WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

SANDIWAY PRIMARY
SCHOOL
Number 23

Spring Term 2016

www.sandiway.cheshire.sch.uk

Wednesday 16th March 2016

admin@sandiway.cheshire.sch.uk

01606 883298

a
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Looki

Tuesday/Wednesday 22nd/
23rd March

This week, Year 2 enjoyed their residential visit in Delamere Forest.

They walked, built shelters and art work, waded through streams,
built a campfire and toasted marshmallows...more overleaf!

Thoughts from the week

As the weeks progress, they seem even
more filled with exciting activities for the
children. On Monday, we had the
pleasure of watching the Reception and
Year 1 children enjoying performing
their traditional country dances to their
parents. The children have had lessons
over six
weeks
this term
(funded
through
the
sports
grant
that all
schools
receive). They have loved the team
work, exercise, the routines and whole
experience. We were delighted that so
many parents came to the performance
- this really helped the children rise to
the challenge.
There are just a few more days to join in
with the Easter rae with the possibility

of winning the large egg on display in

the school oce. For just 1, the
children can buy a square on the card
in each class. There are prizes for each
class and for the whole school. Profits
will be split between The Vale Royal
Rotary and our school.
We hope that you can spare the time
to come to our information evening
tomorrow (Thursday) night. The
evening starts at 7.00pm in the hall
where I will give an overview of the
new National Curriculum and its
assessment. You will then be invited to
continue the presentation in the seven
classes to find out more specifics
related to the year groups. This will
include information about the new
assessment arrangements for Year 2
and Year 6. The evening should finish
by 8.00pm. I hope this will prepare you
for the parents meetings next week.

Parents Evenings
At this meeting, your childrens
books from September will be
available for you to look through.
One of the best ways of measuring
progress is to look at the work from
September compared to the work
more recently undertaken. We hope
that you will see the progress in
terms of spelling, handwriting and
quantity of work. However,
importantly, there should also be a
big dierence in terms of the quality
of the work. Please consider the
depth of the language and the
depth of mathematical
understanding and reasoning. I am
very proud of the achievements of
the children and I know the
teachers have been working very
hard to prioritise the progress of
childrens work. There is always
more that we can do - part of the
conversation with teachers next
week will be to celebrate successes
through the year and agree what
needs further work next term and
into the following year.
We would like you to make a further
comment in the childrens maths
and English books - please look out
for the stickers after the last pieces
of work. We will enjoy reading what
you have written.
Thank you.

More news...
Y2 Fox Howl

you will need

to send the
money to the
charity
yourself. The
form gives
details of how
you can do this
in person or by
post.

In our school, Year 2 is the first year that we oer a

residential visit. Many schools do not oer a visit for
children of this year,
however, as a
school, we greatly
see the benefits of
such an
opportunity. I am
delighted that every
Year 2 child
attended the
residential and

enjoyed staying over. The

visit is held at Fox Howl, on
the edge of Delamere Forest.
This is a lovely part of the
forest, not busy with
members of the public. There
are lovely spaces for the
children to enjoy and step
out of their comfort zone a
little bit. This year, the children walked, waded through mud,
splashed through a stream, built natural sculptures using
forest materials, took part in team building games, built a
shelter, helped chop down a tree, built a bonfire, toasted
marshmallows, sang into the evening...all in just two days.
Thank you again to the sta who supported Miss Jardine on
this visit. They helped the children to bed, made their
breakfast for them and got them ready for the activities.
I know that all the parents would be very proud of the
children - with their independence, team work, ability to try
new things - and in some cases staying away from home for
the first time.
Sport Relief
Dont forget that this Friday we will all be taking part in a
continuous run around the schools Golden Mile. All day,
children will be trying to run as many
laps as possible to raise money for
Sports Relief. Please send children into
school wearing a sports kit and
trainers, which they can stay in all day.
Keep an eye on Twitter - we will tweet
our progress through the day. Thank
you in advance for the sponsorships
that you are collecting with the
children.
We would be very happy to collate the sponsor money on
your behalf and take this to the bank in one amount. Please
send money in before the deadline of Wednesday 24th
March which is when we will take the money to the bank.
Please make cheques payable to Sport Relief 2016
(schools). Please make sure that you send in the completed
sponsor forms so that they can also be processed. If you
miss this deadline or you still have sponsor money to collect,

Stang
Update
In a further
update, I am
now in a
position to
inform you that
Mrs Gatiss has
decided to take a break from teaching for a time.
Mrs Gatiss will continue to teach Year 5 until the
end of the school year. Governors and Senior
Leaders are continuing to work to appoint new
teachers to the school to start in September.
Safe Routes to School
As the weather improves, we are beginning to see
more children walk to school or use bikes and
scooters. We are very keen to encourage these
means of getting to school, but ask that you help
the children to be as safe as
possible. Children should
wear cycle helmets and we ask that they
do not ride their bikes/scooters on
school paths and on the playground for
the safety of parents and children who
are walking. If any of our older children
are able to walk home on their own, we
require you to speak to a member of sta
(class teacher) so we know what the arrangements are. Thank
you.
Earth Hour
This is the worlds biggest environmental event: at 8.30pm on
Saturday 19 March, hundreds of millions of people all across
the world will be switching o their lights to show they care
about protecting our amazing planet. WWFs Earth Hour is a
symbolic and spectacular lights out display with a big
message
we want to
protect the
future of our
planet. As
an ECOschool, we
are proud to
show our
support and
hopefully
inspire our
children to
live more sustainably. To join us and for more information
please visit http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/earth-hour/ - why not
tweet us your pictures of your candlelit hour @SandiwayPS
and use #sandiwayearthhour