26th November 2021

This week has been  particularly exciting with our visit from the reindeer on Wednesday! The children (and adults) were thrilled to meet the reindeer and there were so many facts being quoted throughout the day. Thanks to Mrs Thirlway for organising the visit to support learning in science. 

Our Year 2 Playground Leaders started their training on Monday and they have been enjoying helping with games on the smaller playground. Next week they will be using the Playground activity boxes - a different one for each day.  Our aim is to provide all the children with different options and activities during lunchtime play and by the end of term we are hoping to have different areas (including the Reflection Area and a Reading Area) available for children to choose from. The playground Leaders supported by Mrs Simons will be helping to make sure everything runs smoothly!

Mrs Reynolds

School Council

The School council would like everyone to think about being kind through advent and today they are sending home an advent calendar with a difference. Instead of getting a chocolate or a picture each day they would like you to do a kind act . Each day that you do complete a kind act you can colour in the snowflake.  You can do a kind act for yourself - get plenty of sleep, eat healthy things; or for someone else - do something helpful or share a note saying something kind. 

A Snowman and The Snowdog Kindness Calendar workbook has been uploaded for you on Tapestry or Google Classroom with ideas and activities to help you. 

If you complete 10 days then you can bring your calendar in to show your teacher and you will get a certificate.

Next Week's 'Learning at a Glance'

Year 1 visit to All Saints Church

Tuesday 30th November

Next Tuesday Year 1 will be visiting All Saints Church on Tuesday as part of their RE lessons. Please ensure your child has suitable footwear and coat with them as they will be walking down. 

Advent Service at All Saints Church

Wednesday 1st December 2pm

We will be celebrating the beginning of this important religious season with an Advent Service at All Saints Church.

The Year 2 Worship Leaders will be leading us in a service of prayers and songs to mark the start of Advent. The service which will begin at 2pm and last around 30 minutes.

We do have to adhere to the Church Risk Assessment, including a limit on the number of people in the church which means that unless you have already registered to attend then sadly you will not be able to come.

The children will be walking down to the church at around 1.30pm and then returning to school for pick-up at 3.15 pm as normal.

Year 1 should wear uniform and not PE kit on Wednesday this week

Mufti Day Thursday 2nd December

We invite children to wear their own clothes to school on Thursday in return for a donation towards our Christmas activities:

Reception - mince-pies/cakes

Year 1 - wrapping paper

Year 2 - toiletries/chocolates for raffle prizes

Year 1 Trip to Windsor Castle Friday 3rd December

On Friday 3rd December Year 1 will be visiting Windsor Castle. They will leave school after registration at around 9.15 and will return in time for the normal pick-up time of 3.15pm. Your child will need a packed lunch on this day unless you have ordered one from Dolce at the time you gave consent on Parentpay. If you are not sure if you ordered a lunch you should be able to see this on Parentpay or you can check with the school office. 

For the trip all children will need a small rucksack to carry their lunch and their water bottle as they will need to carry these all day. They will need to wear school uniform but can wear trainers if they would like. 

Adverse Weather Arrangements

As the weather continues to get colder we thought we would take the opportunity to remind everyone of what happens should we experience severe weather.

At Sandygate we will make every effort to get sufficient staff in to enable the school to open as normal. There are 3 options which we look at :

1. opening the school for all children as normal
2. opening the school slightly later eg 10.00am
3. opening the school for some classes only

In the event that it is not possible to open the school as normal then details of the closure or partial closure will be communicated in a number of ways:

1. The Buckinghamshire Council website shows the status for all schools at  https://closures.buckscc.gov.uk/Search.aspx  This will show if we are in the process of trying to open the school or if we have made the decision to close.
2. Our school website marlow-infant.bucks.sch.uk will show a banner headline on the front page if we have made the decision to close.
3. By text to all parents via our school communication suite
4. We will also inform the local radio station, Marlow FM 

We will make every effort to communicate this information as early as possible each day. In the situation where we are trying to get sufficient staff in to school a message indicating that we are trying to open the school will be posted but we will then need to wait for staff to actually arrive before we can confirm that we will definitely be open. 
Whilst we will liaise with Holy Trinity and Little Marlow it is not always possible for us to have the same outcome as staff travel from different areas and each school will need to ensure they have sufficient staff for it to be safe for them to open.

The PFA will be sending home a special Newsletter next week with all their Christmas activities. It will also have raffle tickets attached for you to sell. 

Please look out for this in bookbags on Monday.