2^nd February 2024

Number Day has caused great excitement today - apart from the costumes, there has been a big focus, as you might expect, on Maths. The children have taken part in lots of number activities, and they were supported by pupils from Holy Trinity and Sir William Borlase Grammar Schools.

We are now halfway through our class-led worships with Ladybird doing theirs yesterday. They taught us about the importance of 'Perseverance', one of our school values. My thanks go to Mrs Howarth and Mrs Guinness and the rest of the Ladybird team for preparing the children so well.

You will read below that Mark Skoyles has stepped down from his role as Chair of Governors. I would like to thank Mark for his contribution to the school. It has been a pleasure to work with him during this time.

Mrs Reynolds

Message from the Chair of Governors – Mark Skoyles

Next Week's 'Learning at a Glance'

Spring term parent consultations – Whole school

Tomorrow (Saturday 3^rd February), the Parent Consultations slots will go live on our school website. We are holding these over two evenings, Wednesday 21^st February and Thursday 22^nd February, between 4pm-7pm.

To book, you will need to log onto our school website, then a 'Parents' Evening' button will appear at the very top left of your screen. You will not receive an email confirming your appointment, therefore please remember to write it down or take a screenshot.

Appointments are 10 minutes long, and teachers will be sharing with parents/carers how their child is getting on at school, where they are in relation to the expected standards for this time of year, and some next steps for their learning.

You will have the opportunity to look through your child's books before or after your allocated session.

Reading books – Reception & Year 1

This is just a reminder about the reading books that the children in Reception and Year 1 bring home each week.

Phonics readers: These come home every Friday and are linked directly to the phonics that the children have been learning that week in school. They will have already read the book once and should practise reading them again at least twice at home before returning them the following Thursday. This practice helps children to embed the phonics that they have learned and get used to blending the phonemes.

Home readers: These books can be changed more often and may not be the same colour band as the phonics reader. These books may have sounds in them that the children have not learned yet. They will have stickers on them that say 'Read with me'. Teachers assess the children's reading regularly and these assessments determine when the children are ready to move to the next colour band.

School term dates & INSET days 24/25 – Whole school

The term dates for the next academic year were shared earlier this year. You can find them on the school website if you need to refer to them again.

Please click here to see the calendar

Dressing up costumes – Reception

The Reception team are asking parents/carers if they have any old/unwanted dress up costumes that they are prepared to donate to school. They are particularly looking for costumes related to Julia Donaldson's book characters or nursery rhymes.

Geography: Walk to the River – Year 2

On Wednesday 6^th March, Year 2 will be walking to the river on a geographical field trip. They will be studying human and physical features during their walk from school. This will be a fun, hands-on way of bringing their classroom learning to life.

We are looking for 9 volunteers to walk with the children down to the river and support their learning along the way. We will leave school at 9.15am and return by 11am. If you are able to help, please sign up here.

Footsteps Training Programme – Year 2

Footsteps is a practical pedestrian training scheme for children up to the age of 7, developed by Buckinghamshire Council. It involves taking children to the roadside and teaching them how to behave around traffic, what to look for, how to find safe places to cross the road and how to cross roads safely with an adult.

We are looking for three Year 2 parents to help with this programme one afternoon for 4 weeks over the summer term.

If you would like to help, please contact the office.

Safer Internet Day – Whole school

On Tuesday 6^th February it is Safer Internet Day. This will give us the opportunity to have an even sharper focus on Internet safety. As well as online safety lessons in class, the children will learn about being SMART (Safe, Meet, Accept, Reliable, Tell) in collective worship. You can find out more information about the meaning behind the acronym here.

The theme for Safer Internet Day this year is Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online. Children aged between 3 and 7 are at the beginning of their journey through life with technology. It’s through these formative years that they learn to understand what they can access online, how they can access it and how it can benefit them, so its essential parents take an active interest in their children’s safety online. By starting conversations at a young age, children become accustomed to having them as they grow up. ChildNet has some useful resources for parents and carers. Their toolkit can be found here.

As you may be aware, we use a range of sources to teach children about online safety. National Online Safety provides us with some resources that we use in lessons, and we use the platform for training staff about online safety. They offer parents and carers who have children at Marlow Infants access to free training and updates about staying safe online. This takes the form of webinars and #WakeUpWednesday guides. There is a particularly useful webinar entitled Online Safety for parents & carers of children aged 3-7. You can access it via the web address:

https://nationalcollege.com/enrol/marlow-c-of-e-infant-school

You will need to set up an account first and then search for the webinar. 

Each week the #WakeUpWednesday guides are shared on the National Online Safety Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. The guides provide expert advice on the latest platforms and online risks that parents and carers need to know about - a brand-new guide every Wednesday.

We have downloaded the first guide for you to read below:

Science Mascot – Whole school

Thank you for all your brilliant Science Mascot entries – we received so many lovely designs. The Science Ambassadors chose the lucky winner on Monday.

Congratulations to Isla in Grasshopper class for designing our new Science Mascot! Look out for it appearing around the school. Congratulations Isla!

One Can Trust donations – Whole school

We have a couple of medium-sized boxes ready to be donated to One Can Trust in High Wycombe. We are looking for someone to drop these boxes off for us. If you are able to help, please contact the office.

The school is a One Can Trust Drop Off point, so there is always a box for donations by the school gates.  If you are able to help take donations to One Can Trust on a regular basis, we would appreciate hearing from you.

From time to time, we make additional appeals to support the One Can Trust, such as Harvest, Advent and Summer appeals.

Class-led worship – Whole school

We will be holding class-led worships over the next few months. Each class will be basing their worship on their class value, and we would like to invite parents/carers to join in with the worship. Each class worship will be from 9am-9.30am. We are limiting 2 tickets per family. To book your tickets, please complete the Google form here.

• Butterfly Class: Service – Thursday 8^th February
• Ant Class: Kindness – Thursday 29^th February
• Bee Class: Thankfulness – Thursday 14^th March

Candlemas Service – Whole school

If you haven't signed up yet for this special school worship on Monday, please click here to reserve your place.

Readathon

Does your child love to read? This year we are very excited about running a Readathon. Every child will receive a sponsorship form before February half-term. The Readathon will last for one week over half-term, ending on Sunday 18^th February. You can choose whether to ask for sponsorship based on the number of pages, minutes or books that your child will read.

Let all of your friends and family know that you are participating in a Readathon. At the end of the week, tell them how you got on. Please collect money by 29^th February and pay via ParentPay or hand cash into the school office in a sealed envelope marked ‘Readathon’. Please hand all completed Sponsorship Forms to the school office.  All participants will receive a certificate and a small gift to congratulate them for taking part. Happy reading!

 Wine & Cheese Tasting Night 

A reminder to book your tickets for the Cheese & Wine tasting evening on Saturday 16^th March at 8pm in the school hall. Tickets are £25pp and non-school family/friends are welcome to join (adults only). Try a selection of 8 wines (sparkling, white, red & dessert) and learn how to pair your drink with cheese (& chocolate); the perfect way to spend a Saturday evening!

Golf Day 

There is still time to join fellow golfers from Sandygate and Holy Trinity for the 2^nd Golf Day on Friday 26^th April.  To enquire or enter, please contact Patrick Tomnie patricktomnie@gmail.com, 07976 761616.

One last thing...

Are you thinking of selling your house?  Local estate agent and ex-Sandygate parent David Pering (or as some of you know him, Dave the Disco) has offered to donate money to the PFA if you choose to sell your home with Kingshills Estate Agents.

Dates for your diary

• Bingo: Saturday 3^rd February 3.30-5.30pm
• Second-hand uniform: Wednesday 7^th February
• School Disco: Saturday 2^nd March 2pm and 4pm – tickets will go on sale next week
• Bag2School: Tuesday 5^th March
• Wine & Cheese Tasting evening: Saturday 16^th March
• Golf Day: Friday 26^th April
• May Fayre: Saturday 11^th May
• Summer Parents Ball: Saturday 22^nd June
• School Camp Night: Saturday & Sunday 13-14^th July