Congratulations to Amelia, Holly, Amelia and Hollie who have been recognised for their kindness! Holly made bracelets to do some fundraising for MacMillan Cancer Support, in memory of her mum and Amelia, Hollie and Amelia give up their playtime each day to support our KS1 readers! Well done girls.

Bishop’s Primary School has achieved ‘Good’ in its Ofsted report published on 8th December 2022.

Opening the report, the inspector says that “Pupils enjoy being at school. They feel safe, happy and well looked after”.

“They quickly get used to routines and develop strong relationships with each other and adults.”

“Pupils are kind to each other and make everyone feel welcome. They would be very surprised to hear any inappropriate, prejudicial language..”

The inspector praised the school for the reflection of the LIGHT value within the school “The school’s LIGHT values of love, inclusivity, goodness, hope and truth reflect the
expectations staff have for pupils.”

Other highlights included that “Leaders have designed a curriculum to engage and inspire pupils. Teachers use recall, research and reasoning strategies to help pupils to become curious, independent learners.”

Areas that could be improved included the processes for the implementation of some foundation subjects is not precise enough.

“The report is very positive and we are thrilled that it captures the school so well. We have been given only one area for improvement, relating to precision in our curriculum. I would like to take the opportunity to thank and congratulate the staff on their hard work and continued support for the children and families in this community. For me, the following comments in the report are the ‘headlines’: ‘Pupils enjoy being at school. They feel safe, happy and well looked after.’ ‘Leaders have designed a curriculum to engage and inspire pupils’ ‘The excellent links between school and home create a strong community feel’ ‘Staff feel valued; there is a tangible feel of collective responsibility running through the staff team’ As a community we deserve to celebrate this report and be proud of our school”

Clare Marriott, Headteacher

Well done to everyone. As a community we deserve to celebrate this report and be proud of our school.

Read the full report on the OFSTED website.

The Greggs Foundation have kindly paid for our children to take part in the ‘Rethink’ challenge. This gives the children the opportunity to look more carefully at world sustainability goals and see how they can play their part. We were delighted to be asked to help them to create a promotional video.

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!

Click on any photo below to view images in a slideshow