Class Page

Spring Term

3SR

During the spring term, students in 3SR have been thoroughly enjoying sessions at The Pods with Hal, participating in lots of fun team games which link to our ‘Magic of the Musicals’ unit of work. We have concentrated on colours, music and team work.

To start us off, we enjoyed a visit to the cinema to watch Matilda the musical. We enjoyed the experience and had a dance in our own private viewing. We loved the songs and music!

We have also shared a variety of sensory stories, including The Lion King, Greatest Showman and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and created displays of our work.

Next, we put on our own greatest show as PT Barnum and enjoyed watching the different acts within team. Some of us performed walking and climbing up high, incredible dancing and we even attempted juggling. We are a very talented bunch!

We have experienced life in Africa through a sensory story of The Lion King, exploring the heat, water and sounds. We really enjoyed exploring life amongst the animals. We have worked with Mr. Simmonds on creating animal masks and descriptions.

Finally for this term, we are working at the Wonka Factory, where we are exploring and describing the different characters who have won a golden ticket. We are looking forward to becoming chocolatiers and tasting and creating our own sweet treats. Watch out Cadbury’s!

3/4BC

During the spring term, students in 34BC have been enjoying the company of Freddie, our school therapy dog. He has joined our team once a week for our life skills sessions. The engagement from the students during these interactions has been amazing! All students have also accessed rebound therapy sessions on our new trampolines and worked towards Winstrata Rebound Therapy certificates.

As part of our ‘Magic of the Musicals’ unit of work, students have used switches to start and stop favourite songs and learned cause and effect through switch-activated programmes. We have also shared a variety of sensory stories, including Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast and created displays of our work.

To celebrate Chinese New Year, students have experienced dressing up in a Chinese lion costume and dancing to music. They have also explored a variety of Chinese foods and worked as a group to make a ‘Good Fortune’ pie. During the term we have also made bird feeders and hung them outside for the school chickens and enjoyed walks around the school field as the weather becomes milder.

3AS

For our topic this term, we have been learning all about musicals. The musical that we focused on at the beginning of the term was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have enjoyed having a focus on all things chocolate and sweets and we have managed to get so many different opportunities within our learning that focus on this.

For a maths lesson, we decided to make some banana splits. Students were given a number to count and they had to put the correct amount of ingredients onto the banana split. We counted out milk chocolate buttons, white chocolate buttons, marshmallows and splats of toffee sauce.

In our measure and geometry lesson, we were focusing on positional language. We used the skills and knowledge that we had been learning to describe the position of the ingredients on the banana split. We used symbols to show the positions such as ‘the buttons are on the banana’ and ‘the banana is under the sauce’.

Finally, we really enjoyed eating all of the banana splits. They were delicious!

4SS

If you’ve ever wondered what our team gets up to during our week, then wonder no more! Our team, each Monday, improves our communication skills by finding out about each other’s weekend. On Tuesday, we go on an adventure to S & F Equestrian in Winterton and on Wednesdays we have been walking to The Pods and having a splash in the swimming pool. On Thursday, we have been engrossed in a magical musical and Friday is a day for rocking out musical songs–they certainly have been having fun!  We love to put our individually unique artistic skills to use and create wonderful displays.

Our latest fun activities were a circus workshop and a sensory science session. The students participated in a sensory sound workshop in which they experienced sound with all of the senses – touching, tasting, listening, smelling and looking. They loved getting hands-on and trying out all of the different activities. They used lights, balloons, spinning plates, bubbles and disco lights.

In addition, it’s always great to know what our students get up to during team times; they are settled into a routine and each knows what they must do every day.  Some students, for example, enjoy getting bagels for breakfast.  This is a fabulous way to be independent.  Every week we read regularly and change our library books in our fantastic, well-stocked school library. It is like a treasure trove of new worlds our students can delve into!

Often we will practise skills such as using zips and buttons, writing and manipulating dough into exciting shapes.

Phew!  What a busy book reading, skills practising, sensory activity choosing, writing, mark making, counting, chatting, listening, artistic and polite team!

7AM

In 7AM we really have enjoyed our English topic of ‘Where shall we go?’

We have talked about different trips and places we have either been to or would like to go on and researched these. We used this information to practise writing to persuade. We then took turns to read out our work and try to persuade our team to take our trip with us. We made some fantastic arguments at why our trip was the one to take!

We also took a pretend trip on holiday. We sat in front of the screen and watched an aeroplane take off and went on a journey to a holiday in a hot place. We even put the air conditioner on hot and pretended we were stepping off of the plane into the warm air!

Once there, we continued our sensory experience exploring sand, shells and water. Mrs. Mayren even brought in doughnuts, ice cream and fruit juice so we could pretend we were really there eating treats! After we had returned from our trip at St. Hugh’s Luxury Spa Hotel, we wrote trip reviews about our stay. Strangely, for most, eating doughnuts seemed to be the highlight!

7MF

7MF have been having fun in science learning about how the texture of food changes as we eat it. In a previous lesson we looked at the importance of saliva when chewing food which resulted in some very dry bread (when no water was added) and some bread that looked very sloppy and well chewed when water was added to show the importance of saliva for chewing and digestion.

This week, we examined the texture of different foods and predicted how the texture might change as we ate the food. Then we had the fun bit-testing our predictions and eating the food! We had some great descriptions: Blake described the breadsticks before eating them as being ‘crunchy and hard’. He predicted that they would become ‘crumbly and soft’ as he ate them. He found out they became ‘creamy and soft’. Everyone enjoyed the chocolate! Ben says it went from having a ‘hard and solid’ texture to having a ‘creamy and sticky’ texture as we ate it. He had predicted it would be ‘sticky.’ We tried out five different foods to see the changes in texture. Some food changed in texture quite a lot and others were very similar to our predictions.

We love science lessons where we can make predictions and test out our theories, especially when it involves eating chocolate!

8EA

In music lessons, we have been learning about Chinese New Year and some of the traditions. We have played the pentatonic scale using glockenspiels and keyboards. We dressed up as a dragon and learnt a song called “China Town”. We have loved it and have been excited to learn more!

8NT

Our topic for this half term is based around stop motion animation. As a team we are really excited about this and fancy ourselves as film makers. We are currently working on creating a set for our characters. Mr. Frow gave us free rein and we are able to use any of the materials in the room to design our set. Some students have opted for cardboard and paint whilst others are taking advantage of the laser cutter and are making things out of wood and plastic. We are looking forward to seeing what we can create. Wallace and Gromit better watch out as we may have some new stop motion stars on the horizon!

9AH

In design and technology, 9AH have been creating clocks using 2D software design and laser cutting technology. Students have chosen different countries and locations to design their imagery around. Students have also developed their sawing and sanding skills for the base of their clock.

Some students have also had the opportunity to access the new school bikes.

9KH

In the first half of spring term, 9KH have enjoyed learning about World War 1.

9KH have explored the different reasons why the war began in 1914 and looked at life in the trenches. Students have expressed their view on why the trenches were so bad and how they would feel in those conditions.

9KH have also looked at key events during the war, including the Christmas truce. We then went on to explore the role of women during war time and learned about Edith Cavell. Some students were surprised that women played such an important role during the war effort, but came to realise a lot of women ended up doing “men’s” jobs.

To end our topic, 9KH explored the WW1 artefact box paying close attention to the propaganda posters and how they were used. We then went on to create our very own propaganda posters and tried our best to use persuasive language.

10DMJ

Virtual Q&A with Tom Palmer, author of After the War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside

In January, 10DMJ joined a live event where the author Tom Palmer talked about how he wrote his book. He showed us a scrapbook that he made to help him, which had photos and newspaper cuttings. These helped him to describe where the children came from in the concentration camps and the places in the Lake District that they went to. He used maps to help him too.

He explained that the most important part of story writing is the planning stages – something we are studying in English at the moment.

10SB

10SB enjoyed attending the careers event at Lincolnshire Showground this term. We did particularly well when meeting new people, asking questions and taking part in the different activities that were on offer.

It was the perfect opportunity for many of us to work on different personal outcomes such as identifying safe strangers, experiencing new environments, communicating with different people and trying new foods.

Thank you to Mrs. Brunt for the organisation to help us to attend the event. We can’t wait to see what you have lined up for us on our work experience week in the summer term!

11DJ

This term, 11DJ are raising funds for the North Lincolnshire Young Carers charity based in Scunthorpe. The decision to support this charity was made by the students and they have planned a range of activities that will raise vital funds.

The students have held a cake and bake sale and have plans to have a ‘wear it blue’ non-uniform day and also a raffle.

The students have gained a greater understanding of what a young carer is and how this affects their lives on a daily basis. Our efforts will provide the charity with a small donation but will be an empowering experience to know that the students and school community have helped improve the life opportunities for the young carers of North Lincolnshire.

11HF

Along with their key stage, 11HF went to the Lincolnshire Showground to attend a careers event which had a focus on hospitality and agriculture. There were many companies and organisations in attendance and our students got the opportunity to talk to all of them.

As part of interactive displays, students had the chance to try on virtual reality goggles, have their bodies scanned with thermal imaging equipment, pet livestock and sit in tractors as well as take part in a range of other activities. One student who has an interest in photography actually spoke at length about a photography career with the official photographer of the event.

There were lots of representatives from the energy generation sector too, especially renewable companies. We learnt a great deal from them, such as the average singular turn of an offshore wind turbine can run a house for a day, or could power 100 mobile phones for a year. We also learnt that solar panels don’t work any better when the weather is warmer; in fact hot weather can negatively affect generation.

We learnt about some of the local agricultural colleges too which interested some of our students. For the students who are interested in mechanical engineering and vehicles, they got the chance to talk about different types of farm equipment and also their upkeep and maintenance.

All in all, whatever our students’ interests, they all got something from the event and were a credit to our school and community.

KS5CC

During the spring term, 5CC have been focusing our studies on the musicals.   We have related our learning to the musicals Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat, Mamma Mia and The Greatest Showman.

We have also been very lucky to take part in some workshops delivered by external professionals.  We have taken part in a scientific workshop exploring sounds and a circus workshop relating to the musical The Greatest Showman.

During the circus workshop, Alice enjoyed the maracas with the clown and hearing sounds made by the clowns costume and Louise shared her dog modelled from balloons.  Max and Jaik enjoyed watching animals being made using modelling balloons. Max enjoyed the sounds of the rocket balloons.

During the science workshop, Jaik and Louise watched carefully as the presenters shared some sound experiments.

3/4/5 RB

Students in 345RB have been enjoying lots of sensory stories around this term’s theme of ‘Magic of the Musicals’. These stories give us lots of opportunity for sensory exploration and enable us to demonstrate and communicate our preferences, developing clear like and dislike responses.

Students have enjoyed stories from The Greatest Showman, The Lion King, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mamma Mia and Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat. Within these stories we have explored melted chocolate, sand, colour, light, animals, circus food and most importantly, different types of music! As you can see, we particularly enjoyed playing some African music and exploring the animals from The Lion King with Mr Jackson.

Students have responded well to all experiences and have shown genuine enjoyment as they became more familiar with the stories and experiences. Well done team!

5HA

This term, students have been accessing external sport facilities as well as undertaking travel training in the local community.  We have attended sport sessions at The Pods and also had walks in Central Park. Students have gained confidence in using their bus passes or paying with money to go on the local bus and have widened their understanding of appropriate clothing and personal safety in the community.  Well done 5HA!

KS5MW

This term, 5MW have been working on work experience related tasks. These have included office work where students have learned to use the printer, guillotine and laminator, kitchen work where they have helped to plan, prepare and serve meals and snacks in addition to shop work where students have helped to sort and scan stock to sell.

Most recently, students have enjoyed making and preparing fudge to sell as part of our enterprise this term. They all chose different roles within the process and used a variety of skills to complete the task. This included making the fudge, cutting it into portions, weighing out equal sized portions and packaging the fudge, being mindful of presentation and health and safety. Students made sure all orders were met. We sold the fudge and made a profit which will contribute towards future enterprises. Well done team!