Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Breathtaking Poetry Perfection

  Fri 29 Sep 2017 M. Purdy

  SDPS Fantabulous Poetry  Celebrations

   

  What a thrilling afternoon we had on Thursday, celebrating National Poetry Day. Year 1 set a very high standard with their recital of Pirate Pete, opening the event with a very high score. Each class performed their poem brilliantly-we were enthralled with the dramatic interpretations of every performance. Overall, Year 6 won the prize of a free trip to the Laing Art Gallery for an art workshop but it was by the skin of their teeth-only one point in it.

   

  The Ivan Jones Amazing Poem award was won by Francesca in Year 6 with her interpretation of "A Better World" but, as Ivan commented, there were many wonderful entries so the choice of winner was a difficult one. Thank you to "Bark and Read" for donating the book prizes for the winner from each class:

  • Yr 2-Edie
  • Yr 3-Isabelle
  • Yr 4-Lola
  • Yr 5-Joe

   

  The afternoon concluded with the individual finalists. A fantastic effort by all concerned but Frances from Yr 5 blew them all out of the water with her rendition of "The Highwayman", enhanced by 1920s cinema style piano playing to add to the tension and drama. We were on the edge of our seats with hearts thumping by the time she played the last note. Her mum told me that she'd taught herself to play from Youtube and had rehearsed every night. This represents all we stand for-determination and aspiration.

   

  Thank you to Gil and Nicky from Bark and Read for judging, along with Trudy, our representative from the School Council. A special thanks also goes out to Mr Howe for organising the event.

   

  FOOTBALL SUCCESS

  Also on Thursday, our teams went into action with the A team winning  5-3 against St. Pauls, Ryhope. Goal scorers-Konstandinos (2), Joseph (2) and Bruce (1) The B team gained invaluable experience in a tournament playing the A teams of other schools. They drew two matches and lost two but their trainers are delighted with their performance. We must thank Mr. Traves and Mr. Ashton for organising the event and giving up their own time to train teams.

   

  A RIDICULOUSLY EXCITING POBBLE LAUNCH DAY-took place last Monday in Key Stage 2. A Pobble trainer, Mrs Johnson, spent the whole day in school, inspiring to children to spend a full day writing their historical story, training children to be Pobble Ambassadors then staff to upload work onto the Pobble website. If you have a child in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 he/she will have a sign-in code so you can take a look at their work and perhaps tweet it out for the world to read!

   

   

   

  

• Great Garden Clear Up

  Fri 29 Sep 2017

  29th September 2017

  Today the Friends and their helpers from Yr 5, donned wellies (and waterproofs) to tidy up the Foundation Stage Garden area. Despite battling with the drizzle, it has been totally transformed so now looks neat and organised. Thank you to the volunteers for their generosity of time.

  

• Seaburn Spruce Up

  Wed 27 Sep 2017 L. Bond from Siglion

  Seaburn Community Spruce Up

  Saturday September 30^th

  10am – 1pm followed by activities on the beach.

   

  Join us with Sun FM on Saturday morning on the Seaburn site to help us with a spruce up in advance of the illuminations. Adult helping hands will be welcomed to join in with painting and all ages can get involved in a litter-pick. There will be chances to win with a seaweed scavenger hunt to find some great prizes, and if you’re not tired out by then, there will be games on the beach from 1pm for all the family. 

   

  The spruce up follows feedback from the local community, who are keen to see neglected parts of the seafront - like weather-beaten benches and fencing - given a new lease of life, to help smarten up Seaburn.

   

  We have arranged for work to be completed on site ahead of the spruce up, with paint and tools of the trade all provided kindly by Robertons. We have also coordinated a range of beach-based activities with North East Sport for after the spruce up, to keep the little ones entertained and active into the afternoon.

   

  To register as a volunteer for the event please visit https://www.sun-fm.com/Features/community-spruce-up.php or you can turn up on the day

   

  Safety and comfort: For a volunteer briefing, meet at the Pirate Park at 10am

  High vis vests, disposable gloves and litter pickers as well as drinking water will be provided for volunteers. Please wear comfy shoes, warm clothes and bring a waterproof - the weather is very unpredictable at this time of year!

   

• POBBLE are in the Building

  Mon 25 Sep 2017 M. Purdy

  This week's theme is Determination

   

  There's great excitement among the children in Key Stage 2. Mrs Robinson, from Pobble, has introduced the idea of Time Travel as a basis for a whole day's writing. Using a magical time piece, a scroll and treasure box,  the children are able to choose a period of history so that they can travel back to write a thrilling adventure. Five of these pieces of writing will be published online too.

   

  Ivan Jones has selected the winners of the Ivan Jones Amazing Poem Award-all will be revealed on Thursday. He sent the school his congratulations in taking writing and poetry to our hearts and said that it was a great honour to be allowed to read and hear the voices expressed in the poems. Thank you to all families who supported children in their poetry writing-it was a blockbuster year in terms of the numbers and quality of entries.

   

   

   

   

• Respect Week

  Fri 15 Sep 2017 M. Purdy

  The school was awash with kind children last week. Everyone showed their caring side so the atmosphere in school was cosy and warm. This week we are focusing on "RESPECT"-for ourselves, each other, property, different faiths and backgrounds, nature and animals.

   

  ATTENDANCE

  One of the criteria to win the magical mystery tour, at the end of the Summer term, is to achieve an attendance target of 96%. This means that, over the year, a child has to have no more than 7 days absent from school for any reason. So, if a few days are taken off for a holiday then there are a few days off for illness, your child's attendance target set by the Department for Education has not been met. 

   

  However, we have many children who easily meet their target every year so we are looking forward to the challenge of  qualifying for a free golden ticket for this adventure.

   

  EVERYBODY EVERY NIGHT

  Thank you to all parents, grandparents and carers who are listening to children read every night. Our expectation is at least 6 signatures in the Reading Journal each week. Sometimes it's hard to get back into the routine but, by listening to children read whether they are in Year 1 or Year 6, makes an incredible difference as to how well they do in school. Each day I try to listen to my group of Year 1 read and it's such a joy to hear their excitement about such simple stories. We all love Floppy, of course.

   

  SCRAP BOOKS

  I have had a wonderful time judging the holiday scrapbook challenge with the help of the office staff. Thank you to everyone who took part----there are some amazing scrapbooks. I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed creating them. Congratulations to each of our winners-the two Sophies, Zoe, John, Ruby and Lola

   

  THE AMAZING IVAN JONES POEM AWARD

  We have many aspiring poets in our school so I don't envy Ivan and Mal when they receive our entries. We had a record number of entries this year so have selected a few from each class for judging. The short listed poems will be on their way to Little Wenlock, in Shropshire tomorrow so we'll wait with baited breath to discover who has won the coveted blue trophy.

• Spread a Little Kindness

  Mon 11 Sep 2017 M. Purdy

  This week our focus for rewards is KINDNESS. It was the School Council, who requested that the word "kind" should be part of our school's ethos and how right they are. So today's assembly will be all about the little things we can all do to show kindness to others through kind hearts and kind words.

   

  The Ivan Jones Amazing Poem Award-A Better World

  There's an excited buzz about our three poetry competitions. I've visited a few classes this morning and noticed that the class poem-off poem is featuring in lessons-I cannot wait to hear what classes have done to make the class recital  vibrant and interesting.

   

  Children who are entering the Ivan Jones Amazing Poem writing competition need to remember that all poems are to be brought into school on Friday morning when teachers will make the time to work on the presentation of this year's entries.

   

  There will be a new poetry recital champion this year. Sarah Crosley won the shield for three consecutive years but she moved into secondary education this Summer. Anyone can win! I cannot wait to see what you will do with the new class poems, especially Year 4 with their Carol Ann Duffy poem about Elvis. Finalists can use props, powerpoints, drama, music or costume to gain those extra valuable points. And, if your child wishes to enter but is finding the poem difficult to learn, why not learn part of the poem well?

   

  Scrapbook Challenge

  Well done to everyone who has created a scrapbook about their class Summer holiday reading book . There are some stunning efforts. We are waiting for the main prizes to arrive but, we're so impressed, that we think that every child's efforts should be acknowledged. 

   

  Robbie's Back

  There was no one happier than me to see our Bark and Read dog, Robbie, back in school. I need my Friday cuddle! Last week Robbie was very alert and clearly excited to be back in school again to listen to our wonderful readers. Thank you to Nicky, his handler, who quietly applied for a grant to extend her time in school. Nicky presented the school with £200 to use as we wish, which we are spending on books for prizes and our library. 

   

  School Priorities in 17-18

  Each Summer we analyse children's attainment and progress across the whole school to decide upon our priorities for development and training. Here is what we decided to improve:

  1. To further raise the profile of maths in school so that children in every year make good or better progress.
  2. To continue to improve English skills especially to support our most able children to answer the most difficult questions about a text and the least able writers to make good progress.
  3. To introduce a new scheme of work in Religious Education so that children are challenged through an initial question and find RE to be a fascinating subject.
  4. To further develop the school ethos using the 4 key words of kindness, respect, determination and aspiration so that overall the behaviour of children is outstanding and a structured system of rewards based on these words is fair to all.
  5. To further develop the systems already in place to accurately track the progress children make in subjects other than English and maths ( e.g art, history, design technology) so that planning is targeted at the children's level and they make even better progress.
  6. To improve the attendance of a small group of children so that the school achieves its target of 96%.

   

• Welcome Back To A New School Year

  Wed 06 Sep 2017 M. Purdy

  How lovely it was to see the children smiling as they arrived in school this morning and to hear the animated holiday stories related to me by the Year 2 children over lunch.  I'm sure they have many more stories to tell and, I know from my walk around the school, that there are some amazing scrapbooks to enjoy. Thank you for your support in encouraging the children to work on these. We look forward to all the exciting learning in the year ahead.

   

  SCHOOL VISION

  Throughout last year children helped us to rewrite the vision for our school:

   

  Our………

  School fosters a life of learning whilst

  Empowering leaders of the future to be

  Aspirational-reaching for the stars and beyond-yet kind to others so that

  British values are celebrated,

  Uniqueness is cherished,

  Respecting the beliefs, customs and talents of others creating a place where

  New ideas are welcomed and valued.

   

   

  Determination to do our best, embracing mistakes as a learning tool,

  Engaging children through an inspirational and creative curriculum,

  Nurturing a positive growth mindset to build confidence and trust

  Exploring opportunities and opening minds to the unknown.

   

  During the year ahead we are going to take 4 key words from this vision to foster our culture and ethos. Our 4 words are:

  Kindness

  Determination

  Respect

  Aspiration.

  This week and next week we are focusing on kindness so that it underpins everything we do and children will be rewarded for acts of kindness. 

   

  We are establishing slightly new systems of rewards in school too including an extra 10 minutes play for the class who wins attendance of the week. There will also be a new end of year award in the form of a magical mystery day trip for exceptional children. The criteria for winning this award will be:

   

  • 96% attendance
  • green on reports for behaviour and uniform each half term
  • 3 Everybody, Every Night certificates
  • green in effort for 6 half terms

   

  New Responsibilities

  As headteacher, I am fortunate to work with a brilliant and talented group of colleagues. With this in mind we have reallocated some existing responsibilities and created new. Here they are

   

  Name	RESPONSIBILITY AREA	RESPONSIBILITY AREA
  Mrs Wilson	Foundation Stage and Year 1 Manager	Behaviour at Key Stage 1 Science
  Mrs Taylor	School Council	Sex and Relationship Education (SRE)/Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PHSE) Education
  Mr Ashton	PE	Maths
  Mrs Cruddas	Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-Ordinator (SENDCO)
  Miss Bliss	ICT Co-ordinator	Deputy SENDCO
  Mrs Tough	Design Technology Co-ordinator	Teacher responsible for children in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding School Coucil
  Mrs Houston	Science Co-ordinator	Teacher responsible for children who are Gifted, Able and Talented
  Mr Smith	Maths Co-ordinator	Data-collecting, challenging and analysing test results
  Mr. Traves	PE teacher	WE project leader
  Mr. Howe	Deputy Headteacher Deputising for and supporting the headteacher in all aspects of school  management.	Behaviour at Key Stage 2 English throughout the school