Kemball School

Summer Newsletter

2016

Well it is hard to believe that another academic year is over. Time really does seem

to be flying by (it must be my age!!) but what a busy year it has been. I think the staff

are definitely ready for the summer break, I know I am!!

We have been busy recruiting again. The new staff will be joining us in September

but they did get a chance to meet their pupils during transition week. Our new

teachers are Cathy (Paragon 1), Darryl (Gladstone 1), Jade (Coalport 1) and

Amanda (Aynsley 1). We also have new teaching assistants joining us. They are

Jemma, Katie, Chloe, Gaynor, Rebecca, Lindsey, Lauren, Jeanette, Stacey, Gemma

and Joy. Clare Easby is also taking up her new post as HTLA, working around

school. At the end of this term we welcomed back, Kathy, Felicity and Amer, from

their maternity leave. It was great to see them back in school. We will also be

welcoming new pupils to our school in September. It is hard to believe that we will

have over 150 pupils on role in the new academic year, especially when we moved

in three years ago with 57 pupils. It’s no wonder I am going grey.

On a sadder note, we say goodbye to our teaching assistant Katie Blurton and

Gemma who has been covering Aynsley 1 class. We are also saying goodbye to our

year 11 leavers, Asim, Mitchell, Brendan and Jessica. They are all very excited to

be moving onto college but I am sure that there will be a few tears on the last day

(probably from me!!)

The summer celebration assemblies were a success again and it was great to see

so many of you and be able to share in your child’s achievements. The choir also

put on a fantastic performance of Eddie the Penguin Saves the World. Lorraine, our

music teacher, has worked so hard putting the play together, rehearsing with the

children and making the props. She has even been coming into school on her days

off to make sure that everything went well. The children who took part really loved

performing and are keen to do it all over again next year.

As a school we have achieved so much this year: Eco Green Flag, Bronze Music

award, Food for Life Bronze award, Stoke Speaks Out level 4 accreditation, Level 1

RHS Schools Gardening award and we were also the first special school in Stoke-

on-Trent to achieve 360 degree E-safety accreditation. We are extremely pleased

with our achievements and I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you

to all the staff who continue to work so hard all year around and make the school a

place to be proud of. I would also like to thank parents and carers for their continued

support. We place high emphasis on working as a collaborative team and I think that

shows in the achievements that our pupils make.

Anyway I’ll let you read about all the wonderful things

that your child has been doing this term. I hope you

all have a lovely summer and I’ll see you in

September.

Lisa

Doulton 1 Newsletter Summer Term.

We have had so much fun during our topic of “Holidays “this term, it’s difficult to

know where to begin! However, despite the weather we have explored all kinds of

holidays!

During first week back at school we learnt about Beach holidays. We were fortunate

enough to have some nice weather and managed to get outdoors to play in our man

made beach. We built sand castles, paddled, created a rock pool and tasted different

flavour ice creams. In maths we have been learning about capacity and so we were

able to do lots of filling and emptying when making sandcastles.

Next we visited Spain during cultural Studies week. The foyer and hall was turned

into an airport and we flew to Spain! We were visited by artists who helped us with

our colourful felt creations. We learnt about the La Tomatina festival and made a

great mess with tomatoes! We created bull headbands and performed a role play of

a bull fight. The pupils had great fun chasing the matador with the red flag.

Our next venture took us camping. Our beach role play area was transformed into a

camp site with a tent and the pupils were supported to make a camp fire. We sang

camp songs and tasted hot chocolate. We made excellent tactile camp fire pictures

using textured materials.

We continued learning about holidays by taking a sight seeing holiday. We explored

the pyramids of Egypt in the sand tray, Big Ben with a range of clocks ( puzzle,

tactile, alarm), the great barrier reef in our water tray, the lights of Las Vegas in the

sensory room, and we even went to Italy and built our own leaning tower using

blocks.

Finally we went on a Safari holiday. We had great fun exploring different animals

through rhyme and sensory play. We played with safari small world toys and

puppets. We even made safari headbands as one of our mark making activities.

Each week we have shared our sensory story “Numicon at the seaside”. This was a

wonderful sensory experience enabling the pupils to explore objects linked to the

seaside as well consolidate their number skills through the repetition of numbers 1-5.

We have made the most of our hydro, rebound and physio sessions. These sessions

are fantastic for the children’s physical development but also encourage them to

make relationships and communicate.

We want to thank you all for your support, and helping us to celebrate the children’s

achievements at the achievement assembly! We are very proud of them all, and wish

those moving to Doulton 2 all the best in their new class.

We are looking forward to celebrating the end of term with our school disco, and

want to wish you all a fantastic summer holiday!

Please remember that all pupils need to bring in all medication on their 1st day back

as stated in your copy of the medication policy. Please notify us immediately of any

changes. Please ensure pumps and suction units are sent in clean and fully charged.

Please send in a change of clothes, pads and wipes. Thank you for your ongoing

support!

School council.

Our school council have been very busy. We eventually got to sponsor Shania and

Bright to go to school in Uganda, and are looking forward to see how this connection

grows. We have voted for an end of term disco which is always a success and made

posters to promote it. During our last meeting we compiled an agenda for the

upcoming year outlining what we hope to do each term, however, like all plans they

are flexible and can be changed according to the school councils wishes. Finally, the

pupils were introduced to Danica and Charlotte who will be leading the school

council starting from September. I will no doubt pop along to meetings from time to

time, but would just like to say what a wonderful group of children and young people

we have on our school council. They all contribute, have wonderful ideas, are not

afraid to share their opinions yet at the same time respecting others, and most

importantly want to do the best by the school and local community! I hope they all

have a fantastic summer and come back rested and ready to start making a

difference in September!

Spode 2

The Summer Term has been a very busy time as we welcomed Jayden a new

nursery child into the group. We had lots of fun making new friendships and getting

to know each other, and new friends from other nurseries when they visited on

transition visits. We had lots of fun learning through our topics of ‘Houses and

Homes’ and ‘Holidays’. The children loved taking part in both of our sensory stories

of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and ‘Row, row, row your boat’, joining in with the repetitive

story language and actions.

We enjoyed dressing up as Pirates and Sailors, and pretending to sail away in our

role play area ‘boat’ when we joined in with the actions to the song from the sensory

story. The children even made their own little pig masks and changed their voices to

join in with the phrases from the story “Little pig, little pig, let me come in!” The

children created a textured house for the 3 pigs to live in and still enjoy using it as a

role play opportunity now the homes topic has finished.

During Cultural Studies week we were learning about Spain, which fitted into our

Holidays topic. We worked with an artist to create some beautiful felt with lots of

circular rubbing and soaking the wool with water. We also grew some potatoes and

onions as part of our ‘Food for Life’ project and used these to make a Spanish

omelette, which tasted very nice.

Enjoying tasting our Spanish omelette.

Using the wool to make felt pictures.

At the end of the school year we would just like to wish all the Reception children all

the very best in their new adventures when they move up to their new class. We also

want to say ‘Thank you’ to Cathy and Emma as they leave Spode class and move to

Doulton and Paragon classes. We hope that all the children from Spode 2 class

have a lovely summer break and come back in September with their smiles and are

ready for their new classes. We look forward to welcoming new children in

September to both Spode 1 and Spode 2 classes so we can make even more new

friends. Have a lovely break.

Paragon 1 Summer Newsletter 2016

We have been focussing on the country of Spain for much of our work this term as part of the school’s Cultural Studies. Inspired by the cave art found in some of the Spanish caves we listened to the story of Cave Baby and experienced the darkness of a cave by making dens using tents, the tables and blankets. Some of us had a go at doing drawings inside these dark dens. We used cut outs to make cave paintings and had a go at using pastel crayons and charcoal for our mark making and drawing. In other art work we looked at a couple of famous Spanish artists; Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso and had a go at making our own pictures using similar techniques. They were really good and we displayed them in our classroom. In Cultural Studies Week we worked with an artist from Letting in the Light and had a go at felting. This was a great fun sensory activity, and again the end product looked amazing. During Cultural Studies week we made lots of Spanish salads, using lettuces grown in school – they smelled so fresh. The children all thoroughly enjoyed mixing the ingredients together for their salads and giving the salad dressing a shake to mix up the oil, lemon juice, garlic and herbs. The concentration on their faces was fabulous. They all got to try the Spanish toast they made as well as the Spanish Tomato Bread. Again, all were really enthusiastic about making, we hope you enjoyed tasting them. We completed a week of ECO themed activities for Recycle Week in June making a range of models using recycled materials in preparation for Den day at the end of the week. Students from OSSMA came in to help us make our dens. The children had lots of fun making hiding dens with big cardboard boxes and large pieces of material. Some got really into the spirit by tearing and bending the card to make “doors” for their den from the flaps. On the 4th July we worked on another ECO themed week – Water Week. Some did searches around school to find places where water is used and others experienced water from a rage of containers like jugs and bowls for pouring and watering cans or water sprays to feel the trickle of water. We all enjoyed lots of water play too. In our RE we thought about those people around the world who do not have clean water to drink. Thank you to those parents who joined us for our Swimming coffee morning. It was great to be able to share the children’s progress with you, they really enjoyed seeing you there. Key Strings visited school on 6th July and we were able to experience some live Spanish themed music. The children had a chance to play the stringed instruments and also join in with percussion for Spanish themed stories. Sadly the class will move on at the end of Summer, with lots more activities to try in their new class Paragon 2. Cath, their new teacher has been popping in to get to know her new class, so they will have a familiar face when they move on. Lisa, who

works in the class will also be moving up with them. We will be saying goodbye to Katie, who is off to work in a new setting and finding new challenges of her own. We would like to wish you all a happy and fun filled summer holiday, we hope you agree that the children have all worked so very hard this year and achieved so much. Julie, Katie, Lisa and Kim

Cultural Studies

Another truly amazing effort by all pupils and staff. Art work, simple Spanish recipes and a smattering of Spanish speaking too! You will all know, from the information on topics sent out by each class, which areas of Spanish Culture you son/daughter has been focussing on and the range has been fantastic Cultural Studies week began on 13th June, with classes devoting the bulk of their activities to the topic. We had artists from Letting in the Light and Cultural Sisters in on 14th, 15th and 16th June and every pupil got the chance to work with them to create Spanish inspired art work. We have a display in the art room devoted to the work all classes have done – if you are in school please do ask to take a look. On 15th June families were invited to join us for a Spanish lunch. This was a great success and we had visitors in to most classes. Thank you so much to those who joined us. We were bowled over by your positive feedback and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed it. We finished off our Spanish topic with a visit from Key Strings on 6th July. This was their first visit to the school and we hope it won’t be their last. It was a great

experience for all pupils. They had great fun learning about the many stringed instruments brought along. We have had a great time learning about Spain and its culture. Next year we are off to Borneo!!! Can’t wait! In September Maddi will be taking over as lead for Cultural Studies, I wish her every success in planning our next great adventure. Julie – Cultural Studies Co-ordinator

Food for Life

Well, what a great first year it has been for Food for Life at Kemball. We have set up our Food Group, seen success in our initial growing experiments – using items we have grown for some of our recipes, provided items for the kitchen to use at lunch time (herbs and salad items) and done some cooking with a Spanish twist. We have already achieved our Bronze Award and are now working towards our silver. As part of the incentive for our first award the school received two induction hobs and a multi cooker. This has already been put to great use to cook a number of Spanish Omelettes as well as Patatas Bravas. The induction hobs will be really useful for younger classes as well as for pupils with more complex needs and PMLD. Families have been invited to join us for lunch on two occasions this year, for Roast Dinner Day in November and Spanish Lunch in June. Both have been successful and we hope to plan more next year – we hope that you can join us. As part of our Silver Award we will be focussing on Healthy Eating and Healthy Lunch boxes. These will also reinforce similar topics in our ECO activities. We do hope that you will be able to support us in our efforts towards our next award. As a start we have been able to get some contributions from local businesses to kick start our growing next year. In September our Food Group will take a look at what we can grow over the year and how we can improve our dining experiences at lunch time. We hope you find this addition to what we offer the children at Kemball a really valuable one. The classes do put regular blogs on the website if you would like to check them out at

www.foodforlife.org.uk

Let us know if you try out any of the recipes Julie and Kemball Food Group

Spanish Salads to try Sevilla Tapas Salad Chopped tomatoes ½ red onion – sliced Olive oil Black pepper Flat leaf parsley to garnish Simple Spanish Green Salad Mixed salad leaves 2 tomatoes – wedges Thinly sliced onion Olives Dressing – 1tbs lemon juice + 3 tbs olive oil Macarraca Salad 1 tomato – sliced 1 pepper – sliced ½ cup fine chopped onions Dressing – crushed garlic in olive oil Bandoora salad Sliced tomatoes 1 -2 spring onions – chopped Sprig of fresh basil – torn Dressing – 1 tbs lemon juice + 3 tbsp olive oil Spanish toast Rustic bread sliced and toasted Crush garlic into olive oil and brush oil over toast Cut a tomato in half and rub onto surface of toast Tapas potato salad 3/4lb new potatoes boiled and cooled (chopped) ½ cup mayo 2 crushed garlic cloves (mixed into mayo) Chopped parsley to garnish

Summer 2016 Paragon 2 Newsletter

Paragon 2 have had a wonderful year, filled with learning, baking, dressing up,

exploring, singing and dancing.

Here are our main highlights from the summer term…

We have learned all about Spain as part of our cultural studies. We have tasted

Spanish food, recreated the art work of Picasso, and even learned some Spanish!

We had lots of fun making a giant Spanish flag!

We have carried out two assemblies to the primary pupils this term, where we have

been able to show our fantastic work off!

We enjoyed getting to stand at the front of the hall to perform for everyone.

We have also taken advantage of any lovely weather we have had – we created

dens outside to enjoy the sun in.

We all enjoyed sitting in our dens and relaxing after the hard work of building them!

All of the staff in Paragon 2 would like to thank all of our pupils for being such

a wonderful class. It has been lovely to see you all grow and develop so much

throughout the year.

We wish you luck in your new classes next year – we know you’ll be great!

We hope you have a brilliant summer holiday, refreshed and ready for a brand

new year.

Best wishes from Jade, Chris, Lisa and Ceara

We have had a very exciting

term this Summer! It

has been filled with fun,

action packed learning linking together with the topic Spain.

What we have been learning about this term:

During the Summer Term we had a week where pupils learnt all about the culture

of Spain. Everybody really enjoyed the variety of different activities which they took

part in, some activities included creating sombrero hats using paper plates and

pom-poms, creating a brightly coloured Spanish fan, a maraca using a plastic

container and pasta, and masks! We were also very lucky and we had a very

experienced artist which came in to show us another exciting activity felt making.

Everybody got very excited choosing the different coloured felt for their design and

they

enjoyed

pressing

the felt

down

with their

fingers to

create the pattern getting messy!

Within Science, we have been learning about plants, the children had the

opportunity to visit Trentham Gardens where pupils explored different plants

smelling different scents, having a feel of the different parts of the plants i.e. the

leaves, two of the plants they enjoyed smelling was the mint plant and the curry

plant! As well as this, the children have been learning about light within Science,

everybody has enjoyed exploring different light sources and learning about shadows,

looking at how they are formed. The children really enjoyed creating their own

shadows and shadow puppets using the torch and a big white sheet!

Within Art,

the pupils have been learning about the artist Picasso, they really enjoyed looking

at his different types of work and enjoyed

creating their own work like his!

Within Design and Technology, it has been extremely fun we have been creating

our own Spanish dishes. Some of the dishes which they created and tasted were;

Paella, Churro’s, Spiced tortilla. The dish which they surprisingly enjoyed the most

was the ‘ Paella’!

We also had the opportunity to go on the Beatrice Barge

trip, everybody thoroughly enjoyed the trip observing the wildlife and surroundings in

the area.

Overall, we have had a very successful term, we have had certificates to celebrate

our successes within assembly, class dojo points awarded for achievement, and

class prizes. I want to say a big thank-you for all of your support throughout the

year, and your kind donations you have given to support the school.

Summer 2016 Bridgewater 2 Newsletter

Once again we can write in our newsletter what a wonderful year we have had, we’ve

learned, explored, played, celebrated, danced, worked and laughed.

This terms highlights have been…

Glebe Farm

This term we have been on 2 trips and one of these was

Glebe farm. Although some were afraid at first we were so

pleased to see all of the children getting involved and

feeding the animals.

Beatrice Barge

The next trip

was the Beatrice barge which was a fantastic

learning experience. All of the children who

came were given the opportunity to open and

close the locks as we as see how the canal

boat moves up and down.

Over the last term we have been learning all about Spain! We’ve made and tasted some

delicious Spanish food such as Chorizo, Tapas and Manchego Cheese. We’ve also enjoyed

learning some Spanish words which some of us have continued to use all term! All loved the

trip to Spain and look forward to finding out our next destination for next year. Passports

ready!

Chelsey was not a fan of the olives.

Elouise was proud of her Spanish Tapas!

From all the staff in Bridgewater 2 we would like to thank all of the pupils for being a

fantastic class, it has been a pleasure to watch you grow and develop into the

awesome children you are today. We wish you the best of luck in your new classes.

We hope you have a wonderful Summer Holiday and we are looking forward to

starting a fresh new year in our New Classes.

Best wishes from Emma, Ceris and Emily

This term we’ve been able to invite the Key Strings team into Kemball.

For both Primary and Secondary they performed and got children

involved with their music. The focus was on Spain, from its traditional

to modern music and its various types of instruments. The children

loved getting involved and listening to

the professionals.

Gladstone 1 Newsletter Summer 2016

We have had a fantastic summer term in Gladstone 1 class. We have had a very

busy term, and time has passed very quickly!

Many of our lessons this term have been linked to our

Cultural Studies topic ‘Spain’. We have had lots of fun

learning about the language and culture of Spain. We have

tasted Spanish food in D & T, created mosaics inspired by

Gaudi in Art, learnt some basic Spanish phrases, learnt

about the Spanish Armada in History and located Spain on

the map in Geography. We really enjoyed cultural studies

week, especially the ‘flight’ to Spain in the school hall on the

Monday morning.

Our next favourite event was probably Den day. We had lots

of fun making dens and it was a great opportunity to practise our team work skills!

We have all been enjoying transition week. We have spent time in our new classes

and we are all looking forward to September.

Happy holidays!!

Maddie, Karen and Tabatha

Home School Link News

Hello everyone – I can’t believe we are only a few days away from the end of

another busy term and at the end of another school year! “Where has this term

gone? Where has this year gone??”

I hope you are continuing to access the ‘Aiming High’ activities even though I’m

aware there have been some issues around children/young people getting their

assessments completed. Please don’t be put off by this – give ‘Action for Children’

another call! Your child is missing out on activities they are entitled to!! Please let me

know if you require any support in this process. You are now able to access more

activities, at a small cost, in addition to the core offer. The core offer activities still

need to be booked the month prior to the chosen activity between 1st – 10th. Then

between 11th – 15th of the month additional activities can be booked for a small

contribution. You can find all the information within the brochure.

This is a service that you can ‘dip in and out’ once the relevant paper work has been

completed. It’s a short break for your child but also one for you, chance for you to re-

charge.

This year we have a few children leaving Kemball, moving onto colleges and other

schools. I’d like to wish them good luck for their future and wish them all lots of

happiness – they’ll certainly be missed. And to the parents of these young people

who will be leaving also! Thank you for your support over the years, please stay in

touch and feel free to give me a call whenever, it’s good to talk!!

This term saw me and my colleague from Stoke Minster primary, Janet, deliver the

family links nurturing course. Thank you to those parents who completed it – 10

weeks goes by so quickly. And the feedback from them described it as being very

informative, friendly and enjoyable. We will be offering the course again during the

coming school year, information will be sent home with your child once dates and

times have been set.

Next term the Parent Support Group will be running on various Thursday mornings

again. Vicky Williams (parent and school governor) has volunteered to take the lead.

Thank you Vicky! Dates have been set for September and October, they are –

Thursday 15th and 29th September and 13th October. Please ‘pop in’ for a coffee,

a slice of toast and a chat between 9.30am – 11.30am. I have assured Vicky me or

Liz will ‘pop in’ whenever we are free. Also if there are any guest speakers/agencies

you would like to invite please let me know. The group is made up of past and

present parents/carers, so it’s always good to hear and share the experiences they

have had.

I now spend a lot of my time supporting families at meetings such as Early help,

Child in Need etc. This does keep me busy but can also mean I’m out of school a lot!

If you need to speak to me a message can be left with the office staff (who are very

good at passing them on!) and I promise to get back to you as soon as possible.

I would like to welcome all the new pupils and their parents (new staff too) to

Kemball, say a big ‘hello’ and to let you know I’m here to help and support you – so

keep me busy!

Fiona

This is the link to the turn2us website which gives families access to charities and

grants https://ww.turn2us.org.uk

Gladstone 2 In Gladstone 2 we have had a very busy summer term!

During summer term we have been up to lots of things:

We travelled to Spain on a plane and enjoyed the lovely Spanish food! We also explored some Spanish music and looked at the Spanish artist Picasso. We found it

funny how he made his faces look and know why he used certain colours in his artwork for example did you know he used blue for sad and bright colours for happy

emotions.

We have also enjoyed swimming this term. We got to gain more confidence in the pool and also learned a bit about water safety!

We also had a special ceremony, which we are glad so many of you could join! It showed how much we had achieved! Lots of us picked up awards for things like

Speaking, listening and good work to name but a few.

We have achieved so much this year and the staff in Gladstone 2 would like to take this opportunity to say how proud they are of the children. We hope you all have a

lovely summer holiday!

From Kat, Danni, Claire and Mandy.

MINTON 1 SUMMER TERM 2016

During the summer term we went to watch Newcastle College of Performing Art’s

production of “Mamma Mia.” Whilst there, we were allowed to use musical

instruments in the music studio and were taught a dance routine. We used waste

materials to build a den for “Den Day,” to support Save the Children. Macmillan

Hospice visited to inspire us to make art work from recycled materials.

SCIENCE (Space/Gas Exchange Systems) The study of space included finding out

how night, day, seasons and eclipses occur, as well as the order of the planets in the

solar system. Our study ended with us designing rockets, part filling them with water

and then pumping air into them. As the pressure increased, we stood back and

watched as the rockets took off. In the second half of the term, we have studied how

our lungs work and how asthma can affect our breathing. We used a spirometer to

test the capacity of our lungs.

GEOGRAPHY/HISTORY/CULTURAL STUDIES (Spain) Our topic of Study in this

area for the summer term has been Spain. We have used maps, globes and Google

maps to find where Spain is and some of its geographical features. We also looked

at where the Spanish explored and conquered in South America and watched the

film “The Road to Eldorado,” to back up our findings. The pupils used the computer

to find the answer to facts about Spain. Although bullfighting is not seen as

acceptable nowadays, we also discussed the elements of the activity but decided

we’d rather go to the cinema instead!

RE (Special Occasions/Belonging) The focus of Special Occasions was weddings,

so we talked about our experiences of weddings before moving on to compare and

contrast: Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh weddings before finishing with a

big wedding quiz. For “Belonging,” we have looked at how we fit into our local

community and what a community is, by studying it on maps, carrying out a litter pick

and designing a poster for a church fayre.

PE (Swimming/Ball Games/Athletics) We have used the school pool this term on

Thursdays for recreational and fun sessions where the class can just have time to

enjoy the water and time with their friends. In ball games, we have learned the skills

to and played: hockey, basketball, tee-ball and cricket. For the final few weeks we

will try to get some athletics events in before our sports day.

ART & DT (Spanish art & food) We produced a whole range of artwork in the style of

Picasso that included paint, collage, pastel, wire sculpture and computer generated.

We also looked at the style of other Spanish artists such as: Goya, Velasquez, Dali

and Miro. In addition; we decorated fans and maracas. In D.T. we made a lever

mechanism and added figures of a bull and matador to it. When the mechanism was

moved; the figures moved backwards and forwards replicating a bullfight. We also

made and tried a variety of Spanish food: paella, churros and tortilla.

PSHE (Money) This proved an interesting study and allowed us to look at: what has

been used for money, note designs, lending money, booking a holiday, buying from

a catalogue, Fairtrade, currencies of the world and percentage sales

ICT (Monitoring & controlling) We have used computer programs, ipods and a

programmable Beebot robot to explore how we can programme instructions and

directions and use the movement to solve problems.

In English studies, we have covered some interesting areas such as classic poem,

“The Highwayman,” Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” and the short films “The Piano,” and

“Dangle.”

Minton 1 has been successful in growing our own sunflowers, peas, sweet peas and

broad beans for the garden area outside our class.

We have enjoyed eating our lunch on the picnic tables outside whenever possible.

At the end of this school year, we will say goodbye to Jordan E, Jordan D, Kayley

and Liam who will be moving up to Aynsley 2. We welcome Ben to Minton 1 in

September. Laura will also be moving on to work with another class, leaving Shelley

and myself to teach Minton 1. All three members of staff have thoroughly enjoyed

working with the pupils in Minton 1; we’ve done a lot of learning and a lot of laughing.

Ian, Shelley & Laura and all in Minton 1

Minton 2’s summer term newsletter

We have had a fantastic summer term and enjoyed lots of activities. I would like to

take this opportunity to thank parents for their continued support and a big thank you

to all of the pupils in Minton 2 for their hard work during this term. This term, the

theme has been Spain.

History

As part of our history lessons, we have explored the history behind some historical

celebrations in Spain. This included La Tomatina – the festival of tomatoes. The

children had the opportunity to answer questions about this much-loved celebration

by throwing tomatoes at the answers. The children thoroughly enjoyed this!

Science

In our science lessons, we have been learning about space. The children were

learning about the different planets in our solar system, comets and the moon. The

children watched real-life footage of the very first man to land on the moon. The

children also created their own space rocket out of plastic bottles and watched them

fly into the sky. As you can see from the picture below, the children enjoyed this

(especially seeing Andy get very wet in the process)!

PE and Swimming

In our PE lessons, we have focused on games. The pupils have been learning about

team game sports and individual sports. The school has recently acquired two table

tennis tables and the children have thoroughly enjoyed playing the sport. We have

also welcomed Mark from Staffordshire Football Association who has delivered fun-

packed football sessions to Minton 2. The children really enjoyed the sessions. All of

the pupils thoroughly enjoy swimming and are slowly but surely becoming more

confident in the water.

Geography

In our geography lessons, we have been exploring the geographical features of

Spain. This includes the highest mountain (Mulhacen) and the longest river (Tagus).

The children have built their own river out of tin foil and have seen how water flows

down it. The children have also used salt dough to make a 3D country of Spain. This

included learning about the capital city of Spain, Tagus and Mulhacen.

Felicity’s return

Minton 2 has welcomed back Felicity from her maternity leave. We are all so happy

to welcome her back and the children have embraced her venture into motherhood

with open arms. It does mean however, that Andy has now left Minton 2. He has

thoroughly enjoyed his time teaching the children in Minton 2 and will leave the class

with the happiest of memories.

All of the staff in Minton 2 wishes you a fun packed summer holidays and we look

forward to a fun filled start to the academic year in September.

Felicity, Andy, Christa and Sophie.

Aynsley 1 Summer 2016

Newsletter

Well what a busy summer term we have had! There have been so many exciting

things going on in Aynsley 1 class that I don’t know where to start!

ASDAN

All pupils in Aynsley 1 class have been working towards an ASDAN qualification and

have been involved in lots of exciting activities and experiences this term. Those who

have been following the Personal Progress Award have been producing a selection

of art pieces inspires by world famous artists e.g. Pollock, Banksy and Gaudi.

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BIG congratulations to Mitchell, Brendan and Jessica for achieving their

ASDAN Personal and Social Development Award and to Asim who has

achieved his ASDAN Personal progress Award.

Queen’s Birthday Celebrations

In April the whole school celebrated the Queens 90th Birthday.

We

We all got involved in the day’s activities and made party hats, had our faces

painted, made some traditional jam tarts and the whole school enjoyed a celebration

tea party at lunch time.

Key Strings

In July a group of musicians called ‘Key Strings’ came

in to perform a selection of Spanish themed music.

The whole class really enjoyed this as they had the

opportunity to explore and play the different

instruments.

Den Day

In June Aynsley 1 class joined up with Maple class to take

part in ‘Den Day’. The task was to work as a team to

produce the best den in the school – I think we won!

Achievement

Everyone in Aynsley class was presented with an award for their best work

throughout the year as they had all worked very hard – well done!

Welcome

Next term we would like to welcome Farah, Marissa, Joshua and Ben to Aynsley 1

class, we hope you enjoy you time with us. Also Aynsley class welcome a new

teacher in September – Amanda Dimmock.

Goodbye

Unfortunately it’s the time of year when some of our students are moving on in their

lives are will be starting a new and exciting chapter by starting college in September.

Mitchell, Brendan, Jessica and Asim – we wish you all the best for the future! We

also say goodbye to Gemma.

We look forward to seeing everybody in September

Gemma, Amy, Becky and Jas

Summer Term Music!

Yet more great music sessions have been happening at

Kemball this term and we’ve had lots of fun too!

As I write we are in the final stages of rehearsals for our

show – Eddie the penguin saves the world. The children involved have worked

so hard learning their lines and all the songs and I’m looking forward to them

showing off their fantastic talents next week. Well done to you all!

Back in class and have enjoyed playing lots of Doulton 1 Spode 2

different instruments and learning about the different sounds the

instruments make when the are played on their own or with

another sound– the musical elements of texture and timbre. We

sang lots of songs linked with the class topics of holidays and homes.

and set have been learning about pitch. They have explored Paragon 1 Snowflakes

high and low sounds using tuned and untuned instruments, particulalry enjoying

playing the bass bars, the chime bars and hand bells.

set have worked really hard learning about pitch but have Raindrop

explored not only high and low sounds but also those in the middle.

They have enjoyed playing the chime bars to different songs and learnt

about how notes can step up and down or jump!

set have been learning all about using symbols to tell Rainbows

them how and when to play. They have drawn their own symbols

to tell others how to play and read symbols telling them to play

quickly, slowly, loudly, quietly, long or short notes and even how to change the

sounds as they play.

have loved learning about rhythms and playing sounds in a pattern. They Doulton 2

have particularly liked playing quickly, slowly then quickly again! They have also enjoyed exploring using music technology creating some great sounds with the soundbeam and the Skoog.

Sunshine set have also been learning about rhythm, but they have

been learning about how to write down different rhythms using spot

notation. They were fabulous at composing and playing back their own pieces and

showed a great understanding about the meaning of the different spots – a great

start to learning about traditional notation.

have enjoyed their music sessions learning all about playground games and Stars

rhymes. They have had great fun learning the actions to different rhymes and how

these fit to the pulse, such as ‘A sailor went to sea’ and ‘high low chicka low’ and

then exploring using balls to keep the pulse in rhymes like ‘Over the garden wall’. I

have been so impressed at how well they picked up and learnt the rhymes, kept to

the pulse and thoroughly enjoyed the sessions!

have been exploring rhythmic patterns. They have used mini-Coalport and Maple

beasts as the starting point and worked well exploring different sounds and rhythms for each of the bugs.

have enjoyed exploring using music technology to make their Minton 2

music this term. They have used Clicker 7 to identify high and low sounds, Scratch to compose a simple pattern using the pentatonic scale, and also the soundbeam and iPads to create some interesting improvisations.

have been learning about musical clichés and how these are used in film Minton 1

music. They have explored sci-fi music, comedy or animation movies and western themes and used traditional percussion and electronic sounds, such as the keyboards and the iPads to create their own musical clichés.

have been exploring ‘garage band’ and ‘noise’ on the iPads to create Aynsley 2

various sounds, effects and short motifs. They have used these in improvisations with 5 iPads playing and the pupils being conductor and deciding who should play when. They have worked really well, showing some great understanding and producing some really great pieces! Have a lovely Summer! Lorraine

ECO

The ECO committee have had a lovely term. We have achieved

our Level 1 RHS Schools Gardening award, grown rocket

seeds and had a race to see how much they will grow. We

created a book of poems, pictures and collages all about trees

for Earth Day.

Children made Dens for Save the Children Den Day. Each

class made their dens using cardboard boxes, tubes, fabrics

and other recycled items. Everyone had great fun and enjoyed

finding materials to build their dens with. Every den looked

different and it was great seeing how each class bought their

designs to life.

Everyone took part in Healthy eating day where primary

children had a teddy bears picnic and secondary children

made their own lunches under the supervision of the school

kitchen staff. It was lovely to see everyone out on the grass eating together.

We held a competition to design a scarecrow, Well Done to Danyl Brough who won

the competition and his design has been translated to our scarecrow.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in ECO activities and been part of the

ECO committee.

Best wishes from ECO committee.

Doulton 2

Doulton 2 have had lots of fun this term. We have been finding out all about Spain

and all things Spanish, we have tried flamenco dancing, bull fighting and Spanish

food.

In Maths we have been doing the 5 little superheroes number

rhyme. Where we learnt all about the numbers up to 5 by

feeling them and hand tapping them. We counted each

superhero and took them off as they went off to save the

world. We also learnt about weights by exploring heavy and

light items and then baking biscuits by weighing out each of

the ingredients. The children really enjoyed this session and

got very messy!

In English we have been reading Commotion in the Ocean

and Rumble in the Jungle. We have been exploring the

animals in the story and making the sounds that they make

or imitating the way that they move. We felt the textures of

the animals skins and made choices as to which were our

favourites. We wrote the first letters of the animals names in

sand and with pens. We matched the animals to their

habitats using photos and rea object, and made masks of

the animals. We really enjoyed the rhymes that we heard as

these books were read.

For Art we explored the work of Picasso. We recreated some of his

pieces of art using paints, sensory materials and card. We chose

arts of the face to put onto our picture and then put them where we

wanted as we found out that Picasso is famous for painting mixed

up faces. We have explored the traditions of Spain in History and

Geography and have learnt about bull fighting, Spanish clothing,

Spanish climate, flamenco dancing and Spanish food. Children have

really enjoyed this topic and have enjoyed the sounds and sights of

Spain.

We have had a fantastic term and all the children have worked

extremely hard. We are very proud of all of the children and hope

that they have a brilliant summer holidays.

Best wishes from Katy, Sandra and Michelle.

The summer holidays are nearly here! We can’t believe how quickly this year has

passed us by. We have all had so much fun and have made lots of fond memories

together.

This term we have enjoyed our sensory story ‘Alice in Wonderland- Down the Rabbit

Hole’. The children loved exploring the new props and have shown great responses

through the story. We also went on our first class trip to Trentham Gardens where

we watched a theatre production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The rain held off for us

and we all had a lovely time. The children really enjoyed listening to the music and

watching the actors/ actresses perform. Their favourite character had to the white

rabbit who was bouncing around on stilts!

We have also celebrated the Queen’s 90th Birthday. We joined the rest of the school

in the hall where we had a traditional British street party as well as taking part in lots

of Queen related activities such as ‘pin the tail on the Corgi’.

We have enjoyed spending time with the new children that will be joining our class in

September and we can’t make to make lots of new memories with them also.

Aynsley 2

The summer term in Aynsley 2 has whizzed by! We have had a lovely final term,

both in lessons and in our social time. We have enjoyed seeing spring and summer

in together and have seen lots of hard work from everyone. This term we have been

focusing on the country of Spain and have looked at the food, language, art and

geography of this popular country.

Back in spring we started looking at different Spanish foods. We had a go at trying to

cook the famous dish of paella, with lots of healthy vegetables added to it, which we

all enjoyed eating very much. We went on to cook other dishes such as Spanish

omelette, gazpacho (cold tomato soup) and patatas bravas as part of our healthy

eating project. We then gave ourselves a bit of a treat making churros and Spanish

drinking chocolate! The pupils of Aynsley 2 have enjoyed cooking this term and are

well on their way to developing skills for independent cooking.

This term also saw us completing our first official ASDAN qualification. We have

worked incredibly hard throughout the year and I am pleased to say that all students

have now been awarded their Bronze Personal Development Programme award.

The award has seen the students develop skills over the past year which will equip

them for life after Kemball. The award has taught them that commitment and hard

work will end in recognition and a sense of achievement. We look forward to handing

out the awards when we receive them in the autumn term.

This term, as part of our ASDAN, we focused on thoughts for the future and begun

thinking about the world of work. Thank you all for coming to the coffee morning

about the placements at Stoke on Trent College next year. I hope you are assured

that this placement will be a positive experience for your child and I think they are

looking forward to trying something new and seeing what college has to offer them.

On a sad note, after more than two years together, we have spent our last term with

Claire in our class. I know the students are going to miss her being with them every

day, and I’m sure you will all agree her support and contribution to the running of

Aynsley 2 (and Minton 1) was invaluable. We wish her all the best in her new post

and look forward to seeing her in school still. We are also looking forward to getting

to know the new staff and students we will have in Aynsley 2 next September.

But before then we wish you all a very happy, and safe, summer holiday!

Lowri and Claire