It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the Autumn term already! What a busy one it has been! Lots of hard work in all the classes across the school, well done to children and staff! During the season of Advent we have been preparing for Christmas through our prayers and reflections in our Journey through Advent. We have also supporting our local and global community during Advent. Our Mini Vinnies have been been busy supporting our local community, with collections for food hampers and the global community with the sale of games to purchase "Therapy through play" from Cafods World Gifts. Year 6 have sprinkled festive cheer to Darlington town centre with their singing of carols and a small group of Year 6 singers provided festive cheer to residents of Greencroft Court with their wonderful singing.
Our EYFS and KS1 Nativity "The Sleepy Shepherd" was superb with the children clearly enjoying the performances. The Advent liturgy "Stay Awake" led by our KS2 children in Church gave us the opportunity to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas with reflections, scripture stories and carols. Thank you to Mrs Pullen for accompanying the children singing by playing the piano. All the children across EYFS and both key stages made us very proud with the articulate reading, beautiful singing and superb acting!
Thank you to Mr Armitage for recording our EYFS and KS1 Nativity. Please access using the secure link below - please do not share on any social media platform. Enjoy!
https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/4974c105c8f166cab4f72fe5b48ce014671f1d9a?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.junoweddingfilms.com%2Fnativity2022&userId=3913906&signature=0fed89e8fd754766
Thank you to our team in the kitchen, Mrs Martin, Mrs Wicks and Mrs Binning for our scrumptious Christmas Dinner, our little elves thoroughly enjoyed the day and the lunch was amazing!
Thank you to family and friends for all your support this term, it has really been appreciated. Thank you for the generous fundraising to help us make Christmas magical for all our children. Thank you for all your kind and positive messages of support over the term. It is important to work in partnership with our families, placing the children at the centre of all decisions. Our Governors will publish their newsletter in the New Year so please keep an eye out for that in January.
From all the staff , governors and children at St Augustine's we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year. We look forward to welcoming you back to school 4th January 2023 Mrs Whitehead
Reception - This term, Reception have been very busy! We have had some very exciting visitors! Jet, Ben and Claire from Durham Constabulary came to visit us to talk to us about what they do to look after the community. Ben was very excited to see us and even wanted to sit with us! We even got to try on the different hats that the Police wear- they were very heavy and made us all laugh. We have also enjoyed learning and performing our wonderful Nativity show. We loved learning the songs and actions for our Sleepy Shepherd Performance and hope you did too. Finally, we really enjoyed Elf and Christmas Dinner day! We loved having Christmas dinner with our friends and pulling the Christmas crackers. Miss Barnard
Year 1 - What a busy term we have had in Year 1. We have looked at forces in Science and explored floating and sinking, we have created weather dances in PE and learned about different types of weather in Geography. Lately though, we have really enjoyed our Christmas activities, especially Christmas lunch. It was delicious. Mr Kentfield-Wells
Year 2 - Year 2 have a great term and worked really hard! This half term year 2 have enjoyed reading and exploring the novel ‘The owl who was afraid of the dark’ and learning about lots of different topics such as baptism in RE and all about weather in Geography. Year 2 have particularly enjoyed learning all about recycling in Science and deciding how we can do more to help the environment. Next term we look forward to forming our own recycling team and checking the rest of the school are doing their bit to help! We also really enjoyed our Christmas dinner and elf day! Miss Gibson
Year 3 - Another wonderful half term in Year 3. The children in year 3 have been working exceptionally hard in all areas of school life. The children have enjoyed learning about living things in science where we have investigated what our bodies need to stay healthy as well as the bones in our bodies. Miss Gilliland has enjoyed working with the children learning about different topics such as writing a story in English and about Visitors in RE. Multiplication has been an area in Maths that we have been working hard on, the children have been working on their 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 times tables! DT has been exciting for Year 3 this term where we have focussed on foods from around the world, the children have made their own Japanese fruit skewers in plum sauce as well as making tarts! The children were in particularly excited about PE this half term where we have been doing gymnastics. Well done on another amazing half term Year 3! Miss Gilliland
Year 4 - This Half Term Year 4 have been working on the book Leon and the Place Between. They really enjoyed the story and have written some lovely pieces of writing based on the book. In Maths, we have focused on Using Written Addition and Subtraction to solve problems, Finding Area and Using Multiplication and Division facts. In RE, we have learnt about Reconciliation and Advent. In Science, we have learnt about Animals Including Humans. We have particularly focused on teeth and the digestive system. In Geography, we have studied different coastal towns and the features that they have. In PE, we have been working on our Tennis skills. Year 4, have enjoyed working with the Mini Police this half term - learning all about Healthy Relationships and how to be a responsible member of the community. They have also been making great progress with their ukulele playing. Mrs Graham
Year 5 - Year 5 have had a fantastic fun-filled half term! On top of our many wonderful lessons of fractions, traditional tales, sound, Advent and basketball, the children have highlighted some of their favourite events from this half term. They have enjoyed swimming on a Thursday and doing investigations in science. Most children got really stuck in to our geography topic studying Tsunamis and enjoyed writing their newspaper report on the Japanese Tsunami of 2011. We have enjoyed the mini police coming in, especially the sessions trying uniform on and going litter picking in our local community. The children were also very engaged in their DT topic: building bridges. As we approached Christmas, the children worked very hard in their Advent liturgy, learning their advent songs. We have some very angelic singers in year 5 and we love to burst in to song, randomly in lessons! Christmas crafts and Santa dash are always a favourite at this time of year and the children have been fabulous trying to focus on work to produce good quality writing while also enjoying the creativity of the art activities. We continue our music lessons and have presented our Christmas songs to the Year 4's sharing our skills. Mrs Barr and all of year 5 would like to wish our friends and families a very merry and blessed Christmas. Mrs Barr
Year 6 - In Year 6 this term, we have been extremely busy expanding our knowledge of fractions, poetry and learning about the Japanese Tsunami in Geography. We have produced some amazing non chronological reports linked to our Geography work too. In Design and Technology, we were able to plan and make a starter for a three course meal, they were absolutely delicious. We have been great role models outside of the classroom too, we represented the school at a Sports hall Athletics Competition in the Dolphin Centre, as well as being asked to singing carols in the Market Place. We can't believe how quickly this term has flown and how much we have managed to fit in. We hope that you have a wonderful Christmas. Miss White and Mrs Coates
Winter Wonderland - A HUGE thank you for helping to make our magical winter wonderland such a success - from your kind and generous donations, your help and support and your encouraging words, we couldn't have done it without you! A big thank you to the Friends of St Augustine's for providing the children with hot chocolate and marshmallows and for helping Santa to wrap all of his gifts for the children! Picture's of our magical day will be shared with you in the New Year - the children couldn't have been more excited to meet the reindeer, warm up with their delicious hot chocolate and visit Santa in his grotto!
Mini Vinnies -Through selling the donated games and your tremendous donations, we raised an incredible £160 and can buy 8 therapy through play sessions. Thank you so much for all of your support and well done to the Mini Vinnie's!
Staffing Update - Congratulations to Miss Gibson who is expecting her first baby in the Spring term, due to commence maternity leave in March 2023. In view of Miss Gibson's news, we have successfully appointed Mrs Tucker who will take on the role of Year 2 class teacher from January. Mrs Tucker is an experienced practitioner who has worked across both key stages, including Year 2. Mrs Tucker will be a great asset to St Augustine's.
We are sad to say "Goodbye" to Mrs Graham but would like to say a huge thank you for her dedication and commitment to St Augustine's over the last 6 years and wish her all the very best in the future. Mr Cummins will take on the role of Year 4 class teacher from January.
Wraparound Care - Our before and after school club runs from 7.30am - 8.45am and 3.15pm-6.00pm. Breakfast club is £4.00 per child and after school club is charged at £8.00. Bookings can be made through Scopay - however if you have problems and it won't let you book due to being full, please contact the school office and we can confirm the booking for you. Children are offered a variety of games and activities in these clubs and we will always welcome and encourage new ideas! At morning club, breakfast is provided and after school club children will receive sandwiches and snacks.
Diary dates - A reminder of upcoming dates for your diary for next half term;
‘Friends of St Augustine’s’ - The newly reformed Friends of St Augustine’s will focus on creating enjoyable and exciting experiences for the children whilst also looking to support their educational needs. Their aim is to be an inclusive group always welcoming new input and ideas. There will be transparency with fundraising and how funds are spent for the benefit of the children and the school. The next meeting will be on Wednesday 11th January at 6.30pm in St Augustine’s Parish centre – agenda VALENTINE’S DISCO - All welcome!
Design a logo for the Friends of St Augustine's - Your children will be bringing home an entry sheet to enter the competition to design the new logo for the Friends of St Augustine's. All entries need to be handed in to class teachers or the school office by Friday 6th January. There will be a small prize for the best in each class and a prize for the overall winner. The winning design will be used on event flyers and other materials by the Friend's. Good luck!!
School Uniform is available to order directly through our supplier, Elizabeth's Embroidery. Just click on the link below to go to their website, this will take you straight through to the page to start the ordering process. https://elizabethsschoolwear.com/collections/st-augustine
Parking - Just a polite reminder that parents, carers and families are asked not to park in the school car park or in the resident permit parking spaces around the school. From January only family and friends who have a parking permit will be able to use our staff car park on drop off and collection.