We are extremely proud of our Year 5 children who had the wonderful opportunity to be invited to the Brass Band in Aspire event at The Glasshouse. Our children proudly took the stage and played in a special concert in Newcastle. The children were expectation in every way!

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.

A MASSIVE WELL DONE to the community of Grace Darling for helping raise over £3000 for charity.

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.