February - St Johns | Catholic School for the Deaf

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Community Voice
ST JOHN’S CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
February 2014
Interfaith Week at St John’s
We’re collecting!
Inside this issue:
RE News
2
SENSE Pom Pom Challenge
4
Internet Safety
5
Sports News
6
School News
7
Dates for your diary
8
COMMUNITY VOICE
RE News—Interfaith Week
Walking around
our Kabah
We celebrated Interfaith week this half term with a week of special
themed assemblies. On Monday we travelled to Mecca to visit the
Kabah and made a chain of thoughts and prayers. On Tuesday we
went to the Buddhist Temple to bathe and offer lotus flowers to the
baby Buddha. It was really calm in the chapel as the children
meditated. Wednesday there was Hinduism and we donned CSI style
suits, to celebrate Holi, the Festival of Colour, by throwing powder
paint over the playground. On Thursday we looked at Judaism and
shared a Passover meal with bread baked by the pupils. Here are
some pictures of our activities.
Meditation
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Open Day for Families
25th April 11—3
Families are warmly invited to visit our centre of
excellence in the oral education of deaf children
Observe lessons
Tour the school & residential facilities
Talk with pupils and staff
Visit audiology and speech and language therapy
Contact Mandy Dowson to book on 01937 842144
The pupils shared
home made bread,
hummus and grapes
as part of a Passover
feast.
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SENSE Pompom Challenge
SENSE, the charity for deafblind people, has been
holding a pompom challenge. Our pupils have
risen to the challenge and the front office is a riot
of colour.
SENSE wants to collect as many pompoms as they
can in any colour, any material, any size to raise
awareness of sight and hearing loss and connect
existing supporters and friends of Sense with new
ones. When you have difficulties with both sight
and hearing, other senses such as touch can
become even more significant and friendship
really counts.
The charity supports a number of our pupils so we
were delighted to be able to join in.
Pictured L-R Alex, Dan, Mandy, Iman, Becky, Miles,
Arbaaz and Tia
St John’s School for the Deaf—Serrekunda, The Gambia
The Gambian Schools Trust has now delivered all the books and resources we donated last year to St John’s School for
the Deaf in Serrekunda, Gambia. They were thrilled!
The school started in 1978 in Banjul and is part of the Catholic Secretariat. It moved to its current site in the 1990s.
They have 256 pupils aged from 7 to 21, and like ourselves have small classes so that they can concentrate on learning.
They get good results, and sometimes exceptional ones. They also do technical training to equip the pupils for work,
such as metalwork, woodwork, art, and tailoring. As well as books, they need donations of material, thread and tools.
The head teacher, Mr Mendy, studied Audiology at the University of London, and also spent some time at a hearing aid
manufacturers. Their biggest problem (apart from money) is hearing aids. If they can get old ones they can make the
earpiece as they have the only facility in the Gambia to make them. We are currently looking into the possibility of
setting up a recycling scheme to help them, and also a similar project in India, in partnership with the Sylvia Wright Trust.
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COMMUNITY VOICE
Safer Internet Day 2014
At St John’s we place great emphasis on the online safety of our students, and two members of staff have been on CEOP courses (Child
exploitation & online protection).
National Safer Internet Day was 11th February, however at St John’s, we decided to spread the activities over an entire week to really
get the message home to our students. The theme this year was ‘Let’s create a better internet together’. This theme covers the
responsibility that all users have in making the internet a better place. Whether children and young people, parents and carers or
educators, industry and policy makers, everyone has a role to play.
In championing a better internet, it recognises the balance between encouraging users to embrace, and empowering them to make the
most of, the positive opportunities offered online, while responding to, dealing with and moving past the negatives. At St John’s we
concentrated on how children and young people can help.
Children and young people can help to create a better internet by being kind and respectful to others online and seeking positive and
safe opportunities to create, engage and share online, particularly when using social media sites such as facebook and snapchat.
Parents and carers can help to create a better internet by maintaining an open and honest dialogue with their children about their
online lives, supporting them with their online activity (as appropriate to their age), particularly any concerns and issues, and seeking
out positive opportunities to share with their children online. They can help to respond to the negative by modelling positive online
behaviours themselves, and also by reporting any inappropriate or illegal content they find.
Educators and social care workers can help to empower children and young people to embrace the positive by equipping them with the
digital literacy skills they require for today’s world, and giving them opportunities to use – and create – positive content online. They
can help to respond to the negative by supporting young people if they encounter problems online, and by giving them the confidence
and skills to seek help from others.
http://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2014
School policy on internet use
St John’s uses LEA approved internet web content filtering software on the school network. This gives a high degree of
protection and means our pupils cannot access sites such as Facebook or YouTube. The school’s own Facebook page is only
used to promote school events such as open days, or celebrate pupil achievement, and only two members of staff have
administrator rights.
Social Media
We have always promoted the school and pupils’ achievements in newspapers, and
the school blog and newsletters. As an extension of this, to coincide with the launch of
the new website, we would now like to include the newer medium of social media,
specifically the official school Facebook page and Twitter feed.
@stjohns4thedeaf
All our publicity is intended to celebrate pupils’ successes and make the work we do
here at St John’s known to a wider audience. Using social media is an effective way to
help us build upon this and encourage new families to consider St John’s when
choosing the right school for their child.
Search “St John’s Catholic School for the Deaf” to view the page.
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Sporting News
Indoor Caving
A special open day was attended by some of our pupils at the new
indoor Caving Centre at Leeds Sailing and Outdoor Centre.
After not quite knowing what to expect, the pupils had a great
time crawling through the dark caves and tight tunnels without
the damp, wet, cold conditions of real caves. A great experience
for some of our pupils who do not normally participate in such
activities.
Pictured are Tom, Thomas, Jack and Arbaaz.
West Yorkshire Disability Football
A mixed team of secondary pupils represented the school at the
Disability Football event in Huddersfield. It proved to be a great day
out with some good football being played and great team spirit
shown by all. The team played four games, winning two and
narrowly being beaten in the other two meaning they finished 3rd in
the group, with all players receiving medals for their efforts.
Hopefully this will now become a regular event in the calendar so we
can look forward to a rematch. The team was Ryan, Tom, Miles,
Colby, John, James, Bailey, Suriya and Arbaaz.
A new event in the sporting calendar this term has been the
Junior Swimming Gala, which was attended by our Year 9 pupils.
With each pupil entering 2 events, we had a very enjoyable and
successful day. Demi led the way with a 1st in 25m freestyle
with Michaela 2nd in the same event, but a different race. Erin
came 1st in the 50m backstroke and 2nd in the 50m freestyle.
Catherine came 3rd in 25m backstroke, and Rebecca was 3rd in
both the 50m Breaststroke and 50m freestyle. Well done girls!
John Charles Aquatics Centre Leeds
Derby National Deaf Football Competition
Top: Tia, Nikita, Victoria, Lyla, Lara & Megan
Below: Louis, James, Ellis, Liam, Peter, Bailey, Jonathan and Uzair
Last week saw the much anticipated annual National Deaf schools football
competition in Derby. It is the main event in most of the pupils’ calendar, and
one which they talk about all year! This year we took a senior boys and girls
team to represent the school. The boys were put in a very strong group
against competition from all over the country. They eventually finished 4th
with 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 narrow defeats . The girls played in a larger league
playing against 8 other teams, and finished in a very successful 3rd position.
They won 2 games, drew 5 and lost 1. All of the games for both teams were
close affairs and everyone battled well. After the days efforts the mini bus
was very quiet for the journey home! Well done to Megan, Nikita, Tia, Lara,
Lyla, Victoria, Ellis, Louis, Liam, Bailey, Jonathan, James, Peter and Uzair.
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COMMUNITY VOICE
Robot Arm Competition
Mike Smith, our Electronics tutor held a small competition after school for the residential pupils. Arbaaz, John, Hollie, Lyla, Lily and Jack
all entered. They had to control a robotic arm via a computer mouse to pick up 7 wooden blocks and carefully place them on top of
each other without knocking them over, against the clock.
The other pupils watched but had to remain quiet and not interrupt the roboteer. Interestingly they were better during practice but felt
the competition stress and blocks were knocked over in the final.
The eventual winner was Lyla who made the whole tower in the correct place narrowly beating Jack—well done to both of them.
Trips to the Theatre
Mrs Skalski and Pete from Care took
Year 7 to the West Yorkshire Playhouse
to see Jungle Book. The performance
was amazing and the children loved it.
A BIG thank you to Helen
On 9th January the residential pupils visited Harrogate
Theatre to see the pantomime Sleeping Beauty. It was
Ellie’s birthday, and Helen from Care managed to arrange
for the cast to sing happy birthday to her! Well done and
thank you to Helen for making Ellie’s evening.
Year 10 Work Experience
Just a quick reminder to return the permission slips allowing your child to go on a work experience placement. School has
contacts with a number of companies in the local area who provide work experience. However, many parents prefer to
arrange their child’s placement themselves with an employer they know in their home area as it can sometimes lead to a
Saturday or holiday job . If you would like to do this, please can you let Lisa Robinson the school Work ExperiencePage 7
Co-ordinator know as soon as possible so we can do the health and safety checks—these can take up to 3 months to get
back so the earlier they are in the better.
lrobinson@bostonspa.org.uk
100 Club
St John’s run a 100 Club to raise funds for the extras that make school trips more fun and exciting.
For £15.00 per year you can be a member. You
may have more than one member per family if you
wish.
Each month (excluding August) we will have a
draw. 1st prize will be £20, 2nd prize will be £15
and 3rd prize will be £10. Also twice a year in July
and December there will be an extra prize of £50.
‘100 Club’ Winners
January Winners
Mrs Dohery
£20
Mrs Crellin
£15
Mrs Bradbury
£10
If you would like to support this and become a
member please contact the school office for more
information.
@stjohns4thedeaf
School Trips
This summer our Year 10 students will
be heading off to Rome on May 12th
for 5 days. Once the exams are over,
our Year 11 students will enjoy a well
earned break in France from June 30th
to July 4th.
Dates for your diary
- Y9 Parents Information Day
14th March
- School closed for TRAINING DAY
3rd April
- School closes 12.30pm for Easter holidays
22nd April
- School re-opens
25th April
- Open Day for Families 11-3 pm
26th April
- Secondary Parents Day
5th May
- May Bank Holiday
23rd May
- School closes at 2.55 for Half Term Holidays
2nd June
- School re-opens
6th June
- Open Day for Professionals 11-3 pm
27th June
- School closed for TRAINING DAY
28th June
- Garden Fete 1-4 pm
9th July
- Primary Parents Evening 4 pm
24th July
- School closes 12.30pm for Summer Holidays
ST JOHN’S C ATHOLI C SC HOOL FOR THE D EAF
Church Street
Boston Spa
Phone: 01937 842144
Fax: 01937 541471
www.stjohns.org.uk
13th March
all new website yet?
- School re-opens
Have you looked at our
24th February