Consett Junior School

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Ethan and Emily’s ‘Ring the Bell’ Day

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Today we have had a very special and memorable day in school to celebrate the end of treatment for Ethan and Emily.  Both children have been undergoing treatment for Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), Ethan has had three years of treatment and Emily two years.  As our school community have been part of their journey and this is such an amazing time, we decided to celebrate with them in school.

This morning the whole school came together for a special assembly and the families and friends of Ethan and Emily came along. Mr Dixon introduced the assembly and talked about why we had all come together, after this there was a very emotional slideshow of memories of both the children which highlighted the importance of strong families and also that they are two very brave and strong children. Following the slideshow we welcomed Jagoda Campbell-Hewson, who is a cancer specialist nurse at the RVI and has grown so close to the children throughout their treatment, to talk to the children about their type of cancer and what treatment they have had. This was a very engaging and informative assembly and she delivered it sensitively and even brought humour and audience engagement into the mix!  The children asked many questions and left with an understanding of ALL.

At the end of the assembly Mr Dixon talked about their journey and how amazed he was at the care and sensitivity of all the children in school, as they have supported them on their way to recovery. A huge thank you Taylor Shaw as one of their employees (and lucky for us she is also one of our parents), Helen Merritt made two AMAZING cakes, one for each child as each of their roads to recovery were individual to them.

Finally, although this is not completely the end of treatment for Ethan and Emily, as they will still need to have check ups, and the worry will never be too far away from their parents minds, we wanted to mark this in some way in school. So, as the children ‘rang the bell’ at the RVI we have purchased a bell and individual plaques which have been put up in school.  So even after the children move on through their lives and we are a memory we hope they treasure, their bravery and resiliency will echo through the ethos of the school and all will remember two of the bravest children we were blessed to teach.

A huge thank you to all of our families for always keeping these children in mind at times when yours have been poorly.  Today we have raised £139.00 for Wards 4 and 14 of the RVI.

We have enjoyed a very ‘dancy’ lunch and the catering team did an amazing job of serving almost 160 lunches and decorating the hatch with balloons and ribbons donated to them by a flower shop in Stanley.

 

Valentines Disco 2020 Dancing…

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Falconry Days – Birds of Prey

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Yesterday (6th February), Megan from Falconry Days spent the day in school educating and inspiring the children by class about the importance of birds of prey in the wild and captivity. She brought with her a Tawny Owl, a Brown Owl and a Kestrel. She provided an interactive, hands on educational talk and demonstration discussing each of the birds, their habitat, what they eat and how they are trained.  The children asked some very interesting questions.

The children had a lovely time and six children were selected from each class to have a turn at holding the birds. It was amazing. If your child shared their experience with you when they left school, i am pleased to inform that they will be attending our fun day on the 10th July, so a chance for you to see this display for yourself.

https://www.falconrydays.com/

Check out the gallery below, photographs will be added over the next week as they are shared with the office.

Year 6 Yeti project

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This morning the children in Year 6 received a letter from the ‘Unidentifiable Creature Society’ who have recently discovered a new creature.  The children used clues from each of the scientific labs to find out more about the creature, so that they could write a non-chronological report about it.  The morning was pretty disgusting, as you can see from some of the photos, but we now have lots of information to help

us when we are writing our report next week!

Consett Junior Brass prepare for tour!

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On Wednesday 29th January, one of Europe’s leading brass performers, Brett Baker, visited our school to work with some of the children in the school band.  Brett is a world class brass teacher and has been coming to Consett for 20 years now.  The purpose of his visit on Wednesday, was to discuss our concert with White River Brass, on Friday 3rd July and also to prepare the year 6 band children for their tour!  The children who play instruments in Year 6 will visit seven other local primary schools over the next few months to play a concert of music which will hopefully inspire and entertain other children in our local area.  The visit was also featured on the international brass band website ‘4barsrest’.  See the link below.

https://www.4barsrest.com/news/38918/the-next-generation-of-consett-goers

 

Ethan and Emily’s end of treatment

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As a school community who have cared and supported Ethan and Emily over the last few years, and will be part of their special day in school next week, please read the Northern Echo article below. It is such an amazing end to their treatment.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18207859.consett-junior-school-pupils-celebrate-all-clear-leukaemia/

Ward 14 have been amazing for both children. We are donating our usual £1 non uniform fine to them from Friday 14th February.

January Attendance Reward

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The whole school attendance for January was 97.45% which is an excellent improvement on December (93.91%) and pushes us above our floor target of 96%. Sickness absences are improving and there have been no term time holidays. Most parents/carers are very good at informing us of the reason for their child’s absence, which can be done via calling, texting or emailing the school. Failure to inform us does result in an unauthorised absence which may then instigate further action and monitoring. If your child has been off several ad-hoc times, with the same thing, this is recorded. Mr Dixon will be contacting some families this week to offer further support to help improve their child’s attendance.

The January attendance by year group is as follows:

Year 3 – 96.21%
Year 4 – 97.47%
Year 5 – 98.00%
Year 6 – 98.19% – WOOP WOOP!

As year 6 have achieved the best attendance for January each child in year 6 will be given a cake/giant cookie tomorrow (Friday 31st January) as their reward.

Class 8 (Miss Waters) have achieved the reward for the best class attendance at an OUTSTANDING 99.19%, well done! Even with one day to go they were unbeatable. The Class 8 reward for this is a FREE non-uniform day which will also be tomorrow.

Certificate of Achievement – Gold Awards

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In September 2019 the school kitchen was inspected following Taylor Shaw Internal Audit criteria to ensure that health and safety, and food hygiene practices are in line with protocol. The catering team have now received their results and were, not surprisingly, given a ‘Gold Award’ for both checks (certificates below).

These inspections and assessments show that we are ensuring your child is being given an individual service which provides top quality nutritional ingredients in a safe and welcoming environment.

We welcome you to share in the success of your school kitchen and the peace of mind as parents in ensuring your child is enjoying a balanced meal in a friendly and safe environment.”

Well done to our catering team, Keith and Nicky!!!

Certificate of Achievement Health and Safety Gold Award 2019

Certificate of Achievement Food Hygiene Gold Award 2019

Class 8 Book Swap

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Last week the children from Class 8 took part in a book swap.  This involved children in the class bringing in books from home that they had already read and would be willing to swap.  The children absolutely loved the session.  They were able to look at all of the other books and chose some new ones for themselves to take home.  As you can see in the photographs we had lots of books to swap so it was a great success!  The children have been excited to talk about their new books this week and are obviously enjoying discussing books that their friends have already read.

Thank you to the parents and children of Class 8.

Miss Waters

 

Summer Fair Stalls and Charity Day Update

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During the afternoon/evening of Friday 10th July we are holding a fun day at Consett Rugby Club, to raise money and awareness of the charity ‘If You Care Share’.

We are quietly working behind the scenes planning the event now and wondered if anyone has or knows of anyone who would like to operate a stall from 3.30 p.m. onwards. This could be selling crafts, jewellery, cakes etc, and in return we would ask for a donation to the charity.

The afternoon will be focused around the children (and parents) doing a sponsored event on the rugby field, and for those families who are wanting more of a sponsored challenge we have secured a 70 seater coach to take us to Rowley Farm to allow us to run back to the Rugby Club, this run is a parent/child/family event. There are only 70 seats so if you know now you want to do this then please email consettjunior@durhamlearning.net asap to secure your seats on the bus.

The venue is secured until 8.00 p.m. (or later!) when more children’s entertainment will be on. There will be food stalls and the bar (The special adult drinks for adults will be from 4.00 p.m.!).

To raise as much as we can for this charity we will be selling wrist bands for adults and children, this is to allow children to freely access most of the activities without paying individually.

From 3.30 p.m. the Rugby club is open to your friends and families to make this an even bigger event, all they need to do is purchase a wrist band on entry. Letters and sponsor forms will go out after May half term.