Our newly appointed Science Ambassadors were invited to visit Ushaw College for a special training day. The children enjoyed testing & carrying out many different experiments including chromatography, making 3D structures and balloon kebabs. As the exciting day drew to a close, our Science Ambassadors were given the opportunity to work alongside children from other schools, presenting the different ways to carry out the experiments.

We’re all looking forward to their scientific knowledge and enjoyment being passed onto to all the children across our school. It should be great fun!

Our School Councillors were lucky enough to be invited to the unveiling of our Advent Window display in Bishop Auckland. Bishop Auckland Town Team planned ambitious and creative displays  for 2019, celebrating the heritage of Bishop Aucklandinvolving the construction of 24 life size models – one for each day of window openings between 1st and 24th December. As well as creating models of Joseph, Mary, Gabriel, the infant Jesus, various animals, a crib and a star, local schools were also asked to create 13 figures of biblical characters Jacob and His Twelve Sons, based on the paintings by Spanish master Francisco de Zurbaran, which have been housed in the town’s Auckland Castle for more than 250 years.

Our whole school contributed to the art work for the display. Laura Brenchley, from Auckland Castle, worked with each class in turn to decorate the life-sized wooden figure of Gad.

Our School Councillors also had the opportunity to visit Auckland Castle after carol singing in Peacocks! It was a fab day to complete an excellent art activity in the community!

There is to be a Christmas Eve parade, which will be the advent window’s grand finale, with all 24 models being taken from their shop window displays and paraded through the streets of Bishop Auckland to Auckland Castle. There, thanks to the permission of the Bishop of Durham, they will be assembled into a life-size nativity scene in St Peter’s Chapel for the local community to view throughout the holiday period.

Congratulations to our competition winners for your fantastic designs!

What a fun night!

Many thanks to our small PTA for organising such a good night. It was lovely to see children and their families dancing, chatting and having fun, listening the fantastic band playing traditional Gaelic folk music. It was great fun to join in with the jovial dancing, learning the routines by following the directions of our ‘caller’. It was certainly an enjoyable evening!

(video to follow asap!)

The Community Centre was decorated with vibrant, colourful bunting, all of which had been designed and created by our school children. The PTA ran a little competition for the best design, judged by one of the lovely Ceilidh band members. She chose four winners:

• Georgie Taylor won the prize for the infants.
• Ella Hutchinson won the lower junior prize
• and Joe Farren was awarded the prize for the upper juniors.

Fab art work!

Wow! What a talented bunch of pupils we have in Witton-le-Wear Primary School!

Our whole school participated in “Art Week”, producing self portraits using differing mediums as inspiration. We were so proud of our work we put in all on show in an Art Exhibition, inviting our parents and families along to view our masterpieces!

Class Four based their self-portraits in the work of Vincent Van Gogh. He used lines and colour to portray feelings. After creating mood wheels the children chose the colour and line patterns to paint their self-portraits to represent their moods. Can you identify what they are?

The children then went on sketch their faces from a photo stimulus before using Microsoft Word to create different effects on their individual photographs.

Class Three manipulated photographs to reflect Picasso’s abstract style, matching them to their sketch portraits. They also used oil pastels to recreate Picasso’s use of vibrant colours in their Roman Masks.

In Class Two the children were studying the portraits of Andy Warhol. They discovered that he used bright colours to print lots of versions of the same portraits. The children used the “Photo Booth” app to take their own portraits in a Pop Art style. They then used their own photographs and coloured them in different combinations just like Andy Warhol’s portraits. Mrs Smith also taught the children in Class Two how to draw a self-portrait making sure that all their features were in proportion. They used pencils to add shading too. Who can you recognise on our wall?

Class One had a fun time sketching and painting their own self portraits too! What do you think? These children have also been looking at the work of David Hockney, who created a photomontage of  the different sides his mothers face. It was fun!

Congratulations to our 2019 Sports Day Winners! Yellow Team were victorious although a fun afternoon was had by all.

The sun was shining and the parents were cheering! Many thanks to all who can along and supported our school.

Our nursery children enjoyed their very first sports day, participating in both running and “fried eggs” on spoons races, much to the delight of the rest of the school.

It was lovely to see some of our new Reception starters joining in with the “Toddler’s Race” too.

Thank you to all who came along and a special thank you to all who made the delicious cakes!

World Book Day has been amazing at Witton-le-Wear Primary this year! We welcomed some of our lovely parents and grandparents into school. They came and very bravely shared their favourite story books with our children. It was wonderful to see and hear the children’s reactions to both the new and familiar story favourites. Everyone had a really great day, coming to school dressed as their favourite story character. Next year, parents will have to join in the fancy dress theme too! An extra special ‘Thank You’ goes to Hugo’s Nana, Violet & Verity’s Grandma, Polly & Frankie’s Mum and both Amelie’s Mum and Dad. You guys were amazing!!

Safer Internet Day 2019 

Safer Internet Day 2018 was celebrated globally on Tuesday 5th February 2019 with the theme: Together for a better internet. Our Net Knights led an assembly and workshop lessons all about the importance of PEGI ratings on games and making sure you are playing age appropriate games.  

Watch a film for parents and carers about Safer Internet Day 2019: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ony9jBCqHjQ&list=PLiwoVy4yOkj6RIefDmZCHFw-BLaJcogi7&index=5

The ‘Weardale Tub’ creative arts project visited our school! Class Four were lucky enough to welcome a number of glass working tutors, helping to design and create a full size three dimensional lead tub, made up of steel, glass and light. During the half-day workshop our children learned about the history and heritage of Weardale, the industry that flourished in the area and the legacy of the work that took place over the centuries in shaping the landscape we see today. They created individual glass panels, using materials that reflect the industrial activity of the past. Once fused, the glass panels will be fired into larger panels that will form the sides of the lead tub, creating an exciting installation to be sited at Killhope Lead Mining Museum. Our Year 5 & 6 children are hoping to visit Killhope to see the finished piece of artwork!

Great fun was had once again at this years Halloween?Disco! We were dazzled by some of the fancy dress costumes and the pumpkin decorating competition was a great success! We have some fantastic ?creative talent at Witton! Congratulations to all who entered. Prizes went to:

Reception – Taylor Pennick, Year One – Esme Long, Year Two – Georgia-Lily Guy, Year Three – Abigail Berryman, Year Four – Keira Hall, Year Five – Rosie Leach, Year Six – Lily Wright and the overall winner of the night was Sophia Jackson. Fantastic pumpkins ? well done!