Our children took part in a range of activities to explore what bullying is and how they can deal with it and deal a range of situations. The children discussed what they could do to help each other and they were able to link this to our school vision. We were very impressed with their mature discussions around these sensitive issues.
Supporting our children’s emotional wellbeing and developing their positive mental health is very important to us at Grace Darling. Being happy and comfortable helps us to be in the right mindset to learn. World Mental Health Day was on October 12th and we decided to have a drop-down week where the children would be able to work on strategies to support their wellbeing.
We had a range of activities such as Yoga, mindfulness, walks, writing worry leaves (which the children loved ‘blowing away’) and creating our own positive affirmations. We also had some special guests from the If you care, share Foundation who worked across the school with all children in Y1-6. They discussed feelings and identifying different emotions in ourselves and others. The children recognised that we don’t all share the same feelings and spent a lot of time working on how we can make ourselves and others happy when we may feel down. The children wrote down their happy thoughts which are now stored in a treasure chest in each classroom and any time they need to reflect on these, they are given time to do so. The children were also delighted to receive a positive mental health goody bag at the end of the week.
Last month, pupils at Grace Darling took part in a barmy fun run for the launch of Shaun the Sheep on the Tyne Learning Programme and to support and raise money for St Oswalds Hospice.
Not only the children but the teachers also took part, dressing up as sheep dogs and waiting for the children to pick up hose pipes and water buckets and soak them. Everyone had so much fun! The wonderful kitchen staff wore sheep masks and made shaun the sheep themed treats for all the children to enjoy.
Grace Darling aimed at raising £400 from this event for St Oswald’s Hospice but in fact raised a whopping £3,000! Well done all for your fantastic achievement. If you want to read more, take a look at the full article here – https://www.shaunonthetyne.co.uk/sunshine-smiles-and-whole-lot-of-sheep/
On Friday 5 th May 2023 pupils at Grace Darling were invited to come to school wearing their favourite red, white and blue outfit to celebrate King Charles III Coronation. The miserable weather did not dampen the spirits and children enjoyed their picnic lunch and street party together. Throughout lunch our fabulous musicians played traditional music bringing a real sense of pomp and circumstance to the day.
ollowing lunch the children came together along with the musicians to sing our coronation song and the National Anthem. Throughout the day the children completed a range of coronation activities including making flags, creating water colour stamp designs, traditional garden games and craft activities. Throughout the day staff painted children’s faces and an unexpected visit from the ice cream man finished the day on a high note.
Today in school is ‘All you need is love’ day. Children across the school are sharing stories, completing activities and discussing key themes including: valuing diversity, celebrating difference, being unique, gender, different family same love, acceptance and understanding.
What do you aspire to be? A question children at Grace Darling have been thinking about a lot this week as part of National Careers Week.
Throughout the week, children have been thinking about their future careers and exploring the qualities and qualifications needed to complete each role. Children have each completed a career passport, exposing them to six new careers and written questions to help them find out more about each role.
A huge focus of the week has been on challenging gender stereotypes in career choices and throughout the school children have dressed up, taken part in role play activities and participated in virtual visits with professionals from various sectors.
Click on any of the photos below to view images in a slideshow
Children in Year 4 at Grace Darling Primary gave their bikes an important safety check, dusted off their helmets and checked they fitted securely before working with Marcus from the Cycle Partnership to complete their level 1 Bikeability training in school.
Bikeability is the only UK Government recognised cycle training scheme funded by the Department for Transport and is designed to teach pupils the skills and confidence to cycle safely. Bikeability Level 1 aims to develop cycle handling in an off-road environment and prepare riders for cycling on the road.
Marcus was very impressed with the behaviour and positive attitudes displayed by all the children and thoroughly enjoyed his day at Grace Darling. Each child who took part successfully completed the assessment and will receive a Bikeability Level 1 badge and certificate.
Dear parents/carers,
It has been brought to our attention by a parent from one of our Trust schools that a suspicious looking email, seemingly sent by members of staff within the Trust, has been issued. The emails have a ‘zip file’ attachment and password to use to open it, however, this is not a legitimate email so please do not click on the attachment.
While a thorough investigation is still being carried out by our IT team, we can confirm that this is part of a wider cyber security issue which highly likely originated from outside of NCEAT, but is now having a direct impact on our own communications systems.
We have increased our internal online security as far as possible and are working with providers to ensure that as many of these potentially harmful emails are ‘filtered out’ of our network, however, if you do receive any suspicious looking emails, claiming to be from Grace Darling Primary, please do not click on any links or attachments and mark the email as ‘spam’.
To help you to identify a potential scam, please see some guidance below:
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We are working as quickly as we can to resolve the issue. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
A new community reading service is helping to bring stories to life for pupils and parents at a primary school in South East Northumberland.
Designed to engage children in the concept of ‘reading for pleasure’, the weekly Story Club at Grace Darling C of E Primary School in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea explores different ways to access stories, such as through local libraries and also online.
The popular sessions are hosted by representatives from the Community Reading Partnership, a new initiative which has seen a number of community hubs created within the local area, designed to improve people’s mental health and wellbeing through encouraging them to read.
While Story Club is available exclusively to pupils and parents of pupils who attend the school, the community hubs are open to all and welcome readers of all ages to each session, who come together to talk about reading, discover new books, meet likeminded individuals and find escapism through literature.
Mrs Sharon Cole, Co-Headteacher at Grace Darling C of E Primary School, commented:
“Reading is a huge part of our curriculum at Grace Darling so getting involved with the new Reading Partnership programme within Newbiggin was a great fit for us.
“From the moment that our pupils enter Nursery, we actively encourage interaction with stories and nursery rhymes and it is our ambition that by the time our children leave Year 2, they are all fluent, independent readers.
“Our pupils are all really enjoying their weekly Story Club and it’s wonderful to see so many parents coming along to participate in the sessions too, many of whom are also accessing the community-based Reading Partnership sessions and taking that little bit of time for themselves to focus on their health and wellbeing.”
The Community Reading Partnership was pioneered and continues to be part-funded by Ann Cleeves, best-selling author of the popular detective series, ‘Vera’.
Having delivered a keynote speech at the Regional Public Health England Conference about the therapeutic value of reading and its ability to improve people’s health and wellbeing, Ann joined forces with Local Authorities and Public Health England to get the Community Reading Partnership off the ground – creating 9 new roles for Community Reading Workers within the North East alone.
Jane Sampson and Sarah Carlson are the Community Reading Workers responsible for the sessions hosted around Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. They said:
“It has been wonderful getting to know the staff, pupils and parents at Grace Darling Primary as well as members of the wider community within Newbiggin over the past few weeks and we’re delighted to see already the impact that the sessions are having on people’s confidence and wellbeing.
“Our reader-centred approach is designed to support readers of all ages and abilities to discover new titles which appeal to their interests, and help them to relax and unwind in a safe and welcoming environment.”
For more information about the community reading sessions at The Hive in East Lea and the Arts Centre in Newbiggin, on Front Street and Gibson Street, contact read@northumberland.gov.uk. To find out more about Grace Darling C of E Primary School, visit www.gracedarling.ncea.org.uk.
On this website we use first or third-party tools that store small files (cookie) on your device. Cookies are normally used to allow the site to run properly (technical cookies), to generate navigation usage reports (statistics cookies) and to suitable advertise our services/products (profiling cookies). We can directly use technical cookies, but you have the right to choose whether or not to enable statistical and profiling cookies. Enabling these cookies, you help us to offer you a better experience.