Meadowside magazine Issue 5 Autumn 2014

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Meadowside Magazine. As we approach the end of a busy Autumn Term it is a good time to reflect on some of the exciting events and learning opportunities that the pupils have enjoyed since September. We made good use of the warm, dry weather that we had for the first half term for lots of outdoor curriculum activity at venues including Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre, Delamere Forest and New Brighton.

Visitors to the school will have seen evidence of the major refurbishment that took place at Meadowside School between July and November. Our new Community room is now in use by parents and other visitors to the school, we have a new medical room and medical food preparation suite which together with a new reception and office accommodation have made a huge difference to the use and presentation of our school. In the New Year we will be unveiling our new Immersive Theatre and sensory suite which will help us create a wide range of amazing learning environments. Invitations to our Grand Opening will be circulated in January 2015.

I should like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

Paula Wareing — Head Teacher

This year we had lots of new as well as familiar pupils at the Meadowside School Summer Activity Scheme.

Activities included :- cooking, Wii dance, visit to Delamere Forest, pamper mornings, Riverside bowl in New Brighton, trampolining, visit to Cheshire Ice Cream Farm, making new friends, iiPad time, arts and crafts, ’BIG’ cricket and rounders and movie and popcorn afternoon.

All pupils had a fantastic time and we look forward to Summer 2015.

Mr Stubbs

In P.E this term pupils have been taking part in OAA (outdoor and adventure activities) looking at teamwork, teambuilding games, trust, problem solving and map reading.

Some Post 16 pupils are taking part in our ‘freestyle gymnastics’ lessons, looking at some movements associated with Parkour/Free running.

Tranmere Rovers Football Club have also been coming in on Friday mornings to do seated dance and football/basic skills with Post 16.

We achieved the ‘SILVER’ award for the Sainsbury’s School Games Mark. Congratulations to everyone for your hard work in P.E and School sport.

Mr Stubbs

Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre Each week ten pupils attend the centre at Crosby. This term we have been sailing, bell boating, kayaking and pupils also had a fabulous time raft building.

Together with Meadowside staff, the Centre staff at Crosby ensure that our pupils have a fabulous time on the water and are safely looked after.

Ms Wright

This term the students in the Fusion group have been enjoying their offsite lessons in a range of new places. They have been to the ship wreck at New Brighton and Tam O’ Shanter’s Farm as well as the RAP at Rowan Park School in Liverpool. Despite the rain, the learners enjoyed the ‘adult sized’ play equipment: Matthew tried the zip wire and Sean wowed us all with his ability to scale the climbing wall! The group is practising their independent living skills whilst out in the community. Kim referred to the giant tree house as ‘the flat’ and it provided us with a perfect place to make each other cups of tea and share some relaxed social time. The RAP at Rowan Park is a safe outdoor space and parents of children with disabilities are entitled to apply for a key to the park. Look out for details at www.rowanpark.co.uk Mrs Dunn

Maths This term, learners in Key Stages 3 and 4 have gone back to basics. They have been working hard at refreshing and mastering their addition and subtraction skills. Christopher communicates really cleverly to indicate the answer to the problems he is shown, and he is beginning to master the ability to add up.

The majority of the students have been given exercise books to work from and are taking a great deal of pride in their work. Using the books makes it easy for individuals to see how much progress they are making and promotes independent learning, as the learners are able to look back over previous work for tips on how to complete the task in hand. Daniel Mc said “ I love my maths book”.

Mrs Dunn

Students in Key Stage 4 have been learning about materials and their properties. We have been doing a lot of practical work this term and everyone seems to be enjoying this element of the subject. Early in the term, we made omelettes and chocolate buttons when learning about reversible and non-reversible changes.

We are all having to work very hard to improve our knowledge of fair testing. To help us with this we did the sugar cube challenge. This involved dissolving sugar cubes in different amounts of water to see which amount could dissolve the most.

When further investigating materials, we considered the properties of different materials and used a range of them to make egg protectors. In order to test the effectiveness of our egg protectors we threw eggs in the playground! We plan to test more materials by making and launching rockets with different nose cones.

Mrs Dunn

Design and Technology g

Tony

Daniel

Scott

4C Group Entry Level has completed a module called ‘Design and make a container made from fabric’.

All pupils have gained further confidence and skills in using textiles. Their bags are all unique and of a good standard.

Well done 4C. Miss Hoffmann

Ryan

Flair Group Design Technology Daniel was able to change direction from one object to the other.

is practising swapping an object from one hand to the other and using both hands to stretch the shiny decorations

Enterprise - Preparing Christmas Decorations

Karl

Kieran and Christopher playing together with the Noah’s Ark Toy

Religious Education Class 4L undertaking accreditation work on relationships and taking part in an activity.

Leila sorting out the animals from Noah’s Ark that have four legs.

Ewan writing about different relationships.

Mrs Carr

Student Council and Meadowside Interact Club Wednesday 15th October: As part of our commitment to helping in the environment, two groups braved the weather and ventured to Thurstastan Beach to “Litter Pick”. Thank you to Gordon Caddy and other members of West Wirral Rotary who were there to help us.

Thursday 16th October: Pupils attended the Wirral Youth Voice Conference held at Wallasey Town Hall. It was a brilliant day and very informative.

Wednesday 26th November: The Duke of Edinburgh group visited Queen’s Park in Hoylake to plant 30 more saplings that we received from The Woodland Trust, members of the Rotary met us there to help us.

The weather conditions were very cold and we were all very grateful to the staff at the Queen’s Park Community Tearoom who opened up especially for us.

Monday 8th December: our collection for Bag2school was picked up, money raised from this will go towards our “Wateraid” international project.

Friday December 12th: Governors joined us to meet with School Council and Interact for the last meeting of this term.

Mrs Freeman

Vocational Education This term, Post 16 learners are enjoying a range of experiences and activities which are designed to develop their Key Skills. Examples include running a Mini-Enterprise (Tuck Shop and Christmas Decorations) and local Environmental Issues (School Improvement - indoors and outdoors).

New experiences in the Key Stage 4 and Post 16 Departments this term include a Construction Course at the Vocational College, which runs one day per week, and a short Gardening Equipment: Maintenance and Use course at Royden Park. In addition, some learners are participating in a greater focus on Education in the Community and exploring Community Facilities.

The Mayor of Wirral with (from left) Chris, Ben, Matthew, Liz and Mrs Vickers.

Mrs Vickers

Careers Education

Jenny (TA), with Bob in the background, and (from left) Natalie, Chelsea and Robert

In addition to their weekly Careers lessons, learners inPost 16 were excited to be able to attend a lecture and Q&A session with three ex-Meadowsiders: Natalie, Chelsea and Robert.

The focus of the event was “The Challenges of Transition” and each of our guest speakers had a very different experience of life after Meadowside. Not only were members of the audience extremely well-behaved and attentive, (staff as well as learners!) they also learnt a lot from the speakers.

The wide range of questions asked by learners, included:



What is college like?



How long did it take for you to feel confident in college?

 

How do you manage your bills?

What do you do in your spare time?

How do you cope with being stressed and worried?

Well done to everyone involved and a massive “Thank You” to Chelsea, Natalie and Robert.

Early in December, a small group of Post 16 learners visited the Floral Pavilion to experience “The Big Event”.

There were representatives from numerous support groups, health providers and sources of complementary medicine and holistic therapy. The group experienced and enjoyed interactive workshops, healthy activities etc and found out about possible ventures they might enjoy when they leave Meadowside, including Dale Farm, the Royden Project and Best Bites. There were also stalls which provided information on, among other things, Supported Living, Wirral Metropolitan College, the Wirral Autistic Society and the Shaw Trust.

We were very pleased to have our photograph taken with the Mayor of Wirral, Mr Steve Foulkes.

Mrs Vickers

Life Skills: Key Stage 3/4 and Post 16 ‘Celebrations’ is the topic for Life Skills this term. To celebrate Harvest Festival, pupils have made food products using foods associated with harvest such as vegetables, fruit and flour. Many pupils created various flavoured bread that included cheese and onion, garlic and rosemary, curry and fruit loaf. We also made soups, baked potatoes and pizzas. Witches’ fingers and spooky cookies were made for Halloween. We made sausage rolls and baked potatoes for Bonfire night.

Making Pizza with a homemade bread base for Bonfire night.

Mrs Jones

On Friday December 5th a group of pupils took part in a charity bag-pack at the Morrisons store in New Brighton. It was an excellent opportunity for pupils to gain experience of working in the local community whilst also raising money for the ’Text Santa Appeal’.

After our visit Morrisons told us the pupils were a credit to the school, and we have been offered a further opportunity to do a another bag-pack next year.

Everyone enjoyed wearing the Christmas hats and head dresses and began to get into a Festive mood.

- Mrs Freeman

Key stage 4 pupils made paper lanterns as part of their 3D art project.

These beautiful lanterns will be used in this year’s Christmas carol service at Holy Cross Church.

Mrs Carr

Down on the farm This term at Woodchurch High School Farm learners from 16V have learnt a lot about how to look after small animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs and tortoises. They have helped the farm technician perform health checks and weigh some of the animals too. They have also enjoyed feeding the goats and meeting the new alpacas!

Ms Ubeda-Escuderos

Rachel changing the rabbit’s water bottle

Philip weighing one of the rabbits.

Kenny doing a health check on Oscar the tortoise

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Music The music department contributed to the start of a very positive year with the achievement of Artsmark. The Signing Singers were recognised as playing a significant role in the musical achievements of the school. We have been practising our singing skills, learning a self-esteem boosting song called What I Am, sung by the aptly named will.i.am. We have just completed a host of carol singing activities, including hosting the Merseyside Signalong. We are looking forward to expanding on our musical skills when we begin using the new Immersive Suite in the New Year.

Mrs Hughes

English We have been developing our Drama skills this term. We watched Willy Russell’s play ‘Our Day Out’’ and plan to perform it in the Spring Term at a real theatre. We have been using puppets to perform a Christmas play called Babushka and started filming scene by scene. Some learners have been developing their communication skills off-site, in real life situations such as the café at Tam O Shanter’s farm. They place orders and make requests with some support. One of our off-site destinations was the local sculpture ’The Black Pearl’. This provided a great opportunity for talking about life as a pirate at sea.

Mrs Hughes

Computing This term we began using Google Apps for Education, which provided an email account and online storage space for many learners. We used the email details to log into ‘ThingLink’ and create some fantastic interactive images. They are posted online under ‘Pupil work’. We have been using the new wireless switches that enable learners to interact with the screen from across the room, creating sounds and effects independently. The camera on the iPad can be used as a controller too; we have used ‘Colour Band’ to play music by just wiggling our fingers or looking left and right.

Some of our learners have featured in an online magazine called ‘Innovate My School’, showing them using different technologies to access the curriculum.

Mrs Hughes

Horse Riding with the Riding for the Disabled Association at Foxes Riding School

Science Enrichment at Woodchurch High School On Wednesday afternoons a group of pupils go to Woodchurch High School for Science enrichment lessons. We have made rockets and some fantastic fireworks. We have had lots of fun, but also plenty of practice in the safe use of Bunsen burners.

Ms Pude

Creative Youth Development On Friday mornings a group of pupils go to Creative Youth Development in Pilgrim Street in Birkenhead. It is a great opportunity to meet together, talk about ourselves and say what things are going well for us. We play games such as ‘Grandma’s Footsteps’ which is a favourite with the students. We also work in pairs to do mirror images and play Zip Zap Zoom. We enjoy doing freeze frame pieces where we are given a scenario to think about and then use our drama skills to act out the scenario.

Ms Pude

News from the kitchen garden We have now got a new greenhouse and vegetable planter funded from the Love Wirral grant that we won. Thank you to everyone that voted for us.

Onions and potatoes grown in the kitchen garden

Personal, Social and Health Education Some pupils in Post 16 recently went to see a play ‘You would if you loved me’ at the Wirral Youth Theatre. The play about relationships was very moving and informative to the pupils. Comments from the pupils included ‘Fantastic’, ‘Scary, funny but good’, ‘I learnt what I can do in a bad relationship’ The topic linked to the PSHE work on relationships last term and to the current PSHE topic on safety.

Mrs Jones

School Nursing Staff Meadowside School nurses are Linda Chubb and Pauline Anderson, with support from Health Care Assistant Bev Humphreys. Pauline works at Meadowside School two days a week and has joined us from Lyndale School.

Jane Cleaver has now moved to Elleray Park School. She has worked with us for many years and we would like to thank her for all her hard work. Whilst Jane will be sadly missed from the nursing team she will still be at Meadowside on Wednesdays to teach Personal, Social and Health Education.

Should you wish to contact the school nursing team their new direct dial number is 0151 678 1433, or you contact them via the main school number 051 678 7711.

Mrs Chubb

Special Certificates A group of learners were special guests of the Mayor at Wallasey Town Hall earlier this term. Students visited the Council Chambers and had tea in the Mayor’s Parlour. Pupils were presented with special certificates for City and Guilds Level 1 in Practical Horticulture by the Mayor. The Mayor also presented Taylor with a Special Commendation from the Boys’ Brigade.

On behalf of the Governors and staff of Meadowside School we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2015.

Meadowside School Pool Lane Woodchurch Wirral CH49 5LA Telephone 0151 678 7711 www.meadowsideschool.com

Thanks again to our sponsor, Newhall Publications, for printing this edition of the magzine.