VECLife Winter 2015

7/23/2019 VECLife Winter 2015

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Achieving

ThroughBelieving

Issue 13 December 2015

Achieving Through Believing

T e r m l y n e w s

l e t t e r o f n

e w s a n d e ven

ts for paren ts, our patr ons and suppor ter s

M e r r y

C h r i s t m a s

a n d a

H a p p y N e w

Y e a r f r o m

Classroom Catch-upWhat Have The Students Been Doing This Term?

A pps AmazingWe Look at the very latest SEN IOS Apps

News-Round All the Autumn Term News

VEC

Introducing OmiVistaVEC’s Brand New Multi-Sensory Wonder

With AurasmaLook Out For Augmented Content

Exclusive Auras! only in VECLife!

Going The Extra Mile A Closer Look at some special Friends

The Spor tsReport

Our Sports Stars in Action

The

Tony’s Radio Round-up



ForewordWelcome

Phone: 01202 763697

Visit: www.victoria.poole.sch.uk

Follow us: Facebook/victoriaEducationCentre.uk

Mail: [email protected]

Our address: 12 Lindsay Road, Branksome Park, Poole, Dorset. BH136AS

2 VEC life

Angus CollinsAssistant Headteacher

Connect to VEC

Welcome to the latest edition of VECLife. We have reached the end of

2015 and where has it gone? I have just got used to writing ‘15’ on all my letters and forms

and I will now have to get used to writing ‘16’. What a fantastic year we have had at Victoria

Education Centre. There have been so many wonderful events in the last twelve months.

This edition of VECLife will focus on the events since September. In this issue you

will discover that we have recently achieved full accreditation in the British Council

International School Awards, two of our members of staff have been nominated

for national awards (see page 6), our Christmas Fayre has raised over £3750 and

our new reception area is now fully opened. We now have an ‘Omivista’ which is an

incredible machine creating an interactive oor which all the students have loved using.There have been so many fantastic events this term for all the students. We have had

International Week, Anti-bullying week, Switch-Off Fortnight and Harvest Festival. There

is also information about Rainbow’s trip on the Bournemouth balloon, Green Island’s

Diwali Celebrations, Class LB going back in time, Class JW’s trip to Beaulieu and Class

Arne’s Christmas shopping trip as part of their Life Skills (let’s hope they remembered

their wonderful class teacher), as well as lots of other interesting news from all the

classes and departments. All these events would not be possible if it wasn’t for the

dedicated staff that we have at Victoria and I am always so proud to be part of that team.

I must also mention Class Teacher Jo Allen who leaves us at the end of term and has

been an invaluable member of our team. Jo is moving on to the Rosewood Free School

and we wish her all the best for the future. Finally, I’ve noticed that there are ve picturesof Simon Brown in this issue and I am determined that I will outdo him in the next.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a peacefulNew Year.



VEC life 3

Contents

Class BE held a cake

sale and competition

back in September to

raise money for the

Macmillan charity. They

raised £140.

News 4-16

Classroom 24-30

Features 17-23

Arts Award for Victoria, Celebrating 10 years of Arts Award, International recognition, Balloons for Tobi, The

bus stops here, Times Higher Education Award for Bournemouth Uni and Mark, Mike up for top award, The

Great Shaftesbury Run, A shoebox record for Ingrid, Vote for Victoria, Winter woolies for the homeless,

The Storm Diggers record again, Mark attends A.T. Conference, Champions of Change, Fayre raises

£3000+, Introducing Alvin, Anti-Bullying Week, A penny for Nepal, Real Vintage visit, Harvest Festival

2015, Joanne Shines at Concert, Charity Days: A round-up of all the main charity days supported at VEC,

Making a grand entrance, SaLT News, Congratulations to Gemma and Eddie, Sonny’s good fortune,The

Children’s Home Report, Going The Extra Mile: We thank some very special people, The Eco report.

Introducing OmiVista, Apps Amazing!: Your guide to Apple apps with SEN in mind, The Sports Report: A

round-up of spoting events and achievements, Aurasma: A reminder, The VIBE: Tony spills the beans on

why he loves radio, The Creative Arts News Round: Belinda on all things Artsy.

Rainbow’s Nordic Adventure, Up, Up and Away also with Rainbows, Shonia’s Divali Celebrations, Explorers

visit Santa, Class LB go Back in Time, Class JW’s term, Arne shop ‘til they drop, Post 16 Life skills, Furzey

Fundraise, PSE in BE, Green Island Recycle and Explore, Le Français à Victoria, And Finally.....

News in Brief Congratulations to Nurse

Liz Lee who turned 50 on

the 10th November and also

Congratulations to Jenna

Pengelly who married Rob

on the 27th November.

Class CN’s Eileen

Ridout would like to say

a huge thank you to all

the staff and students

who ran the Christmas

fun LEAP sessions this

year: “They were suchAurasmaThis issue’s augmented content, a total of eight stories! can be found on pages 3,6,8,10,11,17

and 21. Just look for the Photos with the Aurasma logo

1. Download the Aurasma app onto your device. The app is free for all Androidand Apple devices on Google Play and iTunes.

2. Open the app and swipe through the start-up information until you get to a

sign-up screen.

3. Fill in the details with a user name e-mail address and a password and tap

“Join”.

4. Next you need to follow our Aurasma channel. Tap the “A” at the bottom of the

screen to go to the Aurasma home page. Tap the spy glass icon at the bottom

of the page and type “Victoria Education Centre” into the search window. Our

channel should be the top result.

5. Select it and then tap “follow”. You are now following our channel.

6. Go back to the viewnder by taping the square at the bottom of the screen.

7. Frame a tagged image in the viewnder and the image should come to life.

8. You’re good to go! Use Aurasma to frame the tagged image opposite to see ashort Aura on our history.

Achieving Through Believing

good fun and very

creative. I enjoyed it

so much and hope

they all did too! Look

out next year and

hopefully we can do it

again”.

How to set up Aurasma on your device.....



Latest news

4 VEC life

Belinda and the Arts Crew Celebrate

Celebrating 10 Years of Arts Award

We are pleased to announce that VictoriaEducation Centre has been selected as an Arts

Award Good Practice Centre.

This is a signicant achievement for us and

the assessors were really impressed with our

application. The Arts and Cultural ofcer said that,

‘we are very much looking forward to working

with you over the course of your 2015-16 Good

Practice Centre status!’

A formal announcement of new Good Practice

Centres was made at Trinity College, London inSeptember so we had to keep the news under

wraps until now.

This status recognises how we use the Arts

Award here at VEC to inspire and develop

leadership opportunities for all our students.

Victoria Awarded Arts Accreditation

It conrms our student’s high levels of

engagement with the arts, how we build their

creative skills, and how we support them to

achieve a national qualication.

Well done to Arts Teacher Belinda Ellicott for

submitting the application and managing the

process and a huge congratulations to all

involved and thank you to everyone for your

continued support of the Arts at VEC.

To celebrate Arts Award’s 10th

Birthday, students at VEC enjoyedballoons and lollies courtesy

of Trinity College London and

pledged to complete the 10 month

challenge – nishing their Arts

Award between October 2015 and

July 2016. To keep with the theme

of “10” our Arts Award projects

this year are all based around the

BBC’s 10 pieces. This specially

selected list of 10 pieces of

classical music has been compiled

by education experts in conjunction

with the BBC, to inspire students’

creativity across all arts subjects.

Last year saw the launch of the primary 10 pieces with the

secondary 10 pieces launched this year. For our Arts Awards

we will be nding out about the different composers and

listening to the music and watching the specially created lm

put together by the BBC and then using these as a starting

point for a variety of challenges and workshops to producetheir own works of art.

Lollies and Balloons all round!

Creative Arts Week 2015



1 VEC life 5

The Bus Stops Here!We hosted some very special guests on 16th

October from Variety, the children’s charity who

kindly came in to present us with a brand new

bus. Chair of the Wessex Barker Committee

Frances Cornelius was on hand to present the

keys to Headteacher Simon Brown. Also present

to bring a little magic to the proceedings was

broadcasting legend and friend of Victoria School

Ed Stewart. The Fiat 35, 13 seater bus will give

us much better capacity to continue our busy

student trips out calendar. On behalf of everyone

at Victoria I would like to extend our hugeappreciation to Variety for their generosity.

Frances Cornelius Presents the keys

Victoria has also now achieved full

accreditation in the British Council

International School awards,

higher than our intermediate award which wewere awarded last February. The assessors

commented on our application and we have

included some quotes below:“This is an excellent Impact Evaluation and clearly charts

your international education journey, providing evidence of

your achievements (as well as your challenges) on your

way to attaining International School status.”

“You have created a robust and imaginative international

learning environment based on the special needs of your

students and characterised by innovative areas of interest .”

“Your relationships with your partner schools have worked

very well and seem to have developed into mutually

stimulating partnerships, generating some very good ideas interms of the types of cross-curricular collaborative activities

that you could deliver in order to bring your international

education to life in a contextualised and tangible way. Your

‘International Education Week 2014’ and ‘Creative Arts Week

2015’ activities are good examples of this kind of work.”

“You have done well to embrace the UN Convention on the

Rights of the Child as part of UNICEF’s Rights Respecting

Schools scheme. This will defnitely give you an advantage

in terms of understanding and expertise in international

education. Once again, congratulations on the work you have

done so far and best wishes for your continued success in the

future. Well done.”

Thank you to all who have contributed and for

supporting international activities at VEC.

Victoria ies the Flag forInternational Values

InternationalRecognition

A balloon release was held in memory of one

of our own. Tobi Ogeleye very sadly passed

away in the early hours on Saturday 14th

November. In keeping with his families wishes

the gathering was colourful as Mr Brown

remembered Tobi’s snappy dress sense

and happy character. We will all miss Tobi,

especially his friends in our Rainbows class

and those staff who worked closely with him.

We all send our thoughts and prayers to hisparents Femi and Alice and their family.

Balloons For Tobi

Headteacher Simon Brown attended the award

ceremony at the council chambers, Plymouth

to receive the award. Councillor Sue McDonald

Cabinet Member for Children, Young People andPublic Health said: “I’m really pleased that so

many of our schools take part in this programme

as it’s a great way for our children to broaden

their horizons by learning about the wider world

they live in”. The award encourages schools

to make educational links with schools in other

countries and help broaden their horizons.



6 VEC life

We were delighted to hear that the Bournemouth

University Shiva Project team are the worthy

winners of the Times Higher Education Award

for Outstanding Digital Innovation in Teaching or

Research.

The team developed the Shiva software system

working with staff and students from VEC. The

software enables the students to bring art to life

by creating objects using eye gaze or touchscreen

technology, before 3D printing the nished result.

We would like to offer our congratulations to all

involved in the project and a special mention to

Mark Moseley who was integral to this team. Mark

continues to support our students with assistive

technology systems helping them to independently

B.U. (and Mark) Win T.H.E. Award

access equipment in their environment. Mark

attended the presentation at the Grosvenor

House Hotel in London on 26th November.

Victoria’s music Technician Mike Whitlock has

been shortlisted for the 2016 Music Teacher

Awards for Excellence. Mike, who has just

returned from Soundbeam’s Soundability

training in Kent has been instrumental in our

drive to bring music in all its forms to our

students. The digital music revolution of the past

few years has enabled us to involve students in

the writing and composing of their own unique

pieces and Mike has been at the forefront of

this as well as delivering innovative Soundbeam

sessions. The winner of each award will be

announced on 25 February 2016 at a glitzy gala

evening in the Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel

in London. This is a fantastic achievement and

recognition of the amazing work Mike does

to inspire, engage, motivate and make music

accessible to the students at VEC. Fingers

crossed that he becomes one of the deserving

winners.

Mike working with Soundbeam switches

Mike Up For Top Award

The Grand Shaftesbury Triathlon and Run

Festival will be held on 21st-22nd May 2016.

This is the sixth installment of the race and the

most exciting yet as they will be partnering withTry Tri Events to deliver a full day of triathlons for

all abilities. Victoria will directly benet as one of

their chosen charities. The event takes place at

St Giles House, Wimborne St Giles and there will

be a mixture of open water swimming, cycling,

running, camping, live music and good food,

all set in an area of outstanding natural beauty,

where the focus is very much on enjoying the

stunning scenery and having fun.

Saturday will be the “triathlon day” with several

distances (Standard, Sprint and Novice) tochoose from and Sunday will be the “run day”

Grand Shaftesbury Triathlon Announced

with our classic half marathon, 10km and 1km

routes. For more information on what will be

an amazing weekend log on to:

[email protected]

Good food, live music, camping and running.

Mark with fellow award winners from the B.U. team



1 VEC life 7

THE STORM DIGGERS, our Horticulture band

have been back in the studio recording their

latest hit- The Move’s “Flowers in the Rain” which

is now playing regularly on VIBE. The band now

have three completed songs, “What does the

Fox say?”, “We are the Friday Crew”, and now

“Flowers in the Rain”. They are hoping to have

enough time to record one more hit for Christmas

before releasing a four track E.P. “DIG IT”.

Playing Up a StormBy Mike Whitlock

The Friday Crew AKA The Storm Diggers

This year’s Samaritans Purse Shoe Box appeal has

turned out to be the best yet. Ingrid is pleased to

report that an amazing 130 shoe boxes lled with

treats are now winging their way to disadvantaged

children around the World as part of Operation

Christmas Child. Your small shoe boxes will have a

big impact and bring light into their lives. Ingrid says:

It’s a Shoebox Appeal Record!

Our generous staff have been supporting the

community again this winter by donating to ‘Help

for the homeless’. Help for the Homeless is a

charity offering a hot meal, clothing and support

to the homeless in Bournemouth and Poole.

Staff collected 41 jumpers and warm tops which

were gratefully received. Thank you to everyone

who contributed.

VEC’s Winter WooliesBy Kirsten Watts

41 warm tops were collected

Horizons helping out

“I am very proud of you all, and so should you be.A very special thank you goes to Tammi Shannon, who gave me the inspiration for puttinglove in a box! A little bit of love goes along, long way”.

Vote for VictoriaYour votes needed! We have been kindly

nominated by local customers of the Nationwide

Building Society to feature in their Community

Match Scheme. Community Match is their in-

branch local charity voting scheme where three

local charities are highlighted. Customers can

then vote in-branch up until the 8th January

2016. Whichever charity has the most votes

receives £500. Local branches taking part

are: Bournemouth, Broadstone, Canford

Cliffs, Ferndown, Parkstone, Poole, Swanage,

Wareham and Wimborne. If you are a

customer, the next time you visit your branch

please vote Victoria!

Shontell, Holly and Chantelle count up



8 VEC life

Councillor Ann Stribley with Mr Browndeclare the day open!

Our annual Christmas Fayre was a great

success again this year. A brilliant £3786 (and

still rising) was raised from a festive array of

stalls, rafes and tombola’s. A HUGE, HUGE

thank you to everyone that helped, donated, set

up and cleared away etc on the day. Without

you it just wouldn’t happen.

The atmosphere was great with everyone

enjoying themselves, even the Mayoress had a

go on most things including the Pig Racing! Your

support is greatly appreciated.

Fayre Raises Over 3k

For this year’s Children in Need, we were

encouraged to become Champions of Changeand so as Victoria Education Centre has been

lucky enough to have been given money for a

project in the past we dressed as superheroes

and worked with our friends from Year 5 in

Longeet school to sing some songs about

friendship because that is what Children in Need

is about – everyone coming together to help each

other. The team leaders also organised a cake

Champions of ChangeBy Belinda Ellicott

sale and we had a great day raising money for

a worthy cause!

In September Mark Moseley, our environmental

control specialist, attended the 13th AAATE

(Association for the Advancement of Assistive

Technology in Europe) conference at the

Budapest Congress Centre, Hungary.

The AAATE conference focusses upon all formsof Assistive Technology (AT) and Accessibility.

It covers research and development as well as

service provision.

Mark comments “On the rst day there was a full-

day workshop delivered by the Paciello group.

This focussed on working in teams to develop a

new software/hardware AT product, considering

the stages involved in getting it to market and,

most importantly, ensuring that it includes and

satises the needs of the target audience, as

well as meeting regulatory standards.Over the days that followed, papers were

presented on subject areas as diverse as smart

homes, augmented reality, robotics, tactile

graphics, haptic feedback, wearable technology

and computer gaming. One of my favourite

presentations was a demonstration where a

drone was own using a ‘4D’ mouth controller.

The audience watched as the drone swooped

over their heads and then returned back to the

pilot in his wheelchair!It was a very friendly conference and it was

very easy to network with other academics and

practitioners working within this eld.

Although I didn’t get much chance to see

Budapest, it looks like a beautiful city and I would

encourage people to visit”.

Mark Attends A.T. Conference

Beautiful Budapest on the Danube



VEC life 9

Anti-Bullying week took place from the 16th

November culminating with a “Blue Day” on

Friday 20th November when all staff and

students were asked to wear something blue.

During the week assemblies and lessons were

held highlighting bullying and friendship issues.

As the Anti-Bullying Champion (aka Aunty

Bullying ) for Victoria I have set up a weekly

drop-in session on Mondays 12.30 to 1.15 pm for

students to pop along and chat about any issues

they may have. To promote this, a competition

ran during Anti-Bullying week for students to

design a T-Shirt logo for me to wear at these

sessions. The standard of entries was such that

it was impossible to pick just one winner! As a

result, we had two winners – Tyler Powell and

Lottie Sharpe. Both Tyler and Lottie will now be

invited to assist Matt Saunders in nalising their

designs for printing. Watch this space for the

end product!

And the winners are:Lottie (left)and Tyler (right).

By Sally Darby

Anti- Bullying Week

With the help of Hazel, some of the Children’sHome residents organised a “Penny for the

Guy” collection this year. Last year they had

so much fun making a Guy and collecting for

Mary’s Meals that they thought they would give

it another go. This year’s nominated good cause

was the Nepal re-build fund, helping them to

recover after their terrible earthquake. After

doing the rounds on the day they managed to

raise a brilliant £103.41 which will feed a family

of six for ve months in Nepal’s disaster zone.

Hazel and the gang wish to thank everyone whogenerously donated.

A Penny for Nepal

George and “Friend” collected £103.41

Many of you will be aware of our links with

Canine Partners, a national charity providing

assistance dogs for people with physical

disabilities, and will know that Graham Elliott (a

‘Puppy Parent’ for Canine Partners) regularly

visits us with his current puppy in training.

Back in June we said goodbye to Hannah, a

black Labrador who had completed her year of

training with Graham. Hannah has now almost

fully completed her advanced training and has

now been ‘partnered’ with the person she will be

assisting. We are all really pleased to hear how

well she has done.

Graham joined the lower school for our weekly

celebration assembly and his latest puppy in

training came with him, Alvin. Alvin is a verylively 15 week old black Labrador and Explorers,

Introducing AlvinBy Amy Hunt

Class JW, Class LB and Rainbows all enjoyed

meeting him. We all look forward to seeing

Alvin progress over the coming year. Thank you

Graham for continuing this link with our school.

The students meet Alvin for the rst time.



10 VEC life

Our Harvest Festival was very thought provokingthis year and all classes did a fantastic job in

bringing their themes to life. Thoughts for the

refugees, thoughts on protecting our world,

thoughts for others and, of course, being thankful

for what we have. Once again the students,

parents, carers and staff provided a car boot full

of food to the Poole Food Bank who were very

grateful for the donations.

The food was then boxed up and given out to

those in our community who struggle to nd money

for the basic essentials which we often take for

Harvest Festival Gathers Goodwill

granted. Thanks to everyone who donated.

On the 6th November Poole Food Bank held

its annual celebration to say thank you to

those who support them throughout the year.

This year we were very kindly invited along to

share afternoon tea with the volunteers and

supporters.

Hanna, Abi, Amy and Sally really enjoyed

their afternoon of socialising and eating cake

and would like to say a big thank you to all

at the Poole Food Bank for their hospitality…

and the best carrot cake ever! We’ll be back!’

All donations went to the Poole Food Bank

Hanna at the PFB, it’s not all hard work!

By Amy Hunt

Class CN have been studying World War Two as

part of an on-going history project and just before

half term we hosted some very special guests “Real

Vintage” who popped in to bring this period to life.

As well as enjoying music, singing and dancing

our students also got to handle items from the eraincluding tin hats, gas masks, ration books and

costumes. We would like to thank Karl and Sue and,

of-course, the Colonel and his wife for their time in

providing our students with an invaluable experience.

It illustrated perfectly that although these were bleak

times for Britain people still managed to nd time for

enjoyment.

Real Vintage, Real Deal

The sounds of the forties: Real Vintage

On 3rd December Joanne Sibley was asked

to read at the Livability Carol Service at HM

Tower of London, The Chapel Royal St Peter

ad Vincula. This was a real honour as this is

a special service that patrons of Livability are

invited to and meant that we were really close

to the Crown Jewels. Joanne read Sharon’s

Christmas Prayer by John Shea. Joanneperformed this wearing a beautiful dress but, due

to a shoe malfunction, just like Sandie Shaw

– barefooted! It was a really magical eveningbut a very late night!

Joanne Shines at Concert By Belinda Ellicott

Joanne read a christmas prayer



VEC life 11

Pink Day came around again in October and

as usual Victoria excelled. There was pink as

far as the eye could see and all for a great

cause. Every year, wear it pink raises around

£2 million during Breast Cancer Awareness

Month by asking people to wear something

pink and donate whatever they can. Since the

very rst wear it pink event in 2002, they’ve

raised over £27 million. Victoria has donated

a sizable sum over the years and this yearanother £78.87 was added to the total.

Pink Day Parade

Jeans For GenesJeans for Genes day fell on the opening

day of the Rugby World Cup this year so

as well wearing our favourite denim, staff

and students were also invited to wear a

rugby shirt to go with it. £77.35 was raised to

provide vital care and support for thousands

of children living with genetic disorders.

Jeanius!

Charity Days

During this year’s Children in Need Day it

was a bit like walking around a Hollywoodmovie set at Victoria! Wherever you looked

there was a superhero just around the

corner. From the dining hall to Carmel

House we had caped crusaders galore.

Staff and Students took up the challenge of

“wearing something super” to raise money.

BBC Children in Need’s vision is that every

child in the UK has a safe, happy and

secure childhood and the chance to reach

their potential and that’s a cause worth

being a hero for. This year we raised a

super £251.56.

Children in Need Day



12 VEC life

Our brand new reception area has now been

completed. Work was undertaken over the

summer holidays to convert the original school

front into a modern and spacious area to

accommodate the many people who visit Victoria.

A comfortable seating area is now available withan area for leaets and yers for all the latest

events and news. Automatic double doors provide

much better access for wheelchairs and moving

reception outward has freed up the main corridor,

enabling easier access for our students to all

parts of the school. The work was carried out by

Glossbrook Builders Ltd to a design by former

Governor Tony Barratt to whom we extend our

thanks. We must also mention Sophie Parsons

Making a Grand Entrance

and The Canford Cliffs Land Society for their

major contributions to the project which has

had a tremendously positive impact on our

school.

Before

After

During

Our congratulations

goes to Mr and Mrs

Milne (AKA Gemma andEddie) on the birth of

their Son, Albert (Alby)

James Milne. Albert

was born on the 18th

October at 12.45am in

Poole and weighed 6lb

14 oz. Our best wishes

to you all.

Gemma and Eddie

Many of our students benet from weekly visits to the Fortune

Centre of Riding Therapy in Bransgore. The Centre’s mission is

to enable horse-motivated students with special needs to relate

more successfully to others and to have greater and

more appropriate control over their own lives. Well, we’ve heard

that one of their special horses has been awarded a prize.

Sonny was nominated for, and won, equine personality of the

year for having a wonderful temperament and for his four years

of service. TV personality Martin Clunes, who became the third

FCRT Patron in 2013, presented the award to Gillian Hayes at a

ceremony in London. We’d also like to add our thanks to Sonnyand all the staff at the Fortune Centre for all they do for us.

Sonny’s Good Fortune

Nicky is currently enjoying maternity leave with

baby Archie, born in September. In the meantime

we are lucky to have Georgina, SaLT, (known as

George) covering Nicky’s maternity leave. George

is in school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Tassels - thank you to all the parents who have

attended the Tassels sessions we offered this term.

Please look out for more dates to be announced in

the New Year!

SaLT NewsBy Sarah Gilling

Sonny: Equine Personality

Alby Says Hi



The Children’s Home Report

Victoria Children’s Home has undergone some

amazing changes in the last year. One of the

lounges has been redecorated in a comic-book

“Marvel” theme, and residents have been able tochoose curtains and colour-schemes for rooms.

The Children’s Home also has a brand new

spacious kitchen, allowing for more opportunities

for the residents to learn cooking skills – (and

washing-up after the session skills!!) The terrace

has a sh pond with eight goldsh, and a solar

oxygenator and fountain to keep them healthy.

The terrace also has two splendid planters,

which had contained various salad crops

throughout the Summer, and will be replanted

in the Spring. These were kindly donated to us,and have been much appreciated.

Activities in the Children’s Home have also

been reviewed and restructured. Faith Group

continues to be popular, and this term the

celebrations have included the Queen’s record-

breaking reign, Jewish New Year, Chinese

Moon Festival, Michaelmas Day, Ashura (the

Muslim celebration of Noah’s Ark), and of

course Bonre Night and Remembrance Day.

Swimming is also a regular favourite activity,

as well as cooking and Art Club with Rosie.

New to the range of activities is the SensoryOutward Bound Challenge. In this challenge,

the emphasis is on experience not achievement,

but the residents will also experience a sense

of achievement when they have completed all

the sections of the award. The “challenges” are

seasonal, in bronze, silver and gold categories,

and are designed to encourage the participating

residents to get outside and experience and

appreciate many seasonal pleasures. Another

new activity is the Communication Night, when

residents and staff, in two groups, sit together,share a meal as part of the activity, then take

turns to share their news, opinions, and

concerns. Some of the residents are supported

in this by communication books and speech

buttons, and Makaton is encouraged for all.

One objective of this activity is to encourage

and foster good social skills in our residents –

talking and listening, turn-taking, empathy, as

well as to encourage good table manners and

courtesy. The rst such night was a wonderful

occasion when all

staff and residents

commented on howcalm and good the

night felt.

Victoria Children’s

Home has been

delighted to

welcome Nathan

and Harry into our

midst, along with

many new staff to

join the hard-working

team. We alsowelcome back some

staff after their maternity leave. The Children’s

Home now has a new Deputy Manager – Rhi.

She is very pro-active and has much to bring

to the role. We are really sad to be losing our

Manager, Paula, and thank her very much for

the exceptional work she has done in the too-

short a time with us.

But we hope her new role will bring her

much satisfaction and many adventures!

By Hazel Noyon

Our new “Super Hero” lounge

Outward Bound

VEC life 13



14 VEC life

Steve with Mr Brown and Emma Whiting

Steve Rides High

Going the Extra Mile.....

Over the course of the last few months we have had some notable donations from staff andfriends of the school who have gone the extra mile to raise much needed funds for Victoria.

We greatly appreciate the time and effort these special people go to in order to maintain the

quality of our students learning and living experience. The following stories are just a few

of the many generously spirited people to whom we owe a debt of thanks.

The intrepid Steve Wallis (Georgia’s Dad) has

undertaken an arduous cycling challenge on

behalf of Victoria and our Horizon’s Post 19

group. Steve’s goal was to ride the challenging

Alp D’Huez in the central French Alps. As you

can imagine you cannot take on this challenge

without some serious preparation and training.

You can read all about Steve’s journey from

his training to the assault on the mountain itself

and also how much Steve raised for Victoria by

logging on here:

https://10dynamic.wordpress.com/

It’s a fascinating read and we had the

Victoria Therapy Assistant Snow Kuhn raised

an amazing £354 for therapy equipment when

she took part in the Christchurch 10k run. Snow

dutifully trained for a couple of months before the

event which runs from Stanpit to Mudeford. After

a slight mix up she ended up running a bit further

than planned but all ended well enough. Thanks

for thinking of us Snow and for putting in the

effort.

Snow Runs For Therapy

The Nurses Go Nuts!In September our adventurous nurses Hollie Adams, Liz Lee, Billie Halls and Diane Kennedy

took part in the NUTS challenge in Surrey. The

challenge consisted of a gruelling 7K race over

an army style obstacle course with loads of mud

thrown in for good measure.

Hollie said “We are pleased we completed the

challenge with no broken bones, but there were

lots of bruises and a few aches and pains. We

would like to thank everyone for their support and

sponsorship.”

All the pain wasn’t in vane though as they raised

an amazing £500. Well done Ladies! Muddy But Happy

opportunity to thank Steve personally for his

amazing efforts on our behalf when he popped

in to present us with the £900 he raised.



VEC life 15

Nigel Adams (husband of nurse Hollie) has

raised £750 for Livability and Victoria. Nigel

fullled his lifelong dream of taking part in a

skydive, also managing to lose three and a half

stones to reach jumping weight.The funds are

going towards purchasing a table football game

and some PlayStation accessories with money

also being spent on games for the Children’s

Home. Nigel performed this feat on September

5th at Salisbury aireld.

Thanks Nigel and well done.

Nigel Takes the Plunge

We welcomed members of the Argyll Bowling

Club to our school in November. Club President

Franco Tinelli met some of our studentsbefore presenting a cheque for £3080 to Head

of Support Services Sue Stratis. The club

has been busy fundraising on our behalf as

“President’s charity” over the past year holding

special events and matches. We would like to

say a massive Thank You! to Franco and the

club from us all at Victoria.

Bowled over by Argyll

Franco presents the cheque to Sue

We would like to send massive thanks to

the CanAm car club for donating £400 from

collections this year and we’d also like to thank

them for adopting us as their charity again for

next year.

We will be attending their Lazy Sunday car

show in June and Canamania later in the year,

and hope some of them can make it to our

vintage day and car show here at school on

22nd May. Watch this space for details.

Thank-You Can-Am

The Pirates of Poole have almost completedanother busy year of fundraising with Victoria

being one of their lucky designated charities.

Many students and staff attended their amazing

“Harry Paye Day” which took place on Poole

Quay on the 20th June this year. All in all the

Pirates have raised £1100 which has been

gratefully received and will go towards aptly

named sail shades for use in our playground.

Pirates Treasure for VEC



16 VEC life

Finally we would like to thank Charlie Wagstaff and

the staff and friends of Buckholme Towers School

in Parkstone who very generously chose Victoria to

benet from their Charity School Ball this year. The

ball was held at the Haven Hotel in Sandbanks

on the 27th November. Charlie reports that theevening was a fabulous success and an incredible

£1300 was raised which has been gratefully

received. On behalf of all staff and students, thank

you!

Thank you

Buckholme Towers For VEC

The eco-committee has been busy as usual this

term. We had Switch-off fortnight in November

which has hopefully helped everyone to get

back in to good habits, switching off lights and

computers when they’re not in use. The eco-

committee have made a fantastic ‘Switch-off’

lm with the wonderful help of Jon Godber,

and all students had opportunities to see it in

assemblies and classes. Akira Jackson made a

super Switch off jingle for Vibe radio.

The eco committee student members also

now have a le or scrap book for their class to

record the many activities related to eco-schoolsthat they do in class. These have been a very

successful way for students to share what they

have been doing and also to share minutes of

meetings with their classes.

Other news is that Alison Calcutt and Class

CN have ordered their planters, which will be

used by classes to grow plants through the

year. We aim for all classes to have their own

planter eventually. Green Island have been using

their own compost to grow plants outside their

classroom and a new open compost bin will bemade for students to put in their food waste,

thanks to Horticulture for offering to build this forus.

Finally our committee have agreed for students

to take turns to take the lead in our meetings.

There was lots of enthusiasm for this so we look

forward to this beginning at our next meeting

when Akira Jackson takes the lead.

That’s all our eco-news for now. Wishing you

all a very merry (and green) Christmas and a

Happy New Year. Don’t forget to keep switching

those lights off! There will be a box for recycling

Christmas cards in reception at the beginning ofterm.

The Report By Jen Williams

Switch-Off Fortnight was a great success

A cheque for a brilliant £700 has been presented

to Headteacher Simon Brown and Sue Stratis by

The Rev Charlie Boyle. The money was raised

at this year’s Harvest Supper held by All Saint’s

Church, Branksome. Tobi’s Mum and Dad, Aliceand Femi, were also at school having kindly laid

on a lunch for Tobi’s support staff and are involved

with the Church. We would like to thank The Rev

Charlie Boyle and also those that attended the

supper, for their generosity.

All Saints’ Donates £700



VEC life 17

Introduced to the Victoria Education Centre

via Soundbeam, Pete visited us in September

2014 and asked what the school would like

him to raise funds for. Our music technician,

Mike Whitlock, recognised that whilst we

had a lot of fantastic equipment, it would

be fantastic to have a technical piece of

equipment that linked music with a strong

visual image to help students link cause and

effect. So Pete has been raising money for

the school to purchase an OmiVista oor

projection system that is mobile and can

be used around the school in a variety of

settings, allowing students access to music

making throughout the curriculum.

In July 2015, Pete sent the school a cheque

for £10,000 to cover the cost of the OmiVista

and we are incredibly grateful to him for his

amazing support and the hard work that

he puts in to raising money for different

music projects around the country as well

supporting our school with this fantastic pieceof equipment.

Victoria likes to be at the forfront of technical

innovations and where possible provide our

students with the equipment to enhance their

learning experience. We are very lucky to have

acquired another wonderful learning tool in the

shape of the OmiVista. In a nutshell OmiVista

creates an interactive oor on which we can

project a limitless amount of multi-sensory

experiences. The images projected by this highly

visual and intuitive system respond to the smallest

gesture or movement, enabling students to easilyinteract and engage in stimulating audio-visual

experiences. The system helps promote inclusive

practices in education by engaging students

of all ages and abilities; whether it is students

with PMLD learning through cause and effect or

our older Post 16+ learning how to create their

own interactive applications, OmiVista offers

scope for all. This has all been made possible by

professional musician Pete Thomas.

Pete is a professional session player and TV/Film composer who has featured and recorded

for REM, Elton John, Joe Jackson, Richard

Thompson, Fats Domino, Jimmy Witherspoon

and many more. Pete is the author of Taming The

Saxophone, CafeSaxophone Forum, Media Music

Forum and Saxophone Teachers Directory.

Through the CafeSaxophone and Taming the

Saxophone websites, Pete raises money online

providing music, resources, tuition and information

for saxophonists and other musicians that he

donates to support disabled musicians, so thateveryone can access practical music making.

Interactive and engaging

Thanks Pete: Top Musician Pete Thomasraised £10,000

Features

Introducing.....

OmiVista offers a whole range of tactileexperiences to enhance learning



18 VEC life

A p p s A m a z i n g ! Your guide to Apple apps with SEN in mind.It is often said that today’s technology is making

the world a much smaller place by joining peopletogether in professional and social settings

through apps like Skype,and of-course the huge

impact of social media. This isn’t the case across

the board. The use of technology has had quite

the opposite but equally empowering impact on

the lives of those living with blindness or a visual

impairment by opening up a larger new world of

possibilities. Now, with the aid of a smart device

the blind or partially sighted can virtually see

colour, light, bank notes and much more besides.

This edition of Apps Amazing brings you the best

of those cutting edge apps currently available for

the blind or partially sighted.

Ariadne GPSBy Giovanni Ciaffoni

In a world that relies on visual clues

to navigate, exploring a new place or taking

a solo walk is no longer a challenge for the

visually impaired. Ariadne GPS is a new app

that meets the needs of the partially sighted in

an easy to use interface. Talking maps allowyou to explore the world around you by moving

your nger around the map. While exploring,

crossing a street is signaled by vibration. It

has a favorites feature and can be used to

announce stops on the bus or train. Rotating

maps keep you centered, with what is behind

the user on the bottom of the screen and what

is ahead on the top portion. Available in multiple

languages, Ariadne GPS works anywhere

Google Maps are available. This is a must-have

application for the visually impaired.

£4.49

virtually any currency and the application will

tell you the denomination in real-time. Twentyone currencies are supported including the

British Pound. The app does not require an

internet connection, which means it will read

money at any location, and at anytime.

£7.99

Free

Are there clouds in the sky? Isthe iPod done charging? What colour is the

shirt I just tried on? Color ID Free is here to

answer all these questions and more. Just

point the iPhone camera at any item and it

will announce the colour for you. Brilliantly

simple and easy to use, this application will

open a new world to those who cannot see. It

is amazingly accurate and can even nd very

subtle differences in colour. It offers a setting

for basic colours, such as “pale yellow green”

or more advanced colours such as “fresh

apricot.”

Compatibility: Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Compatible with iPad and iPod touch.

Voice Brief is a great utility

for anyone, but for the vision impaired it

is particularly useful. With the touch of a

button Voice Brief reads your email, Twitter

feed, weather, stock prices, RSS andFacebook feeds. This time saving app is

fully congurable and works awlessly. The

voices are natural and clear. There is a free

lite version so you can give it a try before

you decide to buy. Voice Brief reads aloud

your customized content including: Calendar,

Weather, RSS news, Google Reader, Email,

Facebook, Twitter, Stock prices,Gmail

notications and will speak any custom

sentence you type.


Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

LookTel Money ReaderBy IPPLEX

LookTel Money Reader instantly recognises

currency and speaks the denomination, enabling

people experiencing visual impairments or

blindness to quickly and easily identify and count

money. Point the camera of your iOS device at


Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Color IDBy Greengar Studios

Voice Brief By Dong Baik £2.29

Compatibility: Requires iOS 4.3 or later.Compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.



VEC life 19

List RecorderBy Sixth Mode Solutions

This feature-rich application allows

users to record and organise lists

using audio or text. List Recorder is designed

to integrate with VoiceOver as well as Brailledisplays. Replay, sort, delete or email recordings

with ease using custom gestures such as tilt and

tap. The recording quality is excellent and the

app has options such as a level meter, optional

stereo and your choice of recording formats.

The light version, which limits the user to 10

seconds per recording, is a great way to test

List Recorder. If you like it, you have the option

of buying the full version for £5.99 as an in-app

purchase.

79p

Compatibility:Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch.

Having trouble reading the small

print again? No problem! You

can now have your personal pocket-sized

magnifying glass for reading and viewing.

Handy and ready to use at all times! Up to10-times zoom and with an integrated light,

it makes it easy and comfortable for you to

read even in poor lighting conditions. By a

simple click you can also create a snapshot

of the zoomed image.

MagnifierBy Michael Heinz 99p


Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch.

The perfect tool for anyone who is

colourblind. Using this app you’ll be able to

identify the colour of anything just by taking

a picture of it with your iPhone! Touch

anywhere on the image to see the colour

of that area. Displays colour names and

shades as well as RGB, decimal and hex

values. Designed to be quick and easy to

use but make sure you take well lit photos

to get the most accurate results.

Colorblind

AvengerBy Brian Wardle 79p

Compatibility: Requires iOS 8 or later.Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Talking CalculatorBy Adam Croser £3.99

Talking Scientic Calculator is easy

to operate and very useful. It hasdifferent voices to chose from or even allows you

to record your own voice. There is a free version

to play with if you want to test it rst. It works

with VoiceOver for the fully blind, or has high

contrast options for those with low vision. One

very useful feature unique to this calculator is the

option to use speech for answers, buttons names

and formulas! It also supports entry and display

of Braille on supported Bluetooth devices.

Compatibility: Requires iOS 4.3 or later.Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch.

TapTapSeeBy Image Searcher FreeTapTapSee is designed to

help the blind and visually

impaired identify objects they

encounter in their daily lives.Simply double

tap the screen to take a photo of anything,

at any angle, and hear the app speak

the identication back to you (requiresVoiceOver to be turned on).TapTapSee

is helping the blind and visually impaired

become more independent in their day to

day activities.Compatibility: Requires iOS 7.0 or later.


That’s it for this edition of Apps Amazing!

Remember, all of the featured Apps are

available through the Apple App store. Watch

out for more recommendations in the nextedition of VECLife.

AwarenessBy Essency

For the visually impaired using

headphones, Awareness is a very

useful App. It allows you to listen to your

headphones while also hearing the sounds

around you. It uses the microphone to feed in

noises as you listen to music or use another

app. Hear a car approaching or a doorbell

ringing. Using Awareness, you will not miss

those vital audio clues that keep your day on

track.



£4.99



20 VEC life

With Hannah Powis

The Spor tsReport

As part of our unit focus this term students

have been learning about hunts, trails and

orienteering skills. Several of the classes went

to Moors Valley Country Park to explore one of

their many trails. In between sheltering from the

wind and rain the classes went looking for all

kinds of aspects of nature on their way round

and managed to nd a variety of interesting

items. We have more recently be playing a

variety of balloon sports where students have

PE at VEC: Unit Focus

At the end of September eleven of our students

went on our annual trip to the Stoke Mandeville

Junior Games. They got to try out lots of new

sporting activities over the four days including

archery, shooting and tennis along with some ofthe classics like wheelchair football and hockey.

Rob Ewins and Liam Drummond played a good

level of Boccia to take second place in their

respective group tournaments. Tom Truong

played fantastically in the snooker tournament and

came out on top of the group to win. Robert Ewins

received an award overall for the person during

the whole games that showed the greatest level of

international potential. This is the second year that

Robert has won this award! Well done Rob!!

Stoke Mandeville 2015

Victoria entered two teams into this years

Boccia School Games. Victoria A captained

by Liam Drummond playing alongside Robert

Ewins, Ryan Skinner and Spencer Owens.

Victoria B comprised of Amar Chidziva,

Brandon Lee-Real and Sam Bird with Sophie

Pritchett Captaining the team.

The games were a fantastic event with over

100 students from all across Dorset taking

part, both Victoria teams won all their group

matches and progressed to the semi nalswhere amazingly both teams won convincingly

making it an all Victoria nal. The nal was a

thrilling match to watch with the players from

both teams playing to a high standard! Victoria

Boccia Clean sweep

On the 9th of December two teams from

Victoria competed in the Dorset table cricket

competition. The rst team, led by, Liam

Drummond nished on top of their category

with wins over Dorchester Middle and Victoria

B. The second team who nished a brilliant 3rd

place took part in a very close and competitive

game against Victoria A in the nal match!

Table Cricket News

A won the nal making them the overall winners

of the competition with Victoria B nishing strong

in second place. Fantastic work by both teams to

nish rst and second in the competition with somany competitors.

Both teams are now through to the regional

competition which will take place in Exeter in the

new year! Well done all.

been developing co-ordination skills and working

as part of a team.

In the Spring term, classes will be focusing on

target games and racket sports.



VEC life 21

I was sat in the Radio Station one morning

presenting the breakfast show, a knock on thewindow turned out to be Charlotte Olive. She

came in armed with a couple of pages of script

exclaiming she wished to tell a story live on air

and she wanted to do it now!! She told me to

record it as it happens.

She went on to read a word perfect story. She

nished and told me she wanted some “London

Street” sound FX and a bell during the lottery

win segment of the narrative and with that she

was off leaving me gobsmacked, shell shocked

and feeling like I’d been visited by Lord Sugar!!

My point is that a year ago Charlotte was shy

of speaking on the mic. Now she’s writing,

performing and producing her own stories at the

drop of a hat!! Knowing what she wants!! This is

evidence to me that Vibe Radio is working. That

it is promoting condence in our students! Go

Charlotte Olive!

Charlotte is not the only example of condence

and creativity. Ben Povey has written and voiced

two stories now with help from Laura at Youth

Club he has completed another episode of “Alieninvasion”. On hearing Episode 2 with Music and

Sound FX Samuel Langford said he thought it

was better writing than the current Dr Who. (High

praise coming from the biggest Dr Who fan in the

school!)

Joel Bathe-Taylor recently completed his Arts

Award using his love of Radio. Vibe secured an

On Air Interview with Gabriel Prokoev (BBC

10 pieces Composer), he voiced the jingles for

the show, took part in a Mastermind style quiz,a DJ masterclass and spoke of why he made

his choice in a way that moved his teacher

Belinda emotionally.

Josh Houchen also produced a 10 pieces

section for his Radio Arts Award but his Ace

is that he has successfully taken to the VIBE

Breakfast show with his own style and wit.

Filling Harry’s shoes must have been quite

daunting. “Shoot the Rooster with Josh” is the

name of his new show.

Akira Jackson the ”One take Jingle Guy”

comes in to VIBE once a week after school

with minutes to spare before Resi Radio. He

records jingles like “switch off fortnight”, “class

BE jingles” and “Big Brother”. He has a real

air for this!! Go Akira.

To Tom Truong and Joanne Sibley and

Sophie Young for their excellent assistance

teaching radio during the Bournemouth

Collegiate Community project VIBE says

a huge thanks for being so great with their

students!! Class CN have produced an

amazing Radio Drama “Johnie’s Blitz”. It’s sogood it should be in the shops for Christmas.

Class LB have voiced a fantastic story

“Magic Train Ride” and this was used as

the soundtrack for their excellent lm at the

Harvest Festival (nice editing Amy). Let’s

not forget Cinderella, the Staff Radio Panto,

proving that the Radio has improved staff

condence too!! ( A little too much in Sean

Moggs case!!) Only Joking Moggy!.....I’m off

to panto now “Oh! yes I am” So all of you

have a nice Christmas and I will see you inthe new year!

Why I L ve Radio The Bournemouth Collegiate radio project

The



22 VEC life

Spencer “Home on the range”

Sing, Dance, Act, Play.

With Belinda Ellicott News-Round

BSO Sing and SignThis year the BSO once again performedconcerts at The Lighthouse for students in Key

Stage 2 and we were fortunate to take three of

our classes to take part in this. But this year they

also streamed one of the concerts live to schools

and so four more classes were able to enjoy the

event too. We learnt some body percussion to join

in with a piece of music called Stomp and also

learnt a song that had been written especially

for the concert that we sang and signed with the

whole of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. We

all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and can’twait until next year!

Our amazing students achieved the

following Arts Award results in the last

academic year: 1 Silver, 28 Bronze, 12

Explore and 6 Discover plus we have

around 8 to enter for Explore after half term.

Harry Bassett achieved Music GCSE gradeB and is now studying at Bournemouth and

Poole College, Music BTEC – joining us

here at VEC as a volunteer supporting the

Music department and working towards a

Gold Arts Award.

We have increased our offer of Music

Therapy and Resonance Board sessions to

a day and a half a week for each. Kate has

been looking at data and all the students

who attended these sessions last year

progressed beyond their expected targets, itwill be interesting to see if this is consistent.

Arts in Education

After last year’s successful visit from

Bournemouth Jazz Orchestra to launch

Friends of Victoria Education Centre, we were

pleased to welcome them back on Monday

8th June. It was another fantastic evening of

live music played by top class professional

musicians, this year also joined by our very

own Harry Bassett. We were brilliantly

supported and even ran out of chairs! The

evening raised £858.04 and would like to

thank everyone who supported the evening.

Encore For The BJO

For their Creative Arts studies Class LB visited

the Mayower to watch Shrek.They had a great

time joining in with songs and dancing, especially

to “I’m a Believer” at the end of the show. They

were also very intrigued about using the special

binoculars to see the action on stage just a little

bit closer. It was a lovely way to end the term and

we can’t wait to visit the theatre again.

LB Have Shrek of a Time

Victoria Horticulture has just contributed £400 to

the music department to buy equipment. The Hort

Crew are very involved with Friday morning music

and radio sessions with Mike. Thank you!

Hort Donates Funds

The ever popular BJO

A Shrektastic day out



VEC life 23

Mike Whitlock has just returned from

Soundbeam’s Soundability training

in Kent, having run workshops and

demonstrations showing the impact that

these sessions have on our students. As

a result we may be sharing our practicewith more schools and music providers

including David Ashworth, who has been

involved in the creation of the BBC’s 10

Pieces music initiative. Mike has also

picked up some new skills that will help

develop practise here.

This summer I attended ReMix Gold’s collaborative

performance with an AUCB student at Bournemouth

University. Three of our former students were

involved. David Young was the choreographer,

Clarissa Hustler and Hugo Lucas-Rowe danced with

Hugo also composing the soundtrack. David is nowworking in London for the Graeae Theatre Company

– an amazing achievement.

This year’s Leavers’ Ball had a avour of the

wild west, with many of the attendees dressing

up in cowboy style outts. We had a fantastic

ice sculpture provided by Crystal Ice Sculpturesfeaturing a banjo and an amazing live performance

from the band Pronghorn, who had just performed

at Glastonbury. There were the usual features, the

presentation and slideshows of our leavers and

the vote for the Prom King and Queen – this year

Harry and Charley, a disco and the Abi Punchard

performed Come What May on the soundbeam and

Scott performed a One Direction song to provide

everyone a time to reect on friends who couldn’t

be with us on the night. Another great fun evening

and a lovely way to celebrate our students end totheir school life at VEC.

This year saw another wonderful harvest festival

with contributions from all classes within the school

showing a real variety of different themes and

approaches. We had lms about different food types,

songs about harvests and presentations about thoseless fortunate than ourselves and a lovely reminder

about war time rationing that resonated very strongly

with all the different remembrance events happening

around the country this year. The students and

staff were fantastic at bringing in food for those

less fortunate than ourselves and Amy was able to

deliver a lovely parcel to The Poole Food Bank.

As part of our Arts Award studies this year, the

music group are looking at different ways of making

music. Inspired by Gabriel Prokoev’s Symphony

for Turntables and Orchestra, the students have

taken part in workshops to learn some of these

skills, ready to incorporate into their own work laterin the year. Students were also lucky enough to

interview Gabriel Prokoev on the school’s VIBE

radio show, in between his lming for the BBC and

ying off to Portugal to perform.

Familiar Faces! Dave, Hugo and Clarissa

Ex-Students Shine in ReMix

DJ White in da House!

DJ’s Itching to Scratch

Festival, Best of all

Do you think they are enjoying themselves?

We Had a Ball!

Mike’s a Sound Guy



24 VEC life

Catch-up

A loo k bac k a t t h i s te r m ’ s c la s

s roo m ac t i v i t ie s

f ro m R a i n bo w s to Pe rg i n s

Classroom T hi s i ssu e

Rainbow’s Nordic Adventure

Rainbows have been making a weekly visit to Norway in

their Culture sessions this term and have enjoyed learningabout the language and lifestyle of the country. Every

week we have practised our basic Norwegian phrases and

have been very impressed with Amabel, who has learnt to

understand the ‘My name is’ phrase, inserting her own name

at exactly the right moment every time!

We have wondered at the Northern Lights and have recreated the effect with hand and nger

torches. Music and dancing have played a large part in our lessons and we have taken part in a

Norwegian Hat Dance, which involves kicking or hitting a hat off the stick, lots of fun. Rainbows

have also had the opportunity to experience Norwegian style art and we have been very busy

making some ‘Scandi’ style decorations with students choosing from the colours and patterns

available to decorate their wooden hearts.We still have a few more trips lined up but soon we will have to pack up our sledges and get ready

for our Spring term journey. We’re off to China so we’d better hunt out our chopsticks!

By Hilary Stewart

R a i n b o w s

By Jo Allen

The Rainbows class went on an amazing

trip up in the Bournemouth balloon. This

term we have been learning all about

journeys, travel and Transport and our focus

has been on hot air balloon journeys. Our

new favourite book is The great balloon

hullabaloo, we have travelled with Simonthe squirrel and Rodney racoon through

space to buy underpants, honey, bread and

cheese!

Rainbows have been singing along to “Up,

up and away” in our beautiful balloon withBelinda and for our balloon lesson.

Up, Up and Away

The Intrepid Rainbows Students

George choosing his colours

Class LB

Green Island

P er gi ns C l a s s BE Arne

C l a s s JW E x plor er s

F u r ze y

Enjoying the view



VEC life 25

By Margaret Humphreys and Shonia

Shonia went to London to celebrate Diwali.

Diwali (or Deepavali, the “festival of lights”) is

an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in autumn

(northern hemisphere) or spring (southernhemisphere) every year. Diwali is one of the

largest and brightest festivals in India.

She really enjoyed going to London with her

whole family. Shonia saw the prime minister as

well. She enjoyed the reworks and going to the

family’s favourite restaurants.

Shonia just couldn’t stop laughing. She

especially liked going to Westeld shopping

centre which is so huge. Shonia’s uncle is a

head of department in a kitchen in Taj hotel

London. He got a chance to meet the IndianPrime Minister personally as he was the one

looking after all food preparations. He is in chef’s

Diwali Celebrations

uniform next to Mr. Modi. The family were so

thrilled to know he has been voted the 9th most

powerful man in the world by Times magazine,

and Shonia’s Uncle got complimented for his

nice food and a pat on the shoulder by him. So

proud.

Shonia’s Uncle: Centre, in white

We all had a wonderful time visiting Father

Christmas. Going through the winter wonderland,

we saw Reindeers, Penguins, Snowmen,

Rabbits, and lots of beautiful Christmas trees,

covered in snow. Father Christmas was so kind,

All the children received special presents, whichthey opened back at school. The children (and

staff) have all promised to be very good and to

stay off the naughty list!! Special thanks to Terry

and Amy for taking us.

Explorers Visit SantaBy Beth Winter

By Lisa BoyesLB Go Back in TimeDuring the Autumn term, Class LB

have been studying the Victorians in

our topic of Travel and Transport. On

10th November we had a fantastic trip

to Scaplens Court in Poole where the

students were able to take part in a

range of different activities with Mrs

Crumble, who we met there. We had

a wonderful experience and all of the

children enjoyed going back in time. Saad gets to grips with a Mangle



What a fun term we have had in Class JW!

The topic for this term was transport. The

students have been getting stuck into various

activities such as making chocolate spacerockets, creating cardboard box racing

cars and listening to sensory stories. New

students Naseem and Brooke joined our

class in September and are settling in well,

so what a pleasure it was to take them on our

rst trip out of the school year to Beaulieu’s

National Motor Museum.

By Sally White

Class JW’s Autumn Term

Izzy particularly enjoyed herself and carried

Class JW’s Bobby Bear around for the day.

Brooke and Izzy became ladies when they

tried on old fashioned hats as worn in the

olden days for motoring and they certainlylooked the part. Ale’s favourite part was

squeezing the horn really loudly making him

chuckle with delight.

In October we had harvest festival

preparations and the students enjoyed a

few trips to the supermarket to lm for their

assembly contribution ‘In My Trolley’. Holly

was in charge of gathering produce and did

some brilliant steering around Tesco.

Meanwhile Harrison has been sticking to the

topic’s theme guiding his power chair in and

around school using his head switch. Well

done Harrison!

James preferred the broom as his mode

of transport when getting involved in one

of the sensory stories The Room on the

Broom. He dressed himself up as thewitch and surrounded himself by cuddly

characters from the story that all look like

they enjoyed it too.

Isabelle was in her element whilst

enjoying messy play. She loved the

feeling of the gelli baff in her hands and

didn’t want to stop. It is such a pleasure

to have Isabelle in our class with her

gorgeous smile and infectious giggle.

26 VEC life



Naseem has impressed us all by his work on the E-tran. He uses eye pointing to select his choices

and has chosen in one session to play with bricks, build a tower and then knock it down. Great

work Naseem.

The Class JW team would like to thank all those that have worked with us and our students

this term. We wish you a very merry Christmas and hope you have a lovely break. The

question is ‘Have you all been good boys and girls?’

VEC life 27

This term Holly has done some amazing work

on her Eye-gaze and has progressed really well

with her literacy and numeracy showing us all

there isn’t much that she can’t do. Those of you

that have seen Holly in action know how far she

has already come and we are certainly looking

forward to seeing what she does in the future.

Holly has a great sense of humour and often

likes to tell jokes on her Eye-gaze which are

actually much better than Bruce Forsyth’s! Keep

‘em coming Holly!

Arne Shop ‘Til They DropClass Arne had an exciting trip out in early

December, travelling from school to the Dolphin

Shopping Centre in Poole to practise and

develop a whole range of life skills.

Students travelled in pairs by bus, supervised

from a distance where possible and made their

way to a pre-arranged meeting point on arrival

in Poole. After a short brieng, students (and

supporting staff) went off in groups to explore the

shops. Sophie and Ben had a successful visit to

Primark, whilst Charlie and I had some business

to attend to at the Post Ofce. Jacob,

Abi, Charles and Connor also found things to

buy. Everyone met up again at lunchtime and

we went as a whole class to have lunch in

McDonalds. The staff there looked after us very

well and everyone was happy with their food.

After another foray into the shops, when Tom

made some last minute purchases, it was soon

time to start the process of returning to school.

Students waited patiently for buses and behavedimpeccably throughout the day – just as we

would expect.

Once safely back at Carmel House, students

were able to reect on their achievements and

how much they had enjoyed the day. Some had

been very anxious about buses and crowds

and others were uncertain about money.

However, with fantastic support team Arne on

the case, everyone did brilliantly, making small

but important steps of progress towards greater

independence, condence and understandingand that’s what it’s all about! Thank you to Arne

students and class support team for making it

such a good day.

By Hilary Stewart and Vicky Slingsby

We travelled in pairs by bus

Sophie takes a break from retail therapy

Abi and Jacob tuck in



28 VEC life

P16 Life skills lessons throughout the autumn

term have focused on personal care, hygiene

and presentation and lessons have involved

several visits from experts and we’ve also beenout and about ourselves, researching toiletry

and beauty products.

Class Arne had a really fun session with make-

up and shaving demonstrations from Charlotte

Clarke and Eddy Milne. Charlotte has previously

achieved qualications in various aspects

of beauty care and was able to explain the

processes of skin care and applying make-up

in the correct order. She very bravely invited a

volunteer to add the nishing touch by applying

her lipstick and Tom Troung stepped up to the

mark!Eddy’s shaving demo was really interesting

and he was able to give students lots of tips to

achieve the best possible results. We all then

had a go at shaving a balloon and miraculously,

no one popped it!

Arne, Furzey and Pergins also received visits

from Jean Houston, oral health promoter based

with the community dental service. She brought

with her a huge range of items – models to

show how our teeth should be cleaned andhow they can decay, adapted toothbrushes and

various types of toothpastes to name but a few.

Everyone found her presentations fascinating

and we were all horried to learn that one bottle

of Coke contains ten spoons full of sugar!!

We were lucky enough to have visits from

Margaret Botterill, a hairdresser (who just

happens to be teacher Kathryn Webb’s mum.)

She gave us lots of information about hair

products, how they affect our hair and the risks

we need to be aware of. Ebony Robinson inPergins was also lucky enough to be Margaret’s

model for the day with stunning results.

Finally, both Arne and Pergins classes went out

on a trip to Boots to investigate the huge range

of toiletry products available, to increase our

product awareness and also to assess

the accessibility of some product

packaging. We also compared

prices and worked out which

products were the best value

for money. This was quite a

challenge as we had to look

carefully at the different

sizes of products and

check prices labels for

the cost breakdown.

Because We’re Worth it By Hilary Stewart

“This is harder than it looks.....” thinks Tom

Close shave: Eddie demonstrates

Ebony before.....

and after.....

Oral hygene with Jean Houston The glamourous Sophie



1 VEC life 29

It’s been a very interesting term, during which we have

all learned a lot. P16 classrooms should now be full of

beautiful, fragrant students who all know how to look

after their hygiene and beauty needs. Hopefully, there’ll

be lots of lovely smellies in Christmas stockings this

year!

Charlie looking fabulous

Furzey Class loved spending their work

experience week at Holton Lee in July so much

that they wanted to spend more time there

because it is so peaceful and relaxing so as part

of their Work Related Learning this term, Furzey

Class are raising money to be able to stay fora couple of days in the accessible cottages at

Holton Lee in April 2016. They have been very

busy making warming soup to sell at lunchtime

and making craft products to sell (we can still

take orders!) … and have even produced a

Furzey FundraiseBy Kathryn Webb

Fun at Holton Lee

We walked to Homebase for our Personal, Social

Education (PSE) lesson. We went to get some

Christmas decorations for our classroom. We also

got some Hyacinthus pots so we can give the plantsto our families for Christmas. We liked going to

choose the decorations we wanted for the classroom.

The staff in Homebase were very helpful and helped

us get the Christmas tree we were looking for. We

enjoyed checking the moving Christmas toys to

make sure they were working. Reece particularly

enjoyed helping Tony enter in to the Christmas spirit.

It was fun!!!

PSE in Class BE By Class BE

Reece having fun at Homebase

Green Island have had a productive autumn

term, planting up bulbs and choice winter colourfrom the Horticulture department, using the

compost we made last year. It is very lovely to

reuse and recycle, and we would like to thank all

the worms who have helped us.

One of our topics this term has been exploring

things we do in different areas of the house.

My favourite was ‘going to sleep’, as we sniffed

relaxing lavender, and snuggled up with cocoa

and uffy dressing gowns to listen to a bedtime

story. Ahhh.

As you can imagine, the bathroom was also a hotfavourite, and some in class tried shaving, while

others had face creams and pamper items,

with the relaxing white noise of a bathroom fanand various switches of loo ushes etc.

One of our challenges this term has also

been to start trialling some new cues and

photographs for activities, places and people

around school. Thanks to Jon for his help with

the class photos, and Ingrid, for her patience

while we guided her on a tour of the school.

Next term we are looking forward to working

more with Chloe Wright, our new Occupational

Therapist.

A huge thank you to the splendid Green Islandstaff team who deserve a jolly good holiday.

Christmas CD! Don’t miss The Furzels’ version of

Hokey Cokey and I Wish It Could Be Christmas

Everyday!!

CD’s for sale from Furzey Class for a donation

towards our Holton Lee fund!

G.I. Recycle and Explore



And Finally We received a poem dictated by former student Lucy Willers to her Mum, who has sent it in to share:

Wake up get in my chair,

sometimes I think life isn’t fair.

Help me I cannot move.

Please care.

My head feels bad

And a lot of people make me mad, when

They hurry me it makes me sad.

Using the computer Makes me feel glad.

I walk my dogs in

Rain or sun and I’ve always

got my Mum.

So if you see me out sitting in my chair

Please talk to me.

It’s just a chair. Just ask me

Why and don’t stand and stare.

All I ask is “Do you care?”.

Do you still have nightmares about learning

French at school? Did you have to recite

verbs and listen to strange recordings through

headphones?

Hopefully not but rest assured, that’s not howmodern languages are taught these days.

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Governors

about Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) at

VEC and we thought that parents may also be

interested in learning a bit more about what we

get up to in lessons.

Students in

classes LB,

CN & BE

currently have

one lessonof French per

week and there

is also a Post

16 Spanish

option group

running this year due to popular demand. As for

next year, who knows? – there is currently interest

in Key Stage 4 to study German in Post 16 next

year!

In lessons, we do a huge variety of activities. We

often learn new vocabulary through presentationsand songs and play lots of games to practise our

knowledge. To put our skills to the test students

sometimes go out and about around school to

conduct surveys with staff in French. For example,

we recently completed a survey to nd out how

staff travelled to school as part of the autumn

term ‘Travel & Transport theme. Students enjoy

using their French to achieve real communication

and love listening to staff respond in French too!

(The staff usually need a lot more help than the

students!)

As students progress into Key stage 3, there

is greater emphasis on sentence building

and using more sophisticated structures.

However, we still have lots of fun playing

around with the language to build skills and

condence.Sensory students in Rainbows class also

have the opportunity to hear different

languages as part of our culture sessions

when we make ‘virtual’ journeys around

the world to experience different lifestyles

and cultures. Recent journeys have been to

Australia, Peru and Norway so we are very

well travelled.

I have always loved learning languages and

have been lucky enough over the years to

acquire knowledge (in varying degrees!)of French, German, Spanish, Italian and

Russian. I am passionate about passing

my love on to my students and I hope that

comes across in our lessons. If you would

like more details about MFL at VEC or would

like to know how you can support learning at

home, please feel free to get in touch. If you

are a French speaker and would like to come

along to lessons, please contact me as that

would be fun!

Le Français à VictoriaPar Madame Stewart

Ryan’s French writing skills t

Thumbs up for French

VEC life 30



1 VEC life 31

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Please note we will be closed for Christmas from 17thDecember to 4th January.

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Issue 13 Winter 2015

Phone: 01202 763697

Visit: www.victoria.poole.sch.uk

Follow us: Facebook/victoriaEducationCentre.uk

Mail: [email protected]

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VECLife Winter 2015