Thank you to everyone who donated to Children in Need on Friday 13th. Children had fun dressing up and we raised an amazing £71.94

Over the past week, Class 2 have been learning about the reasons behind us wearing a poppy at this time of year. They painted beautiful poppies on rocks and laid them at the Cenotaph. On Remembrance Day at 11.00am, Class 2 held a ceremony at Hamsterley Cenotaph. The children all sang songs, spoke about why we have a Remembrance Day and laid our school wreath on the Cenotaph. All of the children were very respectful during the 2-minute silence.

Lest we forget.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As a school, we are developing our remote learning offer and have chosen to use Seesaw as our platform. Seesaw allows the teachers to assign work to the children and provide teacher input, instructions and templates that the children can use to complete the work set. The children can then upload their work to an online journal for their teacher to see and provide feedback on. The app can be used on phones, tablets and there is also a website which can be used if using a laptop or computer. We are beginning to introduce the Seesaw app with our children for homework activities and are gathering feedback from the children as to how they find completing different activities using the different types of technology. If you do not have the technology available to enable your child to access the app, please let us know and we will work together to find the best solution for your child.

Please click on the video below to find out more about how the app works.

Your child will receive a set of instructions which also includes a QR code and text join code – please use these to login to the app rather than using an email address. If you lose your join code, a new one can be produced by the school, please contact the school office.

Thank you to all of the children and parents for their generous donations, Bishop Auckland Food Bank were very grateful for everything they received. Happy Harvest!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Friends of the School have kindly donated sweets and treats for a Trick or Treat treasure hunt in school today. Children were invideted to come dressed in their scariest Halloween costume. They also donated a pumpkin for each of the children to design and carve.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Wally, Witches, Wizards and magic will all be in the air at The Bowes Museum over the October half term holidays.

There’s lots to do to keep everyone out of mischief with hours of fun for everyone ranging from our Drive-in Cinema showing the classics The Addams Family, Hocus Pocus and The Exorcist and if you’ love LEGO® then why not take part in a coding workshop to make your model come alive. On Halloween itself there’s a spooky family fun day where you can make a witch’s broom, create a potion or take part in a magician’s trail and watch Magic Andrew perform some tricks.

Bowes Museum Halloween Illustrated Leaflet

We celebrated Harvest Festival this week, everyone learnt about why we celebrate Harvest and we sang some Harvest songs. In art we have been looking at pictures by Gustav Kilmt, we are starting to make our own pictures!

We usually offer an E-Safety Session for Parents this term, however, due to the current situation we are just asking parents to keep their children safe whilst using apps.  There are age restrictions which you can usually find within the app’s terms and conditions. This is not the same as the app/google store rating.  The age limit for many popular social networking sites is thirteen. Some apps will have age limits of 18+ as they are exclusively designed for use by adults.          If children use apps that are aimed at an older age group then this may leave them vulnerable to being exposed to unsuitable content (including advertising), as well as being contacted by strangers. Many popular apps will have ‘help’ and ‘safety’ sections, either within the app itself or via its website. Some apps will even have content specifically designed for parents and carers.  Please visit www.saferinternet.org.uk, this website has some useful parent guides which highlight safety tools on popular devices, and signpost to report mechanisms.  If you require any further information or advice, please contact the school.

Virtual Open Evening videos for Teesdale School are available to view through the school website. There is an opportunity to meet the Head of School in addition to a promotional video for each department which can be accessed by clicking on the links in the virtual school map. Due to popular demand, the videos will remain on the website until the closing date for applications. Reminder – Closing date for Secondary Applications is 31st October 2020.