News, Stars & EGG-cited to MOVE from John & the PHS Team – Friday 22nd March 2024

Hi everyone

Well, it’s Good Friday next week, so Happy Easter. It’s been a great week in school, with the MOVE guys yet again bringing us a lovely day, with EGG-cited to MOVE, loads of great lessons and therapy sessions, some brilliant STARS!!!, and even a governors meeting on Tuesday! There are a few pictures of our food from St Patrick’s Day last week, and some amazing work in Personal Development, literacy and elsewhere. There are even TWO Therapy Stars of the Week!

And Allotment News and Artist of the Week are back too! Hooray!

There’s even a link to some music, composed by Katie

The safeguarding topics are good, but pretty serious stuff, so there’s a good mixture today. Hope you enjoy it

Soon it will be the summer term with the better weather, more trips and generally sunnier times, but we’re enjoying Easter at the moment

Thanks for your support and t’s been really heartening to read some of your generous comments from the Consultation sessions and the like

All the best for now, have a great weekend. Cheers

J

😊 from John & the PHS Team 😊

• Literacy

• Personal Development

• Physical Development

our three Super Steering Groups deliver our curriculum, Key Drivers and School Values – there’s a paper on the website if you want to read further. These Groups deliver the right curriculum for our pupils. This is where a lot of exciting stuff happens. Here’s the latest from them

Literacy!

First up, the Literacy Team. And here’s Becky talking about what’s going on in the world of literacy

We’ve had a few different staff training sessions take place recently, including introductory training in phonics for new staff members and ongoing refreshers for our current staff teams. We know phonics can seem a bit daunting at first, especially if it’s not something you’ve come across before and there’s a lot of unfamiliar words! It’s always lovely to see staff gain confidence with delivering phonics and staff can quickly see how ELS works within our school. We’re very lucky

One thing that always comes up in refresher training sessions but is also applicable across our school is the idea of ‘pure sounds’. This is when we say a sound without an ‘uh’ on the end of it, and it’s really important when we’re sounding out words and talking about sounds. For example we say ‘s’ for the first sound in ‘snake’ rather than ‘suh’.

Here are some videos that model how we do ‘pure sounds’, not just limited to ELS, feel free to have a look

And there’ll be more information coming shortly about parent training dates after Easter so keep an eye out for that, and a chance to discuss this a bit more!

Cheers Becky, and the rest of the Literacy Team!

Personal Development

Jo looks after all Personal Development (PD), including PSHE, Careers, Wellbeing, Online Safety, Social Moral Spiritual Cultural stuff and many other things. It’s a brilliant area! The Online Safety blog is also PD, and all sorts of other stuff too

Let’s hear from Jo and the team! There’s been loads going on, as usual!

Wellbeing

As part of experiencing the Theme of ‘Wind’, 4 KS have been working on Drama sessions based on the Story of Odysseus, Aeolus, the god of wind, and Circe!

During the sessions, students are encouraged to actively and intentionally communicate feelings and ideas that grow out of interactions between people! We learn that interactions happen when people are together; the basis of interaction is that one person becomes aware of another

PSHE

We are preparing for the term ahead and after the Easter holidays will be beginning our “Changing and Growing” topic across school. I will be popping along to coffee afternoons next term to show share our curriculum with and the resources used to support the teaching of this topic.

• KS2 – “Changes at Puberty”
• KS3 & 4 – “Puberty”
• P16 – “National School Diversity Week planning”

If you would like to discuss this further, please email me at  j.ferguson@percyhedley.org.uk or contact your class teacher.

World Water Day

4TJ/OW studied the decline of the Dead Sea and the looming threat of sinkholes all around his farmlands. This was to develop their understanding of water shortage and drought throughout the world. They discovered how the people are determined to stay and protect their family legacies, despite financial losses and environmental dangers. Specifically, using the LYFTA Virtual World Platform they watched Hassan (A local person from the area) make a traditional Jordanian dish Galayet Bandora from his own tomatoes and share his recipe. This helped the students take a wider look at the issues of water security in a region affected by historical and ongoing conflict

The Elimination of Racial Discrimination

This week in our English sessions 6CT spent time on creating poems racial discrimination and why it should not exist. The pupils were tasked with the job of jointly creating a poem with a maximum word count of 50 words. The pupils were given a range of words they must include to elevate the writing style of the short sagas. These are the sagas the pupils came up with:

In our diverse realm, differences throng,

We stand united, yet divided. But why?

Skin can vary, cultures arise,

Yet worth measured not by the eye.

Discrimination rejects, like a venomous snake,

Equality’s embrace.

Let us dismantle this prejudice,

for in unity lies strength, and in empathy, grace.

(6CT)

School Values

6LWC Respect Circle

Within 6LWC we have been talking to each other about respect and kindness, and reflecting on the way we communicate with peers inside and outside of school. Students were thoughtful and understanding to one another and talking as a group has supported our class to act on the schools value of “respect”

Physical Development

And Steph runs the Physical Development Group, full of exciting things all over the school

Let’s hear from the team about the latest that’s been happening. And MOVE is back, with…..wait for t…EGGcited to MOVE! For Easter! Let’s go! Here’s Sophie!

EGGcited to MOVE!

This week we have had our EGGcited to MOVE event. Students loved participating in a hunt around the school to find Easter eggs after following the clues. At each Easter egg, there were different themed activities where students were able to practice a variety of different physical skills that accommodated different abilities. Students then followed a clue to help them find the next set of activities.

Students on the Engagement Pathway also had the opportunity to base themselves in a multisensory room where they followed an Easter-themed sensory story that explored different senses.

Thanks again to FoPHS who support us for each MOVE event and make it a fun and engaging event for all!

Here are some lovely photos with a snapshot of our students having fun!

Therapy Star of the Week

Love Therapy Star of the Week, especially when it’s about Ethan and Matthew!

Baking Therapy

In baking therapy this week, 2KH have been working together to make Easter cakes. They demonstrated fantastic teamwork, and staff were really pleased to see how much progress the class have made during these sessions. The cakes looked delicious! Well done 2KH!

Amy says: 2KH have really impressed me this week in their baking therapy session. Teamwork and working together have been areas we have focused on since September, as this was something the class found really difficult to do. They were amazing this week in their baking session, and it was lovely to see them giving each other praise and helping each other. It made my week!

Another Therapy STAR!!! of the Week!

Oh my, another! Love this, this time from Charlotte – let’s hear from her

This term, students in 3TW have been working with the Occupational Therapist and Speech & Language Therapist to set up a weekly breakfast club. Students have spent time researching what constitutes a healthy breakfast, why it is important to have breakfast, buying items and then of course preparing the breakfast each week. Not only have they had a great time and a tasty breakfast, but it has also supported the development of their social skills, independence skills and their attendance to learning for the remainder of the day

Toast-ally awesome work at breakfast club

Allotment News!

One of my favourites is back!

This is from Beth and Jo

2BE love their weekly trip to the allotment. We travel by mini bus which is always fun, and enjoy having our lunch in the hut. We are on full Spring Watch now. We explored the whole of the allotment to look for signs of spring, and guess what? We found frog spawn! We also planted lots of seeds – flowers and fruit – and watered all the plants. Watch this space for how they grow throughout spring!

Masie held a snail too – she did NOT like it but Nat thought the snail was very funny!

Trips to the allotment have many benefits for our pupils. Here are just a few

opportunity to access transport in the community

experience, and learn about, different environments

develop confidence being out in the community

impact of being part of the community on wellbeing

impact of being outdoors surrounded by nature on wellbeing

impact of fresh air on respiratory systems and wellbeing

contextual learning helps solidify knowledge – it’s better to plant seeds in a garden than a classroom!

development of hand skills when pupils hold the seeds, plant them and water them

opportunities to practise communication skills and communicating in a different setting

it’s really fun!

Artist of the Week is back! Woohoo!!!!!!!! Love Artist of the Week! Let’s see what Kasia has got for us…

Ooh, it’s a good one guys…..

Artist of the week goes to Jayden in 4JH!

In Art Jayden has been learning about Vincent Van Gogh and Still Life painting. This week I have asked 4JH class to paint a still life apple by following step by step instructions.  Jayden has excelled in this task by taking his time and accurately capturing the shadows, midtones and highlights. In Art Jayden is always down for a creative challenge which definitely is reflected in his work! Well done to Jayden!

Music Lesson of the Week!

The amazing Kate C created some music this week completely independently. Anthony was so impressed with it that he sent it in for the blog.  Hope the link works! Well done, Katie!

DT Lesson of the Week!

Wow, here’s some great stuff from Laurie. So good to have a great DT teacher at the school!

4MM and 4RR attended a Moving Parts workshop at the John Marley Centre this week. Here pupils worked with an artist to create kittiwake headpieces for a community project. Pupils had a great time constructing the headpieces with carboard and craft tape, they then painted them. The headpieces will be used in a parade on Saturday 30^th March, Northumberland Street as part of the Newcastle Puppetry Festival

Finally…Science Week!

Joel’s asked me to drop in a trailer for Science Week in June. Sounds good!

Finally finally

I didn’t want to leave out our St Patrick’s Day celebrations last week. Our wonderful kitchen does special things for these days. Check out some pictures. Mmmmmm, loving that bread!

…..from John & the Team here at PHS