Issue 68
Visit our website for lots more information and photos
www.sunnymede-jun.ik.org
1st Sept: INSET Day
2nd Sept: Children’s
first day back
3rd Sept: Year 3 Meet
The Teacher
6th Sept: Year 5 Meet
The Teacher
7th Sept: Year 4 Meet
The Teacher
8th Sept: Year 6 Meet
The Teacher
Dear parents and carers,
We have made it to the end of another year full of challenges and unprecedented
disruption to our children’s education. It has been a difficult time for everyone,
whether as a pupil, parent or staff member. What is very clear though is that
everyone has shown great resilience and the ability to adapt to the ever-changing
situation/climate. Moreover, our children have demonstrated the many school values
during the school and class closures and throughout their home learning, in particular
independence, responsibility and determination. We thank all our parents/carers and
their families for supporting their child’s education whilst continuing to work and
juggle lots of other responsibilities.
Not only are we proud of our children, but we are also very proud of our England
football team who clearly had a Growth Mindset which enabled them to reach the
final in the UEFA Euro 2020 football. What a massive achievement as a result of
their hard work and perseverance. They are a brilliant example to our children with
the way they portrayed themselves in the games they played and also with the work
they are doing for school communities.
It has been so unfortunate that the second half of the summer term has resulted in a
few classes being closed due to positive COVID-19 cases. We are aware that it has
been frustrating for everyone but in particular we are so sorry this has happened to
one class (who have previously isolated recently) meaning they have missed the end
of the school term. We have received new guidance from the DfE, following the
lifting of restrictions yesterday and no doubt there may be more guidance over the
holiday. We will be writing to you about this nearer the time of the children starting
back in September.
Today, we say goodbye to two of our teachers, Miss Moore, who worked one day in
3P and one day in 4HM, and Miss Hayward, who covered Mrs Bicheno’s maternity
leave for the year. They will be starting at new schools in September and we wish
them lots of luck. Miss Haywood is getting married this weekend and we wish her
lots of happiness on her wedding day. We also say goodbye to one of our LSAs, Mrs
Levi, and we wish her well. Mrs Bicheno will also be returning from her maternity
leave and will be job sharing with Mrs Hathaway in Year 4.
We also say farewell to our Year 6 cohort as they leave us today. It has been a
pleasure to be part of their Sunnymede Junior School journey and see them grow in
confidence. Each one of them should be proud of themselves, as we are of them.
We wish them every success as they move onto their new secondary school.
We hope you have a lovely summer holiday and enjoy catching up on lost time with
friends and family. Have lots of fun and most of all - keep safe.
Learning for a better tomorrow
Sunnymede Snippets July 2021
Year 6 Adventure Island
On Thursday 15th July, Year 6 ventured to Adventure Island for a day filled with fun, laughter, smiles and lots of screaming. Many challenged themselves, demonstrating a growth mindset, and slayed The Rage and Axis. What a remarkable and memorable way to end the year. We were so impressed with our Year 6 behaviour, representing the school so well. This was our first school trip of the year! Thank you to all the staff and volunteers who helped make the trip so successful.
Year 6 Water Fight
As a treat for working so hard and to mark the end of their time at Sunnymede Junior
School, Year 6 participated in an epic water fight battle. Victory to the children and
commiserations to the teachers, or at least until the finale.
‘Night At The School’ Year 6 Sleepover
Sunnymede Junior School hosted their first big sleep over at
the school last Friday evening for Year 6 as part of the
leavers’ events organised for them. It was a huge success
with the staff working hard to ensure the event was Covid-
secure and that all the children had fun as they celebrated the
end of their time at Sunnymede Juniors. The children
enjoyed fish and chips, sausage and chips or chicken nuggets
and chips takeaway picnic on the playground, followed by
games on the field and a sweet hunt. Each class enjoyed an
ice-cream as they watched a film in their bubbles with hot
chocolate and biscuits served half-way through. Although
they were very excited at the idea of sleeping at the school,
the children settled down well on their various air beds and
mats. It was an early start the next morning with Year 6 out
on the field playing more games at 7.15am - many apologies
to our neighbours, including Mrs Pye! A breakfast of bacon or
sausage baps was cooked by two of our kitchen staff who
came in especially, which was thoroughly enjoyed by
everyone. Thank you to all the staff who gave up their Friday
night to help ensure this was a brilliant experience for the
children.
Note to 6W: Mrs Branch apologises (kind of) for scaring you
with her spooky stories just before bedtime, especially Jesse!
Year 6 Leavers’ Assembly Unfortunately, due to two Year 6 classes
isolating and rehearsal time lost, the Year 6
Leavers Production had to be cancelled.
However, Year 6 more than made up for this by
incorporating four songs from the production
into the Leavers Assembly. Each pupil also
shared the favourite/best memory of being at
Sunnymede Junior School. This assembly was
held yesterday morning via Zoom and we hope
that our Year 6 parents and carers enjoyed this.
Growth Mindset Nominations Well done to all the children below who were voted by their class mates for demonstrating growth mindset!
Class 3H: Megan W, Sophia R, Rafferty P, Eleanor F, Siena H, Will H, Owen E Class 3P: Harry W, Denni-Rose M, Marnie C, Lucy N, Erion V, Ava-Louise W, Toby OB Class 4H: David W, Lilly B, Luka K, Joe B, Amy W, Mitchell S, Michael R Class 4HM: Lauren W, Amari C, Phoebe H, Rudy C, Phoebe T, Eszter D, Max P Class 5M: Darcy C, Freya L, Benny E, Archie W, Olivia H, Charlie D, Caleb C Class 5T: Scarlett T, Alfie M, Livia R, Dollie J, Anya S, Harriet S, Nancy S Class 6A: Max H, Noah C, Stefany D, Jessie H, Albert P, George C, Josh H Class 6L: Kristen L, Tia B, Charler H, Felix N, Lennon P, Rahime RO, Kaylon A Class 6W: Annie H, Layla C, Jesse O, George H, Kinley G, Judy D, Betsie J
Attendance Our overall attendance from the start of the Autumn
Term 2020 to the end of the Summer Term 2021 is
96.2%. This is a little under our 96.4% whole
school target set by governors. However, given the
challenges with the current pandemic, we are really
pleased with the overall attendance. Well done!
RANK
CLASS
%
Attendance for
academic year
2020-21
1st 3H 97.4%
2nd 5M 97.2%
3rd 4H 97.0%
Most Improved…
In our end of term celebration assembly, the following children received awards for being the most improved mathematician,
writer or having the most improved handwriting. All the children listed made big strides in their learning. Well done to you all!
Most Improved Writer Most Improved Handwriter Most Improved
Mathematician
Class
Grace G Jake W Leah N 3H
Harry W Eleanor E Scott M 3P
Sam C Michael R Megan L 4H
Amari C Violet R Frankie J 4HM
Isabel S April S Charlie G 5M
Reggie W Sienna D Connor-Lee M 5T
Stefany D Brayden E Josh H 6A
Amy P Kaylon A Daisy P 6L
6W Paige H-B George H Anaahat P
Writing and
Metacognition Project
Mrs Sykes and Miss Aston have been working with
a group of children in Year 5. They have been
tackling logic problems to improve their metacognition
skills alongside taking ownership over their own
learning and applying this to their writing. Each child
has written a story based on ‘The Journey’ by Aaron
Becker which they have illustrated and published.
They all used their metacognition skills when editing
and improving and their final pieces were well written
and entertaining. Mrs Branch and Miss King were so
impressed to see the vast improvements in their
writing, both content and handwriting. Keep it up!
Year 6 Governors Awards We are pleased to announce the Year 6 pupils who have achieved an award in the following categories: Maths Highest achieving - Sade M and Zac G Most progress since they joined the school – Aimee M English Highest achieving – Fern C and Harry B Most progress since they joined the school – Maisie-May M Science Highest achieving – Bella B and Josh W Most progress since they joined the school – Stefany D PE Highest achieving – Lucy E and Hayden F Most progress since they joined the school – Hannah C The Archer Achievement Award - Fran B who has excelled consistently across all areas. Contribution to the school community awards For being a perfect role model throughout their time at Sunnymede - Heidi V For the best Growth Mindset - Betsie J For consistent and conscientious effort in all subjects – Charler H and Albert B
Congratulations to all these pupils!
Attendance Achievement
Two of our Year 6 pupils were awarded
a certificate and prize for 100% full at-
tendance for the four years they have
been at Sunnymede Junior School.
What a massive achievement! Congra-
tionations to Bella B and Dickson O-M.
Sea Shepherd Assembly
One of our Year 6 pupils, Betsie, did a wonderful job in presenting to the whole school via a Zoom
assembly, talking about Sea Shepherd UK, a marine wildlife conservation charity. This is a cause that Betsie is passionate about. Following this, she organised for our Sunnymede children to come to school on Monday 28th June in sea-themed colours to raise money to support Sea Shepherd UK. In spite of the fact that two classes were self-isolating already on the day of the non-school uniform day in the morning, her work and commitment to protecting the ocean and its animals raised an amazing £237.92! Well done Betsie – she should be so proud of herself.
Sports Day It was unfortunate that parents were not able to attend sports day this year and that our original plans to have a lower school and upper school sports day was cancelled due to the rain. In between all the rainy showers and class closures, each year group managed to have
their own mini sports day. The results are as fol-lows:
1st - Chanty: 85 2nd - Martin: 82
3rd - Mayflower: 81 4th - Pilgrim: 78
House point totals for 2020-21 All of our children have been working hard this year to earn house points for their house. The results were announced in the end of term celebration assembly yesterday as follows:
1st - Mayflower with 8,010 house points
2nd - Chantry with 7,662 house points 3rd - Martin with 7,535 house points
4th - Pilgrim with 6,615 house points Congratulations Mayflower! Here are our proud house captains holding the winning cups.
Updates over the holidays
Over the holidays, we will write to you about our plans to return to some kind of normality in
September. Updates will include a trial period of children coming in to school in their P.E. kits on their
P.E. days. We will also write you about how the morning drop-off to school will work next year, as we plan to streamline this to ensure a smoother
start to the day.
Please note that the autumn term dinner menus have already been sent to parents and
are on the school website.
FUN IN THE SUN What a lot of fun we had on the
last day of term. Every class enjoyed fun on the mega
monster inflatable obstacle course. Thank you Mr Gray in
the infant school for all the fundraising he did during
lockdown to make this possible for our children. With some PTA
money we had left over from more ‘normal’ times, we were
able to top off a fun and very hot day with a Rossi’s ice cream or ice lolly from the ice cream van.
In September, taking the school register will enter the 21st century. Hard copies
of registers will be a thing of the past and it’ll be
electronic all the way! We will be using a programme called Studybug to do this.
As a result, we will also need parents and carers to register for the Studybug App, as we will now use
this for parents to inform us of absences from
September. We will write to you with further details
during the summer holidays so you are ready to go in
September.
Below are the dates of key events in the school
calendar. Please check newsletters, Parentmail
updates or ask at the school office if you are un-
sure.
Date Time Event Wednesday 1st September All day INSET Day
Thursday 2nd September All day Pupils’ first day back
Friday 3rd September 3.30pm Year 3 Meet The Teacher meeting
Monday 6th September 3.30pm Year 5 Meet The Teacher meeting
Tuesday 7th September 3.30pm Year 4 Meet The Teacher meeting
Wednesday 8th September 3.30pm Year 6 Meet The Teacher meeting
Sunday 12th September AM Year 6 departure for Hilltop Outdoor Centre Residential Trip
Tuesday 14th September AM Year 5 swimming begins
Wednesday 15th September All day Year 3 Stone Age theme day (dressing up)
Wednesday 15th September PM Year 6 return from Hilltop Outdoor Centre Residential Trip
Thursday 16th September AM NSPCC Speaker in assembly
Friday 17th September All day Jeans For Genes Day
Friday 17th September AM Year 4 swimming begins
Monday 27th September AM Individual ad family photographs
Friday 22nd October All day INSET Day
Monday 25th October Half Term begins
Monday 1st November Pupils return to school
Wednesday 24th November TBC Sports Hall Athletics
Friday 3rd December All day International Day of People with Disabilities
Friday 10th December All day Christmas Jumper Day fundraiser
Friday 17th December Lunchtime School Christmas dinner (juniors)
Friday 17th December Last day of term
Well done to all
these
children who have
received a
Headteacher’s award
Class 3H
Noah S
Freya T
Megan W
Gregory R
Joseph P
Will H
Millie M
Class 3P
Harry W
Erin U
Daniel S
Eleanor E
Alex K
Serenity G
Class 4H
Lily-R H
Chloe F
Leonard D
Libby W
Savannah K
Lilly B
Class 4HM
Kyresse M
Zoe E
Violet R
Jessica M
Armann P
Eszter D
Class 5M
Freya L
Lily C
Lily C
Leo M
Peyton G
Lilly R
Class 5T
Oliver D
Sienna D
Ergisa V
Vinnie P
Jurijus I
Reggie W
Class 6A
Ryan B
Brooke G
Stefany D
George C
Noah C
Erin M
Class 6L
Lennon P
Charler H
Ruby-Jo G
Daisy P
Amy P
Dickson O-M
Class 6W
George H
Layla C
Betsie J
Annie H
Amie W
Darrel B