Message from John and the Team: Friday 29th April 2022
Hi everyone
It’s good to be writing this to you in the Summer Term – obviously the best term! I hope you all had a lovely holiday together, and that the weather stayed good for you all round. It’s lovely to be back, to see the children here, and to have some sunshine and better weather. There’s been lots of sport already, as you can see from this picture of some students doing the Active Mile, there have been exciting therapy activities, and all the classes are getting on with their summer plans, topics, themes and reading – as well, maybe, as exams! There’s a lot to do this term, and exams or similar is one of them for about twenty-five of our students. There’s also some nice news at the end too about a few exciting events
Have a look at the food pictures too, and I hope you enjoy the other pictures. We look forward to start seeing people more in the school from now on – fingers crossed! – and moving ahead with many of those plans that have been put on hold for so long
Anyway, nice to be talking to you again, please do enjoy the blog and the long weekend. All the best to all of you, from all of us here
You said, We Listened: Lunches!
I thought you may be interested in the Taster Day that we had yesterday and today. It went down really well and there was a massive buzz in the dining room as everyone tried new or different things and “fed” (sorry) back on them. There must have been twenty different things to try, but this was part of the menu and the feedback questions. It may give you a rough idea at least of what we did. There were all sorts of options and styles of cooking. Veggie meatballs were excellent! We’re going to have these six times a year
Here’s a few of the photos for some of the foods that were tried. There were also questions about what they liked and didn’t like, options for puddings, and a few other things. The point about all of it is just to try and make things better, and school dinners are a good topic to do that for!
Some of the guys might not have been so keen at the start, but by the end were really into it!
Mmmm, cauliflower, my total favourite!
Here’s some of the things that the students said
- Aiden – I tried everything and I loved it. It was the best meal ever
- Laiton – I liked being able to try new things. I would like to do it again.
- Nikhit – I tried the wraps. I really liked the different foods and asked if they were doing it again the next day!
- Bobbie – I tried the Chinese chicken. It was lovely and hope it will now be on the menu
- Grace – enjoyed it so much she went up for seconds
Achievement & Progress
Quick re-cap: The Wheel is an easy way to show how we bring together the many ways that our pupils make progress. These are the Strands
- Therapy
- EHC Outcomes
- Curriculum Pathways
- Wellbeing
- Case Study Profile Portraits
- Key Drivers
- Appropriate Accredited Awards
- Destinations & Next Steps
Measuring progress in all of these different ways is holistic, fits the lessons we teach, is based on the professional judgements of our excellent staff, is monitored regularly, and indicates where we need to intervene to improve things. The Voice & Influence of our pupils and those of you at home are threaded through it. We’re improving it all the time and at the moment just arranging how and when we talk over this individually with you all; we’ll get back to you soon with details
The Wheel |
Wellbeing Champions
Obviously Wellbeing is one of the most important things here – it’s one of our Key Drivers – and we now have some great staff who are Wellbeing Champions. With the rest of the Wellbeing Team and other colleagues, they’ve been working with some of our pupils on various topics that are important to them. This kind of work is a really good addition to the school. They worked on some lovely things with the pupils in the last half term and they’ve already started on a new project which will help some others Have a look at something they produced below Therapy Focus – Eye Gaze Our students who access computers and VOCAs using Eye-Gaze have created amazing art work using their eyes to independently access creative software. Some of their work is now displayed in school for staff and students to see. It’s really good – clever and creative!!!!! There’s an interesting website if you’re interested in this kind of thing https://eyegaze.com/ Those brilliant Eye-Gaze artists: Ellie Mai, Christopher, Charlie, Nat, Alex, Katie, Owen, Eve, Tyler, Leroy, Nieve and Dylan. Fantastic job by all of them! Group of the Week: Sandpipers
As a part of their theme The World Around Us: Great Britain, and to start the Queen’s 70th jubilee celebrations, students in Sandpipers began the first of their MOVEing with the Queen series! Looks like it was great fun Nieve worked on maintaining a sitting position and head control while tracking one of the Queen’s horses Jack enjoyed wearing the crown George tried out different types of tea! |
Also a Very Nice Group – and Sunflower Watch!
Sandpipers are a lovely class. Another lovely class is Woodpeckers who are doing something great and growing sunflowers. I don’t want to jinx their growth and say that we will put a picture of their growth in every week, but I snapped them this morning and this is what they looked like. Who doesn’t love sunflowers? This is what they look like now at least anyway…..
Let’s see how they grow!
Subject Focus – the Active Mile in PE
I mentioned this last time, and it’s such a good activity. As of this morning, the school had done 124 miles but loads of classes were planning to add to the total today
The Active Mile supports the national Daily Mile initiative but includes school pupils of all ages from North Tyneside and encourages young people (and older ones!) to participate in a range of activities in order to become more active
It is such a simple activity to do but the pupils love it. Great stuff. Hi guys! *Waves back*
Nice one, Harvey – keep everyone hydrated!
Class Poem
The fabulous Blackbirds did this lovely poem when they were looking at alliteration in their English sessions this week, and now it’s up in the corridor outside their room, which is also nice. It’s great to see this kind of work being done, and that class is such a nice class – all of them! (Not sure about the McDonalds, but I love the rest of it! ????)
Engagement Star of the Week
Nieve is the STAR!!! of the Engagement Pathway this week for the great achievement in working on control and tracking! Well done, Nieve!
ELTBA Star of the Week
This week we would like to give the ELTBA star of the week to Mohammed in Starlings. Over the past few months he has worked so hard in his swimming lessons and has become more confident in the water. He always listens well to the instructions and has super impressed the staff at the pool with his perseverance and determination to swim. He managed to swim a whole width this week and will hopefully be soon moved up to the large pool. AmazingMohammed, you’re a STAR!!! ????
Another Great Star of the Week!
Bobbie from Tracy’s needs to get to be a STAR!!! This week, as he has joined the True Colours drama group with students from across school. He took this in his stride, meeting new staff and students, which boosted his confidence
Also in that class
Logan, Drae, Mattie and Bobbie have, even after coming back after Easter, remembered all their reading and phoncs, and continued to make progress in their Essential Letters and Sounds daily sessions. All STARS!!!!!! (especially for Reading!)
Finally…..#1 PROM!
Yes, our first official Prom will be happening at the school in July! We have a marvellous Prom Committee who are busy planning it all, and there will all sorts of fun things to do there. More info to come in the following weeks!
This one is particularly important because it’s the first, but also because we are inviting leavers from the past couple of years, whose plans have been disrupted because of Covid. Hopefully as many students as possible will want to come and it will all be a bit of a good laugh
Finally finally…..
And although Eileen will I am sure cover it in her blog, we also have the Summer Fair happening on the 16th July too. I really enjoyed the (Autumn) Summer Fair last year, and it was great to meet more of you than I had done before. We’ll be able to give update son this, and our marvellous PTA will undoubtedly have loads to say on the whole matter! Can’t wait!
Stop press!
The Active Mile amount is now up to 150 mile!!!!!!! The Skylarks have been down and done some now too! Well done everyone!
All the very best to all of you, from all of us here
John and the Team
The Wheel
More of that food!