Another half term buzzes by.... it may have been short but we have ensured it has been packed full of learning, fun and smiles! Thank you to our Friends of St Augustine's for continuing to support us this half term with our Valentine's disco this evening. The children are very excited with their dancing shoes ready.
Our coffee morning last Friday was well attended, here is some feedback!
From all of us at St Augustine's we would like to thank you for your continued support you provide us in our strive to give children the very best everyday. Thank you for your positive feedback received verbally and via messages on ClassDojo. Thank you to the families who were able to join us last Friday for our coffee morningI hope you all enjoy a restful half-term and look forward to seeing back to school on Monday 19th February. Mrs K Whitehead
Reception - Children in Reception have been very busy this half term! We have been working super hard in Maths, representing 4 and 5 in a range of ways. We also enjoyed using staircase patterns to discover one more and one less. This half term, some of us took part in bikeability, which was so much fun and helped us to build our confidence on a bike. We enjoyed doing this alongside our P.E., which was dance. It has been so much fun to learn lots of dance moves and dance to the beat. We also the Dogs Trust visit our class and it was great to learn lots of tips on how to care for animals. We have also enjoyed using the instruments as part of our music lessons and class worship. We have had lots of fun and are looking forward to making more memories next half term! Miss Barnard
Year 1 - Year 1 have enjoyed leading class Worships this half term and really working on their respect and reverence for the act of Worship. They have searched for signs of winter in Science and have developed their throwing, catching and dribbling skills in PE. The stand-out day of the half term has to be Number Day, when they dressed up as Rockstars and began learning times tables! They have worked very hard and made lots of progress this half term. Mr Kentfield-Wells
Year 2 - We can’t believe another half term has passed! Well done to the children for all their amazing work this half term! Year 2 have been super busy writing all about dragons, after mysterious eggs turned up in our classroom. The children have channelled their imaginative sides and have been working on creating their own fantasy story. In PE, we have been fortunate enough to learn all about Invasion Games with Mr Coates (Sporting Futures), which has been such a treat for the children! We also have been learning about different shapes and transitions in Gymnastics. Year 2 have some amazing gymnasts who were able to even help Miss Ford! We also had the opportunity to attend Net and Wall sports event this half term. The children had a fantastic time and learned lots of different skills using rackets and balls. In Maths, we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes and Money- counting and adding and subtracting amounts using notes and coins. In our RE topic, we have been learning all about books and more specifically books in our Parish. Our trip to the Darlington library helped us to understand just how a library works and how many different types of books there are. The children have thoroughly enjoyed being able to choose their own book and read them at school. Our topic in science this half term was Animals and Humans. The children have been learning all about adults and offsprings and life cycles of different animals. The children could successfully recall facts about different animal groups. In history children have been learning all about the Great fire of London, children have been interested and are able to recall lots of facts about this, they have also produced some amazing pieces of writing too! Children have been getting very creative in art using clay and have made some gorgeous clay pots and clay houses! In DT we have been looking at the skills needed to sew and are going to put these skills into practice to make pouches. What a better way to end the half term than to attend the Hullabaloo Theatre to attend an interactive clay show and workshop! We hope you all have a wonderful break. See you soon! Miss Ford and Miss Gibson
Year 3 - It has been an exciting half term in Year 3. A particular highlight amongst Year 3 has been our swimming lessons. The children have been excellent role models for the school and have begun to perfect their swimming techniques! We have also thoroughly enjoyed our golf sessions in PE this half term. In English we have been writing our own story based on the Stone Age. The children loved our class text 'Stone Age Boy' and especially enjoyed acting as though we were in the Stone Age. In Maths this half term we have been busy learning all about centimetres, millimetres, metres and perimeter. The children have loved investigating within our classroom how we would measure different objects. We have loved learning about the family and pets in our French lessons - especially singing our songs in French! Well done for another fantastic half term Year 3! Miss Gilliland
Year 4 - This term has flown by in Year 4, we have been so busy learning lots of new things. In History we have started our new topic on Anglo Saxons and have been exploring what life was like in Anglo Saxon Britain. In science we completed a great scientific enquiry on tooth decay. We used hard boiled eggs to represent our teeth, where we placed the eggs into a range of liquids – milk, water, vinegar, fizzy drinks. The results were fascinating. Our Geography topic is based around earthquakes and Tsumanis, we have explored the effects of earthquakes on different countries and how a country would prepare for one. We looked in particular at the Haiti Earthquake 2010. I’ts been such a busy term and we have worked so hard that Miss White and Mrs Coates have been blown away by our attitude to our work and our determination. Miss White and Mrs Coates
Year 5 - It doesn’t seem like 2 minutes ago since I wrote all about our Christmas term. Although this has been a short term, the children have achieved so much, from discovering Norse Myths and poetry in English, to gaining an understanding of space and how the Earth and the planets move. We have also had a big focus on multiplication and division within maths and in PE we have enjoyed our units of tennis and dance. We have also spent time working hard within RE, focusing on the Local Church and how our church community helps to spread Jesus’ Mission. It really has been such a diverse month in terms of learning. We have also enjoyed welcoming the Dogs Trust into school and dressed like rockstars for our NSPCC number day. I has been fantastic to top off the term with an amazing Valentines Disco too. I hope you all have an enjoyable half term and I look forward to seeing you all when we return. Mr Cummins
Year 6 - This may have only been a short half term, but we have certainly made the most of it in Year 6! We have studied a children’s story called the Selfish Giant, written by Oscar Wilde, to help us to improve our writing. Looking more closely at the grammar and vocabulary of the formal voice, we have written our own descriptions and stories to showcase what we have learned. To help us further, we have been using techniques used by the Royal Shakespeare Company to explore characters, settings and emotions through the use of drama. We found that this had a fantastic impact on our writing and we hope to explore this further. In maths, we have continued to practise our arithmetic, through mental and written methods, to help both our speed and our accuracy. We have learned to use appropriate units of measurement, convert imperial and metric measures and understand how we might use ratio in real life circumstances. Our favourite mathematical activity, however, was being allowed to dress as rockstars and show off our marvellous multiplication magic by competing in the TT Rockstars national competition. Our science investigations and research have helped us to better understand Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, how animals adapt to their environment and how traits might be inherited. We will continue this work by looking at fossils next half term. If you visit a beach over the holiday, keep your eyes peeled and take a photo if you can find one! Other lessons have included: learning about the Gospel writers, the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the Bible is still relevant to us today (Religious Education); conflict between human and beast in prehistoric times (history); how to create and interpret climate graphs representing different biomes (geography); and Bhangra and 70s Disco dancing and tennis (PE). A huge thank you again for your support at home! Your Class Dojo messages have been gratefully received. We’re halfway through the year already and there’s plenty more to look forward to! Have a great break. Mrs Tucker
Wraparound Care - Our before and after school club runs from 7.40am - 8.45am and 3.15pm-6.00pm. Breakfast club is £3.00 per child and after school club is charged at £8.00. Bookings can be made through your MCAS account. Children are offered a variety of games and activities in these clubs and we will always welcome and encourage new ideas! At morning club, breakfast is provided and after school club children will receive sandwiches and snacks.
School Uniform is available to order directly through our supplier, Elizabeth's Embroidery. Just click on the link below to go to their website, this will take you straight through to the page to start the ordering process. https://elizabethsschoolwear.com/collections/st-augustine
Parking - Just a polite reminder that parents, carers and families are asked not to park in the school car park, use the car park to turn around or park in the resident permit parking spaces around the school or on the yellow zig zag lines. Only family and friends who have a parking permit will be able to use our staff car park on drop off and collection.
Nut Free School - another polite reminder that we are a nut free school. No items containing any kind of nuts should be brought into school - thank you for your continued support with this.
MCAS Accounts and overdue payments - Could you please bring your MCAS accounts up to date and ensure that any outstanding payments are made before the start of the New Year. We will be unable to offer places to children in After School Club and Breakfast Club if outstanding debt is not cleared.
Due to the large amount owing for School Lunches on some accounts, as of next term, if accounts are not brought up to date, you will be required to send your child into school with a packed lunch in order to prevent this debt becoming unmanageable. We fully appreciate that the cost of living crisis is having a huge impact on families. If you are having difficulty making payment, please speak to school in total confidence to see how we can support you. If you think that your child may be entitled to Free School Meals, please speak to the school office for an application form.
School Lunch Menu - Below is the lunch menu which will continue after the Christmas break . If you require the Halal option, could you please let the school office know in advance.
Vacancies and Staffing - We are still recruiting for a 1:1 Level 2 Teaching Assistant. The closing date for all applications is Friday 16th February 2024.
We are thrilled to announce that we have successfully appointed a new After School Club Lead who will commence employment following all relevant recruitment checks. More details to follow...