Welcome to TaSMAT

We’ve had such a fun World Book Day this year! The children enjoyed learning about ‘The Crayon’s Love our Planet’ and completing a variety of engaging activities to support their understanding of this. As ever, the costumes were amazing across the school and there was a real buzz and a sense of excitement everywhere! The children enjoyed the hunt for golden tickets hidden in books and they had some great guesses for the ‘Masked Reader’ video! The day was a great opportunity to celebrate reading across the school. At Torfield, we recognise the importance of reading as a medium for language, communication and understanding of the curriculum and wider world. With this in mind, this is just a reminder to continue to encourage reading at home! Thank you and happy reading!

Dear Parent/Carer, A date for your calendar. The school photographers are coming into school to take pupil and staff photos on the morning of Thursday 21st March 2024. Therefore, can pupils please wear smart clothes whether it be school uniform or PE kit on that day. Thank you.

Torfield had the joy of celebrating Chinese New Year together. It was a festival of colour.  Miss Daniell and Miss Tang planned an amazing selection of activities for the children to take part in.  Children wrote their name in Chinese script; they made some beautiful Chinese lanterns and the highlight of the week was the dragon parade. Miss Daniell and a team of children worked tirelessly to form the dragon.  Parker Road had their dragon visitor in the morning and were a little surprised when he began dancing for them.  At Croft Road, it was a real joy watching the children take turns as classes to dance the dragon to the drum beat around the school hall. The artwork the children had completed during the week added life and colour to the spectacle around the school.  Sweet and sour, noodles and prawn crackers for lunch added to the day’s experience, as did the fortune cookies enjoyed in class.  The children really enjoyed the holistic look at Chinese New Year.

This term the children at Torfield have been choreographing and learning a wide range of dances from different cultures and traditions. Each class performed the dance they had learnt at our annual Dance Showcase which saw all the Croft Road children coming together to watch and enjoy each performance. Miss Booth also used the Dance Showcase an opportunity to help pupils learn and understand about different careers they could pursue in the creative industries, including working as an usher and being a professional choreographer. It was a delight to see all the children enjoying watching and performing dance, we can’t wait for next year’s showcase! Parents and carers can see their child’s performance on their Class Dojo page.

In our celebrations assemblies this term we have been recognising and rewarding our pupils’ fantastic attendance. This has included celebrating pupils with attendance above 95% for the year so far, pupils who have achieved ten out of ten attendance each week, and pupils who have shown the biggest improvements in their attendance over the term. All of the pupils received extra smiley faces for their achievements which they were able to exchange for prizes!

On Thursday 18th January some pupils in Year 9 visited the Hydro Hotel in Eastbourne as part of ESCC Open Doors programme.  We had a very interesting tour from the General Manager who told us all about the hotel and how it runs.  We looked in the conservatory, the restaurant, the kitchen, the laundry store, a suite, a bedroom, the ballroom and the function rooms.  We saw lots of people working in all of these areas and found out about jobs in hospitality and hotels.  It was a really enjoyable visit and the pupils behaved fantastically and asked some great questions.

Saxon Mount School is closed to pupils for staff training on Monday 19th February 2024, straight after the half term holiday.

Year 11 English Students went on a brilliant trip to The Old Vic Theatre in London to see A Christmas Carol. It was “different from the film” and “not what I was expecting but really good” were some of the comments made.

Earlier on in the term, we took a group of year 8 & 9 pupils to Headstart school for a football fixture. They all played really well, showed great sportsmanship and represented Saxon Mount wonderfully. The final score was 8 – 2 to US!

This term pupils in year 7 have been taking park in kickboxing classes run by Sarah from Upgrade Martial Arts. They have been learning lots of basic skills in a safe and fun environment. Today they had their grading and received a red belt and certificate. Also a special mention to Ben and Hughie who received red/black belt for working extra hard and showing excellent effort and commitment over the past 7 weeks.

This month Antarctica and Europe classes enjoyed a very special visit to the Bright Foundation’s Barn Theatre to benefit from a workshop and screening of The Snowman by The Enchanted Cinema.

Last week, a ASF pupils had marvellous time joining in with the science workshop. To give our science topic a bit of a wow factor, Alice from the Herstmonceux Science Centre brought in lots of hands on experiments related to the properties of materials.

We would recommend parents read this document which contains all the information parents and carers need to know about Post 16 Transition.

Earlier this term, our School Council had the important job of choosing which Christmas designs would feature in the 2024 Torfield Art Calendar. Today, they got the chance to see how the designs they chose look. They also got to see their class artwork and as you can see they were suitably impressed!

Last March we changed how we teach phonics at Torfield and introduced Sounds-Write lessons for pupils across the school. We are really pleased with how Sounds-Write has improved phonics lessons at Torfield and we know from feedback from parents and carers that they are seeing a real improvement in how well our children can decode words and how accessible the Sounds-Write reading books are which children bring home. Sounds-Write has been such a success at Torfield that we have been included on their list of Success Stories. You can read all about it here: https://sounds-write.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Torfield-Special-School-UK-October-2023.pdf/p>

Our year 8 pupils had a great time this week visiting the Hastings Contemporary. We looked at the exhibitions and took a tour of the gallery, we took part in drawing activities and made our own cyanotype prints.

School is looking very yellow today for Youngminds mental health charity. Well done to all those getting involved and donating.

A quick peek at the preparations we have begun with Facility pupils on the Duke of Edinburgh Award. This term, the two Duke of Edinburgh groups will be organising a fundraiser to buy sports equipment and pens and pencils to send to a school in Hastings, Sierra Leone.

Saxon Mount School are delighted to share that we have achieved a Skills Builder Gold Award this year.

We are very excited to announce that we will be running an after-school football club for girls and boys in Key Stage 2. If you would like to register a place for your child or find out more about it please message the school office on Class Dojo.