For those of us fortunate, or unfortunate, to follow Sunderland AFC, the Netflix documentary Sunderland 'til I die is the definitive post-mortem of a terrible season. The haunting introduction, Shipyards by the Lake Poets, sets the tone for a chilling documentary. It is the memorable soundtrack for a piece of television, that has come to define the football club. So we can count ourselves fortunate that Marti (aka The Lake Poets) and Rebecca (This Little Bird) have spent every Tuesday afternoon, this term, inspiring our Y5s in songwriting and music. Well, last week, the outcome of this inventive project received its first airing: our own school song. Of course, Y5 really did it justice, accompanied by Marti and it was one of those X factor, spine tingling moments.

Here's the chorus...

 From the river to the sea,

The mill down to the beach, 

Our hope and our beliefs,

(We are, We are)

From the river to the sea,

We are building hope and dreams,

'cause we are Seaburn Dene,

And we are, we are

We are all (we are all)

We are all (we are all)

We are all (we are)

Together!! (We are, we are)

We hope to able to share this memorable piece of music with you shortly. As I told Y5, treasure this memory.

Christmas Fayre

It's that time of year again. On Thursday - from 3.30pm - 5pm - we will be throwing our doors open to parents, families and carers for our spectacular Christmas fayre. Every penny raised is ploughed back into school, into the children - so if you have any donations of cakes or (good condition) cuddly toys - please drop them off with Mrs Baker in our main entrance.

Poetry Recital

Due to the school's 50th birthday celebrations this year, I have had to rethink and replace our annual Poetry recital and writing competition in the school calendar. Tomorrow, I will be sending home some of the poems - selected by our school librarians - for children to learn, off-by-heart. Children will have a fortnight to commit these to memory and can choose to work with a partner. Please encourage them. The theme this year is "Winter".

Reading Aloud

Every word you listen to your child read at home makes a fundamental difference to their reading. Reading unlocks learning. Reading aloud makes sense of the images, words conjour. It's a shared, social experience. It's something your child remembers as they get older - the books you shared together. In school, it gives your child an advantage and will continue to do so - as long as you make the time to listen. Share a story. Send pictures of yourself sharing a story with your child into school caption #shareastory to admin@seaburndeneprimary.co.uk

We will share these on our website and twitter feed...