A primary school in Ashington has partnered with conservation experts from a local diving centre to help clean up one of South East Northumberland’s most popular beaches in the aftermath of the school holidays.

Pupils from Bishop’s Primary School, which operates as part of Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (NCEAT), teamed up with Blyth-based, The Fifth Point Diving Centre, to carry out the two half-day beach cleans.

As part of the experience, pupils also enjoyed a series of workshops where they learned more about how litter that finds its way into our oceans from our beaches can harm marine animals and people can do to help stop it.

The project forms part of a Trust-wide initiative to help NCEAT to reduce its carbon footprint.

Inspired by last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Trust’s CEO, Alan Hardie, set pupils a challenge in the form of a competition to come up with an idea for an ‘eco project’ which their school could complete independently to supplement the work already being done by the Trust to operate more sustainably and contribute towards its overarching corporate social responsibility goals.

The beach cleaning project for Bishop’s Primary School was the winning idea suggested by Year 5 pupil, Khloe Hunstone, who received a special award from the CEO for her conscientious approach to a topical issue impacting our local area.

Clare Marriott, Headteacher at Bishop’s Primary School, commented:

“We are very proud of the work our children and staff do in school to address environmental issues and the part they can play in reducing our carbon footprint.

“The children responded with great enthusiasm to the challenge set by Mr. Hardie and we had a wide range of ideas. The beach is close by and used by our community, so this was a fitting winner. It is also something we can continue to do regularly to sustain our efforts. Well done Khloe and the Year 5 beach cleaners!”

Over the course of the two days, 45 buckets of litter, which equated to 12 large bags, as well as two broken lobster pots, some fencing and some concrete blocks were collected and removed from the beach by pupils with support from teaching staff and the team from The Fifth Point.

Nic Emery, Co-Founder at The Fifth Point, commented:

“Young people are increasingly concerned with issues like climate change and the state of the oceans. The Year 5 pupils at Bishop’s Primary already knew so much about the impact of litter on animals. They had lots of stories to share about the things they do at home to try and reduce the amount of single use plastic they use and many were already regular beach cleaners.

“We were so happy to be able to help them learn more but most importantly take action and do something that is directly helping their local ocean and all the marine life that live there.”

Other projects currently underway by schools within the multi-academy trust as part of NCEAT’s green initiative include the expansion and redevelopment of the vegetable garden at NCEA Warkworth C of E Primary School to supplement the school kitchen, the creation of a wild flower garden and wildlife habitat on the grounds of Duke’s Secondary School, also in Ashington, and exploration into renewable energy sources as a means of powering part of the campus at William Leech C of E Primary School in Lynemouth.

Alan Hardie, CEO at Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust, added:

“We were blown away by some of the competition entries we received. The level of thought that the children had put into their ideas and their consideration of both the long and short term benefits of their proposed projects was really impressive.

“We’re delighted with the diversity of the winning projects as a collective and can’t thank the businesses who have come on board to support our schools with their implementation enough for their time and expertise. We hope that the children will learn a great deal about the importance of protecting our natural world through their experiences.”

For more information about Bishop’s Primary School, visit www.bishops.ncea.org.uk or to learn more about The Fifth Point Diving Centre, visit https://fifthpointdiving.com/.

We have been absolutely blown away by the EGG-ceptional painted eggs we’ve seen entered into our competition this year! Check out some of the CRACKING entries below!

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Between 4-8 April 2022, the library at Bishop’s Primary School in Ashington – part of Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust, will be transformed into an immersive ‘prayer space’ where pupils, staff and members of the community can come together to explore different elements of spirituality through the creative arts.

The event is part of the national ‘Prayer Spaces in Schools’ initiative – a project founded by the charitable organisation, 24-7 Prayer International, which is designed to enable children and young people of all faiths and none, all over the world, to explore spirituality and life’s ‘big questions’ in a creative and interactive way.

Groups of children from Bishop’s Primary School as well as staff from across NCEA Trust’s neighbouring schools as well as parents and carers have been invited to come along to the event where they can enjoy a range of reflective and stimulating craft-based activities to help them explore their own ideas about faith and spirituality. There will be scratch cards for hope, reconciliation zips and pipe cleaner people-making for thanks as well as a quiet tent with glitter lamps and lights to provide a safe space for personal reflection and prayer.

At each activity station, the children (and adults) will be encouraged to be thankful or thoughtful, sorry or still, mindful, peaceful or simply creative. Some elements can be taken away by the children as a reminder; some will stay in the library and build up over the course of the event, so children can see each other’s thoughts and prayers.

The event is the result of a collaborative effort between school staff at Bishop’s Primary as well as local clergy from the parishes of St John’s, St Andrew’s, St Bartholomew’s and the Methodist and United Reformed Church communities.

Libby Taylor, RE Lead and Teacher at Bishop’s Primary School, commented:

“We’re really excited about our Prayer Spaces in Schools event this week.

“I have personally attended a number of Prayer Space development events in recent years and given what our pupils and communities have been through in the past two years with the Covid-19 pandemic and now the war in Ukraine, we felt that the time was right to try and put something together which would allow our children and staff to slow down, reflect and pray if they want to, while being creative.

“The creative element to the event helps to make what can be daunting topics such as faith and belief accessible to people of all ages and denominations. This will be the first major event that the school has hosted since the pandemic and we can’t wait!”

To find out more about the Prayer Spaces in Schools movement, visit https://prayerspacesinschools.com.

Photos from the event

Year 5 pupils from Bishop’s Primary School visited St Andrew’s & St Mark’s Church in Newbiggin earlier this week to take part in the Easter Journey. They were transported back in time and discovered what life was like for Jews living in Israel more than 2,000 years ago.

They followed in the footsteps of Jesus during his last few days and gained a new understanding of his actions and the sacrifice he made. The session really brought the story to life and staff and pupils thoroughly enjoyed taking part!

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Elsewhere, some more of our Year 5 children spent 2 days at Beamish Museum. They enjoyed a range of activities including a lesson in the Victorian School room, a visit to the town and pit village and tea from the chip shop – ‘the fish was the size of a whale!’

Once the museum closed to the public, the children set up camp, had a nighttime walk and sang songs round an open fire while enjoying marshmallows, hot chocolate and biscuits.

A fabulous experience creating magical memories!

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In light of recent events in Ukraine, Year 5 at Bishop’s Primary decided to use World Book Day to open up a discussion about war and its impact, particularly on children.

Miss Haggerty, one of our Year 5 teachers came across the book ‘The Day War Came’ by Nicola Davies. It’s all about the impact of war on children and has a clear message about kindness and inclusivity which fits in nicely with the Bishop’s Primary School ethos.

Davies wrote the original poem in 2016 when the UK government refused to give sanctuary to 3000 unaccompanied refugee children. She started a Twitter campaign at the time using the hashtag #3000chairs to spread a message of kindness and solidarity. Inspired by the book, pupils drew their own chairs to add to the movement and made their own clay chair models. We think they’re fab!

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Following a Safety Week in school, when we used excellent resources supplied by the NSPCC, our pupils wanted to show their support for this charity by organising a sponsored event.

Pupils at Bishop’s Primary School took part in the NSPCC Number Fun Day by having a sponsored Number Fun Run.

Each class followed a circuit which included number snakes, times table ladders, squares, challenges and timed events.

The children thoroughly enjoyed this maths-inspired event and worked hard to do all of the challenges. There were other number based events during the day and each class enjoyed a variety of mathematical challenges.

We have been astonished by the generosity of our community who have raised an incredible £2,190 to support the work of the NSPCC!

We would like to say a HUGE thank you to all involved in the event and the donations to the charity.

Well done Bishop’s Primary!

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Tuesday 8th February is Safer Internet Day – an annual campaign to help make the internet a safer, more secure place for people of all ages to enjoy.

Ahead of the celebrations, the Peer Mentors group at Bishop’s Primary School have been working hard to create a range of resources to support their fellow pupils to recognise potential scams or threats online and how to keep their devices and data safe (but we thought it might be beneficial to share these with you too!)

Top 10 tips for staying safe online:

1. Make sure your antivirus software is up to date – this can help to filter out harmful viruses.

2. Be careful what you download – not everything is always as it seems!

3. Never publicly share personal details like your home address, email address or telephone number online.

4. Be careful what you post – will you live to regret a comment you made on a friend’s photo? Or will a status you post potentially be misread and end up hurting somebody? The internet has a long memory, so be careful what you share.

5. Use strong passwords – try to avoid using things that are “easy to remember” like ‘password123’ as hackers can guess these within minutes! Instead, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols to keep your accounts secure.

6. Be careful to only shop online from reputable companies, not everything you may see advertised on Google or social media is genuine. If you’re ever in doubt, search for the company or website on Trust Pilot or Feefo to see what fellow online shoppers’ experiences have been like.

7. You would always be wary about talking to a stranger who approached you in the street – apply the same principle when communicating with people online – are they who they say they are?

8. Think about the networks you connect to when you’re out and about – your devices may be more vulnerable when connected to a public WiFi network in a coffee shop or shopping centre.

9. Cover your webcam – some viruses will let hackers access your webcam without you even knowing so make sure to cover your camera whenever you’re not using it.

10. Watch out for phishing scams – these can take multiple different forms but are most commonly emails which may look genuine at first, but are really designed to trick you into sharing personal details like your bank accounts. We’ve shared some further tips about how to spot email scams below.

 
Some further tips for recognising email scams:

• The “sent by” address will either be a jumble of random letters and numbers or have an unusual domain (not .com or .co.uk)
• The email will contain links to click to ‘confirm your details’ or ‘make a payment’
• The email may have an attachment which looks strange or unsafe to open
• The email may give you a limited time to reply
• There might be spelling mistakes, bad grammar and sentences which don’t quite make sense
• If the email contains any logos or images, these may appear ‘pixelated’ or blurry
• If requesting money, the amount will usually be quite specific, not rounded up to the nearest pound/pence to try and make it seem legitimate, eg £692.88 instead of £700,00.

 
For more information about Safer Internet Day, visit https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2022.

A range of useful resources to help you and your family stay safe online can also be found at:

• Childline
• CEOP
• Age Concern (for older internet users)

A project to improve the outdoor play areas at a primary school in South East Northumberland has had an unprecedented impact on the mental health and wellbeing of its pupils.

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, as many schools across the country continue to struggle to find a balance between getting back to ‘normal’ and keeping infection rates down, children at Bishop’s Primary School in Ashington are supporting their own relationship recovery through the power of play.

After so many months spent in and out of lockdown and kept apart from their peers through the necessary enforcement of class bubbles and social distancing, pupils are exploring what it is to socialise and are self-teaching themselves the all-important skills of teamwork, collaboration and communication through a series of new interactive playground markings which have been installed in the school’s outdoor spaces.

Clare Marriott, Headteacher at Bishop’s Primary School, commented:

“Play has become a particularly important aspect of children’s learning, especially since lockdown. Our outdoor spaces were looking a little tired and in need of improvement so we decided that, instead of just repainting our original sports court markings, we would include some fun, interactive playground markings to encourage children to play together and learn at the same time.

“We found a wonderful company online, Fun & Active Playgrounds, who we engaged to supply us with a range of interactive number caterpillars, hopscotches, mazes and trails and alphabet jumps. We also purchased a range of hula hoops, bats and balls and skipping ropes to further develop playtimes and lunchtimes for our children.

“While we anticipated that the pupils’ response to the changes would be a positive one, we’ve been absolutely overwhelmed at what we’ve seen in just the few short weeks since the work was carried out. We’ve got children from different year groups playing together, we’ve got children supporting each other with the different games, we’ve even seen children encouraging their parents at home time to have a go on the hopscotch! The dance mat in particular has become a firm favourite with both pupils and staff, so much so, that we’ve now added a portable music system and disco lights!

“The impact to date has seen a dramatic transformation in the quality of children’s play. The children are happier, more active and more engaged in the classroom after every break time. By making free play a key priority of our School Action Plan, we will ensure the impact is sustainable and long lasting for relationship recovery, learning and play. Going forward, we want to install more markings and some wall mounted games too. We have also booked some skipping tutors to work with every class to teach the children some classic skipping games.”

Jess Sparks, Marketing Manager at Fun & Active Playgrounds, commented:

“It was a pleasure to work with Bishop’s Primary School and to be able to provide their pupils with extra opportunities for fun outdoor play and learning. We know how important it is for children to get their daily exercise, not just for their physical fitness but for their mental health too, and particularly during present times, so it’s been great to be a part of this project to make their playtimes more active and engaging.

“All our markings and games are made from durable, environmentally-friendly thermoplastic which can last up to ten times longer than paint. This means their markings will be around for years to come, and will benefit pupils both present and future.”

Bishop’s Primary School offers provision for children aged 2-11 and operates as part of Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust. For more information, visit www.bishops.ncea.org.uk.