1 2 t h S e p t 2 0 1 7 S p e c i a l p o i n t s o f i n t e r e s t : From Mrs McCamley Update from the Maths Dept Homework Timetable Scholastic Overdue Library books Happy Reading Library Fingerprinting Terms Dates Wrap Around Care Autumn Dinner Menu Extra Curricular Activities Permission Slip Epraise Payments to the Academy Messages for Pupils Academy Car Park Lost Property Sandye Place Sandye Place Academy: Park Road, Sandy, Beds, SG19 1JD Telephone: 01767 680420 Fax: 01767 691141 Email: admin@spacademy.org.uk Web: www.sandyeplaceacademy.org.uk Academy Newsletter Welcome to a new academic year It is with pride I inform you of the impeccable behaviour of the pupils last week. They were very excited to be back with their friends and in their new classes. All year groups have been a pleasure to teach. The students look very smart in their new uniform and I know some of you are still waiting for items to arrive. Thank you for sending your child to school in the correct uniform and supporting us in ensuring the uniform is a Sandye Place uniform and not one suggested by some retailers. I have seen many smiles on the faces of students and staff this week and seen our values in action. All classes are visited by senior leaders to check on pupil learning and behaviour throughout the week. Pupils are keen to share their work with others and are working hard to follow our new presentation rules. There is a strong focus on writing this year to accelerate progress in this area and ensure your child sees this as an important tool across the curriculum. We will closely monitor opportunities for writing throughout the year to prepare your child for the demands of this more challenging curriculum. We will need your help at home by checking your child is producing all written work to the best of their ability. With the overuse of technology in a young person s life in this world of tablets and phones many children are reluctant to write by hand or find the process quite tiring. We aim to build their confidence in the written word by promoting a curriculum which will help them develop stamina and enthusiasm for this craft. We will be hosting parent workshops throughout this year to inform and involve you in your child s progress. Please check the diary dates at the end of each weekly newsletter for upcoming events so you can plan your diary with plenty of notice. Results of Parent Survey The top three concerns expressed by the 101 respondents were lack of homework, not enough information on my child s progress and communication. In response to your feedback we are making some adjustments to improve the elements you flagged up to us. The weekly newsletter will be published every Wednesday with plenty of notice of events to give you time to prepare for these. Email addresses and points of contact are in your child s planner and all staff must respond to any communication within a 36 hour window. Our homework policy has been reviewed and amended, and a copy is now on our website. All children will be set homework which starts this week, this is written in their planners and on e-praise. All pupils have log in details for this web based tool. If you cannot access this please get in touch with the office who will be happy to help. If your child is not coming home with homework or it is not being marked please communicate with us straight away. The senior leaders will monitor this closely. The move from lower school to middle often means a child does not have the opportunity to share their work with their parents and this is something you have missed. In future all parents evenings will include time for you to celebrate the progress your child has made, all books will be made available by all teachers. Your feedback is very important to us and we will listen to you so we can work together to give your child the best education possible. Mrs K McCamley Principal
Update from the Maths Department This year KS3 have a brand new scheme of work, following the national curriculum, with new textbooks and an online portal. As the term goes on, ask your child about it and see what they think. Year 6 have handed in their summer learning booklets and the winners will be announced in next week s newsletter; thank you to all parents/carers who helped their child with this in the holidays. Our new year 5s are currently being taught in their form classes, but will be put into ability set classes from the start of next week (fingers crossed). Homework has now begun for years 6, 7 and 8 and will be available on e-praise, please check the homework timetable to see the day that your child receives it. Year 5 are only being asked to practise their times tables until October half term, to give them a settling period, however, if homework is requested then optional homework can be set. Look out for the Scholastic Book Fair flyer coming home with your child this week. All books ordered generate commission that we can use to buy new books for our library and don t forget that books ordered through the Book Club have free P+P. Thank you to those children and parents who have returned overdue library books from last school year. If your child has not yet returned their overdue books please could they be returned ASAP. Mrs Mills Librarian
P a g e 3 Dear Book Reader, As some of you may know, from Mrs Packeer s favourite teacher book hunt last term, my favourite book is Stig of the Dump by Clive King. I have bought a copy for the library, for you all to enjoy, as we didn t have one in the library before. The book quiz no: is 201289 It s ZPD is 5.5 It is worth 6 points. Let me know what you think of the story I love it! If you want to watch the BBC series, you can on youtube. Happy reading! Miss Rook. Library Fingerprinting We would like to confirm that the library program for checking out books uses a scanned thumbprint as a means of identifying your child when they borrow or return items to the library. You should be aware that the thumbprints are NOT stored by the system, instead the system calculates a huge number from the image and the NUMBER is stored against with your child s name. Restoration of the original print CANNOT be made from the number. At any time the number can be completely erased from our system. The DCSF and Data Protection Commissioner have fully endorsed the system as it does not infringe the privacy of the individual. Your permission is sought when your child starts at the academy on your child s new starter form. If you have any concerns regarding the use of your child s fingerprint please do not hesitate to contact the Academy.
Term dates for your diary Wednesdays 3.45pm to 4.30pm Year 5 Parent Drop-in Sat 14th Oct 2017 - Academy Open Day for prospective pupils 20th Oct 2017 - Last day of term 30th Oct 2017 - Pupils return to school Wrap Around Care Our Breakfast Club will run Monday to Friday mornings, 7.30-8.50am. Pupils will be supervised and will be given a nutritious breakfast. We also have an After School Club. Pupils will have access to a computer suite, where they can complete homework. Other activities will also be available. Pupils will be provided with a light dinner (later session only). We have two sessions available: 3.45-4.45pm or 3.45-6.30pm This is available for Sandye Place Academy pupils only. Pupils will need to be signed in/collected at/from the dedicated room in the Dapifer block. Prices start from 4.30. Places can be booked at events.sandyeplaceacademy.org.uk
For all year 5 and 6 pupils attending a before or after school club a permission slip is required. Year 7 and 8 pupils are not required to have permission to attend after school clubs unless it is for an invitation only or an auditioned club.
epraise for Parents By now, many of you will be familiar with epraise, the reward system we use for pupils to collect and spend praise points. For those of you who are not, you will find a brief introduction through our website at: www.sandyeplaceacademy.org.uk/our-school/house-and-reward-system.html We have also launched epraise for parents/carers to be able to view your child s praise points, attendance, homework and other notes from teachers. You will have your own login which also allows you access to view your child(ren) s demerits (behaviour incidents). Please follow the steps below to get access to your child s epraise activity: 1. Go to www.epraise.co.uk. 2. Choose school: Sandye Place Academy. 3. Select Parents tab. 4. Enter your email address. This should be the address that you registered with the Academy. 5. Leave the Password field blank. 6. Click on Login/Register. You should receive an email from epraise requiring you to verify the link and set up your account. If you haven t received an email, please check your junk folder or filter settings. If you still haven t received it, then please contact the Academy at parents@spacademy.org.uk and we will follow it up with epraise for you. Once you have set up your account, you can login to view your child s epraise activity. Please note, that for parents who share an email address, only one of you will be given access. Does the Academy have your email address? If you get a message Email not recognised", it means that the Academy does not hold that email address on our system. Therefore, you need to provide this email address.
Payments to the Academy We would like to stop cash and cheque payments for school trips and other payments that you make to the Academy. From January 2017 we are asked that all payments made to the Academy are paid via our online system. This ensures that your payments arrive safely and securely to school with a clear audit trail if any queries need addressing. We are conscious that children are in possession of cash to pay for their trips and we want to avoid this as much as possible. Paying online is a quick and simple process and you can follow the link via our website to pay for items. We have had this system in place now for a number of years with an increasing number of you paying online and feedback has been positive. We will still accept payment for school dinners via cash but do encourage bulk payments to be made online. If for any reason you cannot pay for the school trips online, please contact the office to arrange an alternative method. Many thanks for all your support. Messages for pupils We do understand that there are times when you will need to get a message to your child because arrangements need to change, for example if they need to travel home on the bus or meet a different person after school. We will always do our best to help get messages to pupils. However, we are being increasingly asked to pass the same messages to the same pupils which appear to be a matter of convenience for parents rather than an exceptional change of circumstances. Please help your child to mentally plan their day and advise them in the morning, before they come to school, of the plans for after school and only ask us to pass messages in truly exceptional circumstances. Thank you for your continued support. Academy Car Park Our car park is for staff parking only and not for dropping pupils off in the morning or picking them up at the end of the school day. There are now extensive areas marked with yellow hatching and it is essential this is left clear for buses and delivery lorries to manoeuvre. Thank you to all the parents and carers who adhere to this as it has made the Academy a safer environment at the start and end of the school day for all pupils, visitors and staff. Lost Property We all lose things from time to time, but they will usually come back to us if our name is on the item. We receive a lot of lost property at the office. In order to keep on top of it, we check it daily and return all named items to pupils. However, we also receive lost property that is un-named. This is somewhat trickier to return. We usually have to wait until a pupil asks for a particular item (e.g. a bag) and then ask them to describe the contents before returning it. So, we would like to politely ask if all parents/carers could please take a few minutes this weekend to label all their child s belongings.