There are lots of exciting events happening in Oakwood Building for our young people, here is a taster of what has been happening over the last term.

• The Cafe is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10:30 - 12:00 during term time, we will be selling a selection of snacks including our cake of the day. Acorn Cafe will also be open on selected Saturday's throughout the year were families can visit for a relaxing morning. All of our food and drink is lovingly prepared by our young people in FE. One of students has just started work experience with out IT support and has set up a Cafe facebook page! Check us out on facebook by searching for Acorn students cafe Kirkletham! The page has been set up and ran by one of our final year students. 
• We are currently running our own carwash on a Friday morning! This has gone from sponges and buckets to a brand new hoover and jet wash with the profits our students have made! 
• One of our enterprise groups have started their own printing press! We have to date printed our own mugs, T-shirts and other flyers and leaflets. 

What's happened this half term? May 2023 

Mock Exams in FE

After the success earlier in the year of 12 students passing their first NOCN English and Maths qualification we are busy preparing for mock exams before our real ones in June and July. We have 15 students doing E1-E3 Maths exams and 15 students completing their E1-E3 English exams. All FE staff have also been trained to undertake invigilation.  Good luck all!

Duke of Edinburgh

We are really pleased to announce the return of the DofE awards across school. A group of secondary students have just started on their journey towards their bronze award and will complete their final expedition in September this year. A Bronze DofE programme has four sections: Volunteering, Physical, Skills and Expedition. You must do a minimum of three months activity for each of the Volunteering, Physical and Skills sections, and plan, train for and do a two-day, one-night Expedition. We look forward to building on this next year by rolling out the programme across the whole of upper school.

Parent sharing afternoon

We have already completed one parent share this term with lots of classes doing a variety of different activities across the whole of upper school. FE concentrated on sharing some lovely crafts with their parents while upper school went for sharing their cookery skills by making their parents afternoon tea and we even had one group sharing our forest school session. We were really luck with the weather so no welly’s required! This terms parent share is planned for June and we look forward to again welcoming all groups parents into school.

Titanic trips

We were quick to notice the Dorman museums Titanic exhibition this term and linked this into our water and weather topics. 2 groups of upper school pupils will be visiting the exhibition over the next week. The pupils  will be able to see items and read stories about first, second and third class passengers from both ships, as well as discovering items such as silverware and chinaware, a photographic collection from on-board passenger and survivor, Father Browne, plus many more of the Titanic’s interior and exterior artefacts that have been recovered from the wreckage site. We are all very excited to go, we definitely have at least a few titanic experts!

A special visitor!

We are very lucky to have the opportunity for have a very special visitor this week in FE Sutton class in the form of Therapy Dog Chance. The children have been learning about what a therapy dog does and how it can benefit our metal health and wellbeing. We look forward to sharing the pictures from his visit soon!

Ikea trip

As part of one of our groups preparing for adulthood curriculum one of our groups had a trip out to IKEA this term. Earlier this half term the pupils from Wainestones class made the hour drive north to visit Ikea. They were given a budget and had to find furniture and accessories to decorate a future bedroom. This a fantastic way to apply practically the skills they have been learning during Numeracy sessions and aid their preparation for adulthood. The pupils were exceptionally behaved and though while some went extremely over budget in their excitement, they had a wonderful time!  The pupils enjoyed making their lists of items needed, researching on the internet the products in store and then making a slightly longer than usual bus trip up to Gateshead. The pupils had a fantastic day and gained lots of new skills including asking some of the staff for assistance without the help of accompanying adults.

Prom and this years leavers

This year we have 7 pupils leaving from FE to go onto a range of different locations. We have a number of pupils who have managed to gain a place at Prior and others who will be accessing day services after they leave us. The pupils have decided they would like to return to Saltburn Golf club this year for their Prom. All FE students have been invited this year and the prom will take place on the 18^th of July. We look forward to be able to showing you some pictures next term of all of their lovely eveningwear!

STEM futures

Four of our upper school classes have either had or are having this term some STEM futures sessions which have been ran and organised by NYBEP. These have included a range of different challenges that have been very practical in their nature, so really suitable for our students to get their problem solving hats on! Sessions have included; Eggs in Space and Bridge Building, Our School, Our Way and The Chocolate Box Challenge.

Candace Gilbert – Back again with building our futures sessions

After the success of the building our futures sessions with our FE students we have invited Candace back into school to work with two of our secondary groups. The six week programme includes a range of different activities with different employers including Sensory Garden Design Challenge - creative session for the students to continue to work on designs and prepare for presentations and One to one mock interviews with employers. It’s great to have some real life employers into school so they can see the range of skills our students have but also for our students to experience what a real interview might feel like.

Having our voice heard – Far and Wide

Emma Abbott from Youth Focus North East came to visit a group of upper school students as part of her work with the North East Youth Alliance. She offers a range of opportunities for young people aged 10-25 years across the North East. In Particular around youth voice. She is keen to ensure that the voice of all young people is heard and that they are given the opportunity to be involved in youth voice project.

She came into meet with some of our pupils to talk about what youth voice means to them and ran workshop on the following themes: Transport, Education, Mental Health, Environment, Policing and Safety, Things to do. We look forward to some of our suggestions being put into action over the next year. 

What happened last half term? 

• Building our Futures project

  This half term we have been part of a building our futures project with the local authority this has included a number of activities linked to careers and preparing for adulthood. This has included some challenges from local employers including a Sensory Garden Design Challenge which included students having to prepare and plan a garden and feedback doing a presentation, Mock Interview preparation and One to one mock interviews with employers.

  Early help

  The early help team have been in to work with Y9-Y13 pupils on drug and alcohol awareness. This included information on Smoking/Vaping, Alcohol, Cannabis, Pull Factors, the Teenager Brain Prescription Drugs, ways of staying safe, Consequences, and the Law.

  The activities encouraged young people to think about the consequences of engaging in “risk taking” behaviour and how to stay safe in risky situations. Pupils where encouraged to ask questions, misconceptions are addressed, and local support services are promote.

  Valentines day

  We celebrated valentines day in FE with a valentines disco but we also made some great things in Enterprise to sell in and around school. The students came up with ideas of what to sell and enjoyed building up their confidence selling to students staff and visitors.

• Highcliffe are our group working Monday to Wednesday from college. To further extend their preparation for adulthood we asked them to access some of the local community facilities in addition to the college facilities. Last term they choose to access a gym to do body balance and this term they have further extended this to do boxercise. 2 pupils have gone onto join a gym in their local area and are really enjoying the social element of being able to access these unaided.

Travel training

Year 9-14 have been accessing local authority travel training in 6 weeks blocks with local authority worker Louise Dale. Louise has been doing class based sessions to begin with groups of students on traveling to and from school, from home into the community and from home to college. We have also signposted 5 students which she will work 1-1 with on a more practical basis to promote their independence in the community.

Transition visits

Transition visits this term have included Tees Valley Spark Jobs for the Future, Route 1 Coffee House, World skills UK Finals Careers event at Middlesbrough College, Redcar and Cleveland College Tour, Meadowcroft, Beyond Boundaries and Creative Thinking.

If you require any further information please contact the Assistant Head for upper school Gemma Taylor at gtaylor@khs.rac.sch.uk