Message from John and team, 25th March 2022
Just putting this in again because I like it, from Keswick the other week
Hi everyone,
How is everyone? Happy Mothers’ Day for Sunday. I hope that some of you have benefited in terms of getting a present from the Mothers’ Day sale that’s been running today in the school, which has been really nice
What’s also lovely is the weather allowing everyone to get out a bit more, from Sports trips, to going for walks to just being out at lunchtimes, movement breaks and everything. It’s all so much nicer! It’ll be Easter before we know it, and then the summer term, with all the things that that brings. In fact the team have already started looking at which children will be here in September, and what the Class Teams may look like – already! (They are pretty efficient people here to be honest!)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the blog this week, or at least some of the pictures! Take care, hope to see you in the school at some point in the not-too-distant future, all the best
Red Nose Day!
Red Nose Day is the sort of day that goes down very well here, where everyone has a good time, whilst also thinking about bigger and wider issues – and dresses up and messes about too! It really is one of those days that you remember, and make the school and community what they are. Here are some random and assorted pictures just to give you a flavour. I hope it was good for you wherever you were. We raised £390.50! Enjoy
RND shenanigans in Terry’s class!
James said he enjoyed “wearing the flamingo nose and buying some great cakes”
Shaye enjoyed buying and wearing his red nose for the day
I thought you might like to see again the link to Teddy’s Red Nose Day video – it’s great!
And here are some other lovely photos from Rebecca’s class
And here are some more nice things that happened
Finley!
Throwing things at teachers – quite right too
Marvellous
Achievement & Progress: The Wheel 
The Wheel is where we bring together the measures that we use for how we see progress for our pupils; it’s just a metaphor. There are eight Strands, listed below. All of the eight strands I’ve written about in the past eight weeks are segments of The Wheel and together make up the entirety of it. Here’s a reminder of them
1.Therapy
2.EHC Outcomes
3.Curriculum Pathways
4.Wellbeing
5.Case Study Profile Portraits
6.Key Drivers
7.Appropriate Accredited Awards
8.Destinations & Next Steps
| These eight strands constitute the main ways that we measure the progress of each pupil in the school. Together they form a holistic picture of each pupil, as all the professionals that work here give their professional judgements, and one that allows us to be able to tell very quickly how they are doing at any given time. We look regularly at how each strand is going for each pupil – we’re working out this year how regularly we need to look at each strand
We look at the opinions of all the professionals in the school, and how they think everyone is doing on each strand, and if there is anything to worry about in any area in terms of how they are doing. We talk about what to do about that if it’s the case, whether that is a small, easy thing or a big thing that might be discussed with all parties The point is this: that we have thought about all the things that are important for the progress of each child, and all of our teams look hard regularly about how each pupil is doing on each strand, and what to do about it if they aren’t doing as well as they should be For every pupil to make progress in the things they should be making progress in is what matters, and this is how we’re trying to ensure that that is happening
The Wheel |
|
Therapy Focus – the Sensory Room Sensory issues are so important to so many of our students. Some OTs, and others, do fabulous work in them, and the children get so much out of it. It’s really popular!
Louis working hard waving a sensory umbrella in the magic carpet sensory room so that he and his friends could pop bubbles that had been projected all around them Christopher and Emily exploring foaming and frolicking sea waves (shaving foam!) during a sensory story “The snail on the tail of the whale”
Ellie Mai was enthralled in the sensory room this week and even reached out towards projected images to help retell a sensory story |
So post-16 particularly was a busy hub of excitement on the day, with activities taking place all day long! The cake sale was a massive success as always! Certain brownies went down a treat so you if you managed to get some, lucky you
Cakes. On sale
Lunch time was filled with giddy students as they got the opportunity to drench their teachers, which you can see in the picture above. Thank goodness for the warmer weather because the students had excellent aim. The blind maze challenge in the hall was a success too!
In the afternoon we had a hoot with a quiz followed by a disco dance along in the social area
The Enterprise Group did an amazing job of organising the day and making sure everyone had the chance to take part. Cheers Kat!
Therapy and Education Focus – Amazing Theatre Trip!
Some students from the Engagement Pathway were given the opportunity to visit Northern Stage Theatre in Newcastle, to experience a sensory performance called “2065 Frozen Light”. It was a fully immersive experience, and all the students’ reactions were fabulous
Kian, Gracey and Mattie were thoroughly engrossed throughout the show, engaging with the actors and exploring resources linked to the story. An amazing experience was had by all! It’s a touring group, but it would be great to go again sometime
This is their website and another picture from it https://www.frozenlighttheatre.com/currentshows/2065theatreshow
Max, Gracey and Jay enjoying their trip to the theatre
Subject Focus – Didn’t want you to forget about Reading from last week!
We’ve got a great team on Reading, and this is only going to go from strength to strength. We’re looking forward to how its going to look, and all the links with home. Reading of some kind is huge for everything to do with our pupils’ life!
Subject Focus – Core Self: part of the Resilience Framework
After the last brilliant one – best yet! – on Coping, the new Beating the Odds day is later this month and on Core Self. Louise B the Ed Psych and others have been working on it, and Louise has put together some thoughts here
Elements of the Core Self Strand from The Resilience Framework
- Instil a sense of hope
- Understand other people’s feelings
- Know and understand yourself
- Take responsibility for yourself
- Find time for your talents
- Support to know how to use existing help and solutions for problems
We’re trying to drill down about what is one’s core self. We generated the themes below
Some of the Core Self aspects can be cross referenced with the Zones of Regulation (remember that? If not, I can blog more about it)
- Knowing yourself
- Expressing yourself
- Taking responsibility for yourself
- Being authentic
- Valuing individuality
- Owning your own self with confidence/esteem
- Celebrating uniqueness
- Disability awareness
- Thinking practically about how pupils get help for problems
On The Day, some nice themes will be explored, such as Express Yourself, Art Work, Promoting Talents and Target Setting
These are the names of some of the resources that teachers and others will be using. I know that some of you like to look at these yourselves, or at least just like to see what’s going on
- Resilience is my superpower!
- In or out of my control?
- Things I CAN control
- When I feel worried
- My Getting Unstuck Spinner (how to play and make)
- Even Superheroes need help
- When I am facing a challenge
- The stairway to success
Star of the Week
Ella-Rose has been really strong and courageous this week, and had to be very resilient. Resilience is one of the things that we’ve all been working on all year – so congrats to Ella-Rose, and what a great, strong attitude! Total STAR!!!
Another Star of the Week
For ‘being on fire’ during their maths revision session, it has to be Macey! It was a massive confidence boost for Macey after learning a new topics this year and it was lovely for everyone to see her excitement after contributing some amazing key topic vocab and answers! Very well done, Macey, and 100% Maths STAR!!!
Post-16 STARS!!!!!
Taylor for his wonderful positive attitude this week!
Matthew for independence activities!
Finny for verbal communications on visits and such-like!
Three fabulous musketeers there!
All STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ELTBA Star of the Week
This week we would like to give the ELTBA star of the week to Ansh in Skylarks. Ansh is new to Percy Hedley and this half term he has been working super hard on following his new routines and is making a great progress settling into his new class. His whole team is very proud of the many positive steps he is taking. Ansh, you are a great addition to the class and school, and we’re so glad to have you here. Thank you for being such a STAR!!!
and another!
Here’s a pic of a project Aoife has been working on, which combines two of her loves – dogs and ice hockey. She made the dog biscuits in a therapy session. Aoife also researched dog-safe ingredients and costed out the activity. The dogs thoroughly enjoyed them! STAR!!!!!!!!!
The Tree and the things that are currently important to the school
I’ve put on to this version of the tree the things that we think are important, and that our priorities: Wellbeing for everyone, and developing leadership skills whoever you are
Then in terms of the school, we think that the Curriculum Pathways are the engine of the whole place; that Voice & Influence of key stakeholders runs through everything; and that wider Wellbeing is the most important thing as it over-arches everything. It’s just a way of looking at things, and it gives me another excuse to post a picture of the tree again!
Finally…..
A little late as it’s now the 25th however, but it’s still all good stuff. It’s Neurodiversity Week and there are some useful resources on the following link that may be beneficial for education around disabilities: https://www.neurodiversityweek.com/student-resources. There are events too – I know some of you tap into these kinds of things, so hopefully something maybe useful to you at some point
Neurodiversity Celebration Week
Have a lovely Mothers’ Day if that is your thing, and a lovely weekend whatever your things is. Take care
All the very best to all of you, from all of us here
John S and the team
The Wheel