We were really fortunate to have poet and author Bernard Young work with us for a full day in school. He spent time teaching pupils about road safety as well as focusing on how to write a song or poem. Our Key Stage 1 pupils collaborated on a joint song which was fantastic and used by the Local Authority at a recent training event. The pupils in Key Stage 2, following input and support from Bernard and supported by Judith from the Durham Road Safety Team, worked on individual poems which they then performed at an assembly at the end of the day. The children were able to focus on road safety issues and produce some high quality work which we are sharing with our partner school, Escola Primaria in Mozambique. Our major project with them is around road safety as their school is on the bend of a main road and there have been many casualties in recent years. Miss Johnstone and Mrs Whitton taught some road safety lessons and helped staff plan further work when they visited in February. Our children are working on posters and leaflets which we will send, along with the poems and some high visibility jackets for them to use.

Celebration of Reading Day

7th June 2018

 Working with Adam...

This month we have all enjoyed working with our author-in-residence, Adam Bushnell. He has inspired each class with his creativity and encouraged children to develop their writing skills, whilst also teaching them more about the topics they have been studying in class.

In Reception Class, Ben said that "We learnt the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker. A magic door appeared in our classroom, we wanted to save the elves, but the door disappeared!"

The children in Year 1 created their own pirate adventure story through looking at artefacts and creating our own sea creatures! After his visit, they are all able to name many pirate weapons including a cutlass and a musket and they now have their own individual pirate names!

In Year 2 he inspired them to write adventure stories about a magical battle set in the Victorian times, combining their current topic on the Victorians and their class novel, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’.

In Year 3 they explored Egyption riddles. The children enjoyed discussing with Adam how to get through the booby traps set inside pyramids. They turned their learning into a great story which they completed for homework.

In Year 4 the children explored the history of Durham around 1000 years ago. They wrote their own detailed and entertaining conversation between a Durham inhabitant from a century ago and themselves, from the present day as they pictured travelling back in time to explore the links with our local area. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and learned a lot.

In Year 5 the children created an Aztec mythical creature. They drew their creature and described it's features. There was great discussion and debate around reading and writing descriptions, riddles and clues all to improve their writing

In Year 6 they learnt about descriptive language, similes, metaphors and also figurative language. Their writing was set in South America which linked perfectly with their topic work about mountains. The children thoroughly enjoyed their time with Adam and it has really inspired them with all aspects of their writing.

Finchale World Book Day 7th March 2018

Although the snow stopped us from getting into school on the actual day we still managed to celebrate World Book Day, just a little bit late! What a fantastic time we had. We came to school dressed as a character from a book or piece of writing we enjoyed. Mrs Lennox (Literacy Co-ordinator) introduced the day and Mrs Morton led our assembly which was interactive and great fun. She left us with an individual challenge to READ all or part of a book today. There was also lots of reading in classes and in Reception Class every time a bell rang they were going to READ.  

A huge well done to our pupils who took part in the Reading Agency and Libraries

"Animal Agents - Summer Reading Challenge 2017". Supported by the Arts Council England. 

Picture at the Top

Front row (left to right): Charley Y2, Lucy Y2, Harriet Y2

Back row (left to right): Ruby Y2, Izzy Y2 and Dominic Y2

Picture on Right

Rose Y1

Celebration of Reading Assembly 6th July 2017

Here at Finchale we are part of a Literacy Project with EEF (Education Endowment Foundation). Miss Kennedy is the Durham Consultant for the project and has been working with Mrs Lennox, Literacy Co-ordinator and our teachers. She came into school to spend the afternoon with our children at a very special assembly.

Miss Kennedy talked about how fantastic reading is and encouraged all of our pupils to read and write themselves. She left a gift for school - a book called "My Name is Book, An Autobiography" as told to John Agard. She was also very pleased to join forces with Mrs Lennox to judge the Extreme Reading Competition, the results will be announced at our Celebration of Reading Day.