Bulletin October 2011

IntroThis half term has seen some excellent work from all classes.

 

Thank you to all those parents who came in to school to meet with their child’s teacher and discuss the individual pathways for their child.  Your input has meant that each pupil now has an individual timetable which reflects the views of you as parents, as well as teachers and therapists.  We will shortly be setting new IEP (Individual Education Plan) targets based on their individual needs. 

It was also great to welcome parents into school for our harvest festival.  The special assembly involved some excellent singing, dancing, reading and acting.  The gifts of food were gratefully received by The Open Door in Cheltenham.

Our new school council was elected by the pupils on October 3rd.  They will have an important role in running our school; helping to make decisions on behalf of their friends, and by representing Bettridge School.

Bettridge School Council: Connor Orpin, Harry Hearn, Elliott Westgate, Jack Royston, Guy Joynes, Lisa Jones, Jessica Poppleton, Keiran Evans

There are some pictures of the elections, together with lots of information, activities for children, photos, sign for the week and much more on our website.  We have tried to make this more child-friendly by installing some special software called “point” . If you hover over a word, the symbols for that word will appear.  It’s great fun. Do have a go. The link is www.bettridge.org.uk

Mandy Roberts 

School finishes: Friday 21st October 2011 

Pupils return: Tuesday 1st November 2011

PUPIL ABSENCE DUE TO HOLIDAY

Please note that as from 1st September, the procedure for requesting absence for holiday during term time has changed.  Please send a note through the school pupil diary asking for a Holiday Pupil Request Form.  This will be sent home for you to complete and needs to be returned to the Headteacher who will assess the request and make a decision.

We understand that financially it is advantageous to take holidays during school term dates, however, please bear in mind that this has a detrimental effect on your child’s education and we do not encourage it except under rare circumstances.

 

EYEarly Years have some new children in Early Years and the rest of our children are now with us for more days. Here are some of us having fun in the swimming pool (which is new to some of us!). We wanted to say a big thank you to Lucy and all of the other volunteers from Zurich who worked really hard to make our outside area look fantastic! Thanks to them we now have stepping stones, a painted bench, two apple trees and lots of pretty climbing plants. Thank you very much!
SquirrelsSquirrels have enjoyed getting to know one another. Our favourite lessons so far are swimming, soft play and food technology. We've made some sandwiches, spreading our own fillings!
FoxesFoxes pupils have enjoyed learning about the Great Fire of London, especially baking cakes and making a tall monument like the one in the city!
RabbitsRabbits have been accessing numeracy using the interactive white board. Pupils take turns to press the screen and wait for an animated rhyme to reinforce counting on, adding and subtracting.
ToadsToads are enjoying their riding lessons every Wednesday and have been very lucky with the weather so far!During the autumn term the children are learning all about The Great Fire of London and have learnt all about the Bakery on Pudding Lane.  We’ve even started to create a 3D display of the Great Fire!
HedgehogsHedgehogs have been cooking cakes and biscuits that are made around Jewish New Year.
S1S1 are studying the River Severn in Geography.  On 28th September they visited the River Severn at Maisemore and watched the Severn Bore make its way down the river with surfers and canoeists in it.  It made the river very muddy.
S2Pupils in S2 enjoyed making and tasting Angel Delight
S3In S3 we have welcomed Andy, a new pupil, to Bettridge School.  We are helping Andy to settle in and showing him all the exciting things we love to do. Our favourite class activity is going to Dundry Nurseries to do gardening work. We all love cooking our own lunch too; we have made pizza, meringue, sponge cake, fish and chips and even blackberry and apple crumble.... yummy!
S4S4-2S4 have been making their lunch upstairs in the Food Tech room on a Friday.  They decide at the beginning of the week what they want to cook, and buy their ingredients later on the week ready to cook on Friday morning.  Some pupils go with staff to Morrisons where they purchase their ingredients.On a Tuesday morning key stage 4 go to Dundry Nurseries where they are working towards their Horticulture certificate.
S5-2S5S5 have really enjoyed going to Dundry Nursuries this half term.  For the majority of the class it is the first time that they have been involved in Dundry.  We all like breaking up the compost which is very therapeutic, ready for filling up the trays and planting seeds and small plants.  We have also visited the nature garden there.
S6S6 have settled well this term.  We have welcomed new staff and pupils but everyone is getting on well.  We have taken full advantage of the unseasonably good weather and have taken every opportunity to get out and about working on our new BTEC modules.  We are looking forward to the rest of an exciting year ahead.
Post_16In Post 16 this term they have been taking part in an exciting series of sensory stories about a magic carpet which takes to exotic countries.  They have started by ‘visiting’ India and have enjoyed many different sights, sounds and tastes.