16th June 2023

We have had a fantastic start to the transition work that will be carried out over the next few weeks with a visit from our 2023-24 Reception children this week. They had a great time, and it was good to meet their parents current and new. In the meantime, the Reception and Year 1 children visited the Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms respectively. There are more details about the transition activities in the article below.

The Year 1 Phonics Screening went ahead this week, and the children have been brilliant, showing us how well they have learned their phonics. This of course will have an impact on their learning across the curriculum, and we have noticed this year how well they have been using the taught strategies when reading and writing in other subjects.

It was great to see the wonderful Marlow school's choir in the park on Sunday. The children sang beautifully, and it was good to see children from Marlow Infants taking part in a community event such as this. Thanks to Mrs Phillips and Mrs Howarth for accompanying the children and to Mrs Phillips for practising the songs with them in school. Sheila Wilson would like to pass on her congratulations to the children and tell them how very impressed she (and everyone) was with their brilliant performance.
 

Mrs S Reynolds

Refugee Week 19th–25th June

To mark Refugee Week, the Rights Respecting Ambassadors have chosen to support Marlow Refugee Action again this year. 

The Ambassadors will lead school worship on Wednesday afternoon to share the raise awareness about refugees with the rest of these school and outlining the importance of Article 22 of the UN Charter for the Rights of the Child. 

During the week all children will be doing various activities to develop their understanding of refugees. They will also be making some items which will be sold in school on Friday with the money raised going to Marlow Refugee Action. These will be cakes, biscuits and friendship bracelets.

If your child would like to purchase something at the sale please send them in with a small amount of cash, we would suggest a maximum of £2.

Next Week's 'Learning at a Glance'

Transitions – Whole school

This half-term, we will be spending some time getting the children ready for their next steps in education, and we thought that it would be good to share with you some of the plans that we have to help the children prepare for moving on.

PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Economic) lessons focus on transition this half-term and the children begin to learn that change can be a good thing and that moving on to another class or school is just part of their learning journey.

Class mixes

Reception to Year 1

When the Reception children move to Year 1 in September, they will be in new class groups. We take this opportunity to mix children from Ants and Bees to create 2 new classes Butterflies and Ladybirds. This is to enable us to balance the classes using our in depth knowledge of the children, something that we didn't have last July. Reception children and their parents will find out which class they will be in on July 4th.

Year 1 to Year 2

The mix of children in Year 1 will not be changed for their move to Year 2.

Year 2 to Holy Trinity

Year 2 children who are going to Holy Trinity Junior School will be mixed and put into 3 class groups ready for their move. Again, we will use our in depth knowledge of the children to make as balanced a mix as possible. Holy Trinity will then add children from other schools starting with them in September to the 3 groups. Children and parents will find out their class on July 4th.

Transition activities

This week, we started the first of our transition activities. On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon the Reception children visited the Year 1 classrooms. They spent time in each of the classes so that they could meet some of the Year 1 team and familiarise themselves with Year 1 learning environment. They have not visited their class teachers for next year nor were they in their new class groups, they simply visited Year 1.

Also on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, the children in Year 1 visited Year 2. They visited one classroom on Tuesday and the other on Thursday. Again, this is for the children to meet the Year 2 team and get used to the Year 2 classrooms which are very different to the Year 1 learning environment.

In addition to this, on both Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, we also welcomed some of our new Reception intake to spend some time in school.

For the Year 2s, on Thursday 22nd June in the afternoon, they will be visiting Holy Trinity School (if that is where they are going to for their Key Stage 2 years). They will spend some time playing on the field, will meet the Year 3 teachers and will have the opportunity to ask them questions.

Other transition activities

There are more activities planned over the coming weeks and there will be more detail in future newsletters.

Below is an outline of the Transition Morning:

Tuesday 4th July: This is when all children visit their new classes, find out who their new teacher(s) will be and spend some time preparing for their new start in September.

Sandygate Sunday – Sunday 25th June

On Sunday 25th June will be one of our regular 'Sandygate Sundays' at All Saints Church. We will be taking part in their 10.59 service with some children reading prayers, and we will sing one of our worship songs. 

We would love to see as many red jumpers/red PE t-shirt in the congregation as possible, so please come along if you can. Click here if your child will be attending.

Acts of Service

This half-term, the school value in focus is Service. To make the learning about this value more meaningful and to link with the MindUP lesson about taking action in the community, all year groups will be performing acts of service. 

The children will learn that service is about doing something to help others without expecting anything as a reward. They will also learn that it is good for our wellbeing to serve others. 

Each year group's act of service is described below. You will see that there are opportunities to help and be involved.

Year 2 Act of Service – May Balfour Gardens 

On Tuesday 20^th June, Dragonfly class will be walking to May Balfour Gardens on Institute Road. Grasshopper class will go the following day (Wednesday 21^st June). If you are able to help us please could you let the office know as we are looking for some volunteers. Each class will be leaving school after morning registration at 9.15am and returning to school at 11.30am. If you are able to help, please click here. Will need 5 per class to make the visit possible and so far we have 5 in total.

Both classes will be providing their Act of Service by litter picking and planting bulbs for the community to benefit from. This garden is a common lunch spot for many, and we hope the work will help brighten people’s day and look after our world. If your child has a litter pick and would like to bring it in to help, that would be much appreciated. 

 Year 1 Act of Service – Entertaining the Community 

Year 1 are inviting some of the older members of the All Saints congregation to a tea party at school on Tuesday 20^th June where they will entertain them with some singing. We need some adults to help serve tea and coffee from around 1.15pm that afternoon. If you or someone else in your family can help, please sign up here.

Reception Act of Service – Trip to All Saints 

On Wednesday 28^th June, children in Reception will be walking to All Saints Church to carry out some work in the churchyard. In order to do this, we will need some volunteers to walk with us and help for the morning. We will be aiming to leave school at 9am and will be back for 11am. If you are able to help us please could you sign up here. We are looking for a minimum of 12 volunteers and so far we have 3.

Sports Morning – Monday 26th June

On Monday 26th June we will be holding our school Sports Morning and all parents and carers are invited along to cheer on their children.

The morning will start after the children have been registered and organised into their teams at around 9.30am. The children will spend the first half of the morning in teams of mixed year groups taking part in a round-robin of sporting activities. These should finish at around 10.30 when the children will go back inside the school for their fruit snack. At 11.00 they will come back out onto the field in their classes and will take part in a running race against their classmates. The event will finish before lunch at 12.

The PFA will be serving refreshments for adults before the event starts.

Open Afternoon – Wednesday 5th July

Open Afternoon is a chance for your family to come in to see the school building and grounds in a very relaxed, social way after the school day. The children in Years 1 & R will have spent the previous morning in the classroom they are moving to in September and this will be an opportunity for them to show this to you. You can come and see some of the work the children have done which is displayed in classrooms and communal areas. You do not have to stay for the whole time, but we would appreciate the children being there for their year group or club performance. It is a relaxed event and families can come and go as suits them and their other commitments.

Each year group is working on a short performance, a dance or a song, which they will give during the afternoon and the Maypole and Recorder club will also perform. The order for these are: 

• Recorder Club
• Maypole Club
• Reception
• Year 1
• Year 2

Sun Cream

As the weather seems set to stay warm and sunny for a little while we would remind you to ensure that your child comes to school with sunscreen applied. All children have a school sun hat which they wear whenever they are outside, and we will continue to monitor the heat and reduce the amount of outside play when necessary.

Your child may bring in a named bottle of sunscreen if they are able to apply this themselves during the day. Please remind your child that they can only use their sunscreen when told to do so by their teacher and that they may not share it with anyone else in school as they do not know if their friends might have allergies to the ingredients. 

School Open Afternoon – Wednesday 5th July: Pizza

At the school open afternoon in July, to take the burden off you having to sort out dinner for you and your children, we will be organising pizzas to be delivered. They will be available to buy on ParentPay from 19th June up until the day before the open afternoon, on 4th July. £15 for a large Margherita/veg/meat pizza. We will also be serving soft drinks and having a tuck shop for the duration of the event.

Year group Sandygate teatowels

It is that time of year again when the children have been doing their self-portraits ready for the year group masterpiece and pride of your kitchen the tea towels. These tea towels have the whole year group on them including the staff, and are a lovely memento (see example from a few years ago). Tea towels are priced at £6 each however 3 of the same cost £15 and will be available to buy on ParentPay next week (ordering will closer 30/6/23 in order for us to get them printed).

Camp Night 2023: 8^th – 9^th July 4pm onwards

The Sandygate Camp Night returns! This is an opportunity for us to all have a relaxed and fun afternoon and evening together; camp, eat, drink and be merry. We open the gates at 4pm and welcome families to bring their tents/sleeping bags/camping gear to spend the night on the school field.

Tickets are selling well, but there are still a few left. They are £30 per ticket (to include tent pitch, hot drinks and a cereal/croissant breakfast) Pizza's for supper are available to buy separately on ParentPay and will be delivered to the school around 5.30pm on the Saturday. Spaces are limited to 65 pitches only (due to limitations in numbers of people allowed on the school grounds). We ask that you only bring your own children to this event and no tent sharing please. 

Summer Silent Auction 

Don't forget to keep bidding on our summer silent auction. It will close on Saturday 17^th June at 9.45pm. There are some brilliant prizes to be won, so please do go onto the site and start bidding. The link to view and start bidding is

The link to view and start bidding is here.

Crazy Bear Hot Air Balloon & Case of Laithwaites Wine Raffle

As part of our PFA summer events we are raffling off 2 exceptional prizes.

Buy a ticket (or two) to be in with a chance of winning a Virgin Media experience Crazy Bear Hot Air Balloon ride with champagne worth £139 or a case of Laithwaites wine.

Tickets will go on sale on Monday 12^th June and are £10 each. The winning tickets will be drawn after the dinner dance next Saturday 17^th June so buy your tickets ASAP – good luck! 

Head Lice

Your child has as much chance of being infected as any other and this is in no way a reflection on a family’s standard of hygiene. To reduce the chances of infection as much as possible, we suggest:

• Hair that falls below shoulder level should be tied up at all times for the child’s own safety as well as preventing the spread of head lice. Head lice can easily transfer from head to head in a school environment
• Using conditioner when washing hair to help prevent the spread of head lice
• Checking your child’s hair every week

For more information visit: http://www.onceaweektakeapeek.com

First Soccer

Summer Camps in Marlow are now live and ready to book.

Use early bird discount code before 1st July to receive 10% off all courses: LRD697