News and Stars from John & the PHS Team Friday 3rd February

Hi everyone,

Happy February! Spring is in sight! I hope you’re week has been good. Just like last week, it’s been very busy here – which is always a good thing. Please do look out for something that you like in the blog this week – there’s great PE stuff from Helen, Outdoor Learning from Hannah, numbers, stories, lots and lots of STARS!!! and some regular things too

If you haven’t had enough of us by the time you read this, you can get on over to Eileen’s blog which has interesting things in it, or just jump on to the website, either for PHS itself, or the whole Foundation. And there is always activity on the socials too….

We’re approaching half way through the school year, and starting to look back at the first half and forward to the next one. I hope you have a lovely weekend with the family whenever it comes for you

All the best and take care

😊 John & the PHS Team 😊

Number Day

Do you remember last week when we talked about Number Day?

Listen up, Speak up

The NSPCC have launched a free 10-minute digital training, which is empowering every adult to know what to do if a child needs help, and where to go if you need support yourself

Message from the NSPCC

Half a million children suffer abuse and neglect a year in the UK

But there’s something we can all do to change that

That’s why we’re encouraging every adult in the UK to complete the 10 minute training session

Listen up and learn a little with our Connect the DOTS training. We’ll show you where to go if you need support, and how to speak up for children who need it. Because that little bit of knowledge can help keep a lot of children safe

Use the link below to sign up

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/support-us/listen-up-speak-up/sign-up/

Well it happened today! There were some activities throughout the day to take part in it! The NSPCC Number Day, remember, is about appreciating maths and having fun with numbers whilst also coming together to raise awareness for the fight against child abuse

Students have had the opportunity to complete various activities throughout the day including a Treasure Hunt, Quizzes, Baking, Measuring and many more tasks. We will follow next week with some fantastic pictures of our students getting involved in all different subjects and experiencing Number in lots of different ways

We continue to use NSPCC resources to provide our students with the most update PSHE and safeguarding education

There is still time to take part in some of these fun activities that you could do at home

• Count how many clouds you can see
• Baking
• Measure a distance with your feet
• Sing ’10 green bottles’
• Shopping within a budget

This is all great, guys – well done to everyone involved. It feels like two good things in one!

Maths and MOVE

Oh my, it’s those Skylarks again! They really are a special class!

“MOVEing with Maths! The class were in different positions throwing beanbags into a hoop and counting how many landed inside and outside of the hoop.

Reading

It’s been National Storytelling Week! And we like that kind of thing!

In fact, there’s been a lot going on this week in honour of National Storytelling Week. Classes all across school have been listening to, creating, and sharing a variety of tales. Imaginations have gone wild and pupils’ creativity has been in abundance. There have been ‘Story Stone Stories’, ‘Mad libs’, ‘Biographies’, ‘What Happens Next?’… all manner of imagination games and storytelling activities. Some of these have been written down, recorded and shared from class to class; and it really has been an amazing sight to see

Not only have the pupils shown their love of stories, but the teachers, support staff, therapists and senior leaders have as well. Adults throughout school have been sharing their favourite stories, reading to the pupils and importantly, spending time in new settings

Many thanks to our fabulous Literacy Squad!

On Tuesday the Woodpeckers and Skylarks visited the Kingfishers to listen to Hannah tell a fantastic story about 3 animal friends who live in Africa. All the students loved the singing, and the puppets!

Then on Wednesday the Skylarks invited their peers to take part in a sensory story of ‘Down on the Farm’. The students explored all the different resources, whilst learning why some people use sensory stories, rather than reading. There was lots of fun had exploring mud (chocolate!), water and wool. This is a really lovely and great story – well done and thanks to all!

Attendance

Thank-you again for working with us on attendance, a difficult issue, and a particular thank you because our attendance has indeed improved!

What’s so nice about that is that we are doing so many lovely things in school every day, and we want our pupils to be a part of that as much as they possibly can. Sometimes, of course, appointments and other difficult things get in the way of that. A huge part of the improvement in attendance is down to you guys at home, so huge thanks for working on that with us

One way that you have done that is in submitting the Holiday Request Forms, which I very much appreciate. Obviously the answers aren’t always what people want to read, but we have to go through the processes that have been laid down, and do it properly. I appreciate the engagement. We’ve had Angela, the North Tyneside Attendance whom some of you have met, in for another meeting this week, and she has been very helpful in all aspects of this

Please do look at the draft policy on the website too; thanks again. I appreciate some aspects of this topic are hard

Outdoor Learning Excellent Stuff of the Week

From Hannah

This week it has been National Storytelling Week, so in Outdoor Learning we have been using Story Stones to help prompt our creativity and come up with out own stories. Here are some pictures of the Doves exploring the stones and coming up with some lovely stories

Thanks Hannah. Sounds like great lessons all round

Lesson of the Week – Outdoor Learning with the Magpies! Of course the Magpies!!!!!

The Magpies were keeping warm in the Outdoor Learning area this week with the help of the small campfire.  The students helped to find dry sticks and had a go at using a flint and steel!  It wasn’t as easy as it looks!  The students were able to recognise some of the dangers associated with fire and followed the safety instructions brilliantly! They enjoyed a toasted marshmallow! I can’t believe they managed it and got it alight! Well done John’s class!

Here are Camilla and Evan toasting marshmallows, and the whole class collecting three different sized sticks for the fire. Great pics! Great class! Great Outdoor Learning area!

Stars of the Week!

With added School Values!

OK, here we go……………

The ELTBA Star of the Week is…..Josh showing leadership and teamwork!!!!!!

Josh has shown amazing leadership and teamwork with his team in Outdoor Learning 😊 Great work Josh! That is completely STAR!!! quality!

ACCREDITATION Stars of the Week! – Teamwork!!!!!

…and there loads, so that must be a great department!

Callum for being so resilient and engaged in Maths.  He did lots of surveys and didn`t just rely on his laptop, ha! Well done, Callum! STAR!!!

Jamie showed true resilience during a technical hitch in the ICDL exam, just calmly carried on and PASSED!!! Huge congratulations, Jamie! STAR!!!

The whole of Natalie’s class demonstrated fantastic teamwork during storytelling week.  They all worked together and produced a wonderful story. Great stuff there, guys, STARS all!!!

Kara Rayner showed awesome resilience during her hydrotherapy session.   She floated with only 1 woggle for support and managed to kick her legs as well. This is an amazing achievement for Kara. Congrats STAR!!! person

Harrison for showing teamwork by helping his classmate to remember his V.O.C.A for lessons

Charlie for being resilient this week coping really well with having a new taxi

Oliver for respecting the rules of walking to and from the swimming pool this week

STARS ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ENGAGEMENT Star of the Week! Resilience with Louis!

Louis from Albatross’ is our STAR!!! of the Engagement Pathway this week.

He made fantastic progress in using his arms to play a ball game in the hydro pool. That’s excellent, Louis – true STSR!!! Behaviour! Well done

Therapy Star of the Week!

Makaton Signs of the Week

It’s always really good when Julie links these topics with other things that are relevant to us – and she always does!

This week its National Story Telling Week, so we have: Book/story, Read, Look and Listen

Here are some links to see The Singing Hands telling signed stories on YouTube:

And there’s lots more online!!!!!

Thanks Julie!

Cool PE/Sport-type thing

Another Duke of Edinburgh expedition took place last Thursday. The group planned their walk around the local area including the lake, covering a distance of two miles. The group followed a map taking it in turns to find the clues given to them. It was a cold fresh day, but it certainly did not put them off

This is the last part of their DofE Bronze Award the work they have all put into this award has been fantastic, a huge Well Done! Take a look at some the pictures that Helen has sent, they look really good

And finally…..

As part of Mental Health Week, students following the Engagement Pathway will be trying new things that bring joy and excitement!  We will be sharing photographs from our new experiences next week in the blog

Look – X is for excitement! Ha!

All the very best to all of you at home, from all of us here at the school

from John & the Team here at PHS