22^nd September 2023

What a rainy week it has been-  autumn has definitely shown it's face!  Thankfully, the forecast is good for the Back to School BBQ - so it will be lovely to see the school families enjoying the sunshine tomorrow!

Today was the second time the Reception children had their own Celebration Worship with me in the Hall - they sat beautifully and enjoyed learning the routines and the 'Sandygate clap'. Next week, they will be joining the other year groups for school worship for the first time. 

We held the first of our curriculum evenings on Monday-this week it was for Reception parents. The session was well attended, and it was great to be able to share the exciting things their children have ahead of them this term. Thank you to all who attended, but if you couldn't make it, the presentation is saved on the Bee and Ant class home pages. We have curriculum evenings planned for Year 1 and 2, these are in the school calendar (please see below for details of how to book).

We are looking forward to our Sandygate Sunday at All Saints Church on Sunday and the children were singing 'Plates Piled High' in Celebration Worship today. They were in fine voice! It is wonderful to hear the children singing together, and we are hoping to see lots of them at All Saints on Sunday so that they can share their singing with you all and, of course, there is the Community Fun Day afterwards.

Mrs Reynolds

Next week's 'Learning at a Glance'

Sandygate Sunday – Whole school

•  Sunday 24^th September

Once a term, we are invited to take part in the 10.59 service at All Saints Church. Some of our pupils will read prayers they have written, and we lead the congregation in one of the songs we sing in school.

All Sandygate families are welcome to come along to the service. We ask that children wear their red sweatshirts/cardigans/PE tshirt to identify them as Sandygate pupils. They should sit with their family during the service and the school staff in church will invite them up at the appropriate times. 

All Saints Church also invites you all to stay on after the service for their Community Harvest Celebration – more details are shown below. 

Facebook & Instagram

We are very excited to share that we now have school Facebook and Instagram pages. We will be using these to share some of the wonderful things we do at school, so please follow us!

On Facebook we are Marlow C of E Infant School and on Instagram we are marlowinfants

Curriculum Evenings – KS1

• Year 1: Wednesday 27^th September

• Year 2: Wednesday 4^th October

At each session we will be outlining the Curriculum and explaining how the children will be learning this year and giving you some ideas on ways to support your child's learning at home. These meetings will be in the school hall at 7pm-8.30pm.

In order that we can set up resources we do need to know how many people will be coming, so can we ask that you register for this meeting here.

Pupil logins – Whole school

School website

Please let the office know if you haven't logged in yet, as we will need to resend you the link as it expires after a week. The login will also be needed for booking Parent Consultations later in the year.

Google Classroom

Home Learning is now live, please do log in, as the teachers will be loading new work each week. Some home learning that is posted on Google Classrooms isn't compulsory, but it's there if you would like to support your child/ren at home.

There are also some Home Learning tasks which are compulsory that are set by Mrs Reynolds during the first half-term of the school year for all the children in the school. The content and tasks are the same for all children, but parents/carers can share and adapt the content to the age of the children.

Please make sure that you use your Google Classroom login as there may be occasions when we hold remote information sessions or Google Meets and you will need to have activated your login to attend these.

Autumn term club sign-ups – KS1

Thank you to those who have signed up for our school-run clubs. You should now have received an email letting you know if your child has been given a place or if they are on a waiting list. Please contact the office if you haven't heard.

All the clubs are now full apart from Maypole, we are looking for 1 more Year 2. Please contact the office if your child is interested. We will open the places up to Year 1's if we are unable to fill the space.

Open Evening at Holy Trinity – Year 2

An open evening is being held for new prospective parents on Tuesday 10^th October from 6pm until 8pm. Please contact Holy Trinity for more details.

Harvest Festival – Whole school

• Thursday 5^th October

We still have a few tickets left for both sessions.

We would like to ask all parents who would like to attend this service to book a session through EventBrite here.

One Can Trust

We will be collecting items for the One Can Trust during the week of 2^nd October for our Harvest offering. There will be boxes out at drop-off and pick-up all week. Please see below their priority list of items. If every child could bring in one tin or packet then we would have 165 items to donate to One Can Trust, which would make a big impact. We will send out another reminder closer to the time.

English as an Additional Language & Free School Meals

If your child was exposed to a language other than English from birth or if you believe that you may be entitled to Free School Meals then please contact the school office in confidence to let us know. 

If you regularly speak a language other than English at home, or your child earned another language before English then please just drop us an email to let us know. 

Free School Meals & Pupil Premium

All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive free school meals under the  Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme. However, if your family is in receipt of certain benefits, then your child may be eligible for Free School Meals and this eligibility will stay with them whilst you are in receipt of those benefits and for 6 years after the eligibility ends. This means that when your child moves to Year 3 they will continue to receive Free School Meals even though they are no longer entitled to the Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme.

Additionally, as a school, we will receive additional funding to support your child if they are eligible for Free School Meals - this is called the Pupil Premium. It is therefore important that you register under the eligibility scheme.

The application is very simple, just contact the school office, and we will send you an application form which we then send off to be checked to see if you are eligible. You may be eligible if you are in receipt of Income Support, Job Seeker's Allowance, Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit or other qualifying benefits.

Coats & other outdoor clothing – Whole school

At this time of the year, the weather can be very unpredictable and can change over the course of the day.

Please ensure that your child has a coat in school every day. We try to get the children outside during playtime and lunchtime as much as we can and, with the current changeable weather, a waterproof coat is essential. 

Please remember to check that all coats are clearly named.

Back to school BBQ

We cannot wait to welcome all Sandygate families to our Back to School BBQ tomorrow. Don’t forget your picnic blanket and some cash.

We will be selling Burgers (£5), Hot Dogs and Veggie Dogs (£4) from the grill with Beer (£4.50), Wine & Fizz (£4) and Soft Drinks (£1) plus lots of treats at the tuck shop. Cash and card cards are both welcome.

We’re very excited about having bouncy castles this year for £2 a go, and we have a jar of sweets and a half case of wine to be won if you can guess the correct number.

Brickies Spooktacular

Count Brickular is having a party with all his monster friends and all our monsters, I mean master builders are invited! We will be holding a Brickies session on Sunday 5^th November at 2pm. Spaces are limited and tickets, priced at £12.50 per child, will go onto ParentPay early next week. Please note, due to the limited number of spaces available, we are not able to accommodate non-Sandygate children.

Sandygate Light Trail

The PFA are planning an exciting new event for families to celebrate festivals of light on Sunday 12^th November. Children will have the opportunity to get creative and have lots of fun. More details will follow soon, so watch this space!

Coming up…

• Back to school BBQ: Saturday 23^rd September 11:30am – 3:30pm
• Second hand uniform: 2^nd October, 1^st November & 1^st December
• Bag2School: Wednesday 11^th October by 9am
• End of term donuts: Friday 20^th October
• Brickies: Sunday 5^th November 2pm – 3:30pm
• Light Trail: Sunday 12^th November  
• Christmas disco & Santa visit: Saturday 25^th November

In need of a maintenance person

We are looking for a maintenance person to do a few jobs around the school, i.e. fence and shed repair. If you know of anyone who could help, please contact the office.