10 February 2023

Newsletter Articles

Headteacher’s Message

We have had a very positive term since we returned from the Christmas break! The theme of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ has involved pupils finding out how we use resources and the improvements we can make by recycling and protecting the environment.

Next term, we will be looking at the theme of ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’. This will provide an opportunity for the pupils to follow on from this terms work and spend time outside looking at our local area. Pupils will also be able to look at how we can manage our resources and environment. We are hoping that this will also involve a change in how we recycle across the school. Hopefully, this will also be accompanied with some nicer weather!

As you are aware, we have been provisionally accepted onto the Schools Rebuilding Programme. Unfortunately, I do not have any further details about any site developments. As always, I will keep you all updated as soon as I hear anything. This is potentially a huge chapter in the school’s development. The opportunity to have a more appropriate environment is something your children fully deserve and the prospect of having a purpose built therapy facilities and Post 16 accommodation for the first time is very exciting! Hopefully, I will have some news for you soon.

This term has seen us undertaking a very large number of tours for parents who are requesting places for their children. It has become obvious that many of our existing parents have been extremely positive about our school out in the local community. I just wanted to say how grateful I am for your support and kind words. It honestly means a huge amount that you are talking so positively about the school and the staff.

Please be aware that school will close on Friday 10th February 2023 and the pupils return on Monday 20th February 2023.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a very enjoyable half term.

Geoff Cherrill
Headteacher

Safeguarding and Participation Team

Is YouTube safe?

The NSPCC have produced this article discussing the risks associated with using YouTube and the safety settings and features that are available depending on how old your child is and what they do on YouTube. You can access the article here:

TikTok

Parent Zone have worked with TikTok to produce a series about safety when using TikTok. You can find out more here:

Are you experiencing domestic abuse?

• Do you change your behaviour because you’re frightened of your partner’s reaction?
• Is your partner jealous and possessive?
• Do you feel like you’re walking on eggs shells?
• Do you feel controlled, or isolated?

Contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline
You can call, for free and in confidence, 24-hours a day: 0808 2000 247
Respect: Men’s advice line: 0808 8010327
If you are in an emergency situation, please call 999.

How to help children deal with divorce or separation

Separation may involve bad feelings between the parents and their families. Children can pick up on this, which may make them confused or unhappy - or even blame themselves for a break-up.

To support children during a separation and help them with their worries, you should:

• Remind them that they're loved by both parents;
• Be honest when talking about it but keep in mind the child's age and understanding;
• Avoid blame and don't share any negative feelings the adults have about each other;
• Keep up routines such as going to school and specific meal times;
• Let them know they can talk about their feelings with you - explain that it's okay to be sad, confused or angry;
• Listen more than you speak - answering questions will help them to open up.

The NSPCC has information about your rights around child contact and advice for supporting children during a separation.

Bereavement

Losing someone or something we love and feel close to is extremely difficult and painful. Grief is our natural emotional response to this loss, and it is a process rather than an event.

Your child, as well as you and other family members, may be grieving because of:

• The death of someone in the family, like a parent, grandparent or sibling;
• The death of a friend, or someone they knew at school;
• The death of someone by suicide;
• An illness, such as cancer or dementia, of someone they are close to;
• The loss of a relationship, like someone moving away or no longer being a regular part of their life;
• The loss or death of a pet.

Everybody will react to, feel and express loss differently, and this will change over time. There is no right or wrong way for anyone to grieve.

People who have gone through a significant loss can feel:

• Anxious or worried, including about their own health or the health of people close to them;
• Frightened about losing other people they love;
• Sad, low or withdrawn;
• Isolated or lonely;
• Angry or irritable;
• Guilty;
• Numb;
• Be physically unwell;
• Have mood changes;
• They cannot accept the situation;
• That they struggle to cope.

It’s helpful to remember that it is normal for anyone to feel and experience any of these after a loss, particularly if they have lost someone they were close to.

Talking to others about how they or you are feeling can be hard. You might feel like you don’t know where to start or when a ‘good time’ to talk is.

By taking 20 minutes to do an activity you both enjoy, you can create a relaxed space for getting the conversation started.

Young Minds offers some very good advice and support for Parents/Carers and children around Bereavement and Mental Health, please follow the link to access this:

For adults the following web sites contain advice and support:

Have a fantastic and most importantly safe holiday.

Best wishes,
Adam, Jo, James, Abi and Kelly

Every Day In School Matters

Medical Appointments and Attendance

We request that, where possible, routine medical and dentist appointments are arranged outside school hours as these appointments will affect your child’s percentage attendance. We do understand that some appointments, such as hospital consultations are not always possible to arrange outside of school hours. However if your appointment time allows your child to come to school for registration and then leave later this will have a positive impact on their attendance figure. Likewise if they are able to be back in school for afternoon registration at 1pm this will also have a positive impact.

Requests for Absence during Term Time and Fixed Penalty Notice

Headteachers are only allowed to grant leave of absence from school in exceptional circumstances. In considering whether or not to authorise a request for exceptional leave of absence in term time, the Headteacher will look at each individual case and only grant authorisation if the circumstances are truly exceptional. Additionally, any request should be made prior to the leave of absence and should be submitted to the school using the Request for Leave of Absence form (available from the school website or office). Parents/Carers may be asked to provide additional information/evidence or meet with the school to discuss the circumstances.

The fundamental principles for defining ‘exceptional’ are rare, significant, unavoidable and short. 'Unavoidable' should be taken to mean an event that could not reasonably be scheduled at another time.

Generally, the following scenarios cannot be considered ‘exceptional’:

• Annual family holidays;
• Educational visits arranged by family members during school time;
• Family birthdays or other events;
• Parents’ profession or place of work making it difficult to coincide school and work holidays.

Following an application for term time absence, Parents/Carers will be notified of the Headteacher’s decision at the earliest opportunity. If the circumstances are not considered to be exceptional then the absence cannot be authorised and the school may need to request that the Local Authority issues a Fixed Penalty Notice.

The Legal Stuff

School attendance is important because the law requires it. As a Parent/Carer you are legally responsible for making sure your child gets a full time education. This means registering your child at school and making sure they attend regularly and on time. If you would like any support or advice on attendance or punctuality, please speak to your child’s class teacher or Adam Bradford.

Thank you for supporting your child to achieve in their education by ensuring they have excellent attendance.

Best wishes
Adam Bradford

Curriculum

This half term our curriculum theme was ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’, a science topic that helped pupils understand different materials and what they were made from. Pupils explored how the materials could be recycled.

In addition, pupils discovered ways to reduce what they use to help the World around them. Some classes had the opportunity to find out more about facilities in the local area by visiting local businesses to see how they are recycling and reusing items and helping the planet. Hopefully your child has come home with some ‘top tips’ for you on how to get better at recycling and looking after the local environment.

Some of our pupils ‘Top Tips’ for you to consider at home:

What can I recycle and where does it need to go?
What can I use again?
How can I help keep our local environment clean?
Can I change some of my shopping habits to be more supportive of environmental issues?

In RE, pupils learnt about Humanism, a new topic within the RE syllabus - with focus on understanding the importance of how we can be happy, look after our World and help others to be happy. This fitted in well with our theme as well as our continued work on toolkits to support emotional regulation. We were pleased to be able to welcome Barry into school from the Humanist Society who spoke to some of our pupils about what it meant to be a humanist.

At the end of the half term we welcomed a local artist into school from Arts2Education who delivered Art workshops to some of our classes based on the issue of plastic in our oceans. The pupils created pieces of art, a sea creature of their choosing, using soft plastic packaging, inspiring pupils to understand some of the problems facing our planet.

Next half term, we will be looking at ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’ which leads nicely on from the work we have been looking at this half term on materials and recycling. We will be thinking about what we can plant and grow. Can this also help our environment and reduce our carbon footprint?

I hope you all have an enjoyable half term break; we look forward to welcoming your children back for Spring 2.

Hannah Parry
Curriculum Lead

Medical

Sleep Clinic …. Coming Soon!!

We will be running regular monthly sleep clinics each month for parents/carers of children that are experiencing sleep problems at home and are in need of help and support. The clinic will be run by Michelle the School Medical Coordinator and qualified Sleep Practitioner.

The sleep clinic will provide the following information and support

• Cause of sleep issues
• Impact of sleep deprivation
• sleep advice, resources
• Strategies, sleep programmes
• Bedroom Environments
• Nightmares, night terrors and sleep walking
• Melatonin …and more!!!

Please keep checking Schoolzine, there will be a few dates coming from March to July.

New School Link Paediatrician

Dr Ahmed has now left us and I am pleased to say our new School Paediatrician Dr Storey will continue to run monthly clinics on the main school site specifically for our pupils. Each month 5 appointments will be allocated which may be either reviews or referrals.

Reviews are automatically generated by the NHS and appointments allocated.

Referrals – Referrals may be requested by a parent/carer of a pupil if you have a medical concern. Please be mindful that with any medical concern you should always talk to you GP first to gain the appropriate medical advice.

If you would like to request a referral to the Paediatrician, please email the Medical Team - [email protected]

Head Lice and Nits

Head Lice and Nits are very common among young children and their families. Lice are picked up by head to head contact.

Head lice can make your head feel itchy and like something is crawling in your hair.

The best way to check if someone has head lice is by finding live lice using a nit detection comb which you can buy in pharmacies.

How to get rid of head lice:

Medical Email

Please use our medical email address [email protected] if you would like to discuss the following:

Request referrals - School Paediatrician, ID-CAMHS, Continence Team, Sleep Clinic, Community Dietician, Dental Service

General enquiry box – to be used for any other medical related issue other than listed above.

We aim to respond to all email enquiries the same day.

Prescribed Medications

If your child requires medications during school time for a medical condition you must complete an M2 form, this is available in reception or on the school website to download.

Paracetamol – please be advised that we have a Medication Policy in place that states we can only administer prescribed medications which includes Paracetamol.

As always if the medical team can offer any support or advice, please contact us.

Best Wishes
Michelle & Jane

Therapy Team

The Therapy Team have been busy delivering a range of interventions and developing information sessions for parents/carers to access.

Speech and Language Therapy

TalkAbout

In the Autumn Term and continuing in to Spring Term, Michelle, one of our Therapy Assistants, has been delivering the ‘Talkabout Social Skills Programme’ in the Post-16 class weekly. The current focus of the Talkabout programme is Self-Awareness and Self-Esteem. The pupils have made lots of progress with their conversational skills and in developing their awareness in the topics covered so far, which includes: their likes/dislikes, important people in their life, what they look like. They will be continuing with this work to look at topics such as their strengths, their personality traits and things that make them feel good!

Parents/Carers Training

We have also delivered a training session for Parents/Carers on ‘Multi-Sensory Activities to Support Attention’ on the 26th January. If you missed this session, a recording is available, please contact either the Therapy Team or Sandra Matthews for access to the recording.

Together with the pupil participation team, we have run a parent drop in for advice around the Winchelsea Zones and using terminology such as expected and unexpected behaviour and size of problem.

Keep an eye out for more information about training sessions and drop-ins as we have a range of sessions planned for next half term!

Occupational Therapy

Harbour Sensory Feeding

Harbour Class had weekly sensory feeding sessions with Emily and Wendy from the Therapy team to promote exploration of a range of food textures. We have seen lots of progress in all the pupils engagement compared to sensory feeding sessions last academic year. They have been more willing to touch, and for some pupils, even taste new foods. Well done Harbour Class!

Busy Hands

Many of our classes are continuing with the ‘Busy Hands’ programme to develop fine motor skills. The classes that have got the programme in place are: Jellyfish, Penguins, Oysters, Dolphins, Lobsters, and Sea Turtles. The class teams are running this programme independently now with supervision from the Therapy Team to keep the activities relevant, motivating and interesting!

Next steps for this programme is developing a ‘Busy Hands’ programme for the older pupils in the school.

Physiotherapy

Our Physiotherapist Jane has been working with the Therapy Assistants and the PE team to develop joint intervention sessions. They have been doing Strength and Conditioning sessions with Lobsters Class and Starfish Class starting this half term.

The sessions have involved getting the pupils breathless to challenge their stamina and fitness, and activities to work on the pupils’: shoulder and core stability, eye tracking, crossing midline and in-hand manipulation. The most important aim is for the pupils to have fun while moving!

As part of a holistic approach, the sessions with Starfish Class have also worked on communication, social interaction and attention skills.

Horse Therapy

A new group of pupils have been selected to attend Horse Therapy, supported by Emily from the Therapy Team, to work on a range of skills such as: gross motor skills, communication, engagement, emotional regulation and sensory regulation. The pupils have loved meeting Elvis, the horse, and they have been great at waiting for their turn to ride him.

Ocean

Ocean class have had an amazing half term and every day brings us surprises, celebrations and wonder at the progress the children are making. The class is very settled and happy and has a sense of calm on most days - still busy though!

We continue to focus on movement alongside our sensory feeding groups. Both activities are going very well with all children engaging at their level. We have been doing a lot of crawling, through the caterpillar, under tables, through brick tunnels and under the parachute. During the feeding groups we have explored ice and custard, cereal of different kinds, and cooked pasta. Some of the children prefer the wet texture and some prefer the dry.

We have also begun to do some ring rhymes and games. Currently ‘Ring a Roses’ is the favourite and is encouraging the children both to move and to engage with each other.

During our PE and PSED sessions we have been using balance bikes. These have been a huge hit with the children and some of them are doing really well balancing and scooting at the same time.

Our topic this term has been ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’ Using an old duvet, we have painted ‘The World’ using our hands and feet and handheld implements; using packaging materials we have painted the trunk and branches of a tree; and using boxes we have made icebergs. During each of these focus weeks we have enjoyed listening to the sounds of the rainforest, the Antarctic, and places around the World. The children have also enjoyed exploring big boxes which has led to opportunities for sharing and turn taking. We have also planted some seeds in recycled yoghurt pots and are using recycled milk jugs to feed them water.

Next term our topic will be ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’. We will be exploring mud, water, and how things grow. Please be prepared for your child coming home dirty!

Have a lovely half term and stay safe.

Harbour

Harbour class have had a brilliant half term, they have returned to school after the Christmas break really well and have been enjoying engaging with activities related to this half term’s theme ‘Reduce, Re-use, Recycle’. They have been exploring different types of materials used in recycling, and incorporating it into their play with trucks, as well as developing their fine motor skills through junk modelling.

Our story for this half term has been ‘The Journey Home’. Each week we have focused on a different part of the journey from the book - a particular favourite was when we explored ice related activities for the Arctic, such as painting with ice and using our problem solving skills to melt ice using different methods. The children have also begun to use props from the story to retell it in their play which has been lovely to see!

Our life skills problem solving has been focused around finding, putting on and taking off coats. The children have become much more independent with finding their coat from their peg, and having a go at putting it on by themselves. Independence is something we will continue to build on, as well as learning how to do up a variety of different fastenings.

We have been super proud of the progress the children have been making with their phonics over this half term. As well as our daily morning sessions focused around a weekly Jolly Phonics sound and listening and responding to nursery rhymes, we are now beginning to complete phonics activities across the week, thinking about the initial sounds in words, blending and segmenting simple words in order to read. The children have been really engaged in these activities, and are always excited to learn new sounds!

We are looking forward to our new theme next half term, ‘Roots, Shoots & Muddy Boots’ - expect lots of nature and gardening activities! We hope you have a lovely half term and can’t wait to see the children’s continued progress after the break.

Starfish

Starfish Class have got off to a fantastic start to the term. The children have settled back in really well and engaged fantastically in our new theme “Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!” Our story this half term has been ‘The Messy Magpie’ and we have been looking at putting our rubbish in the bin and spotting rubbish when out and about. We have also been exploring the different materials that the magpie stores and labelling them.

In My problem solving lessons we have been looking at sorting by colour and shades of colours, materials and size. We are also looking at following daily, familiar routines and developing independence, realising and resolving issues that break the routine, and following it through to the end. The children have built up awareness of changes that occur in their environment such as new adults, moved boxes, or missing symbols and this is really helping them to increase their resilience to changes and to problem solve in order to rectify the problems.

In My Creativity we have been using all our materials to create different art pieces. We have used plastic bottles for stamping, fabric for creating collages, and different textured paper and card to create fun pictures. The children love art and enjoy being able to create freely in a calm, relaxing environment.

Finally, we have resumed our community visits this half term and we are focusing on walking safely in the community with ever-increasing independence and we are looking at winter and its properties and littering. The children have enjoyed trips to the Heathlands and Upton Country Park so far. We have also started swimming and, as predicted, the children have absolutely loved it! They have shocked us at how fantastic they are in the water and how engaged with the adults they are.

As always, the Starfish Team are extremely proud of all of the children and how they are progressing. We look forward to seeing what the rest of the term brings!

Oyster

After returning to school from the Christmas break, Oysters class have been looking at tidying and sorting rubbish alongside our book ‘Litterbug Doug.’ We have tied this together with our word of the term ‘Sorting.’

We looked at different materials, how they felt and which ones belonged together. We introduced one type of rubbish material a week (paper, card, plastic, metal, food) and sorted them as a class and individually. The textures used were rough, smooth, hard and soft.

Oysters utilised rubbish across the curriculum, and took turns to choose and play rubbish percussion to familiar songs. We also used recycled materials to complete and paint a rubbish monster!

A large push this term has been independent dressing and selecting the right clothes to wear in cold weather, items including our coats, shoes, socks, wellies, hats, gloves and scarves. We explored outside in search of puddles with mixed success.

Oysters have been away from OTIS to attend a ‘Discoverers Celebration Assembly’ for the Autumn term, and also walked around the local area practicing crossing roads and looking at new and old items in Poole.

We’d love to see and hear about any successes you are having at home. Feel free to email us pictures of what you have been up to for us to share in our circle times.

Have a lovely break and we will see you all back after the holiday for our ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’ topic looking at growing and caring for plants.

Team Oyster

Penguin

This half term, Penguin Class have had a busy and fun week learning all about our topic; ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’

We have been sorting recyclable materials and placing them into the correct recycling box. We have looked at the different materials these objects are made from and discussed their properties. Penguin Class also went on a hunt around the school to see what materials different objects in the playground are made from. We were surprised when we looked around the aisles in Sainsbury’s to see just how much packaging our food comes in! We have learnt about what happens to our rubbish and why it is so important to recycle.

In English, we have been creating some excellent sentences using finger spaces, verbs and adjectives. Some of us have even been using full stops, capital letters and question marks in our sentences. We learnt lots of facts about raccoons and wrote some questions that we would like to find out about raccoons. We also read a lovely story about Rosie the Robber Raccoon who likes to steal rubbish to recycle! We have all been working hard on our reading, sometimes through reading in a small group and sometimes individual reading to an adult.

Our Maths lessons have been focusing on place value, with many of us working with three-digit numbers! We have been adding 1, 10 or 100 more and taking away 1, 10 or 100. For the last part of this half term, we learnt about length and weight. We have been weighing, measuring and comparing different objects in the classroom.

In STEAM, we took part in a fun EGGsperiment! With a partner, we worked together to design the best armour to protect a boiled egg, (Mr Eggy,) so that when it was dropped from high, the shell did not crack. We could choose to use bubble wrap, paper, card, aluminium foil, cardboard boxes, cotton wool or tissue to protect our eggs.

In our Music lessons, we have been practicing repeating different rhythms using body percussion. We watched some amazing music from recycled orchestras, such as Stomp. This inspired us to make our own musical instruments using recycled materials. We enjoyed playing our instruments as part of the Penguin Class band.

Our focus for RE this half term has been Humanism. This is a religion that believes that human happiness is dependent on nature and other animals. Humanists love to care for nature and our planet and they believe that all living things are beautiful and should be respected. Penguin Class have been thinking about how to look after their friends and family members.

During our Art lessons, we have been practicing our observational drawing skills. First, we drew an abstract drawing of some plastic bottles. We needed to look very carefully at the shape of the bottle and remember to draw important details, such as the labels. Then, we carefully added colour to our drawings, using brightly coloured oil pastels. We also drew a still life picture, choosing from a selection of interesting objects.

In our PSHE lessons, we have been thinking about our feelings and that different feelings are OK, looking at how to use our toolkits to get back into the yellow zone for learning. We have also been practicing how to take turns when playing a game, how to wash our hands thoroughly and learning how to brush our teeth even having a go at brushing our teeth all by ourselves!

Our topic for next half term is called, ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots,’ which is a Science topic all about planting and growing.

Thank you for your continued support.

Octopus

Hello Octopus Parents and Carers,

This half term we have been exploring ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’; finding out what daily materials we can recycle and reuse. This includes our community visits to our local Tesco Café and Winchelsea Café where we have made independent choices, had a snack and interacted with both pupils and staff. During our weekly story lessons, we have been reading the book ‘Recycling Is Fun’. We have enjoyed acting out parts of the story, using recycling bins to put the correct material in the right coloured bin.

We have continued going to forest school, exploring the area, playing with the mud kitchen, mud painting, looking at and feeling ice and how it is formed.

This term we have been working on social skills in class. We have welcomed new staff members to the class team and everyone has been developing new friendships with each other. It’s great to see pupils sharing toys and playing tag at play time!

Jellyfish

Happy New Year from Jellyfish Class… or is it too late in the year to say that now!? What a fantastic start to 2023 we have had! As you know, we started our ‘Busy Hands’ mornings before Christmas and the pupils have become incredibly independent with this. This has meant that this half term, we have been able to do a big focus on reading and phonics. All the pupils have made incredible progress already during the Spring 1 Term and we are so proud of the results!

This term’s theme is ‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle’. Jellyfish have been looking at what different materials you can reduce and/or reuse as well as how you know what items you can recycle. We have been looking at the book ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’ and it has now become a class favourite! In Problem Solving, the pupils have been exploring 2D shapes and sorting these using Venn Diagrams - even using overlapping criteria and sorting any cheeky anomalies! During our Art lesson, Miss Tash has tasked us with the challenge of exploring ‘Still Life’. We have drawn a bouquet of flowers, zoomed in on aspects of different petals and objects around the classroom. During PSHE, the pupils have been trying new fruit and vegetables which they have been doing really well with! We have also been looking at teeth brushing and making sure our teeth are looked after and pearly white!

We have been lucky enough to be chosen to partake in a music workshop with a lovely lady called Sam who comes in to teach us! Another class have written lyrics for a song that Jellyfish pupils are now composing music for using different instruments. The song is about a midnight feast with monsters… I am sure you are all keen to hear it once it is finished! A few pupils were chosen to go horse riding for a 6 week block. During these sessions, they have been growing in confidence around horses as well as learning new skills. On our Wednesday morning Community Visits, we have been visiting different parts of our local area. One morning we went to the Dorset Scrap Store where we discovered lots of different materials and items. We filled a bag with the things we liked and used these in our STEAM lesson to create our own collages. Jellyfish Class have also been litter picking in the local parks as well as putting these items into the correct bin - recycling or rubbish.

Next half term, our theme is ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’. We will be exploring growing our own flowers and maybe some radishes! It will also give us an opportunity for lots of sensory play as well as how we tidy up and wash our hands.

Please make sure you are checking in by reading the Jellyfish Class News weekly (sent out on Fridays). Myself and the class team look forward to what the rest of 2023 brings for our brilliant class!

Miss Naomi and the Jellyfish Class Team; Miss Jo, Miss Laura and Miss Jade

Dolphin

Dolphin class have been working really hard this term and they have engaged in some interesting projects in Spring 1:

In My Communication Dolphin class have continued to work on Words First and Phonics to help improve sight reading and letter recognition. We have continued to develop our speaking and listening skills and we have been working on developing different strategies to aid with communication including signing to ensure our meaning is understood and the use of Alternative Communication using iPads where appropriate. We have continued to use the skills developed in Shape Coding to help with our sentence structures and the small words that we use when we communicate. We have been composing sentences to describe what we have been doing in our Community visits. We have continued to follow visual instructions during our creative and cooking activities. We have been working on our letter formation skills and practising writing our full names. We have also been working on individual reading skills.

In My Problem Solving we have continued to work on number recognition, number formation, number ordering and quantity through a variety of maths activities and games. We have applied our problem solving skills to real life situations and recognising when we can solve a problem by ourselves and when we need to ask for help. We have also used our problem solving skills during cooking where we have been identifying what equipment and ingredients we need and we have been independently measuring. We have been learning about different materials and we have sorted and categorised a variety of items into types of materials (plastic/metal/wood/paper etc). We have also been learning which items can be recycled and which items need to go into waste.

As part of My World we have enjoyed a variety of community visits including a trip to Tesco to buy cooking ingredients and visit the cafe. We have also been to Julia’s House charity shop to reuse and recycle a variety of games and toys as part of our ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ topic. At the Dorset Scrapstore we collected a variety of materials to sort and categorise and we made collages from the found materials! We’ve also been on a scavenger hunt to find different types of materials in the classroom. As part of our Future Pathways Dolphin class took part in an enterprise workshop which they enjoyed.

We have been looking at the book ‘Handa’s Surprise’ as part of cross curricular activity and we have tried tasting a variety of tropical fruits, made fruit ice cream and developed a variety of skills in the kitchen, including using hand mixers in our cooking activities. We also did some life drawings of the different fruits and we sequenced the activities from the story.

In My creative Dolphin class have continued to work with Soundstorm on a music project to compose a song.

In My Physical and Sensory Dolphin class have engaged in a variety of ball games including basketball and football, with the Football Association visiting us over the term to help us gain further skills. We have continued to hold relaxation sessions with lights and sensory toys to help us focus. We have also been doing our regular Busy Hands activities to help with our fine motor and co-ordination skills. Dolphin class have been developing a variety of gross motor skills over the term and also their fine motor and gross motor skills through accessing our weekly Woodland learning sessions.

During PSHE sessions Dolphin class have continued to work on their road safety skills. Dolphin Class have been practicing their teeth brushing skills and understanding why they have to take care of them and what foods are not good for teeth. We have also worked on our knowledge of what to do in an emergency and basic first aid.

We hope you all have a lovely half term.

Best wishes
Paula, Kirsty and Tina
Dolphin Class Team

Coral

We have had a great half term in Coral class learning all about our topic ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’ The students have worked so hard this term - we are so proud of them!

We have enjoyed exploring our theme and learning about lots of different things we can do to protect our planet. For reduce, we spoke about using less paper for our drawings. For reuse, we explored reusable pots and reused some materials for art and for our display. When it came to recycling, we used our word of the term ‘sorting’ to make sure all the recycling was organised into cardboard, paper, plastic, metal and glass.

In English we have been reading the story ‘Somebody Swallowed Stanley’ about a plastic bag that ends up in the sea and gets swallowed by a whale, pecked by a seagull and makes a turtle very sad. In the end, a kind boy comes along and saves the turtle and turns Stanley the plastic bag into a kite. The students have really enjoyed discussing this story and have written some beautiful sentences about different characters and what happens in the story. We have been practicing using adjectives as describing words and also commenting on how characters might feel throughout the book. In phonics this half term, we have been progressing through lots of sounds like ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘th’ and practicing writing and reading them.

In Maths, we have revisited and recapped our times of the day and o’clock. We have even started learning about half past. We have also been focussing on subtraction and addition by solving word problems. The students have been using Numicon, Unifix and coloured animals to help them.

This half term we have been cooking every Tuesday. We have made a wide variety of meals including fruit crumble, vegetable soup and brownies. The students have done really well at identifying the order which the recipe needs to go in and have then followed instructions really well to access the kitchen safely. We spoke about food waste and how it’s good to use as much of the fruit or vegetable as you can and we also discussed compost waste and how it can be reused in the future.

In PSHE this half term, we have been trying some different fruits and vegetables, for example, peaches, carrot, pepper and pineapple. We have been discussing that it is okay to try new things and have been using symbols and our describing words to talk about what we’ve tasted and whether we like it or don’t like it. We have also been finding different ways to relax, for example yoga and reading stories. Another focus this term has been playing new games and taking turns with friends, we have enjoyed a new shopping list game and lots of matching games where we have to watch our friends have a turn and wait nicely.

We are looking forward to seeing the students enjoy next term, learning about our new theme: ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’. We will be exploring the outdoors and learning about plants, flowers and foods that we can grow.

Have a lovely half term break!

Coral Class Team

Sea Lions

Despite the cold and windy weather we have been experiencing this half term, Sea Lions have settled back to the Canford routines and day to day life amazingly! Our theme for this half term has been ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, and a massive thank you to parents who have been sending in recycling for us to use in class. With this, our class trips have included visiting the new LUSH Green Hub, a facility that aims to become a self-sufficient recycling centre for LUSH products. We also visited a zero waste shop, where the pupils were surprised to see so many products without packaging to purchase - it’s a good job we brought our own containers!

In line with our theme, Sea Lions have explored the journey of the barge, appropriately named ‘Here Comes the Garbage Barge’, which is based on the true story of the Mobro 4000, and its infamous journey to dispose of New York’s garbage along the East Coast of North and Central America. As a class, Sea Lions could not believe such a journey took place in 1987! This further enabled us to begin thinking about the effects landfill and waste products has on our environment, and subsequently create a persuasive poster to convince people to reduce, reuse and recycle. There is a read along video on YouTube of the story, read by Justin Theroux if you’d like to read this with your child.

Sea Lions’ Maths sessions involved polishing up on our place value skills and beginning to use this to partition numbers. We have also introduced Daily 10 starters into our Maths sessions to enable the pupils to practice their quick thinking skills. Another focus this half term in Maths has been around weighing and measuring using a range of mediums, such as tape measures for length and weighing scales for measuring weight. This lends itself to practical learning, which as a class we always love doing! We have measured capacity to create our own mocktails and weighed ingredients to make cakes.

My World has led to us identifying different materials we encounter in everyday life, such as plastic, glass, paper to name a few. We have also worked in teams to categorise and sort these items as well as identify what we can and can’t recycle. Sea Lions have also been thinking of ways we can reuse materials, such as planting sunflowers using tin cans, making our own paper using scrap paper, creating clay tray trinket dishes, and paper mache pots. This has also transferred over to our STEAM sessions, where Sea Lions have worked with Sea Turtles to create a variety of objects, including a tin can guitar and lollipop stick catapults to reuse objects in class.

In PSHE, Sea Lions have been working hard on developing brushing their teeth, a vital life skill. We have used models of teeth to identify why it is important we brush our teeth well, and what happens when we don’t. Some pupils have also been brave enough to have a go at brushing their own teeth without adult support – a big step in itself!

In RE, we have explored as a class all about nature, based on Humanism beliefs. We have discussed why we should be kind to others and began a kindness jar to support. Pupils have to acquire a certain amount of kindness tokens in order to earn a reward as a class. As well, we ventured out to Poole Park to experience their quiet garden area. Although it was incredibly cold and the lake had frozen over, all the pupils could talk about how being there made them feel through their senses. A highlight of this trip was watching the ducks and geese navigate around the park, confused about the lake being frozen over and skidding along it!

Here are some quotes from Sea Lions pupils about the half term:

Amelia - “I have enjoyed going swimming”.
Larell - “My highlight of this half term has been doing my spellings in English and getting better at them”.
JJ - “I have liked reading the class book because I liked it being set in different countries”.
Malachi - “I have enjoyed swimming because I like when the teachers teach me new things”.
Jaxon - “I have enjoyed going swimming because I am getting better at it”.
Yanis - “My favourite activity this half term has been going to Poole Park”.
Jay - “I have loved Forest School”.
Brody - “I have enjoyed Maths this half term, every single bit of it!”

When we return in Spring 2, our theme will be ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots.’

Have a restful half term holiday!

Miss Ciara, Miss Alanna and Miss Sarah

Sea Turtles

Sea Turtles have enjoyed a wonderful half term, despite the frosty weather we have been on several trips linked with our theme ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’ We visited the LUSH Green Hub, a facility that aims to become a self-sufficient recycling centre for LUSH products. We also visited a zero waste shop. We brought our own containers to purchase items we could use in class. Pupils were surprised to see so many products without packaging to purchase.

Strands of our English have also fed into our theme, reading two books, the first being ‘Ada’s Violin. This is a lovely story about a village in Paraguay that is located next to a landfill site. A group of children decide to set up an orchestra, reusing items that could be found in a landfill to create beautiful instruments. Our second book ‘Robber Raccoon’ focussed on Rosie Raccoon, who breaks into other people’s houses to collect their recycling. Rosie decides to turn the recycling into a beautiful piece of art. Both books prompted great thinking about how we can reuse different items. Our English has enabled us to practice key skills, and we have been working on extending our sentences, to include describing or where words, as well as including the correct punctuation.

Sea Turtles have worked hard in their maths this half term. We started off with place value and worked on identifying the hundreds, tens and ones in a number. Moving on from this, we worked on finding 1, 10 or 100 more than a given number. Another focus in Maths has been around weighing and measuring using a range of mediums. We put our weighing skills to good use to measure ingredients for cakes!

Sea Turtles have shown a keen interest in our ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ theme. We began by looking at what materials could be recycled, such as cardboard, glass and paper. We thought about what household items we could recycle and what bins we used. We pushed ourselves by thinking about how we recycle items such as clothes. We explored ways that we could reuse items, for example, turning a glass jar into a plant pot for sunflowers and we turned cardboard tubes from toilet rolls into bird feeders. We put our bird feeders in our garden area, and the following day we had an exciting moment when we noticed a bird eating some seeds!

In our PSHE lessons we have continued to work on life skills, with the focus for this half term being brushing our teeth. We began by exploring why it is important to brush our teeth. We have used models of teeth to practice our tooth brushing skills. In RE, we have focused on why we should be kind to others and began a kindness jar to support. Pupils have to acquire a certain amount of kindness tokens, in order to earn a reward as a class - choosing their own songs for our wake and shake Friday dance party.

In ICT we have been focussing on saving our work in two separate places. Using purple mash, we created art work and learnt how to save it in an app. Pupils also used Word to practice typing up their work and gained knowledge how to save their work. We are proud of the children as they have worked hard to remember how to log on and off independently, as well as switch the computers off and plug them back in.

In spring 2, our theme will be ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots.’

Have a lovely half term,

Miss Nancy, Miss Jocelyne, Miss Katie, Miss Paris, Miss Heather

Lobsters

Lobsters have had a great term thinking about our topic ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’ As part of this, we have been on many interesting trips including Lush Green hub, zero waste shops and Nuffield Recycling Centre, as well as having visitors to help develop our understanding. Through this topic, Lobsters have really thought about how we can all make small changes to improve and help the environment. Lobsters have investigated materials and thought about how they can be sorted according to their properties and if they are able to be recycled. It has made us proud to witness how all the class have shown to have a better awareness of the environment around them and suggest how we can make it better. Linking with this topic, our STEAM lessons have used the idea of reusing things. During a trip to the Dorset Scrap Store, the class investigated what resources have been donated by local business and designed how these could be used to create a range of musical instruments that we would be able to use during out Sound Storm performance. As part of the Sound Storm workshops, Lobsters worked with Sam to help write a song (The Midnight Feast).

This term in PSHE, we have been learning about brushing our teeth and how to keep them clean. As a class, we looked at how many teeth we have and what the different types are called and their purpose. We also practised brushing our teeth Finley commented ‘Brushing makes me feel good and my mouth clean’. In RE we have been learning about Humanism. We have learnt that it is not a religion but is about looking after other people and the environment. As part of this, we went on a trip to Poole Park to experience how relaxing nature is. Everyone really enjoyed feeding the ducks and swans, Archie said ‘It was lovely to see lots of different birds in one place.’

This term Forest school has been very chilly. We have carried out a litter pick around the forest finding a wide range of rubbish that you would expect, however we were all surprised to find a curtain rail and paint brush.

The class have voiced that this terms cooking has been their favourite so far. We have been making Nachos. Lobsters have shown great independence when following the recipe and have been able to put previously taught skills into practise. To develop this further they were then given the opportunity to make them again but this time they added their own toppings such as bacon and using different types of cheese.

In ICT Lobsters have been continuing to develop their word processing skills. They have been using a range of games to help develop their typing speed and accuracy. This has shown to be very effective, and their scores are improving every week. During this term, they have developed more independence when typing and editing the fonts, size and colour of their text.

We are proud of all the lobster class and how they are starting to identify ways in which they can help to improve the environment. Next half term our topic is ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’.

We hope you all have a relaxing half term.

Laura, Jennifer, Sammy and Ellie

Seahorses

We have had a very positive half term in Seahorses Class working on our theme of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.’

In English we have been reading and completing comprehension work using a text called ‘Greta and the Giants’ about the young environmental activist Greta Thunberg. We have been researching information about who she is, what she does and what she has been protesting about in recent years.

In Maths we have covered a variety of areas. In Number based activities we have focussed on number order, counting on from a specific number. In geometry based activities we have focussed on measurement, particularly weighing. We have also worked on graphs.

In PSHE we have worked on self-care, focussing on personal hygiene. We have discussed methods of cleaning our bodies (using the bath, shower or sink), discussed when we need to wash, how often and the reasons why it important to maintain good hygiene. We have been able to explain why we need to care for our hair and nails. We can recognise a wide range of tools and products used to keep our bodies, hair and nails healthy and clean. We have been able to list the products and tools we each use and discuss why we all have different equipment. We have also written our own personal hygiene routines and compared how similar or different they are to our peers.

In ICT we have been using laptops to research ‘recycling.’ We use Google to perform our own research then have practised copying and pasting information and photos into word documents, saving it under a file name we can recognise. We have re-opened documents and edited them, practising moving pictures around the page, editing text size, font and colour and then saving and printing our documents. We have followed a series of instructions in order to learn specific skills to apply to our work with more independence and confidence. Leo, Vinnie and Ava have been able to work independently in all lessons and also provide help to others when needed. Well done!

In RE we have been looking at Humanism, which isn’t a religion but a concept that some people live by, where we consider human kindness, look after nature and treat each other with respect. We have discussed the main beliefs that Humanists hold and compared them to our own beliefs and opinions. We have also considered Random Acts of Kindness and explored all the small but helpful things we do on a daily basis purely to make others happy. We realised that we all do little things every day, often without even realising. We also pledged to complete some acts of kindness for other pupils and adults at school as well as for our families at home. Joshua said he likes to share a book with his younger sibling. How lovely!

In PE we have worked on basketball skills and also had football coaches in to run sessions. Seahorses enjoyed these sessions and participated well, understanding the need to develop our physical fitness and skills.

In Home Cooking Seahorses have focussed on making pasta dishes and soups this half term. Our skills in the kitchen are developing nicely and we are able to follow instructions to make dishes, clean the kitchen and utensils we use and ensure that everything is stored away tidily at the end of the session.

As part of our careers unit on understanding health and safety in the workplace we had a trip into Poole town centre where we were able to look for a variety of signs designed to help people stay safe at work. We found fire exit signs amongst a range of health and safety posters designed to keep staff and the public safe. We were also able to look at the different types of clothing workers in different settings were wearing, such as uniforms, smart clothes, hi-vis jackets etc.

We continue to enjoy accessing our options sessions on Wednesday afternoons, taking a wide range of subjects between us.

Next half term our theme will be ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots.’

We hope you all have a restful half term break and will look forward to welcoming the class back as we embark on our new theme.

The Seahorses Class Team

Magna Seals

Greetings again at the end of another half term. The children have been super stars again and shown great effort, resilience and enthusiasm.

In English we have learnt all about information texts and how this type of text is different to stories. The children have written their own information texts on ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” and did an amazing job!

In Maths we have continued to do lots of practical maths. At the start of the term the children were using stampers to create multiplication arrays and then we explored the link between multiplication and division and that these can be the inverse of each other. The pupils have also been very naughty and drawn on the tables to create number families (don’t worry it all wiped off - so the tables were as good as new!) We also explored positional language and played lots of games, and used the bee-bots to program in directions and movements.

In our ‘Wake and Shake’ sessions in the mornings we have continued to join with Manatees Class when the weather has allowed us to. When it’s been too cold and wet, we have mixed it up a little bit and completed a ‘Storm Break’ in the classroom.

We have enjoyed trips out, one to the Lush factory and one to the Spire Café in Poole. Both were fabulous and the class enjoyed getting the bus and walking down the high street to the café! The hot chocolates and milkshakes went down a treat on such a cold day!

Have a lovely half term break, and I can’t believe we are half way through the year! Scary how quickly time flies!

Kind Regards
Best wishes, Miss Nic, Miss Lorraine, Miss Nikki and Miss Lois

Magna Manatees

This newsletter sees us coming to the end of another very busy term, which has simply flown by. It is always a bit of a hurdle, coming back after Christmas, when the weather is still dark and gloomy and the lure of festivities has disappeared. However this half-term, Manatees class have shown what exceptional students they are, by throwing themselves into our new topic with enthusiasm and maturity.

Our focus has been on ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ and the students have shown great empathy and insight into why these three concepts are of such importance to the world that we are living in.

This topic has allowed us fantastic opportunities to explore through practical learning activities, beginning with a sparkly starter activity in which students went on a litter picking exercise with Mrs Vacher, before organising the things they found into different groups. It was truly shocking to discover how little of our ‘daily’ waste, can be easily recycled and what the implications of this means. Did you know that a single plastic drinks bottle can take up to 450 years to decompose if left outdoors?

In Maths, we have explored weighing and measuring using standard and non-standard measures - linking our investigations to the concept of waste management. Students have shown increasing accuracy and understanding, and have thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on learning activities.

Our English focus has been on investigating non-fiction information texts and in producing an example information text to show others all we have learnt about our topic. I have been truly impressed with how much insight the students have shown on how information texts are organised to help the reader locate and process the information they contain. In a recent treasure hunt activity, Manatees class were able to identify ten different features used in some example texts and spoke about how they were helpful with incredible confidence.

In PSHE we have been exploring the importance of cleaning our teeth and looking after them for life. We have made a set of dentures; found out about how the different teeth in our mouth all have different roles to play in digesting food and helping us to speak; invented a new brand of toothpaste (although no one was that keen on actually using it to clean their teeth) and have practised using toothbrushes in class. I hope that this translates into some excellent ‘teeth brushing’ at home too!

Another highlight of our term has been a visit from local environmental artist, Abi Thommes, who came to Manatees class as part of our ‘Fab Finish’ to show us how she creates unique pieces of art using recycled materials. We were really interested to hear all about her processes and were very lucky to be able to have a go at creating our own similar piece of art.

Next term our topic is ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’ and we are looking forward to getting out and about in our local community, to see how the new season is beginning to create changes in our environment.

Enjoy your half-term break. Best wishes, Verity, Hayley Hannah and Megan

Manta

This term our topic has been ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ and we have been really pleased with the mature way that the children have explored the subject. We have learnt about climate change and how we can help the environment. Our class text, ‘Hope Jones Saves the World’ has been an excellent way for us to explore issues such as plastic waste and discuss people like Greta Thunburg and protesting. The book is written as a series of blogs by a 10 year old girl, Hope Jones, who decides that for her new year’s resolution, she will ‘give up plastic’ the book follows the difficulties that she faces, her struggles and ways that she gets support from her family and local people. We had some brilliant discussions about the growing problem of plastic as well as learning about the rules on protesting. We also learnt how to write persuasive texts and wrote a letter to the Head teacher to encourage the school to be ‘greener’.

We have asked the children in class to give their views on this half term so please read their lovely comments below:

“There have been a list of things I have liked this term but I’ll tell you the main things I have really enjoyed. I have had more interest in Maths, I love a challenge when it comes to Maths. Recently, we have been learning about symmetry. I’m not going to lie, it has been a brain twister to me but I promise you I’ll get the hang of it. On to another subject we’ve been doing: English. We’ve just started to read this book called ‘Hope Jones Saves the World’ and it’s decent in my point of view. It’s just the type of humour in the book that I like. You should read it, it’s really good. There’s one more thing I would like to mention: our Monday option. I take the Art option and I love it! I love Art and our Art teacher is amazing! We have been learning about an inspiring local artist and we have been drawing patterns in the same way that she does with pastels.” - Korrie

“I have enjoyed doing basketball during PE this half term. In Forest School we have had some nice walks in the forest and listened out for birds.’”- George

“In Cooking, I made a nice soup that I enjoyed. We made a coconut spicy soup with beans and peppers in. We had to do a lot of careful chopping and think about the different herbs and spices we could add” - Ben

“For our Monday music option group we have gone to Absolute Music. We have been working with a man called Jamie who has showed us how to play the drums and the guitar. It was so funny one week when he played the drums and broke his drum stick!” - Ewan

“In PE we have been doing basketball and have learnt dribbling skills and played some matched. We also took a bleep test. I was level 7 last time and I’m on level 9 now so I’m proud of how much I have improved. We also learnt a new game called Elephant Football which has been really fun.” - Izzy

We are looking forward to Spring 2 where our new topic will be ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots.’

Orca

As ever, it has been a busy half term in Orca class. Pupils have been exploring the topic ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ across all lessons, which has helped them gain a better understanding of how things such as plastic can impact the environment.

In English we have used the book ‘Hope Jones Saves the World’ as our text, about a young girl with a passion for the environment who tries to make a change. The book is written in the style of a blog, Orca pupils have had a go at writing their own with some impressive results. They have also looked at the features of non-fiction writing and explored what impact these may have on readers.

‘Another great half term in Miss Smyth’s English lessons. This half term, Orca have enjoyed reading about Hope Jones trying to save the world from plastic! I wrote a great blog post in my lesson.’ John

Orca have had STEAM based Maths lessons linked to our topic of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ this half term. They sorted recycling, weighed it and then used this data to create various forms of graphs. Alongside this, they have also been pushing themselves in preparation for the next exam window.

“The Maths is fun and challenging” Mikey

Our Wednesday afternoon options classes are a highlight for many of our pupils. This is what they had to say:

“I’m in the photography options group and it’s actually quite fun. We get to go out and about, capturing photos and even eating ice cream! We learn how to best position a photo and how to adjust contrast. Overall, it’s great!” Josh

“I really enjoy the mechanics group. This half term we have visited the Quay school workshop in Turlin Moor. We took turns to put on and take off the wheel. They also had a chance to have a go with the torque wrench.” John

“Options have been amazing this have term. We have been playing ‘We Will Rock You’ with things we have in the classroom as we were inspired by the group Stomp. I used a ruler and a metal bottle. We are getting better and better each week!” Djamel

Pupils thoroughly enjoy our cooking lessons with Mr Henery this half term. A highlight was definitely making a spicy bean soup, all pupils produced fantastic results and we were blown away with how well they worked together.

“We cooked lovely food which tasted nice and our teacher is kind.” Mikey

“Mr Henery is a fantastic cooking teacher. This half term we made spicy soup and I got chef of the week.” Seth

Here is Josh’s report on our PE lessons:

“PE is a great subject, where we have fun playing the sports we love while working as a team and helping others that might need some support. We’ve been doing invasion games this half term, which includes games like Basketball, Handball and Football (shame the field is really muddy). It’s a good opportunity to improve our skills at whatever sport we playing and passing what we may already know to others. It’s a great subject (dare I say, one of my favourites).” Josh

“Our PE lessons have been great because of our amazing teamwork and communication. We are also learning how to play these games tactically too which improves how we play. It’s important that we are careful when tackling though!” Djamel

There have been many highlights this half term, watching the pupils being challenged with their learning and showing great resilience. Next half term our topic is ‘Roots Shoots and Muddy Boots.’

Orca team hope you have an enjoyable half term break

Sam, Alison and Sarah

Post 16

In Post 16 we’ve started the year with a spring in our step, continuing with many of our ongoing projects and nurturing the fresh buds of new adventures!

Mr Henery has continued to ensure we are BCP’s premier environmental restorers with our work around Haskell’s Recreation Ground with the Parks Foundation, as well as supporting the local community in our work with Bournemouth Foodbank. Some of us have also been able to engage with the community even further with our first steps into work experience. With members of Post 16 split between Julia’s House, Highmead Farm, supporting our Participation Team and working with our younger pupils on-site there’s been a lot of vocational life-learning in a few short weeks!

Our English studies this half-term have allowed us to explore the school theme ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ and there have been many considered conversations about carbon footprints and plastic packaging. Elsewhere in our speaking, listening and social skills sessions we’ve continued to learn more about laws, consequences and voting.

Maths has followed on from our Autumn mock exams working on some of the areas we found tricky (the dreaded multiplication and division…) which has allowed Mr Minton to indulge in his love of edible Maths with some chocolate fractions.

With most of our physical activity moving indoors we’ve all continued to hone our Boccia skills, as well as having a go at some handball. This has been supported by our ongoing gym visits with everyone settling into a comfortable routine with some regular deadlift PBs!

We’re looking forward to working both in school and across the local area for Spring Term 2 as we dive into ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’.

Post 16 Team

Forest School

Spring has been confusing itself with winter this year and although some trees and shrubs are moving into leaf and the first spring flowers have arrived we’ve also had snow and icy temperatures. However, the weather has given us lots of variety and fascinating sights to share with pupils.

We have explored frost patterns and wildlife habitats and have been very impressed with the ability of all pupils to retain and recall detail of different natural environments. To really bring the woodland experience to life pupils have been using binoculars and species ID sheets to find out more about what they see and get close to the action.

Some of our Discoverer learners have taken advantage of the icy temperatures and really enjoy the immersive sensory experience of smashing the special ice features we have created and unlocking the surprises within.

We can’t predict the weather these days, but in the coming weeks we will be exploring how the woodland changes and comes fully back to life.

Our Post-16 learners have been mostly class-based this half-term as we are introducing our new accreditation scheme and they have been recalling and cataloguing the projects we have worked on so far this year. However, our maintenance and rewilding work at Haskells Recreation Ground continues and we will soon start work on redeveloping the school’s allotment area and hope to get plants in the ground later this year.

We look forward to tell you more about our projects and partnerships next time.

PE

We have been very busy in the PE department this half term. The sports council have told me about their ideas for an intra competition and this is now under way.

Sebby said about the match “it was good, I liked it. My team won.”

The first match ended in a draw and the second match was won by Sebby’s team 4-1. Well done Yellow Team.

Our Discoverers curriculum has been working on key football and basketball skills as well as their multi sports skills. Here are Paddy and Aryan from Penguins Class practicing some dribbling and shooting.

Our pupils from satellite classes at CHJS have also been practicing their key basketball throwing skills and used these skills to compete with and against pupils from CHJS.

Sea Turtles Class:

“It is fun; I was rolling the ball” Bayleigh
“I think it was kind of hard” Sophie
“I liked throwing the balls in the hoops” Erin

Sea Lions Class:

“I’ve been throwing bean bags into hoops, and it was fun.” Larell

We were also very lucky to welcome 2 football coaches to Winchelsea over the half term; one from Bournemouth University and one from Dorset FA to work with some of our classes.

“I did football fast. I like scoring.” Katie (Dolphins)

Our Enquirers have also been looking at football and basketball skills and have been putting these skills into match scenarios. Lobster have been playing basketball and handball. Here they are practicing their throws.

“I like chucking it and scoring goals.” Callium
“I like to be the referee.” Bobby
“It’s a fun game to play with my friends.” Macey

We also have some exciting news that we will be playing some more football fixtures against local rivals Linwood in the not-too-distant future…so watch this space.

Creative Arts

Art Room Fun

Rachel Jones at Magna

It has been fantastic to work with the children at Magna on their latest project. We have been learning about Rachel Jones. She is a British abstract artist who uses pastels to draw mouth and teeth. She has inspired us to innovate our own work. Take a look….

Still Life in Dolphins

Dolphin have worked very hard on their still life from nature pictures. They have looked at pictures from nature and decided to draw flowers. They are getting so good at looking for greater detail in their work.

Natural Collage in Orca, Manta and Seahorses

As part of our up and coming project ‘Nature’s Playground’ our options group have been looking at artists who work with nature. We have looked at Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy. We made our own natural collages from things we found.

Marvellous Music!

We have a great start to the New Year here in music. Some classes have been lucky enough to work with some local musicians in connection with Sound Storm, our local music hub.

Lobsters, Dolphins and Jellyfish have been working with our musical visitor Sam, creating a song all to do with night time. The have helped to create lyrics, chords, rhythms and melodies and will be performing this alongside three jazz musicians in the last session. As well as this the visiting musicians will be giving a concert for these three classes to enjoy.

The KS4 Music group, have been visiting Absolute Music every Monday afternoon for sessions with musician Jamie. They had to decide on what project they wanted to create and between them choose to compose a rock song! This has meant exploring drums, keyboards and guitars and learning how to record them into the software on the computer. They have also had to come up with a context for the song and write their own lyrics – they chose fighting for people rights! Hopefully after a few more sessions after the half term, the song will be ready to listen to.

The rest of the school have been thinking about Junk Instruments.

After looking at Stomp as inspiration, Magna have had a go at making their own junk instruments. They then thought about creating their own rhythm piece – even having different people play different rhythms at the same time – something that is tricky to do but they managed it brilliantly!

Ocean, Harbour, Octopus and Starfish have been exploring the sounds that shakers can make and then have had a go at creating their own. Once they had done this they then had a go at using the shakers during a music lesson, thinking about starting and stopping, tapping along to the beat, and playing simple rhythms on them.

Signalong

EarlyBird and EarlyBird Plus

Exciting News!

Winchelsea have been running EarlyBird (0-5 Years) and EarlyBird Plus (5-10 years) courses for the past 10 years supporting parents and families in BCP area who have children with Autism. Last term myself and Jeannette extended our training and we are now qualified to run the Teen Life Programme for families with autistic teenagers aged between 10-16 years.

If you are interested in either EarlyBird, EarlyBird Plus or Teen Life courses then please contact me for more information.

Cheryl Brown 01202 746240 [email protected]

Friends of Winchelsea

What a joy it was to see out 2022 with the return of the Winchelsea Christmas Fair. A massive thank you goes to all the staff for their efforts. Lots of fun was had by all and much needed money was raised for the school - the raffle in particular raised £900.

The PTA would love more members to support our fundraising efforts throughout the school year. There’s no set hours to commit, it’s just a great way to meet fellow parents and carers and hear first-hand what’s going on.

Please get in touch via [email protected] or at the Winchelsea Parents Facebook group. We’re really looking forward to planning some great activities this year!