Welcome to Our School
Dear Parents, Carers and Visitors to our new school website,
School Streets: Road Access Update
Christmas Performance Times
Yellow Zone Performance for Nursery Families - Monday 16th December @ 9:15am
Yellow Zone Performance for Reception Families - Monday 16th December @ 10:30am
Red Zone Performance for Year 3 Families - Monday 16th December @ 1:30pm
Red Zone Performance for Year 4 Families - Monday 16th December @ 2:30pm
Blue Zone performance for Year 5 Families - Tuesday 17th December @ 11:30am
Blue Zone performance for Year 6 Families - Tuesday 17th December @ 2:15pm
Green Zone Performance for Year 1 Families - Wednesday 18th December @ 9:30am
Green Zone Performance for Year 2 Families - Wednesday 18th December @ 10:45am
Meet Teddy!
We are excited to share some wonderful news with you – our school will soon be welcoming a part-time school dog! Teddy started his school dog training with The Dog's Trust over the summer and representatives from The
Dog's Trust will be coming into school to deliver workshops to help prepare the children. We hope that Teddy will support our students’ well-being and create an even more positive environment around school. Interaction with Teddy will be supervised, and we will ensure that students with allergies or those who may feel uncomfortable around dogs are supported and covered by our risk assessment.
'Outstanding' news ...
Following our Ofsted Inspection in July our school has bben graded as Outstanding in all areas. The following letter from Miss Lawrence provides a summary of the inspection process and outcomes. There is a link to the report in the 'Our School' 'Ofsted' section of our website.
Welcome Back!
We hope that all our pupils and their families have had a fun-filled and enjoyable summer holiday with plenty of opportunities for rest and relaxation!
We are all looking forward to welcoming you back (or welcoming you into your new school for our new starters) on Tuesday 3rd September.
Please note that our staggered drop off and collection times are slightly altered; please see the following document to confirm your child's start and finish times; you will also note the arrangements where there are siblings in school.
Many thanks, see you on Tuesday!
2023/2024 Parental feedback questionnaire headlines
Thank you to all the parents, carers and pupils who took the time to complete our end of year questionnaire and feedback forms; we had a fantastic response and appreciate all of your positive comments. We always welcome and review feedback and suggestions to ensure our school provision remains the best it can be.
The highlights from the questionnaire are as follows;
100% of parents/carers confirmed their child was safe in school.
100% of parents/carers confirmed their child was taught well and was making good progress.
100% of parents/carers confirmed school promotes positive behaviour and deals with any bulying effectively
100% of parents/carers would recommend this school to another parent.
The 'Parents and Carers' section of our website has a feedback section including a selection of comments recieved.
SEND Summer Holiday Activities 2024
We would like to share with you a North Tyneside SEND Summer holiday activity programme. It’s packed full of multi-sport sessions, cycling sessions, athletics sessions, archery sessions and a water sport session. The summer programme is for children & young people with SEND and any siblings to come along enjoy themselves and have fun! The sessions are not postcode restricted, therefore sessions are open to
everyone.
Visit the ‘What’s On’ page of their website for more information -
London Residential Trip
A number of our KS2 children, from Year 3 to Year 6 had an amazing residential visit in London and enjoyed the best that the city had to offer! From a trip to London Zoo to a performance of Mrs Doubtfire in the West End they had a jam-packed visit. The children were a credit to school with many a compliment on their manners and behaviour.
Summer Fair
Thank you to all the children, parents and carers, families and friends who attended our school fair to support raising funs for school. We had one of the warmest days of the year and the event was a huge success. We have to give a special thanks to our amazing FOBS team who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the fair so enjoyable and our staff who supported on the day. Also thank you to everyone that donated gifts and prizes; we were overwhelmed by your generosity. Congratulations to all the winners; the office will be in touch with all winners to make sure you get your prizes!
Headteacher Appointment
New School Meals Provision
The North Tyneside Catering Services contract with local schools terminates on April 1st. We have successfully appointed Mellors Catering as our new Catering Services Provider, who will take over from the start of Summer Term 2024. We are very much looking forward to working with Mellors who will continue to provide the high standard of meals that our pupils
are used to.
North Tyneside Council and ParentPay, have sent an email out to parents regarding credits and/or debits on your children's accounts currently. If you have not received the
email and the below information applies to your child please contact them directly on parentpay@northtyneside.gov.uk. Any credit on accounts which is not reclaimed by by 21st March 2024 will be transferred over to the new provider on your behalf. If you have a balance owed then you will receive an invoice directly from North Tyneside Council and must pay this directly.
Mellors will continue to use ParentPay and we will send you some more information about the small change you will need to make to your current ParentPay account when we get this information from them.
Further information including weekly menus and free school meals are available in the 'Parents and Carers' section of the website under 'School Meals'.
WOW - Walk to School Travel Tracker
Exciting Visit from Local MP Mary Glindon and WOW - Walk to School Guests
Mary Glindon MP (North Tyneside) and Cllr Hunter (Chair of Governors) came to our school to meet pupils and hear about the benefits they are experiencing from walking to school and to congratulate them for topping the national WOW Top Ten leader board at the end of last year. Benton Dene Primary School takes part in WOW – the walk to school challenge from charity Living Streets. WOW sees pupils record how they get to school using the interactive WOW Travel Tracker with those who walk, wheel, cycle, scoot or ‘Park and Stride’ to school being awarded a monthly WOW badge.
In England, 41% of 5–10-year-olds are normally driven to school. However, during International Walk to School Month in October 2023, just 7% of journeys recorded on the WOW Travel Tracker by Benton Dene Primary School pupils were car trips all the way to the school gates.
The other 93% of journeys recorded were active with 53% being walked all the way. These results saw the school become the first North East school to top Living Streets WOW Top Ten leaderboard for England.
Mary Glindon MP for North Tyneside said:
"It’s been wonderful to meet pupils at Benton Dene Primary School and celebrate their achievements. The children clearly love the WOW challenge and it’s great to hear about all the benefits they are enjoying from walking more.
“We all need to find ways to make our daily travel more sustainable and walking and wheeling to school is a great place to start. Walking to school also has many health benefits for families and helps children concentrate in the classroom.”
Cynthia Games, Schools Coordinator, Living Streets said:
“It’s wonderful that pupils from Benton Dene Primary School could meet Mary Glindon MP today and tell her about their success in getting more active on the journey to school.
“The WOW Top Ten challenge adds a fun competitive element to walking to school and helps support pupils’ health and wellbeing while reducing congestion and pollution around the gates.”
Multiply and Mingle
A big thanks to all the children, parents and carers who came along to our maths evening to learn about different methods for learning times tables. The turnout was fantastic and it was lovely to see some healthy competition between families! Thanks to our maths subject leads; Miss Hopkins, Miss Gedney and Mr Scott for making this evening such a success.
If you would like any further information about our maths curriculum or advice on supporting your child at home please look at the meths section of the website or arrange to speak to your child's teacher.
Christmas!
What a busy week we have had in the run up to Christmas! We are very, very proud of all of our children for their amazing Christmas performances; what a talented bunch! Thank you to everyone who came to cheer them on and we know impressed you were.
On behalf of all the staff and governors we would like to wish all of our amazing children and all their families a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
Eco-week
We have celebrated our planet during Eco-week and each year group in school has created some impressive work linked to three key books; Dear Earth by Isabel Otter, Here we Are; Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers and Guardians of the Planet; How to be an Eco-Hero. Eco week was an opportunity to appreciate the diversity of life and habitats on out planet, carry out research and look at practical ways to look after our planet. Some examples of the wonderful work our children produced is displayed.
Mental Health Awareness Week
World Mental Health Day was Tuesday 10th October and was an opportunity to think about how good mental health for everyone is promoted. The theme suggested by the World Foundation of Mental Health is ‘Mental health is a universal human right’. Many organisations are using this theme to encourage people to talk about mental health and for adults to take opportunities to have ‘Tea and Talk’,
Below you will find a selection of resources that might be useful.
A ‘Tea and Talk’ pack of ideas for adults can be found here: Tea & Talk for World Mental Health Day | Mental Health Foundation
My Self Care plan (Primary) - Anna Freud Centre experts and young people, ideas on self-care strategies that work for them.
Public Health England School Zone:
- Self Care Sessions for Y6 and KS3/4 that explore self-care techniques to support physical and mental wellbeing.
- Self Care Lesson plans for KS1 and KS2.
- Worry Using peer-to-peer discussion, videos and activities, students will identify what worry might feel or look like and describe different actions that a person can take if they are worried, for Y6 and KS3/4
- Physical and Mental Wellbeing lesson for KS2
Car Free School Streets
In order to ensure that our children can access school as safely as possible the Local Authority have introduced a 'School Streets' trial; details of which are set out in the attached letter and map. The access restrictions relate to Weardale Avenue, Clydesdale Avenue and Allandale Avenue. Access to these streets will be restricted and marshalled before and after school. This scheme has been introduced following complaints from residents about dangerous parking practices and reported incidents.
Any concerns or questions about the scheme (as well as further information) can be addressed to North Tyneside Council and their contact details are set out below.
Thank you for helping to keep our children safer and healthier.
Healthy Schools Award
We have again been awarded a North Tyneside Healthy Schools certificate, reflecting our continuing commitment and outstanding work to maintain a whole school approach to health and wellbeing. We place great importance on the physical and emotional well being of all the children in our school and we firmly believe that Healthy Schools plays an important part in helping all our young people to reach their full potential.
Primary Science Quality Mark Award
We are delighted to confirm that our school has been awarded the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM). PSQM is supported by a partnership between the University of Hertfordshire and the Primary Science Teaching Trust.
When granting the award the PSQM team wrote as follows;
" While this is a whole school effort, we know that it is your hard work, drive and passion as science subject leaders that have made this happen. PSQM is a rigorous process which is not undertaken lightly, and we have great admiration for your commitment to the programme."
"Your school's Primary Science Quality Mark recognises how you have made a difference to your school by improving teaching and learning as well as raising the profile of science and children's aspirations for STEM."
The quality mark recognises the wonderful work and enthusiasm that our children have for science and the commitment and dedication of our teaching staff to provide quality teaching. A special thanks to Mr Scott and Miss Barker, our science subject leads who have dedicated considerable time and effort to promote science and STEM within school and ensure an engaging and progressive science curriculum. Their efforts in achieving this fantastic award are commendable.
Celebrating International Week
Our children have enjoyed sampling different cultures from around the world as part of our school-wide International Week. Each class chose a country to represent from those participating in this summer's Women's World Cup. Throughout the week, our children explored their chosen countries in a variety of ways: getting to grips with the native language, creating fact files, replicating some indigenous
Rocksteady Music School - Applications for 2023-2024
in 2022-2023 our Rocksteady groups had an amazing year and parents were invited in to school for an end of year concert performance from our four amazing bands! It has been a pleasure seeing our children learning new instruments; working together and developing the confidence and love of performing nurtured by the Rocksteady team. We could not be prouder of our singers, guitarists, drummers and keyboard players. Rock on! Please see the attached poster for any budding rock stars who wish to sign up for next year.
North Tyneside Children’s Councils Playground Project
Congratulations to Amber who recently won a North Tyneside competition following a successful pitch to leaders at the Council for her exciting project for a nature garden in the school playground. A prize of £500.00 will ensure that children will get the chance to plant flowers and vegetables and help them grow. Here is a link to the North Tyneside Council website celebrating this amazing achievement.
Mental Health Awareness Week:
Eco-Schools Green Flag Award
Eco Code
Our school Eco Champions, with the support of Miss Hopkins have also been hard at work to create an Eco Code for us all to follow in school. This will ensure that all children and staff in in school work together to make Benton Dene Primary School as environmentally friendly as we possibly can. The Eco Champions are leading an application for a Green Flag award for us to be recognised as an Eco School.
The whole school recently attended assemblies given by Remondis, who remove all the rubbish from school, to explain how our rubbish is sorted and recycled. We found out that 85% of our rubbish is sorted and recycled at their plant in Bedlington, 14% is incinerated to create energy and only 1% ends up in a landfill in Northumberland.
A big thank to our amazing Eco-champions!
Music Mark
We are delighted to have been awarded the Music Mark for the second year running. This is a nationally recognised award and has been achieved thanks to the hard work and dedication of our music team and our staff for continually delivering an excellent music offer in our school. It is a pleasure to see our children enjoying music; whether playing an instrument, singing or appreciating and discussing musical composition.
The music mark award criteria include;
- evidence of a willingness to engage in development conversations related to improving music provision
- recognition of the value of music education as part of a broad and balanced curriculum
- a strategy for music in place which provides for all children
