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Bernard Gilpin Primary School
Hall Lane
Houghton-le-Spring
Tyne & Wear
DH5 8DA
Tel: 0191 5536523
Click here for further contact details and a map.
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Please note: We have postponed the Sports Day and Summer Fayre to Friday 14th July. Hopefully this will give everyone the chance to rearrange so they can join us at these events.
Carol Singing
On Wednesday 5th December, the school choir had a very enjoyable and rewarding time when they visited four different care homes (Cherry Tree, Myre House, Grangewood and Pavillion) to sing Christmas carols for the residents.
They sang a variety of traditional carols, which the residents were able to sing along to. The children sang beautifully, accompanied by Mr. Lee (our new singing teacher) and Mrs. Stevenson. On Monday 17th December the choir visited Ashwood Park care home in Easington, again they were well recieved.
Ofsted Inspection
We had our inspection visit from Ofsted on 11th and 12th July. The HMI Ofsted inspector was extremely impressed with the children and their attitude to learning. Staff were praised for their hard work and effort in moving the school so much further forward and the Governors were also praised for their contribution. A huge thank you to everyone who completed parent questionnaires, highlighting the many positive aspects of our school.
Some of the quotes from the report included:
"Teaching is mainly good and some is outstanding."
"The headteacher provides outstanding leadership."
"There have been significant and rapid improvements in achievement, the quality of teaching and in pupils’ behaviour."
Click the button to view or download the report.
Show your Colours
On Friday children
and staff took the
opportunity to ‘show
their colours’ by
wearing their
favourite football
team strip. Money
was collected to
support the SAFC foundation charity which does important work for children across the Tyne & Wear region. Sunderland mascot Delilah visited school to personally collect the donations and thank the children for their efforts.
News & Events
July 2012
Ofsted report
September 2012
Derwent Hill Educational Visit
Children from years 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed a fantastic week of outdoor activities in the Lake District this month.
Staff from the centre praised the children for their excellent behaviour and superb effort. A wide range of challenging activities included orienteering, high ropes, low ropes, giant swing, gorge walking, canoeing and mountain climbing.
October 2012
Houghton Feast Parade
We were proud to be invited to take part in the Houghton Feast Parade this year. Children, parents and members of
staff dressed in red,
white and blue in
keeping with the
Diamond Jubliee
theme. A number
of year 6 children
also competed in
the 'dash' along
Newbottle Street.
Just click on the picture to get a flavour of the event.
November 2012
Sumdog Mathematics
All Key Stage 2 children
have been provided with
password details to access the Sumdog website, A range of mental maths games are available to play against classmates or other children from around the world. Click on the Sumdog logo to visit the site.
December 2012
January 2013
Congratulations Dr Ann Johnson MBE
Our friend Ann Johnson was the worthy recipient of an MBE in the New Year's Honours List. Ann is a member of the Prime Minister’s Champion Group for Dementia Friendly Communities. and visited our school last month to talk to the children about the disease and take part in our Dementia debate. Well done Ann.
Gimme 5
Despite a complete lack of practise due to the weather, our Hi 5 teams managed to win three out of four
matches this week
against East Herrington
and New Silksworth.
Many of the players
had not played in competitive matches before, so the future looks bright. Mrs Russell, Mrs Johnson and Mr Teasdale all commented on the superb effort and attitude shown and were very proud of all who took part.
Expo Chef
Our friends from Expo Chef (now The Food Education Company) paid us a visit to celebrate Chinese New Year. The children really enjoyed tasting a special fried rice, Lychee and banana smoothy and potatoes in sweet and sour dressing. Click on the pictures to see for yourself. You can also visit the Expo Chef website by following the link on our links page.
Xscape Skiing Adventure
Children from years 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed a two day visit to Castleford and Leeds. At SNO!zone children learnt the basics of skiing and snowboarding followed by sledging and tubing sessions. We even found time to visit the cinema and the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds. Click on the image to see a bigger picture.
Thank you to everyone who showed their support for the Grace House Appeal by wearing hearts, something red and donating some money. We raised over £200 for the appeal and had a visit from Senior Fundraiser Karen McClennan who showed the children pictures of Grace House and explained what the hospice would provide for some very poorly children in the North East. Click here to find out more about Grace House Children's Hospice.
Thursday 14th February 2013
February 2013
Half Term Messy Play
On Monday 18th February a Children's Centre Messy Play Activity will take place in our school hall from 9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Please wear old clothes as you could get messy!
Christmas production DVDs now available
The DVDs of the Wizard of
Oz and Prickly Hay are now
available to buy.
The DVDs will be priced
at £2. If you would like
one, please put your
child’s name, and DVD they
requested, on the front of an envelope with the money enclosed and hand into the school office.
The Big Pedal
The Big Pedal is a giant inter-school cycling competition from 28th
February to 20th March 2013.
We are encouraging pupils to cycle
or scoot to school each day. As an incentive, each child who cycles to school will receive a raffle ticket each day. These tickets will be entered into a prize draw on March 22nd where there will
be various bike
related prizes to be
won with the main
prize being a bike.
Football Courses
SAFC Foundation of Light Evening and Weekend courses are due to restart week commencing 25th February
2013. Click here to see the
latest course dates. To book
and for further information
call 0191 551 5077 or email Rhys.Atchison@safc.com
London Visit 2013
Some lucky children
from years 5 and 6
have just returned
from a three day
visit to London.
They saw some
amazing views of
London from The London Eye and the Shard. A performer from the show Mamma Mia put them through their paces at the famous Pineapple Dance Studio where they learnt a dance routine to the Abba hit 'Waterloo'. Later that day the children were able to show off their dancing skills as part of the Mamma Mia audience.
Kieran and Josh described the view from the Shard as 'unbelievable' and Lauren said Mamma Mia was the best show she'd ever seen.
Click here to see a gallery of photographs from the London visit.
February 2013
March 2013
World Book Day
Children and staff came
to school in fancy dress
or as their favourite book
character to celebrate
World Book Day. The
class prize winners can
be seen below together
with a small gallery of photos from the day.
Big Pedal Update
The Big Pedal has been a huge success with children and parents/carers cycling or scooting to school in great numbers for three weeks. Your efforts are to be rewarded by the visit to school of a bicycle stunt display team. This is because we ranked first of all Sunderland schools in the competition.
Congratulations to all those who won prizes in the Big Pedal Raffle, particularly to Kelsy in Year 3 who won the top prize of a brand new bike. A big thankyou to Sam for organising the event.
April 2013
Kelsy is a winner
Kelsy shows off her shiny new bike which she won in the prize draw following the Big Pedal. Many other bike related prizes were handed out by Sam from Sustrans after the hugely popular Big Pedal event.
Governor takes on new role
Congratulations to school governor Maurice Hepworth who has recently been appointed as secretary of the Sunderland Former Players Association (SFPA).
New arrivals in Reception class
The eggs arrived on Monday (15th April) and five had hatched by the end of school today (Tuesday 16th April). The children are very excited by the new arrivals and have had great fun naming them. Click here to visit the Foundation Stage class page and view a short video of the new born chicks.
April 2013
Skipping Success
Our brilliant skipping team claimed second place in this year's skipping festival at Kepier School. A great effort by the whole team culminated in gaining first place for our show stopping 'skip dance' routine. Well done to everyone involved.
May 2013
Bottles please
Members of the School Council have been busy looking at different ways to develop our wildlife garden. They have decided to build a 'plastic bottle greenhouse' which will make use of around 1,500 recycled plastic bottles.
The bottles need to be 2 litres in size, rinsed clean and have their labels removed. Please send any 2 litre bottles into school to help with this project.
Click on the pictures below to see the shape of bottle we need and an example of a plastic bottle greenhouse.
2 litre bottles -
this shape please...
May 2013
Councillor Bob Heron, Mayor of Sunderland
Congratulations to our Chair of Governors Bob Heron and his wife Juliana who officially took over the role of Sunderland Mayor and Mayoress last night (15th May).
June 2013
World Record broken in our playground!
Click on the clip below to view the Sky Tyne & Wear coverage of the superb stunt bike show by Danny Butler and Joe Oakley.
The show was put on as a reward for the fantastic efforts of pupils and parents in the Big Pedal in April.
June 2013
New school uniform
Later this year our school is 20 years old, and as way of celebrating this, and thanking the community for their continued support and loyalty, the Governors and the Headteacher wish to mark this occasion by giving each child in the school a new uniform for September 2013.
Click on the following link for more details.
Kielder Visit was "brilliant"
Year 5 and 6 pupils have returned from another successful week long visit to Kielder Forest. The children took part in a wide range of outdoor activities and were praised by the staff of the centre for their excellent behaviour and good manners.
Click on the pictures below to see what they got up to.
June 2013
Sports Week
Over the past week (June 24th to 28th) our children have taken part in an amazing array of sporting activities. These included: horse riding, golf, go-carting, cricket, football, skiing, karate, judo, bowling, athletics, triathlon, football and rugby.
The week also included a visit from children from Norman Street Primary in Carlisle who played football and rugby against our older children.
A special mention should also be given to Lewis in year 6 (pictured above) who managed to come first in the Sunderland Primary Schools Triathlon event at Silksworth Sports Centre. Well done Lewis.
Click on the video below to see more pictures from Sports Week.
Sports Day
Thank you to everyone who attended our re-arranged sports day. The children made a fantastic effort in very warm conditions and were
a credit to their
families, the school
and themselves.
The winning house
team will be
announced next
week and details will
be posted on this
site.
July 2013
Congratulations to Napoleon
Napolean were announced as the first ever winners of the Bernard Gilpin Sports Week Trophy. Points were added up for all children taking part in Sports Day together with the tag rugby, cricket and cross country events during Sports Week.
Lewis is pictured below receiving the trophy on behalf of Napoleon from our Sports Week Coordinator, Mrs Johnson.
Bernard Bear says hello
Bernard Bear was on
hand to give a warm
welcome to our newest
pupils who will be joining
us in September.
They joined our
Reception Class for the
morning and shared
lunch with their new
friends.
Help a Capital Child
To help support Faye Tatah, Jackson and Summer's mum, raise funds for Help a Capital Child there will be a non uniform day on Tuesday 16th July when children and staff can wear their sports kit to school.
Faye will be trekking the Grand Canyon to aid the Teenage Cancer Trust on 22nd February – 2nd March 2014. The aim is to fund specialist units and care for young people
with cancer right
across the areas
where Capital
transmits.
Click the logo to
see the flyer.
What a scorcher!
Click on the picture below to see a collage of Summer Fayre pictures.
Thankyou to the Friends of Bernard Gilpin for another successful event.
Summer Fayre July 12th 2013
