Rocking Owls' dance day!

On Monday, owls class had lots of fun exploring the rock 'n' roll era of music and dance! We had a great day jiving to Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock". Here is a look at our amazing moves!

Spy Mission 'Kestrels'

Kestrels have had fun today experiencing life as a spy as part of our 'Stormbreaker' topic.  We all got into role (thanks for the costumes), created alternative identities and put our spying tactics and code-breaking skills to the test.  Watch out MI6, some future 'double O's' in the making?!

Bitterne Manor is famous!

Guess what? Bitterne Manor is famous! Last half term Swifts and Swallows were lucky enough to have artist Kev Munday ask them to help contribute to a project which would be put on display for all to see.  He's an up and coming artist who is very creative! Children created funny creatures out of all sorts of materials and used a range of resources.  Kev picked a selection to build up a billboard which is now up and on show. This will be up until the 11th of February (at the bottom of Cobbett Road, behind Kwik fit)  He was utterly impressed with all pieces and took inspiration from all of them.  As well as this, all of the children's original pieces have been put up on display in an exhibition in Showcase Gallery in Southampton.  This will be open to the public from 2nd February - 14th April.  We will definitely be organising a trip next half term so all the children can see their wonderful work up on display...how exciting!
As this is such an amazing opportunity to celebrate the children's achievement, the Echo would like to do a piece on the billboard and talk to some of the children who contributed towards the artist's inspiration.  This will happen soon, so I'll be in touch when it happens :) We are thoroughly proud of each and everyone of them, go Swifts and Swallows!

Below are some sneaky peeks of the board going up.  Please pop down there to see the board if you can, you'll be blown away!

 

Year 4 Dance Day

 

Today Rooks spent the day creating their own Roman dances. They practiced their marching and recreated a battle through their movements. They all contributed ideas towards their routines and had a lot of fun in the process.

Farewell to our Korean friends

Kestrels have been very lucky to have 4 Korean visitors joining our class for the last 2 weeks, but today we have had to say goodbye.  We have enjoyed welcoming them into our class and have learnt lots about their country and culture.  We spent some of our afternoons creating Powerpoint presentations about British food, culture, landmarks and monarchy to share with them and they created presentations about their culture, history, K-Pop and food.  We all learnt alot!  Some of us were even brave enough to volunteer to try a korean paste, which is added to many of their dishes....it was very spicy!

Keeping our young people safe online - You said, We did!

Important: Change of date, now on Wednesday 7th March 2018

We held a very successful e-safety parent’s workshop on Wednesday morning and evening, where we explored child protection laws, helpful websites and ways to keep an open dialogue with your child about their online activity. The feedback you gave us was overwhelmingly positive; almost all of you who attended requested more sessions like this - with the majority wanting a session you could attend with your children.

In the light of this, we have decided to run at least one session each term where we can join together to discuss new situations and issues, learn how to use parental restrictions on devices and software and have meaningful discussions with our children. Therefore, the next workshop will be a join parent-child session (suggested by you!), where we will be encouraging discussion and learning through fun activities and websites, exploring together scenarios and situations that you and your child may find yourselves in.

There will be a KS1 (YR - Y2) session from 3:30pm until 4pm, followed by a KS2 (Y3 - Y6) session form 4 - 4:30pm on Wedensday 7th March 2018. There will be a letter coming out to you with a reply slip so we can get an idea about numbers. This session is for you and your child/children to attend together.

Need a reminder? Add this to your google calendar:
E-Safety Parent and Child Workshop, 3.30pm, Wednesday 7th March 2018

Here are some of your comments from Wednesday’s workshop:

What did you find useful?
“All of the session – particularly being informed about the resources we can use to find out more & educate ourselves & the children. Opportunity to ask questions was great.”
“All of it! Very useful to learn about a ‘safe’ search engine for kids and the illustration of the safe and unhelpful places in a city was also helpful.”
Other comments:
“Really useful – Main danger is peer pressure of not being able to contact friends if you don’t have app, so the wider we can spread the word, the better”
“Great that this is being offered to parents and definitely an area of concern that I don’t currently feel equipped for.”

Helpful websites we explored in the workshop:

Think U Know - A website for parents, carers, teachers and children all about online safety, run by the National Crime Agency. Some great educational games and clips for kids!

Kidrex.org - A customised Google search engine that returns child-freindly results and eliminates the image search.

Please make sure you save the date!

New provider for the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Information Advice and Support (IAS)

From 1st February 2018, there will be a new provider for SEND Information Advice and Support from, The Rose Road Association (Rose Road). Rose Road is a Southampton Charity established in 1952, by parents, providing overnight respite, support in the community and activity schemes for disabled children and young people. They have also been providing information and advice services to families since 2009. They pride themselves on providing the information parents need, via factsheets on their comprehensive website. Telephone support and face to face support is also provided where it is needed as well as information, advice and support for children and young people. You can reach them on their local rate helpline number 0300 303 2677 or by email at southamptoniass@roseroad.org.uk . Their website will be available at www.southamptonsendiass.info from the 1st February. They are pleased that existing IAS adviser Anna Gunn will be joining them so there will be some continuity for families who are working with Anna. If you have a live case with the current provider, Southampton Mencap, you should have received a letter asking your permission to transfer your data to them. Southampton Mencap will continue to provide Independent Support (if you are undergoing Education Health Care (EHC) plan assessment) until 31st March. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Jo Maxwell-Heron, Family Services Manager at jomaxwellheron@roseroad.org.uk or Carol Dixon, Family Services Director at caroldixon@roseroad.org.uk They are looking forward to working with you!