On Friday 17th November Year 3 visited the Hindu temple in Newcastle. The children enjoyed hearing about how Hindus worship when they visit the temple. We joined in with Hindu songs and some children chose to dress up in traditional costumes. It was interesting to see the shrine and the puja tray that we had learned about in school.
We held our annual Harvest Festival in he school hall. Father Mervyn from All Saints Church came to open and close it. Lots of tins, packets and jars were kindly donated by the parents. These were then given to a local food bank.
Year 3 took part in a Diwali workshop. We learned all about the important gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion. Some of the children took part in a re-enactment of the story of Rama and Sita and enjoyed getting dressed up. We found out all about the festival of Diwali and had the chance to have our face painted and our hand stamped with a Rangoli pattern, just like Hindus do during the festival.
Year 6 visited the Al-Azhar Mosque in South Shields to find out more about religion in our local community. When we arrived, we had to take off our shoes and we went upstairs to the prayer room. Sohail told us all about how Muslims pray and he showed us a prayer mat. He told us all about the five pillars of Islam and how important these are to Muslims. We also went into the women’s only prayer room to have a look around. Sohail then demonstrated to us how a Muslim performs ‘Wudu’, the process of washing prior to prayer. It was a really informative visit and we learned a lot.
On Tuesday 8th November, Year 5 visited Durham Cathedral. It was a perfect visit for us as it reinforced lots of our learning: Northern Saints in RE; Vikings in History and Architecture in Art.
We had a drama session to look at the tales of Saint Cuthbert and we acted out some of the stories associated with him. Through these stories, we explored what they told us about him as a person.
After that, we had a session which focused on Christians and how they express their beliefs. We found out that Durham Cathedral is still a working church but it has also been a hospital and even a prison!
During our visit we saw some amazing stained glass windows, lots of crosses and we saw the actual resting place of Saint Cuthbert!
We received some lovely feedback from the Education Team at Durham Cathedral…
Hi Mrs Rennie,
 We wanted to thank you for the lovely day we have spent with your Year 5 classes. Not only was their behaviour impeccable, we were incredibly impressed by their engagement and the intelligent questions they asked throughout the visit.
 Thank you for a brilliant day!
 We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
 Best wishes,
 Alys
We celebrated Harvest Festival on Friday 21st October in our school hall. Lots of parents and carers came to support their children. All of the food donations were sent to a local food bank. thank you for your continued support.
