Another busy week in 10G this week! On Monday morning we began our topic of Letters and Postcards in our Key Stage 4 English work. One group of pupils were sorting letters and postcards into groups. Another group were working with Mrs Fisher to look at the physical differences between postcards and letters e.g. one has a picture on it, one doesn’t etc. We used Book Creator to sort the features between the two items. The third group were looking at alternative ways of sending a letter or a postcard by looking at 2Email on Purple Mash and sending a message to a friend in class.

As mentioned last week, on a Monday afternoon we are working on our independence skills. After our road safety baselines last week, we have grouped pupils according to their priorities on their EHCPs. One group went out of school with Miss Patterson and Miss Smith to look for different types of pedestrian crossings. Another group stayed in school with Mrs Fisher and looked at the basics of crossing the road, having a go at putting simple instructions in the right order to be able to cross a road safely. The third group were working on their cleaning skills and were using a simple schedule to run a bowl of hot, soapy water ready for doing the washing up.

Before we went home on Monday, we all made our own avatars on Purple Mash on the iPads. Have a look at the photos and see if you can guess who is who!

Tuesday morning was Maths and we had lots of different things going on at the same time. Some pupils were practicing recognising their teen numbers and finding the numbers in the cloudy blue water in the sensory tub. Another group were recognising coins by sight and ordering them according to their value, while another group were learning to tell the time when the clock is showing an o’clock time.

In the afternoon, we split into our two groups for our cooking session. Group one made fruit salad in the Food Tech room. We worked on reading the recipe and following the simple instructions, as well as beginning to use a sharp knife safely. This was tricky and some of us were a little bit apprehensive about using a sharp knife. However, with lots of encouragement and support where needed, we all had a try and used them safely too. Group two were in class making fruit kebabs. This week they followed the instructions with support from Miss Smith or Miss Patterson, so next week the challenge is to follow the instructions independently to make a fruit kebab again.

Wednesday morning was all about Calvert Trust, we have been looking at the different activities that we might be able to do whilst we are there in November, as well as looking at old photographs from when some of our 10G pupils visited there when they were in Y6 and Y7. It has been really good for pupils and staff to chat about residential and this has provided a safe space for pupils to voice any worries or concerns they might have about going on residential. We are really hoping that everyone in 10G can accompany us on our visit in November. Information packs will be being sent out when we return to school from half term at the beginning of November, we will let you know when they have been sent home.

The weather forecast for Wednesday looked awful so, as a precaution, it was decided that we would be dropped off and picked up from Chorley All Seasons when we were doing PE in the afternoon to avoid being blown away! Thankfully, the weather wasn’t too bad at all. A big thank you to Mrs Powell and Mr Murphy for transporting us to and from the leisure centre. We began learning how to pivot this week, which is quite a tricky move to master. We recapped using a chest pass and a bounce pass and next week we will be looking at putting all three of these manoeuvres into practice.

Thursday morning consisted of our second English session of the week. We were practicing our typing skills, deciding who we are going to write a letter to and some of us were being Post people by going around school delivering letters and postcards to different classes.

In the afternoon, Miss Troughton was in class teaching Science again and what fun everyone had! We were learning about heart rate, using a stethoscope to listen to our heart beat and drumming the rhythm on a drum, as well as learning more about blood and what it is made up of.

Finally, on Friday we were using our knowledge of number in our Maths session. We are learning about telephones and how the numbers that we dial allow us to speak to a particular person on the other end of the phone. We enjoyed hunting for our internal phone numbers that were hidden around school, then working out which number belonged to which class/member of staff’s office. We practiced dialling phone numbers on our Post Office phone too. It was very interesting to hear that some pupils aren’t sure what a telephone is, Mrs Fisher wonders if people still have landline phones or if everyone just uses mobile phones now?

New homework has been set this week, again this is themed around the Zones of Regulation and what to do if your child is feeling like they are in the Blue Zone and their engine is very slow. Please help your child to think of strategies that they use at home to get their engine quicker and to move back to the Green Zone. Thank you to those who completed last week’s homework with their learner, it is very much appreciated. Mrs Fisher has marked them and returned them so that you can keep them at home for your reference. It would be great if everyone could bring their homework folders in on a Friday ready for new homework to be set.

10G seems to have been hit by the lurgy this week and we have had quite a few pupils feeling poorly. We hope everyone manages to feel better this weekend and is fighting fit ready for Monday. Poor Mrs Cobham has also been off this week due to hurting her back, so we wish her a speedy recovery too. We all thoroughly enjoyed our Teams call with Mrs Cobham as well on Friday afternoon, we were very glad to see her smiley face and see that she is OK. We can't wait to have her back in school with us.

Congratulations to 10G’s Star of the Week this week, Josh! Josh has had a super week this week in class. He has been taking part in some Intensive Interaction sessions with Mrs Fisher and is intentionally communicating his wants and needs with a wider range of staff. On Thursday afternoon, Josh had a brilliant time in Miss Troughton’s Science lesson and was fully engaged in all activities. Well done, Josh!

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and we will see everyone on Monday morning for more fun!

Mrs Fisher, Mrs Cobham, Miss Patterson, Miss Smith and Miss Holliday

10G Week 5