Our school vision focuses on "Working together to be happy; to flourish; to succeed". We are keen to promote children's charitable outreach and support all children to make a wider difference. We help others in a range of ways.
Psalm 133:1: "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!"
The children have learned to take more care of their belongings and surroundings, learning to appreciate all that they have and feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful area. As a result, the children walked around the local community in order to find any areas for improvement. Consequently, they organised a park clean up, where they completed gardening tasks, cleaned the equipment and collected rubbish. The children often bring rubbish into school that they have found on their journey to / from school or the surrounding area.
Dementia Friends
As part of their Design Technology work, some children from Sleights created their own fiddle mats, containing different mechanisms and designs. This work was part of a bigger project, designed to support Dementia UK. The children carried out lessons about the condition and how we can help. The completed fiddle mats were presented with neighbours in the local care home, as well as family members. Each child involved in the project was awarded by Dementia UK with a 'Dementia Friendly Award'.
Toilet Twinning
Our Partnership with the Zambezi Sunrise Trust
We are incredibly excited to launch our partnership with the Zambezi Sunrise Trust, who support the work of Linda Community Primary School, in Zambia. Trustees from the Trust have visited school to share the work of the charity and their impact.
In 2024, we raised over £1600 for the Zambezi Sunrise Trust through events planned and organised by our brilliant children. Find out more here: Zambezi Sunrise Trust 2024
In 2023, as a school, we came together, with families, to raise over awareness and funds. Our hall was bursting with cake, raffle prizes and families, all in school to support the work of the Zambezi Sunrise Trust. The efforts and support of our children and families raised a staggering £573.05! This bough 113 much needed textbooks for Linda Community Primary School in Zambia.
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In addition, school families sponsored 44 knitted bears, donating each one to a child in Zambia. These Sleights' bears will make 44 children very happy! |
The children have enjoyed writing letters and spending time on virtual calls with pupils from Linda Community Primary School, Zambia. This has been an invaluable way to learn about similarities and differences in our lifestyles. The gallery below shows a call where pupils from Zambezi and Sleights asked lots of questions of each other. The pupils from Linda Community Primary School can also be seen holding decorations sent from pupils at Sleights.
Raising funds for the Children's Heart Unit Fund
Everyone at Sleights wore red to help raise funds for the Children's Heart Unit Fund (CHUF) at Freeman's Hospital, Newcastle. Our school family has seen first hand the excellent work of the charity. The children enjoyed learning about how the charity supports families and some of the ways that their money would help too.
Throughout the day, the children enjoyed making lots of heart related art, as well as creating their own jokes which could be told in the hospital to cheer families up - we even found out that the charity has a clown doctor to help do this! The children also wrote prayers and created their own messages of support.
In the afternoon, we opened the school and had a huge bake sale and raffle - the hall was jampacked!
The final total was a massive £800. This staggering amount is the largest amount our school has raised for a charity in many years and something everyone should be immensely proud of! The Children’s Heart Unit Fund raises vital funds to support children and their families requiring lifechanging operations and care. Your money will make a real difference.
Supporting the families of Ukraine
Together with our children and families, as a school community we worked together to create a huge donation for the children and families of Ukraine, as they battle challenging times. The response was overwhelming and showcased the care, love and respect for our global neighbours.
Working with Hope Whitby
Children across Key Stage Two have been working hard to celebrate the work of Hope Whitby - a local Church group, committed to supporting families experiencing difficult times. In school, we work with Bec Coates, who is a leader of Hope Whitby. The children have created their own newspaper reports about Hope to share the message of their great work and provide information to families about how they can help too.
Hedgehog Heroes
The Learners are leading the way to help everyone at Sleights become a hedgehog hero! As part of our work to help hedgehogs, the Learners work hard to improve our school site and our knowledge about what we can do to help the hedgehogs.
This great work has included some practical work in the forest - hunting for hog life and creating posters to promote key messages. These were spotted all around the town!
As a result of the children's hard work, Sleights was successfully awarded a Silver Hedgehog Heroes Award.
Together, we can change the world
Our school curriculum was planned to support children change the world. As part of the curriculum, each class explored rights of the child, before considering how they believed the world could be changed. To help their change, each class was gifted £10 and a challenge to make the money grow.
Over a number of weeks, each class identified a cause, with a clear rationale, before planning and hosting their own events. These events included a bring and buy clothes sale, raising £400 for the World Wildlife Foundation and a pizza and movie night for Dementia UK.
Helping pandas
After learning that the panda is at risk of extinction when reading 'The Fire
work Maker's Daughter', the Discoverers made it their mission to do something about this! So, they set about raising funds through a movie and pizza night to sponsor a Panda with the WWF. Each month, they make a donation to the charity and have their own panda bear in the classroom (known as Bobby) as an ongoing reminder of their commitment.
Read our Whitby Gazette article here: We adopted a panda by eating pizza!
Linking with the older community of Sleights
Children have visited Esk Hall care home, in Sleights. The children have been helping the residents there to engage in different activities. The children have read poems to them, and shared stories, as well as simply talking to them about their lives and learning more about their experiences. They played games and encouraged the elderly to be pushed out of their comfort zone, playing catch on the lawn and playing Connect 4.
The children were always welcomed with juice and biscuits and have thoroughly enjoyed building these relationships with people whom then usually wouldn’t have chance to spend time with. As a result of this time together, the children are learning to consider how their actions affect the lives of others and how simply giving their time can have a positive impact on the world.
Improving our local environment
The children have learned to take more care of their belongings and surroundings, learning to appreciate all that they have and feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful area. As a result, the children walked around the local community in order to find any areas for improvement. Consequently, they organised a park clean up, where they completed gardening tasks, cleaned the equipment and collected rubbish. The children often bring rubbish into school that they have found on their journey to / from school or the surrounding area.
