Weekly blog 14.01.22

Hi All,

As you can see from the E-Base report, Life at the Learning Centre is continuing as normal. In the midst of ever-changing guidance and regulations, the students never fail to impress with their
resilience, hard work and experience.

We have decided to slightly change the format of our weekly blogs this term. Classes and bases will be taking it in turns to provide updates from their areas about what students have been learning
throughout the week enabling more detailed and in-depth reports. I will of course continue to share any additional updates for the week with families.

EBase Department Blog

This week, in Ebase 2, the students have worked really hard in all their activities. They have engaged and participated well. Each morning they have engaged in their sensory diet programme.

During English the students enjoyed putting their pirate self onto the pirate ship, and they went on to listen to the story of “The Treasure of Pirate Frank” – during the story they explored ice cubes, slimy frogs, a treasure map, a treasure chest filled with coins, gems and jewellery, an ocean sensory bottle and a sensory volcano bag.

They all thoroughly enjoyed exploring the sensory items. Thahmim went on to complete his CVC worksheets and Sadik went on to identify words and spell them correctly.

During Maths, all the students took part in their individual activities which include, shape sorting, sequencing, numbers and colour sorting. Once they had completed their activities they sat with a member of staff to complete their AFL sheets.

In this week’s art session, the students enjoyed making the treasure chest for the story. They used brown paint and applied it to the chest using a sponge. Once it was dry, Thahmim stuck a gold band around it.

On Wednesday, we had our weekly Boccia tournament. Saruwar really enjoys this activity and is more than willing to participate as independently as possible.

This week, ‘Part-timers’ won, well done all.

On Thursday all the students enjoyed chopping tomatoes and peppers to make their own pizzas. Each student was offered a taste of the various ingredients.

Tylor was not impressed with the tomato, whereas Sadik thoroughly enjoyed eating a whole one. Well done everyone, Lots of hard work this week!

This week in Ebase 3, the students have been working hard on lots of different things.

In Maths some students have been working on numbers and counting from 1-10, while others have been exploring various Maths related resources and practising remaining on task for longer periods of time.

In English everyone has been working hard on their memory and sequencing skills in relation to one of the books we have been reading as a class. This week we have been reading, ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’.

In cooking this week, the students have been working hard on their spreading, whisking and cutting skills, and in Outdoor Education, everyone has had a great time exploring the local area and spending some time on the near-by park! 

Miss Thornhill would like to give Sarah Jane a mention this week. Sarah has been amazing. She has joined Miss Kindon for a couple of trips out and particularly enjoyed joining the Nurture Group for a trip to Alexander Park. Miss Kindon said that Sarah did extremely well walking from the Learning Centre and back. Once there, Sarah accessed the Boat House Café and independently chose and paid for a big hot chocolate with marshmallows. When Sarah got back, she asked to have her hair done with rollers! Sarah was really still whilst Miss Thornhill put her rollers in and enjoyed a foot spa at the same time. A big Well Done to Sarah Jane, you are definitely our Star of the Week!

A massive well done to all our E-Base students and a special mention goes to Sarah Jane!

The next few weeks will be busy for Learning Centre students. At the beginning of February, the school nurses are planning to come into the Learning Centre to run some health promotion classes.

These lessons should last around 30 minutes, involving all students taking part in group work. The first sessions will be around dental hygiene.

Pure Innovations will also be starting an Independent travel training programme with Mr Blackman’s year 14 students.

Pure Innovations are commissioned by Oldham Council to deliver Independent Travel Training in the Borough.

As an organisation that works solely with young people and adults, with varying disabilities and additional needs, we already have a strong history of travel training in the North West, with
established, effective, travel training projects in partnership with other Greater Manchester Authorities.

The benefits of being able to travel independently are lifelong; and it widens opportunities for future training and/or employment for young people.

Currently, priority is given to young people who are transported by the local authority; however Pure Innovations provide group work sessions, within a range of provision.

These sessions are free of cost and are delivered by the Bolton team of travel trainers, all of whom have extensive experience of
supporting young people with additional needs.

Group sessions are designed in consultation with each school and usually comprise of 6 sessions, each one around 40 minutes, giving students greater knowledge and understanding around:

• Strangers
• Road Safety
• How to deal with problems that may occur while out travelling
• Weather and travelling
• Different types of road crossings
• Safe people to ask for help
• Safest way to cross a road
• What to take with them on a journey and what not to take with them on a journey
• Problem solving

Materials for each unit of work are adapted to reflect the needs of each group of students.

“Pure Innovations would like to stress there is no expectation that students who undertake these sessions will commit to a full travel training programme afterwards.”

As you may be aware there is additional guidance around self-isolation which comes into place from Monday.

From Monday 17th January, people who are self-isolating with COVID-19 will have the option to reduce their isolation period after 5 full days if they test negative with a lateral flow device (LFD)
test on both day 5 and day 6 and they do not have a temperature.

For example, if they test negative on the morning of day 5 and the morning of day 6, they can return to their education or
childcare setting immediately on day 6.

The first test must be taken no earlier than day 5 of the self-isolation period, and the second must be taken the following day. All test results should be reported to NHS Test and Trace.

If the result of either of their tests is positive, they should continue to self-isolate until they get negative results from two LFD tests on consecutive days or until they have completed 10 full days
of self-isolation, whichever is earliest.

Anyone who is unable to take LFD tests or anyone who continues to have a temperature will need to complete the full 10 day period of self-isolation.

Further information on self-isolation for those with COVID-19 is available.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch, the safety of all our students and staff continues to be paramount at this time.

Have a nice weekend,

Take care and stay safe

Dawn