Date: 07/01/2021
By Melanie Hinson, Principal at Bishop’s Primary School (part of the NCEA Trust)
Primary schools play a vital role in a child’s development. From reading their first words and counting to 10 through to the development of key skills such as communication and social interaction, primary school is the foundation stone of a child’s education.
Developing a love for learning from an early age can be crucial to ensuring your child’s future success, which is why choosing the right environment to help shape and nurture your child’s individual talents is crucial, but with so many schools to choose from, where do you start?
We understand that a child starting full time school can be an anxious time for parents. How do you know which school will best suit your child’s needs? Which school has the most interesting curriculum? Where will your child feel happy and cared for? – All perfectly rational questions. Unfortunately, as we enter 2021 still very much in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic, for this year’s school intake, there is yet more for parents to consider.
How schools are responding to the virus in order to keep pupils safe should be a deciding factor when choosing your child’s prospective school. At Bishop’s Primary School, we continue to follow the guidance issued by the Department for Education closely to ensure the safety of our staff and pupils.
In the instance of a positive Covid case, we have worked in collaboration with staff and parents to quickly isolate the affected bubbles and switch to remote learning so that our pupils’ teaching hours are not affected by the need to self-isolate.
Keeping school as ‘near to normal’ as possible for our children is really important to us as we understand the impact that disruption to a child’s routine can have to their mental and physical health and wellbeing, as well as their personal and academic development.
As part of the Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (NCEAT), our culture of high support and high expectation is echoed throughout all our schools. All Trust pupils are encouraged to become creative, independent thinkers with a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge, as well as responsible members of their local community. Our strong working relationship with Dukes Secondary creates an organic learning pathway that children can follow from our ‘Two Year Old’ provisions and Nurseries through to Sixth Form.
While the new academic year won’t start until September, the deadline for primary school applications is only just over a week away (15 January for schools in Northumberland).
For more information about the campuses within Bishop’s Primary School and the NCEA Trust specifically, please visit www.ncea.org.uk or contact us on 01670 816111. We will do all we can to support you through this process, by answering any questions or helping you to complete the online application form.
To apply for your child’s place for September 2021 please go to https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Education/Schools/School-admissions-places-appeals-1/Reception-entry-applications.aspx.
Pupils at a Primary School in Ashington, South East Northumberland, have quizzed their way into the Top 100 in a nationwide maths competition to find the country’s ‘Times Tables Rock Stars’.
The Year 6 pupils from Bishop’s Primary School’s Thomas Bewick Campus placed 66th overall in the virtual contest, which saw entries from over 30,000 primary and secondary schools across the UK.
The children, aged 10-11, worked incredibly hard over the course of the week-long competition, using their break times, lunch times, evenings and weekends to log into the online platform to answer quick-fire multiplication questions against the clock to score points for their school.
Having been challenged by teachers to aim for the top 500, staff at the school were overwhelmed at the dedication shown by the pupils to keep climbing the charts.
Jessica Williamson, Head of Campus at Thomas Bewick, said:
“We have been using the Times Tables Rock Stars programme for a couple of years to help support our pupils’ knowledge of mathematical times tables.
“Because it’s like a game, the children love it and get really competitive within their classes and year groups. When we saw that the company who develops the programme was launching a national competition, we spurred the children on to aim for the top 500, never dreaming that they would get so into it!
“Within days, they’d hit the top 500 target, so with a bit more encouragement and the promise of a socially-distanced school disco in the New Year, we challenged them to aim for the top 200. When they soared past that goal, I said that they could have a disco and a McDonald’s Happy Meal each if they got into the top 100, and here we are!
“We’re so incredibly proud of what the pupils have achieved. They all worked so hard and the progress that they’ve all made with their maths skills is incredible. Their quick recall ability is well above average for their age group and they’ve really grown in confidence, even when tackling tricky topics like fractions.”
Bishop’s Primary School, which has campuses located throughout Ashington, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and Lynemouth is part of the wider Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (NCEAT); which also includes Castle School, Duke’s Secondary and Warkworth C of E Primary School.
Alan Hardie, Chief Executive Officer at NCEAT, commented:
“Across all of our Trust schools, pupils are encouraged to ‘Let their light shine’ (Matthew 5:16) and to aspire to be the best that they can be. What the Year 6 pupils have achieved in the Times Tables Rock Stars competition is the absolute embodiment of our vision and we couldn’t be more proud! A huge well done to all of the pupils and staff involved!”
To find out more about Bishop’s Primary School, click here.
Staff at Duke’s have shown their generosity by donating 131 advent calendars to Wansbeck Valley Food Bank. The ‘Nurture at Duke’s’ group, which holds an annual winter food collection, decided to kickstart this year’s activities early by asking staff to donate advent calendars – which were gratefully received by the Food Bank this week.
Nurture is now collecting long-life foods, tinned products, toiletries and other items we may buy over Christmas period, such as boxes of biscuits and chocolates for its main food bank donation.
If you would like to contribute to the collection, you can send in any donations into school with your child to be handed to their form teacher.
Deadline for donations = 7 December.
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us and due to Covid-19, many families are facing hardship, with some struggling to make ends meet. To make sure no child misses out this Christmas, the Wansbeck Christmas Campaign has been set up so that every child in the NCEA Trust, irrespective of where they live, receives a gift for Christmas.
If your child(ren) would benefit from this appeal, please send a private message to the Wansbeck Christmas Campaign Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/WansbeckChristmas) or text 07934 482883 with the following information:
Always remember: As a member of the NCEAT community, whether you are staff, a parent or a pupil, we would never want to see you struggling. Whatever the issue, feel free to email communitysupport@ncea.org.uk and if we can help, we will.
We’re delighted to reveal our new look sixth form provision! JBVI has been rebranded to ‘Duke’s Sixth Form’ as part of a Trust-wide project to look at how our schools and campuses are viewed in the community.
As part of the project, we have a fantastic new promotional video to share with you (see below). Watch this space for more exciting announcements coming soon!
