From technical designs to poultry, a lot has hatched this week…
Published on 14 July 2022
Book signing - Director of Education Nicola Crossley signs her book for teacher Wioletta.
Developing design skills with Design Technology Day
This year, pupils celebrated Design Technology (DT) Day by participating in activities that stretch their skills and imagination. Some of the exciting creations included balloon powered cars, towers and shapes, using different materials such as blocks, lego and straws. At a more intricate level pupils made windmills, masks, fish with a weaving design and constructed moving minibeasts using the Knex kit.
Pupils participated in a variety of competitions such as the balloon-powered car race, building of the tallest tower and mask making. Congratulations to the winners!
Our DT curriculum helps pupils develop their fine motor skills in a focussed way while being part of a creative lesson that has clear objectives. Above all, the pupils have fun learning through practical activities.
A new pecking order on Sybil Elgar’s Chicken Green
We were all out of our shells and very ‘egg-cited’ as the vision of having our own chicken coop finally came to fruition. After months of preparing the coop, our chickens arrived this week and we enjoyed working together to make them feel at home and provide them with what they need to flourish.
The children enjoyed a variety of activities, such as learning about the lifecycle of chickens, reading books about chickens, making chickens out of paper plates, decorating paper chickens using colourful feathers and colouring activities.
We are currently running a competition for naming our three chickens and invite all parents and children to take part. Our chickens are speckled white, black, and brown. The winners will receive a prize at our Summer Social celebration. Please contact reception if you have a ‘cracking’ name idea and want to enter in the competition!
NAS Director of Education Dr Nicola Crossley cut the ribbon and Principal Chloe Phillips delivering a speech highlighting Sybil Elgar’s drive to capitalise even further on our outside areas by developing meaningful features and spaces. With Assistant Director for Children's Services and Safeguarding Nicola Law and teacher Svetoslava.
Books for fun on Booknic Day
Across both sites pupils and students celebrated reading for pleasure with Booknic Day. Booknic is a ‘reading picnic’ where you read, relax, have snacks and review and talk about books together. Although reading is often seen as an activity for individuals, most of our pupils and students enjoy the social aspect of storytelling and reading with their key workers to help them navigate the text and storyline.
Woodlands and Havelock road pupils and students used tablecloths, picnic blankets and baskets filled with their favourite books to enjoy reading in the sunny garden areas. They were shown how to get the most out of a book by highlighting key words and pictures.
Pupils and students also really enjoyed engaging with sensory and social stories, expanding the way in which we typically interact with books.
You can find more information about the benefits of reading and the reading schemes we use at Sybil Elgar School here.
A closing note from our therapy team
Managing one's emotions effectively and consistently is a challenging task for most people. This includes being able to react calmly in stressful situations and the ability to calm yourself down after an upsetting episode.
Fortunately there are many strategies that can help us regulate our emotions and approach potentially stressful situations with an increased level of calmness.
At Sybil Elgar School emotional regulation techniques and strategies are embedded in each lesson to support students with regulating their emotions to get the most out of their day at school.
Please see our Transdisciplinary Team newsletter for ways to support Self-regulation at home presented by our Positive Behaviour Coordinator, Esha.