Alfreton Park Community Special School LEARNING TOGETHER FOR PERSONAL SUCCESS

NEWSLETTER-The Easter Edition 2020

Easter Holidays School closes: Fri 3rd April 2020

School opens: Mon 20th April 2020

May Bank Holiday School closed: Fri 8th May 2020 May half-term School closes: Fri 22nd May 2020

School opens: Mon 1st June 2020 Summer Holiday School closes: Tues 21st July 20

School opens: Wed 2nd Sept 2020 (May be subject to change as INSET days are yet to be set)

LETTER FROM THE HEADTEACHER Hello everyone, what strange times we are in. I sincerely hope that you are all managing to do some fun things together and keeping safe. These are very challenging and uncertain times for all of us and I know we are all feeling very anxious. We will get through this together and I appreciate the support I have had from many of you. We are trying our best to support you all and have a very small group of pupils accessing school part-time where there is the greatest need. The vouchers for those on free school Meals should be with you this week. Please keep looking at the Facebook page for activities and email your class if you need more individual ideas. Thank you to the staff who are coming into school to work with pupils as this difficult time. All the staff are busy working behind the scenes even when working from home. The teachers are setting work and planning for school developments. All staff have online training to complete. We are having to monitor the ever-changing guidance from the government throughout each day, and are beavering away trying to make sense of all of this guidance. Obviously, lots of things are on hold including the new build and things like annual reviews, so we will have a lot to do as we move on. It is lovely to see the activities some of the pupils have been doing on Facebook and it really helps to brighten the day so please keep sharing. If you need equipment such as walkers and standing frames to use at home please contact us and arrange to collect. Please contact classes via email or Sharon or I using the details on the bottom of the newsletter. Take care of yourselves and stay safe. Cheryl Smart

CLASS NEWS ACORN Acorn class kick started 2020 with the theme 'Where does snow go?'. We explored everything wintery and learnt lots about the animals we could find during the colder months, the types of weather and what happens to snow and ice when warmed! We managed to get the odd sprinkling of snow too that finished off our topic! Recently we started to explore healthy foods in our topic 'Why can't we eat chocolate for breakfast?'. We have prepared, tried and sorted lots of different foods and our little acorns have been fab at trying new things! STEAM Week was an exciting week in class, we enjoyed visits from some baby lambs and a vet and her dog. We engaged well with lots of practical hands on work to find out answers to lots of 'how?' 'what?' and 'why?' questions- our favourite, was the coke and mentos experiment! We hope everyone has a fab Easter. APPLE Apple class has been exploring a healthy eating topic. Why can’t I eat chocolate for breakfast? We have made choices of what were our favourite breakfast foods and practiced our cutting and spreading skills so we could spread our chosen topping onto our toast. We also had a walk to the local café and ordered our breakfast using symbols. We have been doing lots of exercise and swimming to stay healthy when we have had treats and have been using switches to activate the blender and microwave to make yummy snacks. We had a great day on World book day. We chose the book ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’. The costumes from both pupils and class staff were brilliant. We tried different sweets and chocolates, made our own chocolates, set up a cinema, enjoyed listening to the story and designed our own sweet wrappers.

We also participated in STEAM week which was absolutely fantastic. We met Jess the vet and Jake the dog and conducted science experiments. The exploding volcanos was our favourite and slime making was great fun. St Patricks day was great fun. We found gold coins in green shaving foam and placed them into our pots. Explored the story of St. Patrick and explored rainbows. Our topic next term is ‘Can you explore it? Which will be very exciting. Apple class hope you all stay well over this difficult time and if you need any resources please email the apple email address which is on the letter in the home learning pack. I look forward to seeing the wonderful apples again soon. ASH Ash class have been brilliant exploring our topic, ‘Why do ladybirds have spots?’ We loved making and eating jelly worms, ladybird crackers and ants on a log. I hope our Mother’s Day butterfly gardens that we planted in horticulture are growing nicely for our mum’s and the wildlife in your gardens, please take a picture when your sunflowers are grown to see how tall they get! I think one of our pupils’ favourite crafts was making super-worms from shredded paper and tight legs. We looked fabulous in our spider headbands and even used our chromatography paper to make butterflies. We have kept a good eye on our new class pets the ladybird larvae who arrived as tiny yellow eggs. They have grown lots and shed their skin as they did and now they are beginning to think about making a pupa to change into an adult ladybird! We have done lots of fantastic reading, and we love to choose our favourite story on Vooks, (I think most people who have worked in ash class know groovy Joe word for word), and we follow the karaoke style reading on the white board. Our pupils have worked so hard on their physical goals and are making great strides, literally, in new gait trainers and with staff support. We were awesome at our dance which we have practised for the dance festival, so feel free to continue to have a go at home – I will put the video on our school Facebook page, Kookookangaroo - ninja training. Ash class had great fun in STEAM week and enjoyed meeting the vet and the doctor, playing in class with our toy science utensils, planting seeds, gorgeous chromatography, amazing engineering with newspaper and great predicting with balloons. For Irish culture day we made delicious soda bread and boxty which we ate with the traditional addition of lots of butter and ketchup! We explored fairy folklore by watching staff make fairy trees from paper and painting magic Celtic knots.

We get lots of brilliant help from pupils in oak branch, who help us do the washing up, recycling and general jobs at the end of the day. Thank you so much. Hope to see you all safe and well soon, Enjoy the sunshine, you’ve worked so hard you deserve it! BEECH Beech class have had a busy term, our first topic was, ‘What happens when I fall asleep’? We took part in sensory stories and bedtime stories in the sensory room. We enjoyed exploring stars, constellations and shapes on purple mash and decorating our own pillow cases and pyjama tops to take home. For our class trip we went to Poole’s Cavern and explored the darkness of the cave, our highlight was turning all the lights off and being in total darkness…. Not just once but twice!! We have enjoyed our recent topic, ‘Why do ladybirds have spots’? We all made a wormery and have been watching and feeding the worms. We have been really lucky to have had ladybirds in class, we have been observing the ladybirds grow in the classroom and we are looking forward to see them at full size. All pupils have worked hard in PE, swimming, move and Sherbourne, we have seen some great work in all areas. Well done. We have also had World book day where we came to school dressed up and got comfy and read a bedtime story with milk and a biscuit. We had a great STEAM week and took part in lots of engaging activities. We also enjoyed St Patricks day where we shared the story of St Patrick and choose some exciting and messy activities. Please email beech@alfretonpark.derbyshire.sch.uk if you need anything and stay safe. From all of beech class. LARCH Larch class have had a busy but wonderful couple of terms. Firstly, visiting Chatsworth house for an outdoor learning project which lasted 4 weeks. We were able to develop many skills, including team building, fire lighting, potting and planting along with learning about the history of Chatsworth and its many tropical plants. During this term we focused our attention on

'Allotments', learning about the great outdoors, how to measure the age of trees, how and where our food comes from, as well as linking our cookery to our weekly book. Everyone enjoyed, 'The enormous turnip' and baking their healthy turnip crisps or chips! Secondly some of us have enjoyed horse riding, learning about caring for animals, developing our core stability and building up a range of riding skills and confidence. We have also enjoyed learning about tribal tales, from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age and finally the Iron Age. Within this topic we have explored local geography, created our own Stonehenge, predicted and wrote what might happen in the second chapter of ‘Stig of the Dump’, as well as thinking about how houses and lifestyles have changed over a period of time. We look forward to continue supporting everyone's learning. Happy Easter from all of larch class. CHESTNUT This half term chestnut class explored ‘Why don’t snakes have legs’? Where we looked at different reptiles, their body parts and habitats. We enjoyed cooking lots of different healthy recipes using eggs, thankfully no snakes hatched out of them! Some of our class had a great week at Thornbridge residential doing lots of different outdoor activities and cooking some delicious food for our friends. The rest of the class joined with some of our friends in larch class and had lots of fun working on our social skills within school. Although this half term has ended very strangely we still had plenty of time to pack in lots of fun and learning! We enjoyed being ‘Street detectives!’ we all had a turn to visit Alfreton to find lots of different objects and places. We all managed to find our houses on google maps! We were really interested to look at this and have enjoyed seeing the photographs of our houses on our display which also features some brilliant 3D house models! STEAM week was also really good fun, having a range of different experiences with animals, visitors and different experiments was fantastic! Take care chestnuts, hope to see you soon!

OAK BRANCH What a busy term oak branch have had! We have so much going on every week. All of the pupils in oak branch have really grown into their roles across the school and have become fantastic role models for many of our younger pupils. Many of them are always volunteering to help out in other classes and we have even had a couple of our class leading the bucket sessions (attention autism) on the small playground. Oak branch are also leading the way on recycling around school – emptying the recycling bins at the end of the day and they have also done a great job in reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfill at the end of each lunchtime. A small group of us are still going to Maple Mews each week – this has helped many of our much quieter pupils really come out of their shell and we are so proud of how they interact with the residents there - it is a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved. The pupils are at the start of a fabulous enterprise project and they have really dazzled us with their pitch and business plan – watch this space to see what they have planned. World book day is always a fun day, and this year was no exception. We always enjoy sharing books in class and this term we have started reading ‘The everything machine’.

We loved celebrating World book day – and some of us got dressed up as characters from books.

Being out and about in the community is one of our favourite things to do. This term has been a little different because we have started cooking our own lunch every Thursday. We decide as a class every Monday what we are going to cook, shop for all the ingredients on a Tuesday (sometimes with a café stop for a snack and drink) and then we get to eat our delicious lunches on the Thursday. Our meals have included fajitas, sausage and mash, homemade pizzas and chilli. We are learning so many cookery skills and it is also helping us develop our teamworking skills too. We are hoping that Cheryl and Josie will be able to join us for lunch when we are back at school – the class have written some wonderful letters inviting them along.

Some wonderful chopping skills going on here – we hope they are all helping you out at home! 😉😉

Time for a slice of toast and juice before we head to Lidl. It has been our turn to take part in Forest Schools this term. We have had a great time (despite the cold weather!) and it has been great to enjoy the super activities that have been provided in our fab outdoor space. We would like to thank all our parents/carers for their support – as always. Also, to Joe and Heather who work so hard to help maintain our pupils’ fitness – we are so lucky to have such a great staff team around us. It has been a very strange end to the term but we hope you are all keeping safe at home and we look forward to seeing you all when things are back to normal. Take care, the oak branch team.

OAK ROOTS Well, hasn’t this half term been insightful, creative and rewarding?! TOPIC Oak roots have been further developing their knowledge of all things that ‘wriggle & crawl’ and how the creatures contribute to our world. We have explored the properties of minibeasts, their habitats, their functions, their life cycles and much more. STEAM WEEK

I am sure all students would agree that STEAM week was a particular highlight for us, and it was incredibly rewarding to see our students so engaged, inquisitive and focussed during the associated activities. All students participated in talks from medical professions, petting animals, undertaking science experiments, constructing towers, using fine-motor skills to create pom-poms and upcycling natural resources to make beautiful keep sakes! COOKERY We have had huge success making our own

soups during cooking time – using kitchen appliances such as hand blenders, the electric hob, the oven, the kettle and food processors. All students have had the opportunity to enjoy their colourful, flavoursome creations…and wash up their dishes afterwards! SPECIAL DAYS St Patrick’s day (17th March) was spent putting our baking skills to the test, as we made Irish soda bread with a little help from the Westlife playlist (pupil’s choice!) 😉😉 The bread was ‘tasty’ and proved to be a perfect accompaniment for our soup. As well as baking some of the Irish cuisine, students also explored the history of St David, the significance of the shamrock leaf and got fully immersed making their own

replicas, which are now featured beautifully in our sensory room. ILP’S The students have made some great progress towards their own ILP targets, and some have managed to surpass these – well done! We look forward to working with students over the next ILP cycle to further develop their personal, social & emotional skills. Next term our topic will be ‘Land ahoy’ – and we can’t wait to ‘get on board’.

OTHER NEWS

GOVERNORS Notes from the chair are somewhat short this month as I have been out of action for much of the time since Christmas. Can I first say thank you to all my fellow governors who have kept the “ship afloat” during my enforced absence, and to Cheryl and her incredible staff who have had to endure an extremely difficult time. Everybody’s wish has been to protect firstly our pupils, many of whom are especially vulnerable, but also to look after our staff without whom we can’t continue in any form. The information from the local authority has often been slow and continues to be confusing although I wouldn’t be too critical of anyone in these times which are unprecedented. All our lives are to some extent on hold and we are unsure what it will look like when we emerge through the other side. We know it won’t be the same as before and many people will suffer in many different ways. Hopefully our society will be compassionate and we will all provide as much assistance as possible to those in need – it won’t be easy and the price for us all will be expensive. The staff at Alfreton Park are used to providing this level of support for our pupils, so for them it will be business as usual as long as we all come through this unscathed. With this in mind therefore I hope that you and all your families escape the worst that this virus can inflict and it won’t be long before we all see each again. John Glasby- Chair of governors WORK EXPERIENCE I just want to start with saying how proud I am of all of the students that do work experience with me. They have all grown in confidence and all of their employees say how polite and hardworking our students are. I continue to take the same 11 pupils to 5 different placements which include: Parkwood Day Centre Gardens, Parkwood Day Centre Café, David Nieper Academy, Chesterfield Community Care Farm and Barnardos Charity shop. I am looking at new placements for September so If anyone has ideas then please let me know! Mary Mather

FRIENDS OF ALFRETON PARK We have been a bit quite since the Christmas fayre. Our AGM meeting has been postponed but hopefully we will be able to fit this in before the end of the summer term, as well as hosting our annual Summer fayre. If any parents are interested in joining our friends group please speak to Rebecca Dallman our chair for more information. Thank you The Friends Team

CHOIR The choir have had a fantastic 2020! We went to Sheffield Arena in January for the young voices concert and our pupils and staff were incredible. They gave their all, singing, dancing and made me so proud with their behaviour on the day. We sang with Tony Hadley again, he loves singing with us and enjoyed the urban strides dancers’ performances again. We came back and went straight into rehearsals for our joint concert at David Nieper. They gave us some really tricky songs to practise but we met every Thursday to do our best and on the day were fabulous. We had a great day at David Nieper, we enjoyed rehearsing with the other schools and having our own time to rehearse on stage. After rehearsal we had some boccia time but the beautiful dancers from the school let us join their rehearsal and our pupils had an incredible time choreographing for them! In the evening our pupils were brilliant on stage and in the audience, we had a great time and can’t wait for the next event. I will put some of our songs on the school Facebook page so you can continue to sing along! Stay safe and I’ll see you soon. Ruth Woodhouse POOL Well it's been a bit of a strange old term!! However, that hasn't stopped our wonderful pupils giving 100% effort in the pool. We have been doing a lot of length swimming over the past term to try and increase our stamina as we were supposed to be taking part in the Swimathon event next week! Due to recent events it has been postponed until a later date... but don't worry, we will definitely complete it at some point! A big thank you to those that have donated so far! I'd just like to wish you all a happy and safe Easter. Please look after yourself and loved ones and keep on smiling! Joe Harrison 100 CLUB & EASTER EGG RAFFLES This years Easter 100 club draw and Easter egg raffle will take place after the Easter holiday break. SCHOOL COUNCIL The school council meet regularly. Elected school council members have their photographs on the notice board in school and on the school website. LEAVE OF ABSENCE Please remember that the government have said that we should not be allowing holidays to be taken during term time and the local authority do have the right to fine parents who take their children out of school during term times. CLOSURE PROCEDURE If the school closes due to adverse weather or mechanical breakdown, it will be published on the Derbyshire County Council website and parents and transport staff will receive a message as soon as possible. Please make sure the office have up to date mobile phone numbers so we can contact you. If we need to close during the school day we contact the transport companies and all parents as soon as possible.

BUMPS AND BRUISES Please let us know if your child has an accident or injury, a bump or bruise and we will do the same. We are obliged to report inconsistent or concerning bruises or marks directly to social services. ILL HEALTH AND ANTIBIOTICS Please remember that school policy states that no pupils are allowed to return to school following being sick or having diarrhoea for 48 hours after the last time they were sick or had a loose bowel movement. It is very important that these policies are maintained to avoid cross infection. Many of our pupils have medical conditions which make them vulnerable to infection and the consequences of illness can be severe. Cross infection to staff means that we are unable to support the pupils due to them having to take time off. Please do not send your child in if they are not fit to be in school. EMERGENCY CONTACT DETAILS Please ensure that we have up to date emergency contact details including someone who can arrange for your child to be collected from school if they are taken ill during the school day. MEDICATION Please can you make sure that you inform class staff of any medication given to your child, such as antibiotics or painkillers on the first day of the course of treatment, or if you have administered Buccal during the night or before school? We need this information to ensure we can monitor pupils and in case of any emergencies. Medication can only be administered at school if we have a signed permission form; medicine is in original package with dispensing label and must be within dates of use. VISITS TO MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS/ CHANGE IN MEDICATION Please write a note to let us know what the doctor and consultant have said so that we can keep up to date with your child’s medical needs. ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL Please ring directly to school on the first morning to let us know why your child is not in school. RETURN TO SCHOOL AFTER A FRACTURE, SERIOUS ILLNESS OR OPERATION We have a form to complete from the county council before your child can return to school. The school nurse will complete this with you. SCHOOL MEALS You may have noticed the school meal menu now includes many new dishes. The Catering Service is always grateful to receive any feedback you may have regarding the meals. Please e-mail catering@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 536704 to discuss any area of the school meal service. SCHOOL MEAL CHARGES A charge of £10.50 for primary age pupils and £12.00 for secondary age pupils per week is made for school meals. This can be paid via ParentPay or cash to the school office. Remember to top up your ParentPay account for the new school year. FREE SCHOOL MEALS Parents/carers may be eligible to claim free school meals. It’s easy to apply; ask our office and we will provide you with an application form to complete, see the online form http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/education/schools/your_child_at_school/meals/school_meals/default.asp?VD=freeschoolmeals, contact the Catering Service by e-mail

catering@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 536704 and they will send you an application form. On return of the completed form the local authority will contact you to advise on eligibility. THE LOCAL OFFER The Local Authority progress towards all our pupils having an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC) is making some slow progress. Please see the ‘local offer’ – see http://www.derbyshiresendlocaloffer.org/ to investigate services available in your area, and how to access personal budgets. HELP The school can claim a substantial sum of money called ‘Pupil Premium’ for any child eligible for free school meals, so please claim eligibility for free school meals even if you do not intend your child having the meal or if they are able to claim free meals for infants. SCHOOL ACCOUNTS All school account balances, School Fund, Friends & 100 Club are available from the school office if you wish to see them. WEBSITE Please keep an eye on our school website and note that some information and forms are available to you online that may be useful such as parental permission to administer medication forms. http://www.alfretonpark.derbyshire.sch.uk

CONTACT DETAILS Tel: 01773 832019 Fax: 01773 833227 E-mail:info@alfretonpark.derbyshire.sch.uk Cheryl Smart: 07719 392644 Sharon Walker: 07564 808174 Head Teacher

Cheryl Smart

Deputy Head

Josie O’Donnell

School Business Manager

Rebecca Dallman

Heads PA Toyah Ridgway Admin Angela Stapleton

Holly England Catherine Hughes

School Nurse

Caroline Taylor- Trowbridge

Chair of Governors

John Glasby

Family Support

Sharon Walker