麻豆社

Jay and Steve reading. Most excellent!

Hi everyone,

Hope you鈥檙e all well in this strange weather!

First off, I wanted to thank you all for the marvellous response to the Ofsted questionnaires this week. Yes, they rang on Monday and were in all Tuesday and Wednesday. The children were amazing the whole time, and all through they kept feeding back to us how well the pupils interacted with them, their character, humour, communication, including with VOCAs, and all sorts of different really pleasant and engaging stories like that. And of course they fed back your responses 鈥� so a huge thank you for the overwhelmingly nice and constructive things you said. The school is a partnership with you 鈥� it always has been, since 1953! 鈥� so thank you for feeding back in the ways that you did

It takes a while to get results through and that probably won鈥檛 be until the new year, but we were pleased to share our work and school with the three inspectors 鈥� we love showing people around and talking about our work

Elsewhere this week, there is everything from Therapy Stars again, to Gardening Club, Early Years, Christmas Literacy, St Andrews Day and lots of regular items! There is also the Online Safety blog, Eileen鈥檚 family Liaison blog and the rest of the website for the school and Foundation. Sop I hope there鈥檚 something that you enjoy

John S

馃槉 from John & the PHS Team 馃槉

We have 3 Super-Steering Groups which deliver our Key Drivers through our curriculum. The Key Drivers are Communication, Wellbeing and Independence. The Groups are Literacy, Physical Development and Personal Development

听

Literacy

Becky, our Literacy Lead, leads a team that improve all aspects of literacy, including this year a lot of handwriting and oracy (it鈥檚 OK, she鈥檒l be going into explain all of that) as well as reading, phonics, books and all sorts!

Now, December in LiteracyLand!

As we’re officially in December and feeling all festive, we’d love to share some Christmassy content for you to have the option of using at home

First up is the ever-popular CBeebies bedtime stories – suitable for a range of ages and interests, they have a festive collection page where you can choose a famous face to read the story, with images from the book and often animation or props to go with

There are a LOT of different options – have a look to see if you, your child or young person might recognise a face or two!听

For students who can follow a longer story, there is a really lovely online story advent calendar through StoryTime – and its free! Even if you don’t want to access a story every day, you can pick and choose a story you’re interested in when suits you. There’s a mix of modern Christmas stories, traditional Christmas tales and festive stories from different countries around the world

Finally, Pickatale has some lovely winter themed stories for those of who you may not wish to focus on Christmas just yet (or indeed at all!) so you can access this using your child or young person’s log in

Please let us know if you find a story your child or young person (or you!) particularly enjoyed, as it’s always good to have recommendations and they may wish to share it in class

Happy Festive Reading!

Becky

Physical Development

Everything that is fabulous in the world of Physical Development! This includes physio, hydro, MOVE, PE, HI, VI, a lot of OT and all sorts of key areas for us, including all of the Outdoor Learning, John Muir Award and many other aspects. Steph oversees this and will ensure that an aspect is shared in the blog each week

There are three Therapy Stars of the Week this week, and they fit into the world of Physical Development very well, so please do scroll down and enjoy those! They鈥檙e great!

Personal Development

One of the best things about the school and one of the most important for our pupils, PD covers PSHE, Wellbeing, Careers, Social Moral Spiritual & Cultural, Online Safety, Behaviour and similar areas. Jo pulls it all together. Let鈥檚 see what Jo and the team have in store for us this week!

SMSC, British Values , Citizenship & RE

It鈥檚 beginning to look a lot like Christmas at 麻豆社 School this week and we have been busy preparing our Christmas tree take to our local church as part of their annual Christmas tree festival. Each class made a snowflake and a one student from each pathway helped to deliver and decorate the tree and what a fabulous job they did! The rest of the stduents will have the opportunity to see the tree when we visit the church again on the 16^th for the Christingle service.

Thank you to Francis, Jayden, Christopher and Aurora for your help this morning. It鈥檚 important at this time of year to remember we are part of the community and share these experiences

Wellbeing

Let鈥檚 hear from Andy and the Wellbeing Team about the latest in their Connect Challenge series

This week鈥檚 connect challenge was all about ‘mindfulness’ (the practice of paying attention to the present moment), and we invited you to check in with yourselves using this听

It’s been great to see classes taking part in this activity and getting feedback about how it made you feel

Owen in Class 18 said, “It makes me feel clam and relaxed”

Casey in Class 23 shared these amazing photos of herself “getting zen” –听 she said, “I felt clam and relaxed and it took away my worries!” – that’s great to hear Casey, well done you!

Meanwhile, pupils in Class 3 have been taking part听in relaxation; here’s a really great photo of Emily taking some time for herself. She’s been feeling a bit under the weather this week, so we wish you a speedy recovery!

Next week’s challenge is to听“Send an invitation to someone听“.听鈥� You could invite a friend to play at breaktime or you could invite a class from a different department to听see some of the work you have been doing?听

Whatever you decide to do, have fun connecting!

Behaviour for Learning (BfL)

Behaviour for Learning (BfL) is a new team, and their work overlaps at times with Safeguarding, Wellbeing and Mental Health. BfL is an approach to understanding & developing children鈥檚 behaviour that focuses on their relationship with their self, others and the curriculum, and promotes readiness for education. The BfL team support staff and pupils. The BfL approach is consistent with our values and compatible with systems such as PBS and NAPPI, that we also use.

Therapy Star of the Week 鈥� Rosie! Love Therapy Star of the Week, especially when it鈥檚 Rosie and involves Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

Let鈥檚 hear about a trip Rosie went on with Antonia and Phillip

Rosie Yates is Therapy Star of the Week this week. Here she is working on her ability to independently order and pay for her favourite drink (pumpkin spice latte!) at Costa. She even managed to use her app to collect points by scanning it at the till

Rosie planned the visit for her and her friend Philip and suggested solutions to problems that may arise during the trip. She knew it would be too difficult to use a public bus to reach her destination so rang the office to request they book a school bus instead. The trip went very well, so well done Rosie! Costa Therapy STAR!!!

Gardeners of the Week 鈥� with Ben!

Well now, I love Garedening Club as often they are doing their business right outside my office, which is lovely. There are some great folk in it, so let鈥檚 see what they鈥檝e been doing with Ben

The Gardening Club have been hard at work in making the Quad Garden ready for Christmas and Santa Claus. And I can see an Art Teacher in there too! All good! There鈥檚 Case, Francis, Rosie and Andrew too!

Lesson of the Week! Sensory Hoops with Beth!

What a fabulous class and class team we have with Beth. Let鈥檚 see some pics and understand what they鈥檙e all about

We鈥檝e spent the last term making choices to design our own sensory hoops. We made choices of different sensory objects then have written a story to describe our experiences. We have enjoyed reading our stories in class and have taken them home this week to share with our adults at home

PfA is a priority for us this year and a really exciting way to think about our students鈥� futures. Hannah is leading on it

Welcome to Early Years!

It鈥檚 been a busy week with those Ducklings! Let鈥檚 hear from Kerry again! Can鈥檛 wait to see what they鈥檝e been doing!

Once again a lovely week in early years. Monday we explored the outdoor learning area, looking for bugs, animals and our friends hiding in the trees

Tuesday we couldn鈥檛 go outside because it was too icy, so we had extra time bouncing and playing on the soft play

On Wednesday the classroom smelt delicious with the bread dough we made, 鈥測ummy鈥�. The attention bucket had a few new surprise visitors in this week – a singing Christmas dog who everyone wanted to cuddle, a bouncing Santa Claus, some very pretty and colourful tinsel along with the favourite flying saucer and little men who were back this week. We have flattened shaving foam snowmen and counted melting snowmen.听On the tuff tray we helped Santa get down the chimney by building him one with the bricks. Wonder what next week will bring? 听Have a lovely weekend, Ducklings!

Fab stuff from the Ducklings there as usual 鈥� thanks Kerry!

School Lunches

Our new Winter menus are now online:听听School Meals – 麻豆社 School

I鈥檇 like to also mention ipay accounts and the increase in costs.

Unless your child is in receipt of Free School Meals or Bursary, you should ensure your iPay account is topped up before meals are taken.

Please also note that from 6th January 2025, the cost of a two-course school meal will increase to 拢2.75. Thank you for your understanding and continued support in helping us to provide good quality and nutritious meals for our children and young people.

If you have any questions or need support with your iPay account, please don鈥檛 hesitate to contact the school office.

And finally鈥�.

St Andrews Day 鈥� 30^th November 鈥� Lunch

I love St Andrews Day! And our kitchen as usual pulled out all the stops and put on a lovely Scottish spread! Thanks guys! Loved the haggis!!!!!!!!!!

Have a look

It鈥檚 like the flag!!!!!!!!!

听

鈥�..from John & the Team here at PHS

Our Key Drivers:

Communication, Wellbeing, Independence