The Durham Dales Federation is a federation of small rural primary schools, which was formed in September 2023. Staff from all schools work together to share expertise and to plan and deliver the curriculum. Our subject leaders co-ordinate their subjects across all the schools within our federation, which ensures that we can offer the same high-quality experiences to all pupils in our schools.
The Upper Dales schools of Wearhead and St John’s Chapel work together on a regular basis each week. At the start of the week, each school works in their own building and on Thursdays and Fridays, the schools come together on the St John’s Chapel Primary School site. On Federation days, we take advantage of the opportunities to work in larger groups with other children of the same age, and we often arrange visits and visitors for these days so that everyone can participate.
St John's Chapel Primary- Class 1 In Art, we observed the photos we had taken on our walk through the village, discussing the different types of building and their features. After, we each chose one to sketch using hard and soft pencils. Some of us chose to sketch a full building, and others chose to focus on a specific feature like the windows or doors.
View this PostSt John's Chapel Primary In craft club, we were learning how to make spiders, caterpillars and dragonflies out of pipe cleaners It was great fun!
View this PostHamsterley Primary School In Science, the EYFS class are exploring leaves and autumn. Last week we made 'The Leaf Man'. This afternoon we have used our light box to explore the leaves more closely and match the leaves to the trees we have in our woodland area
View this PostHamsterley Primary School Year 3 and 4 began their computing unit (Computer Systems and Networks) today by practically understanding how networks work at home, in school and around the world.
View this PostHamsterley Primary School In Class 2's maths meeting today, the children worked on using a gattegno chart to use the powers of 10 to make numbers bigger or smaller. It was amazing to see some 'Wow!' moments around the class as their understanding grew.
View this PostHamsterley Primary School In Forest School, Class 1 went on an Autumn leaf hunt to find what type of leaves are in our woodland area. We used the leaves that we had found to make our beautiful Autumn leaf lanterns. We also had lots of fun in the digging pit, making pizzas in the mud kitchen and counting pine cones and leaves to 10!
View this PostChapel Tots is on today at St John's Chapel Primary School from 1.30pm - 3.00pm. It is open for all children aged 0 - 3 years old and is FREE! Refreshments will be available for all. We hope to see you there!
View this PostWearhead Primary Yesterday, Class 2 enjoyed their second ukulele lesson with Mrs Millar from Durham Music Service. Firstly, the children tuned their own ukulele by deciding if their sound was too high or too low when listening to the correct pitch of the note. They then learnt to play a new song which included another new chord, not bad for only the second lesson this term!
View this PostSt John's Chapel Primary Class 1 have continued to develop their football skills in our PE lesson this afternoon. We started the session by practising dribbling and keeping the ball under control. Then, we practised passing the ball with a partner before finishing with some shooting drills.
View this PostSt John's Chapel Primary The children in our early years had great fun in the sunshine this morning
View this PostSt John's Chapel Primary We have been learning to round numbers using number lines in year 5 & 6.
View this PostSt John's Chapel Primary- KS1 In Maths today, our KS1 children were developing their understanding of numbers 11-15. We used different practical resources including, tens frames and counters, base 10, Numicon and Rekenreks to help us see the full ten and part of the next ten.
View this PostHamsterley Primary School Well done to all of the star award winners!
View this PostSt John's Chapel In English, the children in year 5&6 have been matching powerful words from our class text with their definitions.
View this PostWearhead and St. John's Chapel Primary Schools Class 1 have been looking at and identifying plants in their science lessons. They have been practising football skills in PE lessons.
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