PRIMARY DEPARTMENT It has been a very busy summer term in the Primary Department. The Foundation Stage have been learning about gardens this term and have had the opportunity to take part in many activities linked to the topic. They thoroughly enjoyed a visit to Elford Gardens where they were able to look at fruit and vegetables growing, smell different flowers and listen to bees buzzing.

They have learnt about bean seeds and that they need soil, water and sunshine in order to grow. They pupils have loved finding out about the different minibeasts that live in a garden. This included using the CCTV to have a close look at snails and watching caterpillars change into beautiful butterflies!

PRIESTLEY SMITH

SPECIALIST SCHOOL

HALF-TERMLY

NEWSLETTER

Headteacher’s Letter to Parents and Friends

The Infants have been learning about different types of animal groups this term and had a surprise visit from a reptile, Beano the tortoise. They learnt about the different types of animal groups based on what they eat. The pupils each became a herbivore and went on a search for suitable food.

In Geography they have been learning about how to look after the environment. Did you know that rubbish left on a beach can end up in the sea and become a danger to animals? Always put your litter in the bin!

The Lower Juniors have also been incredibly busy this term. As part of their science work about habitats and minibeasts, they did a scavenger hunt in the local park. In the school grounds they looked for minibeasts in trees, bushes and underneath some logs.

They travelled to Sandwell Valley RSPB reserve to find out about minibeasts that live in the pond! We found lots of insects and two newts.

They also made bug hotels. Bugingham Palace is now hanging

up in the nursery garden ready for the mini beasts to move in.

The Lower Juniors have been finding out all about Ancient Egyptians and spent the day as an Egyptian, making jewellery and costumes to wear at an Ancient Egyptian banquet. They really loved finding out about mummification!

The Upper Juniors have really enjoyed their science work about electricity this term. It was exciting making simple circuits to light up bulbs and investigating how to make the sound of the buzzer louder.

In their history topic they have had a taste of Ancient Greece by exploring typical foods and visiting Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to handle different artefacts. They loved making Medusa masks and clay pots in Secondary.

The pupils formed a band in music called ‘The Reggae Rockers!’ and each pupil played a different instrument which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Residential 2018

All of the pupils in the Upper Juniors took part in a 3

night residential trip to Trecco Bay in South Wales in

May this year. They all stayed in mobile homes and

had the opportunity to take part in many different

activities, including jumping the waves in the sea,

building sand castles, go-karts, bowling and

dodgems! They were also able to visit the RNLI

Lifeboat station at Porthcawl where they were able

to learn about safety on the beach and in the sea.

The pupils were also able to practise all of the

Independent Living Skills they had been taught in

school, including making sandwiches, cutting up

their food and cracking eggs for breakfast! Thank

you to all of the staff who took part in the residential

this year.

Residential 2018

Royal Wedding

The Primary pupils celebrated the Royal Wedding of

Prince Harry to Meghan Markle with a fantastic

street party, crown competition and talent show.

They really did show that Priestley Smith has talent!

The Lower Juniors were invited by West Bromwich Albion Foundation to take part in the Mini Olympics at Portway Lifestyle Centre. Representing Italy, they had a go at volleyball, throwing the javelin, boccia, curling, penalty shootout, archery and baggies bullseye.

Creative Arts Week

This year our Creative Arts Week was titled ‘Into the Forest’. The pupils took part in many activities around the theme, including working with the pupils from Year7 and Year 8 to create pictures and models, using leaves, sticks and clay.

They all visited ‘Conkers’ to find out about forests and many even braved the ‘Barefoot Walk’! We also invited parents to come into school to work alongside a professional artist, Sally Harper, to create woodland creatures using natural materials.

Visual Impairment Activity Day

The Primary pupils joined with pupils from

mainstream schools and Christ the King and World’s

End resource bases to enjoy a wonderful fun day

together at Just Play in Kingstanding.

They took part in soft play, football led by West

Bromwich Albion, dance, craft and making fruit

sundaes! Our thanks goes to Michaela from ASDA

for providing the fruit, West Bromwich Albion and

Unity Trust Bank for their continued support.

Extra –Curricular Clubs

The Primary pupils have had the opportunity to take

part in a range of different extra-curricular clubs

this term. These have included craft, games,

recorders, gardening, drama and country dancing.

Mr Gurpal Singh, a Parent Governor, has kindly led

a music club, which has been extremely popular and

performed at the Year 6 Graduation Assembly.

Thank you to all of the staff and to Mr Singh for

giving the pupils new experiences.

Summer Sounds Concert

The Lower Juniors were invited to take part in the

Summer Sounds Concert at the MAC in Birmingham

alongside Wilson Stuart, Fox Hollies and Oscott

Manor Schools. They delighted the crowd by

performing ‘Perfect’ and ‘Into the Fire’. It brought a

tear to many eyes in the audience!

A message from the Governing Body…

Dear Parents/Carers,

This has been an excellent –and very busy-year for the school and for the Governing Body.

We have continued to meet regularly as a full Governing Body and in committees to review student progress and achievements, teaching and learning, finance, health and safety, staffing, attendance and safeguarding. Governors have also visited the school to carry out learning walks and to join in activities with students. Mr Reynolds has continued to deliver ceramics sessions for Secondary students during the year and Mr Singh has recently started to deliver drumming sessions for Primary students. Our view from our visits and from our work as governors is that the school is in a healthy and strong position.

We do have a vacancy for a Parent governor if you would like to join us. This would involve a minimum of four meetings per year, usually between 6.00 and 8.30 on a Monday evening. There is the possibility of joining other committees too if you would like to.

If you wish to discuss the role of the governor before committing to join us, please phone the school and we can arrange a meeting with you or a telephone conversation if you prefer.

Yesterday we attended the Graduation Assembly for our Year 6, Year 11 and Year 13 students. This was a wonderful occasion, where we heard of the many achievements of the young people and watched some fantastic musical performances. We are incredibly proud of the children. We also had the pleasure of awarding our first Governors’ award to Aisha Ali, who we feel embodies the ethos of the school. She is polite and courteous, respectful to students and staff, works hard at all times, has achieved well and constantly helps and supports younger pupils in Buddy Base, lunchtime clubs, dinner times and as she goes around the school. Her kind and caring nature is constantly visible. Aisha was also our first Student Ambassador this year and has carried out the role extremely well.

We would like to wish you all a very happy Summer holiday.

SECONDARY DEPARTMENT

Art at the MAC

As part of their Arts Award Bronze qualification the Year 12 Art group visited the Midland Arts Centre in early June. They viewed an exhibition of work produced by photographer Andrew Jackson, who documented the Windrush immigration from Jamaica to Britain in the 1950s. Pupils were given a guided tour and posed questions to the curator. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot from this experience.

Year 10 Lunch

At the end of term year 10 decided to have a meal together. We cooked it as a group. We made 3 different types of stir fry and for dessert we made apple crumble served with ice cream. We invited the Year 10 Form staff and Ms H’Ladkiy. Everyone enjoyed themselves and liked the food we made.

Kewin and Shazia

Learning Together with Parents in Food

Technology

A group of year 7 parents came into school as part of the learning together programme. They started the morning by joining their children in a Food Technology lesson in which the pupils were making Rock Cakes. The parents were able to

observe how pupils are taught to be independent in the kitchen environment and also join in with the making process. They commented on how well they were doing and were happy to leave with a batch of rock cakes to take home to share with all the family. In a short session afterwards, parents looked at a variety of devices and utensils in the Habilitation Room that could make it easier to support their child at home.

Stay safe in the sun this summer In their personal, social and health education lessons (PSHE) Year 9 have been learning about avoiding sunburn and staying safe in the sun. These are some of the rules they came up with: Stay in the shade between 11am and 3pm. Use sunscreen that has a sun protection

factor (SPF) of 15, even on cloudy or overcast days.

Cover up in clothes with sleeves and wear a hat that shades your face and neck.

Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes. If you are swimming, use a waterproof

sunblock

Maariyah’s Peace Garden

Mrs Flynn and Mrs Mellor were delighted to welcome Maariyah’s Mum and sister to join the Gardening Club the other week. At the cake sale last year we raised enough money to buy a beautiful garden bench for the children to sit on. We have started planting around the trellised sides and back and hopefully next year there will be some plants with beautiful textures and smells for all to enjoy. It will be a lovely place for us all to sit and remember what a wonderful girl Maariyah was.

Update on our ‘Rights Respecting School Award’ journey! – July 2018

This term the children on the Steering Group have been working on the Student Charter along with members of their form groups so that everyone has been able to have a say!

We have decided that the Primary and Secondary departments should have slightly different Student Charters based on the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and that Sixth Form should also have something a little different too as some of them will already have reached 18 years of age!

These Student Charters will finally be decided on at the start of the new school year.

Some of the children in Secondary have been attending a News Group run by Mr Burn which looks at current affairs both nationally and internationally and how these affect the rights of children.

We are just about to apply for our Bronze Award which is all very exciting and we have an Action Plan already in place to help us to work towards our Silver Level.

There will be lots of exciting and interesting activities in working towards the RRSA next year, and updates of these will be included in next year’s newsletters – so watch this space!

Miss Bradley, Mr Burn, Mrs Coyle and Mrs Lynch (RRSA Key staff)

Secondary Residential

On the 11th July a lot of our students went camp-ing for 3 days. Everyone experienced lots of differ-ent types of activities. I thought camping was a really good experience. My favourite part was do-ing the 3G swing with Shazia. My best experience was singing around the camp fire and toasting the marshmallows.

By Jamie

On Wednesday 11th July we went on a residential to Blackwell Court. We had 3 days of excellent activities which included a zip wire, and canoeing. The residential was a great success, it allowed us all to gain experience of semi—independent living, as well as looking after our own things! The trip also increased our social and communication skills.

By Yusuf

Blackwell Adventure is a fun camping site and it has a lot of fun activities to do. It also has nice, friendly and polite staff.

My favourite activity there was the 3G Swing. When you are going up on the swing you are taken up by an electric winch and it feels like you are almost going upside-down. When you reach the top you have to pull the string to start the swing. When it started to swing, Adama got a bit nervous, but luckily I calmed him down. Then on the second time around we went half way up and that made Adama feel better.

Going on a residential will help you gain experience of living away from home. It will also let you learn how to spend time with your friends and you will know how to be independent.

By Shabaz

Visit to RSC On Thursday 5th July a group of Key Stage 4 pupils went to see Romeo and Juliet at the RSC in Stratford.

This was an amazing performance by young actors and actresses. It was a modern dress performance and really seemed to engage the pupils who attended the trip. Many left the theatre remarking on how much they had enjoyed and understood it, even though, as always, the language was a little hard to follow. They said that it had really helped them to make sense of the play and the emotions that led to the tragic end. Many of the pupils will need to know Romeo and Juliet for their future exams so this is a big help to them and their teachers. Well done to all who attended and thank you to parents who came to pick them up after the trip.

Visit to Gowling WLG

Every year we have a partnership with Gowling WLG to enhance the PSD programme of work delivered to Year 10.

Young solicitors visit school every six weeks and give workshops to the pupils on work related skills. This culminates in a visit to the Gowling offices in the City Centre where they participate in an authentic mock interview with someone they do not know. This is both nerve wracking and enlightening.

On 16th July, the current Year 10 went for their interviews. The feedback that the pupils received was extremely positive as well as valuable as it gave points on which they could improve. The students all did well in their interviews and their behaviour throughout the day was impeccable. The pupils enjoyed the day very much as they had a tour of the offices, talks from various employees about their working life and a tasty lunch!

Network West Midlands Visit

The Habilitation Team organised for Network West Midlands Travel to bring a bus into school, giving our pupils the opportunity to explore it without any passengers being on board. They discovered how to use a bus pass, where to pay for a ticket and where best to sit on the bus so the driver can see them and let them know when their stop is near. For many of our pupils public transport will be an important mode of transport for them in the future. We work hard as a team to support independent travel training, for those who are able to access it, and we have a number of pupils who now travel home from school on a regular basis on the bus. If you feel your child would benefit from travel training and is ready to start learning to travel a route independently please contact the Habilitation Team to discuss this further.

Working with West Midlands Safer Travel Team

As a follow on to our visit from West Midlands Travel, the Habilitation Team liaised with West Midlands Safer Travel Team who came into School to promote their services. We arranged for pupils and parents to attend, along with a small group of pupils from Arena Academy and the aim of the session was to offer advice and reassurance for those pupils who travel on public transport.

The Safer Travel Team are promoting a “See some-thing, Say something” campaign, where those people travelling can report any concerns they have on their journey, i.e. the bus driver not being aware that they are visually impaired and may need help locating their stop.

The session was well received by the pupils from both schools and one parent who attended stated “I feel more reassured that there are people who can help when my child is travelling on the bus”

Years 10 and 13 Work Experience

As part of their ongoing careers education, Years 10 and 13 have been out on work placements. For the Year 10s, this involved a 2 week placement at the end of May, and for the 13s, it was each Thursday throughout the whole year. Those completing placements included Aisha working at Wilson Stuart Nursery, Arman and Jack at Sutton Park Rangers, Kewin at The University of Birmingham, Jamie Ellison at the Co-op Supermarket in Great Barr and Zia Qamar at Focus Birmingham. All 11 pupils involved have worked very well on placements and some excellent feedback has been received from employers. It has been a rewarding experience for all and an introduction to the world of work. The present Year 12s are due to go on work placements each Thursday from September. Good luck to them all. Summer Music!

Milly and Miah have been very busy demonstrating their musical talents this term, both in the choir at the Music of Life concert in the Town Hall and as part of a 600 strong choir at the Summer Gala Concert in the Symphony Hall.

Requesting Holiday in Term Time A polite reminder as we have had an increasing number of requests from parents. You have to get permission from the Head Teacher if you want to take your child out of school during term time. You will only get permission if there are exceptional circumstances and we ask you to write a letter to the head teacher in advance to fully de-tail these. Routine holidays in term time cannot be authorised. If you take your child away without permission then the school will record this as an unauthorised absence and Birmingham Local Authority may prosecute in some circumstances.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the school’s Facebook page, our Twitter feed and our website.

www.priestleysmith.co.uk

You’ll find information about local places to go and activities you can do with your children.

https://twitter.com/search?q=birmingham%

20activities%20for%20children&src=typd

Have a look at our blog when you can

http://priestleysmith.edublogs.org/

What a packed Summer term we have had!

May I thank you for your continued support and

wish you a very happy Summer holiday.

Pupils break up from school on Friday 20th July

at 1.30 p.m. and return to school on Wednesday

5th September 2018.

With best wishes,

Helen Porter