I would like to wish everyone associated with Ox Close a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you again on Wednesday 4th January 2017.

Over the past week, our various Christmas performances have been watched by a grand total of over 700 parents! The 8 shows demonstrated the confidence and skill of the children. Well done to everyone! It was lovely to see traditional carols, a fabulous nativity and 2 magnificent plays in a fitting end to a successful year at Ox Close.

Congratulations go to Vera Dimitrova of Year 4, who has been chosen as the winner of the Spennymoor Town Council Christmas bauble competition. She was awarded her prize by the Mayor in a special assembly yesterday.

This week, children across the school took part in an ‘Hour of Code’ as part of a worldwide Computer Science week. The aim of this event is to give all children access and opportunity to experience computer coding. This is now a huge part of the Computing curriculum in schools, with an emphasis on children developing essential logical and problem solving skills. For more information, or to have a go with your child at home, click here. Take a look at some of our children in action.

Years 3 and 4 kicked off our season of Christmas performances in magnificent style on Thursday. Their singing and speaking during the concerts, which were held in the beautiful St Paul’s Church, was outstanding.  Well done to all of the children and staff and thank you very much to Matt and all at St Paul’s. We look forward to returning to the church for future events.

On Thursday 7th July, the Year 5/6 football team (plus a couple of year 4’s) took part in the Staindrop European Championships. Representing Croatia, the team played brilliantly throughout the group stages. They finished top of Group 2 having won 3 and drawn 1 of their games. Incredibly, our defense did not concede a single goal in these matches and showed an amazing team spirit and togetherness.

Unfortunately, we were unable to replicate our earlier form in the quarter-final, losing the game 4-0 to the eventual runners-up of the tournament. However, I was extremely proud of the team and their achievements. It bodes well for next year, with some excellent potential to come into the team from our current Year 4’s and 5’s. Well done boys, terrific effort!

Mr Crowther.

 

Results: 

Group Stage

Croatia 1 – 0 Spain

Belgium 0 – 2 Croatia

Italy 0 – 4 Croatia

Croatia 0 – 0 England

Quarter-final

France 4 – 0 Croatia

 

Yesterday, Key Stage 2 had a special assembly to learn about the Battle of the Somme. A representative from Durham University very kindly came in to school to teach children about the history of this battle, as well as give children the opportunity to try on some World War I kit worn by soldiers.

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and to commemorate this, Durham University have opened a special exhibition to tell the story of the contribution of County Durham’s men and women. For more information on this exhibition, please click here.

On Thursday 14th April, Year 3/4 launched their new ‘Ancient Greece’ topic by having a Toga themed party. Over the Easter holidays, children (and teachers!) were challenged to design and make their own Greek-style toga. Some of the effort that went into these designs was magnificent. Throughout the afternoon, the children took part in a number of different activities, including food tasting, mask making, as well as writing messages using the Greek alphabet. Well done to all of the children, and a huge thank you to parents and helpers for their support at home.

We had an explosive science week at Ox Close Primary School, with each class getting the opportunity to work with our resident science teacher Mrs Cox.

The theme for this year was SPACE. We were focusing on the five different types of space: open space, outer space, digital space, built space and personal space.

Out on the yard we explored the personal space of an elephant’s mouth and worked together to make the perfect toothpaste for an elephant’s extremely strong and dirty teeth. It was very exciting watching Mrs Cox mix the chemicals to make different exothermic reactions.

Take a look at some of the experiments.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to complete a Parent Questionnaire recently. We receive over 100 and we have looked carefully at each and every one. This is an important part of our evaluation process as we continually strive to make the school the best that it can be. Although the results are overwhelmingly positive, we will never rest on our laurels and we will use the findings from the questionnaires to help inform our planning. Please follow the link below to see the collated results and comments.

Parents Questionnaire 2016 Results