Wow! what a fantastic sports day we all had at St Mary's this year. The sun shone all day.

The Friends of St Mary's organised a picnic on the school field and picked one of the sunniest day's of the year. There was a very good turnout, family, friends, past parents, teachers and of course lots of children!

Check out the gallery for more pictures!

This morning David Milliband the Foreign Secretary came to visit Y6 and the pupil council in response to the wonderful letters that they wrote to the Prime Minister and Mr Anderson, MP about the situation in Kenya and our links with St Anthony's in Nakuru. They put on a fab assembly and Mr Milliband and the other visitors were all very impressed.

Mrs Briggs has been one of St Mary's loyal lunchtime assistants for the last 22 years. She is leaving on 23rd May and going to enjoy a well earned rest.

Anyone visiting St Mary's School today will be very surprised to see many of the children wearing different colours to our normal school uniform.

Today was a special day for some children in Reception and Year 1.

The year 6 SATs take place next week! All of year 6 have worked hard and have nothing to worry about. All they need to do is remember to try their very best, make sure they have a good nights sleep and a tasty breakfast before a test and arrive at school promptly. They also need to remember to bring in their P.E Kit and anything they need for Kenya work every day...and remember their things for their party on Friday.
Oh yes and they also need to keep smilling!
Click on this post for the SATs week Timetable.

Dates for your Diary Summer 2008

Today our local MP Dave Anderson visited Y6 in response to their letter they wrote to him about their views on the political situation in Kenya.

On Wednesday 12th March the music workshop team from Gateshead came to St Mary's to work with the whole of KS2. The title for their workshop was - Dance.

Well done to KS1 and KS2 for taking part in the sponsored skip or the sponsored walk.

It's that time of year again when the Samaratin's Purse launch their appeal for shoe boxes.

Congratulations to all the parents and children of St Mary's who have sent in Shoe Boxes for Operation Christmas Child run by the Samaratin's Purse. The gifts and items inside these boxes will be distributed to children who are in need.

The staff of St Mary’s invites parents and governors to join them in Breast Cancer Awareness week, by wearing something pink on Friday October 19th and donate £2.00 to the cause.
Why not ask a friend to join you!

Please send donations care of Mrs. Ostell –thank you

Congratulations to our netball teams.

They did very well.
B team - Emma Spoor, Joshua Corrigan, Amber Gill, Lauren Porteous, Hannah McAloone and their captain, Marie Stanley.
A team - Christine Bertie, Jordan Symonds, Madeline Emptage, Rachel Grant and their captain, Elly Mains
The A team came 1st and the B team came 3rd.

Comenius Partnership

We are linked with schools in Germany, Italy and Spain for three years.
During the first year of our partnership all the pupils in each school studied artists of their home region.
Would you like to view our pictures?

On Mercredi 3 octobre quatorze [14] Year 5/6 children went to Dryden Professional Centre to take part in a Modern Foreign Languages [MFL] Showcase organised by Madame Barrett and the Primary MFL Team at Dryden.
Mrs McMillan popped in to see the performance and was very pleased and proud.

“Six weeks zoomed by!”
Dates for your diaries Autumn Term 2007

Mon 3rd Sept INSET Day for staff
Tues 4th Sept Pupils return to school- Home visits for incoming Reception class
Thurs 13th Sept Whole School Mass 9.30 all parents are welcomeNorthumbria Water visit Yr 5
Tues 18th Sept Friends of St Mary’s meet 7.30 in Gibside Hotel, all are welcome
Thurs 20th Sept Music Workshop visit school for Yr 1 and Yr 2
Mon 24th Sept We welcome Reception class full time today
Thurs 27th Sept Year 5 class mass 9.30 all parents are welcome
Tues 2nd Oct School Photographer- Individual, Family Groups, ClassParents information meeting for Yr 2 6pm
Wed 3rd Oct Parents meeting Yr 6 pupils –Kingswood-Dukeshousewood 6pm
Thurs 4th Oct Year 6 class mass 9.30 all parents are welcome
Fri 5th Oct CAFOD Family Fast Day – Walk the World
Tues 9th Oct Governors Working Party Self Review 4pm
Thurs 11th Oct Year 4 class mass 9.30 all parents are welcome
Mon 15th Oct Comenius Visitors in school all weekYr 6 visit to Eden Camp
Half Term Monday 22rd OCTOBER – Friday 26th October
Mon 29th Oct Return to school for pupils
Thurs 1st Nov All Saints Day- Holy Day whole school mass 9.30 all welcome
Mon 5th Nov Pupils find out about another faith this week JUDAISM
Thurs 8th Nov Year 5 class mass 9.30 all parents are welcome
Tues 13th Nov Governors Meeting at 4pm
Wed 14th Nov Basketball Tournament 4-6pm for selected pupils
Thurs 15th Nov Year 3 class mass 9.30 all parents are welcome
Mon 19th Nov Parents appointments for Yr 5 & Yr 6 in hall this afternoon
Tues 20th Nov Parents appointments for Yr 1 & Yr 2 in classes this afternoon
Wed 21st Nov Parents appointments for Rec in class this afternoon
Thurs 22nd Nov Key Stage 1 mass 9.30 all parents are welcomeParents appointments for Yr 3 & Yr 4 in hall this afternoon
Thurs 29th Nov Year 4 class mass 9.30 all parents are welcome
Fri 30th Nov St Andrews Day
Wed 12th Dec Yr 5 & Yr 6 2pm in hall Christmas Production
Thurs 13th Dec Yr 3 & Yr 4 Advent Assembly for parents
Mon 17th Dec Yr 5 & Yr 6 Evening Performance 6pm
Tues 18th Dec Rec, Yr 1 & Yr 2 Christmas Party afternoon
Wed 19th Dec Yr 3 & Yr 4 Christmas Party
Thurs 20th Dec Whole school mass 9.30 Yr 5 & Yr 6 Christmas Party
Fri 21st Dec School ends tonight for Christmas Holidays
End of Term - Return Monday 7th January 2008
Mrs Caroline Hopkinson (Friends of St Mary’s) organises and manages the 200 club on behalf of the Friends of St. Mary’s. It is drawn each month in school by a different class. Thank you to Mrs Hopkinson for all her hard work and effort with this very important aspect of regular fund raising for the school. She will shortly be asking you for your continued support for this academic year from the parents of any new pupils in school.

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The children in Year 5 and Year 6 received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they were confirmed on July 4th. There was a huge congregation as the class sat with their sponsors and waited to go forward to Fr. Martin. Fr Humble and Fr Adrian were also there.
There was lots of singing and the readers read very well and clearly. Some children played musical instruments and others performed a reflective dance called 'Testify' which they had worked on with Kevin and Oonagh from Dare to Dance and Mrs Joyce.
It was a wonderful celebration and the priests were all warm in their praise.
Thank you to everyone who helped to prepare the children especially Miss Hunt and Mr McCarthy.
Year 6 will be having their Leavers' Mass on Thursday 19th July at 9.30am in the church. Hope to see you there.

Newsletter Update

“Summer Term has been and continues to be very busy with a huge range of activities taking place. I hope this update helps to show what this has involved.�?

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Welcome back to Mrs. McMillan, Mr McCarthy and Miss Hunt after their trip to Kenya to visit St Anthony's Academy. The staff and children all send their good wishes and thankyou all for your kind donations. Our staff had an exciting stay, Fr Humble joined them and said mass to very large crowds. They visited many interesting places and got very close to the local wildlife!

Once again Dr Maths organised a Maths Trail in Newcastle. This year it was along the Quayside and some of the children from KS2 accompanied by parent helpers had to follow the trail and solve the puzzles. This event is to show the chldren that maths is important in our everyday lives, not just in lessons at school.

Click here to read some of the thoughts about the trail from children in Year 3 and Year 4.

KS1 had a fantastic day on Friday, May 11th. First we were all collected by coaches and taken to St Mary's Cathedral in Newcastle where we joined six other schools from the Deanery. The Bishop, Kevin Dunn, said mass and the children sang beautifully, conducted by Fr Michael Humble.

Then St. Mary's went on to visit Bede's World in Jarrow. Year One visited the church and dressed as monks from that time. We processed onto the altar and were told all about the things the monks had to do. They had a very hard life.

We are delighted to welcome to our school, Sr Sylvia, Lucy Mbuthia and David Wachira. They will be with us from 16th to 30th March.

They teach in St Anthony's school in Kenya. The school now have a new headteacher, St. Anisia.
The previous head teacher, Sr Joyce has been welcomed into our school and parish on several occasions, she has now been moved to a new school with new challenges.

Our visitors are interested in shool life and our lifestyles. It is very different to their own.

Mrs McMillan treated the whole school on our return from the half term holidays.
The Image Musical Theatre performed Stig of the Dump on our first day back, some of the children had to take part and become characters in the story. They only had half an hour to rehearse and learn their lines but they were very professional and added to the enjoyment of the play.
The rest of the school also participated, singing the songs that acompanied the performance.

Thank you Mrs. McMillan we really enjoyed it!

Congratulations to the team of boys and girls from Year 3 who competed in this competition at St Thomas More School on 24th January 2007

The main dates and events for the Spring term are included in link below.

The Spring 2007 Newsletter

All of KS2 have enjoyed their first performance of Panto Pandemonium today! There is still time to catch the show if you have not done so yet on Tuesday 12th at 10am or on Wednesday 13th at 6pm.
Reviews and photographs to follow!!!!

Our annual Book Fair was a great success once again. I hope you managed to buy a few Christmas presents. We raised a total of £625 in sales and so were able to buy books to the value of almost £400 for the school. Huge Thanks from everyone and thanks to my Y6 HELPERS.
Mrs Barrett

What a wonderful time we had selling, buying and eating the tremendous amount and variety of cakes and biscuits kindly donated by all of you. We had so many items left after the first day that we had to sell again for 2 further days. In total we raised just over £175 which we have made up to £200 in school. Thanks to the Pupil Council and Y6 for their help in setting up and selling. AND THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR GENEROSITY ONCE AGAIN.

We reached a marvellous total of 78 shoeboxes for the Charity this year. Thank you so much for your continued support. The organisers wish me to pass on their thanks and say we will make a huge difference to the Christmas that some children have this year.
WELL DONE!

Key Stage 2
Panto Pandemonium Monday 11th December 2.00pm
Tuesday 12th December 10.00am
Wednesday 13th December 6.00pm

NativityThursday 14th December Years 5 and Reception children will be at the Metro Centre performing a small nativity play in The Town Square outside Woolworths at 10.00am

Years 1 and 2
Cock-a-doodle Christmas
Wednesday 13th December 2.00pm
Thursday 14th December 2.00pm

On Tuesday 18th July, Whickham Police visited St Mary's and put on a brilliant dog show. The dogs showed their skills and caught a couple of very strange characters!