Good News!

Celebrating the achievements of pupils in Schools

Ashington High School

th On Wednesday the 8 ​ March 2017 a group of students from our Personalised Learning Centre (PLC) ​ at Ashington High School attended a Prince’s Trust Team Building Activity Day at RAF Boulmer. This was the first time throughout the whole of the country that a group of students had attended an RAF base to join in with activities organised by Prince’s Trust. It was a whole day of activities designed to engage young people in team building, leadership and communication skills. Our students were able to work with RAF staff and the Prince’s Trust staff on four activities: two which were around working as part of a team; another around communication which involved using a computer based simulated training system that is designed to train airmen in basic marksmanship principles and a final activity which was a careers talk encouraging young people to consider a career in the military. We were able to sit down with RAF staff at lunchtime and enjoy a hot meal courtesy of the RAF.

The whole day was a fantastic experience and we were very proud of our students and their achievements.

All of the activities we took part in were able to transfer into a Prince’s Trust Achieve qualification. At the end of the day an evaluation was carried out and we are extremely proud that our students have been invited to attend a similar activity later this year at RAF Boulmer.

Five Philips’s

Ashington High School student Philip Davison has won a Special Commendation award in a national Time for Change photography competition. Organised by TenNine, entries were required to feature the 'In Your Mate's Corner' poster aimed at encouraging men and young people to be more open and supportive of the 1 in 4 people affected by mental health issues.

Philip, a student in our Personal Learning Centre, is working towards an Arts Award and has combined multiple images of himself using digital compositing techniques. In the winning image Philip appears five times and he enlisted the help of his friend Calum Baird to help set up the shots.

We are extremely proud of the work Philip has produced and his creative and imaginative digital experiments continue to amaze us.

Bedlingtonshire Community High School

Young Writers' 'Welcome to Wonderland' competition

In April 2017, students at Bedlingtonshire Community High School were invited to take part in the Young Writers' 'Welcome to Wonderland' competition. The students were tasked with writing a 100 word mini saga; a completely original and creative work of fiction. Sixteen pupils entered the competition and penned tales of dystopian futures, underwater worlds and universes of horror. Young Writers received over 18,000 entries to this writing competition and are still processing entries from some areas of the country. Incredibly, all sixteen of the 'Welcome to Wonderland' entrants from BCHS have been selected to have their stories published in a book called "Welcome to Wonderland - Wicked Worlds", which is due for publication on 30th September 2017.

All of our outstanding entries will be displayed in our library, for staff and students to enjoy for the remainder of the year.

U13 Girl’s Football Team

Bedlingtonshire Community High School are proud to announce that our U13 Girl’s football team became County Champions on Thursday 22 June 2017 when they were competing in the Northumberland Games representing the Bedlington/Blyth area.

The standard of football was exceptionally high and to go through the competition without conceding a goal or losing a match was an amazing achievement. Especially when we take into account all of our outfield players were in Year 7 and were competing against teams which were predominantly made up of Year 8 players.

Not only are these players extremely talented but their hard work and positive attitudes have been fundamental to all of their achievements this year!

U13 Girl’s volleyball team

Bedlingtonshire Community High School are proud to announce that our U13 Girl’s volleyball team took home the bronze medal at the Northumberland Games representing the Bedlington/Blyth area. Our U13 Boys team came in 6th place.This is a very impressive feat given that the students participating had not previously played volleyball outside of their PE lessons. The students had a limited amount of practice time due to space availability and weather conditions. Even with the odds against them, both teams did wonderfully and had some great rallies and made fantastic plays.

Cambo First School

All of the children in Cambo took part in the Northumberland County Show on the 29th of May 2017. The competition was stiff but what fun the children had and how happy they were with the result, whether gaining an award or not they were all artists and all winners!

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 explored Romans and discovered that they built straight walls and straight roads. Inspired by the work of Jackson Pollock , they produced paintings using tennis balls, marbles and golf balls replicating the straight roads. They also looked at Hadrian's wall exploring the shapes they could see. The colours of the stones and the vegetation growing. They then used rollers and various shades of green to produce a rich Northumberland carpet of grass. Then using printing blocks they created a section image of the wall.

1st Prize went to Chloe Fairless [Year 2] 2nd Prize went to Isabella Stimson Smith [Year 1] 3rd Prize went to Abigail Bainbridge [Year 1]

Years 3 and 4 explored the beautiful landscape around the wall and Sycamore Gap using water colours. Charlie Cowan thought the landscape was beautiful, but a little bit lonely in places! The children tried to reflect this in their paintings. Some used paint to explore this and other created silhouettes using a craft knife to form paper cut outs. If drawing the wall the children tried to show perspective as the wall disappeared into the distance.

Milo Bennett, Year 4, came second Owen Glass, Year 4, came third

The Cambo display was singled out for praise as the best display in the show!

Corbridge Church of First School

In February our Year 3 and Year 4 children had the opportunity to take part in this year’s John Davidson (Pipes) Limited Sustainability in Schools art competition. Year 3 children went out and about to the river in Corbridge and Year 4 went to Matfen Woods to scavenge for different leaves, twigs, sticks, feathers and other materials they could use to create their own woodland scene/collage.

Frances, one of our Year Four pupils, has won the Scottish & Borders regional heat of a ‘Sustainability in Schools’ art competition run by JDP, a leading supplier to the UK building industry. Frances wins £500 for our school and next month will compete against 1,000 UK pupils for an overall £1500 prize toward a sustainability project at their school. She was also presented with a £20 high street gift voucher.

Each year, pupils across England, Wales and Scotland take part in JDP’s ‘Sustainability in Schools’ programme. The educational initiative operates across JDP’s branch network who invite local schools to enter. The programme promotes healthy living, the importance of the environment and preserving water and other precious resources to primary school age children through an annual themed art competition.

JDP’s 2017 theme, a Scavenger Hunt, tasked pupils aged seven to nine years to go on a scavenger hunt in their local area and create a collage of a forest/woodland scene with their findings. As well as the monetary prize, JDP will feature twelve of the competition’s most eye-catching designs on its 2017/18 customer calendar.

Hayley Slack, JDP’s Marketing & Communications Coordinator, comments: “Outdoor learning is a vital part of the curriculum and encourages pupils to learn through adventure and interaction with nature. We work with the Woodland Trust to create new native woodland to offset carbon emissions from our delivery vehicles, so the children could even be stepping through JDP planted woodland while they explore.

“Each child received an adventure pack to aid their search and collect the best twigs, leaves, feathers and other natural materials for their collage creation in the classroom.”

She continues: “The variety of entries we’ve had demonstrates a strong sense of creativity, use of colour and good imagination, leading to the creation of some fantastic collages. It’s been difficult to pick a winner, but Frances’ stood out for us and will look great photographed in this year’s calendar.”

Commenting on behalf of Corbridge Church of England First School, Grace Beresford, Y4 teaching assistant, said: “The children were really engaged and enjoyed working on the topic very much. Forest School activities are very popular. JDP gave our children the opportunity to go into the woods and take part in this exciting activity. We are really proud of Frances’ achievements and we’ll use the money to further benefit the children’s education.”

Corbridge Middle School

Corbridge Middle School Girls cricket team continue on from their national success of playing at rd Edgbaston and finishing 3 ​ in the Country in the 15/16 academic year with another successful year. ​

Their journey this year started in February competing in the Lady Taverners indoor cricket competition. They successfully navigated their way through to the final and despite losing several wickets Lizzie Scott came back in after retiring to score 89 which was enough to see the team through to the County Finals. Their success continued here again winning the county final. Abi McLean putting in an impressive wicketkeeping and batting display to see them qualify for the North Finals.

An early start for a trip to Bolton Arena saw Corbridge top their group beating representative schools from Wales, Lancashire and Cumbria. In the semi-final they beat Cheshire by 33 runs, which set up the final against group runners up Lancashire. In a close final Corbridge batted first and set a good score of 115. In a tense final over Lancashire needed 9 runs which they managed to force through with 2 balls to spare. An amazing effort by the Corbridge girls, and this wasn’t to be the end of their journey…

3 of the girls have also played in the mixed hardball competition which has again seen Corbridge qualify through the Tynedale group. They were able to see off Chantry Middle School and Valley Gardens Middle School to reach the Northern finals. Corbridge has been the only school that has had girls representing in this competition.

In the outdoor cricket event the team continued their momentum from the indoor competition, sailing through the Tynedale competition into the county final. In a tough opening game against Middle School, Corbridge edged the win by 3 runs with a valuable batting contribution from Soraya Kentish. For the rest of the competition they remained unbeaten and qualified for the North Finals th which were due to be held on the 11 ​ July, however the weather intervened! We await a new date. ​ Hopefully the girls can again qualify for the National Finals and go on to victory.

Cramlington Village Primary School

Children and their families joined with staff, staff families and governors at Cramlington Village Primary School in a community forest school day!

We worked as a team to improve all areas of the school's outdoor learning, which included mucking out our school pigs, relocating our bug hotel, and establishing a new imaginative play space for all the creative souls to inspire us with their fairy/wizard houses. We even had two of our dads build us a new table for our early years area.

The weather was perfect and we finished with hot dogs and hamburgers around the forest school fire!

The Dales School

The Dales School in Blyth, a specialist school for children with a range of special educational needs, has been awarded the prestigious Platinum Artsmark Award.

It is the first school to achieve this status in Northumberland and one of only three schools in the North East to be awarded platinum level.

Artsmark is the creative quality standard for schools, accredited by Arts Council England. The award provides a clear framework for teachers to plan, develop and evaluate arts, culture and creativity across the curriculum.

There are now over 200 North East schools registered for Artsmark.

Helen Green, Area Manager and Artsmark lead for Culture Bridge North East says: “We are overjoyed to hear The Dales School received their Platinum Artsmark Award.

“Artsmark protects and supports arts in education settings helping to unlock the potential of children and young people, to develop character and talent, and increase knowledge and understanding.

Tracey Hutchinson, Senior Teacher at The Dales School, explains: “Our focus on the arts and the recognition of our hard work and high levels of success is testament to our belief that by offering children access to the curriculum in a creative and imaginative way, we can help children with a wide range of needs to access learning opportunities.

The Dales School celebrates platinum Artsmark status

The Dales School in Blyth has been awarded the prestigious platinum Artsmark Award by Arts Council England. It is the first school to achieve this status in Northumberland and one of only four schools in the North East to be awarded platinum level.

We see a creative approach as being essential to ensure equal opportunities for all to succeed. We are thrilled with this recognition of our teamwork involving children, staff, families, cultural practitioners and the wider community. We look forward to an exciting new school year in September.

Greenhead C of E Primary School

The children have worked really hard with RAF Spadeadam and other members of the community to re-vamp the school Nature Garden. The children worked with the RAF personnel. Fencing and benches were erected, while bug hotels and hedgehog houses were installed. The children have absolutely loved being able to be part of this fantastic outdoor opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed helping the RAF working party.

Henshaw C of E Primary School

The teaching staff recognised that literacy needed to be a focus and as a whole school development they focused on reading and talk for writing. The children have since had sponsored reading sessions and a storyteller visitor to peak curiosity to inevitably encourage writing for a purpose. The children have fully enjoyed literacy month!

Highfield Middle School

As you may or may not be aware HMS was the first school in Northumberland to achieve the prestigious Diana Award for our anti bullying work back in 2007. We are fiercely proud of this accreditation and recognition and we work tirelessly to continue the AB campaign throughout our 4 year groups. We have regular updates with the Diana Award Scheme and they provide us with up to date tips and information on anti-bullying within schools and on social media.

The 1975 Band

This term we have a member of the popular band The 1975 (an ex pupil of ours) coming into speak to our pupils about resilience and aspirations. John will talk to a selected number of pupils about his rise to stardom and his ambitions to succeed in life. He is currently coming to the end of his tour and will have recently performed at the Madison Square Gardens gig in New York, USA.

Residential Visit

We have also just returned from a week long residential visit to London where we took 44 teenagers to the capital for a week of sightseeing and theatre visits. This comes after our very successful ski visit to France and also a residential visit to Ford Castle and Dukeshouse Wood.

BLESMA Project

Most recently we have been engaging with the BLESMA project - a FREE project using funding from ​ the British Legion who tour round schools with injured ex-servicemen doing inspirational talks and resilience workshops-thought provoking and truly brilliant. They have given talks to 4000 students so far mainly in and around London but wanted to move North and their target this year is 7000. The session was led by a man who is a double leg amputee currently training for the winter Olympics in snowboarding. They have toured in the West End and across the country with the “2 Worlds of Charlie F” documentary on Channel 4 that was completely made up of injured ex-army men and women. Prince Harry has been involved too.

Girls Boxing ​​

We have also just completed a 6 week programme offering girl's boxing and self defence skills for our (carefully selected) year 8 girls. Georgina Hall, a professional personal trainer and boxing trainer has been in to HMS to run the course for our pupils. This has had a profound effect on some of the pupils in terms of confidence building and giving them a positive focus before they transfer to the High School.

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James Calvert Spence College

th On 28 ​ June JCSC opened its doors to the community and families and friends of the school to enjoy ​ the annual DT and Art Exhibition ‘Create’. Made up entirely of work from students Year 8 to Year 13 it showcases the amazing talent and imagination of our young people.

During the evening over 150 guests enjoyed the array of design and artistic skills on display - from hand carved stools, to fused glass mobiles; from contemporary lamps to fine art and fashion. Complete projects were displayed, from inception to final production and the full extent of the effort and work that has gone into every single piece of work was on view, enabling visitors to fully appreciate the level of commitment from both student and staff to achieve the end results.

Paintings, sketches, collages, ceramics, wood, design, catering…all were on display to be enjoyed and sampled and the positive feedback is very rewarding for JCSC:

“The variety of exhibits-the talent on show is amazing. There are pieces I could see people wanting to pay money for.”

“I liked everything. This was an awesome event. It was fantastic to see such a variety of different styles and even better to know they were all done by pupils in the school!”

“Amazing work….amazing food. Everyone made to feel so welcome”

“We have so much enthusiasm, talent and skill at JCSC across students and staff”, said Mr Steve Thompson, Head of Design and Technology at JCSC, “ Seeing it culminate in a breath-taking and impressive exhibition, is so very satisfying for us all and makes us proud to be part of the school. Well done to everyone involved.”

Northburn Primary School

Based on bridge construction, STEM week was developed to provide an opportunity for creative, cross-curricular work. In addition, the STEM project was designed for pupils to engage in hands-on exploratory learning through a series of bridge structure challenges. Civil engineers BAM Nuttall, who are one of the UK’s top contractors, build a wide variety of structures and are attached to the school to support the development of STEM. In June 2017, BAM Nuttall engineers supported Northburn pupils in the construction of a model suspension bridge during STEM week.

Constructed by pupils in upper key stage 2, the suspension bridge is one of the tools the ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) use to raise the profile of civil engineering and to encourage pupils to join the industry. Informing and educating pupils about the skills required in engineering, the construction of the suspension bridge is designed to teach pupils about working in a team and the importance of communication.

The principle aim of the bridge building was team-work, creating a balance between teacher-talk and pupil activity. Pupils acknowledged that in order to succeed, co-operation was fundamental. An overarching ​ bridge structure challenge Encompassing Northburn’s STEM week was the overarching bridge structure challenge. Beginning with key stage 1, pupils reported their findings to the next key stage, ensuring that all pupils each had a role within the project. Completed by years 5 and 6, the final build involved constructing a bridge of straws that had to support the crossing of five ozobots. Throughout the week, additional construction challenges allowed pupils to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills. Identified on the School Improvement Plan, these skills have been recognised as a priority to develop within mathematics and across the curriculum.

Allowing pupils to be creative, solve problems and express ideas using a range of practical materials, the construction based challenges provided excellent opportunities to develop these skills. Moreover, they presented pupils with the opportunity to develop important study, work and life skills, including inventiveness and a chance to think outside of the box. ● Problem solving, creative and analytic thinking ● Consideration of the legitimacy and relevance of sources of information ● Perseverance, resilience, motivation and the ability to overcome disappointment ● Reflection and evaluation, to edit and revise ● Use of a range of real-life tools

Outcomes of the STEM week: ● Pupils learned to develop resilience and reasoning. ● All pupils worked successfully in their roles as part of their engineering team; they thrived on the opportunity to offer solutions to the construction challenges. ● Pupils were enthused about opportunities in engineering, pupils were able to have direct conversations with BAM Nuttall engineers.

Ponteland Middle School

At PCMS, we are incredibly proud of our 2016/17 SATs results. PCMS appear to have raised the bar once again, improving on excellent results from last year. The parents, children and Key Stage Two [KS2] team are incredibly proud of their achievements in the classroom, but PCMS is about so much more than just academic success. The curriculum has been brought to life and staff have worked incredibly hard outside the classroom, to ensure that pupils get a first class overall educational experience and that staff form relationships that only serve to enhance motivation, inspiration and engagement in the classroom.

KS2 pupils have enjoyed trips to Barcelona, London, Ford Castle and a WOW week with days out across the North East, creating lifelong memories. They have experienced day trips to Cragside, the Theatre Royal, the Pantomime, the Discovery Museum, a Y6 post SATs team building day, a trip to The Live Theatre for creative writing workshops and theatre visits to see The Railway Children, Gangsta Granny and Running Wild.

Back in school, KS2 pupils have also participated in the Listening Bus, the Christmas Fayre, Summer and Christmas concerts, including the Year 5 play, swimming galas and sports days. A greater understanding of the world and its past has been encouraged by the Greek week, a stranded project, the Summer Scrap Book project, Tudors and World War 2 box of treats and a World War 2 day. English has been further enhanced with visits from authors David Almond, Abi Elphinstone and Liz Harker and caricaturist Kev Sutherland from the Beano. They have taken part in activities to celebrate World Book Day and Roald Dahl Day and entered BBC Radio Two’s 500 word competition. They also participated in an in-house creative independent writing competition with books as prizes. In Mathematics, all pupils took part in The Primary Mathematics Challenge. The pupils have helped to raise money through charity events such as Comic Relief, Sports Relief, Children in Need, the Ponteland Lions’ Swimarathon and fully support Wanga Primary School in Kenya.

KS2 pupils have also enrolled in extra-curricular activities before, during and after school, which often amount to 30 hours of extra provision per week. Activities cover a broad range of interests from sport and music to Comic Book club, Chess, Games club, Active Lunches, Pupil Council and an Eco team. In KS2 and KS3 more than 60% of pupils regularly attend sports clubs alone, across 15 sports, run by twelve members of staff. They have represented the school in 10 sports, winning 5 School Games area competitions, the skipping festival, the area Cross Country winners for 4 teams; becoming County Champions in Quad Kids Athletics and Hockey, regional finalists in the basketball Hoops for Health and National finalists in girls’ football.

On top of homework and busy lives outside school, our pupils have shown incredible commitment and resilience to achieve such outstanding results. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of them.

Ponteland High School

Rowing team get through to the Finals!

On Sunday 30 April 2017, five Ponteland High School Year 9 students competed in their first Regatta for Tyne United Rowing Club at Chester-le-Street. This comes after only rowing for a period of 8 months.

The five girls: Sophia Riley, Anna Styles, Lucy Cardno, Elizabeth Quigley and Amelia McKenna (Cox) competed in a quad. They entered the U14 age group and had to row a 900m course. They finished second by 100th of a second in a close race but still qualified for the finals.

Junior Championships 14 - 15 July in Nottingham

The Year 9 girls also completed in the doubles with Sophia Riley and Elizabeth Quigley winning their race. Lucy Cardno and Anna Styles also competed as a pair in the doubles.

Doubles 1st Place ​ Sophia Riley and Elizabeth Quigley

Ponteland High Twins selected to represent Team GB at the European Championships!

Ponteland High’s Jack Anderson and his twin sister Georgia Anderson (Year 10 students) recently competed in the GB trials for Pentathlon GB Biathle Championships (this is a Run/Swim/Run continuous event).

The trials were aimed at team selection for the European Championships and not only did they both make the national qualifying times for Under 17 Boys/Girls but they also finished in the automatic selection positions. As a result they have both been selected to represent Team GB at the European Championships in Portugal in July of this year.

Ponteland High’s Rachel Bogan, Year 9, represents Northumberland in Badminton Tournament

Year 9 student, Rachel Bogan, represented Northumberland U18 County Badminton team in this year’s Badminton England U18 Inter County Badminton Tournament held over 4 days at Nottingham University. All Counties in the country participated with Rachel and the team winning several of their matches. th Northumberland came 27 ​ this year. ​

In addition, Rachel has recently received a grant from Sport Newcastle in recognition of the progress she is making; this funding will contribute to her badminton coaching and tournament entry costs.

Ponteland High’s Libby Arkless is Judo National Champion

On Saturday 22 April Libby Arkless, Year 10 student at Ponteland High, took part in the British Judo Association National Championships.

Libby represented Ponteland High School and came away with the Gold Medal. She showed great resilience and determination, and was duly crowned the British School’s National Champion in Judo for Years 10 and 11 (under 57kg).

Libby outclassed the other players on every level and her competitive streak and sheer will to win certainly came through on the day. Libby’s PE teacher and Head of Year, Miss Tilley commented, “This is no surprise to me at all. Libby has huge potential and a steely edge that will serve her well in years to come. We are all very proud of her.”

Scremerston First School

Cerys, together with friends Isabella, Esmay and Kiera, asked if they could organise an Own Clothes ​ Day and Cake Sale at school in July in aid of a good cause. We were delighted to agree to this request. The money raised will support Cerys's mum, Deborah Bowden, who is undertaking a Fortitude Challenge in aid of mental health charities. She will be climbing the tallest mountain in England, cycling 100 miles and running 13 miles. The girls are organising the fundraising day at school and have made posters to display and written a letter to the parents to explain the event. Before the event they will talk to all the children in school during assembly to explain about the charity they are supporting and the event they are organising. We are very proud that the girls are organising this event themselves for such a worthwhile charity.

Seaton Sluice First School

Seaton Sluice First School is a 'Singing School'. We were awarded the Sing Up Gold award in May 2015. Over the past two years we have developed and refined many of our singing school strategies and just this week we heard that we have now been awarded the Sing Up Platinum award. This award is not held by any other school in Northumberland.

In order to achieve the award we have had to demonstrate our singing and how we link it to the community; how we encourage children to use technique/controlled singing and warm ups; how we have had an impact on other schools through sharing our singing.

Our children and staff love to sing and, in February 2015 we had our Ofsted inspection, the inspector commented that singing is at the heart of the school.

Shilbottle Primary School

At the beginning of March 2017, in collaboration with the Highlights Rural Touring Scheme, 25 pupils ​ ​ in Year 4 at Shilbottle Primary had the opportunity to work alongside the international dance company ​ – Panta Rei.

They thoroughly enjoyed 2 workshops with dancers organised by the Norwegian Dance Company – “Panta Rei”.

The whole class performed their routine to the school and 10 pupils participated in an evening performance where they performed in front of a much wider audience as part of the ‘curtain raiser’ for Panta Rei before watching the evening performance ‘I wish her well’. ​ ​

Slaley First School

Over the last few years, the pupils at Slaley First School have taken part in the Golden Mile. This is a nationwide project, set up by The Olympic Legacy Fund, to encourage all pupils to participate in physical activities to promote personal fitness, health and well-being. Pupils record the number of laps of the school yard or field that they have walked or run every week. These are then recorded on a website that compares all the schools participating to see which school has walked the furthest each month. So far we have been first, second twice and third, which is an excellent achievement for a small rural school.

This academic year, we hadn’t intended to start this again, but the pupils have really missed the challenge so we reinstated the challenge in March. So far, every pupil in the school has walked or run 10 miles, so all are members of the 10 mile club. We have 8 members of the 25 mile club and 2 members of the 50 mile club. These numbers will increase in the next 3 weeks as we have a number of pupils who are almost at their next certificate levels and determined to reach their target before the summer break!

We are very proud of our fit and motivated pupils and very impressed by their achievements.

Our Golden Milers! The 25 Mile Club

The 50 Mile Club

Stannington First School

th On May 25 ,​ Stannington First School was awarded the International Eco-Schools Award, we can ​ now fly the Green Flag proudly on our flag pole.

Our Green Team have worked tirelessly to achieve this award, supported by the staff, Governors and parents. The award recognises and celebrates all the work that has been done by the school community to improve the school’s environmental performance and learning.

Recently we were awarded the ‘Good Diabetes Care in School Award’ – we are very proud of this award as it recognises the work done by everyone in school to ensure that all our children can enjoy their school experience safely.

Swarland Primary School

In a national educational atmosphere where academic standards seem to be the main measure of school success Swarland Primary School is endeavouring to achieve high standards and adhere to its commitment of ensuring pupils engage in a curriculum that is rich in new experiences, and one that increases the development of a wide range of skills.

Two new initiatives were introduced in September 2015, “Philosophy for Children” and “Forest Schools.” At first glance these areas could be considered polar opposites but in both aspects our pupils have been given increased opportunities to work collaboratively and to express their own views, opinions and ideas and both have had a positive impact on the levels of motivation, engagement and enjoyment of all our pupils irrespective of gender or academic ability and yes on improved academic attainment and progress.

Tweedmouth Prior Park School

During National Bike Week pupils from Tweedmouth Prior Park School in Berwick upon Tweed took part in the Hoof it to Hyderabad Challenge to raise money for Scottish Love in Action.

At the end of the week they had managed to cover 1,270 miles by cycling, scooting and walking around the school field each day. Six laps around the field is equal to 1 mile so that was 7,620 laps they completed!

Mrs Molloy, Headteacher, is pictured with the children who covered the most miles in their class.

One evening members of our families joined us as we completed our laps of the field.

Each class baked cakes to sell and you can see by the pictures that India was the theme.

We held a “Bling your Bike” competition and once again India was the theme

By the end of National Bike Week our children had raised £1,100 for Scottish Love in Action.

Tweedmouth West First School

At Tweedmouth West, learning in the outdoors is an integral part of school life. The children spend a day every week in our Forest School, where the curriculum is taught in a creative and active way.

Our field is looking very different this year, as we have had lots of new additions to our garden. With the help of Haggerston holiday park, we now have new raised beds, compost bins, and newly planted trees to add to our forest. With running repairs to our fencing, and the pruning of our orchard, our outdoor area is well maintained, and ready to go!

We were very fortunate to receive a generous donation of seeds from Berwick Garden Centre, which have now been planted, and are being well cared for by the hardworking Gardening Club. These children meet every week after school to do the hard work in the garden – planting, and weeding. This year, we earned our second Learning Outside the Classroom Mark (Silver) award. We are the only school in Northumberland to have this accolade, and we are very proud to say that we are ​ ​ ​ truly a school that loves the outdoors!

Pupils from Tweedmouth West receive commendation from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Year 4 children at Tweedmouth West devised and choreographed their own dance based on the theme ‘Let Battle Commence’.

This was the culmination of 10 weeks participation of a dance project under the tutelage of professionals from the Royal Ballet.

The inspiration for the dance was The Nutcracker, and Tweedmouth West’s dance was an interpretation of this linked to the events of the First World War.

80 schools from throughout England participated in the project, and Tweedmouth West were thrilled to have been judged runners up. They received a special commendation for their emotive dance.

The whole of Year 4 were delighted to attend a live broadcast of the Nutcracker ballet at Alnwick Playhouse, hosted by the Royal Ballet.

Wylam First School

March was brain tumour awareness month and Friday 31 March was the national ‘Wear a Hat Day’ in aid of Brain Tumour Research. Over 15 local businesses and organisations, including Wylam First School, embraced this worthy cause and raised in excess of £2,000 for Brain Tumour Research. Wylam First School pupils created some fantastic headwear for the day - some of our pupils even featured in a colour photo spread in the Hexham Courant modelling their amazing hats!

Thank you to all the schools who contributed articles and photographs for inclusion.

Compiled by Karen Davison