Stannington First School Scoops Coveted School ‘Northumbie’ Award for 2023

Stannington First School has been recognised for its love of the county of Northumberland, by being awarded Northumberland Day’s ‘Jill Bradbury Award’ for the ‘Most Passionate School’.

Headteacher, Alex Palmer, was presented with the very special Northumbie Award, created to a completely bespoke design by talented local glass artist Helen Grierson, at a school assembly, at which all pupils were gathered.

The Northumbie Award this year features the Northumberland landscape, the sun in the colours of the Northumberland flag and the land sculpture, Northumberlandia, the latter marking a host of activity which took place around the ‘Lady of the North’ this year.

This special glass trophy was awarded to Stannington First School after the whole school got involved with a week of Northumberland Day celebrations.  The activity included dressing in red and yellow, inviting Northumbrian pipers Ann and Dorothy from Piper’s Fancy into school, singing Northumberland ballads and painting a 100-year-old bike red and yellow.

The school also promoted active travel by hiding mini Northumberland Flags around the village for the children to find on their way to and from school. On the back of each flag, was the name of a location, animal or significant person from Northumberland. The children had to find a flag and then research a fantastic fact about the person, animal or place on the back, bringing that fact to school and sharing it with their classmates.

One special part of the activity involved children in every class using red or yellow paint, combined with either black or white, to create shades and tones of both colours. They then created monochrome paintings of animals or places found in Northumberland, which were then combined to create one huge Northumberland flag. 

The school also threw itself into the Northumberland Day mascot, Northumbear’s, writing competition with very many of the 150 children in the school submitting drawings or stories for the contest.  All work was beautifully presented on red and yellow card, carrying the pride in Northumberland right through to even this level of detail.

The work was outstanding, resulting in seven delighted pupils also receiving special awards, before Mrs Palmer proudly took possession of the Northumbie.

Pupils Georgia and Chloe won Gold trophies and £25 vouchers, for their beautiful drawing of a red squirrel – the emblem of the school – and writing about bees, respectively.  Silver awards went to Thomas and Matthew and Purple awards were presented to Logan, Reja and Flynn, for their descriptions of Northumberlandia and wildlife.

Stannington First was not the only school to have pupils win art and writing trophies, however, with five pupils from Amble First School also being presented with trophies on the same day.  Incredible artwork of puffins and descriptions of wildlife encounters, robins and visits to Northumberlandia really stood out.

The Gold Award and voucher in the Years 5 and 6 age category, however, went to an individually submitted entry, rewarding the excellent writing of Rosie Overland, aged 10, from Longhoughton.  She wrote a compelling piece about the view from Northumberlandia.

Stannington headteacher Mrs Palmer said: “We are so thrilled to win the Northumbie, which is an absolutely stunning award.  We have long thought about entering the school for this, as Northumberland Day fits so well into the school curriculum in many different ways.  This was the first year we did, however, and we are so proud of our achievement, which is thanks to the enthusiasm and hard work of all the pupils and staff.”

Pupils comments included, “I really liked it because I thought it was really appropriate that we got to appreciate our beautiful county,” “I loved learning the dance and then dancing to the Northumberland pipes” and “we got to wear yellow and red and we looked like the Northumberland flag. That was fun!” 

Stannington First now joins other schools on the roll call of past winners, which includes Newsham Primary in Blyth, Whittingham CofE Primary and Allendale Primary.

Northumberland Day organiser, Jane Hunt, whose company, Catapult PR sponsored the schools’ Northumbie Award, says, “We were wowed by the entry from Stannington First School and also by the care and attention that had gone into the presentation of the writing competition entries.  It has been a delight to visit the school and present this award in person and see the passion of the pupils first-hand.  This was a truly deserving win.

“The standard of the artwork and stories submitted was also first-class, so we have to applaud the pupils of Stannington First and Amble First School, as well as Rosie Overland, for their incredible work.”

The fun for children wanting to enter Northumberland Day competitions is not over, even though school is now out.  A Northumbear Children’s Newsletter will soon be published, full of summer school holiday fun, games, jokes, news and both an art and a poetry competition.  Parents or grandparents can sign up for this by visiting the Northumbear page at www.northumberlandday.co.uk

Ends

Editors notes

Northumberland Day is the county day of Northumberland, England and is a celebration privately organised by Jane Hunt, of Catapult PR, with the help of many passionate Northumbrian people and businesses, not to mention schools and community groups. It takes place on the Sunday before the Northumberland County Show each May. The date for 2020 is Sunday May 24th and the date for 2020 will be Sunday May 30.