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 rachelevans@advancetrust.org 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: valereception@advancetrust.org

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