Head's Page

New School

The main message I would like to give people at the end of our first year as a new area speical school is that we are well placed to look forward into the coming few years, and to develop our provision even further.

We now have the new site and have ironed out most of the little problems that come with a new building (for example carpet put down in the art room by mistake instead of vinyl flooring!); and the refurbishments at the 14-19 site are almost complete. Anyone who has seen the bungalow since it was re-done will know how fantastic it is (I've even thought of putting in a bid to live there myself!), and anyone who has not yet seen it can certainly contact me to fix up a visit. We would be proud to show it off.

What we want to do though is to look forward, and there are many things that we plan to do, including:

Develop further our links with mainstream schools; these links have become very important to the children, but only because they attend them from Dorothy Goodman, with our staff present.

Purchase further speicalist equipment; because of people's generosity I think that we shall soon be able to buy the sound and light system for the pool, which will be brilliant.

Develop further the outside of both sites - musical instruments, adventure activities, sun shelters - There's lots that we want to do!

So let's look forward to another good year, and let's move on.

Staffing

You will know by now that a couple of our experienced staff are retiring this year (not me - not for ages yet!). It is always sad when this happens, but what I have seen happening over the last few years is that we have had a lot of young staff come into the school, and some of these are now training to become teachers. This, I think, is very healthy for the future. You have to have both - you have to have experience (and again some of you may have seen that one of our teachers has been nominated for East Midlands Speical Needs teacher of the year), but you also have to have younger staff to learn from these people and to make sure that the essential ethos of the school and the successful ways of working are continued. So I am pleased to see this happening.

Holidays

Have a wonderful summer everyone. And please remember, we do not shut down for 6 weeks! So if you have any problems or questions, just leave an answerphone message - 01455 634582 - and someone will get back to you.

Thank you,
Tony Smith

News in breif

Governor news

As we reported last time, Governors asked us to look at increasing the time of the healthcare worker on the lower site (Louise Peace). This has now been done, and from September she will be working full-time, with responsibilities for the children who have therapy and medical needs.

Remember the new parent governors are:

• Phil Stock
• Dawn Hayward
• Sue Pearson
• Fran Childerhouse

East Midlands Speical Needs teacher of the year

Very pleased indeed that Jill Elliot has been nominated as Speical Needs teacher of the year. She is now in the final, and will be attending the Awards Ceremony later this month. Those of you who know Jill will know that no-one deserves the honour more, and we are all fully behind her. We hope she wins!

Leavers

First of all may I say to the students leaving;

I wish you all the very best for the future. You have all been brilliant. It has been a pleasure to work with you and your families and I hope all goes well for you as you leave school. You will always be welcome back!

To the staff - to Sue Morgan and Evelyn Pugh, who are retiring after many years with us - first of all may I say that you don't look old enough! And then may I say how pleased we are that you chose to spend your working lives with us. Many students and families have benefited from your involvement, and we wish you all the very best for a long, happy and healthy retirement.

Donations

Donations received this term include:

£500 - Hinckley Ambion Rotary Club
£200 - Helen Waterhouse
£150 - J.P Naylor
£355 - via Mr. Smart
£200 - Alison Wilcock
£440 - Queen's Head
£650 - Hinckley Inner Wheel Club

These amounts have been used towards purchasing books and outdoor leisure equipment for the upper site, and have been put towards the new sound and light system that we plan to buy for the hydro pool. Thank you very much to all those who have supported us.

We have also received 1950 Sainsbury and Tesco vouchers from the Tribunals Service - so thank you to them.