St John's Chapel and Wearhead Primary Schools Well done to this week's special certificate winners and to the winners of our World Book Day competition!

St John's Chapel and Wearhead Primary Schools Today we enjoyed listening to the stories we brought to school for World Book Day Then, we made our own 'Captain Barnacles' hat and completed some World Book Day activities. This week, we have also enjoyed completing activities linked to Pancake Day and made the most of the lovely weather by playing outside.

St John's Chapel and Wearhead Primary Schools World Book Day 2025 We have had a brilliant day celebrating the magic of World Book Day! The children looked fantastic dressed as their favourite book characters. From Paddington Bear and Little Red Riding Hood, to Stick Man and Zog, our hallways were alive with beloved characters from classic and modern tales. We even had a Gangster Granny! Throughout the day, we have celebrated our love for reading by sharing our favourite books and characters, listening to stories and completing some World Book Day activities. We have had some amazing entries in our 'Potato Character' competition! Thank you to all the children who participated, the judges had a super hard job. We are excited to announce our winners in assembly tomorrow!

St John's Chapel & Wearhead This morning, the children in KS2 all took part in the BBC live lesson for World Book Day. They also made origami bookmarks.

Hamsterley Primary School We have had an absolutely fantastic World Book Day today here in school We began the morning with an assembly where children shared tips for reading, book recommendations and shared the places that they love to read. The two classes thoroughly enjoyed reading together. We took advantage of the fantastic weather today to enjoy books collaboratively in the sunshine after lunch. Class 1 Reception had lots of fun inside and out. They built the Three Little Pigs' houses, made Stickman, made porridge for the three bears, went searching for Superworm in the mud and used potatoes to make number bonds. Year 1 and 2 listened carefully to, and followed, instructions linked to fairy stories, talked about their favourite books and explained why they were their favourite books. They also wrote about their costume and why they chose it. They had lots of fun throughout the day. Class 2 The children took part in the BBC World Book day live lesson in the morning and thought about their ideal fiction and non-fiction books. They then took part in the live reading session where all the schools across the country read at the same time - making BBC Live Lesson history! In the afternoon, the children went on a reading scavenger hunt using the library to find lots of examples of great writing and author's choices in lots of different books! Thank you to all the children for their amazing efforts in the potato competition. The judges had such a hard job! Well done to all of our winners!

Hamsterley Primary School In cookery club we learnt how to make pancakes and had lots of fun eating them. The golden syrup was a big hit!

Wearhead Primary School In our Forest School session today; we looked for the first signs of spring. Using the bow saws, we cut wooden slices and painted them with a spring picture. We cooked pizza pockets on the fire, which were very tasty!

Hamsterley Primary School A couple of months ago, the children in KS2 each made a poster about driving safely through the village for PCSO Bell. The children who created the best posters received an award and had their posters printed to put up around Hamsterley. This afternoon, class 2 went around the village putting the posters up to hopefully encourage drivers to pass through slowly.

Wearhead Primary School EYFS children made a pancake mix this morning and we all enjoyed eating pancakes at break time!

Hamsterley Primary School In EYFS we have enjoyed making delicious pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

Happy half term from the Durham Dales Federation! Enjoy the break and we look forward to welcoming you back to school on Monday 3rd March.

Hamsterley Primary School Our two private woodwind pupils from Year 4 put on a showcase of the pieces they have been learning in their lessons to Class 2 today. The audience were very appreciative of how far they have come since the beginning of their lessons earlier this year. Well done!

St John's Chapel & Wearhead In our gymnastics lesson today, the children in year 5 & 6 practised travelling in different ways.

St John's Chapel and Wearhead Schools This half term, our Jigsaw topic has been 'Dreams and Goals'. We started the unit talking about our successes, as well as some goals that we have. We also discussed what steps we could take to achieve this goal. We demonstrated this by following the steps to achieve the goal of making a jam sandwich. Then, we showed that we can work well with a partner or group by designing a welly boot together to represent a shared goal. Yesterday, we talked about how some tasks may be challenging at first, but when we tackle a new challenge we stretch our learning. We challenged ourselves to make a 'stretchy flower'. We found the cutting difficult at first but we maintained a positive attitude and kept trying until we achieved our goal.

St John's Chapel Primary School In Computing, KS1 have been learning how to create a branching database to identify and categorise different minibeasts.