PHOENIX & MOTYLEK PARTNERSHIP

September 2015 Erasmus Project

Phoenix School in Tower Hamlets are working on a partnership with Motylek School in the Czech Republic. This will span over 3 years and the schools will work together on annual projects, linking teachers and specialists in mini projects. We are now in the 2nd year of the project.

Phoenix and Motylek Partnership

Phoenix and Motylek PartnershipE R A S M U S P R O J E C T

Trip 1November 5th- 10th 2015Josh Price, Louise Garlick, Rick Nunn, Neil Burnell and Nasrin Ali all attended this trip, along with 6 secondary pupils from Phoenix School. Motylek staff Margrit, Lenka and Marek had scheduled a timetable of events and activities for the visit, including performing in the Motylek annual Arts Festival in the local Cultural Centre.

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Phoenix and Motylek Partnership

Diary for 1st visit:Phoenix visit to Motylek5th November – 10th November

Date ActivityThursday 5th November Travel to Czech Republic

Took pupils out for dinner in hotel restaurant.

Friday 6th November Visted Vsetín – excursion – hand making of Christmas decorations. (Lenka, Marek, Margit)

Had lunch at Motylek school dining room

House of Culture in Koprivnice http://www.kulturakoprivnice.cz/ Group rehearsal Technical museum of Tatra cars

We had dinner altogether as a group Disco Public with teachers from all schools

comes to Motylek Art Show (Lenka, Margit, Marek)

Saturday 7th November Visited Štramberk

http://www.stramberk.info/en/

(Lenka, Margit)

Lunch in Motylek school dining room Visited House of Cultural – Motýlek

Art Show – performances (Lenka, Margit)

Met Motýlek school, Phoenix school, House of cultural employees,

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Sponsors, representative from city of Koprivnic (Lenka, Margit, Marek)

Sunday 18th November Visited of The Little Wooden Town in City Rožnov p. R. (dress warm) http://www.vmp.cz/en/museum-tour/the-little-wooden-town/

Lunch in The Little Wooden Town in City of Rožnov p. R. Pustevny mountains (coffee in Hotel Tanečnice) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pustevny (Lenka, Margit, Marek)

Monday 19th November Visited Practical School in Nový Jičín (Lenka, Margit) http://www.ouaprs.com/

1 - See the interest places in town Nový Jičín (Lenka, Margit)

Lunch in Hotel Praha, Nový Jičín

Museum of Hats http://www.mestoklobouku.cz/en/navstevnicke-centrum/

Coffee in Sweet-shop

Tuesday 20th November Had a tour of Motýlek school (Marek, Dáša), program for Phoenix pupils in classes.

http://www.detske-centrum.cz/ Lunch in Motylek school

dining room Met with SMT from Motylek

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and teachers from Phoenix school Discuss Art Festival, PECS

and VOKS), coffee + tea Discovering interesting and

important sites in and near Koprivnice City pupils

and teachers from Phoenix school (Dáša, Lenka, Margit, Marek)

Departure from the hotel Olympia to Ostrava Airport (Marek)

Reflection of visit:

Diary for 2nd visit:Phoenix visit to Motylek

22nd November – 28th November

Date ActivitySunday 22th November Travel to Czech Republic

Monday 23rd November JP, LG, SM and NG met Marek, Margarit and Lenka at Motylek School at 9am for meeting. (Minutes from meeting can be found below)

Discussed agenda for the week ahead and clarified which classes Louise and Josh would be working in.

Discussed previous trip, how the Arts Festival went, how the children found the trip and what the benefits were.

Motylek staff shared their photos

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from arts festival visit with Phoenix staff.

Lenka and Margarit shared overview of how SLT input works in Motylek School.

Discussed Motylek’s trip to Phoenix next week and Louise and Josh shared information about their classes.

Phoenix teachers stayed for lunch in Motylek School.

Tuesday 24th November JP and LG met Lenka and Margarit at Motylek School in the morning. Had brief meeting in SLT office to discuss the day before going to Kindergarten class to observe. Observed morning circle time, which involved the use of VOKS. Each pupils had their own VOKS folder. Teacher used sentence strip to ask pupils different questions about the day, such as what the weather was like and what pupils they could see. Pupils used sentence strips and symbols to answer questions.Then observed SLT session with Lenka and one pupil, practicing travelling with VOKS to request motivators.Pupils then had free time and LG and JP interacted with pupils using toys, books and puzzles.In another kindergarten classroom, Louise and Josh observed a session with the 2 school therapy dogs. Pupils practiced counting with the dogs and also interacted with the dogs by stroking them and feeding them treats.LG and JP then observed Lenka leading an SLT session in an older class for pupils with autism. Pupils used VOKS to comment on different foods, first

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commenting on what food they could see, then smelling food and commenting on what they could smell. They did this by forming 2 part sentences using a sentence strip.LG and JP reflected on what they had seen and had lunch in Motylek School with Lenka and Margarit.

Wednesday 25th November Phoenix staff picked up from hotel at 9am and taken to stables used for horse therapy with pupils from Motylek School. Met pupils and teachers there to observe horse therapy session. Pupils brushed and cleaned horses and helped to clean the stables. Then pupils have turns to ride the horses with support from adults, and do stretches and exercises on horse to strengthen core muscles. All phoenix teachers had an opportunity to ride the horses and reflect on what muscles were being used.We also observed a horse therapy session with a baby, this is something that has started recently at the stables in the last 2 years.Teachers had lunch at Motylek School at then met at 1pm at local coffee shop with Lenka, Margarit and Marek to have a casual meeting to discuss the week so far.

Thursday 26th November Phoenix teachers attended lessons at Motylek School in older class for pupils with Autism. Pupils were of mixed ages, between 7 and 16 years old.Observed morning circle, where pupils were using VOKS to comment on what day it was, what the weather was like etc.Then observed a communication circle lead by Margarit, where all pupils were using VOKS to comment on different fruits, using sentence starters ‘I see’, ‘It is’

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and ‘I want’.Pupils then had snack in the dining hall.Next we observed one to one reading sessions in the same lass. Teacher works with pupils using VOKS books, where each word of the story uses a VOKS symbol. Pupils read the stories with teacher support and then used VOKS to match words and symbols from the story. While teacher was working with individual pupils, the rest of the class worked individually at work stations practicing handwriting.For the last lesson of the day, we supported in ceramics class with the same pupils, making Christmas tree decorations out of clay. Pupils were following VOKS sequence strips to make their decorations.Brief meeting with all Phoenix staff and Motylek SMT to say goodbye to Noel and Shelina. Discussed the week and arrangements for Lenka and Margarit visiting Phoenix School next week.After lunch, Shelina and Noel left to travel back to London.

Friday 27th November LG and JP supported in lessons in pre-school class. Observed morning circle where all pupils were using VOKS to comment on different clothing that is worn in the winter. Pupils used their VOKS to comment on pictures of winter clothes, and then had to go and find that item in a pile of winter clothing and bring back to the table.Pupils then had one to one communication sessions with Lenka, using VOKS to comment on what they could see.Next pupils had a singing session, following lyrics printed in VOKS to sing

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first as a group and then taking turns to sing individually.For the last lesson of the day, pupils completed worksheets by sorting symbols of different clothing into summer or winter.LG and JP has lunch at Motylek School with Lenka and Margarit and reflected on the week, before saying goodbye and thank you to Motylek staff.

Reflection of visit:

The trip offered an effective handover of the project to Louise and Josh and allowed them to become familiar with the classes they will be working in throughout the year. It was useful to see the daily structures and routines used in Motylek School and compare similarities and differences with those used at Phoenix School. It also provided a good opportunity to observe the use of Motyek’s communication tool VOKS and reflect on how this compares with the use of PECS.

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Motylek visit to Phoenix (Teacher Visit)

10th – 16th January 2016

Date ActivitySunday 10th of January PM

Arrive to the Czech RepublicMonday 11th of January 7:45 – Meeting to talk about the week

ahead, daily timetable, paperwork, trips, our yoga lessons and objectives for the week.8:30 - Shopping trip with mixed ages– Vox session with three pupils. Buying foods of their choice. Ie - Bread and sweets using Vox and real money. All pupils had 1:1 support.9:30 – Swimming session with KS1 – Pupils had to take part in given tasks in the pool by the swimming instructor. Swimming under mats, collecting balls for a bucket, throwing balls into a ring, swimming with floats, races up and down. Then some free swimming time. All pupils were high ability and were able to take part in all activities without much support from adults.

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PM2:00 – Met about new government plans, school assessment for behavior and pupil progress – all in Czech.3:00 – Meeting for all teachers and senior management- about individual pupil work plans, class plans.

Tuesday 12th January AM8.00- Observed morning circle in primary class. Pupils all use VOX to say hello, comment on what day it is and what the weather is like. They then used VOX to comment on pictures of animals and sang a song about a bird.9.30- Went with the class to water therapy spa where pupils went in whirl pool and Jacuzzi. Pupils are timetabled for this once a week and all appeared to enjoy it.11.30- Returned to Motylek School for lunch.PM12.30- 3.00 Observed after school club. Pupils can choose activities such as sand play, coloring in and games on the computer.

Wednesday 13th January AM8.00 – Observed writing/fine motor activities in kindergarten class and snack time. Then observed morning circle time using VOX and individual VOX sessions with speech therapists. Pupils then painted pictures based around winter and ice-skating before lunch.10.30- left Motylek School for lunch and meeting in Pustevny Mountains with Lenka, Margrite and Marek. Walked around the mountains before having lunch

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and discussing how the week is going.PM3.00- picked up from mountains and taken back to hotel.

Thursday 14th January Thursday 14/01/16

AM8.00 - In kindergarten class. Observed and joined in with free play, snack, and communication circle using VOX to comment on what day it is, which pupils are present in class and what they weather is like. Pupils then participated in circle time activities on the carpet based around the topic of winter. They looked at pictures showing different winter sports and commented on what they could see using VOX. They then split into groups and completed more activities based around winter.10.30- Went for a walk with the same class to the Ice-skating rink to watch some skaters. Then played in the snow on the way back to SchoolPM12.45 Observed yoga in secondary class.

Friday 15th January AMMorning meeting with Lenka, Dagma, Margrite and Marek. Reflection of week together. Talked about dates and ideas for the next program.Walk around school to say good bye and spend some time in different classes.PMCoffee with Lenka and Margrite in local café

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Reflection of visit: Interesting Visit seeing the school and shadowing our mentors. We had a chance to spend a little more time in the early year’s classes and both were able to support pupils with VOX and other communication. We both found it very interesting to be able to do some of the work we do at Phoenix at the school and the pupils enjoyed a Yoga class run by myself and LG. Next time we hope to spend more time in class and more time being part of the learning and communication.

Phoenix to Motylek School (Teacher Visit)

15th – 23rd of May

Date Activity

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Monday 16th 8.00 - meeting with headmaster Mgr. Dagmar JančálkováKIM with Lenka Kahánková and Margita Knapcová all day taking part in SLT and VOX

Talked through weekly program as a group.8.30 – 9.30: Met classs and spent time on VOX9.40: left for the swimming-pool and support classes. Spent the day supported classed with lessons and communication.

Tuesday 17th 8.00: Went into classes for morning group learning.KIM with Lenka Kahánková and Margita Knapcová all day taking part in SLT and VOX

9.00: Sports morning in the garden with a local school. Supporting children and taking part.11.30: Lunch

Wednesday 18th 8.00: In classes for morning lessons – supporting learning and communication.KIM with Lenka Kahánková and Margita Knapcová all day taking part in SLT and VOX

08.40: Rest of the day JP went to a local village by train with the class. LG went to the fire station which was linked to their topic of transport and please that help us.Last meeting with Kim to say good bye.

Thursday 19th 8.00 In class for learning and supporting VOX

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9.00: Sports morning in the garden with local schools.Rest of the day in with the class supporting learning and VOX

Friday 20th 8.00: In class for meeting lessons9.40: canistherapy12.00: lunch13.00: Coffee and desert in cake shop with LG and JP (employees with special. Looked around café and met staff. Saw the kitchen and saw how it worked with links with local schools.

Reflection: It has been an interesting week spending more time in our classes and supporting the pupils with their communication. We have had more opportunities to share some of our skills and be a part of a working class. As well as this it has been an opportunity to see how VOX is implemented in the class and how this supports the pupils learning. What we have seen is that it is being used at key areas of the day but not throughout the day. Seeing how lessons are structured has been interesting and an opportunity for us to reflect on our own practise. It has also been an opportunity for our SLT Kim to see how the school works as well as given her the opportunity to learn and support during the week.

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