Year 2 celebrated Science Week by taking part in a variety of investigations. The first investigation was all about Mini Beasts. The children started off by carrying out a survey to see what mini beasts they could find on the school grounds. Once they completed this they moved on to make a Bug Hotel to welcome the mini beasts. They used natural materials they found or brought in from home. The next investigation was called Magic Milk. The investigation was to see what would happen to food colouring when it was added to milk and then touched with washing up liquid. We found out that milk is made up of minerals, proteins, and fats. Proteins and fats are susceptible to changes. When dish soap is added to the milk, the soap molecules run around and try to attach to the fat molecules in the milk. This resulted in an explosion of food colouring in the milk which had a very pleasing and effective spread of different colours that made some wonderful patterns. The final investigation was a Glitter Tornado. The children used glitter, water, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. This was all poured into a bottle.  When the children spun the bottle in a circular motion it created a water vortex that looked like a tornado. The water spins around the centre of the vortex because of centripetal force. Because there is glitter in the water you can see the spinning water more clearly. The glitter is similar to the dust and debris that are found spinning in an actual tornado.   Year 2 enjoyed all the practical activities for Science Week!

Jubilee year is focused on the year of Hope. The children of St Joseph’s have produced a display based around  The Journey of Hope within the different Catholic Social Teaching principles. ·         Dignity ·         Solidarity Y1 ·         The common good ·         The option for the poor ·         Peace ·         Creation and environment ·         The dignity of work and participation In the Old Testament every fifty years the People of God had a Jubilee Year. It was a year when debts were forgiven, land returned to the original owners, the poor were cared for even more. It was a year to be extra joyful for God’s love and a year to share that love with others even more than usual. It was a party year celebrating God’s love. These days, we celebrate the Jubilee Year every twenty-five years. 2025 is a Jubilee Year. It is a year to celebrate God’s love with others. It is a year to show mercy and forgiveness. It is a time to renew our relationship with God, with one another and with the whole of creation. It is a year of justice, freedom and celebration. Pope Francis has called this Jubilee Year, “Pilgrims of Hope,” and invites us to be people of hope. Hope comes from knowing that God loves each one of us and God has defeated sin and death. Hope knows that all ends well because all ends in God. God’s love wins, we know that. Therefore, we are confident that God’s love will see us all through all the difficulties in life. That is true hope.

Year 6 participated in a “Shangtastic” history day! David, our expert teacher, centred the session on objects, artwork and archives from Durham University’s incredible collection. We used Shang symbols to write messages oracle bones before designing bronze pots with animal handles, taotie faces and patterns. The day concluded with an entertaining drama of the end of the Shang era. What a fabulous day of learning it was!

Big Lent Walk The children at St Joseph’s will be taking part in the Big Lent Walk for the next 40 days to help fight global poverty. We will be walking at different times during the school day. We will also be carrying out a sponsored walk.  Please support us during Lent. Perhaps you could challenge yourselves to do a Lent Walk at home. We would love for you to share this with us! We have a set up a GoFundMe Page and set up a goal to raise £200 or as much as we can! Thank you very much   St Joseph's RC Primary School Benwell is fundraising for CAFOD

Children in Year 2 have been learning about the religion of Islam. The children had the opportunity to develop their Knowledge and understanding of how and why Muslims pray (Salah). The key vocabulary they became familiar with were salah, Allah, wudu and Halal. We were very lucky, as we have Muslim children in year 2 who were eager to share their religious beliefs and explain their everyday actions and lives that arise as a consequence of their beliefs. The children even brought in Islamic artefacts from home to explain how this is used during prayer.

Year 2 enjoyed celebrating World Book Day. The children took part in various activities such as sharing their favourite book from the class library or from home.  The children took part in further activities such as making book markers, writing a book review and drawing then writing about the characters they came dressed up as. Year 2 really enjoyed the World Book Day!

Thankyou so much for supporting Year 5 Mini Vinnies with Canny Friday on Friday 7th February. This is us delivering the foods to Newcastle Foodbank (West End).

The children enjoyed learning about the digestive system. They worked in pairs to create a diagram and used scientific vocabulary as they discussed and recorded their ideas. They also enjoyed representing the digestive system in class using some leftover food and a pair of tights!

Year 4 wrote diary entries based on the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit. They used fronted adverbials and adventurous vocabulary to describe the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Well done.

If you like fire, explosions, loads of mess and mind-bending magic, you’ll love Professor Pumpernickel! His mission is to enthuse all ages and abilities about science in the hope of creating some of our future inventors, explorers and superheroes. Y6 experienced unfathomable physics phenomena, chaotic chemistry and a brain full of science learning. What a brilliant afternoon it was!

Last term, Year 3 took part in a Stone Age workshop where they had the opportunity to handle historical artefacts from the past. They were able to think and speak like historians through their enquiry questions which was fantastic to see.

Children in Year 2 have been inspired by Picasso to paint portraits using his style of cubism. They explored his abstract paintings and developed the knowledge of primary colours in order to mix and use the colours they made. They also drew and painted various shapes using different brush strokes seen in his paintings. The pupils were then inspired to draw a Picasso picture using an APP for painting. Application of skills •      Develop knowledge of the colour wheel •      Mix secondary colours using paint •      Paint a colour wheel with primary and secondary colours •      Explore abstract portraiture