91首发

Hi everyone,

Prom Night is near 鈥� just next Friday in fact! But before then we have This Is Me! This Is Me is a great day of the year for us at the school 鈥� with music, performances, celebrations, visitors and all sorts of activities that bring us together to celebrate our values. It鈥檚 all happening as I鈥檓 typing this, and Jo and many of the team have been doing loads of preparations

We also had the news this week officially that PHS has become a Centre of Excellence for MOVE, the approach we use to help every child optimise their physical potential. It really is quite something to be named as a Centre of Excellence, and a tribute to that whole team. Please do read Steph鈥檚 account of it below

So it鈥檚 a busy time, and there are transitions for next year to think about too, and all the other plans for September. Please do have a look at the STARS this week, and a look at the Online Safety and Family Liaison blogs too 鈥� or anything else on the websites. A great time of year, of course, but one that we want people to feel as comfortable, confident and happy in as much as they can do. Thanks for all your support with these things I鈥檝e mentioned, and generally 鈥� and do have a lovely weekend in the鈥�sun鈥�I hope

All the best

John S 馃槉

馃槉 from John & the PHS Team 馃槉

We have 3 Super-Steering Groups which deliver our Key Drivers through our curriculum. The Key Drivers are Communication, Wellbeing and Independence. The Groups are Literacy, Physical Development and Personal Development

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Literacy

Becky, our Literacy Specialist Lead, leads a team that improve all aspects of literacy, including this year a lot of handwriting and oracy (it鈥檚 OK, she鈥檒l be going into explain all of that) as well as reading, phonics, books and all sorts!

NEW LIBRARY UPDATE!

The final touches are being added to the library now, books are labelled and going on shelves – it’s all starting to come together and we’re very excited for our students to come and explore next week! The plan is for classes to be able to book a slot (or a couple of slots) that suit them to spend some time in the library in these last two weeks of term and then moving forward in September every class will have a dedicated weekly slot for their library time. We’ll also be adding more technology into the library in September with tablets for audiobooks/e-books and Tonieboxes – however the opening next week is all about the space and the books!

Here’s an example of one of the communication boards that will be in place in the library, to give you an idea of the categories we’ve created based on student feedback. This is one of a number of symbol boards which will be available with library and reading specific vocabulary, to support students in communicating their preference and making choices.

Last week we mentioned free events taking place in your local library this summer as part of The Summer Reading Challenge

And this week we can share about The Summer Book Boost by Reading Rocks- a free email newsletter with all sorts of reading related lovely stuff for over the summer holidays. Sign up here free to get reading inspiration and free resources emailed to you each.

Happy Reading!

Physical Development

Everything that is fabulous in the world of Physical Development! This includes physio, hydro, MOVE, PE, HI, VI, a lot of OT and all sorts of key areas for us, including all of the Outdoor Learning, John Muir Award and many other aspects. Steph oversees this and will ensure that an aspect is shared in the blog each week

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE!

We have some amazing news to share with you about our own progress within MOVE!

As you鈥檙e aware, MOVE is an approach that was introduced to our school 4 years ago and it has been quite an exciting journey to date! Within our first 2 years, we celebrated our achievement in receiving the Gold Quality Mark, which acknowledged our ongoing commitment to provide the very best MOVE provision. However, when we embarked on this journey, we set our ambitions high with the aspiration to become a Centre of Excellence. Well, last week, we successfully achieved this goal, and we are now an official MOVE Centre of Excellence school!

This award rewards schools with an exceptional provision and acknowledges the role 91首发 School plays in being a MOVE ambassador provision, so this is a fantastic achievement and ensures we are providing the highest quality care and support for all our children to optimise their physical potential.

What are the benefits of becoming a Centre of Excellence?

• Acknowledgement of outstanding practice
• Regional and national recognition
• Provides a framework to maintain high standards
• Access to ongoing support
• Involvement in the future direction of MOVE Europe

This has been achieved through the continued and innovative support that our MOVE team, school staff, and students鈥� family provide. Movement is the foundation of learning, and children need to be able to move to explore their environment, gain confidence & self-esteem and develop cognitive, communication and social skills. We are extremely proud of the positive impact that MOVE has had on all these aspects of our children鈥檚 development, and we remain committed to ensuring this progress continues

Let鈥檚 look back over the last 4 years of MOVE, as we celebrate the progress our children have made from our hugely popular whole school MOVE days to our MOVE to Learn and even some MOVE related gardening, and right down to our littlest MOVErs & Explorers group!

Becoming a MOVE Centre of excellence has brought us some fabulous moments on the journey

Huge thanks & congratulations to everyone, including all your support from home

Personal Development

One of the best things about the school and one of the most important for our pupils, PD covers PSHE, Wellbeing, Careers, Social Moral Spiritual & Cultural, Online Safety, Behaviour and similar areas. Jo pulls it all together. Let鈥檚 see what Jo and the team have in store for us this week! The inspectors really loved all of the PD we do!

PSHE

In 2LL, we have been thinking about things, people and places that are special. We have looked at special places in the community and thought about what you might see or do there and why these places might be special to different people. 2LL have also worked hard looking at different religious buildings, like churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues. We have talked about how each building serves as an important place of worship and community for different faiths. Finally we thought about things, people and places that are special to us 馃槉

Sunderland football

My friends and my family

Mum, Grandparents and Aunty

Things that are special to us

Trampoline

My dog

Mummy and Daddy

SMSC

In 6RD/LWC we learnt about Dharma day, Asalha Puja, in preparation for next weeks Buddhist festival

Aidan said that the festival is about the first ever Buddha. People go to the temple to celebrate the festival. Aidan said it was good to learn about different people and that Buddhist people do not worship a god they worship a person called the buddha.

Faith thought it was interesting that people who can learn about the 4 noble truths can stop suffering.

Sid thought the temple was interesting and liked that they did lots of reading.

Wellbeing

Here are Andy and the Wellbeing Team about what鈥檚 happening this year in their brilliant Connect Challenge series! Go Andy!

Connect Challenge 鈥� This is Me

For our latest Connect Challenge, we invited students to connect with themselves by answering the question, 鈥淲hat makes you, you?鈥�

Students showcased their individuality in a variety of ways, including artwork, making personal 鈥榯hank you鈥� cards, sharing their favourite music and books, as well as showing off their personal fashion choices throughout the week; all of this concluded with our 鈥淭his is Me鈥� celebration, where students and staff took part in a range of fun activities around school, whilst showing off their unique personalities and identities!

Embracing our unique traits is great for our emotional wellbeing, not only because it helps us develop self-acceptance but because it boosts confidence! Understanding ourselves better, can increase resilience and create an inclusive environment where everyone is proud of who they are

As the song says, 鈥淟ookout 鈥榗os here I come鈥�I make no apologies, THIS IS ME!鈥�. A great reminder that we are all unique and that each of us brings something special to our amazing school!

Therapy Star of the Week 鈥� love Therapy Star of the Week, especially when it鈥檚 Ella-Rose!

Jaimee has been working with Ella-Rose, so let鈥檚 hear what鈥檚 been going on!

For Therapy Star of the Week, I would like to nominate Ella-Rose Hare. She’s taken a real ownership of her communicate this term and has created a Communication Passport that is easy for her to understand

Ella has given her opinion on what she would like in her Communication Passport and what she would like it to look like. Over the past few weeks, Ella has built her confidence to the point where she has shared this with a member of staff she is less familiar with this week and did a fantastic job!

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Sport of the Week with Nathan!

Sport is so good here! Let鈥檚 see the latest that they鈥檝e been up to with Nathan

This week in upper school PE several students took part in a Sports Games Day at Durham University

听All our students had a lot of fun in different sports like, indoor golf, boxing and aerobics fitness

Here are just a few snippets from the day –

Michael said his favourite was boxing

Faith loved the boccia

Bobby was amazing and managed to drive the golf ball further than Richard and the coaches

We even managed to find a Para- Olympian Steven Miller and great group picture

Behaviour for Learning (BfL)

Aylisha and Corin have developed the BfL Group and are working on supporting our pupils all the time on the best way to be in all situations

This week in school we have had a busy delivering NAPPI (Non-Abusive Psychological and Physical Intervention) training to our staff听听

Two staff members who will be joining the BfL team from September who have been completing NAPPI Trainer training down in York this week听听

NAPPI training has an annual recertification requirement, therefore delivering and preparing to NAPPI training for our staff takes a lot of time and resource!听 We are hoping this will be a lot easier from September given we have two new NAPPI trainers in school

Welcome to the team Nat and Nicola!

If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact the BfL team

• holland@percyhedley.org.uk
• orr@percyhedley.org.uk

Early Years 鈥� The Ducklings!

Let鈥檚 get the latest update from what鈥檚 been happening down in the fabulous Early Years, hear from Kerry, and also see some lovely pictures which show what sort of a week they鈥檝e had and what they鈥檝e been up to

A very busy week in Early Years!

We have all been enjoying our Under The Sea topic, taking a deep dive under the ocean. On Monday we found our artist of the term 鈥淩owan鈥�. Rowan used the sponges to print two lovely whales, who now have pride of place on the wall in the art room. We have ventured to the bottom of the sea and enjoyed swimming with the fish and other sea animals participating in our sensory story/song 鈥淗ole at the bottom of the sea鈥�

We also went on a seaside adventure with our other sensory story – a fun day at the beach exploring the sun hats, sand and water

Attention bucket was enjoyed by everyone this week with a sea theme: a dancing fish, a sensory sea scarf and moving/dancing crab. Lovely use of our symbol boards and our 6-cell big mac to communicate

UNICEF Award update with Rebecca

Since we gained the Bronze level of this award, Rebecca & the teams have been working on the next level which will hopefully come soon! Let鈥檚 hear what the focus has been this week.听

If you have any questions about this please get in touch!

Exams are over!

Well done to everyone who has sat any kinds of exams of any kind! It鈥檚 great that some people do, according to their own plans, and that we鈥檙e able to help our students with a variety of different awards & accreditations. Well done all!

Preparation for Adulthood with Hannah

PfA is a key part of the School Improvement Plan this year and will be next year too. Hannah posted her message about what the PfA Team have been doing about it below last week 鈥� let鈥檚 have another have read 鈥� it鈥檚 all good!

We were delighted to welcome parents and carers to our recent Preparation for Adulthood Parent Carer Forum.听It was fantastic to catch up with so many families, both in person and online, to share ideas and experiences of some of the issues around decision-making as adulthood approaches.听We talked about the Mental Capacity Act, Deputyship, Lasting Power of Attorney and what these might mean for your child and family.听It was a great opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues, and the PfA Team were able to signpost to many different sources of information.听 Parents and carers fed back that it had given them food for thought, and that it had been beneficial to talk to other parents going through similar experiences

This particular event was open to parents of students in Year 7 and above.听 We will be organising a new calendar of events for next year to help you support your children and young people, so please keep your eyes peeled for these when the school calendar is updated.听 You can also find out lots of information about PfA on our new website pages which you can find here:听听Parent and Carers Resource Area – 91首发 School

And finally鈥�it鈥檚 that time of year again! See you next Friday!

鈥�..from John & the Team here at PHS

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Our Key Drivers

Communication, Wellbeing, Independence