Limington House School Easter Newsletter 2015

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1 Limington House School Easter Newsletter 2015 Summer Diary Dates Term Dates Summer Term Begins: Mon 20th April Summer Half Term: Mon 25th May Fri 29th May Summer Term Ends: Wed 22nd July INSET Day Fri 1st May 2015 Bank Holidays Mon 4th May 2015 Mon 25th May 2015 Events Mon 11th May Creative Arts Week Africa. Dear Parents and Carers, We have had a very busy Spring term with pupils engaged in a range of lessons and activities in all areas of the curriculum. There have been several highlights during the term including Post 16 pupils completing a very successful work experience week at different venues and undertaking various roles. All classes have enjoyed learning about special days such as St David s Day and St Patrick s Day. The pupils and staff wore something red for Red Nose Day where the school raised 150 for Comic Relief which was fantastic. We have had Living Eggs in school for two weeks with pupils and staff eagerly watching the transformation from eggs into chicks. Finally, pupils in the primary department have enjoyed taking part in a musical event at Ferneham Hall with other special schools during the final week of the term. I am delighted to inform you that we successfully appointed Emma Humphrey as our new Deputy Headteacher. Emma is currently Assistant Headteacher and SENCO at Oakley Junior School in Basingstoke. We look forward to her joining the team at Limington House. It was lovely to meet so many of you during the term at your child s annual review and at the recent Parents Evening. I look forward to continuing to work in partnership with you to support your child s learning, independence and development. Please do not hesitate to contact me at school if you have any questions. I would like to wish you all a very happy Easter holiday. Justin Innes Headteacher

2 Vision and Aims Governing Body Update In line with DfE requirements the composition of the governing body has changed and will now comprise of three parent governors, a local authority governor, two staff governors (including the Headteacher) and six co-opted governors. We are pleased to welcome two new governors, Ted Pritchard (who may be known to some of you as one of our mini-bus drivers) and Steve Vear who brings a wealth of governing experience. The leadership of the governing body has also changed. Roy Cleaver is now the chair person and Janella Thow is the vice chairperson. Committees have also been reorganised and we now have a curriculum committee which looks at all aspects of teaching and the resources committee which deals with personnel and finance. We currently have one vacancy for a co-opted governor and we are looking for someone with local business experience. If you are interested then please contact Roy Cleaver via the school.

3 Class 6 This term in class 6 we have been learning about mapping and using the Bee bots. We used the Bee bots on different maps and made them travel around the town and through the sea. We have also been learning about the adventures of Pirates on the High seas and hunting for treasure! We have made treasure maps, produced pieces of art work in the style of Paul Klee, explored where we live using maps and navigated our way around the United Kingdom during our Saints theme days.

4 Class 3 and Class 4 In Class 3 and class 4 this term we have been learning about the Jungle. Class 4 particularly enjoyed the song Walking through the jungle as we pretended to be jungle explorers. Two of the stories we have learnt are Elmer the Elephant and Walking Through the Jungle. We explored which animals we may find in the Jungle, the climate and the plants. We also had a go at growing our own plants.

5 Class 3 have particularly enjoyed PE this term climbing, sliding and crawling as we pretended to be jungle animals. In Class 4 we also had fun learning about pancake day especially making (and eating!) our own pancakes.

6 FE 1 and FE 2 For the week Monday 9 th - Friday 13 th March FE students have been taking part in work experience placements each morning. Several students worked offsite at local businesses and charities including Sainsbury s, Noah s Ark Preschool, The Shaw Trust, The Lodden Social Enterprise and a local charity shop. Students remaining at school were placed either with the site manager or worked on catering projects for the week.

7 During the afternoons all students reflected on their learning and progress towards work experience targets. They also used photographs and written descriptions to put together a work experience diary recording the tasks they had carried out each day. The week was hard work both for students and staff, but very valuable in developing skills for the future.

8 Class 1 Class 1 have had a busy Spring term! We have enjoyed The Circus as our topic and have had great fun with our sensory story and art projects around this theme. Just before half term we celebrated Chinese New Year and welcomed in the Year of the sheep. We enjoyed lots of different activities as a chance to explore some of the customs around this celebration. We tried on Chinese clothes and hats and explored some Chinese objects. We tasted and explored some Chinese foods and had great fun exploring Chinese music, movement and dancing. We even created some Chinese lanterns and fans in our art sessions and had fun sorting big and small Chinese pictures and symbols in our maths lesson!

9 Class 2 Our topic this term has been Circus. We have been learning about the circus through stories, art and PE. One of our stories was We re off to the Circus where we explored popcorn, juggling, different music and sounds and making a big top tent with the parachute. We have also been working lots on our communication- phonics, reading stories and learning a new sign each week including eating, sleeping and drinking. Class 2 have particularly enjoyed PE this term, using the big climbing frame in the hall. The students loved climbing and challenging themselves. We celebrated St. David s day, learning about Wales and St. Patrick s day, learning about Ireland. We listened to a story about dragons, did some Irish dancing and found some treasure at the end of the rainbow!

10 Class 5 Our topic in class this term has been the Circus, we have had lots of fun experiencing and exploring many aspects of the Circus. We loved smelling the straw from the Big Top. Feeling the juggling balls made from water filled balloons and activating switches for the Ringmaster s voice. We enjoyed the vibrations created by the clip-clopping of the circus horse s hooves whilst lying on the resonance board. We have looked after some Living Eggs in an incubator. We have been learning how to look after them! When the eggs hatched there was great excitement. We welcomed the school into our class, to come see our new friends!

11 Class 7 Class 7 have had an active term. Roger came in to teach us how to play rugby. We enjoyed doing this with class 8. We have also been learning how to make things that we can use in school or at home. We designed and made pencil pots, photo frames, decorated mirrors and designed our own plant pots. We are growing gladioli in our plant pots and are learning how to care for them!

12 Class 8 Over the last few weeks students in Class 8 have been enjoying our topic weeks. Learning about the Chinese New Year with different foods to try and make and a new language to learn. Then learning about Africa and helping others when we held a stall to raise money for Comic Relief; making posters in ICT, fruit kebabs in maths and cakes and biscuits to sell in food technology.

13 School Council School Council recently entered their Chip Campaign into the Speakers School Council Awards, which is run by Parliament. School Council received a highly recommended certificate for their Chip Campaign. School Council have also successfully recruited new members from classes 6, 7 and 8. Matthew, Callum, Owen and Ronnie, join Mollie, Elliot and Adam. School Council are sad to lose Shardel, but thank him for his voice, hard work and support during his time on School Council.

14 Friends of Limington House Friends of Limington House would like to thank everyone that came along to our Spring Fayre. We raised an amazing for the school minibus. This, along with the Parents Evening funds, have been added and can be seen on the busometer in school. We are on our way but we have not yet reached the 10,000 target. With that in mind, what events would you like us to arrange for your children/family for the summer term or what could you do to raise some money for Limington House School? A summer disco, a zumbathon, a picnic/bbq, clothes and toy sale, a sponsored walk, bike ride or silence perhaps...do you have toner cartridges or mobile phones that we could recycle? Could your workplace offer any event fund-matching, raffle donations or people to help in community hours? We are open to suggestions and new committee members are always welcome. Contact us at contactfolh@gmail.com or via the school office. Our AGM is coming up in May with details and a suggestion form coming home after Easter. All parents and carers are welcome to attend to hear what we have been up to over the past year and what we are planning for 2015/16. Finally, we are excited to announce that recently we spoke to Justin and asked him, What do the children need for their classrooms? FOLH would like to buy some new equipment. Tell us what they would like! Each class presented a wish list and it has been like Christmas again for them with new resources for classes and playground equipment arriving with more to come we hear! Pictures are being taken of the new resources and equipment which we will share with you next term.