{item_alt_tag}

9th January 2026

In school this week

Happy New Year to you all!

It has been so nice to welcome the children back and see all of their smiling faces plus some new faces. I would like to welcome all of our new families joining us this term. Having the snow on Tuesday really did add to the excitement of a new term!

We started this week looking at the school's vision and values. Each class created a Christian Cross from countries from around the world to display in their classrooms. The children have also started their half-term topics, where they have been busy beginning to learn their new stories and exploring the topic through the different National Curriculum subjects.

In Reception, children have started their topic about space. In Year 1, their topic is explorers, and in Year 2 they are learning all about buildings from around the world. You will see an overview of the children's learning this half-term on the Class Home Pages on the school website.

Our new displays for the spring term are going up this week and I will share these with you next week. The children and staff have worked hard to produce a creative representation of each of the school values.  They are so colourful and show examples of what each of the values means to the children.

Mrs Downing

At a glance

{item_alt_tag}

All week 

  • Year 2 – Apply for your Year 3 place by 15th January
  • Reception – Sign up to our Reception Curriculum evening
  • Whole school – Remember to sign up to watch your child's class worship

 

Weekly Awards

Sandygate Star

  • Ant - Daphne for her growing confidence to share ideas in class
  • Bee – Rex for having a brilliant attitude to learning.
  • Butterfly – Mara, Mimi and Millie for settling in so well in their first week at our school.
  • Ladybird – Isla for the lovely interaction during V&V days
  • Dragonfly – Toby and Dorothy for settling in so well in their first week at our school
  • Grasshopper – Zoe for trying really hard with her cursive handwriting

Value Award – Not giving up

  • Ant – Fraser for showing patience and perseverance with his work
  • Bee – Benjamin for persevering with Art work for the class value of thankfulness.
  • Butterfly – Dande for persevering in handwriting
  • Ladybird – Ishaaq for working hard on his writing independently
  • Dragonfly – Caitlyn for persevering with her writing
  • Grasshopper – Evie for persevering in Design and Technology
{item_alt_tag}

Habits of Mind – Create, Imagine & Innovate

  • Ant – Penelope
  • Bee – Violet
  • Butterfly – Elise
  • Ladybird – Ralph
  • Dragonfly – Zachary
  • Grasshopper – Beau

School calendar

Governors T&L Meeting
7:00pm – 8:30pm
12
January
Curriculum Evening Reception
7:00pm – 8:00pm
14
January
PFA Meeting
7:30pm – 9:00pm
21
January
Dragonfly Class Assembly
9:00am – 9:30am
22
January
Sandygate Sunday at All Saints Church
10:59am – 11:29am
25
January
Grasshopper Class Assembly
9:00am – 9:30am
29
January
Full Governing Body Meeting
7:00pm – 8:30pm
29
January

To see the full calendar click here

Latest News

09 Jan 2026
Vision & Values Days
Vision & Values Days - 6th & 7th January
Read more
09 Jan 2026
Happy New Year and welcome back to school Snow
Welcome back to school Snow!
Read more

General news & reminders

Baxter said, ' Our favourite book is Oi Puppies and I like the rhymes, ' while Oliver preferred the bit in the book where the cat and the frog didn't know what all the doggies were called. Aidan said, 'I like the cat. My brither likes the cat too.'

We hope you have enjoyed the book recommendations this half term.

Term Dates

The term dates for 2026–2027 have now been published on our school website and are available to download at the bottom of the page here.

Active Journey Week   

Date: w/c 24th November

Each term we hold an Active Journey week (formerly known as 'Walk to School Week'), the aim of which is to raise awareness for and encourage more sustainable journeys to school.

During active journey week, we encourage parents/carers and children to walk, cycle, scoot to school. If you live further away from school, you can park your car further away from school than usual so that part of the journey can be walked (Park & Stride).

Every day, we ask the children to log how they came to school and during this week we will be trying to increase the number of active journeys. In Celebration Worship on Friday, there will be a trophy awarded to the class with the most active journeys during the week. 

Safety Day

Stay Safe Clipart Stock Illustration „Handwriting Text Writing

  •  Date: Tuesday 25th November

As part of our Active Journey week (formerly known as 'Walk to School Week') which takes place during the week of 24th November, we will be holding our annual Safety Day.

As part of the Safety Day, the children will be taking part in a range of activities which principally focus on safety around transport and roads. During the day, the children will all have a Scootability session which will teach them how to ride and use their scooters safely. There is no need to send children's scooters into school. Each child will be provided with a scooter and the necessary safety equipment for their session.

Other sessions include:

  • First Aid (provided by Dr McGurran)
  • Road Safety (provided by teachers)

 

Christmas Parties

Date: Thursday 18th December

Children are welcome to come to school dressed in festive party clothes on this day, as we will be having class Christmas parties!

Christmas Jumper Day

Date: Friday 12th December 

What a fantastic Christmas Jumper Day we had today! You can read more in the News Story above. 

Our fundraising target is £150, and we were asking for donations of £1 for every child participating. If you have not donated yet, please do so below.

Donate here

Whole School News

 

Class-led Worship

We will be holding class-led worships over the next few months. Each class will be basing their worship on their class value, and we would like to invite parents/carers to join in with the worship. Each class worship will be from 9am-9.30am. We are limiting 2 tickets per family. To book your tickets, please click below.

Dragonfly Class: Forgiveness – Thursday 22nd January  Book Tickets

Grasshopper Class: Respect – Thursday 29th January  Book Tickets

Butterfly Class: Service – Thursday 5th February  Book Tickets

Ladybird Class: Perserverence – Thursday 12th February  Book Tickets

Bee Class: Thankfulness – Thursday 12th March  Book Tickets

Ant Class: Kindness – Thursday 19th March  Book Tickets

Sandygate Sunday

  • Date: Sunday 25th January

On Sunday 25th it will be one of our regular 'Sandygate' Sundays at All Saints Church. We will be taking part in their 10.59 service with some children reading prayers, and we will sing one of our worship songs. 

We would love to see as many red jumpers in the congregation as possible 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.

Please indicate here if you will attend the service. It is likely to finish at 12 noon.

Parking 

We have been contacted by Red Kite, the company that manages the sheltered housing outside school on Sandygate Road & Gwyneth Court. Some residents with mobility issues have not been able to access their homes easily after medical appointments at key school pick-up and drop-off times, and so we would ask that you do not block access or use the Gwyneth Court mini car park just outside the school gates. Red Kite are happy for their car park at the back of Gwyneth Court to be used by parents and carers for pick-up and drop off to ease congestion. We appreciate your consideration of our neighbours and cooperation in this matter.

Reception News

 

Reception Curriculum Evening – Wednesday 14th January

On Wednesday 14th January from 7pm-9pm, this session will be a follow-on from the one we held in the autumn term. It is open to all Reception parents who would like to find out more about how and what their children learn in Reception. We will be covering end-of-year expectations, the next phase of learning in phonics, as well as giving further hints on how to support children at home. We do need to know how many parents will be attending so that we can prepare resources. Please click here if you would like to attend this information session.

 

Please click here to volunteer

PFA news

Dates for your diary

 
  • LEGO workshop: Saturday 17th January @ 3pm
  • PFA Fundraising Meeting: Wednesday 21st January @ 7.30pm

  • Family Bingo!: February 7th @ 3.30pm

Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year and welcome back! We hope you all had a happy and restful break. A warm welcome to all the families joining the school this term. We hope you settle in well and have enjoyed your first week here! 

We have raised an incredible £10,000 since September towards our fundraising target of £30,000, and we are so grateful for every contribution given to help us get there. Thank you for your support.

We have some great things coming up this term, starting with our LEGO Master builders workshop on the 17th January, followed by our Family Bingo! Event on the 7th February, and we'd love to see you there! 

Lego Workshop

 

Date: Saturday 17th January @ 3pm

LAST CHANCE TO BOOK! (Ticket sales close 14/01/26)

Bookings are now open for siblings and friends Reception age, up until year 6 – book through ParentPay

Calling all Lego enthusiasts – an immersive Lego adventure awaits you!

Our Master builders LEGO event promises to be full of icebreakers and fun games, followed by a story-led workshop with built-in-brick challenges – let your child's imagination run wild! 

Coming to Sandygate on Saturday 17th January 2026,

Tickets are £15 and available on ParentPay.

Family Bingo!

 

Date: Saturday 7th February @ 3.30pm

Tickets and Pizzas are available to book on ParentPay from today!

Family ticket: £15

Individual ticket: £5

Stuck for exciting things to do on these murky winter weekends?? Make sure to join in the fun at the PFA's Family Bingo event! Prizes to win, and everyone can join in! All ages welcome, pizzas, bar and tuck available too!

Next PFA Fundraising Meeting

 

Date: Wednesday 21st January @ 7.30pm

Please join us for our next PFA meeting on Wednesday 21st January from 7.30pm to hear about upcoming fundraising initiatives, and contribute your ideas! 

Learn more about everything that goes into promoting the school community, and how we fundraise to create excitement and enrichment for the school and pupils! If you think you could also offer something that might help us grow, we'd love to hear from you.

If you are unable to join us there, you can join us online, (links will go out on WhatsApp groups prior to the meeting) or why not join the PFA WhatsApp group here? 

PFA Social Media plea

 

We would really like to reach the wider local community with our fundraising goals for the school, and we would really appreciate it if you would be able to follow our social media pages – we hope that this support will really help us to achieve this. It is also another handy place to see all our events and updates!

Our new Instagram page is linked here and our Facebook page is linked here

Other News

{item_alt_tag}
{item_alt_tag}

{item_alt_tag}