EYFS loved it when our parents and carers came into school to do some Easter crafts with us.  We made some fabulous hats.

Date Time Event Monday 20 th  April All Day INSET DAY – School Closed Tuesday 21 st  April 8:30am Children return to school Monday 4 th  May All Day Bank Holiday – School Closed Wednesday 6 th  May 9:00am KS1/KS2 Healthy Minds, Happy Futures Workshop – Parents/Carers Invited   All Day Nursery/Reception Dress up as people who help us Friday 8 th  May 9:00am Y5 Class Assembly – Parents/Carers Invited Monday 11 th  May Mon-Thu Y6 SATS week & SATS Breakfast Friday 15 th  May AM Y5 Heritage Trail Saturday 16 th  May AM Y4 First Holy Communion in Church Sunday 17th – Thursday 21 st  May PM Y6 Trip to Rome Thursday 21 st  May AM Y1 Lighthouse Trip   Lunch Time Whole School - Taste of the Orient Celebration Lunch Friday 22 nd  May 9:00am Y4 First Holy Communion Celebration in school   2:45pm Y4 First Holy Communion Assembly – Parents/Carers Invited   3:15pm School Closes for May Half-Term Monday 1 st  June 8:30am Children return to school

Year 3 have had a lovely day to celebrate the end of a busy term. We have been to the library then the school disco followed by some Easter crafts. Happy Easter everyone! Year 3 went to our school chapel on Wednesday to spend time celebrating our recent RE topic: Listening and Sharing. The children read beautifully. Year 3 have been practising speed and agility skills this week in Badminton. The children are making good progress and we have now added a net to our lessons to practise basic rallies. Year 3 had a fantastic time celebrating St. Cuthbert’s World Book Day, dressing in a wonderful mix of book-inspired costumes, cosy pyjamas and fun onesies. What better place to spend part of World Book Day than in our fantastic school library, surrounded by so many great books! Year 3 enjoyed their first badminton session on Wednesday. The focus was on balance and control of the racket and shuttlecock. We worked towards hitting the shuttlecock over the net too.  Year 3 enjoyed a really interesting lesson on Monday when they took part in a taster session learning Arabic. They learnt how to pronounce the Arabic alphabet, made letters out of play-doh and tried on traditional Arabic clothing. Year 3 voted for a toy afternoon and own clothes to celebrate their full cube jar. They have loved spending time together playing and sharing toys. Year 3 have been learning about computer networks this week and have discovered all about how computer networks work and how devices in a network are connected together. We have also been on a scavenger hunt around the school to find parts of the school computer network! Year 3 have been learning about different levers and linkages in DT this week. We created our own examples of a bell crank lever and reverse motion linkage using card and split pins. Year 3 have made a fantastic start to our Performance Poetry unit in English. They have practised working in groups using volume and expression to perform different poems to the rest of the class and will move on to writing their own poems to perform next week!

On Thursday we had a fantastic Easter celebration. We showed of our dance moves, played fun games and enjoyed an egg-cellent Easter egg hunt. This week Nursery hopped and leaped into Easter Playing and exploring lots of Easter tuff trays. We used our cutting skills to make Easter chicks and palm leaves. We used the palm leaves when we acted out story of Palm Sunday- when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey with people waving palms to welcome him. Nursery sprung into the topic of Spring this week. We explored our artistic talents by painting beautiful daffodils and making our own flowers. We loved playing in our very own farm role play area where we can look after the animals, pick fruit and vegetables and even ride the tractor. We have had some special fluffy and furry visitors come to see us in Nursery. We were very gentle when holding and stroking the chicken, rabbit, and owl. We then had to be brave when we handled the slippery snake and bearded dragon. It was an amazing experience! We learned so much about where the animals live and what they eat. Nursery loved dressing as different story characters to celebrate World Book Day. We shared lots of magical stories all day and even had a story in the amazing Early Years Library.      Nursery have had so much fun learning about farm and farm animals. We worked together to create a farm outside and explored lots of farm animal activities. We mixed paints using our hands and created the perfect shade for our props to use in our very own Farm. We have enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year in Nursery.  We set up our own Chinese Restaurant and used chopsticks to eat the food we’d ordered.  It was very tricky! We even attempted to copy some Chinese writing. We loved dragon dancing and playing the musical instruments in the hall to beat of the Chinese music.   Nursery are really enjoying taking part in PE: balancing, jumping and moving in lots of different ways. Nursery were so shocked to see the naughty snowmen on the CCTV in our ‘Winter Wonderland’ throwing snowballs at the teachers. It was so much fun playing in our Winter Wonderland, we glided across our ice rink and enjoyed a hot chocolate and cake from our Hot Chocolate café. We also had fun moulding miniature snowman using playdough. We explored the topic of ‘Winter’ in Nursery. We researched all about different kind of artic animals and had fun playing with them in water and ice. We learned how to make ice and experimented with different ways to melt it. We enjoyed playing in the snow and made a igloo to keep us warm.

Year 1 have had a busy week preparing for Easter! We retold the events of the Resurrection, made beautiful cards to celebrate the good news that Jesus has risen, planned and took part in a Celebration of the Word, made fantastic Easter hats with our grown ups and still had time to dress up in our party clothes and have a brilliant time at the disco! Happy Easter, everyone! Year 1 have worked so hard in maths this week! We've been using part-whole models to split amounts in different ways and find the missing number in an addition calculation. We recorded our answers really carefully. Well done, Year 1! Year 1 have worked so hard this week, trying out a new challenge...mystery craft! They needed to use their reading skills, knowledge of shape and also positional language to follow the instructions to make a mystery picture. It was very exciting when the picture was revealed! Fantastic problem solving skills, Year 1! Year 1 have been brilliant artists this week! We looked at different artist's representations of rabbits, then created our own 'Picasso inspired' one line drawing of a rabbit which we turned into a print. We painted a background then printed our rabbits - the results were fantastic! Year 1 loved dressing up for St Cuthberts' Book Day! We made peg dolls and then created story maps to tell a story about them. There were some very weird and wonderful characters! Year 1 loved acting out the story of Rumpelstiltskin! This week we have read lots of different versions of the story and made some fabulous resources to support our role play! Year 1 had a brilliant China topic day, learning the traditional story of Chinese New Year. We investigated which materials we should use to make the puppets and the screen. We planned, made, tested and evaluated our brilliant shadow puppet theatres! Well done, Year 1! Year 1 have been investigating shadows this week, drawing amazing shadow pictures. We held the torch at different angles and recorded how this changes the length and size of the shadow. Fantastic partner work! Year 1 have been really busy this week thinking about measuring. We started by estimating a minute then we learned how to tell the time using the mini clocks! We also created our own version of the River Tyne and the Yellow River in China to show their different lengths.  Year 1 have had a brilliant start to our new school year, getting straight into our new 'China' topic! We loved dressing up to tell the story of 'Mulan' and finding out some facts about China.

We've had a great week in Reception celebrating Easter.  We've been on an Easter picture hunt and Easter egg hunt outside. We loved wearing our own clothes today for our disco and party games.  Reception enjoyed performing on stage and sharing the story of Palm Sunday with their families and the rest of the school.  This week we have also enjoyed learning about the features of Spring.  We painted some beautiful pictures of daffodils and named the parts of the flower. Reception have enjoyed drawing and building 3D castles as part of our new topic.  We thought of the features of a castle that we needed to include such as battlements, towers, drawbridge, moat, windows and arrow slits. They looked very realistic.  We are also painting cardboard to make our own castle outside that we can tell stories in. Reception class loved coming to school dressed as a story character or in their pyjamas for a bedtime story. We read lots of stories, sang rhymes and danced in the hall to celebrate World Book Day. Reception loved making their own jungle animal scene by cutting out the animals carefully.  We scrunched up, tore & cut paper to create different effects.  We have enjoyed learning new facts about jungle animals especially the elephants.   Reception class loved coming to school in their red and yellow clothes to celebrate Chinese New Year.  We enjoyed doing dragon dancing with Nursery and telling the story of the animal race.  We couldn't believe how cheeky the rat was who won the race and had the first year named after him. Reception enjoyed visiting St Cuthbert's church to look at where people go when they have special religious celebrations.  We looked at key features that we could see in church such as the altar, pews, lectern, tabernacle, crucifixes and the baptismal font. Reception have enjoyed listening to stories about Space this week, our new topic.  We have painted pictures of aliens and made very strange looking aliens with playdough.

Year 2 finished their D&T project on designing and building a Lunar Roving Vehicle toy. We looked previous designs and future concepts and created ours using working wheels and axels Throughout Lent, Year 2 have been reflecting by creating our Lenten display. Each week, we add a new item, giving us time to pause, reflect, and pray on a different aspect of this sacred season Year 2 loved their competetive PE session with Active Future! They had a great time learning new games. For Science Week, Year 2 joined the Live Lesson by NFU, where we learned the answer to lots of interesting questions about farming In Science, Year 2 learned about hygeine. We investigated which method of washing hands removed the most germs As part of the North East Festival of Languages, Year 2 welcomed GEMARTS, who led a wonderful workshop about making traditional Gujurati Kathputli Puppets Year 2 have been learning how to measure length in centimeters this week! Year 2 have been building boats in D&T. They needed to hold 5 cubes and float for 2 minutes. They did a fabulous job! Year 2 have been practising a liturgical dance to the song 'Burn Like a Star' Year 2 used a range of pencil drawing techniques ang pencil grades to create complete images of the Titanic. Year 2 have loved writing and sharing their hilarious 'Imagine' poetry this week! What a fun way to start the year.

Y5 took a trip to Newcastle Civic Centre for a language morning. We learnt all about the Yoruba language and culture. We listened to stories, discussed food, sung, danced, played the drums and got dressed up. It was quite the spectacular! Thank you to Victoria and her friends for this most welcome and informative workshop.   Year 5 enjoyed art and reading about St Cuthbert. We answered questions on Cuthbert's life and importance to our region (and school). We crafted 3D butterflies on script and painted kingfishers on canvas. The results were very good and displayed outside our classroom.  Y5 enjoyed their level 2 bikeability sessions, this week. They learned how to stay safe on the roads, whilst cycling. The instructors took them off-site and around our local area to put their learning into real-life scenarios.  Y5 enjoyed our World Book Day, last week. This week, we had a live talk regarding farming for science. We learned about the development of plants and animals and learned a new recipe linked to Eid.  Year 5 produced nothing short of masterpieces in art. There focus was unwavering as they develop the idea of symmetry in nature. They used charcoal pencils and oil pastels to create the identical half of an insect. The results were stunning!  Just before half term, Y5 completed their DT project. We used our computing skills to programme microbits to complete our electric guitars. As you can see, there were some fantastic results! Y5 enjoyed their final first aid session, this week. They have learnt many important life skills - from bandaging to chest compressions using Annie.  This week, Y5 furthered their knowledge of first aid by applying bandages. After the design phase in DT, we are starting to create our electric guitars.  In RE, Y5 have been investigating charities, and we used iPads to find out more about CAFOD and their excellent projects. We hope to create our own ideas for a charity, next.  Y5 have enjoyed programming microbits in computing. We created a beating heart symbol and a moving duck! We also started investigating news articles in preparation for our English task - Aladdin's disappearance. Y5 had to come indoors for PE this week due to the weather. We had a warm-up session, drills for passing and a small-sided game. The warm-up was intense and we incorporated speed, agility and quickness drills. We learned two ways of passing and how to pivot.

Year 4 had great PE session practising teamwork and playground styles games they can use over the Easter Break. Lots of us trialled them durin gour breaks this week! Year 4 loved their Teddys and PJ cube jar day. The also enjoyed taking part in KS2 re-enactment of the Easter Story! Year 4 loved their active futures session learning how to play a 'muggles' version of Quidditch! Sadly, there was no golden snitch to chase this time! Year 4 loved taking part in Bikeability this week. We learned how to give our bikes a health check and ride our bikes safely! Year 4 began their week with our Class Assembly all about 'The Common Good' and finished our week with a great time taking part in World Book Day! As well as this some Year 4 children also took part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation with Father John this week, taking the first step on their own Journey of faith. Year 4 are loving practising bump shots and hand positions in Volleyball this week! Year 4 have had a wonderful time making and creating this week. We have evaluated our sewing projects, edited our own images using IPads in computing and enjoyed a wonderful Art workshop as part of the Newcastle Festival of languages, creating Indian Kathputli puppets, and learning how to say colours and other phrases. We loved our introduction to Volleyball, practising our rainbow overhead throws and hand position. Year 4 have loved designing and making their own mobile phone cases in our DT sessions this half term. We have created templates, researched customer profiles and sewn prototypes of our designs. It's taken lots of patience and resilience! Some children even chose to use their skills to create and sew during Golden time too! Year 4 have loved putting their invasion game skills into games of Hockey this week! Their communication and teamwork skills were excellent! This week Year 4 have been learning the 11x tables in our Times tables race! We also loved practising control and invasion skills during Hockey this week. Year 4 have had a great first week back. We used maps to play games, locate different countries and their capital cities, during our Geography topic, Europe.

Safeguarding Champions are a student leadership group in our school who work together to discuss, lead and support other with Safety in and out of school. We meet regularly to discuss key topics, deliver assemblies, create resource, blog posts and create plans to have a real impact on our school and wider community. This years Safeguarding Champions

Check out the article about our recent CAFOD Live Simply Award! Pupils and staff, led by Mrs Anna Haighton, at St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School are celebrating after achieving the CAFOD Live Simply Award, recognising their commitment to living simply, caring for the environment and supporting communities locally and globally. https://diocesehn.org.uk/news/st-cuthberts-go-the-extra-mile-to-achieve-cafod-live-simply-award/

The children loved celebrating St Cuthbert's day in the sunshine, with Ice pops. See the Feast day message from Bishop Stephen, who is visiting our Parish this weekend, below. https://diocesehn.org.uk/news/feast-of-st-cuthbert-blessing-from-bishop-stephen/