_{Year 6 children were fortunate enough to travel to York today to visit York Castle Museum and York Dungeons. They have been studying WW1 in History and have learnt about life in the trenches. By looking at primary and secondary sources, the children have gained a deeper understanding of the harsh realities that everyday families have had to endure during WW1. The thrilling dungeon trip provided a unique (and quite scary) learning experience of English history which dated back to the Vikings! Our Year 6 children are now accomplished historians on topics when it comes to the Plague, the Great Fire of London, Guy Fawkes and Dick Turpin. To finish off the day, Class 11 and 12 attended Evensong at York Minster. A member of the clergy recognised how respectful and well behaved our pupils were during the daily worship.}

_{128 children have achieved 100% attendance since September. To celebrate this, they have each been awarded with selection boxes. Classes 4, 6, 7 and 10 have also been treated to a Domino’s Pizza Party for reaching 97% overall class attendance. St Patrick’s is always trying to encourage that children strive to reach their best attendance possible. Well done children!}

_{Road Safety Officers have provided our Year 3s with essential pedestrian safety training. Children learnt about the road environment, the dangers of traffic, hazards and how to identify safe and unsafe places to cross. The children demonstrated how to cross a road safely and how to be a responsible pedestrian. They are looking forward to receiving their certificates!}

_{For the second consecutive year, St Patrick’s Primary School have been awarded with the Gold Standard School Games Sporting Award. We have received this due to our excellent development of competition across the school and in the community. The children have, and will continue to enjoy participating in sporting events and competitions across the nation. Not only is this enjoyable, but also great for their health and well-being.}

_{To enhance our literacy curriculum, Chris Connaughton – the talented author, actor and storyteller, performed hour long storytelling recitals to children throughout the school. Children were captivated by his visit and his versions of the stories. Children are now even more motivated to read and write.}

Class 10 paid a visit to the Danelaw museum near York to help them find out more about what it was like in Viking times. We got to wear Viking costumes and became Viking villagers and carried out a range of activities. We ground wheat, trained with weapons and did a bit of guard duty, pottery. Various visitors arrived during the day to tell us about what it was really like during Viking days.

Today we came together to remember and celebrate the life of one our loved parents-Emma McDonald. Emma sadly passed away in August after a brave fight with… Her favourite colour was yellow so the whole school wore yellow. We also planted around 2000 daffodils around the school fence with the help of Stockton Borough Council. In our classes, we also paused and prayed for Emma and other loved ones that had recently died in our school and parish community. Emma’s family and friends joined us for the day to help plant the daffodils as well as staying for our Talent Show. Emma loved music and dancing. It was a really happy day to remember a very special lady.

Today we celebrated everything European! In class we found out a little about the different cultures in the various countries as well as finding out some things to say in different languages: From “Hej” in Danish to “addio” in Italian we learned how important it is that different nationalities learn to communicate with one another. Part of the morning was a very popular European Café which was superbly operated by our Year 6. Many diners commented on how skillful and polite they all were and score highly on Trip Advisor! Well done everybody!

We gathered today during the special month for the Rosary to pray the Rosary. But we were not alone. We were also joined by One million other children in other Catholic schools in the country. The Catenians Society bought us special Rosary beads so that we could use them. We prayed especially for the sick members in our parish and school community.