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 2 Chinese Dance Workshop

  Fri 30 May 2025

  On Tuesday 25th February, the children took part in their rescheduled dance workshop to celebrate the end of their ‘Off to China’ topic that was concluded at the end of last half term. This was a fabulous opportunity to revisit the origins of Chinese New Year and the story of the Great Race that we had explored in English lessons. Our workshop facilitator, Victoria was so impressed with everything that the children new about China and Chinese New Year celebrations! Our workshop started with the children learning a ‘fan’ dance to accompany some traditional Chinese music; the children were tasked with creating some static poses to show off their fans and developed an understanding of moving slowly with grace and poise. The workshop finished with a chance to become a part of a Chinese dragon! The children were asked to either hold a head piece, the body or 'dragon legs' and sway and move in time with the music. Some children were tasked with using parasols to twist and spin alongside the dragon movements. Well done to all of the children who represented St Bede in a fantastic way, and a huge thank you to our parents/carers for all the generous donations that allowed this fun enrichment activity to take place!

• Online Safety and Safer Internet Day 2025

  Fri 30 May 2025

  This week (10^th to 14^th February) we have been taking a closer look at online safety and on Tuesday 11th February, we marked Safer Internet Day. Safer Internet Day is a global campaign to promote the safe and responsible use of technology, which calls on children and young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers and more, to help to create a better internet. This year, the learning has based around the theme ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online‘. In lessons, we have been focusing on the issue of scams online and how to individuals can protect themselves and others, as well as what support is available to them.

   

  You might be interested in looking at some of the resources for families that can be found on the following website https://www.saferinternetday.org/

• Year 4 Trip to Ufton Court

  Fri 30 May 2025

  On Friday 7th February, Year 4 headed off to Ufton Court to consolidate their understanding of all things Anglo Saxons! Despite the cold weather, the children engaged enthusiastically with all the tasks and challenges they faced. During the Saxon Skills workshop, the children worked hard as an everyday Saxon, building houses, carding, wattling and spinning sheep wool (realising how long it would have taken to make some wool to make clothes with) as well as using flint and steel to create a spark for a fire. In the Crime and Punishment session, the children took on the role of judge, plaintiffs and priest to listen over the crimes of the day before handing out some serious punishments. Before we left, we worked in teams, exploring different artefacts from the time, trying to work out what they were made from, what they were used for and how valuable they were before selling them “Dragon’s Den” style to our fellow Saxons.

   

  Following the trip, staff received a lovely message from those who led the trip at Ufton Court as follows:

   

  I don’t normally write to schools after a visit (I certainly don’t always have the time!) but just wanted to share with you some thoughts which I hope will please you... We love our jobs but not every day brings such an enormous amount of fun, enjoyment and satisfaction as we had with St Bede’s today. Your children are wonderful and acquitted themselves superbly throughout the visit – they were sparky, curious, keen and polite with imaginations just fit to bursting. We find children give so much but this is also a credit to you, your staff and your parent helpers – by them engaging and modelling that fun and positive energy you really boosted the experience for all.

• Poetry Day World Record Achieved – February 2025!

  Fri 30 May 2025

  You may remember that back in October 2024, St Bede took part in a World Record attempt to be involved in the largest ever poetry lesson. I received the following message from the organiser last week:

   

  I am VERY excited to inform you that Guinness World Records has APPROVED our record attempt for Largest Poetry Lesson (Multi Venues).WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!! The formal record is for 43,516 people (from around 500 schools), which is enough to fill a football stadium! More than 125,000 young people from over 1,000 schools took part in the lesson, but many couldn’t be counted due to the VERY strict Guinness World Records requirements. But every single person counted in terms of creating the poem, and being part of our record-breaking event and community.

   

  What an incredible result- so we are now co-holders of a world record! Well done to all the children who took part and thank you to the wonderful St Bede staff who followed the rules and submitted evidence and helped achieve this!

• Winchester College Jazz Band Concerts for St. Bede

  Fri 30 May 2025

  We were delighted to be visited by CS Jazz from Winchester College in February, who performed to pupils across the school. We were all captivated by the beautiful music and are grateful to the college for their support.

• Children’s Mental Health Week

  Fri 30 May 2025

  In the first week of February, we celebrated Children Mental Health Week by taking part in an assembly with the School of Kindness (www.schoolofkindness.org). We learnt about what mental health is, why it’s important and the many different ways we can improve our mental health. We also heard about this years' theme, which is Know Yourself, Grow Yourself!

   

  At the end of the assembly, we chatted about the importance of kindness - to ourselves and to others.

• Young Voices Concert at the O2

  Fri 30 May 2025

  At the beginning of February, It was a real privilege to join our School Choir on their trip to the O2 in London for a ‘Young Voices’ concert. Beautifully prepared by choir leaders Mrs Lee, Miss Mayer and Miss Duck, Mrs Birch and I tagged along. The children sang and danced to a broad range of music from contemporary pop to Bob MarIey and even took part in a whole arena rave! I was so incredibly proud of the behaviour of our children, during rehearsals, the concert and the coach journeys.

   

  They were excellent ambassadors for our school and even drew words of thanks and praise from another school based on their respectful interactions moving around the arena. It was lovely to know we had a supportive group of St Bede parents in the audience, which meant so much to our young performers. A huge thank you and well done to everyone who was involved.

• Year 4 Basketball Experience

  Fri 30 May 2025

  On Thursday 20^th January, Year 4 had the fantastic experience of playing basketball at Westgate Secondary school for the afternoon. The children really enjoyed playing a variety of games and matches to practice some basketball skills. Mr Hiscock, who ran the event, sent the pictures below and commented on how impressed he was by the respectful and enthusiastic manner of our children, as did our St Bede staff. Well done, Year 4 - what a great opportunity!

• Year 5 trip to Winchester Science Centre

  Fri 30 May 2025

  On Tuesday 21^st January, Year 5 visited the Winchester Science Centre, navigating public transport to get there on the bus! The children loved learning about aerodynamics and friction in their first workshop of the day, where they explored ways to decorate rockets and how this might change the distance they travelled when launched.

   

  A firm favourite activity was the time spent in the planetarium, learning about and seeing different constellations and understanding more about the planets. Finally, to round off a great day out, the children excitedly investigated each of the different stations and activities in the main hall of the centre, their curiosity piqued by investigations into sound, perspective, air bubbles in different liquids and much, much more! All of the children in Year 5 represented St. Bede brilliantly and were true ambassadors for our safe, ready and respectful school expectations – Well done to everyone!

• St. Bede Kindness Project – Unit 12 Reverse Advent Calendar Thanks

  Fri 30 May 2025

  Thank you to everyone who was able to contribute to our ‘reverse advent calendar’ project, which help support The Unit 12 Community Food Pantry in Winchester.  The items that we have been able to collect were delivered to Unit 12 on Friday 20^th December and will be making a real difference to the lives of many children within our area and spreading kindness across the Winchester community. We are so grateful to those who have been able to donate and share the spirit of Christmas so generously.