Headteacher’s Update — Mr Kevin Day - May 2017

Welcome to a special newsletter that highlights many of the different ways we learn at Belmont and hopefully shares with families some of the experiences that the children enjoy here. I can not believe we have squeezed so much into one very short term; highlights have included: Year 11 mock interviews, Wholefoods Masterclass - Year 10, Special Schools’ Football Tournament, GCSE Art Exam, Science GCSEs, Parental Conversation Evenings, Money Day, Choir Practice, Key Stage 3 trip to Tesco, Visit from the Fire Brigade, Royal Institute on Explosive Foods, Tri Golf Tournament - Classes 3 and 4

Belmont learning super stars being the very best they can be…… As a school during the past two years the staff team have focused on giving students helpful feedback on their work and learning so they make even better progress in the future. Many students have been doing very well with their learning and I wanted to highlight a number of children who have been working exceptionally hard.:

Class 1 - Max for great role play in Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk and great engagement in English lessons. Class 2 - Jeremy for his growing confidence and sharing his ideas resulting in improved poems in English Class 3 - Olly for improved focus and confidence resulting in his spelling assessment rocketing by EIGHTEEN months progress in just 1 year! Well done Olly. Class 4 - Tilly – Wow what a superstar. Becoming more independent and brilliant effort with sign and communication.

Year 7 - James – Consistent effort in lessons with excellent contributions and original ideas. James’ vocabulary is a huge strength of his and this helps him craft engaging and exciting written work. Margaret – Big improvement in Maths with growing confidence, prepared to tackle anything! Year 8 - Liam – Liam now has the confidence to take risks in English resulting in fantastic creativity, well done! Year 9 - Johan – Johan has shown excellent progress in English improving his understanding and verbal contribution to lessons. Year 10 - Taylor - Excellent self motivation and interest within science , brilliant questions and growing knowledge. Joshua – Josh has gone from strength to strength this year in English as he responds so well to feedback from his classmates and teacher. Well done Josh for all your effort! Harpreet - She is putting amazing effort in to her work and at times going way beyond what it is expected in Maths and PSHE lessons. Well done.. Year 11 Luke Thompson - Really improved his independent work and problem solving within Maths and will never give up! Well done! Jack D.- He has mastered his skills to work with money. Jack is able now to solve basic money problems without support. It is a great achievement for Jack as this is an important skill to master for life!

Well done many great steps forward this term for many of our hardworking students.

A super star outside of the classroom….. In addition to the academic success from our students many are also doing really well outside of school. Callum Smith from class 3.4 is a member of Lakeside Blues U13s who recently won the U13s C&G League Cup! The final match to secure this achievement took place on 7 May 2017 at Cheltenham Town FC. What is also remarkable is this is the second year running that Callum’s team have won the competition. Huge congratulations to Callum and his team for this amazing achievement

Callum received the icing on the cake last week when a call came from Gloucestershire District coaches confirming that he had made the District squad. Very well done Callum. All the hard training and commitment is paying off and we wish you luck for next season.

Staff news

I am pleased to confirm that as a result of the

ongoing “Belmont baby boom”! staff are coming

and going next term and we have plans to ensure great support for the children during these

times. I am pleased that Chloe Hockin will be back in school, we have really missed her skills

and energy. Mrs Hall is next in line for maternity leave and I am delighted to confirm that Mrs

Farrer-Grove was appointed to cover her maternity leave due to start after the May half term

holiday and has already had opportunities to get to know Class 2 to help with the transition.

Clubs and sports

In addition to our lunchtime programme being led by Mrs King we continue to offer after school

clubs and competitive sports fixtures. Next term we will run an Art and Football after school club

on Monday evenings and Multi Sports Club on Tuesdays. All the clubs will start from the first

week back next term

Win a Minibus Competition - Gloucester Citizen/Gloucestershire Echo

We are once again registering for the above competition to win a

school minibus and need to collect at least 100 tokens per entry so

the more tokens we receive the more chances we have to enter.

Please get collecting and ask around anyone that you know who

purchases these newspapers and send all your tokens into school!

Thank you.

More tokens = more entries = more chance of winning

On behalf of all the staff and governors I hope you all enjoy the May holiday and the sun

continues to shine! Mr Day.

Headteacher’s Update (Cont’d) PAGE 2

IINTERNATIONALNTERNATIONAL NEWSNEWS PAGE 3

Celebrating our British Values - Saint George and the Dragon

Performed by Class 4 - 23 April - St George’s Day

‘It was a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

performance by Class 4 who performed ‘Saint

George and the dragon.’ A new pupil Ethan A

with his LSW, Mr Turner had just joined Class

4 and with one day of rehearsals joined the

cast. This year our brave Saint George was

Calvin who got to fight the evil dragon Ethan.

King Harry, Queen Tilly and Princess Jamie

were looked after by their servants Kieran,

Brooklyn and Ethan A. The new royal chef

who was appointed on the day, James Probert

demonstrated his superb acting skills alongside his culinary knowledge. Every year

there is a new twist to the story. This year King Harry demonstrated his new talent and

played the piano. When the dragon had eaten all the food; it was time for King Harry to

play the game ‘Name that note’. All the servants and selected members of the audience

had the opportunity to guess the correct note played on the piano. When they got it

wrong there was only one place to go and that was to the lake to be eaten by the dragon!

‘Another One Bites the Dust’, music by Queen indicated every time the dragon was hun-

gry. Of course brave Saint George saved Princess Jamie.

The whole school watched the performance and the reviews were very positive. Mr

Scognamiglio, “St. George and the dragon play can be described in one word –

Legendary!”

Mrs Vida, “The play was excellent. Class 1 pupils that came really enjoyed it. They were

very involved with the production to the extent that I had to hold their hands to stop

them wanting to kill the dragon. Max wanted to be a hero and kill him! Nathan was emo-

tional when the people got eaten. It really engaged them”

During the day pupils were engaged in a wide range of activities led by Belmont staff.

Mrs Godwin, “We made gingerbread cakes following a British heritage recipe. We calcu-

lated 20g of sugar was used to make the cakes which turned out very good”

Mrs Smith, “I promoted British values by getting my pupils to make stained glass win-

dows. Another class wrote dragon poems”

Roxanne, “This is the first time I have seen the play St. George and the dragon. I have

learnt about St George today”

Sydney, “I really enjoyed it, especially when the dragon ate the people”

Luke, “It was really good. I liked the dragon eating the villagers especially Adam Howie”

James, “It was different with the Game Show and me being the chef. I wish more of

Class 4 screamed!”

At the end of the day there was the opportunity for some pupils to have a go at country

dancing. It was a wonderful day; it is so important for us to continue promoting our Brit-

ish heritage and show that we are proud to be British.

SCHOOL COUNCIL PAGE 4

Hot Topics!! The School Council have been busy meeting and dis-cussing the burning issues of the day. The representatives are working hard on behalf of their fellow students. Asking for new markings on the play-grounds to provide more break and lunchtime activi-ties. There has also been a request to have ‘Life Hacks’, put onto the Friday enrichment, so expect pupils com-ing home and showing you how to make a phone case from a balloon! Mr Day dropped in to thank us for the support during the employment of new staff, where mem-bers of the council helped to interview the candidates. Finally The School council are asking Mr Day and the senior management team to consider Polo shirts for future summer terms.

Enrichment continues to provide pupils with a range of differ-

ent activities and experiences to enhance their bank of skills to

carry forward with them.

Pupils have had opportunities to take part in relaxation and yo-

ga sessions, sensory messy play and music sessions to name

a few.

It is thanks to the efforts of all staff that suggest and offer a

range of activities that Enrichment has been so successful here at Belmont.

Pupils from across the Key Stages have the chance to interact with each other and build new

friendships. It is lovely to see the older pupils of Belmont teach and encourage the Primary chil-

dren within their chosen Enrichment session.

Next term we are looking forward to introducing Cycling to

some primary pupils as an Enrichment opportunity.

Pupils look forward to and enjoyed Enrichment sessions on a

Friday afternoon and it has been lovely to see them having fun

and exploring new activities.

Mrs Hall

ENRICHMENT

MUSIC PAGE 5

Music in school has been going really well for the last few weeks. By the close of Term 4 Lee from the Music Works finished his course on electronic music composition. The pupils really enjoyed the course and ended up with a creditable composition. The course has inspired the department to look into buying some sophisticated devices that will allow all of the pupils to play their iPads together and mix the sound to balance out different sounds and instruments into a harmonious whole piece. Meanwhile the Choir have been practising with the other SEN School in Gloucestershire as well as by themselves here in school. Twenty songs will be presented in the Bacon Theatre on 8 June by the combined choirs. There is an advert in the Newsletter. Please attend. It is a remarkable body of work sung by a remarkable group of young people.

There's more! The Belmont and Bettridge combined Choir have been invited by Friends of Belmont to sing at the Bettridge and Belmont Summer Fete on Saturday 17 June to be held at Bettridge School.

WHOLEFOODS PAGE 6

We are very excited to once again be involved in the Whole Foods Project - School Food Matters, once again. This is the third year that our pupils have been involved in this exciting and valuable project. Pupils have already enjoyed an assembly about the project and last week they were entertained by chef Michaela Bowles, who showed them how to make strawberry jams and some healthy muffins. Pupils loved watching her cook and listening to her stories about preparing foods for famous chefs such as the Hairy Bikers and how she works on the Food show Saturday kitchen behinds the scenes preparing the foods the chefs

use. Over the next few weeks our Year 10 pupils will go to Whole Foods to learn the tricks of the trade for marketing and they will think about how we can market our jams and chutneys. We will also visit a fruit farm to pick the fruits that we will make into jams and chutneys. They final part of the day is Market Day where pupils will be selling their products in the morning at Whole Foods Cheltenham on 5th July. It would be wonderful if parents could pop in to see us in action and to buy some delicious homemade products.

In Drama club students have had the opportunity to participate in drama games and activities that encour-age communication, teamwork and listening. This term we have also been focusing on different dance styles from around the world. Students have really en-joyed line dancing and English country dancing as well as learning moves inspired by African and Indian influences. Overall, pupils have really embraced the opportunity to express themselves in the medium of movement.

DRAMA CLUB

TRIPS AND VISITS PAGE 7

There has been a huge variety of visits during the year, and nearly all the classes have had the

opportunity to go out of school to find out more about the topics or subjects they are learning

about.

KS4 have mostly made visits that related to well-being and PHSCE: the Law Courts, Air Smiles,

Operation Christmas Child, Catering and Hospitality and preparation for college and work.

In KS3 pupils have had a range of opportunities; they have visited Tesco for Farm to Fork and

Cheltenham Museum to see the Edward Wilson exhibition; they have played Boccia and learnt to

be Sports Leaders, and they are part of the SEN Schools Choir.

The younger children in KS2 have spent a day at Slimbridge, attended the Dance Festival in

Cheltenham, visited a farm to see the lambs at Easter and enjoyed Robin Hood at the Roses

Theatre.

Learning Support Worker TEAM PAGE 8

At Belmont the LSW team continue to work very hard supporting the pupils on a daily basis

providing a consistent approach and safe environment for them to access their learning. As

individuals the LSW team have a wealth of experience including class support, behaviour

management and delivering interventions. LSW staff support the foundations between the pu-

pils and tutors providing important communication links whilst building relationships and trust

with the pupils.

SPORTS CLUBS AND FIXTURES Page 9

Football Club Belmont’s foot-ball team have gone from strength to strength this term and this has been evident in their performanc-es over the past few matches. Each and every player has taken time and effort to attend football training on a Monday after-noon. We have includ-ed sessions to improve our dribbling, shooting, passing and ball control capabilities. We have included cross bar challenges and mini 5 aside tournaments during some sessions which the children love to take part in. As the players run out of the changing rooms down onto the field to get warmed up, it is great to see the enthusiasm and excitement they have for the game and their ambi-tion to learn different skills/ techniques within the game. We hope to see the football team continue to grow in the upcoming term and footballing abili-ties to improve. All children attending the football club have a healthy competitive nature when participating which is great to witness. We would like to thank the parents/ friends who take the time to collect their children out of school hours in order for them to attend this extra curricular club.

In Belmont we have a lot of keen footballers, so it was fantastic that some of our most dedicat-

ed footballers were able to take part in two fixtures last month. On the 6th of April we travelled

to The Peak Academy for an away fixture and on the 28th of February we took a KS3 and KS4

team to a tournament at Hartpury College.

In the game against Peak we took an early lead through George with a long range effort. How-

ever we were unable to capitalise on this lead and allowed Peak back into the game just be-

fore half time. Although we dominated the game for long periods of the second half Peak

scored two more goals meaning the game ended 3-1 to Peak. The boys played really well and

the score line really didn’t reflect the game. Special mention to Kyle who was awarded man of

the match for a fantastic performance at left back.

SPORTS CLUBS AND FIXTURES Page 10

Football (continued)

After the disappointment of losing against The Peak Academy, the boys were determined to

put in a good performance at the annual tournament at Hartpury. So determined that they

trained every single day at lunch time in the week leading up to the tournament. On the day

the boys did not disappoint with both the KS3 and KS4 team winning all their group games

except for against each other which was a 0-0 draw. This meant that both teams ended up

playing against each other in the final which the KS3 team edged winning 2-0. Both teams

played fantastically and were a credit to the school.

Multi-Sports Club Multi sports club has been energising this term. Seeing all of the children enjoying and physi-cally challenging themselves during a range of sports has been very rewarding. Mr Langton and Mr S have noticed increased skills in many of the children attending. They have been working hard on improving hand eye coordination skills and gaining huge confidence along the way. We have built on our core skills during a hockey, tennis, athletics and cricket. The children have throughly enjoyed taking part in a wide variety of sports which have both skills based and small games involved in the sessions. An added extra was recently brought into the club as 'Player Of The Week' is now awarded after every session. The children love this added excitement and feel they have a goal to strive towards during each and every session. Next term we will continue to enjoy and experience new sports/ games which in-volved all the children and challenges them.

SPORTS CLUBS AND FIXTURES Page 11

Tri-golf news

Classes 3 and 4 have had the opportunity to learn Tri-golf with professional coach Keith

Wood. Pupils have had four lessons to learn and practise golf skills needed to take part

in the Tri-Golf tournament at Hartpury College on Thursday 25 May.

Pupils have enjoyed the sessions. Ethan, “It was fun. I would like to do golf all the time.”

Harry, “I want to be a famous golfer when I am older.”

KEY STAGE HIGHLIGHTS KEY STAGE 1 & 2

Primary has been a hive of busy-ness and excitement since September. Our Class 1 children

have settled in well and we have welcomed new additions along the way in Classes 3 and 4.

The Autumn term at Belmont is all about settling in and becoming comfortable with school sur-

roundings once again. The work the classes complete in PSE and Thrive lessons really facilitate

this. Some of the action packed items we have covered are…

Harvest Festival

Pumpkin Day

Class Assemblies

Visit from the museum to talk about Kings & Queens with Class 4

Visit from the Mayor

Horse riding with Class 2

Forest School for Classes 3 and 4

Swimming for Classes 3 and 4

Enrichment for all classes on a Friday

Due to the inclement weather the children were out harvesting and weeding the raised beds.

Lots of the produce was given out with some children tasting home-grown beetroot for the first

time.

The second part of the autumn term involved our Remembrance Service, a lot of Christmas Na-

tivity rehearsals and a whole school trip to the church for our Carol Service. Along the way,

Classes 2 and 3 linked with Bournside’s Year 10s for a multi-link Sports Festival. They all had a

great time.

Our strong parental involvement ensured Belbucks was a great success and the children really enjoyed meeting Father Christmas and opening their presents. The cakes were especially nice!

The in-school pantomime production was a resounding success and we welcomed some Better-idge children for the showing.

Jumping into Spring, the days become lighter and our Open Morning was well received and all

who visited the school were impressed with the work completed in primary. Many commented

on how engaged the children were in les-

sons. The children also thoroughly en-

joyed the International Day – Games

from Around the World and the Internet

Safety Day.

Spring also gives the children (and staff)

the opportunity to dress up for World

Book Day. It was great to see all the

children dressed up as characters from

their favourite book. For those children

in classes 2, 3 and 4 who fancied show-

ing off their dancing skills, we entered

the Feet First Dance Festival and it was a great success! Red Nose Day was celebrated with the

children making fabulous hats.

The Easter Service was a thoughtful time with the primary children participating fully. In class,

Easter activities included baking, card making and story sequencing. The children all watched

the Egg Throwing Competition and the winning throw was an egg-cellent 26 metres!

In the last couple of weeks Class 4 have performed their play, St George and the Dragon to a

full audience. Acting is just another opportunity the primary children here at Belmont are given.

Money Day was brilliant with the children counting money, colouring money, making money out

of Play-doh, organising discos with a budget, constructing a money box and we also welcomed

special guests from Barclays Bank. These are skills that they will need in later life.

The last Friday of term is the award assembly. This allows the staff the opportunity to celebrate

the success of the children. £10 WHSmith vouchers and free tuck shop tokens are up for grabs.

The points the children have earned through good behaviour and work are converted into raffle

tickets with the lucky winner also receiving a £10 WHSmith voucher. A wonderful way to end the

term and so much more to look forward to in the summer.

Mr S Marshall

KEY STAGE HIGHLIGHTS (cont’d) PAGE 12

KEY STAGE HIGHLIGHTS (cont’d) PAGE 13

Money Day in Primary

Class 1 looked at different coins and banknotes, especially the new £1 and £5. The children rec-

ognised that the Queen is on all banknotes. They discussed why we need money and Nathan in-

formed us it what to buy things. We thought about where we get money from and one of the more

peculiar answers was the bus stop. They then looked at different purses and wallets and picked

the one they liked the best. They dis-

cussed how they could save money –

a piggy bank being the most popular.

They produced coin prints in

playdough and coin rubbing and finally

exchanged the correct coin with pieces

of real fruit.

Class 2 enjoyed a hunt around the pi-

rate ship to look for pictures of coins

and notes. The challenge was to find

the largest amount and not just have

the most coins. Kianna found the

£20.00 note and won! They then creat-

ed their own money box to take home

and we talked about the value of differ-

ent coins.

They also completed a quiz to count

the money in the piggy bank!

Class 3 enjoyed the Barclays Bank

session and organised their own disco.

They then used his information to plan

a special birthday party for Mr Mar-

shall! They had to select foods, cost

them and then find the total. They

spoke about ATM and why it was important to not disclose your PIN to anyone. They then had a

great game of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ and they all won!

Class 4 enjoyed the Barclays Bank session and organised their own disco and came in under

budget. Back in the classroom the children looked at the different coins and played lots of adding

and subtracting games.

KEY STAGE HIGHLIGHTS PAGE 14

KEY STAGE 3 Key Stage 3 Update Term 5 has been a short term but fully packed with a lot of exciting events for all the Key Stage 3. The Gloucestershire Fire Brigade Service came to talk to all pupils from year 7s and 8s about home safety and what to do in emergency situations. Pupils were offered to get into the fire en-gine and hold the water hose.

Mrs Godwin organised a trip for all Key Stage 3 pupils to visit Tesco Cheltenham. All pupils took part in the ‘Food for Fuel’ workshop. During this session all pupils were made aware of the im-portance of drinking water. They used different natural favours such as cucumbers, lemons, mint and many more to add to drinking water. The skills learnt at the workshop will be put into practice during our sport’s day on Friday 7

th July , where pupils will be making and offering flavoured

drinks to staff and visitors.

KEY STAGE HIGHLIGHTS PAGE 15

Internet Safety Workshop

Pupils from Upper Key stage 2, 3 and 4 took part in an Internet Safety Workshops deliv-ered by Charlene Olaleye from the Inclusion Gloucestershire Team. During each session pupils were given top 10 tips on how to se-cure their profiles on social sites. Also, if they have any concerns about bullying, inappro-priate language or behavior used online by other users to report it to a parent/ teacher or online. There is a button online called CEOP Child Exploitation and Online Protection, al-lowing a lot of people to help pupils. The Internet doesn’t have to be a scary place, remember to stay safe and have fun. Keep safe, be smart all the time stay well away from crime.

KEY STAGE 4

Well we have come to the end of a short but very hectic term. The main focus within school is

finishing coursework and exam preparation for all pupils in Y11 which has gone really well. Both

pupils and staff are working to ensure that pupils can “be the best they can be” and give them-

selves a great chance to get good grades. Work has been completed across all subjects with

some fantastic art work produced for their GCSE. A big thanks to staff and a well done to the

Y11’s.

Y11 pupils also went to the University of Gloucestershire to take part in a mock interview prac-

tice. This was done with people from a variety of businesses. The feedback from them was ex-

tremely positive highlighting smart appearances and confident answers. In the early part of next

term they will complete their work with GFirst from the University and take part in a Dragon’s Den

activity day

Y10 pupils have begun their project with Wholefoods which is very exciting and they are also pre-

paring for their London residential trip in July.

Finally a big thankyou to parents and carers who attended the parental conversations. It was

great to see so many here and being able to report back many good things the pupils have

achieved. It was great to hear some of the feedback about how well parents feel their children

have done summed up by one parent who said “I am really pleased with his progress, thanks to

all the staff at Belmont because four years ago I didn’t think he would finish school successfully.”

Thank you.

PAGE 16 BELMONT SCHOOL

TERM DATES FOR PUPILS

2016/2017

Summer Term 2017 Term 5 Term Begins Monday 24th April

Bank Holiday Monday 1st May

Term Ends Friday 26th May

Term 6 Term Begins Monday 5th June

Term Ends Friday 21st July

Attendance - Term Time Holidays

A reminder to all parents/carers that any requests submitted to take

pupils out of school for a family holiday will not be authorised unless

there are “exceptional circumstances”. All requests should be made

in writing to Mr Day.

BELMONT SCHOOL

TERM DATES FOR PUPILS

2017/2018

Autumn Term 2017 Term 1 Term Begins Tuesday 5

th September

Term Ends Friday 20th October

Term 2 Term Begins Monday 30th October

INSET DAY Friday 1st

December (no school for pupils)

Term Ends Friday 15th December

Spring Term 2018 Term 3 Term Begins Tuesday 2nd January

Term Ends Friday 9th February

Term 4 Term Begins Monday 19th February

Term Ends Thursday 29th March

Summer Term 2018 Term 5 Term Begins Monday 16th April

Bank Holiday Monday 7th May

Term Ends Friday 25th May

Term 6 Term Begins Monday 4

th June

Term Ends Friday 20th July

PAGE 17

PAGE 18

Belmont School Market Day - Wednesday 5 July

PAGE 19

A collection of songs featuring choirs from Special Schools in Gloucestershire including our own

Belmont School Choir

Tickets from the school office, £5 suggested price

Children and senior citizens £2.50

PAGE 20

School Photographer

You should have received your child’s photograph

proof by now and if you have not already submitted your order please

ensure you do so by Monday 5 June either to the school office or

online.

LATE ORDERS - Orders after 5 June can only be taken online via

Academy Portrait’s website but is will be a £5 charge for this

services

******** Discount Code ********** We are lucky to have a discount code for the above event which is MS17SS for 1 free chil-dren’s ticket to the Show, please note that this voucher code will expire on 5

th June as the or-

ganisers need time to send out the tickets.

Please do support this fantastic event and take advantage of the discount being offered.