Welcome to Beech

Teacher - Beech/Staff Governor Samantha Webster

Date of Appointment: 14/11/2016, 4 year term of office
Appointed via Staff Ballot
Photo of Samantha Webster

Beech is a class of 8 students with diverse needs and abilities whom are supported by 4 members of staff, we largely use symbols and signalong in order to communicate our needs, choices and feelings.

Beech class take a holistic approach to learning by following a topic based curriculum, where each subject is tailored to the individuals learning needs, thriving on routine and consistency.

Students particularly enjoy activities that are ‘hands on’ which relate to everyday life skills and promoting independence.

Spring term 1 Timetable

Spring Term 1 Topic: TransportCurriculum Information for parents. Activities covered during this time will be working towards students individual learning in areas such as • Pencil control/writing. • Phonics/ Reading. • Communication. • EHCP outcomes. • Sensory integration.
SubjectProfiles and Ideas for home
Daily ActivitiesEncourage your son/daughter to take part in activities that they enjoy which will support independence and the exploration of life skills, Please feel free to explore individual plans that you have at home such as EHCPs, SALT reports, or enjoy reading/sharing a story/book with your son/daughter.
MathsWe will be exploring mathematics while investigating Transport. We will be taking part in activities related to addition, time and money by finding out how people travel to school, making sets and developing bar charts to show our findings. Beech class will explore symmetry, doubling and halving, 2D and 3D shapes using these shapes to make sculptures/pictures of transport too. At home encourage your son/daughter to explore transport that they have been on before, how they travel to school, or any holidays/days out they may have been on before. We look forward to hearing all about it.
English In Beech class this half term we will be exploring books, stories and poems related to transport. We will be exploring stories such as ‘Lost and Found’, ‘The Duck and the truck’, ‘Don’t let the Pidgeon drive the bus’. We will also be exploring story sequencing, word meaning and word/sound recognition. As with every topic we will be learning new signs related to our topic too .At home encourage your son/daughter to listen to/watch stories/films/programmes that are related to transport and travel, discuss these with you son/Daughter, what do they think about these, do they have a favourite programme/transport/character or presenter? etc.
Art During our topic of Transport we will be creating exciting pieces of Art involving Transport such as designing models with recyclable materials, tyre track paintings, Lego cars, transport from 2d shapes and collages from photos of transport that we will be taking ourselves. When at home continue to explore Transport colours and textures are they smooth, rough, hard, soft? Explore the patterns on transport interiors or wheels, join your son/daughter in painting or drawing activities too, we look forward to seeing some of your artwork.
P.EDuring PE we will be focussing on a healthy lifestyle/keeping fit. We will be taking part in simple keep fit activities and exercises including dance activities. As well as learning to take part in these types of activities safely we will be focussing on the changes that happen to our bodies during and after exercise. At home encourage your son/daughter to take part in daily exercise activities that are suitable to their individual abilities, taking a walk, riding a bike, using a trampoline- most importantly- Have fun.
R.E, Music & MFLThese subjects will be covered as 1 full day of activities for each subject, dates and information on these will follow shortly.
HumanitiesDuring our topic of transport we will be exploring transport through the ages including horses and carts as well as steam engines. We will also be looking at how we could travel to particular places- by train, bus, boat or aeroplane. At home discuss with your Son/Daughter events from their own past, where it took place and who was there, how did they travel.
PSHE & CitizenshipAs discussed above, in Beech class we will focus on Transport this half term. All of our PSHE/Citizenship tasks and activities will revolve around this topic and cover areas such as; Road safety, understanding what/who keeps us safe, caring for others and sharing our opinions.. When at home the above areas can also be discussed with your son/daughter to reinforce road safety and ways to keep safe when in the community.
D.TThis lesson will be taught by Jason Tooke
ScienceIn science, we are going to be conducting Transport themed science experiments such as making pencil propellers, balloon boats, magnetic cars and paper aeroplanes. We will be investigating the changes that happen, the movement and forces involved in the investigations as well as communicating what we have found or seen. As science happens all around us it is possible to capture moments of experiments at home through cooking and gardening, there also ideal children’s’ programmes in which they promote scientific discovery- such as ‘Nina and the Neurons’, you might like to share these experiences with your Son/Daughter.