Dear Families,
What a miserable week weather wise! Here is hoping that next week will see some sunshine!

We have a good many bits of good news to share with you. We are thrilled to welcome a new family to Warthill and I know that our children were thoughtful enough to make the new girls’ welcome cards before their arrival. Such kindness is everything we hope our school communities stand for. I also wanted to share with you a wonderful ‘birthday gift’ that also arrived this week at Warthill. Instead of sweets, Jack donated a book that he had really enjoyed to the class library, to mark his birthday. The children were more than excited about this and then they realised that there was also a book token so they could choose another, brand new book too. Thank you, Jack, (and Mummy and Daddy of course) what a great thing to do!

In other news, we received a fabulous donation from FERA this week. Beautiful notebooks with penholders. Miss Heffernan has shared these with her class and the Warthill Junior Class as writing journals, inviting children to decorate these with stickers and bring a pen of their choice to go with them. There is much excitement!

Talking of excitement, the sharp intake of breath that we heard upon delivering the next piece of news to our children made us all smile! Miss Heffernan noticed a production of The Boy at the Back of the Class, (post SATS, 20th May), showing in Bradford Alhambra Theatre. We have managed to book tickets for Class 3 and the Junior Class at Warthill, for the 2pm performance; best seats too! In order to make the most of the day, I have also managed to secure morning tickets to the Science and Media Museum, which is a short walk away. We will need to return to school after the end of the school day but it will be an incredible day. More specific details will follow, however the theatre tickets are £11 and the museum is free! It doesn’t get much better than that!

For our sporting children, there is the Dodgeball competition. There will be federation teams of Years 3/4 and 5/6 involved in this event. It will be during the school day and so we will be able to take all children who have shown an interest. We would be really grateful for offers of transport, and/or collection. Sadly, because the event is to take place inside a school, parents  aren’t permitted to stay. Please let me know if you might be able to offer transport. The Year 5/6 event is on Thursday 12th February.

I thought this would be a really brief letter today and suddenly there was much to share! Please see attached to the newsletters some LA run Saturday events for our musical children. There are 4 dates for instrumentalists and 4 for singers. Looks great!

Have a great weekend and I hope you dodge the snow!

With every best wish,

Beverley Pawson

Headteacher

Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools

Dear Families,
Happy New Year to you all and I hope you have had a restful and healthy Christmas break with
family fun time.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you personally and on behalf of staff for all the cards,
gifts and Christmas wishes we received in the lead up to the school holidays. It really is appreciated
and we are still enjoying biscuit piles in both staff rooms. Thank you so much for your generosity! I
would also like to thank anyone who supported or helped organise the many Christmas fund raising
activities in our schools, it really does make a difference. We are truly blessed.
On the subject of gifts, I know that some children received mobile phones and smart watches ‘from
Santa’. While I certainly wouldn’t want to be a killjoy, this technology is something very difficult to
manage in a school setting. Watches which can be used to record in any capacity are of the greatest
concern as there are many ways these could be used inappropriately. For the protection of all
children and staff, I am including the latest version of our policy and thank you in advance for your
understanding. Please do not allow your child to wear a watch capable of recording or receiving
messages or calls.
I am also including a parent questionnaire so that you can share your thoughts about your
experiences in school and I would be very grateful for as many as possible to be returned. The
reasons behind this are explained in the accompanying letter.
In more exciting news, during the holiday I received a greeting from Nathan from LAB charity in
Madagascar. He was informing me of a visit to the UK in the Spring. He was hoping to visit our
schools and meet the children during his brief visit. Unfortunately, this would be appear to be during
the Easter break and I initially suggested that he and I might make a video for the children, however,
once I have a date from Nathan, I would like to open up school for him to visit and meet our
children/families and he can bring photographs etc with him to share. I thought we might also
incorporate a collection for the charity into the event. More news regarding this to follow although
we have quietly pencilled in April 10th
.
Miss Heffernan and the reading ambassadors are always looking at the take up of books on our
library trolley and asking about the reading habits of children at Warthill. She has identified a slightly
reduced interest from our younger children and thought this could be encouraged with teddies to
read to. The teddies have been purchased and added to the trolley; however, should there be
knitters or sewers out there who might like to fashion some uniform items for them, we would be
very excited. Please let us know and we can provide you with the bears’ vital statistics!
I realise there that are a number of additional ‘letters today as we open up for the Spring Term and
so I won’t bombard you with much else, however, you may remember a ROCKSTEADY assembly just
before we broke up, look out for further information about this next week.

Have a great weekend,
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools

Dear Families,

It has been a busy Christmassy couple of weeks. I am transported back to last Monday with wreath making fun, courtesy of Sand Hutton PTA. What a wonderful evening of creativity accompanied by Christmas music, mulled wine and a mince pie or two thrown in for good measure. A great start to the festivities.

On the Tuesday, children from Classes 2 and 3 visited the Chocolate Story. They returned with many chocolatey goodies each and high praise for their ambassadorship of our school. Well done everyone!

On Friday, despite the weather, the Christmas Fair took place at Sand Hutton. We made the decision to bring most of the event inside, with the exception of Santa in his grotto! While this might seem a little unkind, I did explain to Santa that he is used to far worse weather where he lives! Mr Mackfall and Mrs Naylor did a sterling job of making his temporary home somewhat wind proof and cosy. Inside there was much Christmas fun and conversation. Thank you to everyone who supported the event and to the PTA and Mrs Roughley for all their work in organising this,

Now to this week. On Monday afternoon, the Year 6 children made Mrs Naylor and I exceptionally proud when we took them to sing to the residents of Prospect House in Gate Helmsley. We were proud, not only of their beautiful singing voices, which I know the residents thoroughly enjoyed, but the time and care they took afterwards, chatting with their audience about Christmases gone by. It was incredibly heartwarming to watch our young ambassadors engage so easily. It was no surprise when we were told that these ladies would be talking about this visit for the rest of the week. Well done Year 6 Warthill; that was very special.

And then it was Sand Hutton Nativity. A full church and standing room only for the evening performance. The church was filled with children’s voices, raised in song, telling the Christmas Story. It was truly magical and I feel very privileged that as head of two schools, I get to experience this magic more than once each Christmas. Next Tuesday it will be the turn of Warthill children to tell the tale. In a sneak preview, I have heard the singing and I can tell you that you are in for a real treat.

As the week has drawn to a close, we were treated to a fabulous Christmas Dinner yesterday. This year it was my turn to eat with the Sand Hutton children. We had party hats and Christmas tables, Christmas music and fantastic food. THANK YOU NENA! We loved it! I know that the children at Warthill had an equally delicious lunch and sent their thanks to Nena through Mrs Thackray this morning.

Don’t forget both schools close at 2pm next Friday, for the Christmas holidays.

Have a great weekend,

With every almost Christmas wish,

Beverley Pawson

Dear Families,

How is it the end of NOVEMBER!?

Enjoy your last week of calm before the pending Christmas madness….. and on that note, should you have any donations for the Christmas fair at Sand Hutton, they would be gratefully received!

I need to share my gratitude yet again for your generosity. In the lead up to Children in Need, I like many of your, watched Sara Cox fight the elements to achieve her 135 mile challenge and take Pudsey to Pudsey. She was inspiring. As she said, frequently, every little helps and I am proud to say that our federation was able to add £139.60 to the Children in Need pot so thank you all for your generous giving.

I have very little additional news this week having already shared the list of dates to remind you of for the last few weeks of term.

However, since then we have been offered a very exciting event. On Thursday the 18^th December we will be visited by:

Thank you for confirming your Rocksteady Assembly at Sand Hutton CofE Voluntary Controlled Primary!

Our Assembly & Workshops will happen on Thursday December 18th, please see a timetable for the day below: 

Brand Representative arrival for set up: 08:15/30.
Full School Assembly & Workshop: 09:00 – 10:00

(There may be the opportunity for lessons, information will follow, depending on levels of interest going forwards.)

So that both our schools can benefit from the fun and workshop together, we ask that Warthill children are delivered to Sand Hutton (breakfast club children can attend Sand Hutton for this too). At the end of the workshop, after a short break time, we will be taking them back to their own school so they can be collected as normal at the end of the day. The Sand Hutton children will have their party after this event so they should be nicely excited by then!

Friday 19th will be party day at Warthill, and I have heard a little whisper that they may have a visit from the man in the red coat!

The PTA, following some very persuasive letters from children in Class 3, have kindly purchased a Christmas tree for the school hall. We would like to invite pupils to bring in a single decoration from home, a spare one maybe, or indeed one they have made specially. They will then be able to put it on the tree next week.

Both schools close on that day at 2pm for the Christmas holidays.

Have a great weekend,

With every almost Christmas wish,

Beverley Pawson

Headteacher

Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools