By Chris Spender

Welcome to the Blackfriars Chronicle (The BAC) Contained within this term’s paper is all of our news about what we have been doing this autumn, particularly in the build up to Christmas. It has been an incredibly busy term with lots of trips out, including two trips to Bendrigg, the outdoor education centre in Cumbria. Our new mini-bus has had plenty of use, poor Mr Goodman, our driver, needs the Christmas holidays to have a rest! Talking of the mini-bus, we have been incredibly lucky this year to have been recipients of some very generous donations – Mrs Henderson’s gift in her will enabled us to buy our new mini bus; the ’s runners in the 2017-18 marathon raised £5000 for us which we are putting towards our new sensory / chill out classroom. Many of you will remember Mr Dave Marshall who served on our Governing Body for many years, his gift together with that from Nathan’s grandparents and the money raised by the Newport Ukulele Society all mean that we will be able to buy a height adjustable interactive screen to engage our students in a sensory environment. Our friends at Tesco donate £20 a week to help to support our ‘Friendly Friday Café’, the profit from which we use towards paying for the petrol for all of our trips out. We have also learned that we came 2nd in the Tesco bag appeal meaning that we won £2000. This will help us to buy a set of tablet computers for classes to use. Finally, the Rocester Football Team did a sponsored training session in our swimming pool and raised over £500 which we are using to buy accessories to use in our amazing 4D room. Together with the amazing amount raised at the Christmas Fayre (read on for the full story!) we are in a brilliant position next term to develop our school and its facilities even further. Keep a look out in the fortnightly bulletin for updates. As we end the year, we have to say goodbye to a very popular member of staff, Mr Newman. He is moving on to pastures new having taught at Blackfriars since 2013 during which time he has enthused class after class to engage in all sorts of physical activities – old and new, a particular favourite being Dodge ball! His Sports’ Days have all been a triumph – enjoyed by some more than others (I was not happy to get a soaking in my 1st year!!) and our cricketers in particular have all enjoyed the opportunity to go to championships in other schools. He has been a form teacher, took on the challenge of teaching science, led the whole school in developing a better understanding of behaviour management and has led some really en- joyable Forest School sessions. We will miss you Mr Newman but send you our very best wishes for the future. We are also saying a temporary goodbye to Mrs Sally Shaw who is taking a six month break and Ms Kay Morris (Physio) who is going on maternity leave (good luck and best wishes) As the New Year begins, we welcome to Blackfriars Mrs Lorna Savage who will teach PE and Mrs Es- ther Toft who will teach Science. Many orf you will also recognise the name of Hilary Peters, our Enteral Feeding nurse. When Birmingham ended their contract for school nursing, Hilary had to leave, but we have been able to re-employ her as our school Enteral Feeding Assistant from January. Throughout the term, we have been busy trying to call to account both local government and national government for their support for young people with special needs. We have been liais- ing with MP, Paul Farrelly, meeting with local councillors, taking part in the Local Ar- ea Review with Ofsted and Care Quality Commission and submitting responses to Westminster. We have also been lucky enough to be asked to join an Erasmus Project working with seven Eu- ropean countries to investigate what ‘Inclusive Pedagogy’ might look like. Mrs Rawlinson and I went to the First Transnational Meeting to start work on developing a shared understanding of this. Whilst there, we heard that we have been successful in gaining the funding to take some students to Europe to see for themselves how other students learn. We will keep you posted on the project as it develops. Finally, the staff and students at Blackfriars would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, a safe holiday and our best wishes for the New Year. We look forward to seeing all of the students ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ on Monday 7th January 2019.

Alison Parr

Spot the Difference

Can you find all SIX

PSHE

This academic year we have introduced a new way of delivering Personal Health Social and Education lessons (PSHE) . We dedicate a day every half term to cover topics that are then explored further in single lessons on alternate Monday mornings in form time. To date we have covered ‘Mental Health and Resilience’ and ‘Respect for Ourselves and Others’. By teaching pupils to stay safe and healthy, and by building self-esteem, resilience and empathy, an effective PSHE programme can tackle barriers to learning, raise aspirations, and improve awareness of all pupils. Below is the scheme of work:

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Royal Doulton

Pupils in Royal Doulton went to St.Giles, the parish church of Newcastle, to decorate two trees in their annual and very popular Christmas Tree festival. The pupils decorated a tree for Blackfriars, covering it in brightly coloured pom poms made by pupils in school and topping it with a resplendent huge star. They also decorated a Fair Trade tree with the iconic blue and green colours of the logo and decorations of Fair Trade produce, such as tea bags, as well as images of the producers themselves. Many thanks to Ms. Slight for all her artistic advice and making the decorations and to Mr. Goodman for driving us to church. Not only did our trees look great, but so too did the church and we enjoyed looking at all the other many contributions from local businesses and groups.

This term Moorcroft Down the River have been learning all about the world of Wind In the Willows. We created our own riverbank and pretended to have a picnic, telling stories of Ratty and Mole. We created our own masks of all the characters and used them to act out scenes. We have rewritten the parts of the story, putting it in sequence and remembering to use full stops and capital letters. We have also made different foods with Mrs Chesters that Toad may have eaten at Toad Hall and they have been swimming in the rive (swimming pool) with Mr Newman pretending to be Otters. We went on a scavenger hunt through our wood to find things the animals use to build their homes. As a treat, for working so hard this term, we took Moorcroft on Thursday 13th December to see Wind In the Willows at The New Vic. When setting off on the mini bus we were all singing and were saying how excited we were to see Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad . We had really good seats right on the stage and the actors were climbing on the rails and walking down the aisle, which the children were amazed at. Moorcroft have all really enjoyed their trip to the theatre and it was lovely to see how excited they got when they saw the characters. They were also whispering to each other what was going to happen next, which was lovely to hear. However a few of them were unsure of the fox and the weasels. We went to see the art work the children had created with Ms Slight in their Art classes. All in all as a class we have loved learning about ‘Wind in the Willows’ and it was a joy to take them out to represent Blackfriars Academy.

Merry Christmas from all the children and staff from Moorcroft!

On Friday 30th November Aspens Chef – Mark Blackshaw ran a Live Cooking Event. Live Cooking In the morning pupils from the Questioning Pathway took part in tasting ingredients and some actually cooked a sweet and sour chicken and a vegetables in black bean sauce dish. It was a fabulous opportunity for pupils to taste a huge variety of vegetables and spices. They all got to eat using chop sticks. Pupils from the Immersive Pathway were provided with a wealth of ingredients to investigate in class and were then able to eat the stir fry meal. In the afternoon, pupils from the Exploratory Pathway also had an opportunity to cook.

Belong

Wedgwood went to the Belong centre in Newcastle to drop off some Christmas art work for the residents to enjoy in their gallery. Whilst there, they enjoyed a guided tour and a chance to explore their lovely heritage boxes with lots of old objects of interest.

Dudson class went to Robin’s Winter Warmer at Conkers Conker’s, everyone had a wonderful day we walked through the sensory winter wonderland with our very own elf ‘Nikki’ who showed us the singing Reindeers, dancing snowmen and angels singing in a choir. We got to ride the steam train and to finish off the day we had a cookie, hot chocolate and a present.

First Tech Challenge – Robot Ruckus

Pupils from Gladstone and Royal Doulton have been given the fantastic opportunity this year to take part in the First Tech Challenge robot building competition, in partnership with JCB. The project has been funded jointly by First Tech and JCB to provide participating schools with all the parts needed to build a robot per team free of charge. The challenge this year is based around the style of robot needed for an exploratory mission to another planet. Our task is to build a robot able to disengage from a landing craft and traverse uneven ground, collecting samples of different sized minerals and returning these to our own area, or to the landing craft. The last part of the mission is to return our robot, by either parking safely in a crater, or reattaching to the lander. Points are scored along the way for completing specific tasks. Once the robots are completed we will be joining teams from this area at JCB to run practise trials and will then go on to compete with other schools in the West Midlands area. One school will then be selected to join the First Tech Challenge competition in America. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) Day Early in November, Royal Doulton travelled to JCB for the initial STEM meeting to find out about the robot challenge. We met up with several schools and watched a presentation which unveiled the robot ruckus task. Pupils were tested on their understanding of the task afterwards in a team challenge and were able to ask questions. Our pupils were fantastic advocates for our school and readily took part in the challenge and question and answer session. At the end of the session we were given four large boxes of parts for building our robots and had access to manuals online. Initial Designs In ICT lessons our teams discussed how to carry out the project and selected roles. Royal Doulton and Gladstone created initial designs for their robots, as well as deciding on a group name and designing logos and a team flag. Gladstone decided on the name Techno Josh, in honour of a classmate who had moved to another school, whilst Royal Doulton have gone with the name Jimmy United. Both teams have produced some wonderful designs for logos, flags and t-shirts, thanks to the creative flair of Arwen, Eleanor, Shannon, Kor, Arjun and Mill, Courtney and Megan. Inventory Both teams carried out an initial inventory, but struggled a little as some parts did not seem to have the same name as on the inventory. The array of tiny pieces was overwhelming and finding parts was not always easy, as we did not have the space to store the parts separately. Building the robots Both teams were very enthusiastic at building the robots, despite the fiddly parts. Our builders extraordinaire are Hazel, Mill, Salma and Leonie for team Techno Josh and Katie, Dylan, Jim, Luke and Alex for Jimmy United with occasional help from Kane. Following the manual was not always easy, as it was sometimes difficult to tell which parts to use and which way round they should be, but both teams have managed to build a basic chassis, although sometimes it seemed that we spent more time taking them apart again and reassembling.

Programming Whilst our robots were being built and our designers were busy on developing logos our programmers were practising skills in Scratch and Blockly and trying to get our mobile phones to talk to one another. Cullyn, George and Armaan got to grips with using Blockly and George valiantly studied the programming manual, so that by the end of a couple of sessions Techno Josh’s robot was performing spins, much to the delight of his team mates and Moorcroft who witnessed the successful test. Team Jimmy United’s programmers Maisie, Aaron, William and Kane practised in Blockly and Scratch and then with a combined effort from Aaron and Maisie succeeded in getting the phones to talk to one another and attached a game pad, so that the robot could be controlled on controls similar to those on an X-box or Playstation. Media coordinators A really important role in the teams is keeping the team log up to date, taking photos and sharing progress with others. Ciaran has been leading Techno Josh’s media team, alongside his very able photographer Lauren. Katie and Harry have been leading Jimmy United’s. They will be making regular updates on the school website. Support We have been lucky to have a visit from our mentor Kevin Ford, who is able to advise us on the engineering side of the project and have had offers of help if we get stuck from various sources with the coding side. Martin Ebsworth, who has been organising the schools taking part in the challenge has visited us and was very pleased with both team’s progress and their enthusiasm. He said that they were further on than most schools taking part at this stage, so an enormous congratulations to all the students involved. Next Steps At the moment the teams are working on creating an extendable arm so that the robots can pick up minerals and latch onto a landing craft at the beginning and end of the competition. We are hoping to try it out on a practice site when this is completed

Makaton Makaton Advent Calendar This December the whole school are brushing up on their festive Makaton with a different sign for every day. So far we have learned signs for family; stars; sleigh; happy; Jesus; reindeer and holiday. How many can you learn?

To follow are samples of pupils work in English across Key English Stage 3 and 4 this term. Topics in Key stage 3 have includ- ed ‘Friend or Foe’ by Michael Morpurge (Royal Doulton), Myths, Legends and Enchanted stories (Portmeirion). The Loch Ness Monster Oak Tree Trouble

Loch Ness is a larger, deep lake in Scotland. One day in a beautiful, bright enchanted Loch is the Scottish for lake. forest there lived a tiny, pretty pixie called Erika. She lived in a grand, tall oak tree with St. Columba saw a monster there in the sixth all her pixie friends, including her best friend century, some 1500 years ago. Since then Jake. there have been many sightings. One day Erika decided to go for a walk A very famous photograph was taken by a when she came across the King’s Castle. doctor in the 1930s, called the Surgeon’s There she overheard the king talking about photo. an evil plan – it was not good news for the oak tree and the pixies… The king was planning to freeze the oak tree with all the pixies in it. So Erika ran home as quickly as possible to warn all her friends. They had to leave and find a new home before it is too late. When she got there, breathless from her run, no one would believe her, even Jake. All of a sudden they heard a huge loud thud This has since been proven to be a fake. and from a distance they saw a huge icy blue dragon. Fake news is nothing new. Would they escape, or was it too late? Alisha Tyra

Christmas Big Read Advent

In Moorcroft we have 20 Christmas books - one for every day in December up till the last day of term. Every day we are taking it in turns to open a new book and listen to a Christmassy story. This week we have opened - Hurry Santa; Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present; Santa is coming to Stoke-on-Trent; The Grinch; Book of Christmas Stories and The Fourth King; ps there are lots about the nativity too - we just haven't opened them yet !!

Dear Mum,

I am fine. We arrived in Devon late last night. I was shy at first but Tucky and I are now with Mr Reynolds on the farm. Mrs Carey

Mr Reynolds is kind and so is his 124 high Street wife, Ann. Islington They have a dog called Jip and he is nice and friendly. London

I miss you. Love David.

Postcard by Thomas

Dear Diary, Today has been hectic and busy yet calmer than a day in London. At the night Tucky and I were fearful of our first day at a new school and I can barely grasp how I even discovered the nerve to fall asleep. According to the teacher, Mr Cooper, the rest of the evacuees and all our friends were took to Imberligh school as it has more room than the little grey schoolhouse Tucky and I as well as 30 other students go. It is odd and very different compared to my old school. Birds outside often interrupted my focus on the lesson as they sounded so sweet. The walk from the farm to the school is 3 miles and it takes three parts of an hour get there. Jip, the farm dog, follows us until we get to the crossroads then sullenly watched us till he could see us no more. The local children of the area whispered about Tucky and I’s arrival to their school but soon bombarded us with too many questions for my likening about all sorts of things. I would’ve been very lonely if it weren’t for Tucky. Pray to god that he kept Tucky and I together. At least he did that and gave us a good home and teacher. At least we weren’t being bullied. My legs hurt after all the walking and don’t believe I will ever like it nor be good at it but at least I am getting some exercise. Ann said it was ‘not far short of 3 miles’ but it defiantly felt like 10 if not more. By Katie

Character profile on Mr Reynolds The reader firsts meets Mr Reynolds when he arrives late at the village hall. He is described as a ‘huge’ bearded man with a beard which is ‘flecked with white’. When he realises that he has to choose between the two boys he describes it as ‘market day’ implying that it was hard to choose and that they are being treated like produce to be choose . He states that it would be ‘both boys or no boys’ because it would not be ‘fair’ on the one not chosen. Mr Reynolds notices the information on the boy’s placards so he treats them as equals to him, telling them his name and age and giving the boys a chance to choose whether they wanted to go with him. This shows his empathy for the two boys and puts David and Tucky at ease. Mr Reynolds wouldn’t let the children call him mister he always corrects them by saying ‘tis Mister Reynolds Tucky, can you remember that’ this shows he would rather be called his name then be treated formally and be called Mr. When Mr Reynolds was asked about his marriage he thought about his answer before he spoke this shows he was quite a shy and private man, who does not like discussing his private life. Maisie

Key Stage 4 pupils have read ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens and studied poetry from AQA anthology—Power and Conflict which has been used as the basis for story writing

Scrooge

In ‘A Christmas carol’, the main character is named Scrooge. Charles Dickens uses quite a few language techniques and imagery to tell the readers what he’s like. He is described as being bitter, “No wind that blew was bitterer than he.” He dislikes other people, and other people dislike him. He has no friends. “He was solitary as an oyster.” That is a simile, comparing Scrooge to an oyster. Even the dogs don’t like him. “Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him… and then would wag their tails as though they said, ‘no eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!’” He is very rich and owns his own business. Unfortunately, his wealth is very important to him and he refuses to let go of his money unless absolutely necessary. “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge!” He won’t even let his clerk replenish their fire because coal costs money. “He couldn’t replenish it, for scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part.” The clerk’s employment is hanging by one single tiny thread. Scrooge makes it quite clear that he has power over the clerk. He does give him the day off on Christmas day, but makes it quite clear that he must be at work very early in the morning the next day. One wrong move, and he’s getting the sack. Marley, Scrooge’s former clerk, is dead. But Scrooge doesn’t seem to care. He just goes on with his usual business. He didn’t even bother to paint over Marley’s name on his door, as paint would cost him money. This further proves the point that Scrooge is a particularly large penny- pincher. By Cullyn

The hot fires were burning very, very hard. The three brave soldiers were friends together. The Sahara desert was full of dump trucks, soldiers and guns. War was just now beginning. Brave soldiers were willing to shoot and die for their country. All the people would be hurt. The War Photographer worked hard to show this. Arjun.

Panto Time… Oh Yes it is...Oh No it Pantomime isn’t. Christmas isn’t Christmas without the Panto! Friday 14th December 2018 saw the pupils enchanted by the Bitsize Theatre Company’s production of ‘Aladdin’. They visit annually and our pupils look forward to this. The hall was full and a magical time was had by all. Our Thanks go to the charity ‘Happy Days’ who funded the performance.

Pupils had the opportunity to visit Bendrigg in the Lake District. We took two groups in November, each staying from Monday to the Friday. The residential aspect enhances this trip and empowers our pupils. Both groups took part in a range of activities including: climbing, archery, abseiling, camp craft skills and orienteering to name just a few. The independence and learning achieved during the stay is clearly illustrated in the photographs . Our pupils took pride in what they achieved, we took pride in their achievements and they took our school moto ‘PRIDE’ to a new level.

Thank you we raised £1736

At a time when both staff and students are exhausted, we do sometimes question why we hold a Christmas Fayre, Christmas Fayre particularly in a school where we pride ourselves upon everything that we do having an educational purpose. Is it just about the money or is there a wider educational purpose to having a Christmas Fayre? Of course there is (which is why we have been rated as an ‘Outstanding’ school for over 22 years!) By planning, preparing and hosting a Christmas Fayre, we help our students to:- Produce an event that they can all take great pride in Explore what a commercial activity might be and how it can help to raise money - The Tutor group that raised the most money with their game were Moorcroft who won the competition with their ‘Lucky Dip’ made and filled by The A Team. Well done, Moorcroft. Practise social interaction with the people who come to the Fayre by meeting and greeting them, serving them and chatting to them Promote a positive image of disability in the local community (which we hope will mean that people will, in the future, be willing to offer our students chances and opportunities) Take some responsibility for raising the money to improve our school site and help in the decision making process about how the money will be spent But of course, the money is important too. We would like to use the money for equip our new sensory room and everyone’s generosity on the 14th means that we are a long way down the road to being able to do that. Raising over £1700 would not have been possible without the incredible effort of a huge team of people – staff, students, parents and carers and our great supporters out in the community. We really must thank first of all our A Team of parents comprising Sarah and Paul Singh and Denise Tudor. They must have spent over a year preparing for this fair, making Mors bags, games for the stalls, gifts and baking and cooking cakes, cheesecakes, pasties and pies – all of which were sold at a healthy profit! The Colouring competition which brightened the entrance hall as everyone entered the fair was won by Eleanor in Royal Doulton, with Allarna (Wedgewood) and Louis (Moorcroft) coming second and third respectively. The raffle raised a great deal of money this year, partly down to the generosity of our donors who generously gave us such fab prizes. Special thanks go to:The Queens at Freehay, Cheadle; The Strand Hair and Beauty, Cheadle; Vue Cinema, Newcastle; Focus Education, Helen Bryant, Florists; Mrs Hughes; Academy Photography; Oakley’s Farm; New Vic Theatre; Gladstone pottery; Port Vale FC; Dimensions; Walkers’ toffee; Dudson Pottery; Aspens’ Catering; The Red Lion, Boundary; Sharon’s Cakes; our Academy Council, especially Jo Miller and Andy Woolley. We have held a separate draw to win a Stoke City football shirt, signed by the team. As we go to print, the draw still has not been made but this alone will bring at least £100 into school funds.

Bridgemere

On December 11th Clarice O’Cliffe class took a sensory Christmas trip to Bridgemere. The group made the visit to enrich the sensory activities that take place within our classroom. The group wandered around the centre using all of their senses to experience the sights, smells, sounds, taste and feel of Christmas. We looked at all of the lights, listened to the Christmas music, smelt the candles and Poinsettias, tasted Christmas cake and felt the snow and the trees. We then ventured to see all the fish before relaxing in the café with hot chocolate and buttered toast.