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.
Wearhead The EYFS children have enjoyed the rock pool activities in school this week. These have linked to 'Sally and the limpet', which is the book that we have been looking at and writing about.
View this PostWearhead Primary School Today, Class 2 have been looking at different types of agricultural land use in the UK. We watched a video, made notes and collated them into a whole class mind map. We then focused on investigating County Durham's distribution of allotments.
View this PostHamsterley Primary School In Science Reception have had a fun afternoon planning a trip to the beach. We have packed our beach suitcase with different items to take to the beach and discussed how to stay safe at the beach and safe from the sun
View this PostHamsterley Primary School Class 2 had a fantastic afternoon in Forest School! The children made bird feed and hung them from the trees, they made their own outdoor tap and had lots of fun in the mud kitchen. To finish off the session, the children toasted marshmallows.
View this PostSt John's Chapel, Rookhope & Wearhead Today, KS2 went to Baldershead Reservoir, to learn about uplands birds. The children used sound recording equipment to listen to and record the sounds around them. They also shared their knowledge about birds.
View this PostHamsterley Primary In our Science lesson today, Key Stage 1 went on a materials hunt around school. We had to say what material we thought an object was made from and then record it in a table in our books.
View this PostPlease see this week's #WakeUpWednesday, which is all about the impact energy drinks can have on children.
View this PostSt John's Chapel and Rookhope The children in reception have been looking at the globe to find the United Kingdom and the four countries within.
View this PostSt John's Chapel & Rookhope In Maths, some of the children have been using numicon and numicon pegs to put mixed numbers on a number line.
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 PostSt John's Chapel & Rookhope In English, the children have been using dictionaries to find the definitions of difficult vocabulary in our new class text.
View this PostWearhead In class 1 Reception are working hard with their number formation. They have been using the Ten Town characters and rhymes to help them remember them.
View this PostWearhead In class 1 today we started our new Art topic, Flower Head. We began by examining a variety of flowers. We then talked about their visual elements, including their shape, form, colour and pattern. The children then used what they had learnt to draw their chosen flower including the details that they had observed.
View this PostSt John's Chapel & Rookhope In Art, the children have been learning about continuous line drawings. They used pencil and charcoal to create their own continuous line drawings of different shaped bottles.
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