This week has been jam packed with it being Children’s Mental Health Week as well as Safer Internet Day on Tuesday as well. Think we’ve all worked so hard that we deserve a week off now!

On Monday, Group 1 went shopping with Mrs Cobham and Miss Holliday. Back in class we were continuing our Maths work, moving on to looking at quarter past times on the clocks, making different amounts of money up to £2, recognising teen numbers and counting objects accurately to 15. In the afternoon, we continued our PSHE sex and relationship education by talking about keeping things private. We talked about areas of our body that we should keep private and read a social story together about how if someone asks us to see or touch our private body parts, we should say no (unless they are a doctor or family member). We learnt that we are in charge of our bodies and that it is OK for us to say no. I’m sure you will agree that this is a very important lesson for our learners to become more familiar with, and it sparked some very mature and thoughtful conversations as a result. We will cover more on consent, linked to this, after half term. We finished the session by sorting some activities that we might take part in into two groups: Public and Private. It was great to see that most of our learners know which things we should do in private and which things are OK to do in front of other people.

On Tuesday it was Safer Internet Day. Mrs Cobham made a brilliant video showing how you can sign Safer Internet Day in Makaton:

We kicked off the day by joining the Google live assembly on YouTube where we were introduced to the theme for this year’s day: Making space for conversations about life online. We agreed that, as a class, we have started to get better at this since Christmas and that our weekly Online Safety sessions have helped with this too. After the assembly, Group 2 visited Asda Café to purchase some snacks with Mrs Cobham, Miss Greenwood and Miss Smith. In class, some of us were practicing our Entry Level 1 Maths by trying out a practice exam paper, while the rest of us were working on our Sight Reading and typing skills.

In the afternoon, a small group of learners went into the Food Tech room with Miss Greenwood and Miss Holliday to make some emotions biscuits. They looked at emojis and talked about how they were feeling, then used the icing and other decorations to decorate biscuits to represent the different emotions that we might feel. In class, Mrs Cobham and Mrs Fisher were continuing our work for Safer Internet Day. Learners were asked to rank their online activities in order from most to least favourite. The most popular activity seemed to be either listening to music online, playing online games or streaming TV/films online. Most of the class enjoyed doing these activities the most when online. Least favourites seemed to be online shopping and looking for information online. After we had talked about the good things that we do online, we started to look at some of the issues that we might face when being online. We talked about online bullying and what this might look like. We are very lucky that very few of us have been subjected to online bullying and we talked about some useful solutions if it ever happened to us: tell parents, report them, block them, ignore them. We moved on to talking about seeing things that scare us when we are online. Some of us said that we can be watching a video and then when it’s finished a scary video might play next that we don’t like. Some of us have chosen to watch videos of something that we like and then it changes part way through to something scary and then some of us have had videos sent to us that people think are funny but that we don’t find funny. We talked about the different things we could do in these situations if they happen again.

On Wednesday, Mrs Cobham led some activities themed around connecting with each other as the theme for Children’s Mental Health Week. Please have a look at Mrs Cobham’s blog to see more information and photographs of this: https://astleypark.lancs.sch.uk/blog/2023-02-10-14-12-55-let-s-connect-in-10g

In the afternoon, we were very lucky to have some ex-Astley Park pupils from Sir Tom Finney Community College come into school to talk to Year 10 and 11 about their experience of college. Mrs Powell’s class wrote some very interesting questions that the college students answered for us about the courses they are accessing, what they do in their free time, how many days a week they access college and most importantly, what is the food like! When 10G came back to class pupils were keen to discuss college in more detail and this set off a spontaneous circle time around college and the changes it will bring for us when the time comes to leave Astley Park School. There were a range of feelings and emotions through the group; some excitement to try something new and to learn new things, some apprehension about leaving such a familiar setting and their friends. It was really good to hear the talk amongst the pupils and we will continue to encourage this, as we do with all topics.

On Thursday and Friday the internet was off at school, which basically means the end of the world! But it was OK as we could carry on with most of the things that we would normally be doing. It was Group 3’s turn to go to Asda with Mrs Cobham and Miss Smith. They treated themselves to a snack and a drink in the café, selecting their own snack and exchanging coins to pay. In school, we were continuing our work for Children’s Mental Health Week. Mrs Fisher explained we were going to be talking about things that we are comfortable with and things that make us uncomfortable. Some of us were unsure of what these words meant so we tried to come up with some examples to help our understanding. We looked at some different scenarios on the screen and then took it in turns to say if we would feel comfortable in this situation or if it would make us uncomfortable. Some of us even expanded by saying why we felt like this. We looked at theme parks where some of us said we love the big rides, whereas some of us are scared of the rides. We also spoke about the crowds at a theme park and queuing for rides as well. Then we spoke about shopping, either clothes shopping or food shopping. Some of us don’t go shopping at all because we dislike it so much, others prefer to shop online and a few of us like going shopping and trying on clothes too. Finally, we talked about getting our hair cut. Again, this was a split decision with some of us enjoying the experience of going to a barbers or hairdressers compared to some who dislike it so their parents/family friend cuts it at home for them. We talked about how it was OK to feel like this and that it was OK for someone else to have a different opinion of a situation than we do. We noticed how we are all connected through our likes and dislikes of different scenarios.

In the afternoon, Miss Anderton came in class to teach some Science. We went outside to explore objects that we can make change shape, and ones that can’t change their shape.

We finally made it to the last day of the half term on Friday. We were all very excited for McDonalds at dinner time and lots of us were chatting about the Valentine’s Disco from Thursday night. Group 4 went to Asda with Mrs Cobham, Miss Holliday and Mrs Kelly to enjoy a snack and a drink in the café.

A big congratulations to our Star of the Week this week, Jacob! Jacob has demonstrated that he can think maturely in a variety of situations as well as doing amazing listening while Mrs Cobham has been reading our class book of Holes. Well done!

We hope everyone has a lovely half term and we will see everyone back in school on Monday 20th February.

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

10G Safer Internet Day and Spring Week 6