Kemball School Spring 2020 Newsletter

Hello Everyone, Well I never thought that we would be ending the Spring term like this, with the whole country on lockdown, worried about catching a potentially deadly virus. These are indeed very scary times. This virus is very serious otherwise the Government would not be taking such extreme steps to protect people from catching and spreading it. With this in mind, as you know, we have made the decision to only open to certain pupils whose parents are either key workers or where, in conjunction with social care, we have identified that children will be at a greater risk by not coming into school.

We made this decision for the following reasons:  In order to provide a safe environment for our students, we need high ratios of well trained, medically competent, experienced staff who understand your children. With staff illness and their own vulnerabilities I can’t guarantee the same high student to teacher ratios that we need to safely meet the needs of the students.  Concerns about the potential risk to the health of our children – if we take the government advice, by the very nature of our school, our children have underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable. Government guidance has identified having a learning need as being a vulnerable category. The Government have seemed to forgotten that having an EHCP won’t protect your child from catching the virus or bringing it back to their family.

 We are unable to keep a social distance in a school – our students are sociable and have no concept of personal space – we are unable to socially isolate

 Your child is having close 1:1 personal contact with our staff, particularly if they need physical management, feeding and personal care. Other than gloves and plastic aprons we have no personal protective equipment.

 Staff working with your child are going home and mixing with their families – many of which are also key workers. They may be having limited social contact but they are having to shop for their families. Some people have no symptoms with this disease and therefore we cannot guarantee that there is no risk of the virus being carried by staff.  We can’t ensure that key staff who know your child well are going to be in school everyday

In summary our advice is to continue keep your child at home where they are safe and protected. All the staff at Kemball genuinely care a great deal about your children and we are extremely worried about any of them becoming ill, especially as the NHS resources are so stretched. This is extended to our parents and families. We know that having a child with additional needs is tough but we also know that all our parent/carers will continue to do everything in their power to protect their child and their families.

We will continue to keep in touch with all our families and aim to telephone everyone on 20th April. We can then plan the contact and support that you would like. If you would like to contact the school then please use the school email address. This is checked constantly and all parent/carers emails are passed onto me so that I can respond directly.

Thank you everyone for the donations of Easter Eggs. As we were unable to do the raffle we felt that the best thing to do was to take the Easter treats to the local food bank. We thought that this was the best thing to do given the circumstances and hope that they will help families through these particularly hard times.

The road ahead is very uncertain, no one knows when this will be over. Stay strong, stay safe and take care – see you on the other side Lisa

Music

Our trip to Lichfield Cathedral

On Tuesday 10th March 2020 I was lucky enough to have the privilege to take 12 members of our choir to Lichfield Cathedral to join in a concert with 4 other special schools in Staffordshire. The event was organised by Music Share, a singing outreach project involving Lichfield Cathedral School and funded by the Music Hub.

Their leader Cathy came into school to teach us 7 songs to sing at the concert. These ranged from traditional African songs to Radio Gaga. Some of the songs were sung in parts which meant the children were in groups and had to continue to sing their part of the song while other groups sang a different part. There were lots of words to learn but the pupils were fabulous and all of them knew every word by the time of the concert.

The pupils were very excited about the trip and finally the big day arrived. We set off from school after lunch, armed with our packed tea, on our journey to Lichfield Cathedral. When we arrived, we had a practice in the cathedral with the pupils from the other schools before being shown to our ‘Green Room’ where we had our tea and a bit of a break. After this we went in to the cathedral for the Evensong Service which is held each day. We listened to the Cathedral choir sing and the organ play then two of our pupils read a prayer as part of the service. After this we had some time back in our Green room before heading over to the Cathedral for the concert.

The concert was nothing short of fabulous! There was a large audience of family and friends of the pupils and staff from the schools. All the pupils sang with such enthusiasm and joy it made the whole cathedral an incredible place to be. During the concert an opera singer sang 2 short songs for the pupils and a drummer from Jamaica played the thumb piano and the djembe drum. The pupils taught the audience one of their songs – Mango, Mango, Mango so everyone could sing together. The concert finished at 8pm – it had been a long but very enjoyable day.

Our pupils were truly amazing from start to finish and I can not say how proud I am of them all. Thank you to the parents of the pupils for your support in allowing your child to attend and helping them to learn all the words. It was great that so many of you were able to come to the concert – thank you and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. I want to thank Laura, Emily, Lisa and Helen for for their support and help to enable us to be part of such a great experience. If it happens again – which I truly hope it will – I will definitely be wanting to take our choir again – and who knows maybe next time we may even be able to take 2 minibuses full of pupils!

Lorraine

Spring 2020 Doulton 1 We have been working hard in Doulton 1 in the Spring term, in our topics of The Jungle and In the Garden. We have enjoyed physio, swimming and tac pac where we have been determined to succeed with our targets, programs and play. We explored the Jungle in January and February. Our sensory story was the Animal Boogie where we all met Jungle creatures including shaking bears, stomping elephants and leaping leopards. We explored the story using all of our senses and really enjoyed the actions of the song. In music we worked with Lorraine to share The Three Bears story in which we walked through the woods to explore rhythm, beat and lots of different instruments. After half term we explored our In the Garden topic. Our sensory story was Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt where we found out about the plants, creatures, seasons and weather in the garden, but also the world in the soil where the insects were tunnelling and sleeping. We enjoyed using props, lights and music to bring the story to life. Lorraine worked with us in music to share the creepy crawly calypso. In maths we focused on shapes, measures, measuring times and number. We enjoyed 2 RE days to find out about Creation stories from different religions. We learned about The Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh beliefs. As part of the RE days we really enjoyed a visit from the animal lady where we met honey bears, a snake, a spider, a turtle, an owl, a gecko and a millipede. World book day saw a library’s worth number of characters from all of our favourite tales including Peter Rabbit, Red Riding Hood, and a T rex from Dinosaur Roar. We made Unicorn fairy cakes and garden brownies as well as sharing Sugarplum the Unicorn and Superworm stories. We had a visit from a Science boffin during Science Day. We saw lots of experiments and found out about chemical reactions. We even made our own slime! We look forward to coming back to school, and in the meantime hope that everyone stays safe. Thank you to everyone who makes sure that pumps and suction units are fully charged and for all of the requests for care supplies which are met. It really helps us to take good care of your children. Thank you for all of the support, donations and gifts throughout the term. Karen, Clare, Chelsea and Gemma would like to wish you all a very healthy and happy Easter.

Spode 1

Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been a fantastic term in Spode 1. The children have been making some amazing progress, and I know I speak for all of the class when I say how proud we all are of them. Our sensory stories this half term have been Rumble in the Jungle and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Both stories have been enjoyed by the children and they have taken part in lots of activities related to the books.

We have had lots of events this term- RE days, World Book Day, Science Day, Number Day and trips to the shops. We particularly enjoyed our trip to Peak Wildlife Park where we got to feed the Wallabies and got up close and personal to the penguins!

We have been working hard on our independence skills and have been developing road safety awareness on our visits to the shops. We love to be outside and have also been looking for minibeasts and flowers.

We have taken advantage of the nice weather and been playing on the park a lot- this also develops our physical skills. We also loved making giant bubbles outside as part of our science day activities.

Our new TA Katie has settled in well and the children love working with her. Sadly Louise will be moving to a different role in school but we hope we will still get to see her lots. Kim is returning from maternity leave after Easter and is looking forwards to meeting the new children.

We are really proud of all of the children and the progress they are making and we hope that you are too.

Eleri, Jenny, Katie and Louise (Spode 1 Team)

Paragon 1

Paragon 1 have coped well with the change in class, Hannah moved to Secondary taking on a new role and Emma became the class lead. The children have coped well with the change all round and still continue to amaze us all each and every day. English- We started the year off by reading the story “Aliens love underpants” which the children enjoyed and thought it was a funny book. During our lessons we completed different activities including role playing the story which involved, trying to steal the pants and run away from the dog. We also finished sentences about the story by using key words or symbols. We then moved onto the story “Laika the astronaut” which the children could remember the dog from our topic space. The children amazed me with their knowledge of remembering key facts about Laika, that she was all alone and had no home or family. Maths- This term we have been very busy learning new maths skills and remember skills we have learnt before. We exchanged money for food counting the correct amount of coins and finding the correct coin to match the price on the food. We also learnt about 2D and 3D shapes, positional language and patterns. We then moved onto adding and subtracting, more and less. To help us with the maths sums we using the Cuisenaire rods and Numicon. We also using other materials including the skittles, Pom poms, compare bears and lots more. R.E- This term we have been involved in R.E days we experienced other teachers coming in to Paragon 1 and sharing their creating story with us. We made a creation garden and explored the sensory story props about the story. We then read the SIKH creation story which linked in with our space theme, we enjoyed making paper mache solar systems for our class display. Science- In science our topic was Earth and space, we covered day and night, the moon, stars and planets. The children especially liked the pod as we had a cardboard rocket, we blacked out the window and turned it into space. We added glow sticks, torches, glow in the dark stars, with inflatable planets to pretend we were in the solar system. We also went on a trip to Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, They were very excited when we pulled up and they could see the big satellite dish especially when it started to move. We then went inside an inflatable planetarium where we say how to sky changed during the day and night, we also looked at the different planets we had been learning about in class. The children’s knowledge amazed me as they could remember the planets and which planet came next when staff asked. Computing- This term we have been looking at filming and sequencing, in class we recapped on the story “Aliens love underpants” using our props, we then took it in turns to say lines/ key words from the story whist another child was using the ipad to film. We then sat as a class and watched the film back but in the wrong order, they then worked in groups to put the film back into the right order. We then watched the film back reading the story at the same time to make sure we were right. Topic- We learned about Neil Armstrong, the topics we covered were, the space race, his life, texture and colours of the moon and American flag, the Apollo 11 mission. We recreated the space race by going outside and pretending to be the people involved in the space race. We then made a moon landscape, the children made a landscape of Neil Armstrong putting the American flag on the moon. This half term we have been learning about continents and using 2D and 3D shapes to make a rocket. PHSE- This term we have been learning about right and wrong choices, sharing and caring for others. We had to sort different pictures into right and wrong and say why it was a right choice or a wrong choice. Then we practiced sharing with our friends or an adult taking it in turns to play and game. P.E- We had the opportunity to be taught by ‘fizzy tots’ again which we continued to develop our physical skills including, throwing, catching and balancing. We have swimming on a weekly basis. The children have all grown in confidence and will swim independently from one end of the pool to the other. Paragon 1 still continue to amaze and wow us everyday with their individual achievements. Thank you for your continued support. I would also like to welcome our new member of staff in Paragon 1 Emma. Emma, Khatija, Vicky and Emma.

Doulton 2

Doulton 2 have been exploring the topic of Once Upon A Time. We have been exploring Oceans and Seas and finding out about Knights and Castles!

In Maths we have been practising writing our numbers, finding matching numbers and exploring colours through smell and touch. We have also been finding out about shapes in our classroom and around school. In English we have been reading Charlie Cooks Favourite Book and Pirates Love Underpants. We have loved exploring the range of characters in Charlie Cooks favourite book and matching images of them. We have created our own pants for the Pirate Captain by mark making using a variety of materials and decorating using sensory items. In our topic sessions we have been creating our own castles using junk material, this got us all in a creative mood and the children made some fantastic choices to build their castles in small teams. We also have explored how knights live and took part in a jousting activity in class to see who would make a good knight to protect our castle. Our favourite activity this term has been looking at what creatures live in rock pools, ocean and coral reefs, we loved exploring the sensory versions of these and then placing the sea creatures into them.

We have had a good term and have enjoyed being able to take part in whole school days such as Science day!

Best wishes from Katy, Hayley and Cathy.

Paragon 2 Spring Newsletter

Dear Parents, We just wanted to send you an update of the exciting things that we have done this term. Yet again, we are really happy with the progress that the children have made. In topic this term, we have been looking at ‘Once upon a Time’. In our first half term, we looked at the story of Sleeping Beauty, exploring the music of the ballet and rhythmic movement through the use of the ‘Story Orchestra’ version of the story. The children made excellent progress in the sensory story and showed a much improved ability to retell known stories. To link with this, we have been looking at ribbon dancing to the ballet music and the children have really enjoyed learning how to follow simple routines. In our topic, we have been looking at medieval life, taking a trip through Aurora’s castle and exploring the roles of the different people that we found there. The children really enjoyed making a range of simple historical recipes and joining in in role play, including a knight’s quest in the classroom. In the second half of our term, we started to look at ‘The Little Mermaid’ and explored all things ‘under the sea’. The children really enjoyed looking at the animals that were found all over the world, continuing this exploration in our science days, where we looked at Antarctic and tropical sea creatures and explored marine pollution, sorting recyclable materials and role play saving animals in the ocean. The children have enjoyed our sensory story and were increasingly able to retell this traditional tale. In PE, we continued to look at dancing and were learning and simple routine to the Disney song ‘Under the Sea’. We had hoped to perform our two dances for parents at the end of this term but unfortunately, due to the present circumstances, we hope that we will be able to perform this at the end of the year instead, I am sure that you will all be very impressed to see how far the children have come in their physical abilities. In addition to the above, in the first part of the term, we continued to enrich the children’s experiences of the topics that we have explored through trips to Ford Green Hall where we looked at the historical artefacts and made our own marzipan fruits and ‘The Rabbit Hole Tea Room’, an Alice in Wonderland tea room which we visited in order to explore the story and to continue to enhance the children’s PHSE skills when out and about. In addition to this, we continued to take out walks in the community and I know that the children enjoyed visiting the shops and café during this time. With the current situation that we now face, we sincerely hope that very soon, we will be able to return to our usual routine in school and that you will all find the homework packs useful in the coming weeks in supporting your children at home. Most importantly, we wish you all the best in the challenging weeks ahead and hope that you know that you are free to ring or email the school for any support that you may need when we reopen after the Easter holidays. Stay safe and kind regards The Paragon 2 team (Cath, Sam, Ceara, Kim and Hayley)

Coalport 1 have had a fantastic term this Spring. The children have made good progress in their personal targets. They have also been working on individual independence skills and are becoming more and more independent. Some of our class are now feeding themselves with minimal support, taking their arm out of their coats with only verbal prompts and helping with personal care by looking and getting themselves ready to roll. During Spring term, our communication, problem-solving and Topic focus has been ‘Hello Spring’. We have covered two sensory stories all about the ‘Little Acorn’ and ‘It’s Spring!’ We had lots of sensory exploration about spring, the pupils got to explore spring weather types through switch work and our senses, the smells of spring and exploring leaves and flowers. During communication and problem solving, the children and worked on numbers, measurement, size, capacity and shape. The children made some beautiful shape flowers using 2D shapes and coloured paint. In communication, the children have been working extremely hard on different forms of communication. They have been using communication boards to make choices for different subjects. They have also been working on their listening skills and mark making which I must say their mark making is really coming on. In Topic the children have been learning all about animal habitats, life cycles of butterflies and frogs and signs of spring. We have had lots of events in this spring term, world book day was one of them, where Coalport 1 focused on Julia Donaldson books. The children’s costumes were amazing, and they really enjoyed the Bear Hunt story read to all the children within our department by a special guest. They explored each adventure of the characters within the story book through sensory exploration, we had so much fun and lots of belly laughs could be heard from all the children. We had a maths day, science day and RE day. It has been a fantastic term and the children have been little stars. We hope you all have a happy but safe Easter. Claire, Ramona and Jackie.

Bridgewater 1 and 2 Spring 2019 Newsletter

This term has been a time to explore spring and the world around us and see the wonderful changes that happen during this season. Our umbrella topic this term has been ‘spring time’ and we have looked at plants, spring animals, flowers, weather, routine, time tables, numbers, mark making, matching, sorting, sequencing and many more skills and areas. Our Sensory stories this term have been a non-fiction sensory called ‘New Life’ and ‘The missing Easter eggs’. New life We explored through sensory resources and short tasks which followed the theme of changes which we might see in spring time for example the weather changing from cold to warm, counting the rain drops, tasting the honey from the bees and seeing the size of the animals grow as they eat the fresh green grass. The children over time developed these skills and made progress with their anticipation and engagement skills. The missing Easter eggs This was a story developed around our school and the concept was to develop their engagement with a story in a familiar environment such as school. We introduced the main character in the story as Sam (the puppet) who was a new member of Kemball School and wanted to share an Easter egg with all her new friends in our class. Topic The pupils for this topic had an opportunity to explore the outside and focus on the changes to plants and animals. We looked at the life of a frog, butterfly and chick. The children planted carrots, cress and broad beans and over the weeks, we could see the changes from the seeds to the small plants. Most days the children enjoyed getting the spray water bottle out and spraying the little plants. We hope that you are keeping safe and that we continue to get some more of this wonderful Spring weather!

Gladstone 1

The children in Gladstone 1 have had a positive attitude towards school and been working exceptionally hard. The topic this term has been space and the children have really enjoyed learning about space which has led to the children being inquisitive and asking a range of questions. At the beginning of a topic lesson, we will review children’s questions about things they want to learn about space and created new questions in preparation for the next lesson. This has encouraged the children to take a lead role in their learning and they have really enjoyed finding out fun facts about space.

The children have also participated in a range of whole school events which they have thoroughly enjoyed. We have dressed up as our favourite book characters for world book day whilst focussing on reading for enjoyment. We have also had two science days where the children have taken part in various workshops and completed a range of experiments including creating their own slime! As you also may be aware, we also have RE days once each half term where we focus on an area and explore this over two days. The teachers will teach various classes during these two days which provides the children with refreshing and exciting new lessons over the two RE days. The children really enjoy the themed days and we really appreciate your time and efforts to support us with this by supplying costumes etc.

During this term, the children have explored the outdoors with our forest school’s leader. Each week they have been taking part in a forest schools lesson where they will learn various skills using the outdoor environment. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this and look forward to this lesson each week. Some of the activities the children will take part in are den building, making hot chocolate, hide and seek and various outdoor active games. Although forest schools has now expired for our class, we will be looking to continue this in the near future to enrich the children’s learning.

This term we have been fortunate enough to have PE, Swimming and rebound which is providing the children with exceptional physical exercise but also in a variety of fun variations so the children are exercising with beaming smiles. We are continuing to provide these opportunities to the children with the continuing work and support of our highly experienced external provider ‘Fizzy tots’.

As you can see, we have been working really hard and I can happily say we have had such a successful term with lots of progress.

Darryl, Sophie and Amer Coalport 2 Hello everyone, What a busy spring term we have had, our topic couldn’t have been more perfect for this time of year as we have been learning all about ‘Spring Time’ in Coalport 2. We have read some lovely sensory stories but our favourite had to be ‘It’s Spring’, the children really engaged well with all of the different props and showed some great cause and effect responses using the Powerlink switch and the fan. They loved feeling the breeze on their faces and creating wind- swept hairstyles! This term Coalport 2 have been doing fantastic work in their physio sessions. We have all taken part in the rolling programme and the children have been showing fantastic progress with their confidence with the different actions and movements in the sessions. We have had fun dress-up learning days such as ‘World Book Day’ where everybody in class made a great effort with their outfits, instead of our normal Colaport 2 children, we had Harry Potter, Horrid Henry, a Skeleton, Winnie the Pooh and even a ladybird! We also enjoyed ‘Science day’. We all went to the hall and watched a scientist demonstrate lots of cool experiments and we got to make our own slime which we all took home to show our families.

We hope that you all have a lovely Easter Danica, Yvonne, Kim and Ghazala.

Coalport 3 Spring 2020

Coalport 3 have been exploring our lovely topic of ‘weather and seasons’. We have all really enjoyed exploring different natural things around the school environment and experiencing lots of different weather activities. In English our sensory stories have been “Tree: Seasons come and Seasons go” and “Professor Fergus and his wonderful Weather Machine’. We have created lots of lovely pieces of artwork to represent the different seasons and weather using different techniques and textures. We have also really enjoyed dressing up for different weathers and exploring weather and season sensory trays and activities such as fake snow and snowball fights! We have made some different foods suitable to different seasons as well such as soup, fruit salad and sandwiches. Everyone loved trying the different ingredients. Everyone has been working hard on their physiotherapy targets and individual PSSE targets. We have also been enjoying tacpac and positive touch to explore and develop body awareness and relaxation. We have also had lots of special event days planned such as our RE days where everyone explored different activities to do with Creation Stories. We made clay faces, had a party making music to the different parts of the creation story and explored sensory trays linked to the different areas that God made during the creation story. We have also really enjoyed dressing up and exploring special activities for Science day and World Book Day.

We hope everyone enjoys Easter and is staying safe during this uncertain time; we look forward to seeing everyone when school is back open! Jasmine, Chris, Robyn, Julie, and Yvonne

MINTON 1 SPRING TERM 2020

During the spring term, we managed to walk to Longton Park and to the local supermarket. We took part in World Book Day and Science Day activities. The topic for spring has been, OUR CITY TODAY, so a lot of the work has been centred around that. SCIENCE The topics within Science were LIFE CYCLES and RECYCLING. We looked at the life cycles of plants and trees, butterflies, brine shrimps, birds and frogs. We grew brine shrimps, otherwise known as “sea monkeys,” in the classroom and watched them develop. We researched what local tips and recycling centres accepted and did not accept for recycling. We also made recycled paper with some fantastic results. GEOGRAPHY We used Google maps, atlases and maps to find out where Stoke-on-Trent is nationally and regionally, and then focused the local area itself. Pupils should now be able to look at the key on an Ordnance Survey map and find features on the map itself. We also looked at how a city develops in line with the Burgess model. HISTORY We used the internet to research how place names came about and their meanings. We compared old and new photos of our city to see how areas have changed over time. In addition, we compared buildings like the new and old Hanley bus stations and the old and new Stoke City football stadiums. RE (Creation Stories) RE is now covered by two whole days every half term. Teachers deliver their lessons to different classes and the pupils receive teaching from different teachers. The pupils re-wrote the Hindu creation story and used IT to use a visualiser to make a creation story presentation. Using previously learnt PowerPoint skills, they also made an EBook of the 7 days of creation from the Bible. PE (Games/Dance) We improved our tactics in dodgeball and cricket in particular and worked on some basketball skills as well. We managed to get a few sessions of dance in where we started to look at how the STOMP dance and rhythm group produce their performances. ART & DT The pupils have used a variety of materials to create some wonderful art: watercolour, oil pastel, poster paint and printing ink. The architectural pictures of Stoke-on-Trent building they produced have made people stop in the corridor for a close look. They also tried to capture the difficult skill of perspective drawings to make buildings and scenes look correct as they move into the distance. We carried out DT activities about parks. PSHE (Families and relationships/Co-operation) We looked at the different ways are families are made up and how to react in situations that may come up in a family. We discussed what peer pressure is, and how to deal with it with friends. We also looked at the weird and wonderful family portraits by Fernando Botero and wrote what we thought of the families in his paintings. For co-operation activities, we drew pictures in pairs where the pen had to be handed over to a partner every 30 seconds, to see what it felt like to share a drawing. The pupils also spent an afternoon tied to a partner by one arm and one leg to, see if they could carry out tasks and activities ICT (EBooks/Controlling) The class worked to learn how to use the program PowerPoint and then to make an EBook of Treasure Island with images from the story and pages that were animated so that the text moved and made it more interesting to read. We then explored Purple Mash and other programs to find out how to program a “sprite” to follow directions and move around the page. We then moved onto building basic games where a sprite could be controlled to move through the game collecting coins and avoiding baddies. On Fridays, we carry out life skills, which have included: acting out how to ring for a taxi, vacuuming, ironing, making a bed, how a bank account works and how to look after a pet. We have work hard on our listening skills by doing a weekly news challenge on the computer. We have to listen and watch some news items and then try to answer some questions about what we saw and heard. We also watch Newsround daily and talk about what is happening in the news. We always make time for discussion and enjoy our conversations going off in another direction and then using Google and YouTube to research more. Ian, Amy and all in Minton 1

Wedgwood 1

This term we have done lots of exciting activities and learning about lots of different things. In Science, we have been learning about different states of matter and begun to look at properties for different materials. The children have developed their scientific enquiry skills by first recording their predictions, then carrying out the experiments and then writing conclusions afterwards. In Geography, we have focussed on ‘The 6 Towns’. The children learnt how to read a map using 4 and 6 figure grid references. They explored the different towns’ attractions by their map symbols and could independently identify and draw different map symbols when asked. In History, this term we have focussed on ‘The Pottery Industry’. The children have learnt about the jobs they would have done and actively carried out them from carrying pots to and from the Kiln to mining. The children were paid in shillings for their work, with some children working harder and earning more money than others. In Art this term, we have focussed on ‘Pottery’. The children designed and then made their own pieces of pottery using clay and paper Mache. They made different clay tiles etching their own designs and decorating them once they had dried and the children made their own paper Mache bowls and painted them. We hope you have a good Easter holidays.

Steph, Zoe and Jo

Regency 2’s Spring Newsletter

Regency 2 have had a fantastic Spring term! During Spring 1 we learnt all about Oliver Twist in English where the children got to meet the awful Mr Bumble- the children did some fantastic character descriptions of him though! The children also learnt all about the Victorian markets that Oliver would have visited and we even visited Longton’s Victorian market- the children produced some lovely diary entries of their visit! Recently, in English we have been learning about Billionaire boy which sparked up a debate about school uniform and whether it is good for school or not! I have to say the children were very convincing in their arguments- I almost started wearing school uniform myself!

The children have also been working very hard in their maths work- over the term we have been learning about multiplication, division ,2D and 3D shapes and time! The children have worked so hard in their maths work and it has been fantastic to see the progress they have made over the term! This half term’s topic has been ‘Our city today’ and the children have been investigating where they live using google street view and a map of the local area! We have also enjoyed taking a walk in the local area to see what amenities there were around the school. Children were fantastic at pointing out the shops and saying what you could buy in each shop. We also explored the history of our local area by visiting Hanley museum- the children really enjoyed seeing the Staffordshire hoard, trying on different outfits and investigating what shops used to look like!

Well done Regency 2, we look forward to next term! Charlotte, Laura and Demi

Regency 1 Spring newsletter

Regency 1 have been very busy throughout the Spring term and have enjoyed many exciting work experience trips and events.

For World Book Day this year Regency 1 focused all of their activities on A boy in a dress by David Walliams, the class watched the film and read the book and then based their activities around it, with the majority of the class dressing up! During Maths Number Day the class had lots of fun taking part in lots of different number based activities in the classroom and in the hall.

Science Day was based on Our Diverse Planet, Science Boffins came in to show the young adults different experiments and the class each made their own slime. We had lots of fun making animal habitats and also creating our very own roller coaster!!

This term as part of Preparation for Adulthood, Regency 1 have been on many work experience visits to get a better understanding for the different kinds of jobs that are available and the qualifications you will need. Some of the places we have visited are Stoke City, Tesco, Intu and Ayundante and The Scrap Shack. We have been busy the last few weeks planning and designing 2 products in our class to sell for Young Enterprise. We also created a sales pitch which we videoed and these products will hopefully be available to buy in the Summer Term. I hope you all have a lovely Easter break and stay safe in the current situation. Danielle and Sam

Aynsley 1

Although our Spring term may have been cut shorter than expected, we have still managed to cram in a huge amount in class (and elsewhere!) since Christmas. In English we looked at a text from a famous author – The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. As ever, the class excelled themselves in their drama representations of the text and showed great enthusiasm and understanding during these enjoyable sessions. In other topics, the students were further given the opportunity to show their imagination and creative side by designing community clubs which including writing a profile of the details of their club, as well as writing and following instructions. In Maths we have again focussed largely on the important life skill of using money and making different amounts with a range of coins. I am pleased to say there has been superb progress made in this area, both counting coins to find out the value, and making different amounts. It has also been great to see the students applying these money skills in a real-life context whilst out and about on our Preparation for Adulthood days, including buying snacks on visits to Longton Market, Fenton Manor and Vue Cinema. In Science we have covered two enjoyable and practical topics this term. Firstly we explored Electricity, and compared appliances that are battery powered and mains powered. Also we learned about electrical circuits, and applied this knowledge by making our own circuits using wires, a battery and a light-bulb. The class literally saw the light and did themselves proud! In our other topic, we looked at plants, and everyone engaged in a whole class experiment where we compared a healthy plant, which has sunshine and water, and a plant which was locked in the cupboard. All the students made their predictions, and were correct in saying the plant locked in the cupboard would not be looking too well. The effort of tackling some tricky concepts and words – such as Photosynthesis – was great to see from everyone. Moving onto our ASDAN progress this term, we have used our work experience placements to go towards out ASDAN, with a focus on following instructions and developing teamwork in the workplace. It was fantastic to see the attitude and progress made by the students who engaged with the placement at the Scrap Shack, where they tackled the various tasks such as rolling, cutting and bagging material, and even some students were set the task of pricing up using the pricing gun! I’m sure they will all have benefitted from the experience of working in a workplace environment, and being introduced to different concepts such as shift times and signing in and out! For the students who were not on work experience, they explored technology and how they can benefit from this, even at one point enjoying the benefits of a foot spa! But also engaging with the sensory room, and using a whisk to make cakes. In other subjects, the students clearly enjoyed our PE topic of Dance, where they followed routines from different decades, as well as developing Hockey skills which ended in small-sided games which the students enjoyed taking part in. Also, in Computing the students completed an e-Book after taking pictures on iPads, then using them to produce their own e-Book based on Kemball School, as well as producing their own comic strip using a creative website. Stay safe everyone, and try to enjoy your Easter as best as you all can.

Aynsley 2 Spring Term

Aynsley 2 welcomed two new members of staff in January which was an exciting time for everyone! We all settled into our new routine really quickly with a sense of maturity and tenacity. This term in Aynsley 2 we have been out on lots of visits in the community to build confidence in using public transport and using local facilities. We visited Fenton Manor leisure Centre and hired out one of their arenas, had breakfast at Longton Market, toured the facilities at the city central library and went to the cinema to watch Doctor Dolittle! In ASDAN this term we have worked incredibly hard on our different units. First we worked through our unit on ‘Environmental Awareness’ where we looked at how we could improve the local community park. We made awareness posters, bird feeders, bird houses and completed lots of litter picks to improve the area. We also chose goals to work towards in our ‘working towards goals’ unit – popular goals included developing spelling strategies and practicing times tables. This half term we have worked on the unit ‘working as a group’ as part of Young Enterprise project. Team ‘Lavarly Lamps’ took on team ‘Pebbies’ with groups deciding to make lava lamps/sensory jars and making decorative pebbles to sell for a profit. We also completed our ‘developing self’ unit where we chose to work on skills such as patience, tolerance or confidence. We spent time in other classes with a range of different adults and pupils to work on these targets. Some of us have had the opportunity to begin our work experience this term to places such as Ayudante, St Albans café and the Hawthorne Pet hotel. We have all taken part in an employability masterclass where we analysed our strengths for the work place such as creativity and confidence with others. We also talked about social media and how to present ourselves responsibly for potential employers. We also enjoyed the ‘Tenner Challenge’ workshop which launched our Young Enterprise project. We learnt about how to think of successful business ideas and how to spend money sensibly and practically. We have had chance to show off our creative sides with projects in RE such as representing the big bang theory through craft materials and representing photosynthesis in science by using jelly, sherbet, orange juice and hot water! We enjoyed making ‘pop bottle’ ecosystems showing how different animals and living/non-living things rely on each other. It’s been a busy, fun-filled term filled with excitement (and some anticipation) of what the future holds for our Year 11’s after Kemball. You’ve made us very proud this term, well done! Keep working hard! Hannah and Shelley Spode 2 have had a fantastic term and we are very pleased with the progress all of the children are making! This term we have looked at two sensory stories around the theme of Once upon a Time. First we read ‘Sleeping Beauty’, the children really enjoyed exploring the sensory aspects of this story. Then more recently we have been reading ‘The Little Mermaid’ where the children have been focusing on developing their communication and problem solving through a range of different activities such as matching, sorting, threading, mark making, counting, ordering and many more. We also took a trip to the Hanley Library where we enjoyed having a story read to us and got to explore the books and their sensory room. As part of our Once upon a Time topic in Spring 1 we have studied knights, castles and medieval times, which included a trip to Ford Green Hall where we learned about Foods from the past and made marzipan fruits. In Spring 2 we have explored sea life, rock pools and things we do at the beach. The children have loved exploring the sea life especially in water and sand play. For RE day this term we swapped with Gladstone 1 and Doulton 2 to learn more about different creation stories. We engaged in a sensory story and spent time exploring different sensory and art activities relating to the theme, such as creating world in our hands art work and investigating the differences between day and night. We have been lucky enough to take part in some special themed days this term, the first being the NSPCC Number Day, where we played lots of fun maths games, such as a number/ Numicon treasure hunt around the school. Later in the term we took part in World Book Day and shared lots of stories and songs throughout the day, as well as taking part in a sensory story where we went on a bear hunt! More recently we have took part in Science Day, we had lots of fun watching exciting experiments and took part in a workshop where we made our very own slime. We want to thanks parents for their continued support and hope everyone is well and staying safe! We hope to see all of the pupils back in school soon and wish everyone a Happy Easter! Thank you, Katrina, Anna, Bekki, Stacey and Jas

Gladstone 2 Newsletter Spring 2020 We have had an enjoyable term full of learning and adventures. The children have engaged really well with the topics and shown lots of interest. Our umbrella topic has been ‘Our City today’. In our topic lessons we have developed skills within the areas such as Geography, History, Art and D&T. The children have loved taking on projects such as creating a cardboard city, city landscapes and researching our city in the past. We have been looking at sites around the City that are familiar with the children and comparing them with the past and thinking about what has changed. Our trip to Hanley museum consolidated our learning by showing us what old buildings such as houses and schools were like years ago. In Science we have learnt about lifecycles, habitats, the Water cycle and evaporation. The children have explored the frog and butterfly lifecycle using props and through stories such as the very hungry caterpillar. They have made their own animal habitats, and have taking part in lots of experiments to explore the different stages of the water cycle. In English we have covered ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ which linked with our lifecycle learning in Science. The pupils really enjoyed this popular story and we learnt lots of facts about caterpillars and butterflies so that we could create fact files, posters and explanation texts about the lifecycle. We then focused on the traditional tale of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. The children enjoyed taking part in role play, retelling their own versions of the story, and writing a sorry letter to the Giant. In Maths we have been using Numicon and other practical resources to develop our confidence with numbers. The children have loved playing games, building, weighing, measuring and other hands on activities to develop confidence in other areas such as measurement and shape. In PSHE and Life Skills we have focused a lot on how to keep ourselves healthy and safe. The children have shown an enthusiasm to practise Life Skills such as washing up, cleaning, cooking and folding clothes; we hope they are also practising these skills at home! We have had a fantastic Spring term and we were sad that it came to an end prematurely. All the staff in Gladstone 2 would like to wish you a Happy Easter and we hope to see you all soon. Maddie, Karen and Kelly.

Minton 2 Newsletter Spring 2020

We have had an enjoyable spring term and enjoyed lots of adventures. I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents and carers for their continued support. The topic this term has been ‘The Potteries Industry’ and what a wonderful time we have had. As part of our history lessons we have explored the history of potteries industry including homes, jobs and transport of that era. We had fun on a trip to ‘The Potteries Museum’ where we explored artefacts linked to our topic. Pupils enjoyed looking at historical photographs of our area and comparing them to modern images. Pupil’s noticed changes such as bottle kilns being knocked down and new carparks being built. Through geography links we have explored the local areas of Blurton and Longton, enjoying local walks and focussing on basic map skills. We visited the local CO-OP store, café and pet shop. We have been focusing on artist Clarice Cliff and designing and making pottery in the style of her work. In English pupils have focussed on the stories; ‘Where the wild things are’ and ‘The sword in the Stone’. Pupils have enjoyed listening to these stories as a sensory experience, then completed reading, writing and drama tasks linked to the stories. Pupils have enjoyed their daily ‘Read rite Inc’ phonics sessions and have made great progress. In science in spring 1 pupils learnt about states of matter. Through this topic we had lots of opportunities to complete practical investigations involving melting and freezing. Pupils particularly enjoyed melting frozen insect eggs to retrieve the creatures hidden inside. In spring 2 we have explored materials and their properties learning about what things are made from. Our Computing focus this term has been digital art. We have been using iPad to create art work using a touch screen and also using computers to practice touch pad skills, creating art work using the 'paint' programme. Pupils have had a great time in P.E. this term with the sports coaches. They have been practicing ball handling skills, team work and balance and co- ordination. We enjoyed trip to the local café as part of PHSE. Pupils all used the menus to choose and order their own snack. They went to the counter and paid for food independently. We have also looked at the topic ‘Relationships’, pupils have learnt about how to be a good friend and make positive choices. Unfortunately the term ended early due to the Coronavirus, we hope you are all safe at home and that we will return to normal as soon as possible. All the staff in Minton 2 wish you a happy Easter. Felicity, Donna, Peter, Toni and Sarah