Do you need suggestions on age appropriate games? You could use either of the following websites to search suitable games. Remember, PEGI rates the gameplay so whilst it is important to review age ratings, you must also check if it has a communication feature as this might mean you decide a game is not suitable for your child.
Dear Families,
We have had a really lovely week this week and we have positively noticed lots and so have the children in one another. They may come home with coloured bands attached to their book bags etc, so that you know what they have been noticed doing well. Wednesday was a special day!
After such a busy half term, this week has been a little quieter. However, we have had the Sand Hutton sharing this morning and we enjoyed the same at Warthill last week.
We made sure that all our children were involved in marking Remembrance Day on Monday in a variety of different ways. We showed our respect in a silence, in classrooms, on the school yard and in Warthill Church.
At Sand Hutton we are currently working on the decorations for the tree which will go in the Minster from Saturday 30th November. This is on a woodland theme and celebrates the work in Forest Schools Learning as well. Should you wish to view this in situ, you can visit throughout December or attend the launch event as explained below.
“ Experience York Minster’s popular Christmas Tree Festival, set inside the medieval Minster, with 70 trees on display in the cathedral’s stunning Nave, Chapter House and Lady Chapel. Explore the trees, which will be decorated to individual themes by local businesses, schools and charities, and add your own Christmas message to a tag on the festival’s prayer trees. The festival will open on Saturday 30 November at 10am with a light switch-on at ‘Minster Mash-Up’, York Minster’s special service for children and families. The festival will run during general admission times until Sunday 5 January. Entry is free with general admission.”
Just a reminder that there is a non-uniform day at Sand Hutton on Monday, organised by the School Council. There is also a trip going ahead in Class 1 linked to Countryside Learning.
It seems difficult to believe that we are already more than half way through November. Time passes so quickly!
Have a lovely weekend….
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools
Dear Families,
Welcome back to the half term that leads us into Christmas! I hope that you were able to relax a little over the break.
I do have quite a number of pieces of information to share with you today.
Firstly, another thank you. Our many shoeboxes have been blessed and they will soon begin their journey to make a difference to families less fortunate than ours. I am sure that children will recognise their wrapping or their wrapping paper, hidden amongst the pile. As a result, they will be fully aware of the treat inside and the care that went into choosing these items.
Thank you too to all the volunteers who support us in doing this in both our schools. We know that our children get a great deal out of this activity.
You may remember from a previous newsletter that we have decided to adopt a specific and named strategic to underpin our behaviour management strategies. This approach is underpinned by a behaviourist called Paul Dix and is outlined in his book “When the Adults Change, Everything Changes”
We have taken this decision because it very closely mirrors what we already do across the federation; with some very minor tweaks. It ensures that all adults are responsible for ‘noticing and acknowledging’ the behaviour we want to see. It also strips back any previously perceived rules to three simple statements; Ready, Respectful and Safe.
We have decided to launch this through Positive Noticing Day on Wednesday 13th November.
We will be spending some time during the day thinking about the power of positive noticing. It is simple, practical, and highly effective. Being positively noticed by others builds self-esteem, supports behaviour and promotes good mental health.
We will be encouraging pupils (and staff!) to positively notice one another.
We encourage families to join in at home too. You can write positive notes for family members on luggage labels, post it notes or pieces of paper. We know that children who are positively noticed by their parents/carers are happier, healthier and more resilient and secure.
You may wish to use Positive Noticing Day as an opportunity to start daily positive noticing in your home. You can create and share positive labels as a family and save them – stick them on the fridge, the back of the door or put them in an old picture frame.
Here are some ideas from the website to get you started:
We hope you enjoy the day, and we want to say that ‘we notice you’ and the effort you make to support your children, engage them in learning and enrich our school community! Thank you.
You can find out more about positive noticing and Positive Noticing Day at
https://www.positivenoticingday.com/
We are in no way introducing this approach because of concerns that behaviour is or has become an issue. Ofsted recognised Behaviour and Attitudes as Outstanding in both schools. It remains something we are very proud of. However, with adults and pupils moving between our settings frequently, this named approach gives really clear guidance for all and can thus can provide a further layer of security of all our children regarding expectations. This is especially supportive of our neuro diverse children and those who have experienced trauma.
It is of course Remembrance next week and, as always, we intend to mark this in an appropriate way. Both schools will be having a period of silence and prayer at 11am. We would encourage children and adults to wear poppies in memory.
I know that there have been activities for our children to enjoy, planned by our PTA and FOWS. This week has been the turn of Sand Hutton; a fun disco on Thursday evening. Our children had a great time as always. At Warthill, there is further cinema night to look forward to. Look out for information about this from FOWS.
I know that some of you have seen the article in the Yorkshire Post recently.
If you haven’t seen this, please click the link. I approached York Press about sharing this and they explained that they wouldn’t be able to, so I have written my own article which I hope they will publish, singing the praises of Rural Schools and citing the article/study. Keep your fingers crossed that they agree to print this! It focuses on the academic excellence seen in many smaller rural schools which can often be overlooked in favour of celebrating pastoral care and inclusivity. These are, of course, values very close to our hearts but one doesn’t exclude the other.
And finally, with Christmas Jumper Day around the corner, the Sand Hutton PTA collected a number of jumpers. Should your child want to take part and you don’t have a jumper, please let us know and we can pair your child up with a jumper of the right size, at no cost to you.
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools
Dear Families,
We have made it to the end of a very long half term and I know that your children are tired. I hope that you have a restful half term planned before we begin the Christmas Term.
We have had a really fabulous time throughout this, our well-being week. Firstly, I must thank you for your incredible generosity. Yesterday, both schools saw mountains of gift items for our Christmas Box appeal. As ever the children chose, with care, the items for their boxes, lovingly wrapped these and added the checklists to the top. The conversations between children in both our schools has been remarked upon by the visitors who came to help. Collectively, we were able to fill and wrap 45 boxes from our schools. These will be blessed and will begin their journey after the half term holiday. THANK YOU! We look forward to hearing about the difference they have made.
Fun is the name of the game in both settings today. At Sand Hutton we are having a second ‘Break the Rules’ day. I am currently at Warthill and looking forward to seeing the many and varied ways in which children have chosen to ‘rebel’ for a day. At Warthill the ‘fun’ is calmer and on a sensory theme; the Sensory Den was set up this morning and I can currently hear children enjoying the different experiences.
Thank you FOWS for this. I’m hearing ‘best ever’, ‘can we have this all the time’ etc a lot! This is good value for money and it isn’t even ten in the morning yet!
Please could I remind anyone visiting woodland to collect and dry acorns and sycamore keys for us.
Also, we close today for half term and open again on Monday 4th November.
Please enjoy a fabulous half term,
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools
Dear Families,
What a lovely week we have had again!
We managed to find a brief window of sunshine on Saturday for our BIG HELP OUT at Sand Hutton.
We managed to get lots of weeding, planting, clearing and tidying done before the heavens opened and we all got soaked! Thank you to everyone who braved the weather and got stuck in!
Then on Monday, there was with a cinema night provided by the FOWS at Warthill. The children enjoyed cosying up with a film and snacks. What a lovely evening activity! Thank you for organising this FOWS, we know how much the children enjoy these events.
On Tuesday we had our first Parents’ Evening at Warthill and this was accompanied by the Book Fair. It was great to chat with so many of you at the Fair and thank you to anyone who purchased anything. This is a fundraising opportunity for us. Your purchases mean that we have a further amount to spend on books for school.
This Parents’ Evening and Book Fair combination is to be repeated at Sand Hutton next week. We are looking forward to seeing you. There are some great deals on the Book Fair too if you are coming along.
Next week is our Wonderful Me Well-Being week. As I explained last week, this will include the filling of the shoe boxes for Christmas. Please could I remind you to send items into schools for these as per the leaflet received. I will be collecting some toiletries and socks that can be split up over the weekend too. The children get so much from this activity. Thank you in advance for your support. We will also be celebrating the ways in which we are all unique; this takes many different forms. Being unique is a superpower that we will be asking children to share with one another. Warthill children will also be able to look forward to the Sensory Den which is coming for the day on Thursday (thank you FOWS)….I’m really excited about that too!
I would also like to remind all families that next week school closes for half term on Thursday 24th October. Staff will be undertaking training on Friday. We will re-open on Monday 4th November at the usual time. The Friday of that week will be the next Sharing Assembly for Warthill so please join us!
Finally, a request. Sand Hutton will have a Christmas Tree in the Minster this December. We will be decorating this on a woodland theme. If you are out and about over half term, we would be grateful for any sycamore keys and acorns (dried) that you can collect for us. Once these are fully dry, we have plans to turn these into really unique tree decorations, but we need lots! Thank you in advance!
Have a lovely weekend……between the showers!
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools
Dear Parents,
I hope some of you were fortunate enough to witness the Northern Lights this week! What a treat!
We have had another packed week in our schools and have much to share with you both in showing you what we have been doing and making you aware of the plans we have afoot.
I wanted to mention again our Sand Hutton Reading Café morning and thank those of you who attended, even though this is a little while ago now. We do intend to repeat this as a visitor event for a further occasion in the future. I know those who were able to join us found it an enjoyable and informative experience. On the subject of reading, both schools have up and coming Book Fairs, to coincide with respective Parents’ Evenings. These raised money for both settings last year and therefore we have taken the decision to repeat this.
Miss Heffernan says….
There will be a reading competition for all pupils to win a £10 book voucher to spend at the Scholastic fair on Parents’ Eve.
Pupils must create an a4 poster about why they love reading (name on the back). The Reading Ambassadors at Sand Hutton have designed this competition for the federation and will support me (Miss Heffernan, as English Lead), in choosing a winner. Entries need to be in by Friday 18th Oct and we will announce the winner in Well-Being Week (more information to follow later in the letter about this!)
GOOD LUCK
https://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/bookcases
Due to this half term being particularly long, we have set aside the four-day final week for a well-being focus, entitled Wonderful Me. Included in this week will be the packing up of the Christmas Boxes, leaflets went out during the week and we already have contributions coming into school for. (Thank you! Keep them coming.) Evidence shows that one of the biggest boosts we can enjoy for our own well-being comes from doing something for someone else. We know how much the children enjoy this activity. The week will also include opportunities to work outside and participate in sports and mindfulness activities. At Warthill the FOWS have financed a pop-up sensory room for the day and we have booked this for this week too. We plan to invite children to fully participate in a variety of meaningful activities at a point in the half term when they would be the most tired and therefore often the least productive.
Linked to well-being, I recently attended a conference where the key speaker was author Paul Dix. If you are interested in his work, google the book, When the Adults Change. While he was an obviously entertaining speaker, he also talked very seriously in terms of changing lives for children through his strategy; Positive Noticing. As he talked, I was aware how much of this was already embedded practice in our schools to which we don’t necessarily give a name. He was also an advocate of simplifying ‘school rules’ to three simple threads such as Ready, Respectful, Safe. We have decided to adopt this approach since it mirrors what we already do and will mark the launch with Positive Noticing Day on November 13th.
https://www.positivenoticingday.com/
We hope that you will support us in this and will send more information closer to the time.
Only yesterday, we received a phone call out of the blue from some very kind people offering to bring owls to show our children. This visit was a direct enhancement to our Class 1 and 2 curriculums for different reasons. We had looked into booking someone and the cost was beyond our budget. So the timing was like magic! The time they offered to come clashed with the online lesson with the author Class 3 already had planned but we didn’t want to forgo the opportunity. We are so pleased that we managed to work around very tight schedules in school and with the visitors to ensure that all our children benefited.
I wanted to tell you, in detail, about the two events.
Class 3 did our school proud in the online lesson this morning and even had one of their questions read out. I know how much they have been looking forward to the lesson and reading the book. They were really deeply affected by the lesson and decided to take into their own hands what they wanted to do next! I walked in to a lesson of letter and rap writing groups. Ask them about sea turtles….. Class 3 you made us all smile! (PTA you may be getting something in your inbox!)
Meanwhile, Classes 1 and 2 gathered in a very chilly Early Years outside area with Katie and Simon, and their four owls. They asked incredibly mature questions. They were respectful and quiet. Each of these children had time to hold an owl, if they wanted to. We had many, many smiling faces! Our visitors very kindly agreed to stay and squeeze in a short session with Class 3 between the online lesson and swimming…oh to have such a tight schedule. While the time was limited, they did have the opportunity to view, at close hand, these very beautiful birds. Due to the time limits, only a few of this class had time to hold these birds. I hope the others weren’t too disappointed.
The visitors said that our children were the best audience, adult or child, that they had EVER shown the owls to. They described them as intelligent, knowledgeable, inquisitive, respectful and gentle. Even though we felt we had been given the gift from them, they showed immense gratitude to us. If anyone would like to find out more information or donate they can be found on Owls.And.About.
I just wanted you to know how much your children were a credit to the school today in both these activities. I hope that you can let them know just how proud we all are here. I think they put a very small school on the map today!
Friday is a very busy day here and I feel so fortunate that we were able to fit this in at such short notice
What an incredible experience!
I will end the Newsletter today with some reminders. Firstly, those Asda Reward points are mounting up. Please consider our schools when you shop. We will be able to make use of this funding. Thank you for anyone who has already downloaded the Asda Rewards App and named one of our schools.
Also, if clearing out before Christmas, please consider our recycling bins. I believe they also take toys. The Warthill one certainly does. There is a comprehensive list on display on the side. It is an excellent funding stream for our schools.
Saturday, weather willing, is a further Big Help Out at Sand Hutton. I will be opening school from 1pm (event officially 2-4pm). Anyone willing to give their time to spruce up the outdoor areas in school and meet other parents is very welcome!
Next Tuesday afternoon is Warthill Parents’ Evening. We hope to see you all there. Please make an appointment if you haven’t already.
Wednesday is Sand Hutton’s Harvest Service in church at 2pm. The PTA will be providing refreshments. Please see the posters around the gates.
The Christmas Services in both schools are confirmed if you haven’t already noted these times and dates.
Sand Hutton Wednesday 11th December 2pm and 6pm
Warthill Tuesday 17th December 9am and 5.30pm
I believe that concluded a rather longer than usual newsletter for this week. We are so proud of our schools and we always appreciate your support, however you are able to give it. Should you need any additional support from us, please don’t hesitate to let someone you feel able to speak to know and we will help where we can.
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools