January Newsletter 2016

NEWSLETTER, January 2016 Hello and a very “Happy New Year” to you all. Our young people have returned to school relaxed and having enjoyed the Christmas break. We hope you enjoy reading about the activities from last term. Please make a note of the dates in the diary section, further details of these events have been sent home, or are to follow. Pen Portrait – Jenny Baker Hello, my name is Jenny Baker. I have been at Kennel Lane School now for just over 4 years, and I am currently leader of the Secondary Department, whole school Assessment Lead and a Staff Governor. Before coming to Kennel Lane School I worked in a mainstream Secondary school where I was Deputy Head of the Humanities Faculty and Acting Head of House. My main aim for the learners in Secondary is to prepare them to be ‘next stage ready’ whether that be leaving Kennel Lane School to go to college, taking an apprenticeship or going into paid employment. ‘Working’ experience is also really important for all our young people and I hope you will support Key Stage 5’s new enterprise business, Green Leaves, by booking our Afternoon Tea event for you and your young person later in the academic year. Outside of school I like to spend time with my friends and family as well as taking my two dogs, Teddy and Mr Darcy, for long walks. Pen Portrait – Gaynor Murphy Hello, my name is Gaynor Murphy. I have worked at Kennel Lane for 10 years, currently within the Secondary Department. My daughter Megan attends the school and is now in her final year of sixth form. Originally, I started as a volunteer in the Primary Department supporting swimming and cooking sessions and decided I quite liked it so applied to become an unqualified teaching assistant. Over the last 10 years I have completed two NVQs and am now a qualified teaching assistant (QTA). I am hoping to complete my higher level teaching assistant qualification in the near future. My current role is to support students across Secondary in Independent Living and Careers and to generally give support where needed. I teach Rebound Therapy three times a week within Secondary which I thoroughly enjoy and I think the students do too. In my spare time, I am kept busy being my daughter’s personal taxi service, taking her to all her after school activities! I like to keep fit and go to an exercise class called TRX and Gravity Fit on the trampolines at Gravity Force. When I’m not doing that, I enjoy baking cakes for friends and family. Christmas Lunch We all enjoyed our Christmas lunch celebrations at the end of term. There was singing, joke telling and much laughter (as well as yummy food!). Thank you to all the visitors who came to share this event with us again, and massive thanks to our wonderful catering staff who cooked the meal for us.

Primary Production – “Grandma Saves Christmas” There was a Superhero in the Primary department on the run up to Christmas - for those of you who managed to come and see our Christmas play, you will know exactly who we are talking about! We took a different approach our Christmas production this academic year and created our own show called ‘Grandma saves Christmas’. Stacey Lees and Kat Croser worked collaboratively to link R.E, Music and Drama together to create a carol concert with a twist; a play where we had a bedtime story being told about a villain (Crazy Cracker) and his sidekick (Broken Bauble) trying to ‘zap’ all the Christmas spirit out of every Christmas performance and only Grandma could save the day! Stacey and Kat shared the same creative vision of wanting the children to be at the heart of the show. This meant they took control telling the story, introducing the acts through the script, having class prepared Carol performances but also included technical elements, jokes for audience entertainment and creative props (our favourites were the water spray gun and cracker explosion). Each class chose a traditional Christmas carol to perform and we had a reasonable sized cast sharing the lead roles. The standard of the performance exceeded all expectations, the pupils were professional superstars! There were laughs, cheers and boos from the audience throughout the show adding to an electric performance atmosphere and the feedback received from parents and carers who came to see it was very complimentary indeed! We were so proud of our performers, we really challenged them this year and not only did they rise to the challenge, they smashed it! Thank you to Stacey and Kat, the children and all the staff in the Primary department for all their hard work J Secondary Christmas Production – “Secondary School Musical” This year, the Secondary performance took the theme of a school preparing for a Christmas production! It was of course nothing like our own preparations – in this performance, “staff and assistants” complained about the workload, “kitchen staff” complained that lunch was always late, and the “students” complained about having to do a nativity! Rebellion followed, but of course everyone pulled together to ensure a wonderful show! Every class took a different role in the story, including teachers, teaching assistants painting the scenery and parents waiting at the school gate. They all worked very hard to sing and dance to demonstrate how they felt about the rehearsals. Students from the Performing Arts options played the speaking roles of students and teachers, and even Kennel Lane staff got involved, playing parents receiving the inevitable ‘costume letter’. The production again showed the wonderful performance skills of our students, with lovely humorous moments. The audience were very appreciative of their efforts and were very complimentary. We are always very grateful for the support of our parents, not only at the performance, but also in helping to provide costumes and support students in learning their parts.

Kennel Lane Staff Get Crafty! It’s not just your young people who have lots of fun at school! Oh no, some of our secondary staff were treated to an hour of getting crafty, making their own Christmas wreaths. The rivalry was fierce, as each class team, and some more competitive individuals, battled to make the most impressive wreath! Standards were that high, to select an overall winner would have been impossible! Thank you to Jenny and Mr Chris who organised this fun, end of term activity for the staff. Set the Video Recorder! In the November newsletter, we told you about one of our Primary pupils, Martha in Jet class, taking part in an episode of “Something Special” with the fabulous Mr Tumble. This episode will be aired on Monday 1st February at 9.45 and 1.45. It will also be available to view on BBC iPlayer for 30 days. Don’t miss it! Stay Safe Scheme in Bracknell   A number of local shops, businesses and amenities within Bracknell Forest have agreed to be ‘safe places’ and will display a sticker in the window like the one printed here. Each location that has signed up to be a safe place has agreed that their staff will offer assistance to people with learning difficulties and autism as well as those with dementia and mental illness. For further details go to www.bracknellforest.gov.uk/safeplace Bag2School Thank you for supporting our recent collection of good quality second hand clothing, which in turn supports developing countries. Through this excellent organisation, the school has raised £102.46. Key stage 4 learners boosted our campaign by working with our local residents who also donated items for us. The money will be used to help complete works in the sensory garden, an area that has recently been constructed and added to the learning environments available for learners at Kennel Lane School. We would like to thank Mrs Fiona Dunbar, one of our parents, for working with the school in organising this event. Dates for your Diary Don’t forget to check the website for up-to-date and urgent news. More details of all of the events below will be sent in due course. Please note that the Family Fun Afternoons for Primary and Secondary are now taking place in March. Look out for the flyer in your young person’s home link book. w/c 8th February

Year 11 Work Experience week

Tuesday 9th February

Internet Safety Day

Mon 15th – Fri 19th February

Half Term

Wednesday 2nd March

Primary Family Fun Afternoon 3.00pm – 4.45pm

Thursday 3rd March

World Book Day

Wednesday 9th March

Secondary Family Fun Afternoon 3.00pm – 4.45pm

Best wishes