A very big welcome back to all in 10G this week, we hope everyone has had a lovely Easter break and is raring to get going for our last term in 10G! Looking back at the photos for this week, I can’t actually believe how much we seem to have crammed into one week.

On Monday morning, everyone was back in school and most of us were happy to be back! Just a few grumpy teenagers who kept asking if it was time to go home yet, but we can live with that. We are continuing with our daily diaries every morning, where we start by typing the full date, using a core board to support us with our spellings. We are getting quicker and quicker at this now as we become more familiar with the days of the week and months of the year. Next week, we will be adding in a sentence about the weather and the season each day.
As Mrs Fisher has mentioned in a recent letter, Community Access will now take place on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and will focus on the priorities of the learners in each group. Due to the many different days we are missing this half term due to Bank Holidays, INSET days and strike days, everyone should still be able to take part in Community Access 4 times. It was Group 1’s turn to go out first this week and off they went with Miss Greenwood, Miss Smith and Mr Greenwood. Group 1 walked to Morrisons for a change and were working on walking sensibly, being aware of moving traffic, and then choosing what they would like to order from Morrisons Café by looking at the menu.
Back in class, a small group moved over to 10R with Mrs Powell to work on their Entry level Maths, whilst the rest of us stayed in class with Mrs Fisher and Mrs Cobham working on our new Functional English targets.
In the afternoon it was our second Parenting Awareness session as part of our ASDAN work. We recapped on Mrs Clegg’s visit with baby Phoebe from before the holidays and talked about what we know that a baby would need. We debated whether a baby would need a PlayStation, a scooter and whether a baby should drink Prime. It was a heated debate but was finally settled and explained that newborn baby’s do not need things like that. Instead, we found photos of things they do need, like a bottle, dummy, cot, blanket, nappies, pram. Some of us were sorting pictures into two groups: things that baby’s need and things that they don’t need.

Tuesday arrived and we were all enjoying the sunshine and the nicer weather. In the morning, we worked on a range of new targets that Mrs Fisher has set for us all. Some of us were using coreboards to help us comment on photographs of ourselves and our family’s, with a member of staff supporting my modelling this language to us as well. Some of us were working on coin recognition and finding out who knows the UK coins that we use. Some of us were continuing to work on money but combining coins and working out total amounts up to £2.
In the afternoon, the class split, and we took it in turns to go up to the Food Tech room with Miss Greenwood, Miss Smith and Mr Greenwood, or stay in class with Mrs Fisher and Mrs Cobham. In Food Tech we were working on following a set of simple visual instructions to make a pizza. This was the first time we had tried this for pizza, but we were impressed with some pupils who used their initiative and thinking and problem solving to be able to make their pizza with minimal support. When parents and carers join us for Sharing our Learning on Tuesday 9th May in the afternoon, the idea is that pupils will cook for you and that you will accompany them to the Food Tech room but you won’t be able to help them, they are going to show you what they can do independently (or with minimal support). If you are able to attend Sharing our Learning, please can you let Mrs Fisher know by writing in the diary or emailing her.
In class, Mrs Fisher’s group were making hot drinks as we have finally got out kettle in class ready for Café and snack times. Thank you to those who have sent a mug in for your child to keep in school. Those who haven’t please could you send one in this week as we start to prepare our own hot drinks.
Mrs Cobham’s group were playing a simple social skills game, involving asking questions and listening to the answers that our friends give.

Wednesday was a non-stop day. It was our first time back at Hindley Swimming Pool and we even got to have a little bit longer in the pool because Sycamore class were not able to go for their lesson in the slot before ours. It was very interesting to see how much pupils found swimming up and down to be physically challenging, everyone needed a lot of encouragement and reassurance to keep swimming as we had a lot of pupils congregating at one end of the pupil having a moan about their arms or their legs hurting. In total we must have swum about 12 lengths in 40 minutes, we know 10G can do much better than that! Shout out to Tyler and Ty for super swimming, there was no complaining from them both and they were even doing such brilliant swimming that Paula (the swimming teacher) decided to take an armband off them both, so they now only have 2 armbands on each arm! Excellent work! Everyone has been awarded a certificate and badge at swimming, but this must be purchased. Mrs Fisher will send out a message regarding this, if you want your child to purchase their certificate/badge then please send in the money on Wednesday.
There was no rest for the wicked in the afternoon, as it was straight into PE when we had had our dinner. Our topic for this half term is Outdoor Pursuits and this will link in nicely to our theme of Healthy Living. This week we were concentrating on hand eye co-ordination, thinking fast and using our reflexes, as well as practicing our throwing and catching. We played lots of different games involving throwing and catching, and to help build our physical stamina and fitness, if you dropped the ball or missed catching it, you had to run a lap of the playground. We moved over onto the school field just before the end of the session and poor Miss Greenwood ended up on the floor! Don’t worry though, everyone came to the rescue to check she was OK and Danny made sure she wasn’t dead by poking her in the eye!

Mrs Fisher’s PPA has swapped from a Thursday afternoon to it now being on a Thursday morning. Miss Anderton is back to teach Science and our new topic will be changing materials. In the afternoon, Mrs Fisher was back in class, and we were learning more about Personal Hygiene. Thank you to those who have sent in a deodorant for their child to keep in class, those who haven’t yet please could you send one in this week. We were looking at Personal Hygiene in general, thinking about different aspects of it including brushing our teeth, having a bath or shower regularly, wearing clean clothes, and washing our hands. It was very interesting to hear how everyone has their own routine for their personal hygiene and also interesting to hear how much pupils rely on parents/carers for this. We talked about how we are getting older now and how it is our responsibility to look after ourselves. We also talked about the weather getting warmer and with us increasing our physical activity, it is really important that we have a bath or shower more regularly, as well as wearing clean clothes every day. All this fits into our Healthy Living topic and we have decided that we are going to start using the showers following our swimming lessons so that we can all practice having a wash and washing our hair too. Mrs Fisher will send a message to everyone asking them to bring in shampoo and shower gel on a Wednesday for our swimming lesson, or pupils can use our class set of them if this is preferred.

On Friday it was Mrs Kelly’s last day with 10G. Mrs Kelly has been volunteering in 10G every Friday since September as she is currently completing her Teaching Assistant course whilst also working full-time doing a different job. Mrs Kelly has very kindly been giving up her one day off a week to come into class and support us, whilst also gaining valuable experience for her course. Mrs Kelly has decided to gain some experience in a mainstream school before her course finishes. We will miss Mrs Kelly very much and we wish her all the best for the remainder of her course. Mrs Cobham helped pupils make a beautiful card for Mrs Kelly to say thank you to her for all her help.
It was also our day to celebrate Eid in school. We worked together to decorate our class door with different pictures and decorations, and then in the afternoon, we got to sample some Indian foods. There were some very interesting reactions to the food tasting judging by the facial expressions on the photographs!
A huge congratulations to our Star of the Week this week, Danny. He has shown excellent teamwork this week by encouraging his friends to join in and giving them helpful tips to help them with their throwing and catching. Danny has demonstrated good communication skills too. Great work Danny!

As I mentioned above, our new theme is Healthy Living. Mr Murphy has very kindly lent 10G a class set of smart watches that we are going to start utilising in class throughout the half term. Pupils will receive their smart watch on Monday morning and will be wearing them in class every day. Watches will not come home, they will stay in school. The first aspect of Healthy Living that we will be concentrating on will be increasing our physical activity and improving our physical fitness. Pupils and staff will be set a step goal every day which they will be encouraged to achieve before they leave school to come home. Due to this, we are asking for all pupils to wear trainers for school every day. Uniform can still be worn (apart from Wednesday when we have swimming and PE) but trainers are a necessity. I will send this information in a message to all parents and carers. If anyone has any questions or queries regarding this, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

We will see everyone on Monday, have a lovely weekend!

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

10G Summer Week 1