There are not many things which make you feel better than seeing young people succeed.  Last week, I had the great pleasure of attending my second annual Sunderland Schools' Football Association Awards Ceremony at the Stadium of Light, where I saw a number of Sandhill View students receive praise and awards for their sporting achievement.  It is important to reward hard effort, commitment and determination and this success was also shared with family members and friends of those students who received awards.  Celebrating and promoting success is something which over the past two years here in the Academy has developed, improved and grown in direct response to parent and student feedback and this will continue over years to come.  Today, our Year 11 students begin their final GCSE examinations with their first exam taking place and we await with confidence examination success on results day in the summer.

In this edition of the blog we see many other examples of student participation, teamwork, utilising employability and social skills as well as developing themselves through a wide range of activities and ventures.  We catch up with our holiday trip to the ski resort of Passo Tonale, Italy, get the low down on our most recent and most successful Activities Week, gain updates into wider sporting successes by our students and receive our latest highlights from the Art department.

This year in school we have placed heavy focus upon future careers so we feature articles on our links and student involvement with local universities and Year 10 work experience, as well as catching up with our students who had a highly valuable visit to our latest local monument and soon to open bridge.

We have also recently been increasing the content delivered to students around health, diet, exercise and well-being and our primary feeder school students also feature once again as their time in school here before the summer increases as part of our transition experience.  We also introduce our newest member of staff, Miss McLachen in our regular 'Staff in the Spotlight' feature.

I am sure you will agree that there continues to be lots taking place here in Sandhill View.  I hope you enjoy this edition of the blog.

Richard Carr
Head of School

Sandhill View and Southmoor had a very successful joint skiing trip to Passo Tonale, Italy during the Easter holidays.  In total, 72 students and 9 members of staff across the Academy Trust hit the slopes in style.  Each day students had 5 hours of ski lessons with a qualified ski instructor on top of a 3000m glacier.  All students showed exceptional resilience and made progress throughout the week.  

All students were a credit to the Academy and behaved exemplary at all times. It was an unforgettable week and we are already in the process of securing a further trip around Easter 2018.

Once again, just before the Easter break, our students enjoyed 3 days of enrichment,  spending their well-earned praise points on a diverse range of activities.  This term our students solved puzzles at Sunderland Clue HQ; bounced about Gravity Force; went on shopping trips to the Metro Centre and had fun with an impressive range of in-school activities and events.

One of our most sportingly talented students in Year 11, Thomas Ferry, travelled to Hertfordshire in April to compete in the Heathcoat Cup finals.  This is a cup which celebrates the abilities of disabled young people in the sport of Boccia.  Boccia is a competitive sport which requires players to target a fixed jack by throwing leather balls to be as accurate as possible.

Due to his skill and talent he was able to compete against opponents much older than him.  Thomas competed against a young man who was a member of the Great Britain Boccia squad and successfully overcame his opponent by a fantastic score of 9 -0. His parents and all of the Deaf Resource Base team are very proud of Thomas' achievement. 

Thomas' next competition is in May and this is for the Boccia England (BE) cup.  Good luck Thomas!

Year 10 On Show

Year 10 students currently have an exhibition of their work at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle.  This is a result of the ARTiculate project: where students combine photography skills with visual literacy to develop photographs which tell a story.  Inspiration behind the projects have included computer games, pop art and Disney villains.

The Leading Edge

On 4th May, five of our students continued with their Leading Edge Project, a STEM event for year 9 students.  They visited Newcastle University to focus on a ‘presentation skills’ workshop.  Our students were also in the frame of a BBC film crew.  The group initially gave answers as to what they thought a good communicator was.  Our group shone through with this and were first to put their hands up and volunteer answers. 

We then went on to play games which were designed to increase confidence for speaking in public.  The afternoon then moved on to a surprise; they would be expected to do a 5-minute presentation – in just ten minutes time!

The title of the presentation was “Why your School is the best” with only a short amount of time to present our pupils had to learn to be concise and cut out a lot of the things they wanted to say.

The group rose to the challenge. with some aspiring answers:

“Our School is the best because of the opportunities we are given, not just in education but in learning life skills”

“I feel really safe and comfortable in school and I know if I have any problems the staff in the School will support me”

“Our school is the best because of how much we have improved over the last couple of years”

“We have the best teachers, they make sure we understand and keep working hard with us”

“Our school used to have jumpers which I didn’t like but now we have blazers which look very smart”

A huge well done to the students.  Further Leading Edge events are planned in the coming weeks.

Building Bridges

Our Year 7 students had the opportunity to visit the £117million new Wear crossing constructions site, where they looked forward to the future by discussing career opportunities with the project managers. The groups were then given a tour of the operation where they saw and discussed the planning, manufacturing, assembly and construction taking place.

Our students also had the opportunity to see the 5 stage plan for Sunderland in the long term, to date the project is currently only in stage 2, so there is still a lot to look forward to for our city!  It was an amazing and informative day for our Year 7 students who may yet go on to become the architects, builders and engineers of the future.

Enthusiastic.  A pleasure to work with.  Well-motivated.  Mature and positive attitude.  Excellent communication skills.  Completed all tasks with a smile.  A fantastic week. 

These were just some of the comments made about our Year 10 students after they returned from their week’s work experience in April. 

Every year all Year 10 pupils have the opportunity to complete a week of work experience as part of their work-related learning.  It is an opportunity for students to spend some time with an employer or other organisation, allowing them to experience as far as possible the hours, working conditions and regulations they may encounter when they go to work themselves.

The students worked hard to find their own work experience placements and in the current economic climate, this proved very challenging.  However nearly 90% of our students succeeded in finding their own placements and they should be congratulated for their initiative and determination.  Several of our students so impressed the employers that they would have been offered a permanent job if they had not been at school!

Our current Year 9 students will be seeking work placements for next year.  If you would like to offer our students a work placement in, please contact our school office.

Ready, Steady, Cook!

Teachers and pupils swapped textbooks for cookery books last week, when they took part in their own version of 'Ready Steady Cook'.  Special guests from the Chartwells’ ‘Putting Fun back into Food’ programme, came in to Sandhill View to set students the challenge of making two healthy meals in less than 15 minutes using only  fresh ingredients.  The competition heated up quickly as the two selected groups of students and their form tutors squared off against each other, with an audience of our own pupils acting as judges. 

This was a brilliant opportunity for our pupils to learn that eating sensibly as part of a healthy lifestyle can be fun as well as rewarding. After a frantic cook-off, Mrs. Ord and the girls from the ‘Red Tomato’ group emerged as winners. Thank you again to Chartwells for staging the event, our students had a fantastic time.

A Taste of Sandhill Life

Throughout the Year we have been inviting groups of Year 5 and Year 6 pupils from our feeder primary schools into school for taster sessions.  These sessions are designed to give younger students an idea about the kind of topics they will study at secondary school as well as to better familiarise themselves with our school and their future teachers.

Our prospective students have had a great time visiting us and we hope to see many of them in the next few years.  A special thank you must go to our staff for hosting the sessions and our primary feeder schools for allowing their students to visit us and have fun.

In between revising for their exams our Year 11 students have been busy researching their future career options. 

Many of our students have taken advantage of the apprenticeship information and guidance drop-in sessions which have been offered on Wednesday afternoons.  Our Connexions advisor, Julia Robinson, has been available to offer guidance and advice as well as supporting students through the on-line application process for apprenticeships.

Putting Culture in the Picture

Year 10 art students have been exploring cultural identity within their artwork and have produced a range of drawing, paintings and prints.  This was the result of workshops planned and taught by this group to each other to further their understanding of how to portray a message within artwork. 

Fantastic Footballing Success

Mr. Carr had the pleasure in attending the annual Sunderland Schools' Football Association awards evening last week at the Stadium of Light.  Founded in 1893, the Association holds the ceremony to award players and the winning teams who have competed in a wide range of competitions across the academic year.  Sandhill View were strongly represented at last year's awards event and this year was also no exception.  We are pleased to announce that under the management of Miss. Reed, the Under 14 girls team were crowned as champions in 5-a-side as well as also taking the League tournament.  Congratulations must go to Miss Reed and all of the players for their achievements this season.  It was a great experience for staff and family members to see the girls receive their awards.

A special mention also needs to go out to recognise the achievement of our own Callum Nichol from Year 9 who was also honoured at the ceremony for his participation at County level where he received recognition for playing on the Under 14 City team.

We look forward to as successful a season once again next year.  Well done everyone.

For the second year running, Sandhill View Academy organised its own “Take Your Child To Work Day” in April.  A third of our Year 9 pupils seized the opportunity to find out more about their parents’ workplace by accompanying their parent or carer to work.  Pupils visited a variety of sectors: education, business, finance, building, construction and design to name but a few, giving them a valuable insight into the careers available in the north-east.  Our pupils received very positive feedback and were a credit to themselves and to Sandhill View.

What do you do at Sandhill View?
As a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) I am part of the SEN department, but I work with students across the curriculum.

Who was your favourite teacher at school and why?
Mr. Almond, my Maths teacher during my GCSEs and A Levels.  He is everything a great teacher should be: supportive, personable, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and willing to go the extra mile to help his students succeed.
 
What do you like to do in your spare time?
Bouldering (rock climbing), swimming, reading, and duvet days binge-watching TV – I’m currently watching Nashville, Grey’s Anatomy, and Modern Family.  (Or at least they’re the ones I’ll admit to…)  I also love heading back to Whitby, where I grew up, to hang out with my Mum!

Who is your favourite musical artist or band?
My favourite genre is country music, but my theme song would be ‘Fight Song’ by Rachel Platten.  

What's the best thing about Sandhill View?
The people.  Everybody has been so welcoming I already feel like part of the Sandhill View family, and it’s only been three weeks!

What's the one thing you could never be without?
Lemon cheesecake ice-cream.  (Don’t laugh until you’ve tried it for yourself!)