Friday 18th July - School closes for Summer holiday Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd September—INSET days Monday 1st and Tuesday 2nd September—collect uniform (see times below) Wednesday 3rd September - School re-opens Monday 29th September-Friday 3rd October - Derwent Hill Resi-dential (years4,5,& 6) Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th October- Parents/Carers evening Friday 24th October - School closes for half term Monday 3rd November - School re-opens Thursday 4th December- Back to School Day

DREAM BELIEVE ACHIEVE ASSEMBLIES EYFS and KS1 (Reception to Year 2) will be Friday morning at 9 a.m. KS2 (Years 3 to 6) will be every Friday at 2:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

HELPFUL WEBSITES

www.bernardgilpin.com If you want to help your children at home, we have purchased licenses for: Read-ing – www.lexialearning.com username is the one your child uses in school. Maths – www.interactive-resources.co.uk username: bernard password: Gilpin - http://nrich.maths.org/public/ - sumdog.com Touch Typing -www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

CAKE SALE

Year 6 held a cake sale this term which raised over £200 pounds to pay for two authors from Seven Stories to come into school and hold workshops with the children. Both the cakes and the authors proved very popular, so a big thank you to all involved.

BGPS HAS GOT TALENT The Bernard Gilpin Primary School has Got Talent competition took

place on Wednesday 9th July 2014. The Bubble Guppies (Year 6)

danced their way to victory to the tune of 'It's a Girl Party' by Mack

Z. They marginally beat Reception 1D Dancers to the top spot. The

School Council would like to thank all competitors, spectators and

school staff for their support in hosting the event.

NOAH Key Stage Two children wowed the audience with their ―West-end‖

performance of Noah. The performance was very well received by the

audience who thoroughly enjoyed the impressive singing and acting. A

big thank you to Mr Lee and Mrs Stevenson for organising such a spec-

tacular production.

UNIFORM You can collect your school jumper/cardigans (if ordered before

Wednesday 9th July) on Monday 1st September between 10 a.m. and 2

p.m. or Tuesday 2nd September between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. If you

ordered after this date your child will receive their jumper/cardigans in

the first few weeks of term.

NUMBERS RISING Thank you to all of the families who have continued to support the

school. Our numbers on role have significantly risen over the past two

years and we are over subscribed in reception again. Many thanks to

all those who are spreading the good word, amongst the community,

about the school.

LUNCH TIME SUPERVISORS As the school is expanding we are looking to appoint new staff to join

our lunch time team. If you are interested please collect a pack from

the school office.

WEDDING NEWS The staff and children would like to wish Miss Bennett ―good luck‖ when

she gets married in August.

GOODBYE YEAR 6 Congratulations Year 6 on your fantastic SATs results, all your hard

work has paid off. We thank you for your efforts. We wish you all well

as you leave to move on to further your learning.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS We hope you have a safe and enjoyable summer holiday, and come

back refreshed for the new school year.