Welcome to Our School

Dear Parents, Carers and Visitors to our new school website,

A very warm welcome to Benton Dene Primary School. Formerly known at Goathland Primary School, we moved into our current site in June 2010. We share our site with Benton Dene Special School (formerly known Glebe School). Whilst we are separate schools, both schools are co-located in an innovative, inclusive primary campus which boasts a range of specialist areas and facilities including a very popular and successful Out of School Club (BDOOSC).

Benton Dene Primary School is a very special learning community for pupils aged 3 - 11 years. As one of the largest primary schools in North Tyneside, we can offer a range of curricular and extra-curricular activities. We value all pupils equally, whatever their background or ability. Our amazing staff are committed to offering an excellent education, opportunities and high standards of learning and pastoral care for every one of our children. Every child is encouraged to be successful and we recognise that every child is special and has their own contribution to make.

We have an extremely positive partnership with our parents and community and we have a very supportive and active Parent and Friends Association (FOBS), School Council and Governing Body. We are very proud of our reputation as a warm, welcoming family school.

The staff and governors are continually seeking the views of parents, carers and visitors to our school. We recognise that parents play an important role in the education of their children and as such we welcome your support and cooperation in making your child's time at Benton Dene Primary memorable and enjoyable. We encourage parents and carers to discuss any concerns or issues with us.

We hope this new website gives you a flavour of our wonderful, vibrant school and particularly a sense of the achievements and opportunities for our pupils. Our children make the school an exciting and stimulating place to learn and to work. If you would like to find out more about our school, please don't hesitate to call us, email or arrange a visit.

We are are currently advertising a fixed term teacher post - please see the "Our school" "Vacancies" section of the website

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 Spring Success

The WOW Walk to School Travel Tracker promotes walking to school on a daily basis instead of travelling by car with the benefits of keeping active and reducing air pollution around school. Children record their mode of travel daily and then collect badges for actively travelling to school.

We are delighted to announce that for the second term running we have finished 1st in the WOW Walk to School Challenge.

A huge thank you to children, parents, carers and staff for encouraging our children to actively travel to school. This is an amazing achievement and we are so proud of all of our children. This is an achievement that has never been done before in the whole time WOW Walk to School has existed.

Let's keep the momentum going and try to maintain our status in the top ten by actively travelling to school as much as possible. Thank you to all our children and families for supporting the scheme and making our school a safer and healthy place to be!

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 10^th 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.

Download Document

Go Smarter map (including crossings and walking zones)

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 artwork, listening to traditional music, trying their hand at games, sports or dances unique to that country and so much more. To celebrate our week, each class created a poster to share what exciting things they got up to. These posters now form a wonderfully colourful display in our hall allowing us to share our new knowledge and to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of each country and its people.

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.

Download Document

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.

https://my.northtyneside.gov.uk/news/32226/budding-young-gardeners-given-boost-after-winning-funding-north-tyneside-council

Mental Health Awareness Week:

Self-care toolkit

Healthy and unhealthy coping strategies toolkit

Eco-Schools Green Flag Award

We are delighted to have received an Eco-School Green Flag Award. Our Eco-Champions, with the support of Miss Hopkins have worked hard to raise the profile of green issues within school to ensure that we all take positive steps to protect the environment.

The Eco-Schools organisation were impressed with all the initiatives that have been put in place and they sent a lengthy letter detailing the reasons for granting the award, including;

"It's wonderful that you have appointed such a representative Eco-Committee, this shows your school’s excellent commitment to both the programme and the eco-cause. We love your democratic and fair approach to appointing Eco-Committee members. It’s great to see that other pupils played a part in the process."

"We love the range of activities that you and your Eco-Committee planned for delivery."

"We love that your pupils have taken their great work beyond the school gates and into their local community with your superb litter-picks, a bulb and sapling planting scheme on your village green – excellent work! We are certain that your pupils will have greatly benefitted from your involvement with such outside organisations as Healthy Seas, Friends of Benton Village Green (with whom you carried out your great community work) and Remondis, your waste company, who kindly explained to your pupils what happens to their waste. We were also delighted to hear that you had promoted a ’Walk to School’ initiative with your local council – superb!"

Eco Code

Download Document

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

Latest Parent Questionnaire

Primary School Questionnaire - July 2023

100% of parents or carers confirmed that their child felt happy at Benton Dene Primary School.

100% of parents or carers confirmed that their child felt safe at Benton Dene Primary School and school ensures that their child is well looked after.

100% of parents or carers confirmed that their child was taught well in school

100% of parents or carers would recommend Benton Dene Primary School to another parent.

Parental feedback:

Nursery: "Just a fabulous Nursery team. (My child) loves coming in each day and is actually sad when its the weekend!"

Reception: "I have been delighted with how the school has catered to my child's unique learning needs and have helped her confidence grow and flourish."

Year 1: "I'm very happy with my child's progress and the school activities. My child absolutely loves coming to school and is very enthusiastic about her learning experience. Many thank to her teachers."

Year 2: "Both my children are in BDP and have made tremendous progress. Their confidence and emotional intelligence has improved dramatically thanks to the effort of staff. I am very grateful. Thank you."

Year 3: "(My child) has had a fantastic experience, educationally, socially and emotionally! (My child) was quite anxious at certain times ... adjusting after COVID. I have seen (my child) grow in confidence and ability this year. My child loved being with the Year 3 teaching team ... Thank you all so much."

Year 4: "Best school, brilliant staff and activities. The choir and dancing were amazing giving our daughter confidence and memories she won't forget. Thank you."

Year 5: "(My child) has had the best time in school and as a parent that's all I want. Great opportunities to get involved in extra-curricular. Teachers are brilliant. I feel (my child) has had a great start with her education."

Year 6: "Another amazing year at Benton Dene Primary! Sadly the last for (my child). Thank you for all of your support, knowledge and patience over the years. (My child) has come on massively both education wise and with personal confidence. I wouldn't want to send my children anywhere else and I am glad I haven't had to!"