Fully Booked!

As part of World Book Day, volunteered pupils were challenged to read three books and present book review from a selection of titles chosen by Mrs Palmer and Mr Shannon. The winners all received Book tokens and their names put into a draw for a tablet.

Kathryn Robson Year 7 won the tablet, Megan Davison, Shauna Fisher and Nadia Panufnik won book tokens.

The Circle of Life

This year our annual production is The Lion King. It will be performed by 22 pupils ranging from Year 7 to Year 11. To prepare for the show the pupils spent two days last week creating all of the wonderful masks, props and costumes for the show. The pupils have shown true creativity in the designing and making of all of the items needed to bring the Maasai Mara to Sandhill View's theatre.

The highlight of the two days was working with Zoe Allen (an outside artist) to create a life-sized elephant for the show. I am sure this will be a sensational show and we look forward to performing to a huge audience. Tickets are on sale from the school office.

Our art teachers are very lucky to be a part of an Artist Network called NEATEN (North East Art Teacher Network).  As part of Big Draw this year our group won an award for their work with over 500 people on the theme 'Every Drawing tells a story'. We planned, delivered and took part in workshops working with families, teachers, gallery visitors and our students at Sandhill View. I was invited to accept this award with four other artists (one of whom is working with our Year 9s next month) in London. 
 
Please see our school’s Big Draw contribution here

Work Discovery

20 Year 9 and Year 10s went to Sunderland University to find out what courses they could study in the creative sector. They took part in music and art workshops as well as 'breaking the news' and they even shot their own TV show! Staff were delighted at their positive feedback and all students said that they would love to go to university as a result! 
 
'I never thought you could do this type of thing at university, it’s like doing your dream job!' Year 9

I really enjoyed being a TV presenter and that everyone was so friendly' Year 10

City of Culture Bid.

Our students found out about the City of Culture bid and were very enthusiastic about supporting this scheme which is a fantastic opportunity for investment in the local area. You can see Oliva and Megan posing for their website!

Shooting for Glory

This week students from Year 7 and Year 8 attended after school football trials for next season. 
 
We also, we currently have around 25 children from Year 7 taking part in the Sunderland Schools Athletics Competition. All children have been taking part in athletics as part of their PE lessons and have impressed staff with the improvements shown.

We would like to also extend our congratulations to the following seven girls that have been selected to attend the County Football Trials in the next couple of weeks. We wish them the best of the luck.

U14: Sommer Bainbridge, Tia McKitterick, Courtney Clark, Morgan Straughan, Devon Stewart
 
U16: Charlie-Ann Brown, Molly Hutchinson

What do you do at Sandhill View?
I am currently working as the Head of Maths and am working on the KS3 curriculum.  I joined Sandhill View only recently, taking up the position of Assistant Headteacher at Easter.

Who was your favourite teacher at school and why?
Thinking back to my own school days, my favourite teacher had to be Mr Lauder.  I remember him because he inspired me to do well in English.
 
What do you like to do in your spare time?
In my spare time the most important thing to me is spend a lot of it with my family. 

Who is your favourite musical artist or band?
I like lots of music but if I have to pick one particular favourite group it would be ‘The Chemical Brothers’.

What's the best thing about Sandhill View?
Although this is my first term here, you cannot help but notice the togetherness of the staff.  This makes a huge difference to how a school operates.

What's the one thing you could never be without?
That’s a very easy one…without a doubt, coffee!

New Day Ahead

At Sandhill View we are constantly looking for improvements in order to offer our students the best chance of success. With this in mind we have consulted on some further changes to the school day from September 2016.  We would like to extend our morning registration by 10 more minutes and take this time from our current lunchtime.  This will allow students to continue to eat, socialise and pursue hobbies and interests during a 40 minute lunch-break. 

It will also mean that we will be able to deliver more effective student support in our longer tutor time, allowing us to deal with many of the important issues facing young people in today’s world.  There will be no change to the beginning and end of the school day.  We have consulted in school on this matter but we would be happy to take any opinions from parents. 

Behaviour for Learning

We are continually looking to improve our behaviour systems with rewards that will encourage young people to do the right thing. From September we will be introducing a new system with a particular focus on rewarding attendance. The idea is to reward students with praise points which they themselves can choose to spend on a menu of attractive awards. Further information will follow in my letter to parents in July.

Upcoming Key Dates & Notices