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Vale of Evesham School
Welcome to our
Christmas Newsletter
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
In School Signing 3
World Book Day & 4-5 Scholastic Book Fair
Residential Setting 6-8
Forest School 9
3RB Visit to No 8 10
Worthy Causes 11
Classé Café 12
Trip to the Theatre 13
Variety-Minibus 14
First School Display 15
Holiday Dates 16
Xmas Edition!
Welcome School Council ICT Update Shoe Box appeal India day Halloween 3JW Parent Drop In College Link NHS Residential Residential cont... Eco Award Nash’s Dancers Diary Dates
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13
Dec 2019
Dear parents/carers and friends of the Vale of Evesham school,
We would like to wish you a ‘Happy Christmas’ and good health and happiness for
the New Year.
This term we have been very busy at the Vale of Evesham School. The school
council and ECO warriors have worked very hard indeed preparing for our eighth
ECO school award.
The assessor came in November and a group, including the Chair and Deputy
Chairperson, along with several ECO warriors walked round school showing the
Green-flag lady all the projects we are doing to make a difference to our school
and the world. The good news about this was that we gained our eighth ECO
award which we are all very proud of.
We have also met our new head, Mrs Rachel Perks, who will begin full time in
January 2020. One of the many highlights of this term was the ‘Vale Dance
Troupe’ going to DeMontfort High School for the W-Factor audition, the dancers
did very well in the audition and we are waiting to see if they got through. A
wonderful new development to our school was the completion of the new sensory
room. A huge thanks was given to all the funds raisers from local churches and
businesses who gave money for the project.
The increasing amount of lunchtime clubs has been very successful and fun for
the students accessing them.
The school council had a question time session and some students would like a
draughts and chess club which one of our school adults is willing to run next
term.
There have been several parent/carers visiting classes for a mince pie, craft and
read sessions, that we have enjoyed preparing and taking part in.
The ECO warriors have been very busy this term with their litter picking
campaign and “Switch It Off” alert to try and save our energy in school and at
home. Middle and Upper school have been busy practising for their carol service
at the Methodist Church.
First school is also very involved in rehearsing for their nativity play.
The classes have produced wonderful winter display boards for our hall walls and
we are looking forward to all ending the term with Christmas dinner together,
with these wonderful displays decorating the dining hall.
Kind regards from Tom Bartonshaw (Chairperson) School Council
Lewis Cowell (Deputy Chairperson) School Council
Tom Lewis
ICT updates
2
Advice
If you are using a laptop or PC at home with Windows 7 operating system remember that from
January 20th 2020 Microsoft will no longer support Windows 7.
There has been some confusion over what this means, so basically Microsoft provide security
updates to help keep you safe from Cyber criminals and to fix any issues with Windows 7 not
working as expected. There will not be any further updates from January 20th so Microsoft
recommend that you upgrade your equipment to Windows 10 before this date.
Your equipment will not suddenly stop working but you need to be aware that it may become
more vulnerable to Cyber Criminals as any vulnerabilities found in Windows 7 will no longer be
patched.
Another busy Term in the “Harry Potter Cupboard” where we welcomed in our new 100Mbps
Lease line Broadband making our internet much faster.
Our School has grown considerably over the years and our data network was struggling to keep
up with sending data around the 9km of cabling so we installed some fibre optic cabling to join
our network switches together – our single 1000mb copper cable has been replaced with twin
20gb fibre cables making things much faster.
The highlight of our year has been the completion our new Sensory Room. We started planning
the Sensory Room many months ago with loads of input and advice from our Staff. It has proven
to be a great success with amazing feedback from both the Staff and Pupils. This would not have
been possible without the amazing generosity of our friends at:
DM Thomas Foundation Karndean
Churches Together Matcon
John Martins Trust The Salvation Army
Christmas Shoe Box Appeal
3
Christmas Shoebox Appeal 2019
At school we have been busy collecting items to go in Christmas shoeboxes and be sent to Europe.
Our residential pupils were able to take some of the shoeboxes to the depot ready to be sent.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who sent in either shoeboxes or items to make up a class shoebox.
3
India Day
On Wednesday, 20th November, we had great fun taking part in India themed day. We looked at the music, food, culture and dance of India. There was a visiting artist, Sohan who ran dance workshops. In our classes, we tasted some of the
different foods from India and learnt about the culture.
4
Halloween fundraising event in 3JW.
During our PSHE money unit, we explored how money can be
used to help those in need. Pupils organised an activity
afternoon for the whole school. They devised different
activities, decided on an entrance fee and encouraged pupils across the school to
vote which charity the money could go to. The chosen charity was Acorns
Children’s Hospice! Pupils took part in activities such as “crazy pumpkin golf”,
“witch hat ring toss” and “pumpkin bowling”! We raised an impressive £76.45!
5
Middle school parent drop - in
Every half term there is the opportunity for
parents and carers in Middle school to meet and
chat.
Being a parent can be a lonely experience and it is
great to have the chance to discuss problems and
also share successes with other people. The
atmosphere is relaxed and non-judgmental and we
have drinks and cakes or biscuits.
Parents are encouraged to give their views on the
school and also make suggestions on what they
would like.
Parents can also have a 1:1 session with Rachel
Evans – one of the middle school teachers if they
prefer.
From this group the “Signing Seven” was born.
The original idea was to practice their signing in
a social setting – but they rose onto a more
imaginative idea of signing to a song at the end of
year performance and again at the Christmas carol concert. It was amazing!
If you have a child in Middle school please feel free to come along to our drop in and have a
chat. Email [email protected] for more info
6
College Link
This year we have a very exciting opportunity available to our Sixth form students. We have
established a link with Pershore College.
Many of our Sixth form students attend twice a week and some students attend once a week.
They are working towards a City and Guild Skills for Work and Life Award.
We have been working in the animal care unit, learning how to care for the animals and how to
carry out health checks on them. They have also been attending horticulture lessons at the
college. This is fantastic opportunity for our young people to show them what life after school
might look like and help them to further their independence.
Students chose to raise money for the Blue Cross animal charity for their project. They have
chosen a range of Christmas products they have made and will be selling at coffee morning and
within the college to raise money.
We have already learnt who the cheeky characters on the
yard are. They will do anything for a ginger nut biscuit!
7
Adult-Child Interaction Workshop
This term parents and carers were invited to attend a workshop ran by speech
and language therapists; Nia Luke and Claire McEntee. During the training they
explored strategies for adult-child interaction. The group discussed how to
support children’s foundation communication skills, how to follow a child’s lead
and watched a video of strategies being carried out. Those who attended left
with some strategies to try with their children at home!
Coming soon… information for the next parent workshop will be sent out in the
New Year.
The Speech and Language Therapy Team at school are Nia Luke, Aoife
McDermott and Claire McEntee (Nursery) and they are in on Mondays.
8
It has been a busy and hectic term in Residential. The weather hasn’t been great, a few
changes in staff, but the pupils have been amazing.
When the weather has been dull and wet we have found plenty
to do inside
We haven’t let the weather slow us down
9
It doesn’t matter how wet
and muddy we get…..
As long as we are clean, warm and dry at bedtime!
Eco Award & Britain in Bloom
Thank you to all our young people, as we have successfully gained our ECO status from the ECO
Assessor, gaining our 8th ECO Flag. We were presented with a certificate and some packets
of seeds from Evesham’s Mayoress for gaining a “Silver Award” in the Towns and Schools
Britain in Bloom contest.
The Eco Assessor and Mayoress were very impressed with the gardening projects taking place
around the School.
11
Nash’s Dancers
Nash’s dancers have been practicing hard this term. We have learnt a new routine and
practiced the old ones too. On Wednesday 20th November we went to the De Montfort School
to audition for the W factor, which we are hoping to hear the results of the audition in the
New Year. All boys did really well and the judges were very complementary of the dances.
Good luck boys!
12
Vale of Evesham School
Four Pools Lane
Evesham
Worcestershire
WR11 1BN
Phone: (01386) 443367
Fax: (01386) 765787
E-mail: [email protected]
www.valeofeveshamschool.org
Important Dates
Start of Spring Term:
Wednesday 8th January 2020
Half Term:
Monday 17th Feb - Friday 21st Feb 2020
Term Ends:
Friday 3rd April 2020
A specialist school for cognition and learning enabling inclusion in the
community