News, Stars & actual Christmas from John & the PHS Team! Friday 22nd December

On Tuesday we had a lovely afternoon celebrating the Icelandic festival of Christmas tradition of gifted books to family and friends.

There were fireplace scenes on the class whiteboards, twinkly lights and lots of festive stories and activities!

If anyone is interested in finding out more about Jolabokaflod it’s worth a little read below

-The Literacy Squad

Throw Back to Inter-Faith Week!

During Faith Week, the 2RC Class embarked on an enlightening journey exploring diverse religions. Students passionately explored the intricacies of different beliefs systems, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation for diversity. In addition to these enlightening conversations, the class embraced their creativity spirits, embarking on a colourful journey of self-expression through the creation of captivating collage art.

Winter Solstice

The Rock Ptarmigan class (4KR) have been learning about Winter Solstice this week during tutor time. They learned about the science of it and what it means to people around the world.

• “It happens on the 22nd December.” – Aaron
• “It’s the shortest day of the year. It is darker for longer.” – Dylan
• “It happens in winter.” – Lucas
• “Hannukah happens during winter.” – Ahmed
• “Chinese New Year happens in Winter.” – Jess
• “There are parades and lights at Winter Solstice.” – Tom

4KR learned that many places use lights to light up the longest night of the years so we made clay trees that can be light up with tea lights. Don’t you think they look lovely?

Wishing everyone a happy Winter Solstice from 4KR!

PSHE

It has been another busy year and I would like to thank you all for everything you have done and continue to do to support the delivery of statutory RSHE outcomes. Good PSHE education can have such a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the pupils and on their achievement but it is only possible if it is valued and delivered effectively, which relies on strong school and parent partnership, so thank you!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas when it arrives and that you enjoy every minute of the holidays, because they go so quickly!!

With very warm wishes for Christmas and the New Year,

Jo & the PD Steering Group

At the beginning of my shift my first job of the day is to sign in and put on my volunteer outfit. “This helps people to know I am learning.”

First “I do a littler pick around the Zoo, seeing all the different animals that lives there and making sure they are happy and safe”, “I take pictures of the different animals and review the pictures to see if they can make it onto the official website.”

My favourite job was a very important one “cleaning the animal and zoo signs so they look fresh and clean and easy for people to read.”

Look at the fantastic activities 2RC and 2HR have been completing in their Festive MOVE to Learn session! The great thing about our integrated therapy approach means that we can be subtle about getting the children to complete their therapy tasks and disguise them as festive fun! Toby did a great job at using his strength to pull himself up to the top of the mountain to find the Grinch, Wren is practicing her kneeling balance whilst building an igloo out of ice blocks, Teddy is showing great reaching and eye-hand coordination playing snowman skittles, Chloe is using the walking sling to practice her walking whilst knocking down icicles, and Abi is practicing her sitting balance whilst having a snowball fight with the snowman!!   What fantastic work they have all shown to improve their motor skills!

How lucky we are to have all these physiotherapists, and now the Sensory Motor Suite Too. Look out for the official opening in January!

Following on from last week here is some more information about what the students got up to at the MOVE event last week…

It all started in ‘Santa’s Post Office’ where students worked on their fine motor skills, they had to write their letters to Father Christmas and post them in the post box, they also had to write their names on a naughty or nice list!

Next up was the ‘Candy Cane Forest’, in here students had to walk or propel or look to where they were going around all the Christmas trees and candy canes! Students also had to stand tall or sit with good balance whilst decorating the Christmas trees with baubles.

They then ended up in the ‘Swirly Whirly Snowstorm’ which had lots of sensory exploration activities such as feeling fake snow, looking at different coloured lights, throwing snowballs and building a snowman! This room was one of the students favourites.

The students then made there way to the ‘Reindeer stables’ where they worked on upper limb skills and game play. Students had to hook or throw a hoop onto the reindeers antlers or throw a bean bag at the different reindeers or pin the red nose on Rudolph! There was also some sensory exploration in some hay. The students also had to work in pairs to play ‘Wreaths and Present’s’ (noughts and crosses), they all worked very hard and showed their competitive side!

Lastly, students ended up in the ‘Grinchmas Party’ this is where students met the Grinch and played lots of games such as pin the heart on the Grinch, walked along the balance path, took there photo in the Grinch Photobooth, kicked Grinch balloons to

peers and into goals, explored the party tunnel and crawled over the soft play to find pictures of the Grinch!

This all would not be possible without the amazing FoPHS team would support us for every MOVE event. Thank you very much!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM THE MOVE TEAM x

The engagement pathway visited Gosforth Civic Theatre to engage an immersive performance of Winter Wonderland by the Timbadash Theatre Company. This was a wonderful opportunity to see all of our students participating in a multisensory, musical performance. In 2BE and 4AH, Nat and Masie loved the snowball fight the most, JJ loved chatting with all of the characters, William most enjoyed the hooting owl song. Joseph loved the ‘fire’ song and David exploring the set!

Bobbie from Robins demonstrated all of our principal school values of resilience, teamwork and respect when serving at a stall in the Christmas Fair, selling every one of the sock gonks that he helped to make – Christmas Star!

Well done, Bobbie, that’s what it’s all about. And cheers Russell!

Over the past term 3TW have been working on an enterprise project alongside the Occupational Therapist and the Speech & Language Therapist. They worked together to make Christmas decorations which they then sold within school. Students worked on developing a variety of skills including planning, research, social communication, fine motor and profit and loss. This week 3TW used their hard earned money to fund a trip to Pizza Hut for a Christmas meal as a class, they were impeccably behaved and thoroughly enjoyed their trip!

Our orange decoration were most a-peeling to the customers. Yes! Christmas puns!

A really important part of Preparation for Adulthood is learning how to develop positive relationships.  Here on the Engagement Pathway, we love it when our friends come to visit in social times.  It’s great to have a chat and catch up and learn how to be friends with different people.  Check out these two friends, shooting the breeze at morning break, today.  Football is often the theme with both supporting different teams!

And look at some of the Kingfisher gang saying good morning and reaching out to shake hands.  It’s great when people take the time to check in with each other – a really positive attribute of our students which will serve them well in adulthood

Rebecca is our DSL and there is a great team working with her: Aylisha, Claire, Tracy, Corin. They give us weekly updates, which cover a range of topics

As always please get in touch if you have any questions or queries through email or our website anonymous link below.

From Rebecca  r.fletcher@percyhedley.org.uk and the DSL Team

What Maria is doing is working through a whole range of topics that you guys asked for in a survey, and what you mention to us that you would like more info in – so you may find it very useful.

It’s about setting up new devices with and without parental controls for Christmas with a few helpful guides

Details are in the letter that went out two Fridays ago

We strongly encourage those of you who have not yet applied for Free School Meals but feel you may be eligible, to complete an application asap.  Please contact our Family Liaison Officer Eileen Robinson via the school office on 0191 2161811 and Eileen will be able to share a form with you

What can I do as a parent to increase my child’s attendance?

Top Ten Tips

1. Find out what your child’s attendance is (The LA’s target for school attendance is 96% and we have been advised that we should be identifying and offering support to the parents and carers of young people who fall below that target. However, given the nature of our school and the unique barriers that our children face we have chosen only to identify those who are below 92%.).
2. Talk regularly with your child about school and how they feel about it. They are more likely to want to attend if they feel supported and that any anxieties are listened to.
3. Phone us as soon as possible to tell us why your child is absent, and when you expect them to return, putting the school number in your phone can save you time.
4. Only grant days at home for genuine illness – you will know!!.
5. If you have concerns ring us.
6. Avoid taking holidays in school time.
7. Know the routines of the school day to avoid issues, eg, are they prepared for PE? Do they have their packed lunch? Have they got their pencil case?
8. PRAISE AND REWARD GOOD ATTENDANCE, while being mindful of unavoidable absences: even small successes, eg, being up and ready to come in on time, even when the first lesson is their least favourite!.
9. If your child does not want to come to school, talk calmly to your child and listen to the explanation. There is always an explanation. It may sound like a small thing, but it counted enough with your child to make them not want to be in school.
10. Talk to us to resolve issues. We may be able to help and support you and your child. Remember – You are not alone

Thanks Mark, this is great. It’s a crucial role, helping with attendance, and it’s good to start hearing from Mark as he gets to know the school and everyone associated with it. Cheers!

Here’s a link to our Code of Conduct, which is also on the website in the Parent and Carers Area. Most schools have these now, so please do have a read – they aren’t used very often. 

Huge thanks to the FoPHS for their support with Christmas and making everything lovely! What a great bunch of FoPHS! We’re very grateful indeed!

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

Hello

Thank you for completing the questionnaires sent out before half term, I am still receiving your contributions, which are much appreciated. What is apparent from comments so far is that parents prefer online communication, which is instant and reminders of events nearer the time, as well as the yearly calendar, which is regularly updated. The calendar link can be found on the blog.

We have changed the date of our final verification to Thursday 18th January 2024, this is so that we can include successful work experience evidence from the Autumn term and gain parents’ opinions about their child’s experience.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact the team on the email below, we welcome your thoughts and ideas.

For Tracy and the LPPA team Contact t.smithson@percyhedley.org.uk

Thank you to Tracy and the team, and all parents supporting us! We know that there is always lots to do, but we are interested in working as hard as we can to create the best kind of partnerships we can with you at home

Once again we come to the end of an amazing term in ELTBA. All children are STARS!!! this week covering all of our school values. We have had lots  of lovely things this week, from parties, a lovely trip to the church,  enterprise opportunities, trip to live theatre and of course the MOVE winter wonderland followed by a visit from the main man himself Father Christmas. Big thank you to all the staff and children who have made this happen. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and see you in the new year

WELL DONE ELTBA STARS!!!!!

Engagement star – Dylan!

Our star of the Pathway is Dylan from Albatross’. Dylan showed great teamwork during the Winter theatre performance by using his voice through vocalisations and eye contact! Well done Dylan!

Resilience

Francis for making goods for the Christmas Fair in his own time. Well done, Francis! Christmas STAR!!!

Andrew for coping so well with change. Brilliant! Christmas STAR!!!

Resilience and Respect

Callum for coping so well with missing equipment and independently sorting out replacements.  Excellent!! Christmas STAR!!!

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has put in time and effort to learn and use new Makaton signs this year. I can really see a difference around school with lots of staff and students signing, looking confident and fluent 😊

Our amazing catering staff pulled it our of the bag again on Tuesday, and we had a lovely Christmas Dinner. Everyone even gave them three cheers. It was a lovely dinner itself, and a lovely occasion thanks to everyone too!