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Hi everyone,

We had a brilliant Science Week this week as part of our STEM work, so let鈥檚 start with that! Joel and Oscar have put a whole exciting program together!

STEM Week

We’re thrilled to share the exciting adventures and discoveries your children experienced during our STEM Week! It has been a wonderful week filled with exploration, learning, and plenty of fun across our School.

Visit to the Centre for Life

Students have had the fantastic opportunity to explore the Centre for Life, embarking on self-led tasks that sparked their curiosity and encouraged independent learning. This hands-on experience allowed them to dive deep into the world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), prompting them to think critically and creatively.

The Scientific Method & Curiosity at Work

Throughout the week, students engaged in a variety of carousel activities designed to incorporate the scientific method. These engaging activities not only taught them about hypotheses, experiments, and conclusions, but also fostered a love for discovery and inquiry.

Exciting Science Show

Our budding scientists were captivated by a small demonstration science show featuring flaming displays, loud bangs, and fascinating chemical reactions led by Joel and Oscar. It was a spectacular way to witness the wonders of science firsthand and bring some abstract concepts to life.

Collaboration with Newcastle University

We were delighted to have Newcastle University join us for some small STEM activities. Their involvement provided our students with additional opportunities to engage with complex concepts in an accessible and enjoyable way, enriching their understanding and appreciation of STEM fields.

Here is a small challenge for you!

Can you read the words? Then can you read the individual font colour?

Animal Encounters: A Wild Experience!

One of the undeniable highlights of the week was the animal encounters. Students had the chance to meet and interact with a variety of creatures, including a skunk, gecko, owl, and more through animal stories. This unique experience not only taught them about different animals and their habitats but also encouraged empathy and responsibility towards animals.

We are incredibly proud of how our students embraced the challenges and joys of STEM Week. Such experiences are invaluable in igniting a lifelong passion for learning and discovery. We hope your children came home buzzing with excitement and stories to share!

Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for these kinds of events. Together, we can nurture the scientists, engineers, and thinkers of the future!

Brilliant! Well done to all! A lot of the children have been talking about all the things they鈥檝e bene doing in classes this week as well, and enjoying the Science & STEM vibe, like Russell鈥檚 below

It鈥檚 been a great week with trips, experiments, animals and a lot more besides! Hope you enjoy reading about it 鈥� 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 UPDATES!

There aren’t many weeks left until the library will be up and running and we can talk about something else in the literacy blog (though we do really love our library!), as we have confirmed that we will have the Grand Opening of the Library on Monday 7^th听July! We are thrilled to make it a week full of reading as Story MOVErs will take place later in the same week, and the Literacy Team and Move Team have joined forces, choosing stories to inspire movement, healthy competition and teamwork!

It’s full steam ahead within the (currently still very messy) Library, as books are labelled and we work out the final details of what goes where and what is needed to make sure this runs nice and smoothly for our students. We’ve been able to offer our students some extra ways of getting involved this week, details below if you wish to chat about this with your child or young person:

Student Librarians听

We would love to hear from students who are interested in joining the Library Team as ‘Student Librarians’. This is our library and we will all look after it but our student librarians in particular will be able to:

• help make decisions about new books, magazines or newspapers we need
• help to keep the library tidy, learning where books go (and emptying the book return box)
• help change displays in the library to keep things interesting
• get ideas from other students about the books that they would like

Student Librarians will have help to do these things as needed

‘Reading inspires us’ – Student Gallery

We are also creating a display where student work or experiences can be shown off in the library – anything related to reading or writing, as reading inspires all sorts! We are looking for creative writing, artwork, photos of activities or sensory stories, photocopies of class work in books – it can be anything – to be the first in our gallery!

Here’s some slightly bedraggled members of the Library Team, who were in deep discussion about colour coding books with stickers before they were interrupted for a photo 馃檪

Fabulous Library Crew

Finally, the Summer Reading Challenge hosted at Libraries across the country launched this week, and there are always lovely events and competitions running across our region related to this – Have a look here for more information and have a check of what’s on offer at your local library:听

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.

BIG MOVE NEWS COMING SOON!

The MOVE Team have been on the鈥�.MOVE鈥�this week and will have some exciting news coming soon

Stay tuned to find out!!!

听

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!

WORLD MUSIC DAY!

To celebrate World Music Day and connect with music, this week 3KH shared some of their favourite songs. They listened, sang and danced to each other鈥檚 favourite songs. Here is just a selection.

And this goes so well with the Connect Challenge too!

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� Connect with Music听听

This week鈥檚 Connect Challenge was all about music, so we invited staff, pupils and families to share their favourite songs

The impact of music on mental health is well known; a catchy melody or beat can do amazing things to our mood, helping us escape from stress, boost our mood and enhance overall wellbeing.听听

To celebrate the power of music, we’ve compiled a playlist featuring everyone鈥檚 top picks. So, whether you鈥檙e tidying your bedroom, spending time with friends or family, or in the gym this weekend, make sure you remember to press play? It’s a fun way to connect with each other through our shared love of music.听

Gotta get yourself connected鈥�..writing鈥檚 on the wall鈥�..

Lesson of the Week 鈥� STEM with Mr Runnacles!

Like everyone else in school, the Robins of 4RR have had a fantastic STEM Week! Here are just a few pictures of the many activities that we’ve undertaken through the week. Terrific STEM stuff!

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

Our students put a lot of effort in during the Athletics event at Monkton Stadium this week

Not only did we come back with lots of medals consisting of first places and top 3 in events, but our girls come back as under-16 winners

Tom achieved first place in the 400 metres and Jayden got first place in 400 metres

Evan achieved a kindness award for helping other students feel very calm and relaxed for the 200-metre race

Daniel and Robyn achieved medals in several events for the team – but overall all the students did amazingly, and 51视频 School are very proud of how our students present themselves in these events.

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, we have had an exciting meeting with NAPPIUK and we discussed the upskilling of our current NAPPI trainers in school.听Staff training has been a huge focus point for the BfL team this academic year.听 听

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Another main aspect of the focus for the BfL team this year has been how we report & record behaviour incidents.听Our debrief process carried out with staff after a behaviour incident allows the BfL team to fully unpick in detail the behaviour incident and ensure the strategies and techniques used were appropriate and necessary.听This is also a good time for us to identify what worked well in that instance, and identify how we can improve our practice moving forward

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Next academic year, we hope to support our staff further by intensive coaching and modelling within the class teams to better support our students鈥� behaviour needs

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As always, if you would like any further information or support from the BfL team, please get in touch we would love to hear from you!

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 lovely week in Early Years

We have been doing some fantasic exploring this week as it鈥檚 been STEM week. We explored light and colour with the colour shapes on the tuff tray using the sun to reflect the colour on the paper. Our song this term is 鈥渉ole at the bottom of the sea, by Barefoot books鈥�

We created the sea animals from the story during our art sessions, using a variety of materials; we then used them in our music and movement session – lots of lovely dancing and singing. We have been working on our cutting skills this week, some fantastic persistence from the children and some great work

The children had a visit from some special animals and they enjoyed meeting a skunk, a tree frog, a millipede and a few others. They were all amazing and very gentle when they had the opportunity to hold and stroke them

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

This week we are focussing on article 14 of the UN Conventions of the Rights of the Child.

UNCRC Article 14: I have the right to have my own thoughts and beliefs and to choose my religion, with help from my parents

For this right governments should make sure no one stops children from practising their religion or beliefs. Parents should guide their children in this

Article 14听of the UNCRC says that children and young people are free to be of any or no religion. Their parents can help them make decisions around religion, but:

• a parent can鈥檛 force a child or young person to adopt a religion, and
• a parent can鈥檛 force a child or young person to stop following a religion.

No religious discrimination

Children and young people shouldn鈥檛 be discriminated against because of their religion. They should be treated the same as everyone else, no matter what they believe.听

Article 14 also covers the right to freedom of thought

This is the right of a person to have their own ideas, thoughts, opinions and beliefs 鈥� and for nobody to be able to stop them from holding them. A person has the right to keep their beliefs private and shouldn鈥檛 be forced to reveal them

Freedom of conscience

The right to听freedom of conscience is听also covered by Article 14. This is a person鈥檚 right to refuse to do things which they object to for real moral reasons. Some decisions a child or young person may make that involve freedom of conscience are:

• becoming a vegan or vegetarian,
• refusing to sign up to the armed services, and
• refusing to drink alcohol.

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 has got a message about what the PfA Team have been doing about it below 鈥� let鈥檚 a have a read鈥�

(Stolen from Darlington)

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:

And finally鈥︹��it鈥檚 that time of year again鈥︹��..oh yes鈥�

鈥�..from John & the Team here at PHS

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Our Key Drivers

Communication, Wellbeing, Independence