14th May 2021

There have been several highlights this week - our first school trip for well over a year and the Pyjamarama Day today.

The Year 2s had a great day on Tuesday, and we were definitely blessed with good weather. From newts to centipedes, the children had lots of fun identifying a wide range of mini beasts and exploring the different habitats. Their teachers and I were so proud of how well they represented the school - there were some very tired children (and adults) at the end of the day!

Pyjamarama Day today has caused a huge amount of excitement and there have been lots of books shared today. I have enjoyed seeing the children dressing up and the staff team have joined in too!  As you know, the day is in aid of the Book Trust which is a charity that aims to promote and improve the representation of people of colour in children’s books so that all children read a range of books that reflect them and their wider communities.  Donations can be made via ParentPay.

We are looking forward to 'Walk to School Week' next week, and it seems that the children won't be wearing their school uniform again next Friday!

Mrs Reynolds

Pyjamarama Day

Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to Booktrust, the total is at £173 as of today. There is still time to donate and the link will remain on Parentpay until the end of next week. 

Here are some photos of Year 1 doing their RE lesson in their pyjamas!

Waste Week

The Eco Warriors led worship on Monday to launch waste week. They talked about the different sorts of waste that affect our planet and what we can do to reduce them. 

During the week we have been considering all sorts of waste that affect our planet and every child has written a pledge to reduce their waste in some way to help us to be good citizens of the planet. You can see some of these below

We have been working really hard this week to reduce our food waste at lunchtime and the lunchtime staff from Dolce say they have really noticed the difference. The difference in weight is over 2kgs with 43.22kg of waste in the 5 days last week and 41.01kg this week. 

There is obviously still a long way to go, and we can reduce this a lot more. One way to ensure this is to check that your child has a meal ordered that they want to eat and to remember to cancel meals if your child is absent or decides to bring a packed lunch instead.

Walk to School Week

17th-21st May

Next week is Walk to School Week. This year the focus is Walking Superpowers, helping to learn how walking benefits us as individuals, our local community and the planet. We encourage everyone to travel to school next week in an active, sustainable way.  

To encourage you all we have a lovely new map to show walking distances to the school and includes actual recorded times for Sandygate families. The map has been created by one of our parents, Mr Brown, and we would like to thank him for that. 

You can download the map here

We hope you like our lovely new banners at the front of the school, thanks to another of our parents, Mr Harding, for getting them printed for us. 

Walking has so many benefits from physical to mental wellbeing, helping concentration and creating less polluted more welcoming streets. There are five Superheroes that the children will learn about across the week that will teach them about these ideas.

On Friday, to recognise how Super active the children have been all week we invite them to come to school in 'active wear' if they wish to. This could be kit they wear for a sport they enjoy, their school PE kit or a tracksuit. 

Summer Census Day 20th May 2021

As you know, all children in Infant school are entitled to a Free School Meal however, the funding for this is not as straightforward as receiving payment for every meal taken. As a school, we have to pay for every meal eaten but the funding we receive is based on the number of meals eaten on two census days each year.

If the number of meals eaten on the census day is lower than the average meals taken the rest of the year we could end up out of pocket. Can we, therefore, urge you all to book a meal for your child if they can be at all persuaded to have one on 20th May. 

Pen Recycling

We now have bins to recycle pens in each classroom. Children can bring in any pen - felt-tips, biros etc and they will be recycled.  Let's rescue these from landfill!

Royal Mail Heroes Competition

Our school is delighted to be taking part in Royal Mail's Heroes Stamp Design competition, honouring the heroes of the coronavirus pandemic. The Art Councillors launched the competition to the school in worship yesterday and they are very excited about it.

A letter detailing the competition and the way any information about your child will be used in the competition has been emailed out to all parents today and every child will be bringing home an entry form this afternoon. If your child would like to enter the competition please get them to draw their design on the form and complete all the details. Completed entries should be returned to school no later than Monday 24th May so that we can submit them by the closing date.