Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest Sunny Bank news!
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Sunny Bank Scienists
Thu 12 Mar 2026A HUGE shoutout to all the amazing young scientists who showcased their incredible Science experiments at today’s SCIENCE FAIR! Your creativity and hard work truly shined, inspiring us all with your innovative ideas! Keep exploring and dreaming big!
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Afternoon Read
Tue 10 Mar 2026
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Free School Meals for Families who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF)
Tue 10 Mar 2026We would like to let you know that the Government has permanently extended free school meal eligibility to children in families who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF), as long as the household income is below the required thresholds. [gov.uk]
This includes families on visas such as work visas, student visas, spousal visas, or those with no current immigration status. Nationality does not affect eligibility. [gov.uk]
If your family has NRPF and your annual household income is below the threshold for your area (for example, £22,700–£26,300 outside London, depending on the number of children), you may be entitled to free school meals. Families must also have less than £16,000 in savings. [gov.uk]
If you think this might apply to you, please contact the school office. We can support you with the application.
What NRPF Means (in simple terms)
NRPF means a person is not allowed to claim most UK government benefits because of their immigration status.
This could include things like Universal Credit, Child Benefit, or Housing benefit. [gov.uk]People with NRPF can still live in the UK, but they cannot use these public funds until their immigration status changes.
Who might have NRPF?
Examples include people on:
- Work visas
- Student visas
- Spousal/partner visas
- Some families with no official immigration status
[gov.uk]
Important:
Even though these families cannot claim most benefits, their children can get free school meals if the household income is below the required limits.
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Community Update: New OPAL Resources Built by The Paramount Foundation Local Heroes!
Fri 06 Mar 2026We are thrilled to share some wonderful news from our school community! Over the past few weeks, The Paramount Foundation and their incredible team of Local Heroes have been hard at work creating brand new outdoor play resources for OPAL.
Working alongside the brilliant mentors from the Octopus Foundation, the Local Heroes developed new skills in carpentry, teamwork and project planning while building high‑quality, hand‑crafted play equipment that our children will enjoy for years to come.
What They Built for Us:
- A brand‑new Mud Kitchen – perfect for messy play, creativity and imaginative cooking!
- A large Outdoor Chalkboard – encouraging drawing, writing, mark‑making, and big ideas!
- Handmade Wooden Games – promoting teamwork, problem‑solving and joyful play.
These fantastic new additions will make a huge difference to our OPAL playtimes, giving children rich opportunities to explore, create, collaborate and learn through play.
A Huge Thank You!
We are incredibly grateful to The Paramount Foundation and their Local Heroes for their generous support andThe Octopus Foundation for guiding and supporting the team as they built these amazing resources
Their combined effort has truly strengthened our outdoor play offer and brought something special to our school community.
We can’t wait to see the children using these new resources, and we’ll be sharing photos of them in action very soon!
Thank you to everyone involved for helping us make play bigger, better and more brilliant for every child.
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Spotlight on Safeguarding
Wed 04 Mar 2026 -
Storyteller Ed Finch brings stories to life at Sunny Bank
Wed 04 Mar 2026Today we have storyteller Ed Finch in school. Ed has told stories to audiences of all sizes and all ages - from prestigious venues to camp fire circles. Ed keeps everyone from the youngest children to adults enthralled through his animated storytelling and his wicked sense of humour. Ed often uses his amazing collection of instruments to accompany storytelling creating atmosphere and adding emotion through music and sound effects.
For more information - click HERE
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Holiday Activity & Food (HAF) Programme
Wed 04 Mar 2026EVouchers for the Holiday Activity & Food (HAF) Programme have now been issued to eligible families. If you would like your children/young people to get involved in fun activities and enjoy some free, healthy food over the Easter Holidays, please visit the HAF website to see where activities are taking place. For more information on how to use your voucher, please click here.
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STEM week
Wed 04 Mar 2026I am excited to tell you that our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) week will be taking place on the week of 9th March this year, where we will be celebrating STEM with schools around the country.
We have planned lots of opportunities for the children to become scientists. There will be investigations, assemblies and lessons that have a science link to them. In addition, we will host our very own Science Fair and some winners from this will join a Science Fair involving all of the TILT Trust Schools.
Our Science Fair will be held on Thursday 12th March and winners from school will be selected and announced at the fair. There will be a winner from all year groups from Reception to year 6. 4 of the winners will then attend Minster Primary School on Friday 13th March.
For the Science Fair we are inviting each child to participate by creating a scientific project at home that will need to be brought into school ready for Thursday 12th March. The project itself can be simple but it must include scientific explanations including diagrams, pictures, written explanations and/or photos.
Ideas have been shared with children in assembly and there are websites detailed in this letter to support parents and children to create a project. There is a lot of information online – if you google search ‘science projects for children’. We want the children to enjoy investigating the world around them and believe this is a great way to develop their scientific curiosity and understanding.
Parents are invited to Sunny Bank’s Science Fair on Thursday 12th March at 2:00pm as part of our termly parent open afternoon. This will be held in the main hall and entrance/exit will be via the side gate. We had such a fantastic number and range of projects entered last year and are hoping this year’s fair will be bigger and better!
http://www.education.com/science-fair/
Thank you in advance as always for your continued support as partners in your children’s education.
Kind regards
Mrs Willing (Science Lead)
