Chinese New Year (29.01.25)
We celebrated the year of the snake across school. Children listened to the story of Chinese New Year and learnt how the order of the animals was decided, tasted Chinese food and made lucky money wallets.
A visit to the library (15.01.25)
Class two had another lovely trip to Willington Library. They listened to a story and learned how to use a library. It is dinosaur 🦕 month in the library so they made their own dinosaurs and brought some lovely books back to school with us.
A walk to post our letters (17.12.24)
Class 1 went for a walk to post their letters to Santa! After a walk around the village, they carefully posted each letter and then headed to the park for some playtime. We are confident that every child will be on Santa’s good list!
Language After-School Club (11.12.24)
It was the last week off languages club, and the children enjoyed tasting lots of different foods and trying to guess the country of origin. They all had lots of fun!
A Wriggly Nativity (05.12.24)
Our wonderful Early Years and Year 1 pupils put on their own Nativity performance this year, away from the larger whole-school production and they were fantastic! We were blown away by how confident the children were, with Darcie even performing a solo! What a great way to get in the festive spirit!
Pantomime visit…Oh no it’s not! (04.12.24) 
This year, we headed back to Consett Empire Theatre for their annual pantomime. This year, it was Cinderella and it was fantastic. Very lively and full of audience engagement, our children had the best time and it really got us all in the festive spirit!
Lego after-school club (27.11.24)
Mrs Featherstone has led her very popular Lego club this half-term. The children really embrace the club and let their creative sides shine with some wonderful creations.
Paul Cookson author visit (25.11.24)
We welcomed the fabulous Paul Cookson into school today. All of our children filled the hall with laughter and Paul had them all captivated from the beginning. They all enjoyed performing some of Paul’s poems and listening to him play the ukulele. They were also able to ask Paul some brilliant questions. To finish the visit, our Reading Ambassadors stayed with Paul whilst he signed some of his books that we will keep in school.
We’ve achieved the Artsmark Silver Award! (23.10.24)
We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the Artsmark Silver Award for our commitment to embedding arts culture and creativity across your whole school! We are over the moon with this achievement and recognition!
A bus ride to the park (19.10.22)
Reception children had an exciting trip on the public bus to Bishop Park, so they could observe the signs of Autumn.
History Club (18.10.24)
Miss Barrett ran a History club this half-term and the focus was on learning about art from the Mayan Civilisation. Over the past few weeks, the children designed and created their very own Mayan masks. The children thoroughly enjoyed designing and making them. They also made their own Mayan pottery with animal designs on them!
Sewing Club (10.10.24)
After-school Sewing club has been a huge hit this half-term! It’s a super tricky skill to learn, but Mrs Cooper has been really impressed with the children’s resilience, perseverance and patience while they try to master it.
European Day of Languages (25.09.24)
Our European Day of Languages celebration was a huge success! Each class took a European country, explored some facts about the country and learnt head, shoulders, knees and toes in the country’s native language. We then went into the hall to perform our songs and sample food from each country. This year we looked at Spain, France, Poland and Romania.
Gardening Club
Mrs Clarke-Boyd and Mrs Leddy have been running Gardening Club this half-term. They have reinforced their learning on what plants need to grow, they have planted flowers in the planters around school, done a wild flower identification and designed their own garden.
Samba drums workshop (28.06.24)
Year 6 children took part in an exciting Samba drum workshop with Jack Drum Arts. It was so loud that all the children and staff had to wear ear defenders! It was a superb experience though and the children thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to the staff at Jack Drum Arts for coming in to work with us.
Key Stage 2 Residential to Ford Castle (24.06.24)
Some of our Key Stage 2 children had a fantastic residential trip to Ford Castle with Mr Vincent and Ms Kitching. They took part in a range of activities that many of them have never experienced before and they had to really draw on our school HEART values to help them. The staff at Ford Castle were very complimentary about our children and their excellent behaviour and manners. Well done everyone!
A trip to Willington Library
We really value reading at Sunnybrow. In our mission to develop a love for reading, Mrs Cooper has organised class trips to visit our local library. Lots of fun has been had, especially during the book scavenger hunt and some of the children have requested to have their own library cards!
Farm Visit to Feed the Lambs (22.03.2024)
Class 1 children were so lucky to get invited to the farm to feed the new lambs. We also met the cows and the horses. This trip gave children a glimpse of what it is like to be a farmer. It was also the first time some children had experienced a visit to a farm.
Kingswood Residential (18-20.03.24)
Some of our Key Stage 2 pupils got the change to go on a 2 night residential trip to Kingswood Outdoor activity Centre. Across the 3 days, they took part in some really challenging activities, which tested their courage and resilience, especially the leap of faith! Every child was pushed out of their comfort zones and it was fantastic to see them grow in confidence and self-belief. A huge thank you to Miss Murphy and Mr Hull, who accompanied the children.
Shakespeare Performance (15.03.24)
Our Shakespeare stars took to the stage at Bishop Auckland Town Hall as part of their work with the RSC Playmaking Festival. This year’s play was Hamlet, and the children have developed a fantastic understanding of the characters, storyline and underlying themes of the play.
During the morning, children had a dress rehearsal with the other schools in the cluster and received some final feedback from RSC director mentor, Alice. The final performance was absolutely fantastic; the children performed their lines with clarity, volume and expression to a crowd of over 200 parents/carers. The group of children involved have hugely grown in confidence and self-belief over the course of the past few weeks and we are incredibly proud of them!
Science week (11.03.24)

World Book Day (07.03.24)
To celebrate World Book Day in school, we spent the day enjoying ‘Small’s Big Dream’ by Manjeet Mann, which is a magical story about our dreams for the future and our aspirations. Each class thought carefully about their future, the careers they would like to choose and things they would love to do. With the help our story, we soon realised that we can achieve anything we put our minds to as long as we believe in ourselves and our dreams. Our Reading Ambassadors also presented an assembly about reading for pleasure and shared information about their recent visit to Willington Library and what it has to offer us. Throughout the day, we had fun guessing our teachers’ favourite books by reading a short extract from their books. As well as this, we also took part in stop, drop and read. Every time the bell rang, we grabbed our favourite book and read for pleasure. Finally, we managed to fit in some time to enjoy reading our books with a hot chocolate. We all had such a fun day!
National Careers Week (04.03.24)
For National Careers Week, we invited some inspirational role-models from our Sunnybrow family and Local Community to come in and talk to the children about their careers and their pathway into the roles. We started the week with Mrs Barron, who is a qualified Nurse. She spoke to the children about germs and did an activity with the children to show them the importance of washing your hands. Tuesday saw our very own Mr Vincent do an assembly with the children about his route through education and employment, which eventually led to his job as a teacher and Deputy Head. On Wednesday, we welcomed Ellie Featherstone. Ellie is a BMX rider and trainer, who has
travelled the world competing at a very high level. The children loved watching Ellie do stunts and having a go on her bike! On Friday, Joe from Sports Kings did a talk about why he chose a career is sports and the qualifications he needed to get into his chosen profession. We also welcomed Ms Midgely, who did a brilliant hairdressing
demonstration for us while she talked to the children about her pathway into hairdressing. Finally, to end careers week, Claire a Police dog handler came into school with Jet and Ben, her police dogs, to share a little information with the children about what her job entails. It was such an inspirational week for our children and really got them thinking about their
ambitions for the future. A huge thank you to our wonderful guests for making it such a great week.
Chinese New Year (09.02.24)
Across the school, we held a Chinese New Year celebration. Children learnt the story behind Chinese new year, tasted traditional food, made lucky purses and created paper dragons.
Ice-skating fun (13.02.24)
Class One and Academic Nurture children went for a fun day out to Billingham Ice Rink as part of Class One’s winter topic. Their teachers wanted them to experience real ice and the children were well-wrapped up for the day! It was a lot of fun and they can’t wait to repeat it.
Our 2023 Christmas Production ‘Baubles’ (15.12.23)
Wow! What a way to end the school year with our version of ‘Baubles’. It was fantastic to see so many children, from Reception to Year 6 with speaking parts and solo singing parts too. Children were confident, spoke clearly and really acted out their parts. A huge thank you also goes to all our teaching staff, who have literally worked their socks off since November to make sure the production was a success.
A trip to the panto! (07.12.23)
This year, we decided to change venue and we headed over to the Empire Theatre at Consett to watch Cinderella. What a lively and exciting production! The children were so engaged, with lots of singing along and dancing. We enjoyed it so much, we have re-booked for next year already!
Learning the drums! (04.12.23)
Mr May, Casey’s Dad, came into school to play the drums for us. He is the drummer in a band and he was fantastic! All of the children were super excited and even though it was very loud, everyone joined in and loved listening to the sounds and watching his demonstration. Mr May then let the children go up and have a go at being a drummer. We had lots of talented children. Finally, after Ms Kitching called for an encore, he played us out to ‘Summer of ’69’ by Bryan Adams (a staff favourite!) What an experience!
Beamish (28.11.23)
We were very lucky to be offered a fully-funded whole-school trip to Beamish courtesy of local company Groundwork Services Durham. We can’t thank them enough for paying for the trip and
bus. We felt so incredibly lucky to be able to offer this trip to the children, as they all got to also take part in a
Christmas workshop. It was a great way for the children to learn about life in the past in a fun and engaging way. Class 1 and 2 took part in Tales of Christmas where they played traditional games like hunt the thimble, made peg dolls and listened to a Christmas story in front of the fire. Class 3 had a Victorian lesson in the school house and Class 4 took part in ‘Bah Humbug’ in the town. It was a fantastic trip and Sunnybrow children did us proud. In fact,
Class 3 were commended by members of the public for their behaviour. Amazing!
Crook Winter Light Parade (26.11.23)
Class 3 have been working with Jack Drum Arts over the last few weeks to make costumes for the Crook Winter Light Parade. On Sunday 26th November, children throughout school, staff and parents wore the costumes and took part on the parade. It was a magical night, with fabulous costumes and outstanding music. A great night was had by all!
Author Visit (22.11.23)
Today, we were visited by Author and Illustrator Liz Million. What a fantastic day it was. Liz began with a whole-school assembly, explain how we became an illustrator and what her job involves and then she did individual workshops throughout the day. She was super engaging and there was a buzz of excitement around school. The children were all so proud of their illustrations at the end of the day.
European Day of Languages (26.09.23)
As part of European Day of Languages, Miss Murphy gave each class a different country to explore. Class 1 learnt about Italy , Class 2 looked at Denmark, Class 3 were exploring Germany and Class 4 France. The best part of the day was the food tasting…although there were strong opinions in Class 4 over the brie.