This page provides a summary of information news about events that have been happening in the school throughout the academic year. Please look at the newsletter section for the current, most up to date infomation: www.stbedewinchester.co.uk/newsletters-1/

• Year 4 Art Workshop London – July 2024

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  Miss Maguire, Miss Mayer and Mrs Duck had the great privilege of taking a small group of our Year 4 pupils to London to celebrate some of the work they had created over the summer, working with professional artists.  The children spent the day at the Craftsman’s Guild with another group of children from a school in East London, looking at each other’s art outcomes and working together on a special creative project for the day, working together to design a ‘dream’ play space, creating floor plans, designs for logos and 3D models to represent one of the play features within their space.  The children were delightful company and excellent ambassadors for the school.

   

  Unfortunately, the work the children produced is not available to be seen by the public - unless you happen to be a member of the Craftsman’s Guild - but we were incredibly impressed by the quality of work the children from both schools produced.  

   

  We saw puppets, printing and jewellery produced by the children of St. Bede, stone carving, handmade books and paper mache models made by Sir John Heron Primary School pupils.  Well done to all of the children in Year 4 for the work they produced and especially to the eight children who came to London who engaged so maturely with the artists, the other children and each other.

• Year 6 Book Club Visit – July 2024

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  At the beginning of July, our dedicated members of the Year 6 Book Club visited P & G Wells Bookstore.  They were treated to a tour of the book shop, even viewing the binding room and the machinery that for many years bound the books purchased!  They then had the opportunity to look through some proofs, browse the shelves, write recommendation cards and even devour some books.

   

  Our avid readers picked a book each as new additions to our school library - ranging from the recent children’s laureate winner, Frank Cottrell-Boyce to the ever popular Skandar series.  Our children were beautifully behaved, engaged and in the words of P & G Wells staff, “delightfully keen.”  Here are some quotes from the children about the visit:

   

  “It was amazing getting to look behind the scenes and learn about how books were bound versus how things are done today.” “I enjoyed looking at all the books and getting the chance to pick some out for the library.”  Well done to everyone involved!

• Year 5 visit to Paultons Park – July 2024

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  Year 5 pupils enjoyed a visit to Paultons Park to enrich their learning about forces as part of their science work.  Being able to understand how forces are linked to the rides in a theme park made for some memorable learning moments and children enjoyed some time trying out the rides as well.

   

  Some of our Year 5 children have written up an account of their trip for the newsletter- we hope you enjoy reading what Ellie and Sebastian have written:

   

  On Wednesday 3rd of July, Year 5 went on a school trip to Paultons park to enhance their science learning on forces.  At the workshop they went to, they discovered different types of wheels, which are used for the smaller coasters like caterpillar, farmyard flyer and many of the others.  Also, they had so much fun whizzing around on some of thriller rides and smiling and laughing on the not so fast ones. Some of their favourite rides were Cobra, Storm Chaser, Cyclonater, Flight of the Pterosaur, etc.  By the end there were many tired faces and voices, which had started to disappear from all the screaming.

   

  And a big thank you to all the parent helpers and teachers, who helped this fantastic trip run smoothly.

   

  Feedback from staff was that children behaved fantastically and were excellent ambassadors for the school - well done Year 5 and thank you!

• Year 4 Art Workshop – July 2024

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  At the beginning of July, Year 4 were visited by two professional artists, Ruth Martin and Rachel Warr to complete a puppet-making project.  They learnt new printing techniques to create patterns on their puppets and carefully constructed them so that when the puppet string is pulled, the arms and legs go up and down!  These puppets will go on display in London for as part of an exhibition for the public to see.  Excellent work everyone!

• Year 2 visit to Sea City Museum – June 2024

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  Year 2 have been ‘full steam ahead’ in their history lessons in the summer term, learning all about the Titanic.  The children are exploring whether the Titanic was a triumph or a tragedy and exploring various sources of information to help them form their conclusions.  To support them in their knowledge and understanding, and to enable them to begin to make decisions, they visited the Sea City museum in Southampton at the end of June.  The children were such fantastic ambassadors for the school; they were engaged in all the learning experiences that were on offer and behaved beautifully whilst sharing the spaces with members of the public.

   

  Throughout the day, children had a guided tour of the museum and learnt more about the impact of the Titanic on the people of Southampton.  They took part in a workshop involving four different activities, one of the favourites being a science investigation into how the watertight compartments flooded.  The museum staff were so impressed with the children’s knowledge of the Titanic and praised their sensible and thoughtful questions.  Thank you to all the parents who were able to support on this trip, and a huge well done to the children! What a brilliant day we all had!

• Sports News – June 2024

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  At the end of June, 4 of our pupils participated in the Winchester and Eastleigh Schools Red Ball Tennis Tournament.  7 schools in total participated, hosted by Kings’ in the sweltering heat.  Each player contributed fantastically to the team’s total scores, winning match after match in tricky conditions, against challenging opponents.  Unfortunately for St Bede, they lost out on being the overall winners of the tournament by just 3 points.  One loss, in a fantastic match against Westgate, played at a superb level, meant that they became the overall winners and progressed to the County Finals.  St Bede can be rightly incredibly proud of their second place and the high level of tennis played throughout.  The children we took gelled as a team, showing great support for each other and fantastic sporting behaviour; competitive, but always fair. Well done Edward, Frida, Hector and Georgie.  We are very proud of you.

• Key Stage 2 Sports Day – 28th June

  Tue 23 Jul 2024

  It was so lovely to be able to hold our second sports day.  Children gave the best of themselves showing such determination and perseverance in the events and supported each other admirably.  Thank you to all of the Heads of Sport, Sports Reps and other willing volunteers who helped set out equipment for races, or who took on other roles to make the event run smoothly.  Another thank you to our wonderful HSA who provided ice lollies for the children, always so gratefully received!  Thank you as well to everybody who was able to attend and provide such encouragement to the children.

   

  The winners of the Upper School (KS2) sports day were Chimera House, with Gryphon, Dragon and Phoenix in close pursuit.  When all the scores are combined from the KS2 and EYFS Sports Days, the overall champion this year is Chimera House- congratulations to all!  Combined scores this year left Chimera in first place with 1400 points, Dragon with 1315 points, Gryphon with 1300 points and Phoenix with 1005.  It has been lovely to see all children and families celebrating individual successes and the success of each other, the events have felt so special and such a celebration of the efforts, talents, hard work and character of all of our pupils.  Well done to everyone who took part in any of the events.

• Clean Air Project News

  Fri 21 Jun 2024

  This week our Eco Reps spoke in band worships to talk about their involvement in The Clean Air Project run by the My Journey Hampshire Travel Team. This coincided with Clean Air Day which raises awareness of the importance of clean air for our health and the environment. The Eco Reps have been busy collecting several measurements of air quality using a Plume Flow Meter on and around the school site such as the playground, Gordon Road and St Peter’s car park. With the exception of one reading in St Peter’s car park (which was temporarily high), all other readings were green giving a reading of low pollution. The children were delighted with this result and are now keen to maintain good air quality in and around school.

   

  The Eco Reps want to encourage as many people as possible to travel to school by walking, cycling, scooting or park and stride. They are holding a competition for children to design a poster to be displayed in school. The poster needs to encourage others to walk or wheel to school to keep the air clean. If your child would like to take part, please return posters by Friday 28th June to the school office. Your child’s name and year group needs to be on the back.  Well done Eco Reps.

   

  Quotes from our Eco Reps:

   

  • I liked learning about how to persuade people by being positive rather than negative.
  • It was interesting to think that cavemen were the first humans to start polluting the air by burning fires. Humans have been polluting the air a really long time!
  • Did you know that road traffic is the biggest cause of air pollution in towns and cities?
  • We need clean air when we walk to school. Otherwise it is bad for our heart and lungs.
  • We want to breath clean air and not the fumes from cars.

• Lower School Sports Day (EYFS and Key Stage 1)

  Fri 21 Jun 2024

  We were so delighted that sports day for the lower school was able to take place on Friday 21^st June in glorious weather conditions. Our sports days are such lovely community events and the children amazed and impressed us all in equal measure. It was lovely to see so many of our families coming to support their children and we wanted to say an extra special thank you to those who attended and listened so carefully to instructions around where to sit during the event and when/how to collect their children at the end of the event for a picnic. We also thank all staff involved who managed the events and preparing children for them so well, the HSA who provided lollies for the children at the end of the event and our wonderful Year 6 helpers who gave out stickers, managed resources and encouraged and escorted children through all races. The most important thank you of course goes to the children who took part - you were fabulous!

   

  The winners of the Lower School Sports Day (EYFS and KS1) were Dragon House team, followed by Gryphon, Chimera and Phoenix. Points scored today will be added to those at the Key Stage 2 sports day, which hopefully takes place next Friday and which will let us know the overall champions of this year’s event.

• Marathon Miles for Mrs Duck

  Fri 21 Jun 2024

  A week ago, our amazing headteacher, Mrs Duck, was marching from Salisbury to Winchester as part of the ‘marathon miles’ fundraising initiative led by the St. Bede HSA.  Mrs Duck set off early morning from Salisbury, walking to the cathedral and then following the route of the Clarendon Way through Broughton, King’s Somborne and arriving back at Winchester Cathedral before coming on to the St. Bede Summer Fayre. It was a beautiful route, challenging in places and in total and Mrs Duck walked just over 29 miles taking over 63,000 steps.

   

  Mrs Duck explained that it was further than she had ever walked in a day and not being known for her sporty pursuits meant that she set off with trepidation hoping she’d make it to the end and not wanting to let herself, or the children who have clocked up their own marathon miles down.   She further shared that arriving back at school was overwhelming and she was so touched by the welcome she was given by the children, it’s a memory she will never forget.  Well done Mrs Duck – what an amazing achievement!