April Newsletter

Headteacher’s Message

The pupils have been looking at the theme of “Food, Glorious Food” discovering a wide range of foods in a variety of ways. The theme allowed pupils to not only taste the food but to also explore the sensory aspects of what we eat. This has included frozen food, food with different smells and with different textures. In addition, we have looked at how we buy food, where it comes from and how it is labelled. As you can imagine, the pupils have thoroughly enjoyed themselves! 

We are pleased to let you know that we have made some significant improvements to our gardens. We now have a number of shelters and additional facilities for the pupils to carry out Forest School work on site. We will see some further site improvements in the coming months.

We will shortly be sending out details of a number of events taking place this term. Please can I ask that you have access to the Schoolzine App and the website to ensure that you are able to receive all of the information you require.

Please can I also remind you all to be aware of our policy regarding nuts at school. We have had a number of challenging situations  and it is essential that we keep our staff and pupils safe.

Finally, please be aware Friday 24^th May 2024 is the last day of half term and the pupils return on Monday 3^rd June 2024.

As always, thanks you for your continued support.

Geoff Cherrill
Headteacher

Safeguarding and Participation Team

At What Age Can My Child Start Using Social Networks?

Internet Matters have produced this fantastic resource highlighting the minimum age limits for a variety of social media platforms as well as outlining the risks of being underage on social media. You can find out more here: 

The National College 

A reminder to all parents and carers that Winchelsea School has become a member of The National College - a multi-award-winning online training provider for staff and parents. 

As part of our membership, The National College provides dedicated training and resources for parents and carers - particularly, around online safety and keeping children safe online. 

Of course, staff will continue to teach children about the risks online. But with the internet so readily accessible, the most effective approach to online safety needs everyone involved, including parents and carers. 

That is why you now have access to hundreds of courses, explainer videos and online safety guides to support your awareness of the online world. Topics range from understanding apps like TikTok and Instagram to recognising the signs of online harm and what you can do to help. 

Signing up to the platform is simple. Just follow the link: 

Operation Encompass  

Our school is part of Operation Encompass which is a national scheme that operates jointly between schools and police forces. 

Operation Encompass is the reporting to schools, prior to the start of the next school day, when a child or young person has experienced domestic abuse. 

As a school we have ensured members of the Safeguarding Team, known as Key Adults, have been trained in the Operation Encompass procedures allowing us to then use the information that has been shared, in confidence, to support the child/ren in our care. 

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 identifies children who experience domestic abuse as victims of domestic abuse in their own right. 

We are keen to offer the best support possible to all our pupils and we believe this will be extremely beneficial for all those involved. 

Parental Controls  

Does your child have a games console? If yes, have you set up appropriate parental controls?  

The controls vary across the different consoles, but all will allow you to restrict spending and communication for example.  

PlayStation  

Set up your account as a family manager and create a separate child account so you can tailor their activities. Find out more here:  

Xbox  

You can download an app to manage your child’s gaming experience. Find out more here: 

Nintendo Switch  

Nintendo also offer a free app to monitor what and how your children are playing. Find out more here: 

Vaping  

In response to the public consultation, the Government have announced that disposable vapes will be banned in the UK as part of an ambitious plan to tackle the rise in youth vaping and protect children’s health. Recent figures show the number of children using vapes in the past 3 years has tripled. Use among younger children is also rising, with 9% of 11 to 15-year-olds now using vapes.  

The long-term health impacts of vaping are unknown and the nicotine contained within them can be highly addictive, with withdrawal sometimes causing anxiety, trouble concentrating and headaches.  

We would like to ask our parents for their support in reinforcing our messages about the risks of vaping and that we are a smoke-free, vape-free site.  

With You  

With You is a charity providing free, confidential support to people experiencing issues with drugs, alcohol or mental health. 

Find out more here:  

Mental Health and Wellbeing 

As the weather warms up and the days lengthen, embrace positive spring vibes and boost the whole family’s wellbeing with a range of spring-themed activities. 

After the dark, cold days of winter, spring can feel like a breath of fresh air. Warmer weather and lighter days can help you and your family to feel more motivated to get outdoors and enjoy activities together.  

Spending time together and connecting through exercise, activities and games, is great for everyone’s wellbeing.  

During the winter, you may have found it hard to motivate yourself and your family to be active and enjoy exercising. As spring arrives, it can feel like you are shedding the heavy weight of winter, and you may suddenly feel more upbeat and motivated about being active.  

Make the most of this and the warmer weather by getting active as a whole family. Physical activity can help to improve yours and your family’s mental health and wellbeing as it releases feel-good hormones that improve mood and energy levels. Exercising as a family is beneficial as it can help you to feel more emotionally connected, reduces stress and provides you with time to laugh, chat and have fun together.  

Spring is such a beautiful season - nature bursts into life and the sun shines brighter in the sky. Soak up the wonder of spring by getting outdoors together. Visit a local beauty spot, go for a nature walk or head to the beach for a barefoot walk on the sand - there are so many great outdoor activities to enjoy together in spring! 

Being outdoors is good for you and your family’s wellbeing. Research shows that being outdoors reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and heart rate and improves mental health.  

The BCP Family Information Directory provides details on childcare, local activities and a range of services for you and your family https://www.fid.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/family-information-directory Information on holiday clubs and activities can also be found within the directory. 

Adam, Jo, Abi, Kelly and Nicki 

Every Day in School Matters

Is my child too ill for school? 

It can be tricky deciding whether or not to keep your child off school when they're unwell. 

There are government guidelines for schools and nurseries about health protection and managing specific infectious diseases. These say when children should be kept off school and when they shouldn't.

Find out more here:  

If you do keep your child at home, it's important to phone the school on the first day to let us know that your child will be absent and the reason. 

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.

New School Attendance Regulations  

From September 2024 Parent/Carer fines for unauthorised absences will be brought under a national framework to help tackle inconsistencies in their use. A fine to parents will be considered if a child misses 5 days of school for unauthorised absence. Alongside this, costs for fines will go up from £60 to £80 if paid within 21 days and from £120 to £160 if paid in 28 days.

End of Academic Year Attendance Reporting 

Please be aware that we have a statutory duty to prepare an annual report to Parents/Carers about their child’s school attendance, this will be sent home on the last day of the summer term.  

Our aim At Winchelsea School is that every pupil has an end of year attendance of at least 95%.   

Attendance below 90% is regarded as persistent absence by the Department for Education.  

A child with 89% attendance at the end of an academic year will have missed 21 days of school, over four school weeks of learning missed. 

If you have any queries relating to attendance, please get in touch via the school office.  

Best wishes  
Adam Bradford

Curriculum

Last half term our curriculum theme ‘Food, glorious food’ was another science topic. Pupils have been finding out about the journey of food - from farm to fork. Some classes have been able to explore where our food comes from and visit places in our local area to put this learning into context. Linked to our charity fundraiser, some classes were able to visit ‘High Mead Farm’, and hopefully more will visit in the summer term. Various classes have extended this learning to consider the impact of the journey of food on the environment. Across the school pupils have had many opportunities to explore food through sight, smell, touch and taste this has linked well to our previous half term work on the senses.

STEAM learning has provided lots of great opportunities for practical experiments, with some classes growing their own food!

We had a really great ‘World Book Day’ this year, pupils in the Explorers and Discoverers Pathway enjoyed exploring the ‘Tiger that Came to Tea’ through a sensory story supported by the Speech and Language department, complete with tea in the café. Our Enquirers and Navigators had a really great and immersive Wonka experience run by Lydia Smyth. 

As part of our charity fundraiser activities, we had a fantastic finish to the terms work with our ‘Food Fayre’ where classes across the school chose something to make and then sold it to pupils across the school during the afternoon. Classes also put out tasters so that pupils could experience the food and ‘try before they buy’! We had a wonderful afternoon around school with pupils mixing across ages, experiencing each other’s creations and taking pride in the products they had made. A huge well done to all!

The School Council ran a successful two-day event at the end of term to raise money for High Mead Farm. The event began with a talk from staff at High Mead Farm about the work they do and how they support the local community. Pupils enjoyed the ‘bring and buy sale’ and we were very grateful for your donations. The second day started for some, with bingo, we had a packed hall of pupils and it was lovely to have some parents join us for this event too! I know pupils thoroughly enjoyed themselves, especially those winning prizes!  Some of our pupils watched the Krazy Kev Magic Show, which is always very entertaining.  Pupils then danced the morning away with our disco and finished the day with an Easter Egg hunt or quiz, all kindly donated by ‘Krazy Kev’.

Thank-you so much to all the parents/carers and family members who not only sent in a charity contribution but also donated prizes for the ‘bring and buy’ sale and the ‘bingo’ event.  It was a great opportunity for many classes across the school to come together during the two days and raise money for a cause that is close to our hearts. We are really pleased to announce that the two-day event raised £716 for the charity. Wow… well done to everyone, especially our student council for organising it.

Hannah Parry
Curriculum Lead

Medical

Right to Choose 

What Is the Right to Choose? 

The Right to Choose is a legal right. If you are not offered a choice at the point of referral, ask your doctor why and say you wish to explore your options. 

For further information, please see link below: 

ADHD/ASD - Right to Choose Referral 

If you or your child are eligible, this means you have the right to choose which mental healthcare provider you want to be referred to for assessment and treatment. This means that if you decide the waiting time for you ADHD/ASD assessment is too long then you can choose another provider.  

Please see useful website links below: 

Sun Safety Facts: 

In the UK the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays are the strongest between 11am-3pm from mid-March to mid-October. During this time, the sun may be strong enough to cause damage. Take extra care to protect your skin, especially if you get sunburnt easily by: 

• Spending time in the shade, especially between 11am-3pm
• Covering up with clothes, hat and UV protection sunglasses
• Using sunscreen with a least SPF15 and 4 or 5 stars. Use it generously, reapply regularly and use together with shade and clothing

Tips for applying sunscreen: 

• Make sure you put enough on - people often put much less sunscreen than they need to. Apply sunscreen evenly and thickly, even if it is a roll on or spray sunscreen.
• Reapply sunscreen regularly through the day including ‘once a day’ and ‘water resistant’ products. Sunscreen can rub, sweat and wash off - even if it is supposed to be waterproof. It is especially important to put more on after towelling dry. Reapplying also helps avoid missing bits of skin.
• Check the expiry date on your sunscreen before you use it. Look for a symbol with the letter M and a number that shows how many months the sunscreen will last after opening.

Nuts

We must remind all parents and carers that we are a 'Nut Free School'. 

Unfortunately, despite previous communications we continue to have pupils bringing items to school, in their lunch boxes, that contain nuts. Some examples of products are Brioche, pastries, Jammie Dodgers and various chocolate bars such as Twix and Mars. 

As previously advised, we have staff and pupils in school with severe nut allergies, who we must keep safe. We cannot have nuts in school in any form. 

Children and adults who suffer from nut allergies can develop a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. If someone has a nut allergy, it is not just eating nuts that can cause a severe reaction, just being touched on the skin or smelling the breath of someone who has had nuts or a product containing nuts can trigger anaphylactic shock (which can cause breathing and swallowing difficulties). 

All food items must be thoroughly checked before being sent into school and items containing nuts or "may contain traces of nuts" or "may contain nuts" or "made in a factory that also uses nuts" MUST NOT be brought into school. 

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 and 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. 

Dental Referrals  

If you are having difficulties in finding a local NHS dentist, we can help to refer your child to the Somerset Specialist Community Dental Service. The service are very skilled at providing treatment to children with a range of learning difficulties and health needs. 

If you require further information, please contact the Medical Team. 

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 and Jane 

Therapy Team

Physiotherapy 

It’s been a busy term for all those students in Shells class who have had a session a week with the PE and Therapy team to continue to develop their foundation motor skills. They have all improved in listening skills, strength, and participation - well done to Shells! 

We have trialled Mr Hamilton’s cardio desk drumming with Jellyfish, Dolphins and Puffin classes on main site, Sea Turtles and Sea Lions at Canford Heath and Penguins at Old Town. – he's a YouTube hero of mine! It has been such a success that we are rolling it out across the whole school next term to be part of our Wake and Shake routine. 

This term I will be working more closely with the students at Kinson to help them to move forwards with foundation motor skills.  

Speech and Language Therapy 

Our Speech and Language Therapists, Jess T, Heather and Jess P really enjoyed meeting and speaking to so many parents at the recent parent’s evening. As always, we invite you to contact us with any questions or concerns you have about the Therapy provision at Winchelsea. You can do this by sending us an email at: [email protected]

If you missed it at parents evening, one of our Speech and Language Therapists, Jess Travers, has been looking into parental engagement and how we can best enable parents to support their children’s therapy needs at home. Before developing this further, we’re gathering parents’ thoughts, feelings and ideas through a survey. If you’d like to contribute and share your views, please follow the link to the survey below: 

Goodbyes 

At the end of the Spring term, we said a temporary ‘goodbye’ to Jess Woodrow (Senior SaLT) who has gone on maternity leave. Jess’ baby boy arrived earlier this week and we wish her the very best! 

Ocean

Ocean class fully immersed themselves in the topic ‘Food Glorious Food’ and enjoyed themselves as they explored a multitude of foods. The children took turns rolling potatoes, apples and oranges down tubes and used a lot of energy collecting them afterwards! They printed with a variety of vegetables and fruits, filled and emptied shopping bags, and practised their cutting skills using knives and soft fruits. Cooking was a big part of our topic, we made smoothies, cheese straws, cakes, fruit salad and raisin and dough balls. The products they made were also very tasty! Some of the children tried new foods and the Weetabix was a big success for several of the children. Sensory food therapy was exciting as the children used cream and jelly, ice cream, hot chocolate, oats, and cereal.  

We were extremely proud of the children when they made cakes for the end of term ‘Fab Finish’, a group from Ocean and Harbour class delivered the cakes to main site to sell to the rest of the school. They were delicious and extremely popular!

During our visits to Upton Park, we have noticed how incredibly well the children are walking now when we go through the woods and when looking at the animals in the field. They also sit so well eating their snacks at the picnic tables.

We are all looking forward to Summer, and we thank you for your continued support, it is hugely appreciated.

Take care
The Ocean Team 

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Harbour

Harbour class have thoroughly enjoyed our ‘Food Glorious Food’ topic over the past half term. From dry cereal to wet tomato ketchup, cold oats to hot porridge, savoury cheese to sweet marshmallows, Harbour have been on a sensory adventure exploring the delicious wonders of food. Through sensory food play and exploration, the children have gained a deeper understanding of different types of foods.  

Our journey began with the much-loved story of ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ which sparked the children’s curiosity about different types of foods. Our explorations have led us to discover a variety of tastes, textures and experiences. From dried apples to frozen strawberries, we explored a wide range of culinary delights. Our trips to the local shop have provided valuable learning opportunities as we’ve focussed on buying and labelling food items, fostering independence and real-world skills.  

In Art sessions, the children have developed their creativity and painted with a wide range of objects such as coloured yoghurt and broccoli spears. From gingerbread biscuits to smoothies, beans on toast to jelly with fruit, our budding chefs have whipped up a storm, delighting in the joy of having a go at making and tasting their own creations.  

Thank you for your continued support and involvement in your children’s learning journey. Here’s to many more delightful discoveries in the weeks ahead!  

Oyster

The theme of ‘Food Glorious Food’ followed on seamlessly from ‘A Feast for the Senses’. The term began with World Book Day, sharing stories and dressing up together, as well as exploring the stories of ‘Kitchen Disco’ written by Claire Foges and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ written by Roald Dahl.  

With our theme in mind, we made several trips to three different local supermarkets, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Asda. We bought different items to taste, exploring, salty, sweet, spicy and bitter.

The main food-based skill we have developed is spreading whilst learning how to make sandwiches with a range of fillings. We also focussed on chopping while making smoothies in the blender with some of us beginning to solve problems when it doesn’t work.  

In addition to the physical skills related to our food preparation we also manipulated playdough with tools to make specific shapes, attempted to cut out shapes to make paper pizzas, and turned fruit into different characters using different items.

Our gross motor skills were linked to hand eye co-ordination, throwing, catching and moving the parachute together.  

The creative aspect also intertwined with our tool use and development. Alongside all the pieces of art sent home there was one we couldn’t send home. It was the fruit rainbows with yoghurt and cream that the children explored and several ate afterwards!  

We closed Spring 2 with a charity fundraiser week raising money for our chosen charity for this year 'High Mead Farm'. Oysters joined in at main site with several Easter activities, including a disco and Easter egg hunt. Our 'Fab' finish was a visit to The Spire café in Poole.  

We always love to hear about anything you have been replicating at home or new milestones, so we can build on them and celebrate.

Oysters Team

Starfish

Starfish have had a lovely half term exploring different foods and textures for our theme “Food Glorious Food!” Food can be a tricky area for some of our students, especially textures, and we were really impressed with how resilient and keen the children were to try new things and touch different foods.

We have been enjoying going out on lots of local community walks and visits, using our senses to experience the world around us and focusing on our ever-important skills that we are always learning such as ‘Stop’, ‘Walk’, ‘Wait’, as well as our thematic key vocabulary.

Forest school is continuing to be extremely successful with all of the children now getting to go off site to the off-site forest school. This has been great for building independence and life skills, as well as learning about different environments.

We have been focusing on labelling in our My Communication Sessions.  The children have been looking at labelling foods and showing an increased awareness of the foods that are around them.  Some have even been able to recognise whose food is who’s! 

We are continuing to push independence in Starfish Class and have really increased the levels of independence through self-care routines.  This includes toileting, brushing teeth and brushing hair. The children are all starting to recognise that they need to achieve some things on their own and we are incredibly impressed with how they have problem solved and accepted some of these challenges.

Well done Starfish Class!

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Jellyfish

“Food Glorious Food” has been the theme for this half term - possibly, according to the adults, one of the best themes yet! I wonder why!? This theme allowed Jellyfish Class to visit different Supermarkets for our Community Visit each week. We bought ingredients for our Friday Food Therapy sessions as well as followed instructions to look for different foods and aisle numbers. Alongside this, we based our Careers lessons on looking at different roles within supermarkets… although some pupils have still not grasped that even if Miss Naomi “the teacher” is in Asda, that does not mean she works there! In Food Therapy, we focussed on a different taste each week and explored new foods by touching, smelling, licking and biting them. The different tastes were: “sweet”, “sour”, “spicy” and “salty”. As I am sure you can guess, the pupils especially enjoyed “sweet” week! I, myself, am more of a “salty” lady and I really liked the salty fries we tasted in class!

The pupils learnt their own version of the story “Kitchen Disco” using Moving Pictures in their My Communication lessons. They did so well with this aspect of their learning that we recorded the whole class telling the story and shared their incredible work across the school to staff and in Assembly. We had A LOT of positive feedback from it, which was so lovely to hear! As always, the class enjoyed putting their wellies on and paddling in the river, walking under the bridge and climbing the stile at Forest School. We all look forward to, hopefully, wellie-wearing without a coat and less layers and enjoying the warmer weather in the Summer Term. This Half Term, Jellyfish Class (adults included) began “desk drumming”. This is when we stand behind our tables holding 2 foam noodles each. We then follow a routine to music and really get our bodies moving by banging the noodles on the desk to the rhythm of the music. The pupils have really enjoyed participating in this and we hope to continue this throughout the rest of the academic year! It is also a fun workout for all and we highly recommend it! 

Jellyfish Class celebrated World Book Day by dressing up, hunting for adults dressed as “Where’s Wally?” and participated in sensory stories. For Red Nose Day, we wore red clothing and thought of different ways to make each other laugh. Our class were the runners-up in the Discoverers Joke Competition with the entry: “Why won’t a skeleton climb a mountain?” … “because he hasn’t got the guts!” During the final week of Term, we participated in the whole school Charity Week to raise money for High Mead Farm. Jellyfish pupils enjoyed thinking of names for their “guess the name of the soft toy” stall as well as a great job making chocolate rice crispy cakes to sell. During this week, Jellyfish Class also enjoyed making some beautiful Easter Craft… which I am sure you put up on your fridges at home straight away!

Miss Naomi and the Jellyfish Class Team; Miss Jo, Miss Hayley and Miss Aimee

Dolphin

Welcome back. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter break! 

It’s safe to say that the theme of ‘Food Glorious Food’ was very well-received and provided many positive learning opportunities for Dolphin class last term. 

As part of My Problem-Solving pupils practiced reading, writing and counting numbers, whilst applying these skills to games and real-life contexts. Playing number games allowed pupils to practice applying number skills in a familiar and fun way. Yashfi in particular has worked especially hard on his Maths and has applied this well both in group games and when accessing school and public cafés. 

Last term in My Communication we worked on how to make helpful listening notes to create a range of fruit-related artwork. Pupils watched and listened carefully to each instruction, making their own notes or pictures for each step. They then followed these steps to create their own artwork, ticking each instruction as they went. This is a great way of recording and remembering information and pupils did a great job of creating simple pictures that could instantly prompt a more detailed memory of what to do next. Samantha and Charlie really got the hang of this and were able to draw clear instructions that they could then apply accurately in order to make different craft items. We will continue to practice our helpful listening notes moving forward, as it is such a valuable life skill for us to develop. 

Dolphin class really enjoyed one of the highlights of the school calendar by dressing up to celebrate World Book Day last term. Pupils particularly enjoyed; making chocolate cakes for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, exploring The Tiger Who Came to Tea sensory story and joining other classes to experience our Kitchen Disco party! 

During the Spring term Dolphin class practiced their travel skills by following road safety rules, catching a bus and navigating the local community safely. Despite the bus often being very busy, pupils demonstrated great independence and maturity every time we used this public transport, with Shyla setting a brilliant example for others to follow. We look forward to spending more time in the local community in the coming months, where we will continue to build on these important life skills. 

We have already made a great start to the new term and look forward to another busy term ahead with lots of sunshine and creepy crawlies! 

Dolphin Team 

Octopus

Our Spring term was a fun and engaging exploration of food and friendship, with our theme ‘Food, Glorious Food.’ We had a fantastic time building on our preferences and positive experiences around food. Looking at where food comes from and the different tastes, smells and sensory experiences that they provide.  

Our book last term was ‘Kitchen Disco,’ written by Clare Foges, our pupils loved learning the dance routines along to the story. They also explored new vocabulary and especially ‘doing words’ while getting to grips with key terms around food and food preparation.  

In our problem-solving sessions, we looked at a range of number skills, introducing larger numbers when measuring ingredients and buying food in the café, while continuing to explore number representation. We also looked at multi-sided shapes and counted the sides of increasingly complex shapes. Pupils loved our maths related games activities and enjoyed playing counting games with real fruit and vegetables and then adding them all together. 

Octopus Class kept active on our community visits in the local area, going for long walks to local shops, improving our fitness while also using social and numerical skills to purchase items for our cooking lessons. The food we made was then tasted in our ‘Class Restaurant’ lesson, with pupils taking on job roles such as waiters and chefs, to serve their friends with different foods. This session, helped to clarify the food journey, from farm, all the way to our tables, helping pupils to comprehend where our food comes from.

Our social interaction sessions continue to go from strength to strength, as pupils develop essential play and relationship skills. They experienced these sessions alongside their peers and in some cases have begun sharing and turn taking with each other. This has been achieved through regular opportunities to interact with motivating games and activities, some of the most popular being ‘crocodile dentist’ and ‘pop up pirates’ which have helped in such an important social aspect of our pupil’s lives.  

Two other areas that are emerging as particularly important for our pupils are ICT, in which we began exploring apps, teaching E-Safety around photos and videos, and making our own class video blogs about life in Octopus Class.  

Our Art lessons have also been especially engaging for pupils, with the class trying out a range of food-based art activities. These have included; potato printing, painting with fruit and vegetables, and discovering that broccoli works very well as a paint brush.  

Thank you once again for all your help in the last term and for your continued efforts at home, efforts which are really helping to support the best outcomes for your amazing children! 

Shells

Wow, what a fun and busy time last half term was! Shells class really enjoyed their topic for Spring 2, ‘Food Glorious Food’, and worked so hard in all areas of the curriculum. In My Communication our focus story was ‘Kitchen Disco’ written by Clare Foges - the children had lots of fun decorating fruit in order to recreate the story! We also had a big focus on using let’s chat boards to develop our vocabulary around food, it was amazing to see them beginning to use the boards in order to comment to each other and the adults about what they were eating and applying new words to their vocabulary such as crunchy, juicy and squishy. 

In our Problem-Solving sessions our focus was on beginning to recognise specific coins in order to make a purchase. The children had lots of fun visiting the ‘Shells Class Toy Shop’ in order to buy certain items to play with. They did really well in recognising a £1 coin, and we will continue to have our toy shop available to embed their learning and recognise a range of other coins as well.  

Leading on from this, our community visit was to the café in Tesco. We were so proud of how well the children were able to queue, order and sit nicely to eat their snack. It’s been wonderful to see the culmination of all of the skills we have been practicing at school come together in a real-life context - it was such a proud moment for us to see them independently ask the cashier for what they wanted and pay for it with the correct coins!  

In our thematic and STEAM lessons we explored using different kitchen implements safely. The children were able to use a toaster to make crumpets, a microwave to heat up custard, a mixer to make dough and a kettle to make hot chocolate. The children did really well following instructions to make these items and listened well to the adults in order to be safe.  

Shells Class Team

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Penguins

Penguins had a glorious half term! Our theme was ‘Food Glorious Food.’ We learned about seasonal fruit and vegetables and about local foods, before doing taste tests. Penguins have developed excellent vocabulary to describe foods they like and dislike, using words such as sour, salty and sweet. Our topic fed into our community visits, and we were lucky enough to visit the Spire Café, where students were able to purchase items of their choice. This was an excellent opportunity for students to request food and a drink from less familiar adults.  

In English, our story focus has been on ‘The Gigantic Turnip’ written by Aleksei Tolstoy. It’s a lovely story about a couple who plant different vegetables, including turnips, they wake up one day to find that one of their turnips is gigantic, and enlist the help of their farm animals to help pull the turnip out. Penguins used this class text to develop their sentences, working on the presentation of their sentences, particularly using finger spaces and full stops. Penguins have also worked hard in their speaking and listening sessions following instructions for different bakes and STEAM experiments.

In Maths, Penguins have worked on counting forwards and backwards from different starting points, and have also used their number knowledge to compare the length of different objects. We used rulers to measure different items in our classroom and then compared them to find the biggest or smallest. We continue to use our number knowledge in cookery, weighing out our ingredients. Penguins made some lovely bakes including flapjacks, cupcakes and rice crispy cakes.

In Art, we have read the story of ‘Handa’s Surprise’ written by Eileen Browne. We have used this story to create our own artwork to show what we would put in our own fruit and vegetable baskets. In RE, we have explored different foods that are used to celebrate different religions, Penguins particularly enjoyed trying samosas and naan bread.  

Thank you to everyone for supporting our charity week, we enjoyed being able to engage in a variety of different activities both at Old Town and on our main site. 

If you have any queries, please email the class team using the Penguins email address.

Regards, 
Miss Nancy, Miss Kellie and Miss Clare.  

Sea Lions

Wowzers! What an end to a brilliant term again! The pupils have continued to show me their resilience and love of learning! The children’s smiles, humour and sense of wonder at the world is why working with them every day gives us such joy! 

We have explored “Food Glorious Food” and the children have done an amazing job at tasting foods from other countries. Although some of the students were a little reluctant at first - they all gave it a go. The class team are so proud of them all! The firm favourite was croissants and sushi! The least favourite was olives!

Over the term we have read “James and the Giant Peach” written by Roald Dahl. The students have (once again) loved the story, and produced some amazing work - ranging from being a new reporter to deciding where they would like a giant peach to take them! We had some fantastic imaginative ideas! 

In PE the students have developed their ‘Boccia’ skills. They have all worked hard within a team and I have been impressed with their sportsmanship and the way they have been saying encouraging things to each other. Sea Lions have worked cooperatively, while building real team spirit!  

The term was finished with a wonderful two days of charity fun at main site. The students took part in an Easter egg hunt, beat the keeper competition, table tennis and bingo, and enjoyed a talk by some special visitors from High Mead Farm.  

Thank you, as always for your continued support. 

Kind Regards 
The Sea Lions Team  
Miss Nic, Mr Saunders, Miss Katie, Miss Paris and Miss Lois.

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Sea Turtles

The students in Sea Turtles Class thoroughly enjoyed many exciting learning opportunities across the curriculum in the second half of the Spring Term. 

The most important of these has definitely been watching our many tadpoles grow and develop. They began as tiny hatchlings but soon grew, eventually developing their back legs just before the Easter holiday. The pupils fed and cared for the tadpoles, completing a Frog Diary throughout the term where they wrote and drew their observations. The tadpoles are currently living in two different locations, enjoying life in wildlife ponds. The second batch are almost fully developed froglets and the lady who ‘adopted’ them sends us regular updates about how they are progressing. We rescued about 70 in total from a puddle where the pupils spotted them during Forest Schools.  

Our recent trip to High Mead Farm was a huge success. The pupils loved learning about the farm and interacting with a wide range of animals, including alpacas, goats, chickens, quails, rabbits, guinea pigs, Shetland ponies, pigs and ducks. Some pupils carefully collected freshly laid chicken eggs and took them to the onsite farm shop to be sold. Pupils also harvested leaves which they later fed to the rabbits and guinea pigs. Pupils planted their own sunflower seeds which are currently growing in class, and they are also growing broad bean plants as part of our STEAM learning.  

We finished the term with two exciting days of fundraising activities for High Mead farm. Pupils and parents enjoyed taking part in activities such as bingo, a bring and buy sale, an Easter egg hunt, and a disco with dancing competitions. Pupils also did some food tasting and visited all the different classes at main site to taste different food prepared by each class.  

 “I like forest school and finding and hunting different things.” TB

“I like cooking, forest school and STEAM. They are all so fun I just can't decide which one to pick.” DT 

“I like forest school and going for walks looking for insects.” BF

“I like forest school and maths. I'm looking forward to going swimming with my friends.” WC

Thank you for your continued support,  
Miss Lisa and Miss Alanna. The Sea Turtles Team.

Puffin

Spring 2 was another brilliant half term in Puffin class learning all about our topic “Food Glorious Food”.

In English, we have been using a story to write our own books. We talked about characters and described what we thought of them and made predictions around what we thought would happen. We used vocabulary and phrases well to add interest and detail to our stories. All the pupils worked super hard to retell the story in their own words, thinking carefully about the characters, how they were feeling and developing empathy for them. The story also went back in time, and had lots of inferred meaning, so we had to use excellent detective and comprehension skills to look for the clues in the story. Again, we published our own books and they are brilliant! 

In My world, we learnt about different foods, where food comes from, how it is produced, in which countries food comes from and how it gets to our supermarkets and onto our plates. We learnt about trying to buy locally produced food to cut down on the air miles and pollution created with long journeys. We tasted different foods and developed our use of adjectives to describe them.

We carried out a fair test to see how sugar and salt affected out bodies and concluded whether too much, was good or bad for us.

We linked the theme to ICT and used this to create a healthy eating poster, we inserted pictures, text boxes and a catchy heading to grab the reader. We learnt to change the font, resize it and even change the colours to present our information to our readers.

In Maths, we have continued developing our problem solving and reasoning skills around number and using number facts to apply to larger numbers. We did work on money and have learnt so much about their value. We added money together to make given amounts and learnt about change. It was a great opportunity to use these skills in the café when working out how much we had, how much items cost and adding amounts together to pay for our tasty snacks. We also learnt about the time and will continue to use this skill throughout the day at school.

In RE we continued to learn about different religions and the symbols that are important to them.

In PE we learnt how to play and referee games of Boccia and worked really well as a team supporting our team mates and showing good sportsmanship.

We had a brilliant trip to Tesco, where we used our lists to find the items we needed, checked if we had enough from our budgets and then paid for them ourselves. We then became excellent chefs, preparing the food we had brought for each other to enjoy together - we certainly enjoyed it!!

As always, we have been celebrating each other’s successes and had a big emphasis on teamwork and resilience in all areas of our learning.

We had a wonderful trip to High Mead Farm, where we met the animals and explored all the fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs that they grow there. We smelt them and tasted them and planted our own beans to bring home - I hope they are doing well and, are on their way, to giving you some of your own home-grown goodness. 😊

We could not be happier with all the pupils in Puffins, they make us smile everyday 😊

Silvia, Sammy and Emily

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Lobsters

Lobsters class have continued to work hard.

In English, Lobsters have been working on our description skills. We have written poems about foods using a wide range of adjectives. We then continued this description work with rewriting the café menu. The class thought about the foods on the current menu and thought about how we could use adjectives to entice customers.  

In Maths we have done a lot of work on understanding numbers. During these lessons the class developed their understanding of place value and how this can be used to order and compare numbers. It was great to see the confidence of the class grow when using what they know about numbers and place value to solve problems. We also applied their learning when comparing prices to decide which is cheapest.  

In My World the class enjoyed the topic of ‘Food Glorious Food’. Through this we looked at where our food comes from and researched food miles. We also looked at nutritional value of different foods, and why it is important to have a balanced diet. We continued this learning in our home cooking lessons, making a range of stir-fries. We kept the main ingredients the same, allowing the class to hone their cutting skills. The class then made different sauces, showing how fast food can also be healthy.  

As part of our Law-and-Order lessons we have been looking at some of the consequences of breaking the law. We were very lucky that we had the amazing opportunity to visit an old magistrate court. The class really enjoyed having the chance to explore the court room and sit in all the different roles. During this, the class asked some great questions and made insightful observations. 

We started our work on ‘Gardening for Pleasure’. This has included discussing what they believe is the meaning of ‘garden’. They have also designed their own garden using playdough. It was great to see them use their imagination about what they would like. We have also started to look at the tools which are used in gardening and allowing the class the chance to use a range of these. We also went to a local garden centre to look at the plants which are available.  

We are very proud of Lobster class and look forward to seeing how much they learn in the coming weeks.  

Seahorses

Spring 2 was a great half term learning about the topic “Food Glorious Food” and pupils had the opportunity to enjoy the topic in all curriculum areas.

In English we have read ‘The Great Foodbank Heist’ written by Onjal Q Rauf, it is about a family that couldn’t afford a lot of food and had to rely on the foodbank. Then one day they got a very limited amount from the foodbank and heard that someone had robbed the foodbank. They find a couple swapping their trolley for the one filled up for the foodbank and they spring into action to save the day! 

“The best bit of The Foodbank Heist book in English was when the kids caught the thieves” - Liam

In My World we have looked at the digestive system, discovered what our internal organs are, what they do, what they look like and where they are located. We have researched and tasted food from different countries around the world, Mrs Preece let us taste sushi and strawberry cake and it was yummy! We researched where different foods originate from and considered our food’s carbon footprint and how many miles it had travelled to get to our plates.

PSHE lessons have been based around skills for life. We have been visiting the school’s life skills flat, where we made hot drinks (Tea, Coffee and Hot Chocolate) and also made other drinks such as squash and milkshakes including banana, strawberry and chocolate. We also baked making a variety of food including; mini pizzas, using muffins, passata, topped with cheese and bacon rolls. After each activity we had to write our own instructions so that we wouldn’t forget how to do make them.

We were very lucky to be invited on the Birds of Poole Harbour boat trip. We had a really lovely day and considering how unpredictable our weather has been lately, we had really good weather on the day. The Birds of Poole Harbour volunteers were telling us that we had to keep an eye out for the pair of Ospreys expected back in the harbour at any time, unfortunately they came back the following Monday so we didn’t get the chance to see them, however, we did get a sighting of the rare White-Tailed Eagle. We saw a grey seal which was swimming by the reeds in the bay, it was looking up at the boat as if it was saying hello to us!

“I enjoyed the Birds of Poole Harbour trip because we saw a rare bird, the white-tailed eagle and the seal” Lola

In Creative Arts we looked at Japanese menus. We drew what we liked from the menus, copied the Japanese writing of the foods name, designed the base and then created a pop-up version of these menus. They looked incredible.

“In creative Arts we made Japanese pop-up menus, I liked it” - Reggie

In our STEAM lessons we made circuits with food, we experimented with different food to see which ones were conductive. We also had to work together as a team to protect an egg from getting broken using resources provided. 

In our Maths lessons we have been looking at different skills in a very practical and life relevant way. We have been working with money and were able to use these skills in the school café to buy our choice of food and drink. We have also been looking at weighing and measuring skills by making cakes (measuring in grams), making icing (measuring in tablespoons / ml) and making mocktails.

“I enjoyed icing cakes in Maths using measuring skills in tablespoons to make sure we had the right amount of icing” - Curtis

For World Book Day this year we had a Willy Wonka workshop to link with our topic. We gathered in the hall where we heard some of the story, then designed a sweet or chocolate bar wrapper. Mrs Smyth then challenged us to design and make a chocolate bar in class, it was messy but fun.

“We made some Oreo truffles for the Willy Wonka World Book Day workshop” - Archie.

In the afternoon we chopped some fruit and made skewers which we then took to the chocolate fountain and smothered them in yummy chocolate. On the table with the chocolate fountain there were swirly lollies which the class got to take home, and on the walls were strips of lick-able wallpaper.

“I was a tiger for world book day and I enjoyed the day” - Darcie

In RE we found out about the Japanese Hinamatsuri Festival where each family sets up an altar decorated with peach blossom, rice cakes and herbs alongside ornate dolls. We looked at Ramadan and how and why Muslims fast between dawn and dusk for a month followed by their Eid al-Adha feast.

The last week of term saw us raising money for our chosen charity, High Mead Farm. They came in to talk to us about the work they do and how they help people. We then enjoyed a coffee morning, a game of prize Bingo and a disco in the hall. We also chose to make orange and mango mocktails for the food item sale and we got to visit other classes to buy their wares and see our friends.

“We did Bingo for Fundraising week and I won a prize” - Emily.

“I got Lindor with my prize from Bingo. I had the worst luck to start with but then I somehow won” - Denis.

The Seahorses Team

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Magna Seals

Seals had a great half term, exploring our theme of ‘Food, Glorious Food’ and all that it entails. 

In English, Seals have been working on our descriptive skills and using a wider range of strategies to develop this area. We have experienced using the power of three, identifying formal language as well as rhetorical questions and using paragraphs in our writing. We used these strategies to create a new dish and write a persuasive letter to our kitchen, convincing them to add the dish to their menu. 

In Maths, we continued to develop our problem-solving skills using numbers, as well as topics such as completing pictograms, bar charts and answering questions based on the data collected. We also consolidated our understanding of 2D and 3D shapes by identifying the different properties of these shapes. 

In My World, we took the opportunity to explore how different food grows, and explored what seasonality is. Seals also identified what grows in the UK at this time of the year and how this is reflected in what we see in the shops. Thinking about how food grows outside of the UK, Seals used a food miles calculator to identify how far food can travel to get to our supermarkets. For example, did you know that bananas imported from Ecuador travel 5,733 miles if they are travelling from Quito to London? Seals B also had the opportunity to visit Gulliver’s Farm and Shop to see how the price of food that is local can differ to food that is imported to our supermarkets.  

In line with our theme, we produced delicious recipes in our cooking sessions, such as cinnamon rolls, TikTok inspired quesadillas, pancakes and cheesy nachos with tomato salsa. During the final week of term, we made our contribution to the Food Fayre by making a selection of mini chocolate slabs and chocolate cookie dough truffles. With these recipes, Seals had the opportunity to practice skills such as cutting, weighing and choosing toppings and flavours. 

Another incredible half term in Seals, we are looking forward to the summer and some sunshine! 

Manta

Manta class had a brilliant Spring 2 term and they have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the topic “Food Glorious Food’. 

They have explored everything food related, including looking at how digestion works in our bodies and labelling the organs involved on a life-sized model.

Students have looked at different types of food, and then sorted and categorised them into their food groups. They have explored a variety of food related experiments in STEAM, including; the coke and mentos experiment, the egg drop challenge and particularly enjoyed making ice cream in a bag and then eating it afterwards. We even had a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed World Book Day where we designed our own sweets and wrappers and made chocolate bars. 

Manta class have explored where in the world our food comes from, and they have calculated food miles to see how far some of our food travels to reach our plate. They considered where we can source these foods from locally to reduce the carbon footprint. 

Manta class had a fabulous trip to High Mead Farm where they explored Farm to Fork. They looked at a variety of fruits and vegetables that are grown at the farm and a variety of methods for growing them. They also had the opportunity to plant broad beans and sunflowers to take home to grow. They looked at the animals at High Mead Farm and learnt lots of facts about them including those that provide a food source such as pigs and chickens. They had the opportunity to hold the chickens and look for eggs. The trip was a valuable experience for all of the students and they all very much enjoyed the opportunity to visit High Mead Farm - which is the charity that Winchelsea School have chosen to support this year. Students had the opportunity to look around the farm shop at the end of the trip to look at the products that had been grown on the farm that were now available for the public to buy. This gave the pupils a full Farm to Fork experience. We also interviewed the staff about the work that they do at High Mead Farm and what the charity does. 

We finished off the “Food Glorious Food” topic with a Food Festival for our Charity week to raise further funds for the farm. Every class made food items to sell to the other students and Manta class made Rocky Road - it was a big success as we sold everything that we  made.

Miss Paula, Miss Sarah & Miss Ruth  

Student Quotes:  

“I enjoyed visiting High Mead Farm and I got to interview the staff about their jobs.” William H
“I have really enjoyed playing rugby this term in PE.” Sam C
“I enjoyed seeing the goats at High Mead Farm.” Izzy C-B
“We had a chocolate fountain with marshmallows for World Book Day – it was really fun.” Owen P 
“I enjoyed eating the chocolate we made for World Book Day.” Tyler M

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Orca

Orca had an enjoyable half term exploring the theme 'Food Glorious Food.' As well as exploring food from different cultures and traditions, we learnt about the digestive system. The students enjoyed making their own models of the digestive system to explain how our bodies break down food. We used crackers and banana to represent the food and modelled the chewing and digestion through the body using a sock. We could see how the food is mixed and how the goodness is removed before the waste is passed out. Even students who were a little squeamish did really well with this task and it proved very useful to aid their learning of this topic. 

In RE, we explored different religions and beliefs discovering that some have their own food restrictions. We particularly learnt about Halal foods and the Muslim religion. We also explored how they fast and the foods that they like to enjoy during celebrations. We also learnt about the Jewish religion and beliefs and what Kosher foods are. We followed this up with a trip to a local supermarket where we wanted to see what Halal and Kosher foods we could find. 

A large number of our class attended a PE event at Victoria School where they worked with children from other local schools. During a day of busy activities, the students developed their communication and organisational skills, vital to improving their ability to lead in sport. They learnt how to play Curling and Wheelchair Basketball and how to lead and encourage team members. It was great to see our young people, working collaboratively with children from other schools and really developing their communication and leadership skills. 

In English, we read the text ‘The Great Food Bank Heist’ by Onjali Q Rauf. Written with great empathy and Rauf’s trademark humour, The Great (Food) Bank Heist is a moving story that gives a child’s-eye view of the increasing problem of food poverty. On Thursdays, Nelson, Ashley and Mum head out to the bank. But not just any old bank - the food bank. With its shining tins and packets of food stacked from floor to ceiling, Nelson thinks it’s the best kind of bank there is. But there’s a thief in town, and the shelves of the food bank are getting emptier each day, leaving people hungrier than ever. For the sake of his family and everyone else’s, Nelson needs to make them stop. But can he and his friends really be the ones to catch the bank robber? It was a great text for us to read as the story was fun and enjoyable but it also allowed us to explore some really important topical issues. We learnt about the Trussell Trust and the Greggs Foundation who both support food banks and breakfast clubs that are so valuable in communities. We also learnt about footballer Marcus Rashford and the good work that he has done to highlight the issue of food poverty. Through our discussions on these topical and often sensitive issues, we were able to develop our empathy and understanding of others and the different situations that we might find ourselves in. 

We celebrated World Book Day with a fantastic food theme ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ day. In the morning, the children attended a workshop where we looked at the story and some extracts from the text. We looked at the wonderful inventions that Willy Wonka created in his factory and the special tastes and features that they contain. The students then created their own amazing edible treats with special features. We had sweets that would make the person shapeshift into someone else, chocolate that could allow you to teleport and even treats that could make you fly! It was a very creative session. In the afternoon, the students made their own treats and visited the chocolate fountain that we had in school. It was a very chocolaty day. 

We celebrated the end of term and the end of the topic with a Food Fayre and charity event which was lots of fun. All classes were responsible for making an item to sell at the food fayre. Orca made their very famous chocolate brownies which were a huge hit. On the day we had a visit from some of the people who work at High Mead Farm, our chosen charity, and learnt about the wonderful work that they do there. We went to a food themed Bingo event in the hall, visited the class food stalls, took part in some fun games and danced at the disco in the hall. It was a great way to end the topic and the half term. 

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Post 16 Academic

Post 16 Academic Class had a wonderful half term. They really enjoyed exploring different foods for our topic, “Food Glorious Food”.

Cooking has been fun and creative. They had to each come up with an ingredient, then they went into groups creating a dish with all the ingredients that they had chosen. I know some of them took their dishes home for you to try!  We had ingredients from crisps to pomegranates. What can I say, they all came out looking amazing!  Smelling wonderful and apparently tasting delicious! Great team work.  

Post 16 have been developing their travel training, working out the cost, times and what number bus they need in order to travel into Poole and back to school again. Their confidence has grown with this especially as the bus can be really busy.

Post 16 have been getting active in the community by going to the gym, going for walks, and visiting the local supermarket to get ingredients to cook with. This all helps with developing their independence skills.  

On World Book Day students really loved watching the film “The Stink” by David Walliams, we all laughed and found it really amusing. Students also created and participated in different activities relating to the story.  

The café at Bourne Hub Community Centre is up and running. The students are doing a wonderful job and have really embraced their roles within the café. They have designed flyers and have posted them around the local community.  We would love to see you all there! So, if you have any free time come along on a Friday morning between the hours of 10.00 am to 1.00 pm. Term time only.  

We celebrated the end of term and the end of our topic “Food Glorious Food” with a food fayre and a charity event, it was lots of fun. Post 16 learnt about different charities and what they do. Each class had to make some food items to sell to help raise some money for High Mead Farm, the charity Winchelsea are supporting this year. We made Cheese Straws and Sausage Rolls, and they went down a treat, selling out very quickly. We participated in some fun activities, including an egg and spoon race over obstacles, well, what can I say, you could probably hear the laughter miles away! Such fun and a great ending to the half term.

Miss Michelle and Miss Watts  

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Creative Arts

MARVELOUS MUSIC AND DRAMATIC DRAMA! 

Our Bronze and Explore Arts Award students have finished their film music composition and I have to say, it’s absolutely brilliant. They managed to create a piece of spooky music which contained musical elements that they had learnt about such as a leit motif, sustained notes, chromatic notes and using a minor key - no easy feat, but the outcome was a piece of music that they should be very proud of. As well as this they became a band and had a go at covering several songs. From drums to vocals, everyone took part in the ensemble and the sound they created was wonderful!  

“Playing together as an ensemble was challenging but the way we all played together and made a song was worth it!” Djamel

“Listening back to the music we made was really cool. It actually sounded professional!” Sammy

Our Enquirers have been exploring the world of Makey makey’s, which is an invention kit that uses a circuit board, crocodiles clips and connection to a computer. They have been creating fruit pianos by plugging fruit into the circuit board and using a piano app – this means that when the fruit is pressed, it sounds like a piano! Students have used great initiative and team building skills setting these up.  They then went onto create some fantastic visual scores, which told them how to play the fruit pianos.  

“The Makey makey’s are really fun, I like the way you plug the fruit in and then it plays!” Malachi

“The sounds come out of the fruit like it’s magic!” Dean

Our Discoverers have been exploring songs that have food in them - singing and playing along to these. As well as this, they have been continuing to think about how they can play different instruments. They have been doing a wonderful job at playing along to songs, thinking about using the instruments in a loud/quiet and fast/slow way.  

The KS4 Drama options group continue to explore physical theatre. The group has been working hard devising their own performance -from thinking about the storyline, through to what music should be used in it. Different parts of the performance contain different elements they have been focussing on in lessons including mime, singing, dancing, movement, acting and even composing their own song – a real extravaganza! Hopefully we will be able to share this performance with you at some point!  

“I like singing the song, it is beautiful!” Valerie

“Dancing in the flames (scarves) is fun.” Harvey

AMAZING ART! 

Colour Explosion! 

Our Wednesday options group has been very busy collating their evidence for the fast-approaching Laser Award deadline. They have been looking at colour and the elements of art such as perspective and foreshortening. We have also explored different painting techniques such as broad brush, using different types of brushes and squeegee pulling. The students are getting ready to begin their final brief. This will be to make a piece of art which celebrates one of their favourite things, a song, a food item or whatever they choose. I can’t wait to see what they do…watch this space! 

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Forest School

Since our return after the February half term break, we have really been noticing the signs of spring as we explore the forest. The students have spotted the new shoots reaching up through the leaf litter on the ground, the buds appearing on the trees and the beautiful serenading songs of the joyful birds.  

As predicted, the theme ‘Food glorious food’ was a real hit! Along with the usual Forest School activities, the younger students have been exploring different tastes and textures. They especially had great fun smashing ice blocks to retrieve the fruity treats hidden inside.  

The older students have worked very hard on compiling a healthy menu of their choice and taking ownership of the firepit area. They have shown fantastic listening skills as well as displaying great team work while they safely light the campfire, prepare their recipes and cook their creations on the fire.  

We look forward to telling you more next time. 

PE

This half term we have been busy in the PE department. We have enjoyed slightly better weather and even managed to get on the field a few times with some of our groups.  

Our Discoverers pupils have been working on their ball skills and hand eye coordination. This has included; Boccia and aiming at targets with a variety of different apparatus. Towards the end of the term, we hosted a Dodgeball festival with four other schools where Dolphin class got to showcase their skills and even have some matches against the teachers. Here you see them getting their medals from Joey from the School Games.

Our Enquirers pupils had a great half term and experienced lots of different activities. Predominantly Boccia and Handball as we have been working on our accurate throwing and learning new rules. Here you can see Puffin class enjoying a very competitive Handball match and Freddie and Henry refereeing a Boccia match.

Referees have to look and see which ball is closer - Henry

Our accreditation groups have been continuing with the accreditation sports including handball and tag rugby and our year 11’s are getting ready for their final moderation. A group of our accreditation pupils also attended a young leaders day called ‘Step into Sport’ hosted at VEC. The day included learning how to lead and change activities for other pupils and playing a variety of different games with pupils from another school. All eight of the young leaders we took were absolutely fantastic.

“We did some sports I really like.” John

“I enjoyed the teamwork and my favourite part was meeting new people and getting to know them.” Korrie

 “We played handball and worked as a team.” Jake

The PE department have obtained a fantastic bit of new technology. This brand-new floor projector lets you ‘pop’ ‘squish’ and otherwise interact with items projected on the floor. The pupils have been enjoying this (as have the staff) very much. 

Let’s all cross our fingers for some sunshine in the summer term (the PE departments favourite).