News, Messages & Stars from John & the PHS Team Friday 23rd June 2023

National Writing Day (or what we like to call Percy Hedley’s National Writing Week!) is still going strong. Students and staff all across school have been composing their thoughts and ideas.

Using their writing and composition functionally in lessons to record data, send emails, make choices and even just to pass notes to their friends.

There’s been poetry & lyrics, adventure stories, weekend news, coding, equations and sums… all manner of writing for all manner of reasons, and it has been fantastic to see.

KS4 have been using props and costumes to help them generate their ideas for a whole department story, while Post 16’s drama group have been doing some ‘3 word storytelling’.

All across school, students have been using their imagination and ability to choose and suggest their ideas to create something special.

It isn’t over yet and watch this space for next week to see some snippets of their stories.

The Literacy Squad

Thanks Philip, that is really good stuff. Literacy is going to be one of the headings in our School Priorities Plan next year, so this is a great start already! And here’s a few pictures too:

This week staff in school have worked with Gail Forbes who is the Prevent Lead within Newcastle Council.  Prevent is part of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy that aims to stop people becoming terrorists and support those who are susceptible to extremist views.  It is a multi-agency approach to safeguard people at risk of radicalisation, so we as a school have a duty of care to safeguard our pupils and ensure that those who are susceptible to radicalisation have the education and support to ensure they are safe at all times.

Staff heard about cases involving children as young as 12 from the local areas, the signs and triggers for these cases, and the impact this had on the children and their families.  We also heard about some subtle signs to look out for such as slang vocabulary words and different numbers (who knew the number 18 means Adolf Hitler!).

Within our safeguarding letter this term, and in our online safety blog, we will be providing you with some support and training available to parents to help to spot the signs of radicalisation and show you how to report it in the holidays if you are worried about a child.  Please look out for this in our coming communications.

For now, more information can be found on the Prevent section of our Safeguarding page on the school website, or at the following link:

Love to hear about trips out, especially now the weather is so good. Goodness, do you remember when we couldn’t go out on trips for a few years? It’s awful to think back about that period. In any case, here is Hannah with some thoughts about her class trip.

Kingfishers had a fantastic trip to South Shields beach this week.  The weather was perfect for a stroll along the sand.  We saw two enormous jellyfish which had washed up and saw the boats going out and coming in again.  We used the beach wheelchairs next to the Surf Centre which let us get right down to the waters’ edge and we had a little paddle.  Even though it was a hot day, the sea was very cold!  Afterwards, we walked along the prom, watching the seagulls, listening to the sound of the waves and enjoying all the sights and sounds of the seaside.  It was wonderful!

Lovely stuff, thanks Hannah and the Kingfishers. And are there photos by any chance? Aha! There are! And they look lovely…..

Here is another lovely one. Everyone’s favourite, Beamish – and not just for the fish and chips! This was a really interesting trip with serious issues in mind. Here is Chris explaining it:

Humanities Trip to Beamish

As part of their humanities unit award on global warming and to support the students’ understanding of how technology has changed over time we took to the road to visit Beamish Museum and grounds. A key part of this trip was for students to be able to understand how the lives of people in the past relied less on technology and to investigate whether this would reduce their carbon footprint.

Along with enjoying trams, sweetshops and beautiful landscapes the students made some excellent observations, such as:

‘The people didn’t have as much technology’

‘There must have been less pollution as people didn’t have as many cars.’

‘People did the work of machines.’

In addition to understanding how the lives of people have changed in relation to our carbon footprint; the pupils also practised the skills of using money, accessing public transport and initiating communication with members of the public.

Something that the Literacy Squad would be delighted to hear I’m sure…..some great work in phonics by some of our top guys! Bobbie, Drae and Mattie have done some outstanding work in ELS and deserve a big shout out! Bobbie did some great handwriting skills on the ELS presentation and becoming more confident in speaking, and Mattie did great handwriting in ELS. Well done, guys, a lot of this stuff isn’t easy at all!

Check out the new FoPHS logo!!!!!

The FoPHS had their meeting! Thanks for taking part and attending! And thanks to the FoPHS for all of their support for the school

The Friends are always looking for volunteers for events!  If you can offer any support, please contact Eileen at e.robinson@percyhedley.org.uk

Go FoPHS!

‘Research makes it clear that effective partnership with parents has a major impact on the learning of children and young people.’

We would like to give you an update of progress made towards achieving the LPPA.

There are five stages in the LPPA process and there is a strong thread of evaluation throughout the process.

Stage 1: We have successfully completed the school self-evaluation.  √

Stage 2: We prepared an action plan, which sets out the evidence we need to achieve each key performance indicator.  √

Stage 3: Implementation of actions and portfolio building.  We are currently working at this stage.

Stage 4: Interim assessment of progress.  This has been booked for the last week of the academic year, so that we can provide you with outcomes of our findings in September.  √

Stage 5: Verification leading to achievement of the award.   Our timescale is to achieve this award by December 2023.  We will not be ‘resting on our laurels’ but will continue to improve and build on engaging parents, carers and families in our school life.

We love to hear from our parents and families as the more we communicate the better the relationship between school and home grows.

Tracy and the LPPA team

Contact t.smithson@percyhedley.org.uk

Thanks to everyone for all the support and feedback on the Attendance Policy. This is on the website, and just states what I’ve been saying in the blog for months now, just in a bit more detail. The simple fact is that we want to have the pupils in the school as much as is sensibly possible so that we can do as much good work with them as we possibly can. Thanks for working with us on this. Here again is the letter I sent out a while ago

Requests for leave of absence during term time

As you may be aware, amendments to The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 make it clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances, and that Headteachers should determine the number of days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted. Some circumstances are of course exceptional, and we are happy to support these in whichever way we can.

Thank you for working with us on this matter; the attendance situation at our school has slightly improved but we need to continue to try and address some areas of concern moving forwards.

We are currently receiving a significant number of holiday requests that do not fit the definition of exceptional circumstances; these will continue to be unauthorised going forward, as they have been recently. However, despite the fact that these requests not being authorised, we are still seeing a significant number of pupils being taken out of school.

Exceptional circumstances are, for example, weddings, family graduations, significant one-off events, bereavements, religious observances, some forces leave, respite on occasions, or unexpected family crises – for just a day or two. Leave is at the Headteacher’s discretion.

We want our students to maximise the time that they are in school to best prepare them for their next steps and adulthood. We also have a duty to support the placements of students in school in relation to our agreements with local authorities who support their places here.  We know that pupils make more progress when they are in school and it is therefore important that they attend whenever they possibly can.

The government document, ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’, to which our policy refers, has been in place since September 2022. This guidance is very clear about persistent and severe absence, and the routes available to schools to address concerns, including legal intervention.

Because of this I’m letting you know that from September 2023 we will seriously consider using more means available to us than we are using now for unauthorised holidays in term time. Up until now, in conjunction with the local authority, we have mainly been using supportive methods. However, if the situation persists then we will consider, in certain cases everything, up to and including fines and further legal action, as per the national guidance.

I appreciate this letter may cause concern amongst some of you and may require you to reconsider plans moving forward.  We have tried to be sensitive to the needs of the families of our students and have taken a gradual approach to this issue. I have referred to it many times and written about it here in the school blog.

We are committed to improving attendance to ensure that more of our students make the best possible progress. As I said at the start, thank you for the support of an overwhelming number of you – it means a great deal – and I do appreciate how difficult this issue is for some. I hope we can continue to work together constructively on this for everyone’s benefit

Toby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He’s a STAR!!!!!🌟

Toby one of our ELTBA students, was one of the first pupils to be enrolled on to our MOVE program back in 2021. Since then he has worked so hard, with his supported walking, writing and sitting. This week he smashed a big one of his targets, to sit unaided on one of our class chairs. He is now asking to be out of his wheelchair and on to his chair in every lesson. He’s just amazing -well done Toby!

STAR!!!!!!!!!

ENGAGEMENT STAR OF THE WEEK!

The Engagement STAR of the Week is Millie from Kingfishers!!!!!

Millie has shown amazing resilience when using the tilt table and working hard on positive looking within lessons and social times. Well done Millie!

STAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

KS4 STARS!!! of the Week!

Teamwork and Respect

Charlie

For being a superSTAR supporter at the Wanderers Athletic, and being supportive of his entire team! Cheering them on and checking in on those who felt unwell. STAR!!!

More than that – SPORTSTAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Resilience

Callum

For managing to cope with hay fever and taking care of his own health. STAR!!!

Francis

For managing really well with post-16 transition

Teamwork

Josh

For leading his team during the Duke of Edinburgh session, practising building the tent in preparation for the expedition

Respect

Jack

For respecting the needs of his friends by managing his time effectively during weekly swimming sessions

Kristian

For respecting the artwork when out on a school trip at the Laing art gallery – he loved the lemon painting

POST-16 STARS OF THE WEEK

There are some really good storied here this week, from students taking exams, so exploding drinks! All good!

Respect

Finny

For working so hard in his spare time to prepare for his Maths exam.  Well done!

Resilience

The whole of 6PH for managing to do 3 exams in 3 days.   What an achievement!!

Also…

Milly for diving into the deep end of the pool.  Wow!

She has also shown great maturity this week

Resilience and Respect

James

For appropriately handling a difficult situation.   His orange drink exploded over a stranger in Greggs.  The stranger deserves a star for his wonderful sense of humour.  Brilliant!

Teamwork

Eve, Benjamin, Finny and Grace M for a fantastic presentation to Souzy from NE12.  Aamazing!

ANOTHER MASSIVE STAR OF THE WEEK!!!!!

Wait till you read about this one!

Olivia has been nominated for a Love South Tyneside Award which celebrates the fantastic work of unsung heroes who do amazing things across South Tyneside. She has received a special pin and a letter from the Office of the Mayor.

Olivia will attend an Awards Ceremony at Customs House in July, where the winner will be revealed

Olivia gets up early on a weekend to sell tombola tickets on behalf of Waves. She is hard-working, polite, friendly and chatty

What a great thing to do, and brilliant to see her develop independence, communication and positive wellbeing.

Her family and school are extremely proud of her.

Best of luck Olivia and well done 😊

WAVES is an Additional Needs Support Group ran by a group of dedicated volunteers who are all parents of children with additional needs. It’s based in South Tyneside. They offer a range of activities to help build and promote social skills among children and young adults as well as friendship, advice and support to parents and carers

Our second prom, following last year’s inaugural one, will be a combined celebration of our 70^th birthday celebrations as well as celebrating our leavers and achievers. It will be a great night, and anyone who attended last year’s Prom will agree how much fun the students had!

Any questions please contact Rebecca at r.fletcher@percyhedley.org.uk

Enjoy and Keep Signing!

And finally…..

Please do look out for our new Governors’ Poster – with added pictures! It’s good to know who the governors are, and we’re very grateful for the time and input that they give. Well, don’t take my word for it – have a look!