Lessons Learnt During the Pandemic – Over the past 6 months (yes, I know it seems longer) all our of our schools and services have done an amazing job of adapting how and what they do to ensure the safety of students and residents, whilst keeping disruption to their Education, Care and Therapy to a minimum. Read how Alderwasley Hall School are doing it.
This year’s prom had joined the long list of cancelled events. However, as we were unable to celebrate off site, we brought the party to the Campus instead.
On Wednesday 29th July, the marquee was set up in the grounds of WMLC and decorated throughout, all ready for the grand evening.
The students had been busy prior to prom night, making many fantastic paintings and decorations for their night, well done to everyone who was involved in creating such wonderful pieces of artwork.
The students all arrived looking absolutely fabulous, supported by the staff, who also looked every part of prom night too! They wowed everyone with their choice of superhero costumes and of course their dance moves!
The students had a fabulous evening, dancing to all their favourite tunes and asking for many requests from the Dazzles DJ’s.
Supper was served in individual superhero themed food carriers for all who attended. A fabulous cake displaying portraits of all our students was photographed and then carefully cut in to sections for them to enjoy.
For those who leave us this year, we wish you well, we are very proud of you and what you have achieved whilst being with us at Rowden House School.
It was a beautiful evening, the students (and staff) all had a great prom night. Thanks go to all the staff supporting the students, to the staff who gave up their time to decorate the marquee in the afternoon, to the staff who came along in the evening, Dazzles entertainments for the tunes and most importantly the students who had a fabulous evening.
Until next time……………..
This year, due to Covid-19, Sports Day was adapted to allow students the normality of sports day and a chance to take part in different sporting activities. As students couldn’t take part as a big group, or use the equipment at the same time, the single day event was spread out over the week, following their normal timetable and keeping students within their bubbles to ensure the safety of everyone. They competed for points during which were totalled up for a PowerPoint presentation which was sent out at the end of the week.
The week was a massive success, Students engaged with such a positive attitude and accepted the changes really well. They had a chance to complete all the usual sports day activities such as; egg and spoon, javelin, throwing events, long jump, relay race, sack race and football. The Aim classes, Hydra, Sirius and Scorpius also took part in a bubble group game of Rounder’s and competed for extra points towards sports day. This was a huge success as all 3 classes played the game fairly and followed the rules. The promotion of more team sports is going to become a key part of Physical Education in the future.
Orchard End are famous for their brilliant theme nights and this month we planned a Chinese night. In the weeks leading up to the evening all the residents enjoyed doing arts and crafts to decorate the bungalow and on the night everyone helped prepare the Chinese meal by stirring, chopping and putting ingredients in the oven. While the meal was cooking we listened to Chinese music and finished off making a Chinese dragon. We all enjoyed the evening, especially the food!
Matt Thomas, Outdoor Instructor from our sister school Bladon House, is helping us establish a Forest School. He is an experienced and qualified practitioner and contributed to the development of the EQUALs Semi-Formal curriculum ‘My Outdoor School’. The EQUALs schemes of work focus’s on process rather than product. Progress is skills-based and lateral, rather than linear, measuring the quality of skills rather than an end goal. This enables children with learning difficulties and disabilities to engage in activities which are meaningful and motivating, relevant and functional and ultimately support their independence.
“Thank you to my great team at Fairfield House. Your ability to think outside of the box during the lock-down has been brilliant. As a result we’ve had lots of fun, whilst keeping everyone safe.” Leah Box -RM
We are all missing going to Yam Jams so we put one on in our living room! We all had so much fun dancing around with everyone and we are all professionals at head, shoulders, knees and toes now. We’ve also been keeping fit with Wii Fitness!
We have all been very creative with our time spent in the house. We have made bird feeders, cards and planted sun flowers. We’ve been keeping fit with Wii Fitness!
We had a little festival in our back garden! Unlike most festivals in the UK the sun was shining down on us and we didn’t need to wear wellies!! We had loud music playing, we all put on our funky tops and danced in the bubbles. Gary even cooked us a yummy BBQ for dinner. It was so much fun!!
Over the past few months the staff team at Pegasus School have been producing so many fun activities every day for the students. After half term they have had a fun, recovery type curriculum approach to help the students get back into school and adapt to the changes of different peers/rooms.
From home learning boxes, to socially distanced allotment digs, making food frogs and keeping active with Joe Wicks.
“The team have demonstrated fantastic team work, organisation, dedication and creativity which we will continue to build on and the students have been absolutely brilliant at adapting to the changes.” Claire Hancox -Deputy Head Teacher
Preparations for our Live Streamed Virtual Open Day are well under way now. Remember that this event will take place from 10:30am on Saturday 18th July.
You can tune in and watch this event live or simply catch-up at a time later in the weekend to suit you. The link for the event is here.
More importantly – Open Day is the largest fund raiser our school has for our charity (the School Trust) and I am very keen that we don’t miss out on the opportunity to support the charity. We’ve set up a GoFundMe site to raise money for our Lower Site Play Area.
Thank you all in advance of your support.
Sara Forsyth
At Alderwasley we have continued to run our Marvellous Moments competition throughout lockdown. As part of a school week, students can be nominated for acts of kindness, generosity, achievements and behaviour. At the end of the week a winner is selected through a prize draw and awarded a certificate and small prize to take home. As lockdown continued, we decided, that it would be a great idea to support our online learning programme by continuing to run the Marvellous Moments award from the virtual learning environment.
Each week the school classes were presented with weekly projects to get involved in at home, enter their submission and have the chance to win an online voucher through a weekly prize draw. The students have completed some excellent entries and have wowed staff with their creativity and skills outside of the traditional learning environment.
From Bake Off to Film week, Upcycle projects to musical performances, our amazing students have shown us their talents and inspired staff with the skills they possess. The final week’s entry was for students who have gone ‘Above and Beyond’ throughout Lockdown. This could be in their academic work, supporting a peer or creating an exemplar piece of work.
These are just a selection of some of the entries we have received. I am hopeful, that when we start to return back to school as normal, we can still run this as a school; as it has shown engagement in a wide range of creative skills that students have enjoyed taking part in.…. We are always proud of our students, and this just highlights why!
The sensory room at Maple View School provides a controllable environment for the children where we can select and control sensory experiences that are tailored to meet the child’s needs. This creates an environment where the children can feel safe, learn and develop their senses. It also promotes their general well being.
