St. Joseph's Specialist School & College Newsletter
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St. Joseph’s Specialist School & College Newsletter Amlets Lane, Cranleigh, Surrey GU6 7DH Volume 6 Tel: 01483 272449 Fax: 01483 276003 Friday Email: [email protected] 10 July 2015 Web: www.st-josephscranleigh.surrey.sch.uk Letter from the Principal Dear Families and Friends I hope you have had time to enjoy the wonderful weather we have been having. It could not have been more perfect for our Sports and Fun Day last week. As you will see from the Sports and Fun Day article inside, the Aqua Zorbing was a favourite, as were the field events and swimming races. Many of our learners were proudly showing off as many as 5 or 6 medals and some even more! But no show from Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, who had threatened to try to take the Egg and Spoon title from Frank! As usual the afternoon events were also a hit. It was great to see so many family members enthusiastically clapping along to the music, during our amazing fashion show and dance routines. Sophie, a lass who left us several years ago, came and was able to tell us that after successfully completing a catering course at Guildford College she has been offered a full time job at Millie’s Cookies in White Lion Walk, Guildford – a wonderful achievement. This week Dr. Jean Ware, Professor and Reader at Bangor University was with us all week, leading sessions for our staff, as well as colleagues from local schools. The sessions have included topics such as Life without Levels, Learner Voice and Research Lesson Study. I am on call this weekend, so am not able to join the party of colleagues and learners attending the Red Bull Soap Box event at Alexandra Palace, but will be catching up with the 1 hour long programme on Dave TV at 6 pm on Sunday. I am really hoping to catch a glimpse of our car and driver! Only nine more learner days until the Summer break is here. Nine learners as well as one or two colleagues are moving on to pastures new. St. Joseph’s is but a station on the pathway of life, some making a longer stop than others. I will be especially sad to see Maggie Thomas retire. She has worked at St. Joseph’s for over 20 years as TA and Teacher and will be greatly missed by learners and staff alike. If you would like to say goodbye to her in person you can catch her at the Leavers Mass or the KS4/5 Presentation Evening. Hoping your weekend goes well. With our love and prayers Page 2 St. Joseph’s Specialist School & College Newsletter Gwyneth Russell joined us this week as the Dannielle Nunn joined us Therapies Admin this week as a 52 week Assistant Care Worker. Thierry Dupoux, Sally Peacock, TA Charlie Butler, 52 Week Deputy Team Leader Care Worker (Dominic Savio) Many congratulations to Reggie Raven for successfully completing the HLTA assessment process. He demonstrated competence in all 33 HLTA standards. Contents Page 2 Staff News; Page 3 Staff Profile: Catherine Eyres, Speech & Language Therapist Page 4 St. Joe’s Enterprise; Investors in Careers Page 5 App of the Week; Make £10 Grow Page 6 Cranleigh Carnival Page 7 Creative Media News Page 8 Stick Insects looking for a good home; Feeling Good Week Page 9 Feeling Good Week Photos Page 10 Sports News Page 11 Trip to Chichester Water Sports Centre; Magda’s Recipe Book Page 12 Speed Limit Reminder; Dates for the Diary Page 3 St. Joseph’s Specialist School & College Newsletter Catherine Eyres Speech & Language Therapist What type of person are you? Describe yourself in five words: Organised, Calm, Friendly, Chatty and Happy Chatty Friendly Calm Happy Organised What’s top of your to-do list? Stop procrastinating and start my 70 therapy target evaluations What’s your favourite biscuit? Chocolate Chip Cookies or Chocolate Digestives What’s your top holiday destination? I’d love to go to Australia or New Zealand! What wouldn’t you do for £1 million? Hold a tarantula Who would play you in the film of your Scarlett Johansson life? Complete the following sentences The celebrity I’d most like to have as a Professor McGonagall from teacher at my school is: Harry Potter As a child I wanted to grow up to be: A vet or a teacher My most embarrassing moment in school: Being forced to audition for the school choir in front of the whole class even though I cannot sing. If I’ve learned one thing, it is: That lists are useful for everything! I shouldn’t be telling you this, but ….. I eat way too much chocolate Tell us your best joke Two fish are in a tank. One turns to the other and asks ‘How do you drive this thing’? Page 4 St. Joseph’s Specialist School & College Newsletter St. Joe’s Enterprise St. Joe’s Enterprise is an integral element of education at St. Joseph’s as it gives our learners the first step towards experiencing the world of work and helps prepare them for Work Experience placements either in the local community or within the College itself. Each term, all Key Stage 4 and 5 learners take part in a different Enterprise Group run along the lines of a small business. They then sell their products at school fetes and local events. Any profit made is fed back into the enterprise to reinvest for the next project. We have now produced a catalogue of current products which will be available at reception. Orders can be taken for wooden goods (plain wood or painted and/or decorated) at reception if not in the display cabinet. Take a look next time you visit. Ceramics, cushions and art work are also for sale when stock is available. Investors in Careers Last Monday, Elizabeth Whicheloe visited to reassess the school for the Quality Award, “Investors in Careers”, as the award only lasts for three years. The areas she particularly focused on were assessing the evidence that St Joseph’s :- Renewed its commitment to careers education, information, advice and guidance and the Investors in Careers standard. Maintained the Investor in Careers standard during the lifetime of the original award. Provided evidence of innovative practice. Throughout the day Maggie Thomas and Caroline Sanders presented evidence to Elizabeth and introduced teachers, therapists, members of the SLT and of course a forum of learners, to talk about the curriculum, therapies, work prep, PSHE, Citizenship and work experience. She scrutinised development planning for Work Related Learning, curriculum planning, assessment, learner’s work collections and photographs and work experience diaries. She was particularly impressed with the school’s move, since the last assessment, to integrate therapies into the classroom and daily living skills as she could see the benefit to all learners. Naomi Harding’s speech therapy project was a good example of this, as she has been supporting the learners with interview skills and developing social skills for the workplace. Alongside this she and the WRL STA have been developing positive partnerships with local work experience providers, offering support and advice to their staff. This has been beneficial to both the learners and the providers. Elizabeth reflected, “Mainstream schools could learn a lot from this practice.” Elizabeth was pleased to re award St Joseph’s the “Investors in Careers” standard as we are exceeding what is statutory regarding careers education. This Quality Award will remain with us for a further 3 years. “This really is one of the highest accolades an organisation can receive for excellence in this area of work and is definitely something the award holder can be very proud of. The IiC standard is about improving students’ awareness of opportunities, raising their aspirations and working with them to ensure they achieve their full potential.” 2015 Investors in Careers website. Page 5 St. Joseph’s Specialist School & College Newsletter App of the Week VisTimer or VisTimer Free - £1.49 or Free Catherine Eyres & Claire d’Urban Jackson - Speech & Language Therapists VisTimer or VisTimer Free by Mindful Tools This app provides both a numerical and a pictorial countdown so learners are able to easily see how long they have left of an activity. The VisTimer Free app has maximum time of 10 minutes whereas the paid for app can countdown for 23 hours and 59 minutes. This is great for learners who struggle with the concept of time and how long they have left. It can be used to depict how long is left of a chosen activity or of a work activity. The colour of the pie chart and the finished tone can be changed to suit your child. Make £10 Grow Does money grow on trees? It did in John Bosco! They cut up their £10 to make a money tree and then sold it at a profit. This was one of a number of novel money making ideas that we saw this year. John Paul House decorated stones and turned them into little animal paper weights. These sold really well making a healthy profit of £25.96. St Cecilia`s ran a very popular Baby photo quiz, St Luke`s kept up its classroom tradition with homemade ice cream. The biggest profit award goes to St David`s who made a grand profit of £40 washing cars. Thank you to all those who participated, we raised a total of £148.12. The Ideal Ideas council has chosen to put the money towards new scooters, these will be ordered shortly and ready for use in September.