Welcome to the first edition of the New Year of our Academy blog and in this edition we are emphasising the theme of community; both the community within Sandhill View, as well as that of the role which the Academy plays in the local area too.  

Students have now settled well back in to their learning and we have already held a parent event last week for our Year 11 students, with Year 8 students receiving their options information on Wednesday of this week at their own parents’ evening event, a chance for them to think about the path which their careers and lives will head in the future.

Since the previous edition of the blog a vast amount of updates for you have been prepared so you can see the successes and interesting events which took place here in school both before and since the recent Christmas break.

In this edition we see how our students engaged with local residents in the run up to Christmas, how we are preparing learners for future roles in the region and beyond, how students have interacted in recent sessions dealing with the topic of ‘British Values’ and how our Performing Arts department has celebrated the success and talent of the young people of Sandhill View.

Further on in the blog we receive updates of attendance, attitudes towards learning and sporting successes of our students and we meet the newest member of staff to join us, Miss Parker who has recently begun her leadership of the geography department.

I hope that you enjoy this edition of the blog and enjoy reading about the wide range of events which our fantastic students experience every day here in Sandhill View.
 

Richard Carr
Head of School

On Thursday 14th December, a group of Sandhill View students made a special visit to Ashleigh Grange Care Lodge to deliver Yule Logs made by Sandhill students during enrichment time.  Sandhill View students spent time chatting with residents as well as playing draughts and dominoes.  However, the intensity of the prize bingo has received a particular accolade - students partnered with residents of Ashleigh Lodge played six nail biting games of bingo whilst the successful winners also enjoyed dancing with students. The residents of the home were very pleased with the students’ visit, with everyone having a great time.

Cameron Year 9 - 'I was nervous going to Ashleigh Lodge but I am so glad I went — we had the best time playing bingo.’
 
Kaci and Amber Year 11  - ‘I am so glad we have done this.  It feels really amazing to do something for someone else at Christmas time.’ 
 
Ms Hill (the best bingo caller ever) and Mr Blake (who organised this event) - ‘We are incredibly proud of our students.  Their kindness, willing to participate and compassion for the residents was mesmerising.  Well done!’

Who You Are Tomorrow...

Our associated Sixth Form is having its latest Open Evening next week. As an institution that sent 9 out of 10 students to university in 2017, to institutions including Cambridge, UCL, Glasgow’s school of Veterinary Medicine and Durham University, we believe Sixth Form education is all about where you go next. In fact, we’re so committed to ensuring students from across the region access the very best that we are proud to host the North East’s first OxNet hub, part of a national outreach program by Oxford University that puts us at the centre of a new program of raising aspirations across the region - something you can learn more about on the night.

As well as finding out more about us, about OxNet, and having a chat to staff and students, the evening is also a chance to follow up your initial thoughts on subject choice by talking to universities, apprenticeship providers and volunteering agencies. 

After all, who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today. And today, we’d like you to join us.

Congratulations to Sommer Bainbridge & Ellie Lamb, who were rewarded for their excellent attendance as part of our ‘Attendance Advent’. Both girls were randomly drawn from a pool of students who maintained 100% attendance for the period. Sommer won the grand prize gift vouchers whilst Ellie took home a brand new ipad for Christmas! Well done girls and well done to everyone who stayed in school and took part. See below for details about our next attendance event!

From today, we will once again be rewarding students for being in school as part of our ‘Easter Attendance Eggstravaganza’. Students have the chance to win a host of prizes including sweets and gift vouchers for each day they maintain 100% attendance this term. At the end of term we will also be rewarding one lucky pupil with our special grand prize. Good luck and don’t forget; you’ve got to be in to win!’.

Just before the Christmas break our students were invited to don their Christmas jumpers and give a £1 donation to the charity ‘Save the Children.’ The response was incredible with most of our students getting into the festive spirit and turning up to school in some form of winter woolly.

The students have also been working hard last half term to support their local community by collecting for Sunderland Food Bank.  The students and staff collected a mammoth amount of food to help families who really need it this festive season. Well done!

Last week, Miss Wallace took a group of Year 9 & 10 students on a trip  to the Centre for Life in Newcastle, to allow them to get a feel for what a real life science lab is like. Our students learnt about the use of Stem Cells in modern bio-chemistry and participated in a biology experiment that gave them a great idea of what it would be like to work in one of these labs. The pupils loved the trip, with their behaviour and attitude remaining outstanding throughout the whole day, including comments from the public and the staff at the Centre for Life saying how mature and smart they were.

At the end of our Autumn term our students cashed in their hard-earned praise points to take part in a huge range of activities both inside and out of school. Activities included everything from trying out Archery to Boxing, Nerf Wars and tennis to days out shopping and escape rooms (see below for more info!)  We hope our students enjoyed what was on offer and look forward to more activities for them to have fun with at the end of this term.

On Activities Day, thirteen of our Year 8 students visited Exit Newcastle with Mr Heley. For those of you not in the know, Exit is one of a growing number of ‘escape games,’ the aim of which is to ‘escape’ from a series of locked rooms by solving puzzles, finding keys and codes, and working as a team against the clock – you have only one hour to get out!

Students arranged themselves into two teams (below), and each team took part in two of these games, managing to escape before being ‘locked in’ every time. Indeed, on one of the four attempts one of the teams managed to escape with over ten minutes to spare – very impressive.
 
Mr Heley is planning another trip to Exit in Easter, so please pay him a visit if you are interested.
 
Team one: Finlay Anderson, Lori Dixon, Nathaniel Corkin, Alfie Hartley, Daniel Priddle, Annabel Rooks.

Team two: Adam Aiston, Nathan Atkinson, Leona Barker, Harrison Boyce, Deni Gallagher, Alex Green, Lauren Robson.

Last week we were joined by students and staff from Newcastle College to present our Year 9 students with a special workshop centred around the idea of ‘British Values’. The drama students gave a short show on the theme before splitting off into groups to help pupils come up with their own short scenes on the subject, which were then presented to the other groups. Our students were exceptional in their enthusiasm for the workshop and engaged fantastically with themes such as Equality, Democracy, Tolerance and Individual Liberty all being addressed. Well done to everyone involved and thank you to students and staff from the College for taking the time to visit our pupils.

On the final day of last term, we once again gave Year 7 & 8 students the chance to participate in our ‘Countdown’ competition. The games were fierce, with some fantastic against the clock conundrum solving, word building and number crunching going on. Year 8 especially took until the final round before a winning group came forward, with all form classes in position to snatch the prize. Well done to 7EW and 8HA, who each clinched the prize for their year group at the end of the day.

The hairdressing enrichment group took part in a competition to showcase the skills they have learnt this term.  They worked in groups to initially produce a mood board of ideas in order to prepare their student model for the show.  They took inspiration from the Christmas theme and styled their model to emulate this.  Along with the hairstyles they also included the clothes and makeup to finish the whole look off.  The winner was then judged by Mr Blake however, all teams did exceptionally well in all aspects of the competition and really did themselves proud. 

Last term we opened our doors to the public to showcase our talented students as part of our Christmas Talent Show event. The night was a colourful affair with singing, dancing and acting of all sorts entertaining guests to the Academy.

Going the Distance

The Wearside schools’ cross-country competition took place in December at Farringdon and we were able to take a full-strength squad of girls and boys in Years 7, 8 and 10 to participate. The athletes had to battle against difficult conditions and tough competitors but represented the school impeccably with high standards of performance and behaviour. They were all a credit to our school. Well done to all of those who braved the bad weather and took part!

The Stage is Set For Annie

Sandhill Academy's next school production of the hit musical 'Annie' is already in the works ready for the end of year show. The cast and crew are all very excited to bring this famous Broadway show to life and are looking forward to performing on stage in front of guests from our community. Watch this space for more information of how the production is progressing throughout the year! A full list of cast can be found below.

Head of Schools Awards

Congratulations to; Charlie Peverley, Kaitlyn Stephenson, Jessica-Jane Scott, Connor Walshaw, Layla Anderson, Kaitlin Hepple, Maddisan King, Emily Storey, Imogen Laing & Abbey Haley, who have all received a Head of School’s Award for being the highest earners of Praise Points last term. Each student will receive an engraved pen and a certificate to celebrate their efforts for consistent positive behaviour, excellent attitude and hard work of the last few months. Well done!

My favourite childhood book is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

I remember watching the original version of the movie and then discovering the book in the junior school library some time later.  I loved the idea of discovering a passageway to a secret world filled with adventure and magic.  The book is written in such a way that you can really allow your imagination to build the world of Narnia and feel as if you are living the adventure.  I loved the book as a child and still enjoy the movie when I catch it on T.V.

What do you do at Sandhill View?
I've just begun at Sandhill View as Assistant Curriculum leader of Humanities with Responsibility of Geography. I teach Geography, RE and History.

Who was your favourite teacher at school and why?
Miss Button – she was my inspiration to become a Geography teacher. Very caring and enthusiastic.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I have two boys so most of my spare time is spent with them. We go to the cinema, swimming, play football, soft plays and to football matches.

Who is your favourite musical artist or band?
I have to say I'm a bit of an Ed Sheeran fan.

What's the best thing about Sandhill View?
I've just started here but already I can see how friendly and welcoming everyone has been.

What's the one thing you could never be without?
Food! Especially chocolate!