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December 2015 GIBSIDE GOSSIP

At Burnthouse Lane, Whickham, NE16 5AT; Tel: 0191 4410123 and Shibdon Bank, Blaydon, NE21 5EZ; 0191 4335588

BLACK CLASS

In cookery we have been learning about fruit and

vegetables. The children are very good at naming them

and of course they all loved tasting them.

We read the story ‘Avocado Baby’ and tasted avocado

pear.

BLUE CLASS

This term in blue class, our topic has been ‘all about me’

and we have really enjoyed doing lots of food technology

activities which link to our topic. We especially loved

making faces on our biscuits, and of course having a little

taste of the ingredients!

Pupils and staff

from Gibside School

would like to wish you a Merry

Christmas & a Happy

New Year!

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RED CLASS

Red class really enjoyed their visit to Northern Stage

to see the production of “Up and Out Christmas

Sprout”!

We then had our lunch in the Patio Restaurant in

Fenwick and we will be sending a big thank you to all

their staff that helped to make it a lovely event.

Then, of course, we had to see the windows!

We have been enjoying our sensory story of Harry

Potter and are due to take a magic carpet ride to

Lapland!

BRONZE CLASS

Bronze class has been learning all about sculptures this

half term. We’ve had lots of visits to look at sculptures

all across the northeast and even though the weather

wasn’t always on our side, we’ve been able to see the

‘Angel of the North’, ‘The Couple’ at Newbiggin and a

whole host of exciting sculptures at the Quayside. Our

favourite trip by far was to the Quayside, where we

found lots to look at and even some sculptures that we

could play with!

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YELLOW CLASS

Now that it’s December we are doing all things

Christmas themed in Yellow Class. We are working on

developing our counting skills and have been counting

buttons on snowmen, Christmas trees and Santa’s! We

have adapted our circle time counting song and have

had lots of fun counting Christmas objects and

pictures of Christmas things. We are trying to

remember to point to each object and stop counting

when we have pointed to the last object. Afterwards

we identify the number too! We are all getting excited

for Christmas!

JADE CLASS

Jade Class has had a brilliant term! We have enjoyed

learning new things and have had plenty of fun!

We have been working hard in Maths and English,

across the curriculum and in our focus lessons. We

have enjoyed learning about Hinduism in RE, exploring

our local area in Geography, learning about habitats in

Science and performing using instruments in Music! We have worked as a

team in our PSHE

lessons and explored lots

of different materials,

and ways of being

creative, in our Art

lessons. We are keeping

active in our weekly PE, Swimming and Hydrotherapy

sessions.

It’s been a busy term! We can’t wait for more fun next

year. Have a great Christmas! Love from Jade Class

WHITE CLASS

White Class continues to work hard during the festive

season after a great start to the year at Gibside School.

We have been taking every opportunity to get out and

about and recently went on a trip to Newcastle to visit

Fenwick’s window. White class were not put off by the cold

and rain of a Newcastle winter and enjoyed their trip.

Later in the week we looked back at some of the lovely

pictures we took and did a fun lesson based on our

afternoon out. We are looking forward to more lovely trips

next year on our brand new minibus.

With the brilliant support they get from home and the

staff at Gibside, White class looks forward to making

even more progress in 2016.

Happy Christmas from White Class!

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GREEN CLASS

This half term, Green Class has been learning about

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night!! We had great fun

finding out about The Gunpowder Plot and had a go at

making our own fireworks. We loved listening to some

music and splatting, zooming and whizzing our

fireworks through the black sky…

GOLD CLASS

Gold class have been learning about Christianity this

half term and had opportunities to visit both St Mary’s

Church in Whickham and also St Nicholas Cathedral in

Newcastle. The children really enjoyed the visits and

identified some of the different artefacts that could

be found. We even got to practice a baptism!!

PURPLE CLASS

We have been to the Quayside to look at landmarks for

geography. We were able to identify the Tyne Bridge

and the Millennium Bridge.

We stopped for a spot of exercise! Jack and Ben worked

together to show us how the professionals do it. We also

looked at the

celebration of

Diwali and went

shopping to collect

different foods.

Francis ate all of

the food! He said

it was delicious!

Kieran explored

our spicy rice. But wasn’t a fan of the samosas. We have

also been practicing

our gymnastics skills

in P.E. Ryan tried

out different ways

of moving across a

bench! Dominic tried

different types of

jumps of the high

box. This was his fabulous stretch jump!

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ORANGE CLASS

We have had a fabulous

time during this half term!

We especially enjoyed

going to the theatre and

Adventureland together.

We really enjoyed

exploring things related to

Christmas. Have a lovely

Christmas holiday everyone

and see you next year.

PINK CLASS

A few weeks ago in pink class we started making our

Christmas cakes! Lizzie and Chloe did a fantastic job

of chopping all the cherries. We added all the

ingredients – it was hard work stirring the mixture.

We have also been rolling out the marzipan and soon

we are going to be icing and decorating them. We hope

they taste as good as they look!

PEACH CLASS

Peach class this half term have begun inclusion to

Blaydon, making regular fortnightly visits to allow the

children to meet, play and learn with the children at

Blaydon. This has allowed routines to be built up in a safe

environment and friendships to be maintained for the

children that have just left the Blaydon site.

SILVER CLASS

Silver class enjoyed making a decoration for the centre

of their Christmas dinner table. We created ‘the north

pole’ and really enjoyed making and decorating our own

penguins.

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LADYBIRDS & BUTTERFLIES

All the children have now settled into Ladybird class

very well. We have had lots of fun exploring the garden,

making new friends and learning new routines. We've

also been working with our school therapists. Anna the

Physio and Laura the OT spend time every week with

some of the children on specific activities and the

children love working with them

CHRISTMAS LUNCH

A huge thank you to Christine and Sharon for making

the most delicious Christmas lunch in school. It was

really enjoyed by pupils and staff!

THANK YOU!

We would like to say a big thank you to FOGS who

continue to support our school by fundraising for us and

also to everyone who has donated money to our school

this year!

An extra special thank you to Lord’s Taverners for the

new mini bus we now have in school – this is already

making a big difference for our children!

FINALLY, A few words from Judith Donovan..........

This year sees the end of my first year as Head teacher

at Gibside (initially of course in an acting capacity). It

is a real privilege for me to be taking Gibside into a New

Year and into its next phase of development. 2015 has

seen lots of changes; we now have our Blaydon site as

well as an extended Whickham site. Although at times

we have faced challenges with both of these projects, I

think we are now in a much stronger position to move

forward. I would like to thank you all for your fantastic

support, we could not help our pupils progress as well as

they do without working collaboratively with

parents/carers, our multidisciplinary colleagues,

governors, volunteers and the wider community who

support our fundraising efforts. Of course as always I

would also like to thank our amazing staff who work so

hard for our children – their dedication to the school

has no boundaries!

All the very best wishes to you all for a wonderful

Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

HOLIDAYS Christmas - School Closes: Friday 18th December 2015 & reopens Monday 4th January 2015

Half Term – School closes Friday 12th

February 2016 and reopens Monday 22nd February 2016

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MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR SCHOOL COUNCIL The School Council has made a great start to the school

year. Our new councillors have been working brilliantly

together and have already contributed some fantastic

ideas to help the school. They have come up with some

great suggestions for our new School hydro pool and

took a vote on Adele’s plan for the head teacher’s

award! Our last School Council meeting will be a treat

to celebrate the hard work so far. The council even

voted on the snacks and drinks we would have for their

party – biscuits beat mince pies on a landslide! The

councillors are looking forward to a really busy New

Year, making lots of decisions to help the School.

ADVENTURELAND VISIT

Here is just a selection of photos from the school’s

recent visit to Adventureland! I’m sure you can tell by

the photographs what a fantastic time they all had!