Sandhill View Academy

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It’s with great sadness that we recently learned that Mr Field, a former Thorney Close and Sandhill View member of staff, recently passed away. Here, staff share their fond memories of him. ‘During my time at Thorney Close Ken Field was a...

Something to Keep in Mind

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Just a reminder that Washington Mind are offering students the chance to chat with their staff in order to help support wellbeing during these difficult times. Support for young people will be available remotely from Mon-Fri between 2pm-3pm....

Scholars Unravel Robin Hood

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Dr Alex Brown from Durham University delivered a lecture on Robin Hood, specifically looking at how his story can give us an insight into Medieval life. We learned about the story’s relevance to crime, religion, notions of space and place, and attitudes to the monarch.

On a Learning Journey with History

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We again examine our curriculum. This week we are taking a look at History with Mrs Southwick who discusses all the subjects and events from Key stage 3 all the way through to what is studied at GCSE. Click below to view the video.

All The Facts on Apprenticeships

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Year 11 students had the opportunity to meet with different further education, apprenticeship and training providers to explore different pathways for their future study at the end of Year 11. All students must continue in education or training until the age of 18. This does not...

Festive Fun & Fundraising

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On Friday 11th December we will be having an optional Christmas themed non-uniform day. This is in support of Save the Children, whose work aims to support children all around the world with medical care, food, education and wellbeing. We are asking for donations from any...

Mind a Chat?

30 Nov 2020

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Washington Mind are offering students the chance to chat with their staff in order to help support wellbeing during these difficult times. Support for young people will be available remotely from Mon-Fri between 2pm-3pm. Anyone who would like...

On a Learning Journey with PE

30 Nov 2020

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We return to looking at our varied curriculum with our subject leaders taking us through each stage of learning from Year 7 to Year 11. Here, Mrs. Barnes talks about our PE curriculum and what activities and sports students participate in throughout their time at Sandhill. Click...

Sandhill Scholars Attend their Virtual First Lecture

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The Scholars met Dr Adam Guy from Oxford University. The lecture looked at the links between literature and cinema, specifically how some literature takes its inspiration from cinema. Students learned about the early history of filmmaking and the Lumiere brothers, analysed some...

Make Your Mark

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Make Your Mark is the annual vote held by the UK Youth Parliament to find out the issues considered as the most important for young people. This year the vote is being held virtually and the UK Youth Parliament are encouraging as many young people as possible to take part....

Talking Road Safety

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In assemblies we discussed the importance of road safety. As the nights darken and traffic increases after lockdown, it’s important to remember to stop, look, listen and think before crossing the road. More children are killed or seriously injured on their way home from school...

Keep the Cards Coming

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We’re still running our Sandhill View Christmas card competition. There is a Christmas prize for the best entry along with a donation of £25 to a charity of your choice. Deadline Thursday 26th November. Please give entries to your form tutor who will...

Sandhill Scholars Return

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We saw the return of the very successful Scholars programme. The newly appointed group of pupils will take part in the year-long programme which will include a series of guest lectures, exclusive trips to universities and in-house events from archaeology and skeleton...

Odd Socks in Support

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The theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2020 is: United Against Bullying. Anti-Bullying Week will happen from Monday 16th – Friday 20th November. Whether it is verbal, physical, online or in-person, bullying has a significant impact on a child’s life well into adulthood....

Virtual Winners

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We have welcomed the first two winners of transition prizes from our virtual open evening. Congratulations to Phoenix Wilson who won the art challenge with her coke can inspired by the work of Lora Zombie, and Jenna Gibson who produced our winning DT...

Together We Can

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This year has been tough on everyone, so Children in Need are making mental wellbeing their number one priority. To show support for this they wanted everyone to ‘come as themselves’. This is all about students embracing their identities and wearing whatever makes...

Sandhill in Remembrance

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Every year group took part in our Remembrance Day commemorations. Our students took the time to reflect on why we mark Remembrance Day alongside an impeccably observed two-minute silence alongside the rest of the nation at 11:00am. Though times might be difficult now, and we are...

Helping Out with Home Learning

09 Nov 2020

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We have taken delivery of 150 new laptops to help support the learning of those students who may have to work from home due to isolation. As remote learning becomes more and more important over the course of this pandemic, we have invested into making sure that no child misses...

Children in Need 2020

09 Nov 2020

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Findings from recent research shows that right now, the coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children in the UK, and for those who were already facing disadvantages, life has become incredibly difficult. It has never...

Festive Fun in Lockdown

09 Nov 2020

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Keep busy during lockdown 2 by designing this years Sandhill View Christmas card with your household. There is a Christmas prize for the best entry along with a donation of £25 to a charity of your choice. Deadline Thursday 26th November. Please give entries to your form...

Non Uniform Day Supporting Sunderland Foodbank

13 Oct 2020

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In support of Sunderland Foodbank and their Pennywell branch, we are giving students the chance to take part in an optional non-uniform day this Friday 16th October. To take part pupils should bring with them at least one item of tinned or dried food that we will then collect and...

Book Buzz Begins

12 Oct 2020

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We presented our students with the choice from a range of books as part of the ‘Book Buzz’ programme. Pupils had the chance to read the synopsis of each title, discuss some of them in class with their peers and then make their choice. Pupils will receive their free books within...

Hello Yellow!

12 Oct 2020

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We asked our students to join us in supporting World Mental Health Day by wearing adding a splash of yellow to their school uniform as part of the in #HelloYellow campaign. Lockdown is having a devastating effect on children and young people’s mental health. It’s been...

On a Learning Journey with Maths

12 Oct 2020

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This week we take a learning journey with our Maths Department. Maths is a core subject, every student receives several maths lessons every week and there is much importance placed on Maths grades at GCSE, with many further education providers, apprenticeships and employers...

Student Council Members Wanted!

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Students in all year groups will be choosing their tutor groups representative for the student council. In the spirit of democracy, candidates will put themselves forward and then the group will vote with the majority vote taking the place on the council. This year we will have a...

National Poetry Day

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For National Poetry Day our KS3 classes were encouraged to draft their own poems based on this year’s theme of “vision”. We are running this as a poetry writing competition with Waterstones vouchers as prizes. Students can take their work from class home...

World Mental Health Day

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On Friday 9 October, we will be joining thousands of schools, offices and community groups across the UK to take part in #HelloYellow, to support young people’s mental health on World Mental Health Day. Lockdown is having a devastating effect on children and young people’s...

National Skills Day Draws Near

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Back in May, lots of our students and staff featured in the first ever National Skills Day. On Wednesday 7 October is the next National Skills Day, this time sponsored by Skills Builder, who we are working with this year to roll out a programme of essential...

Welcome Back!

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It’s wonderful to finally get to see our students again. Though times may be difficult we are delighted to once again be providing the crucial classroom learning we have been missing over the course of this pandemic. We have fully risk assessed our school and provided the best...

Hello to Year 7

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Though this may be a very unusual year so far, we are very happy to welcome out latest cohort of Year 7 students into Sandhill View Academy. We have taken particular care to introduce our new students into life at secondary school since they did not get the chance to take part in...

A Little Face-Lift

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We’ve been busy around the building over our school closure period. Building staff have been hard at work not only installing Covid-19 measures but also giving our communal areas a little bit of TLC. We’ve made our year bases in particular brighter and lighter areas for our...

Virtual Nurse Drop-In

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Though our face-to-face school nurse drop-in sessions are currently suspended due to the ongoing pandemic, we are happy to offer students the ability to use a virtual drop-in system for all their health and wellbeing enquiries. Students are free to contact local health advisors...

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

28 Apr 2020

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Keeping Children Safe Online Parents are reminded to carefully monitor their child’s online activity and speak regularly to them about digital safety at this time of heightened use. Please contact your child’s head of year via the MyEd app if you have any concerns. Free School...

Getting Creative in Keeping Children Safe

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A number our Year 9 Photography students put together entries for the city-wide ‘Sunderland Safeguarding Children Partnership’ competition. The entries were voted upon during a recent safeguarding conference and Sandhill View students took the top three prizes! Well done to...

Young Song Writer Wonders

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Well done to our aspiring musicians who took part in the ‘New Young Writers’ celebration at the National Glass Centre. There were some fantastic performances from schools across our city and Sandhill View students did not disappoint with their contribution. Well done!

An Angelic Art Visit

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On a recent research trip to The Baltic, our GCSE Art students had the amazing opportunity to be present for the unveiling of The Knife Angel sculpture, which is temporarily on display by the Sage in Gateshead. The Knife Angel is a 27ft sculpture crafted out of 100,000 knives...

Sorcerous Sandhill Scholars

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Scholars enjoyed a lecture from Durham University student Arabethan who discussed the roles of gender, inclusivity and relationships linked to the Harry Potter book series and how, though many of these ideas may not appear directly in the texts, the themes of tolerance within the...

Sandhill Tackle Rugby Tournament

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Over 100 Year 7 and 8 students from across the city descended on Southmoor Academy for the Sunderland Schools’ Rugby Union Competition. Southmoor, Castle View, Monkwearmoth, Sandhill View, St Aidan’s and Grindon Hall all took to the field. Our teams’ intensity and...

In Harmony

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Thank you to New Writing North who have been running song writing classes and enrichment sessions at Sandhill View throughout our last term, helping our students to create two unique songs that they wrote and produced themselves. As part of this, the group will be holding a...

Getting Crafty at the Northern School of Art

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Students enjoyed a hands-on taster day at the Northern School of Art on their Middlesbrough campus. Pupils learnt about the creative careers that studying a further educational course such as the ones offered by the school can lead to, had fun constructing a 3D sculpture from...

Translating MFL Lessons into a Rewarding Career

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We have continued our drive to improve our students’ knowledge about how their lessons can lead to different careers and job opportunities. This time it was the turn of languages to share with students how learning a language could benefit them with valuable skills in the job...

Fantastic Fundraising

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A huge thank you to everyone at Sandhill View who helped student Adam Young to donate £140 worth of games for Ward 2B of The Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle. The other £120 of the money raised will be spent on a virtual reality set that will help...

Cambridge Chat with Year 9

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Student Ambassadors from Cambridge University met Year 9 to talk about what sets Cambridge apart from other institutions. Students learned about the variety of courses available (including Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic), the collegiate system and societies on offer from sports...

Polling Our Pupils

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Along with the national General Election on Thursday 12th December, Sandhill View students were able to take part in their own mock election to see what the result would have been in the school if students were allowed to vote. Students looked at the manifestos for each party...

Musical Maestros in the Making

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We gave a special gift to the fifteen Year 7 & 8 students who have done the most independent work as part of our School Orchestra Project since September. As a thank you for their dedication to learning a new instrument, these pupils were gifted their very own violins as an...

Raffle Winners Scoop Some Early Presents

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Congratulations to the winners of our Christmas raffle, arranged by Sandhill student Adam Young. With their help, and the help of everyone who bought a ticket, Adam managed to raise an amazing £260 for Ward 2B of The Great North Children’s Hospital...

Stargazing Students

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Peter Swift from Durham University’s Physics Department visited the scholars recently, bringing with him the University’s pop-up planetarium! Students learned about our galaxy, observed stars, constellations and explored the planets in our solar system. They were taught how...

Autumn Activities Day

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The end of our Autumn term also brought our much-anticipated activity day. Students cashed in their hard-earned praise points to take part in a huge range of activities both inside and out of school. Activities included everything from computer games to nail art and trips out to...

Lego Legends

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We welcomed in representatives from the North East Raising Aspirations Partnership for a special STEM workshop where our Year 7 students explored engineering through Lego and tried their hand at designing, building and racing their own vehicles in a fun competition against their peers.

Putting the Paddle In