It is always wonderful to welcome parents into school and last week was no exception as we threw open our doors for the many winners of our termly reading awards: Everybody, Every Night. It was standing room only and it was the perfect opportunity for all of us in the Seaburn Dene Primary family to share some of the truly fantastic things that have been happening this week, inspired by our school drivers.
Creative Arts - This week, our rehearsals for the musical Pantastic have been in full flight. Yrs 3, 4 and 5 have been in great voice, learning ensemble pieces, as well as rehearsing key parts of the production, with members of staff. The school is alive with the sound of music.
PE - Our fantastic Year 4 hockey team emerged as Sunderland champions - thanks to all involved - particularly Mr Traves and Mr Wilson, whose coaching has inspired the children.
Community - Exciting plans are in the pipeline with Fulwell Library and beyond - watch this space.
Science and Technology: Our nursery children have been getting to grips with frozen science and watching the changes that take place when animals (small, plastic!) are trapped in blocks of ice.
World Book Day
This week sees the annual World Book Day. It's on Thursday 7th March. My letter, sent to you just before half term, will have explained the heroes and villains theme of the fancy dress and as always we are holding the Stories at Bedtime event.
Parents Evenings
Letters were also sent to you so that you can book your appointment/s at the Spring term Parents' evenings. These consultations with your child's teacher/s will keep you up to date with your children's progress and ways you can support at home.
School Funding
You might have seen in the news last week, how a group of head teachers from Gateshead went to Parliament to put the case against school cuts, which are now impacting on schools across the North East.
It's all thanks to the success of a petition they set up last year on the Government website, warning it's becoming "impossible" to maintain the quality of education as funding fails to keep pace with rising costs. Their petition, that has garnered more than 100,000 signatures already, and the support of parents across the country, won the right to hold a parliamentary debate. We should celebrate that. Politics aside, people care about what happens to schools and ensuring that the funding is in place to allow our dedicated teachers the chance to make a difference. The tools to do this are becoming increasingly scarce, something we are more than aware of at our school - where every penny really does matter, as funding falls and continues to fall, year on year on year, while costs increase significantly. Looking ahead, there will be things that we simply can't fund - in the same way as we have in the past - because under the Government's Fair Funding Formula - we are receiving less.
Things can't continue this way.
https://schoolcuts.org.uk/schools/?chosenSchool=3942092