What a wet and windy week it has been in school this week. We have made it to the end in one piece.

On Monday morning it was our weekly visit to the gym at All Seasons Leisure Centre. This week we were continuing our work in pairs but adding a challenge element. Everyone was asked to spend 8 minutes on each piece of cardio equipment (bike, treadmill, cross trainer, rower and stepper) and see who from each pair could travel the furthest distance within the 8 minutes. It was wonderful to see everyone so focused and determined this week, only a few words of encouragement were needed to keep everyone on task. Miss Brown was in charge of the scores on the doors and announced back at school the winners for each piece of equipment.

In the afternoon we continued with our ASDAN Community Action unit where we were thinking about scenarios that we might find ourselves in when accessing the community. For each scenario we discussed what we would do and who in the community we would ask for help. There were some very good discussions that took place around safe strangers in the community and how we know if someone is a safe stranger. We even took part in some short role-play activities to act out exactly what we would say or do when in a certain situation.

On Tuesday morning we played a quick game of Guess Who before break time. Mr Crofts had chosen a famous person and the class had to take it in turns to ask questions to find out more information about the celebrity, and ultimately guess who it was. We have been working on asking questions to gain information and this was a great way to practice this skill.

After play time, it was time for Maths. We started with a game to warm up our brains. Learners got to choose a friend to team up with to play the quiz wheel game. Questions were addition or subtraction questions and learners could use a hundred square to help them find their answer if they wished. It was very close in the end with Team 1, 3 and 5 being joint winners with 16 points. We split into our Maths groups to complete our work. Some of us were working on Statistics and interpreting data from a simple chart, whilst the rest of us were learning more about 2D shapes and the differences between squares and rectangles.

In the afternoon Mrs Fisher and Mr Crofts took a small group at a time up to the Food Tech room to practice their chopping skills. Learners were working on two chopping techniques: bridge and claw methods. This week we were using Playdoh to practice our cutting, next week we will use fruit and vegetables to practice these new techniques.

Back in class, Mrs Cobham was leading Good to Be Me group where they were talking about things that worry us and what we can do to help when we feel worried. The conversation turned to bereavement and learners discussed losing family members and pets. Mrs Cobham said the group were so supportive of each other, discussing the subject very maturely and supporting their friends with good advice.

On Wednesday morning after break, Mrs Cobham led a session linked to Environmental Awareness about different types of pollution and environmental issues that affect the learners in their lives. They thought about different issues such as noise pollution, traffic jams, litter etc. Pupils have started to think about the issues that they have in their local environment and how they affect their lives.

In the afternoon, Mrs Fisher was back in class for our next Zones session. We recapped our learning about expected and unexpected behaviours, then we looked at Zones in films. We watched Toy Story 4 and discussed the Zones that the different characters were experiencing. We had some excellent discussions about the Zones and how and why Woody might hide his feelings to reassure his friends. We talked about how Bonnie was feeling going to school for the first time and trying to remember how we felt when we started at our school. We related this to how we might feel when we start at our settings at college in September and we talked about different ways that we might regulate our Zones to help us.

Thursday morning was back to Chorley in Bloom with Gill and Iris. We walked down to the hub behind All Seasons Leisure Centre to listen to Iris talk to us about seeds and planting. We looked at sweet peas and climbing beans and talked about how they grow then we all took turns to plant some of each seed in plant pots using the compost. Iris and Gill have said they will look after our seeds this week and we have put them in their polytunnel at Chorley in Bloom.

In the afternoon we completed our Zones lesson from Wednesday afternoon. We split into 3 groups to look at some different video clips from different films and programmes. Some of us were thinking about which Zone the characters were in, some of us were thinking about the Zones and naming the specific emotions that the characters might have been feeling and then some of us were thinking of strategies of how the characters could regulate their Zones.

On Friday morning we had our first English session about David Attenborough’s documentary- Wild Isles. We watched some exerts from the first episode where we saw some Orca whales who were chasing grey seals and eating them. Then we learnt about the golden eagles that live in the mountains in Scotland and how they like to eat deer. We split into our groups to complete some writing about the new information we had learnt and practiced constructing sentences and reading them back to check that they make sense. Some of us were adding a capital letter at the beginning and a capital letter at the end.

A huge congratulations to our Star of the Week this week Tyler! Tyler has had a brilliant week in school. He has shown a huge amount of empathy and concern towards one of his peers in class this has had difficult time and Tyler has also demonstrated a greater understanding of his own state of regulation.

Have a lovely weekend and we will see everyone on Monday morning for more fun.

Mrs Fisher, Mrs Cobham, Mr Crofts, Miss Brown

11G Spring Week 3