Miss Jardine enjoying working with a group from her class with their guided reading. This is a very important part of the day for each of the classes in school where time is spent reading, talking about the text and engaging in follow-up activities.

We are in our third week back and we have done so much already. The children have settled quickly into their new classes and are enjoying the new learning experiences. All the classes are now working from the New National Curriculum.

We have moved away from older assessment techniques involving ‘levels’ that you may be familiar with. We are working as a staff, with other schools and the Local Authority to develop ways in which we assess the children meaningfully at stages through the year. I am pleased that all the work we have done last year establishing ‘Learning Objectives’ and ‘Success Criteria’ that lead to very focussed marking and feedback has already had a very positive impact on the children’s progress and attainment. It is wonderful to talk to children about their work and them

having a very clear idea of what they are working on and what they need to do to improve their work to progress further. As we continue to refine our policies and the way we report assessments, I will give you more details.

Thank you again to the teachers for the offering of clubs again this year. Some of these have started and others will start as the year progresses. Apologies for any confusion over cooking club yesterday. We have a large list of interested children and we will formulate these into smaller groups to start the club as soon as possible. This club needs a little more organising and we were unsure of how many wanted to be in this club until this week.

Tuesday 22nd Sept

PTA AGMPlease join us at school from 8.00pm for a short meeting to reflect on last year, form our committee for this year and plan this year’s events. All are welcome!

Wednesday 23rd Sept

Y1 and Y2 Visit to Manchester AirportWe are really looking forward to this exciting visit!

Friday 25th Sept

MacMillan Coffee MorningPlease come to school to support this very worthwhile charity. We will be serving refreshments from 9.00am until 11.00am.

We are always grateful for ay donations of cakes (homemade or bought) and help. More details over leaf.

Saturday 26th SeptPTA CeilidhTickets are now on sale for this exciting event - more details from the school office and over leaf…

Friday 2nd OctoberWorld Smile Day :) I am pleased to say that our children are normally smiley - on this day we need to be even more so! “Do an act of kindness. Help one person SMILE!”

What a great start to the year...

Looking ahead

SANDIWAY PRIMARY SCHOOL

Number 2 Autumn Term 2015 Wednesday 16th September 2015www.sandiway.cheshire.sch.uk admin@sandiway.cheshire.sch.uk 01606 883298

W E E K L Y N E W S L E T T E R

We are very fortunate to have a very willing and loyal group of parents who form the core of our PTA. This is something that many schools do not have - I am very grateful for their continued enthusiasm and dedication. Please help support their work by joining in with some of the activities that have been planned for the year. The first event is one that the school has not had for a few years...

On Saturday 26th September the PTA is hosting an adults only Ceilidh. Come and join us for a fun and informal evening. Local band Wagon Wheel, who also played at Sandfest, will be playing and guiding us through the dances. The menu will be delicious homemade chilli, nachos, baked potatoes and garlic bread, all washed down with beer, wine and soft drinks from the bar.

Tickets are just £10 per person or just £5 for men in kilts! They are available every morning from the school library or send money in with your child. Last day for tickets is Tuesday 22nd September.

If you can help with the organisation, make a pudding or have any questions,  please contact Mette on 07901682598. We look forward to seeing you there.

We are, once again, very excited to be hosting our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 25th September in our school hall 9.00 – 11:00 am. We are delighted to have hosted 2 hugely successful years; raising £930 in 2013 and in 2014 we raised a phenomenal £940 which was kindly match funded by Barclays Bank giving a total amount of just short of £2,000! This would not have been possible without your continued generosity of money, cakes, time and presence...so thank you! Wouldn’t it be absolutely wonderful if we could raise these amounts again this year? So please feel free to invite your mums, dads, grandmas, and granddads… even your next door neighbours, to share a delicious cake and cup of tea or coffee with us. Furthermore, children will even be serving the cakes and Years 5 & 6 will be singing for you - what could possibly be better?

Your money goes towards helping Macmillan nurses support patients and their families who have been diagnosed with cancer. Over 98% of Macmillan’s income comes from voluntary donations and fundraising so at Sandiway we feel extremely honoured to help support this worthy charity which has touched the lives of so many people that we care about.

Any donations of cakes or offers of help on the day will, as always, be hugely appreciated. This year, we are even holding a best decorated cake competition, with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place… so for all you budding Mary Berry’s out there, what better excuse do you need to show off your wonderful culinary skills?! Please could you send any cakes into the school office (preferably on Thursday 24th September) in a named container, if you would like it returning, thank you.

Sandiway Primary School PTA

Macmillan Coffee Morning

CEILIDH WHEN Saturday 26th September 8pm WHERE Sandiway Primary School FEATURING

Wagon Wheel

ADULTS ONLY

ADVANCE TICKETS £10 per person £5 for men in kilts Tickets available every morning Tuesday 15th -Tuesday 22nd Sept. Alternatively send money in a sealed envelope with your child.

FOOD Delicious chilli Can you bring a pudding? Let us know.

DRINKS Plenty of beer, wine and soft drinks

CONTACT Mette: 07901682598 Lisa : 07525178212

Syrian Refugee supportThank you for all your support with the cloths, food, shoes, blankets, etc that you kindly sent in this week. I am pleased to say that this has all been safely delivered to the distribution depot and will be put to good use. Thank you.

Long Live the QueenWe had a wonderful day last week thinking about our Queen and the amazing achievement of her long reign. As promised, we marked the occasion with reverence - each of the classes found out a little more about the Queen and her life. Thanks for sending children in looking patriotic! A number of children were challenged to sing the National Anthem, which they did with great gusto!

Thank youFundraisingThis year we are going to run Tubs4Tablets. This is a school collector scheme from Flora in partnership with Tesco. We need to collect tokens which are inside Flora Original, Buttery and Light 500g promotional tubs at Tesco stores. We need to collect 50 tokens for one brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet, so please encourage everyone you know to start collecting. This is a great opportunity to buy some of these products and support our Macmillan Bake off in school on the 25th September. We have to send our tokens and claim form by the 18th December...let’s get collecting! More information can be found here: www.flora.com/get-involved/tubs4tabs

much encouraging the children to ‘try new things’. This is especially important as the new menus have some exciting meals that we haven’t seen before. Today, the children will have enjoyed Cornish Pasties and a roast dinner with gammon, roast and mashed potatoes, curly kale and carrots.

All out Reception and KS1 children are entitled to a free school lunch and I am pleased to see most having one. We would like the children to continue to have dinners into KS2 where possible.

On the 1st October, we are going to have our special themed lunch - this is a great way to

encourage children to try a lunch if they haven’t for a while. We are going to link this with ‘World Smile Day’ (which is the day after) and have a very smiley lunch. I will ask Mrs Evans to give me details of this special menu next week.

We are working very hard on our lunchtime manners at the moment and I am working with all the staff in the school to ensure that the ‘lunchtime experience’ is a positive one. Please speak to Mrs Evans or myself if you have any questions, concerns or queries.

Other news...

School LunchesI would like to remind you about the meal service that we have in school. Our school lunches are provided by Cheshire West and Chester Catering Services. Mrs Evans is our school cook and she is well supported by a hard working team. Each day, the children have a choice of two main meals - we ask the children for their choice in the morning to give Mrs Evans a rough idea of the numbers, although she always produces more than enough for the children to enjoy. We are very

There was a disturbance in the Year 6 classroom today - an unfortunate incident with a crocodile that led to the spillage of much blood. I am pleased to say that Year 6 are very much on the case and are

documenting the events carefully. Please

speak to any Year 6 child for more information.