February Half Term Activities 2025

19th February 2025Kathryn Smith

February Half Term Activities 2025

  • Library Activities – free including board games and lego Library events and activities – South Tyneside Council
  • South Tyneside Youth Service – timetable of youth groups (these continue as normal over school holidays)
  • South Tyneside Youth Service – 12-week programme for ages 15 – 17
  • Youth Voice Group Poster – have your say about activities you would like to access
  • Auxillia Youth Groups – youth groups on daily from ages 5 – 16 (these continue as normal over the school holidays)
  • Lads only Youth Group – every Thursday at 6pm at The Hut, Biddick Hall ages – 11-15
  • Home Educated Youth Group – every Wednesday 11am – 1pm at The Hut, Biddick Hall ages 11-16
  • Family Hubs – Half Term sow and grow activities, youth groups, Dads groups and learning through play
  • Family Hub Website- Homepage – For Every Family
  • Family Hub Face book (1) Facebook
  • Family Hub Instagram www.instagram.com
  • Williby Rocs – Eco activities through the Family Hubs (booking required – scan QR code)
  • Science Activities – Ages 5+ through the Family Hubs (booking required – scan QR code)
  • Arts and Crafts – Thursday 27th February ages 5-14. Please contact Bede Family Hub to book a place on the Arts and Crafts session on 0191 4220030
  • Junior Park Run – home | North Marine junior parkrun | North Marine junior parkrun Every Sunday at 9am (unless weather is bad) at North Marine Park. Ages 4-14
  • St Simon’s Church, South Shields – Family Games Club (must have an adult attending too) Half Term Family Games Club Tickets, Wed, Feb 26, 2025 at 11:00 AM | Eventbrite
  • For more activities – What’s on – South Tyneside Council

Ongoing activities – check ahead for holiday opening times

South Tyneside Community Page – This is the link to the community activities page.

South Tyneside Volunteering Opportunities – This is the link to the volunteering page.

Half Term Food Offers

  • ASDA – Kids eat for £1 year-round at Asda Cafés.And you don’t need to buy an adult meal or spend a minimum amount to get the deal.
  • Beefeater – Get two free kids’ breakfasts at Beefeaterin school holidays with every adult breakfast purchased.
  • Brewers Fayre – Get a free unlimited buffet breakfast for two under 16s at Brewers Fayrewhen you buy an adult breakfast in school holidays.
  • Dobbies Garden Centre – At Dobbies caféskids eat free when you buy an adult traditional or full breakfast or main meal.
  • Morrisons Café – Kids eat free all day every day in Morrisons caféswhen you buy an adult meal that costs more than £5.
  • Ikea – Kids eat from 95p at Ikea restaurants. Choose from pasta and tomato sauce or mac and cheese served with a soft drink and piece of fruit.
  • Pizza Hut – Pizza Hutis offering a free kids’ buffet at selected restaurants this half term when you spend £10 on food and use the code KEF. The buffet is available until 3pm every day.
  • Sainsbury Café – Kids eat for £1 in Sainsbury’s caféswhen you purchase a hot adult’s meal. The offer is available year-round from 11.30am.

Website link to more offers:  Places Kids Eat Free (or for £1) In School Holidays 2025

The following organisations provide food support for residents in need:

Hospitality & Hope |The support includes Community Shops, Welfare Support, Debt Advice and a crisis Foodbank.

Key to Life Foodbank – Key The support includes the Community Food Bus, Pre-loved uniform shop, advice/support and a crisis Foodbank.

Hebburn Helps – A food bank and crisis response team providing food parcels, clothing, baby equipment, household items and more.

Bede’s Helping Hands – A volunteer run organisation serving South Tyneside.  They are based in the former Primrose Library in the Scotch Estate, Jarrow. 0191 816 3021 Facebook: Bede’s Helping Hands Food Bank

Boldon Community Association Food Bank – The community association, based in New Road in Boldon Colliery, offers a food bank for the local community.

Family Gateway – Working across the North East, Family Gateway supports families who are living in poverty or disadvantage and are struggling to bring up their children on very little money.

E-Safety Information – Whatsapp

19th February 2025L Forster

According to Ofcom’s most recent Media Use and Attitudes Report, roughly 55% of 3-17-year-olds in the UK are using WhatsApp as their primary messaging service  Not only does that make WhatsApp the most popular messaging platform among children and young people in the UK; it also means that of the app’s approximately three billion users, over seven million of them are British youngsters – keeping in touch with friends and family, but also being exposed to its various risks ⚠️

 

As parents and educators, it’s our responsibility to stay up-to-date on the safety concerns around this highly popular app, and know how to protect children and young people who are on the platform ️ That’s why we’ve put together this expert-led free guide, breaking down WhatsApp’s most prominent risks and advising you on how best to safeguard the app’s younger users.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps available and, as of 2024, has been made accessible to users as young as thirteen. With end-to-end encryption preventing even the platform itself from viewing any messages that users send on it, this app has been regularly utilised by those looking to keep their conversations private.

Unfortunately, the service poses several risks to its younger users – from misinformation and bullying to potential criminal exploitation – and it’s vital that parents and educators understand these concerns and how to address them. This free guide delves into the online safety risks of WhatsApp and offers expert advice on how to safeguard any young people who use the platform.

Reporting incidents online

11th February 2025L Forster

As part of our work on Safer Internet Day to create a safer and happier internet, the children looked at identifying scams and phishing schemes when using the internet (this year’s theme). We reminded the children of the steps they should take if they ever come into contact with something or someone when online:

  • turning off the device
  • speaking to a trusted adult
  • reporting it

With this last point in mind, we would like to share the following website reportharmfulcontent.com which provides a means of report problems on/about the following websites:

When reporting, it goes through clear steps to help you report your issue directly to the website/application, or to the reportharmfulcontent.com website itself.

An additional reminder for parents as to the age restrictions for certain social media platforms, applications and websites:

Y5 Table Cricket

10th February 2025Kathryn Smith

Recently several pupils from our Year 5 had the chance to try out a new sport, table cricket.  The game is a cross between table tennis and table football and the children really enjoyed learning the new sport and playing against children from other schools.  Despite the children having never played before they won every game they played and will move on to represent South Tyneside in the Durham County Cricket Club finals.

That History Bloke visits Year 1

7th February 2025P Mullea

As part of our History topic of toys from the past, Year One had a visit from That History Bloke! Richard came to speak to us about life in Victorian times- we learned lots and looked at lots of artefacts from Victorian times. We tused our observation skills to try and guess what each artefact was for. Then we  got the chance to play with some Victorian toys!

We were excited to see the kind of things children in those times would have played with, and thought carefully about how things have changed. It was fascinating and lots of fun.

Allotment Fun!

6th February 2025Emma Adams

We are delighted to be working with Kaye and Danielle from Williby Rocs. Last week, some of our Year 6 pupils began to draw up designs for our allotment site, and made a planting timetable for different vegetable seeds. In Year 2 this week, Y2A started with a quiz on the different parts of a flower, and also thought about what our seeds would need to grow. We began to discuss the importance of attracting butterflies and bees into our garden. We then planted some onion, broad bean and pea seeds after looking at the plan from year 6. We learnt that sowing means planting a seed when it is very small. We loved getting our hands dirty! Bobby even made links to our morning maths work – noticing that the seeds were planted in 3s! Over the coming weeks, we are looking forward to observing and caring for our seeds. We even started to design scarecrows to place in the allotment and hopefully protect our growing plants! Thank you Kaye and Danielle!

E-Safety Information – Scams and Fake News

5th February 2025L Forster

‘Fake news’ is a widespread issue in the digital world, and it’s overwhelmingly likely that both children and adults will be exposed to it online ❌ In fact, a study from the Alan Turing Institute has found that 94% of people in the UK have encountered misinformation on social media  and that’s only the ones who were aware of it!

However, while some fake news is shared mistakenly by well-meaning individuals, it’s also shared by scammers and other cyber-criminals to lend legitimacy to their con. While this presents a clear risk to children and young people online, the question remains as to how we can protect them against such tactics ️ This week’s free guide offers expert advice on the specific ways scammers use misinformation and how to safeguard younger users against these techniques.

While misinformation and ‘fake news’ are well-known concerns online, it’s also the case that scammers and other cyber-criminals can try to utilise this phony material to manipulate, frighten or otherwise persuade their victims into cooperating.

With constantly evolving scams and such a high volume of misinformation online, it’s vital that parents and educators know how to safeguard the children in their care against these kinds of tactics. Our guide breaks down the most prominent ways in which scammers attempt to use ‘fake news’ to their advantage, as well as how to protect youngsters from being manipulated by such techniques.

Newcastle Eagles

28th January 2025R Errington

Last week, Year 5 had a fantastic visit from the Newcastle Eagles. We enjoyed developing our basketball skills as well as learning about how to stay healthy. We discussed the different food groups, how much water we should drink each day and ways to take care of our mental health too. Thank you, Newcastle Eagles, for a great afternoon!