News & Stars and Mental Health Awareness (and Veggie Lasagne) from John & the PHS Team Friday 17th May 2024

Hi everyone,

Great week here! Good weather, loads of good activities, loads of great work by everyone, and crucially a very nice atmosphere! I hope you’ve all had a good week, with a nice weekend to come. We’ve one more week before half term, and then we return for the last half term, until the 19^th July

We are very please to welcome Ollie Teesdale as our new Parent Governor, to work alongside Ros Holden and the other governors. Thank you for voting, and much thanks to Ollie for putting himself forward, as with all our governors. Our huge thanks go to Kate Hellens for all she and her family have done for the school too. It’s great to work with such people, and we are very grateful for the support shown to the school

Lots to read today, from Outdoor Learning and Italian food, to key articles on safeguarding and mental health. And there’s more from Eileen and Joel too in their blogs, full of interesting, informative and relevant items. And check out the art too! Check out all of it in fact! 😊

All the best for a lovely May weekend – see you at the next event you can make. Thanks for your support

Reminder: Friday 24^th May is a Staff Training Day!

😊 from John & the PHS Team 😊

School Photos

This is from Beth and Hannah and they were really lovely last year

Building on the success of last year’s fundraiser for FoPHS, we are offering this lovely event again.  Photographs will be taken and edited by one of our talented teachers, Beth Edwards. Based on feedback from last year, we are now streamlining the process, and will be taking the photos on set days, so children can look their very best! A letter has been sent/emailed home today with more information. Please follow the link on the letter to sign your child up. Dates for photographs are

20^th May – Accreditation

Any queries, please contact Eileen Robinson on e.robinson@percyhedley.org.uk

Let’s hear from our three Super Steering Groups which deliver our Key Drivers of Communication, Wellbeing and Independence through the curriculum

Literacy

Becky, our Literacy Lead, is going to get us going! It’s always good stuff!

Reading and meeting you!

The rest of our parent training events were confirmed this week, with letters going out to the students who aren’t on our phonics programme. We may talk about phonics a lot (we know, we do!) but there’s a lot of other lovely reading learning that happens at Percy Hedley School too! There are a number of different sessions planned to tailor to our different student cohorts, and we’ve invited parents and carers to the most relevant one for their student. We’re excited to share what reading looks like for your student through these training sessions, with some hopefully useful practical in there too.

Presentations will be recorded and made available after the events, as we realise not everyone can attend in person.  In our opinion though these things are always nicer with a cuppa and a biscuit in person, so please join us if you can. Please keep an eye out for the letter or text with the form to complete to book your place.

Any questions please get in touch with your class team or Becky Finn r.finn@percyhedley.org.uk

Personal Development

Another one of the best things about our school! Let’s hear from Jo and the team, talking about consultation, and also Mental Health Awareness Week

We’d love to hear your views!

You may remember in the academic year 2021/22, we asked for your feedback and views to support the development of our new Relationships and Health Education (RHE) Curriculum for Primary pupils and our Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) Curriculum for Secondary pupils.  This coincided with the new statutory requirements as published by the Department for Education.  Your feedback was incredibly valuable and highlighted the importance of considering the developmental stage of the pupils whilst accessing age-appropriate education as directed through the statutory guidance.  We were able to achieve this through the implementation of a SEND PSHE framework.

The Government is currently carrying out a review of the statutory guidance that is in place.  You may have heard very recently in the news about some potential changes to the statutory guidance as it currently stands.  At present we await for this documentation to be published.  We look forward to carrying out a further parent consultation to gain your views following this publication. 

At present many of things which have been highlighted within the news coverage are already implemented within the SEND PSHE Association Framework which is in place in school.  As always Jo will be in attendance at all parent coffee events held in school and is available to discuss any specific questions and/or to share further information with regards to the curriculum and resources used in school.

Once the new statutory guidance is published we’ll be ensuring all statutory recommendations are adhered to within the delivery of the PSHE curriculum and will be asking for your feedback and views on the implementation of the new guidance.

In the meantime we would love to hear your views on the wider subject of Personal Development, which includes many aspects of preparing young people in areas outside traditional academia.  This of course is such an important and integral part of what we do and plays a vitally important role in supporting our pupil’s development in all areas.

We often communicate through the school’s weekly blog about the work carried out in Personal Development.  We are currently carrying out a review of the work involved in Personal Development and would value your feedback if you can spare a few minutes to complete the following survey.

National Mental Health Week

This week has also been National Mental Health Week and due to it being the beginning of assessment period for some of our students we shared these top tips to help manage Maths anxiety in the classroom.

Physical Development

And of course everything that is fabulous in the world of Physical Development too! This includes physio, hydro, MOVE, PE, HI, VI, a lot of OT and all sorts of key areas for us, including all of the Outdoor Learning, John Muir Award and many other aspects…

This week: Allotment News with Jo! We heart Allotment News!

Beths class have been enjoying weekly visits to the allotment.

Because the weather is a bit warmer, there was a lot of seed sowing and potting on. We are growing pumpkin, sweetcorn, carrots, squash, cucumber and flowers.

Did you know that growing marigolds with tomatoes helps keep creepy crawlies away? A sure fine way to harvest a bumper crop.

Everyone is growing their own sunflower and we will enjoy watching these get taller over the weeks. The tallest flower wins!

Lovely examples of the children demonstrating and practicing their upper limb coordination and fine motor development! Great Physical Development!

John Muir Award with Natalie

Love this! Cheers Nat!

This week for our John Muir session we decided to shake it up a little and visit Tynemouth for a walk. The weather was fabulous! 🌞 We walked up to Collingwood monument and saw the beautiful views and wandered around Tynemouth Priory. It was lovely to hear the students talk proudly about where they live! The students had refreshments before we drove along the coast and enjoyed the views on the way back to school. Here are some pictures of our adventures this week!

And here’s the website address as well if you’re interested in all of this kind of thing!

Cheers Nat!

Lesson of the Week – KS4 Radio Group with Russell! Hugely exciting stuff!

We have a new set of DJs for the Summer Term and, for their first playlist, they have been given free rein to choose their favourite songs, resulting in an eclectic show.

They have listened to each other’s choices, and voted for both the content and the song order, demonstrating commendable teamwork (we love teamwork!)

The completed work has already been broadcast and can be heard again at 1.45 on Thursday 23rd May on Hedley’s Radio, our college’s very own radio station.

Well done, Lucas, Ahmed, Taylor, Michael, Mohammed and Ayaan!

Artist of the Week with Kasia G! And Art Trip of the Week with Kasia G too!

Artist of the week goes to Alex Lister!

Alex is currently working towards Art Award Bronze in Visual Art. But this week he has impressed both staff and students in Post 16 with his abstract painting inspired by Damien Hirst, using a style called ‘Spin Art’.  Alex has chosen his colours and carefully squirted the paint on to the spinning canvas letting the invisible forces pull apart the paint creating a bright and immersive Artwork. We certainly love a little messy fun in Percy Hedley!

Well done to Alex!

Disability North Art Collaboration 

This week, three of our Percy Hedley students had the opportunity to visit Disability North to design a mural inspired by people with disabilities and the organisation itself.

Santiago, Charlie and Casey showed great resilience, respect and teamwork when visiting Disability North and made great contributions to the creation of the new mural discussing ideas like ; funding, health , future of Disability North and mental health. 

Well done to Santiago, Charlie and Casey!

Great Art, people!

Finally…it’s that time again – our Third Prom!

This is from Rebecca!

Just a reminder that our Upper School Prom is coming up on Fridy 12^th July.  All our students within our Upper School should have received their invite with the details of the evening.

Please ensure that you have sent us your reply by the 23^rd May to allow for us to arrange with our suppliers for numbers.  Please also let us know if you plan to stay with your child.  Any children needing personal care or support with feeding will need to have a carer with them to support with this.

Finally finally – food!

We had an Italian-themed day in the kitchen and the guys pulled out all the stops again! Have a look at some of the pictures – veggie lasagne – mmmmmmmmmmm

RSVPs can come to either percyhedleyschooladminteam@percyhedley.org.uk your class teacher or by ringing the school office on 01912161811

Fabulous stuff, guys, huge thanks

…..from John & the Team here at PHS