Don’t forget the Friends of Stanhope Barrington Summer Fair! It takes place on the school field this Sunday, 24 June 2018 from 10-2. Please plan to attend as there are many exciting things to do and see. All proceeds go towards subsidising school trips for each child of Stanhope Barrington to expand their learning opportunities. Come one, come all!

There are new letters that have been sent home, one is regarding Academic Resilience and another is for the Class 3 Trip. Please visit the Letters Home section to make sure you are up-to-date in this busy time of year.

On Tuesday 22^nd May 2018, our school had a formal School Health Check conducted by two inspectors from Durham Local Authority. The purpose of a Health Check is to ensure that outstanding schools are maintaining their high standards and are continuing to improve.

We are delighted that we have received an amazing report from the inspectors who have confirmed that our school continues to deliver teaching and learning of the highest standard.

Here are some highlights of the report:

• Staff have positive and meaningful relationships with all children
• Lessons were imaginative, exciting and engaging with all pupils making progress
• Staff demonstrated consistent high expectations and standards
• Staff promoted independence and resilience in children
• Children with special educational needs were very well catered for
• An exciting, challenging and broad curriculum was delivered
• Behaviour was outstanding throughout the school and reinforced by all members of the team

The inspectors were particularly impressed with our safeguarding policies and procedures and felt that we provided a safe and nurturing environment where disputes were resolved effectively.

The inspectors also met with a selection of children from Key Stage One and Key Stage Two in order to obtain pupil views of the school. The feedback was as follows:

• Children really value their school and feel it is a special place
• Children thought teachers respected them and trusted them
• All staff were helpful and supportive
• Children were able to read and discuss books they liked
• Children were very positive about the new handwriting and spelling strategies used in school
• They felt that behaviour was well managed and that staff treated everyone fairly

We are so proud of the children for representing their school in such a positive manner.

The Health Check reassures us (and you) that our school is a fantastic place to learn. An organisation such as our school succeeds because of the people who affect it and that includes: governors, staff, children, parents and our wider school community. This is our 6^th Year of being recognised as an ‘outstanding’ school and we would like to thank you for your ongoing support.

Please ensure that you check our Letters Home section regularly to review the copies of letters that have been sent home in your child’s bag. Thank you.

To review the results of our SEND Parent Questionnaire Results please click on the link below:

SEND Questionnaire results Feb 2018

Visit our SEND section to find out more about SEND at Stanhope Barrington C of E Primary School.

On Thursday 26^th April 2018, our whole school Walked for Water! Over 150 children took part in this very important fund-raising event in aid of Water Aid, an international charity which works with communities around the world to ensure people in remote villages have access to clean water.

Children brought their own buckets, which were filled with water, and carried them around a route laid out on the school field. Every child did a minimum of one mile with many children walking much further.

As well as raising money, it was also a poignant lesson for our children. It helped them to realise how lucky they are to have access to water and how hard it is for children in other countries to walk for hours each day just to collect water which is often not clean or fit to drink.

Some quotes from children are as follows:

“It was really hard work – much harder than I expected!”

“You have to be really careful not to spill any as it’s so precious.”

“I was really thirsty but didn’t dare drink any of the water I had collected in case I had to go back and do it again.”

“Being able to turn a tap on is such a luxury!”

As you can see from the quotes: lots of lessons learnt.

In total we raised £121.00 for Water Aid. Thank you to everyone who took part and thanks to our Social Action Team for organising the event.

Visit our Pupil Voice section to find out more about other exciting initiatives.

Please visit our Letters Home page to read the latest letters…

On Tuesday 27^th March 2018 we held our annual Easter competition where children can decorate a hard-boiled egg and an Easter Bonnet. There were some amazing entries and the teachers found it incredibly difficult to choose winners.

On Wednesday 28^th March 2018, The Friends of Stanhope Barrington ran an Easter Fair. There were lots of exciting activities including: hook a duck, treasure hunt, name the character, eggs on a string, guess the eggs in a jar and much more. Cakes, tea & coffee and plants were available to buy too. The fair raised over £550! All of this money will go towards subsidising the cost of educational visits for every child in our school. A huge thank you to The Friends of Stanhope Barrington for all of their hard work and commitment.

In the afternoon, we held our Easter Service at St. Thomas’ Church. As always, the church was packed with parents, grandparents and members of our community. The children re-told the Easter story and sang some of our favourite Easter songs. Mr Myers (Head Teacher) also gave out the prizes won during the Easter competitions and the Easter Fair.

Thank you to everyone who supported our children and our school.

We pride ourselves in our commitment to putting our children at the centre of everything we do and have always valued the input and involvement of our children in shaping and developing our school.

We have a variety of Pupil Voice groups in school to ensure that there are as many opportunities as possible to involve our pupils in guiding the vision of Stanhope Barrington C of E Primary School.

These groups include:

Buddies and Mini-Buddies

School Council

Shadow Leadership Team

Charities Team

Social Action Team

Alternative Curriculum Team

Playtime Leaders

Junior Road Safety Officers

EcoClub Assistants

Our children’s voices are very important to us and we hope that by involving them in the above groups we will continue to hear them loud and clear! Visit our Pupil Voice page to find out more.

Please be reminded that there are four new letters that have been sent home. Please visit our Letters Home section to make sure that you are informed about what is happening in school.