We love, value and respect each other

St Godric’s RC Primary School

Important dates for April 22.4.15 Y3 to Mass 22.4.15 Year 3 cup - 7 a side 23.4.15 Friends of St Godric’s meeting 6.30pm - everyone welcome 26.4.15 Mass for children preparing for FHC @ 9am 27.4.15 Y3 - IT Family Learning begins 28.4.15 Y1 to Outdoor and Adven-turous Activities am 30.4.15 FHC Session 7 - 3.15pm - 4.30pm

April 2015 Summer Term 2015

Dear Parents, I hope that you all had a lovely Easter and enjoyed the superb sunshine. Welcome to this half term’s edition of the newsletter. We look forward to seeing you at many of the dates mentioned in this is-sue.

School website

This has been exten-sively updated and is now also compatible with mobile phones. As well as containing a great deal of important information it also con-tains copies of the lat-est letters that have been sent home in case the original gets lost!

Friends of St Godric’s

These are a marvellous group of parents who work hard to raise money for our school. The money that they raise enables us to buy luxury items which the general school budget cannot afford. More mem-bers are always welcome!

The Summer Fair is being held on Sunday 5th July. It is a fantastic family occa-sion so please ‘save the date’, all help appreciated in the build up. There is a meeting for all those will-ing to help in any way on Thursday 23rd April at 6.30pm in St Bede’s Room. Please do come along! You will find further information on the back of this newsletter.

Important dates for May 1.5.15 Y6 and EYFS Class photos 6.5.14 Y4 to Mass 7.5.15 KS1 Tag Rugby festival wb11.5.15 KS1 and KS2 SATs week 13.5.15 Y3 to Mass 14.5.15 Y3 Mini Tennis competition 18.5.15 Y6 Healthy Cooking day 19.5.15 Mrs Welsh—the life of St Go-dric - Y2+KS2 19.5.15/20.5.15 Y6 PE Gifted and Tal-ented 19.5.15 10xY5 children to Robotic Challenge at FMPS 20.5.15 Ten Ten Theatre Company in –parents’ session @9am 20.5.15 Y6 to Mass 21.5.15 St Godric’s Mission Day 21.5.15 Y5/6 to Durham Cathedral 21.5.15 Y5 Parents’ meeting re Moor House residential 22.5.15 Quadkids - whole school 22.5.15 Half Term holiday begins

My Maths

This is a fantastic pro-gramme which we use in school with all children. All children are able to access this at home too . Their user name and password are stuck into their reading rec-ord or homework diary. Please encourage your child to access this at least once a week. Each week we will award a MyMaths Champi-on in assembly.

In this issue...

Page 1 Headteacher’s news Important Dates SATs Top Tips!

Page 2 Alleluia > Dance St. Mary’s Eggstra Exciting

Page 3 Durham Cathedral Spikey and Pip I Need a Hero! Fabulous Families Y3 at the Hancock! High 5 Netball Science Week

Page 4 FoSG news

Important future dates 2.6.15 Paul Cookson—poet in school 3.6.15 Y5 to Mass 4.6.15 Y6 to Robinwood for 2 nights 4.6.15 FoSG-Magician visit 3.15pm—5pm 6.6.15 First Holy Communion 10am 8/9.7.15 KS2 Performance 10.6.15 EY New Starters’ meeting 9.30am 12.6.15 KS1 Liturgy 2/3.7.15 Y5 to Moor House. 13.7.15 SPORTS DAY 14.7.15 Summer Music concert 16.7.15 School finishes for Summer Holidays

Keep a sense of perspective Have an early night Drink water Good breakfast—Y6 come

to Breakfast Club - 8.30am Don’t worry just try your

best.

Just before the end of last term, Year Two helped to make the Easter Gar-den with Mrs Hoban and Mrs Nichols. To start the activity Mrs Nichols talked to us about the story of Easter and Mrs Hoban explained what all the colours and plants represented. We all worked in pairs and took turns to add or paint something for the garden. As we finished our turns we were each given a ‘Thank You’ prayer card to remember what we had done. The first job of the morning was to paint the tomb and the stone. Next we planted some dark plants on one side of the tomb. The dark col-oured side of the garden was to rep-resent the sadness and pain that Jesus suffered. We also put in some

cactus plants to remind us of the crown of thorns that Jesus had on his head. On the other side of the garden we planted pretty, colourful plants to show how happy everyone was after the Res-

urrection. There were white, yellow and pink flowers. To complete the garden a spear was put beside the tomb and a white cloth was put inside of it. Three crosses were also fixed at the side of garden.

We all really enjoyed ourselves and by the next day the Easter Garden was in the hall for all the Parish family to en-joy. Thank you so much to Mrs Nichols and Mrs Hoban for sharing their time with us in Year Two!

PAGE 2 ST GODRIC’S RC PRIMARY SCHOOL SUMMER TERM 2015

On Tuesday 24th March, Years 5 and 6 took part in a dance workshop from ‘More Than Dance’. We learned four dance routines: a dance performed by Year 5, a dance performed by Year 6 and two danc-es performed altogether. The danc-es were all centred around different parts of the Easter story and made us think about the true meaning of Easter and why we celebrate it. Many of us enjoyed the workshop and came closer to God. Not only was it religious education, it was a great P.E. lesson! Phoebe & Eva

The children in Early Years are cur-rently on ‘chick watch’ as we ea-gerly await the new additions to our classroom, hatching from their eggs one by one. At time of going to press there are two very cute and rather chirpy little chicks mak-ing lots of noise in the incubator. We are hoping the other 8 will join us soon! The eggs arrived on Monday and

will stay with us for 2 weeks before

finding a new home.

Last term Years 3 & 4 visited St, Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle. When we ar-rived, our guide David told us about the crypt. This is where bishops and priests can be buried. It was really interesting to hear that for many years the entrance to the crypt was a mys-tery. The entrance to the crypt was only discovered a few years ago. We were very lucky to attend midday Mass, which was very well attended by the parish of St. Mary’s. Roisin and Henry were chosen to carry forward the gifts for the offer-tory procession, “It was really exciting to do the offertory, but also nerve wracking,” said Henry. After lunch we split into two groups

and had a guided tour of the Cathe-

dral. It was really interesting to find

out about all the different parts of the

Cathedral – including its history.

We were fascinated to learn that the Cathedral was designed by Pugin; the same architect that designed the inte-rior of the Houses of Parliament. We found the stories behind the

stained glass windows amazing.

We were particularly taken with the window in honour of Adam Wak-enshaw, a brave soldier in World War II, who was awarded the Vic-tory Cross. Having been shot at, he continued to fight against the enemy until he couldn’t

fight anymore. Wakenshaw was a member of the Durham Light Infantry and his story and machinery can be seen at the DLI Museum in Durham. There were two windows that had

plain glass. Our guide, Margaret, told

us that during World War II the win-

dows were destroyed in a bombing

raid. They are to be replaced with

stained glass in the future – who

knows what story they will tell?

Year 1 really enjoyed their trip to Durham Cathedral this month. As part of our history and geography topics, we have been learning about important places that are on our doorstep so our trip to Durham Cathe-dral was really interesting. Our first stop was to visit the Shrine of Saint Cuthbert. Then, as we walked around the cathedral, we learnt all about his life. We even got to dress up and act the

story out! Did you know he start-ed life as a shepherd before end-

ing up as the Bishop of Lindisfarne? We also got to visit the Lego cathedral. It was interesting to see how people have come from all over the world to lay a Lego brick and help raise money for

the Cathedral. When we got back to school we

enjoyed retelling the story of Saint

Cuthbert’s life in our Literacy les-

sons.

Netball Club begins on Monday 20th April. If you are in Y5 or Y6 and want to learn more about this sport then come and join in the fun. KS2 yard 12.30pm. Don’t forget your P.E. kit!

Last term Year 3 visited the Hancock Museum in Newcastle to discover more about Ancient Egyp-tians. We spent the morn-ing in the Egyptian Gallery working in small groups to explore the exhibits and find out the answers to questions and puzzles in our booklets.

PAGE 3 ST GODRIC’S RC PRIMARY SCHOOL SUMMER TERM 2015

The Early Years class pet guinea pigs, Spikey and Pip, have really enjoyed staying with different children in Early Years each week-end since they

joined our class in September. There is now an opportunity for anyone else in the school to borrow Spikey and Pip for some guinea pig cuddles! If you would like to take a turn at look-

ing after Spikey and Pip, they are free

over the Bank Holiday weekend in May,

over half term and then each weekend

in the run up to the Summer holidays.

They are also available if anyone would

like to look after them over the Sum-

mer holidays. If you are interested in

any of those dates, please get in touch

with the office.

We are hoping to organise a Science week in school. It will be week begin-ning 29th June. If any parents are able to help us with this or know anyone else who can, then please contact the school office for more information. Thank you.

Last half term, the children in

Early Years were learning about families. We were very lucky to be visited by three won-derful mums who told us all about their jobs. We got to

take part in a fun yoga session as well as finding out all about how our bodies work and how

special people can help to take care of us if we go to hospi-tal. Thank

you so

much to

Mrs Robertson,

Mrs Davies and

Mrs Robinson!

Whether it’s running or jumping St. Godric’s are

sure to do it, but today it’s dancing!

Year 5 went to Durham to enjoy a dance festival.

The monsters looked terrifying with their green

hair and nasty smiles, while the heroes looked ab-

solutely amazing. Kings and Queens were looking

royal and the witches looked dark and evil.

When we got there, everything went over in a

flash...Then it was our turn. Everyone looked nerv-

ous. We all got into our positions—show time!

Maria

After lunch and a brief return to complete our Egyptian experience, we explored the rest of the amazing collections in the rest of the Mu-seum.

Dear Friends,

Thanks very much for your support last term – our Easter raffle, ‘name the bear’, and ‘bag2school’ collec-tions were all very successful! Well done to Beth Hammill who correctly named the Easter bear - and to all of you who won eggs in the Easter raffle.

Magician Night – Mr Windbags – Thursday 4th June (3.15pm – 5.00pm) Mr Windbags is coming to perform after school! You can buy tickets to see him - just complete the en-closed form and include £3.50 per ticket. This also includes a drink, sweets and a hot dog or veggie dog.

Summer Fun Day - Sunday 5th

July (1.00pm – 4.00pm) We’re starting to make plans and put arrangements in place for our fun day. Our next meeting is at 6.30pm on Thursday 23rd April in St Bede’s Room- please come along and give us your support. We know that some of you like to have some idea in advance of collections for the fun day, so here is our planned list:

Start saving your empty jars now! We’ll soon be collecting filled jars to be used as prizes on the children’s tombola stall. They are clean empty jars, filled with sweets, unused party bag items, pencils, pens, cray-ons or felt tips, hair accessories or anything that you think would be enjoyed by a child. Closer to the time we will be asking for volunteers to help up set up for the fun day – and also to help on stalls – any help you can give will be much appreciated! Any time you can give is a help, but as a guide, we ask for volunteers for any of the following times, to help on stalls or with set up:

Thursday 2nd

July - 6.30pm onwards in St Bede’s Presbytery.

Sunday 5th July – 10.00am – 1.00pm, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, 2.00pm – 3.00pm, 3.00pm – 4.00pm

School uniform collections

We are starting to collect any second hand school uniform that you no longer use. This is to sell at our Summer Fun Day. School uniform must be unmarked and in good condition – just drop it off at the school office for the attention of Jenny Collins and we will collect it from there.

www.easyfundraising.org.uk

Finally, don’t forget to use http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/ when doing any online shopping. A percent-age of the money you spend is given by the retailer to our school – at no extra cost to you! It’s easy to use – just select ‘I want to support a Good Cause’, then enter ‘Friends of St Godric’s into the ‘Choose a Good Cause’ box and click on ‘Find’. The rest is straightforward, but if you do need any help, please email us - friendsofstgodrics@gmail.com

Get in touch If you have any questions – or suggestions – please get in touch. You can now email us - friendsofstgodrics@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Week commencing 1st June Chocolates and sweets

Week commencing 8th June Toiletries and baskets

Week commencing 15th June Bottles

Week commencing 22nd

June Soft toys and games

Week commencing 29th June Books

Friday 3rd

July Home baked cakes and biscuits