We are delighted to continue our partnership with Durham Music Service. We are aware that at times you may have questions that the school office can’t answer. Please follow the link below to the Durham Music Service website for more information.
Oxclose Nursery and Wrap around care
We are fortunate to have a terrific partnership with Oxclose Nursery, an outstanding well established nursery school. Our Reception children take advantage of the nursery facilities each day. The nursery which is on our site, offers wrap around care to our children. This is on offer from 7:45 am until school starts and from 3:15pm until 5:30pm. Please follow the link to find out more about this wonderful nursery.
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Community Garden
We are delighted to be able to use Sam Jackson and Scout Ed as our Outdoor Education consultants this year. Sam has already started working with our children and he will work with all classes over the course of the year.
Information about Outdoor Education
Please open up the attached document which gives extra information about the content of Sam’s sessions. For more information please see the website link below.
Pirates Ahoy!
Last Friday, the children and staff at Ox Close took part in their annual Pirate Day. It was incredible to see the amount of time and effort given to each costume. Throughout the day, house teams took part in a number of Pirate based activities in an attempt to gain the most treasure. Well done and thank you to everyone involved, including those who generously sponsored children.
Guess Who!
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- Guess Who!
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- Guess Who!
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- Guess Who!
All of the children in our new Reception class have been busy painting pictures of themselves. I am sure you will agree, they have done an absolutely fantastic job! But can you guess who each one is?
More Judo Success
Mae Bostock enjoyed amazing success in the National Schools Judo Qualifiers in Nottingham last weekend.
After triumphing in each of her four contests, Mae was awarded a gold medal!
She now moves forward to the finals in Sheffield where she will represent the school on March 7th. We are all very proud of Mae and wish her well!
International School Award
There was good reason to celebrate in October when the school successfully achieved the International Schools Award. The award was presented at a prestigious ceremony, which was held at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. Miss Robson had submitted the application before she went on maternity and gave evidence of the superb international dimension that is offered at Ox Close.
Mr Harrison received news of the success early in the term and attended the ceremony along with Miss Smith, who leads Modern Foreign Languages, and two pupils- Talia Cowan of 5/6S and Jessica Chan of 3/4S.
There were keynote speakers present, including international explorers and representatives from the British Council, and the event proved to be very enjoyable. Councillor Pat Lawton, Deputy Mayor of Spennymoor, went on the stage with the Ox Close delegation and agreed to support the school during International Week following the event.
Mr Harrison said, “We are very proud of the fact that we offer such a broad experience to our pupils rather than a narrow exam based curriculum. This award follows other prestigious awards such as Artsmark Gold, which acknowledges the commitment to Music and Art. In itself, the International Schools Award is a great achievement and it is especially important to present a balanced global perspective in the current political climate. Over the last 3 years we have offered Mandarin and now other schools are beginning to follow this trend. Visits to France are also a long standing tradition. I would like to thank Miss Robson and Miss Smith and to congratulate Talia and Jessica, who were model pupils on the day.”
Sportshall Athletics County Finals
Last week, 20 boys and girls from Year 5 and 6 qualified for the Sportshall Athletics Finals at Sunnydale Leisure Centre. The athletics competition consisted of numerous individual and team indoor events, such as the ‘speed bounce’ and the ‘obstacle relay’.
The children did very well to qualify for the finals and Mr Heron and Miss Hockridge (who accompanied the children) said that the children represented the school magnificently!
Pirate Day 2014
On the 26th September 2014 we held our annual Pirate Day. Once again the children looked magnificent in their costumes!
We would like to thank everyone for their efforts. Our Pirate Day aims are to have fun and to raise money which allows us to fund visitors to the school, such as theatre companies, and to heavily subsidise visits.
Mrs Phillips organised various pirate themed activities across the school and it was certainly a memorable day!
School Council and Brass at Beamish
On Wednesday 22nd April, we took part in Beamish Museum’s ‘Old King Coal’ event.
The brass players performed and Mr Leighton and Mr Heron carried the school banner during the parade. On this occasion, the weather was also very kind! School council joined the brass players.
They also took part in the parade with our school banner and different activities related to mining, as well as different games from 1913 and stroking some ferrets!
Everybody was extremely well behaved and enjoyed the day.
