News, Stars & Our New Hellens Sensory Motor Suite from John & the PHS Team! Friday 19th January 2024

(Above Lysbeth on the sunken trampoline in the Sensory Motor Suite!)

Hi everyone,

Happy Friday!

I hope you’re all warm! Bit of a special thing this week with the official opening of our Sensory Motor Suite, called the Hellens Sensory Motor Suite following the kind and so helpful fund-raising and donations from Kate, a parent here, who’s company has been so generous with us. Thank you so much. First let’s hear from Steph about why this is a good and necessary thing

We’ve had an amazing sunken trampoline installed which means for the first time all our students are able to access a trampoline! This can be used to support the postural management, sensory and motor needs of our most complex children, through to the regulation and motor needs of our more ambulant children! The impact of this is HUGE! We now can offer this activity within our PE curriculum, and also through enrichment opportunities such as lunch time trampolining clubs!

We’ve had an installation of a lovely soft play area which means our children now have access to a space dedicated to exploring movement and supporting with sensory needs and regulation within a calm and welcoming environment. We have been able to purchase some additional adaptations for our sensory swing to enable our children to have a greater variety of methods in which to support their sensory needs. Finally, we have had ceiling tracking installed across the whole room which enables the children to transfer from each station to the next safely and with greater ease. We have been able to purchase some walking slings to attach to the ceiling tracking which means the children can practice their walking skills with greater freedom and independence, which is super for the development of their self esteem and sense of achievement!

Good stuff eh? And it’s good to have Steph to explain it. The important part is that we just want the best things for our pupils, and this helps us to do that just that bit more…..

There are Steph, Kate and Gavin, and the lovely plaque

😊 from John & the PHS Team 😊

Literacy

Personal Development

Physical Development

• our three Super Steering Groups that deliver our curriculum – there’s a paper describing how that on the website if you want to read further. The Groups work on these broad themes to deliver the right curriculum for our pupils. This is where a lot of exciting stuff happens. Here’s the latest from them

Literacy!

First up, the Literacy Squad. Sarah is here to tell us about what’s happening in the first part of this year in the world of Literacy

As I mentioned in last week’s Blog, over the next few weeks we will take look at what is happening in each pathway. We will start with the ELTBA Pathway

This half term ELTBA Classes are looking at non-fiction reports, including newspaper reports, recounts and explanations. There are some fantastic texts and websites available to children that provide up to date news and events in the UK and around the world.

The ELTBA Library

2KH are reading the book ‘The True Story of the Three Little Pigs’, a very funny retelling of the popular story, written by Jon Scieszka.

3RM are looking at the book ‘Looking after your health’, which has lots of information and guides to being healthy.

3HB are looking at a book called ‘All About my feelings’ Usborne

2HR are looking at newspapers including ‘Happy News’ a newspaper created for children and the story of Paddington.

3TW are enjoying a chapter book called ‘Dinking Dings’ by Guy Bass

2RC are reading ‘The Shopping Basket’ by John Burningham

The Literacy Squad

Personal Development

Jo looks after all Personal Development, including PSHE, Careers, Wellbeing, Online Safety, Social Moral Spiritual Cultural stuff and many other things. Let’s hear from Jo and the team! There’s some really lovely stuff here

Wellbeing

In 1HM we are focusing a lot on teaching feelings. The children have the opportunity to look in the mirror alongside symbols showing different feelings. They also have sensory stimuli and big macks to listen to the various feelings to go alongside the symbol, so they have deeper understanding of the feeling. For example, for sad we have pipette to create tears and a crying sound on a big mack

Religious Education

As Sunday 21^st January is World Religion Day. I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about Religious Education (RE) in school.  Most people know that RE is a subject that aims to develop children’s understanding of the world’s religions and through RE our students will learn about different religions and their traditions, practices and beliefs

But it is so much more than that!  Religious Education promotes children’s tolerance and mutual respect in a diverse society.  By encountering people of different beliefs and lifestyles, RE has a key role to play in fostering respect and social cohesion. As well as being “religiously educated”, RE helps students to become “skilled cultural navigators”, able to handle the differences of faith and belief around them, allowing them to develop and establish their own sense of identity and belonging.

Previously in school we have had the opportunity to visit places of worship ranging from a Gurdwara or Mosque in Newcastle to the local church next to school.  We are keen to make local links so if you have contacts with a place or person of faith who would be interested in working with us please contact me on c.hayden@percyhedley.org.uk

To celebrate World Religion Day, 2KH/LL have been discussing lots of different religions and how each religion wants to make the world a better place. We shared our ideas of how we could make the world a better place and wrote some of our ideas down. Have a look and see if you agree.

Physical Development

And it’s Steph with all aspects of Physical Development

PE! From Nathan!

This half term we are focusing on learning different Football skills. We have been incredibly lucky to team up the Newcastle Utd with delivery from two of their coaches; Lewis and Josh. The first few weeks we have focused on dribbling and controlling of the ball. Please have a look at what we have been up to below. Look at Gracey and Owen stopping the ball with one foot, Josh dribbling the ball and looking for a team mate to pass to.

And PE Clubs again!

There are lots of great lunchtime clubs in PE, some old and some new. Here they are!

• Monday – NUFC Foundation coaches run football clubs for all students at school 12-12.30 and 1-1.30
• Tuesday – NEW KS2/3 Boccia Club 12-12.30
• Wednesday – KS4/5 Quick Cricket Club 1-1.30
• Thursday – NEWKS4/5 Boccia Club                 1-1.30
• Friday – NEWKS2/3 Basketball Club           12-12.30

Forest School News! From Hannah T!

Forest School in the Winter

A famous outdoorsman Alfred Wainright once said that “there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”, and as the weather gets colder, I’m sure the question of “will Forest School still go ahead?” The short answer is yes.

Forest School originated in Scandinavia, where there winters are a lot colder than ours. As mentioned before Christmas, some of the learning outcomes are to help promote resilience and confidence, and being able to access the outdoors in all weathers helps to develop this.

On the colder days there will be plenty of opportunities for running around/movement, and if needs be, shorter sessions. Hot chocolate and snacks will also be provided to help children stay warm when the temperature drops. We play lots of games that involve using our whole bodies, as well as building obstacle courses or moving heavy objects around to help raise our body temperatures, and some weeks we may even have a campfire (supervised by myself, who is a trained Forest School Leader)

What can make or break the session is children having the right clothing. It is important that they have layers, as these can be changed throughout the session depending on what the children are doing. as we go out even when it is raining or snowing.  I have attached a picture of the recommended clothing for sessions dependent on the temperature however waterproofs and wellies should be worn most sessions, as it can get quite muddy in our Forest School. Hopefully this will help to understand what is needed for the sessions.

Here is Isaac and Toby from 2RC who are dressed perfectly for the -1C temperatures. They have plenty of layers (t-shirt, fleece, waterproof coat, thick socks and waterproof boots, and Issac did have hat and gloves but after running around lots he was too hot!)

Lesson of the Week

Hannah and the Kingfishers have been doing some nice stuff this week. This is Hannah

Kingfishers (Hannah F’s class) have really enjoyed being members of the band this week.  On Thursdays, Chris, the music therapist comes to class and we have a jam!  We love the different sounds we can make with the instruments and are hoping to be performance-ready by the end of half term.  Look at the concentration on everyone’s faces.  Music makes us happy!

Finally…

Do you remember when I put up the Mexican Day menu last week? Well, here are some pics! Yum!!!!! A feast!

…..from John & the Team here at PHS