Cakes, cups of tea, coffee and a chat!  Thanks to everyone who made our coffee morning a great success.  Money raised has been donated to this fantasic charity.

Well done to all of the the pupils and parents from Dunston Riverside Community Primary School who donated food for our Harvest Festival.  All donations have been collected by Gateshead Social Services.

During the Harvest Festival each class performed a song of 'Thanks Giving' for the whole school.

Thank you to Mrs Gordon and Year 3 for organising this event.

Our 'Happy and Healthy' Family Learning members took part in a Cooking 4 Life session with Nick the chef.  A great time was had by all!! 

 Children and family members were actively involved in making a meal to eat.

The pupils and staff at Dunston Riverside Community Primary School would like welcome our pet rabbits.  We have five rabbits to look after and our pupils have named them.

Year Two named the above rabbit Charlie.

Year Three named the above rabbit Alvin.

Year Four named the above rabbit Fluffy.

Year Five named the above rabbit Nibbles.

Year Six have named the above rabbit Woody.

Dear Parents and Carers,

As Headteacher, I would like to warmly welcome you, on behalf of our staff, pupils and governors, to Dunston Riverside Community Primary School. Our school values itself as a place where every child matters.

What makes us special, is that we are a small primary school, with one class of children in every year group. This makes it easy to get to know all of our children on a personal basis and watch them grow and develop. We are highly inclusive and promote high standards in all we do, whether this is in our learning, our attitudes or our manners. The school is regularly commended by members of the public for our behaviour and attitudes when we go out into the community.

Everyone at our school is very proud of all of our achievements, whether they are academic, sporting or creative. Take a look at our school 'video tour' below to see the wonderful range of activities and events that our children are involved with. We pride ourselves in our curriculum - described as outstanding in our last two Ofsted inspections. Children have fun while they learn in a very safe and exciting environment. All age groups have access to our extensive school grounds where we have trim trails, football and basketball pitches, space to ride bikes or garden and seating for more reflective, quiet times.

Parents and visitors always comment positively on the calm and quiet atmosphere they sense as they walk around our school. Children work hard in lesson times and behaviour is consistently outstanding. We were judged to be a good school with many outstanding areas in our last full ofsted inspection (2007). In our English subject inspection (2007) we were judged to be outstanding.

We invite you to join our community toddler group which runs four days every week - Monday to Thursday from 9.30am until 11.30pm. It is run by members of the local community with the help from mothers and fathers who attend for the varying timetable of events (see below for more details). The most popular event is soft play which is on twice each week.

We have a breakfast club which is open from 8.00am daily and a programme of after school clubs which change every term. A number of parents and carers have recently asked for after school provision to enable them to work full time. We are currently looking at how we can provide this for you in the near future.

If there is any information you can not find easily on our website, please contact the school and we will do our best to help.

Mrs J. M. Goodfellow
(Headteacher)

5 a day fuit and vegetables!

Our pupils play an active role in the demonstration.

Everyone enjoys the tasting session Mmmm!!

Practising skills for life...

World's Biggest Coffee Morning 2010

Pupils and parents enjoyed refreshments in the community room whilst raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.  The event was a great success!!

As an all inclusive school, parents, grandparents and carers are invited to take part in our ICT Family Learning Program.  If you would like to participate in this exciting activity, please contact Miss Smith (year 6 teacher) for further information.

Welcome all parents, carers and children to the new Dunston Riverside Community Primary School website. Staff at the school are currently updating various areas of the site and this will take a little time. So keep visiting the site and watch out for the latest information of what's going on!

Tuesday 30th November 2010

Due to adverse weather school will be closed today.

For further information please listen to 'Real Radio'.

Thankyou.

Monday 29th November 2010

Due to adverse weather school will be closed today.

For further information please listen to 'Real Radio'.

Thankyou.

During the week before half term, in the sleet, snow and cold a brave team of tough men and women from EDF Energy and Gateshead Council began the great digging project that is now our school allotment!

We have two raised beds for planting and the area is now fenced off.

Gateshead gardens department is providing us with compost bins and we are hoping for several fruit trees.
One member of staff has already kindly donated some strawberry plants but we are looking for more leafy donations!

Each class is planning to grow some fruit or vegetables ready to harvest by the summer or on our return in September.

The allotment will provide many learning opportunities for our pupils, looking not only at plants, food chains and growing but also sustainability and the environment.

So get your green fingers at the ready and watch this space!

Mathematics 

Dear Parent/Carer,

Thank you for your patience following the recent school closure. No doubt, it will have caused many families difficulties with child care and all of our staff realise that and wish to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

Mrs Rutherford has been negotiating with the local council to try to have the roads to the school cleared and gritted. Unfortunately, due to the adverse weather conditions, their priorities are to clear and treat major roads and not school access routes.

We are doing everything possible to re-open on Monday 11^th January but staff have had considerable difficulty getting to and from school. It took me three and a half hours to get home on Tuesday night. Some staff have had car accidents, many had to abandon their cars (although they have them back now). Miss Heron could only reach home by tractor! I therefore predict that we will not be able to be fully staffed, if indeed we are able to open at all.

Whilst we will be doing everything possible to open the school on Monday, I suggest you as parents and carers make the decision for your own children dependent upon your own personal circumstances. If you can get your child/children to school safely (and of course, you can collect them again safely) we will have staff there to care for them. They will be given their attendance mark even if you are late. You can also collect your child earlier than usual if you need to. Please note that all staff will also be sent home early and told to leave at 3.30pm.

On Monday and Tuesday of last week we had many children sent to school dressed for a summer day! Lots of children wore only a t-shirt, some had no coat, some girls wore ankle socks and many, many children had no gloves. If your child does come to school on Monday, please see the suggestions below:

• Make sure your child has layers of clothing
• Note that trousers and socks tend to be wet by the time your child has walked to school and they get wet again when they go outside for fresh air. Please send spare clothing.
• Wear more than one pair of socks - little toes were getting very cold!!
• Please provide warm coats, gloves, hats and scarves. (A second pair of gloves would be appreciated if you have them).
• Wellies or boots are much better than trainers or school shoes for walking to school and play time. You would be best to send a change of shoes if they don't already have a change of shoes at school.

For those of you who feel it is unsafe to send your children to school from where you live, or, if you will have trouble collecting them, I will be instructing teachers to put work on our school website for every class. If your child can show us that they have worked from home, they will also get their school attendance mark. Don't forget that Sam Learning and Education City is always available for your child to learn from at home. They could also make sure that they read lots, learn their times tables and do a diary or a story about 'The Big Freeze'.

Please check our website or ring the school phone number on 4334019 for a short pre-recorded message to keep you updated. I hope this information has been helpful to you and we sill see you all very soon!

Take care,

Mrs J. Goodfellow

(Headteacher)

For further information on Monday 11th January 2010 please listen to 'Real Radio'.

Thankyou.

Taken from the Kingsmeadow Partnership EAZ 2006 DVD. See drama, PE, clay-modelling and more...

Watch the Dunston Riverside Primary School video taken from the EAZ DVD.

Taken from the Kingsmeadow Partnership EAZ 2006 DVD.

Watch the video of the EAZ Song

As part of our ICT Curriculum we will be starting a new scheme where the children work to gain awards. When pupils achieve their award they receive a badge which they can sew onto their book bag!
KS1 children also have Digit Bear who helps them with their work. If they do well they can even take Digit Bear home!
The children are all currently working towards their Word Processing awards and we hope that many of them will shortly be showing off their bronze, silver and gold badges.
Good Luck!

Our trim trail which was new in September has provided a wide range of opportunities for children across the key stage to develop a range of physical and personal and social skills.

Children enjoy the outdoors together with the challenge the trail offers, taking part in negotiating and problem solving. We hope the fun the trail offers will encourage children to be more active, enjoy the outdoors and generally be more aware of health issues as recommended by government legislation.