Sandhill View Academy

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To celebrate World Pi Day on Thursday 14th March, our Maths department held a selection of Pi related activities in lesson time for pupils, with lots of challenges that hopefully did not run them circles! There was even time for a celebratory slice of the sweeter...

A Wonderfull Wordy World Book Day

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World Book Day once again featured heavily throughout school with book review competitions, a ‘guess who’ of staff sharing their favourite books and various literature related activities held by our LRC and English team.

Full STEAM Ahead at the Discovery Museum

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Fifty students from Year 8, 9 and 10 attended the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) Careers Fair at the Discovery Museum Campus in Newcastle during National Science and Engineering Week. Students were able to ask questions about a wide range of careers with...

Thinking Fit

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Sandhill View P.E. Department have been working with the ‘Sunderland Lifestyle Activity and Food’ programme to educate and encourage our students to eat well, move more and make healthy life choices. The students attended a number of sessions where they took...

Talking Apprenticeships

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Our Year 9 students recently had a sit down for a question and answer session with members of staff who have recently under-taken apprenticeships within the Academy Trust, two of which are ex-Sandhill students themselves! Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Ridley and Miss. Jenkyns all shared...

Sandhill at Search for a Star

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A massive congratulations to Allanah-Jo Berry, Daniel Priddle and Beth-Anne Coxon who represented Sandhill View Academy in this year’s ‘Search for a Star’ Talent Competition held at Oxclose Academy. This was an...

Red Nose Day 2019

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The school supported Red Nose Day with a range of events throughout the day to raise money. We had a whole school non-uniform day, along with the student council and Miss Malloy’s tutor group running cake sales. Mr. Heley’s group ran a sponsored penalty shoot-out,...

Going Digital at Disneyland

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Over half term, ICT students attended the ‘Computing Live 2019!’ conference in Disneyland, Paris. Students visited the Eiffel Tower and cruised along the River Seine in glorious sunshine, on route to the seminar. The conference was the main focus of the visit, covering:...

Enrichment Continues at Sandhill View

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Enrichment activities at Sandhill View are constantly expanding with the addition of our lunchtime movie screening in the theatre. Alongside the day-to-day extra-curricular activities on offer, we also have a broad range on a Wednesday from 2.10-4pm. This is an excellent time...

Digging Deeper into Forensic Archaeology

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Durham4Schools hosted a workshop for our Year 9 prospective Sandhill Scholars which involved handling ancient artefacts (including casts of human remains!) and how to identify possible causes of death. Students debated the ethics behind displaying human remains in museums and...

Student Council in Session

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After a great deal of excellent applications for the student council, we have now elected two representatives from each year group, including a Head Boy and Head Girl from Year 11, as well as the Deputy Head Boy and Girl from Year 10. The council will be the voice of the...

Social Mobility in the Spotlight

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Our students took part in a visit to our Trust by members of the Social Mobility Commission, a Government appointed board. The Commission are tasked with finding ways to encourage a fairer society with more equal opportunities. They visited to discuss ideas, taking part in meet...

SHV Geographers Hit the Beach

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GCSE Geographers in Year 11 and 10 enjoyed a day out at the beach as part of their Geography lesson. Pupils investigated the rate of longshore drift and effectiveness of coastal management at Seaham beach. All pupils worked hard to collect data for their GCSE investigation and...

Fantastic Futsal

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Six Year 8 students represented Sandhill at the Beacon of Light in the Sunderland Schools Futsal competition. Our boys produced excellent performances and were the only team unbeaten in the competition. Overall Sandhill finished 2nd in the group winning three games and drawing...

Year 11 Get a Buzz

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Our year 11 students spent a morning with David Hodgson, the author of the Buzz personality test. He ran a session based on his book Brainbox. This focused on how students learn and the science behind how the brain works and stores information. This was a great opportunity for...

Political Points of View

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Recently our Scholars students were visited by Gertjan Hoetjes, a politics researcher from Durham University. They learned about the United Nations, including its history, evolution from the League of Nations, and its current role today. They then debated the position that the UK...

Amazing Apprenticeships

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Our year 10 and year 11 students have been reflecting on their future careers. Representatives from ASK, the apprenticeship support and knowledge for schools’ project spoke to our students about the wide variety of opportunities in apprenticeships. Students were amazed that there...

Shooting for the Stars

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Peter Swift from Durham University’s Physics Department visited the Sandhill scholars with a very special prop – an inflatable planetarium! Students learned about our galaxy, observed stars, constellations and explored the planets in our solar system. They were taught how...

Energy Quest Gains Momentum

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Year 8 students took part in an ‘Energy Quest’ workshop. The workshop is a school programme that encourages young people to find out all about sustainable energy and learn about associated engineering careers. The interactive STEM workshop was packed with hands-on activities,...

University Challenge

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Year 11 students from Southmoor and Sandhill View Academies visited Newcastle University, to experience higher education and learn more about the transition from GCSE to A-level study. They tested their knowledge with an interactive university challenge quiz, learned new...

Getting Creative with Southmoor Scholars

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Our Sandhill scholars lecture series continued with a session delivered by Teesside University that focused on comic book illustration, which is now seen as a serious form of artwork that can be studied at university. Students created cartoon characters of themselves and learned...

Smashed Project Live

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Our Year 7 students were presented with a live performance by the Smashed Project Live. The project tours schools with a theatre performance, interactive workshops and teaching resources in order to engage pupils creatively in a safe and motivational learning environment,...

Sixth Form Open Evening

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We once again invited Year 11 parents from across the city to join us in our Sixth Form for our final open evening of the academic year. This was a chance for students to think about where they want to be in three years’ time, and with universities and higher apprenticeship...

Focus on Careers

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Our students were put through their paces during our Careers Focus Day last term. During the day, all lessons focused on the application process from searching for the dream job through to completing the application form. Our students even applied for some very interesting...

Cracking Art with Sandhill Scholars

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The Northern School of Art delivered a workshop on codebreaking in art for our scholars. Students were given a series of paintings and sculptures to evaluate, such as the ‘Venus of Wittenberg’ sculpture from the Stone Age, and were tasked with working out what...

GIMME at Nissan

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Last term a group of our Year 9 and Year 10 girls attended Nissan’s GIMME event and saw for themselves the variety of career pathways for young women in manufacturing and engineering. They were able to talk to a wide variety of female staff, from the production floor to director...

Full STEM Ahead at Salford

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In December the STEM team took 21 students to Salford University for the GCSE in action event. This was a jam packed day full of brilliant lecturers. The lectures included “What happens when the Universe ends?”, “Medicine in action”, “Deep sea exploration” and “Zap, the story of...

Sandhill Student Hits the Big Stage

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Well done to Sandhill view student, Tanisha Ridley who performed on the BBC’s ‘The Greatest Dancer’ show. Tanisha is a very gifted singer and dancer whom has competed all over the UK and we look forward to sharing more about her fantastic talent throughout her...

500/1000 rep challenge in memory of Josie King

20 Dec 2018

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To mark what would have been Sandhill View student Josie King’s 16th birthday, our amazing Year 11 students worked together to complete either the 500 or 1000 rep challenge in her memory. The students were outstanding supporting and helping one another through the gruelling...

Dec the Halls

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Year 7 & 8 students got in the festive mood as they helped decorate our theatre for the festive period, with each year group having the responsibility of preparing a Christmas tree. Our enthusiastic students were happy to help, though some help was needed on the higher parts...

Winter Woolies Welcome

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The school will be having a Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 14th December. This is to raise money for Save the Children, which is a global charity aimed at children’s rights and provides help and support for children in developing countries. We will be taking donati...

Workshops with Sunderland University

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Thank you to Sunderland University who recently held a series of workshops to our Year 11 students. Our pupils participated in a variety of activities revolving around skills for future careers in technology, manufacturing, business and engineering.

Languages & Legends with Sandhill Scholars

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Sam Bootle visited Southmoor, from the languages department at Durham University. His lecture focused around the text ‘Mythologies’ by Roland Barthes. Students examined the myths of contemporary French culture.

Sixth Form Open Evening

04 Dec 2018

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We saw a record turn out for the Sixth Form Open Evening. Our reputation as the best performing Sixth Form with unrivalled links to universities is certainly spreading! Alongside Southmoor and Sandhill View we had pupils and parents from St. Joseph’s, Grindon Hall, St. Anthony’s,...

Head of School’s Blog #33

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Careers Fair 2018

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We held our annual careers fair for pupils to speak directly to further & higher educational institutions, UK Armed Forces, Training & Apprenticeship providers, as well as employers in the public and private sectors. This year’s event was bigger than ever, with a huge...

Thinking Road Safety

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Our Year 8 students were presented with an impactful performance, delivered by ‘The Riot Act’, on the topic of being safe and aware around road traffic. We’d like to thank the team for coming in to present our students with such an important message.

Financially Sound

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All year 10 students spent a day exploring Northumbria University. This was a great day looking at the myths behind student finance and higher education, a tour of the state of the art facilities and ending with a range of practical revision skills to aid them in their upcoming exams.

Charity Drive Rolls On

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Well done to our fantastic staff and students who helped to raise an impressive £580 for BBC Children in Need! The charity drive continues as we move towards Christmas by supporting our local community. Students will be collecting food to support Sunderland’s food bank....

Sandhill at the Sixth Form

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90 of our year 11 pupils spent the day exploring our Sixth Form at Southmoor. The day was filled with a wide range of options for the students to choose from, looking at law, experimenting with gears and pulleys in the engineering session, dissections in the biology lab and many...

Head of School’s Blog #32

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Breakfast is Served

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We launched our new School Breakfast Programme in our school restaurant. From 7:45 – 8:15am we will be serving a FREE breakfast of bagels, porridge or cereal for every student who wishes to start their day with a healthy meal. All year groups are welcome. Last servings will...

Medical Marvels

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As part of our Careers curriculum, a group of Year 10 students visited Sunderland University to find out about the range of careers available in the medical profession. All students found it a really interesting and informative event and it was a very much an interactive...

Crime Solving Sandhill Scholars

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The Southmoor and Sandhill Scholars experienced their first lecture by Peter Beveridge, who worked with the students to re-enact a crime scene investigation and challenge their thinking throughout the process. Students had to imagine the roles of victims, perpetrators and police...

Head of School’s Blog #31

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Mental Health Awareness Day 2018

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Before half term we have invited our students to come into school wearing an item of yellow clothing in support of World Mental Health Day. We hope that by recognising this world-wide event that we raise awareness around mental health issues, mindfulness and the idea that it is...

Fantastic Result for Finlay!

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Congratulations to Sandhill student Finlay Anderson, who is thrilled after landing a national accolade. Finlay was announced the winner of the national Stabilo Young Journalist of the Year competition. He was chosen by the panel of judges for the article he wrote commentating on...

A Curious Incident

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Our students will watch a live production by the National Theatre of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ which follows the life of a young mathematician with behavioural difficulties as he attempts to solve a mystery.

On the Beat

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Recently we were introduced to the new Superintendent for Northumbria Police’s Southern Area Command, Barrie Joisce. Along with his predecessor, Steve Heatley, our guests visited both schools in our Trust, meeting pupils and staff. We look forward to forward to working closely...

Sandhill Scholars Start their Journey