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Sandhill Soundbites I S SU E 8 S P I N G T ERM 2018 E DITION
Mr. Carr Headteacher
Upcoming Events Monday 14th May 2018 Formal GCSE Written Exams Begin
Tuesday 15th May 2018 Year 9 Take Your Child to Work Day
Monday 2nd June 2018 Year 6 Transition Week
Thursday 7th June 2018 Year 6 Welcome Evening
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We find ourselves moving rapidly towards the end of another successful year for the academy, one in which our progress and capacity for it to continue has recently been recognised by a team of inspectors from Ofsted who visited Sandhill View in March. Staff and students continue to make progress and as we now also approach the summer examination season, we confidently look forward to the further success that our students deserve on results day in August. As we move towards the end of the final term we look back in this issue of Soundbites at the wide range of activities which both students and staff have undertaken across the many areas of school life. I hope that you agree that the experiences which our students encounter and undertake are impressive and help to make them wellrounded young people, ready for life after school in modern Britain and in a career pathway best suited to them.
Moving forward, we also continue to engage with our feeder primary schools in advance of Year 6 students joining us in September. Planning is already well underway for the transition of our new students at the start of next academic year to join the academy and we look forward to having them here with us here on site next half-term during transition week. I look forward to providing you with further news and updates in the very near future.
Sandhill View Academy: Telephone: 0191 594 9992 Email: info@sandhillview.com wwww.sandhillview.com
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Sandhill Soundbites I SSU E 8 SPRING TERM 2018 E D IT I O N
Headteacher‘s Awards
Eggcellent Attenders Congratulations to Chloe Maw and Rebecca Ward who were the grand prize winners for our ‘Easter Eggstravaganza’ attendance competition. Both girls were drawn from a pool of over 400 students who managed to be in school everyday over the period. Chloe walked away with £100 worth of gift vouchers whilst Rebbecca bagged herself a brand new iPad mini! Well done to all of our students who gave us 100% last term, watch out for more exciting attendance prizes and competitions in the near future.
Congratulations to Leia Thurlbeck, Macey Redpath , Kaitlyn Stephenson, Anthony Kirtley-Wright, Hayley Barker, Chelsey Rigby, Katie Atkinson, Kelly Maw, Jessica-Jane Scott and Layla Anderson who all received recognition for their excellent attitude to learning last term with a Headteacher’s Award. These students represent the top ten praise point earners from across the school and get to take home a certificate awarded to them by Mr. Carr to document their hard work and positive approach to school. Well done!
University Challenge Over our Spring Term, Year 9 visited Sunderland University for an event hosted by NECOP, which is a collaboration of higher education establishments in the North East aimed at raising pupil aspirations. The day was a great success with pupils working on a range of interactive activities aimed at developing their understanding of finance and planning for the future, how the brain works and how to overcome barriers to success, all of which will help them achieve the best outcomes in the future. Pupils also had a tour of the state of the art facilities available at the university such as the live radio station, film studio and even a functioning law court. The day ended with a movie screening in the university cinema. All pupils were impeccably behaved and were a credit to the school.
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In this issue... • Latest News • Trips & Visits • Charity Initiatives • Teacher Talk • Latest from The Sixth Form • Sandhill Ski Report
Training in Silence In April we were visited by Sandhill View alumni, Jack Gray. Since leaving Sandhill Jack has worked with football coaches from the Sunderland Foundation of Light and is now training to be a coach himself with this establishment. BT, in conjunction with the Foundation of Light, are in the process of making a short film about Jack’s story, from being a deaf student at Sandhill, to working towards being a professional coach. As part of the film, they wanted to come into school to see where Jack had started his story.
Whilst in school Jack completed a coaching session with all of the Deaf students from the Academy. We were also joined by two S.A.F.C players; Goalkeeper Lee Camp and Winger Duncan Watmore. The film produced will be shown at half time during a home match next season. We wish Jack all the best of luck with his coaching career.
Going Digital at Disneyland Last month, Year 8 & 9 IT pupils attended the ‘Computing Live 2018!’ conference in Disneyland, Paris. We visited the Eiffel Tower and cruised along the River Seine in freezing temperatures, on route to the seminar. Our staff and students stayed at the Cheyenne Hotel which had been recently refurbished and displayed a cowboy theme. The conference, was the main focus of the visit and covered: Cyber Criminals, Animation, STEM and general IT development. Each pupil worked through an IT workbook, completing activities throughout the day using the rides and graphics within the Disneyland park itself. This coupled with attendance at the conference, allows them all to achieve an ICT Certificate as part of their studies.
Disneyland was also celebrating its 25th anniversary and its success was reflected through its amazing parades and fireworks, enjoyed by our students during their visit. Our pupils had a fantastic time on a very productive and enjoyable visit which was a huge success and hopefully to be repeated in 2019!
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Ready, Steady, Cook Returns! Staff and students swapped textbooks for cookery books recently, when they took part in their own version of ‘Ready Steady Cook’. Special guests from the Chartwells’ ‘Putting Fun back into Food’ programme, came 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 with the Red Team led by Mr Summers going up against the Green Team captained by Miss Greener. The competition was tough, with our guest judges Mrs Scott and Mrs Johnston doing the taste testing before our audience of Year 7 students voted for the best dish. The Red Team narrowly edged their way to victory and were crowned the tasty treat champions of ‘Ready Steady, Cook!’. Well done to everyone who took part.
Food in the Bank
Well done to our generous students who are helping our community by donating food the local food bank. Over this term we hope to collect even more as our students look to increase their charity work towards the end of the academic year.
Student Sleuths
Year 11 English students from Mrs Hill’s class recently tested their investigative powers as part of a ‘who did it?’ murder mystery. Pupils took the time to get out of class and roam the building gathering clues before returning to the classroom so that they could piece together their literary evidence in the hope of finding out which staff member was the culprit and improve their analytical skills.
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A Red Card for Racism At the end of February, Year 9 & 10 students participated in lessons presented by special guest volunteers from ‘Show Racism the Red Card’. Show Racism The Red Card is an antiracism educational charity that aims to combat racism through enabling role models, who are predominately but not exclusively footballers, to present an anti-racist message to young people and others. Our students took part in a debate about the roles of minorities within our community as well as participating in fun team-work activities with a football theme. Thank you to members of the charity who visited us to engage our students in this important issue.
The Great Escape at Christmas On our Winter Activities Day, thirteen of our Year 8 students visited Exit Newcastle with Mr Heley. For those of you not in the know, Exit is one of a growing number of ‘escape games,’ the aim of which is to ‘escape’ from a series of locked rooms by solving puzzles, finding keys and codes, and working as a team against the clock – you have only one hour to get out! Students arranged themselves into two teams, and each team took part in two of these games, managing to escape before being ‘locked in’ every time. Indeed, on one of the four attempts one of the teams managed to escape with over ten minutes to spare – very impressive. Mr Heley is planning another trip to Exit, so please pay him a visit if you are interested.
Heart in the Community
On Thursday 14th December, a group of Sandhill View students made a special visit to Ashleigh Grange Care Lodge to deliver Yule Logs made by Sandhill students during enrichment time. Sandhill View students spent time chatting with residents as well as playing draughts and dominoes. However, the intensity of the prize bingo has received a particular accolade - students paired with residents of Ashleigh Lodge played six nail biting games of bingo whilst the successful winners also enjoyed dancing with students. The residents of the home were very pleased with the students’ visit, with everyone having a great time.
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Acting Out on British Values In January we were joined by students and staff from Newcastle College to present our Year 9 students with a special workshop centred around the idea of ‘British Values’. The drama students gave a short show on the theme before splitting into groups to help pupils come up with their own short scenes on the subject, which were then presented to the other groups. Our students were exceptional in their enthusiasm for the workshop and engaged fantastically with themes such as Equality, Democracy, Tolerance and Individual Liberty all being addressed. Well done to everyone involved and thank you to students and staff from the College for taking the time to visit our pupils.
Sandhill‘s Got Talent At the end of our Autumn Term we opened our doors to the public to showcase our talented students as part of our Christmas Talent Show event. The night was a colourful affair with singing, dancing and acting of all sorts entertaining guests to the Academy. Well done to all of our talented students who volunteered to take part.
A Lesson in Life Saving Last week students from our HI and SEN departments were given a specially tailored lesson on CPR. Disaster can strike at any moment, so it is important that we equip our young learners with the skills and confidence to step forward and possibly save a life. Students were shown the full procedure for administering CPR before having the chance to practice it themselves on mock-up patients. They were even shown how to use the automatic defibrillator kits that are now found in various public places.
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2015 Year 7 & 8 Student Planner
A Look into Life Miss Wallace took a group of Year 9 & 10 students on a trip to the Centre for Life in Newcastle, to allow them to get a feel for what a real
life science lab is like. Our students learnt about the use of Stem Cells in modern biochemistry and participated in a biology experiment
that gave them a great idea of what it would be like to work in one of these labs. The pupils loved the trip, with their behaviour and attitude
remaining outstanding throughout the whole day, including comments from the public and the staff at the Centre for Life saying how mature and smart they were.
Finlay Reporting from Sunderland AFC Last month, Year 8 pupil, Finlay Anderson, was invited to be a
match reporter for the day by Sunderland AFC for their match against Brentford FC. He spent a fabulous day learning more
about Sports Journalism, a career which Finlay is passionate
about pursuing, as well as having the chance to interview SAFC staff & players, record reports and watch the game from the reporter’s box at the Stadium.
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Healthy & Creative As part of our SMSC day promoting a ‘healthy lifestyle’ the art team delivered session on the benefits of creativity on our mental health. We also studied why it is important for artists to use artwork as a method of promoting a message in order to get their voices heard on important issues.
Action Packed Art in Newcastle
A jam-packed adventure in Newcastle saw our Year 9 pupils embark on a photo challenge on Northumberland Street, a visit to Fenwick’s window and an explorative workshop at the Hatton Gallery in the city centre. Students learned how to creatively respond to Pop Art work from the 1960’s in a creative way.
A Primary Preview Since the start of the year we have been inviting groups of Year 5 & 6 pupils from our feeder primary schools in the local area into the Academy for a selection of fun 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. Pupils found themselves enjoying subjects including Biology, Photography, Performing Arts, Trampolining and expanded lessons in Numeracy
& Literacy. 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.
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Cast of Annie Set for a Show Sandhill Academy’s next school production of the hit musical ‘Annie’ is already in the works ready for the end of year show. The cast and crew are all very excited to bring this famous Broadway show to life and are looking forward to performing on stage in front of guests from our community. Watch this space for more information of how the production is progressing throughout the year!
Safety Works for Year 9 SafetyWorks! is the interactive ‘Safety Centre’ for the communities of Tyne and Wear and is managed by Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service. It provides an interactive and enjoyable experience enabling visitors to participate in realistic situations illustrating everyday risks and hazards as well as offering situations that encourage visitors to consider the consequences of their actions. Our Year 9s had a chance to visit the centre in January and participated in activities including railway line safety, the dangers of alcohol abuse delivered by St John’s Ambulance, an interative talk on the awareness of fire and rescue by Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service and a workshop on the dangers of drugs and legal highs from Northumbria Police Not only did these sessions provide an excellent learning experience for students and tackle issues that affect individuals, the area, and other people living in the neighborhood, but it was also an opportunity to review making safe and wise lifestyle choices. The success of this visit very much depended upon the behaviour of the students who behaved impeccably– Thank you and well done Year 9!
We take the time to have a chat with one of our new members of staff for this year, Mrs Parker. What do you do at Sandhill View? I’ve just begun at Sandhill View as Assistant Curriculum Leader of Humanities with Responsibility of Geography. I teach Geography, RE and History.
Who was your favourite teacher at school and why? Miss Button – she was my inspiration to become a Geography teacher. Very caring and enthusiastic.
What do you like to do in your spare time? I have two boys so most of my spare time is spent with them. We go to the cinema, swimming, play football, soft plays and to football matches.
Teacher Talk Who is your favourite musical artist or band? I have to say I’m a bit of an Ed Sheeran fan.
What’s the best thing about Sandhill View? I’ve just started here but already I can see how friendly and welcoming everyone has been.
What’s the one thing you could never be without? Food! Especially chocolate!
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Sandhill View Students Look to the Future at the Sixth Form Open Evening Thank you to everyone that joined us in January at Southmoor Academy Sixth Form for our final open evening of the academic year. The evening saw the best ever turnout for our Sixth Form which was a chance for students to think about their future. In total, 167 students attended with many from Sandhill’s Year 10 & 11. With universities and higher apprenticeship providers in attendance, guests had plenty of people to talk to. But even better than talking to the professionals, potential sixth formers had the chance to hear from our successful candidates for some of the best Russell Group universities in the country as well as enthusiastic students from current Year 12 and 13.
Balliol Bound for Beattie Congratulations to former Sixth Form student Michael Beattie who, after a challenging interview process, has received an unconditional offer to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the world renowned Balliol College at Oxford University. Interestingly this esteemed course has produced 11 Prime Ministers over the years. Good luck Michael!
Year 13 Try Something Different As part of their ‘Practical Sports’ unit, Year 13 students completing the Cambridge Technical Sports and Physical Activity Course are getting a range of sporting activities as part of their studies. Sixth Form students have been trying everything from Fencing, Rock Climbing and Badminton to name but a few of the more unusual sports not covered by the basic curriculum.
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Presentation Perfection Three groups of AS /A level Art and Photography students attended the Baltic and Side Gallery this term. The visits were arranged to coincide with the A level examination paper and help support student’s development of their own ideas. The student’s responses, attitude and reflections on the work was outstanding with some genuine heartfelt reactions displayed on their behalf.
Illustrative Advice Our Fine Artists visited Cleveland College of Art and Design in Hartlepool to take part in an illustration workshop. There was also a tour of the facilities and an overview of courses on offer plus an in-depth talk from a professional illustrator who lectures at the college. The workshop was based around drawing ‘zombie style’ illustrations as well as a chance to colourise their own drawing work using ‘Cyntiq interactive monitors’. It was an experience that really challenged students to try something new and learn techniques that they may not get from using traditional media.
In the News (Again) Sixth Form students once again found themselves in front of the camera as reporters from ITV Tyne Tees News visited Southmoor to get their opinion of the recent announcement that Sunderland University will be one of only five new medical schools to be established in the country. Students were questioned on the prospects of the new opportunities that will be available to study locally, including GP and psychiatric training and what they thought of the new school’s potential.
site at e Sixth Form web th t si vi n io at rm 91 594 9991 For more info r.co.uk or call 01 oo hm ut so at m www.thesixthfor
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Thank you for taking the time to read Sandhill Soundbites. We look forward to reporting on more of the exciting changes, achievements and events that are taking place every term here at Sandhill View. Sandhill View Academy: Telephone: 0191 594 9992 Email: info@sandhillview.com wwww.sandhillview.com
Sandhillview @SHVAcademy
Sandhill View teamed up with our extended family at Southmoor Academy to run another successful ski trip over the Easter break to Claviere, Italy. With help from the beast from the East, perfect conditions met the group of 38 students and 5 members of staff for an unforgettable week on the slopes. The group ranging from Years 7-11 enjoyed 5 hours of skiing or snowboarding per day at heights of up to 2400m. All students were extremely resilient, mature and a pleasure to have on the trip. Their impeccable behaviour was praised by other schools visiting the resort which is a credit to all students who attended. Another fantastic week had by all. Ski trip 2019 will be launched in assemblies this half term and letters of interest available from the PE department.