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Peak School and further Education Provision

Newsletter Autumn/Winter 2019

Unique people, individualised approach

Welcome to the Autumn / Winter edition of our school newsletter. We have arrived at the end of what has been a very busy and productive first term of the new school year. September now seems like a distant memory lost in the mist of the Autumn mornings and Christmas is now tantalisingly close, our thoughts begin to turn to the often harsh weather conditions we can experience in the next couple of months. With this in mind please refer to the school website for our adverse weather policy and keep an eye on our Facebook page for any updates during periods of adverse weather. If you have changed your contact details, particularly mobile phone numbers, please ensure you pass these onto the school office so we are able to update our records. Please be aware should adverse weather conditions occur during the school day, we may need to contact you and the taxi firm should we make the decision to close the school early. Also at these times please be aware of the weather condition in your area as you may need to make the decision to request you child be picked up early to ensure they have a safe journey home. As you are now aware ESTEEM have an Early Help Team in place, and our school worker is Rachel Hopkinson. We feel this will be a great service to support our parents and carers and look forward to working with Rachel and the wider Early Help Team.

I will now wish you all a

and we will see you all in

Dave

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This term we have done some great activities for Children in Need. On the day of

Children in Need, 15th November, the whole school went for a walk to Chinley train

station and back to school, wearing their spotty clothes! We had all voted between

spots and stripes and spots won! We also did a duck race and the duck that won was

called Beakwell Tart. Altogether we raised £95.00

Iwan

School Council Chair

Seb found some of our

work on electricity

quite hair raising .

At the beginning of this term we

were learning about electricity

here at Peak School.

We found out about the hair

raising effects of static electricity.

Learned to make circuits to light

up bulbs, make motors work or

buzzers sound.

Switches

can even

make the

hoover

work!!

We went to see

The Rickshaw

challenge at

Flash.

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David operating the switched to make Ronnie the Robot work.

Iwan even learned how to wire a plug !!!

We made a battery powered robot - His eyes span, he lit up and he buzzed when we turned on the switches. We called him Ronnie the Robot.

Making a choice of colour in Early Years.

We learned that colour can be messy fun!!

We tried to recreate the work of famous artists and even created our own colour patterns for Diwali .

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Following the light into of the dark.

Light up toys are great fun.

Learning to control the light using a switch.

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We have had a fun packed term with a lot of different activities with the Adventurous Ac-tivities Team. We have been out to Lea Green and Whitehall for wheelchair abseiling and the climbing wall.

Elorm even wore a helmet!!!

We have also been canoeing at Bugsworth Basin and Tapton Lock in Chesterfield. As part of our canoeing experience we helped to set up the canoes and carry them to the water for launching.

Travelling through the lock was a new and exciting experience.

We even tried out the go karting at Lea Green. We loved it !!

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Thank you to the PTA for funding another very successful and enjoyable Panto. This year we enjoyed “Beauty and The Beast”. The Panto really gets us in the festive mood!!

Please look out for the dates of our fundraising events for next year, add them to your diaries and share with friends and family. We would love to see as many people as possible at these events to help raise funds to support Peak school. The main focus for the money we manage to raise will be to purchase some more IPads for the students to use in classes.

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What a busy term it has been, I have loved seeing all of the work happening around school on our topics of Electricity as well as Colour and Light. Until now I have never seen a robot taking a lead role in the nativity, however, the robots featured heavily in the electricity topic and seemed to really capture lots of pupil’s imagination.

This term we have welcomed Rachel to our team as an Early Help Worker, she has found her feet quickly and is getting to know our pupils. If any of you missed the information that came out, it can also be found in the Information section of the school website.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you not just to the staff who work directly with the pupils but to all of the staff behind the scenes to ensure that the school runs as smoothly as possible. Our pool, school minibus, buildings, cleaning, I.T. and equipment needs are vital in supporting learning. Alongside this the dedication of staff involved in medical support, therapy provision, swimming, moving and handling needs, school reviews, kitchens and the team of office staff ensure that we can continue to provide all that we can as smoothly as possible.

Lastly I would like to encourage any parent to get in touch with me directly if there is anything that you would like to discuss, be that an issue to resolve or something to celebrate. I can be contacted by phoning the school or by email to jmcpherson@peak.derbyshire.sch.uk Thank you and have a good couple of weeks John

Bid writing has been one of the most successful ways of raising funds here at

Peak in recent years. Do you have skills in this area and able to volunteer

some time to help us with bid writing?

Do you have any ideas for fundraising?

Our next PTA meeting is 10th January 2020 at 9:30am - we would love to see

new faces at the meeting. Come along there will even be Tea/coffee and

biscuits !!!

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It is great to see these wonderful smiles at Peak School. It just goes to show how happy the children are to be here, where they fell safe, develop relationships and most of all have fun!!!

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At Peak we all like to ....

Read to each other.

Help each other.

Chat to each other.

Go out and about with each other.

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Dates for your diary: Pupils return - 6th January PTA meeting - 10th January Half term - 17th - 21st February INSET - 4th February End of term - 3rd April

Jessica helped plant some bulbs in the sensory garden. We will have to wait until next year to see them grow.

Penny and Naomi’s class had a great time using the adapted bikes at Parsley Hay.

Adel has learned to use Styles when out on his walks .

Jack put in some physical effort to get to the top of Chinley Churn. It was worth it for the view down to school .

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I would like to take this opportunity to update you on the current Peak School governors. Our Governing Board is made up of our Staff, Parents and co-opted governors.

Currently our parent governors are, Jen Jackson, Colleen Thomas, Katie Brewer and Marie Butler.

Our staff governor is Amanda Braithwaite, our two co-opted governors consist of myself Philip Dowell and Karen Ashenden, with Dave Jones our Deputy Head being our associate governor.

Also, John McPherson, as Headteacher, is a member of the board.

We currently meet as a board every half term where we’re involved in key decision making in matters relating to school business. We also receive updates including our Headteacher’s report and current financial position. As part of our agenda we receive updates from other staff members on curriculum progress and other current school projects.

Our governing board is also split into sub-committees which also meet on a regular basis. We have our Teaching and Learning, Community Links, Complaints committee, Resource Management committee and Pay committee, these sub-committees being made up from current board members each with its own Chair.

Currently I am the acting Chair to the main governing board with Jen Jackson as vice chair.

We also attend the Esteem group Chairs meetings which is attended by all Chairs within Esteem giving the opportunity to hear what is happening within other schools and matters relating to the group.

I would like to hope this has given you a bit of an insight into our current Governing Board and its function. I would also like to take this opportunity to make everybody aware we currently have vacancies for two co-opted governors if anybody is interested please get in touch with either school or myself.

As we are now hoping to give a regular news update in future newsletters more detailed information will follow.

Finally, can I take this opportunity to wish everybody a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Kind regards Philip Dowell Chair of Governors.

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Website

www.peak.derbyshire.sch.uk

Thank you very much to everyone who has helped to make our Christmas Fair a success yet again. We made a fantastic total of over £1,500. We intend to put this money towards IPads (eventually we hope to purchase 2 per class) and also presents for Father Christmas to hand-out to pupils when he calls into school on Tuesday 17th. We have managed to do such a lot this year: -

Beauty and the Beast Panto

School BBQ

Hall refurbishment – with help from a Screwfix donation of

£5,000

Almost £400 from Bags2School

Whistle Stop – soft play for our young pupils

Communication Switches

Horse Riding for the Disabled

Sound System and Projector – a big thank you to New Mills and

Marple Rotary Club

Plus a lot more………… (Don’t forget Bags2School - 10

th January pick-up)

Have a good Christmas from the PTA /Fundraising Committee.

PTA/Fundraising

Our next PTA meeting is 10th

January 2020 at 9:30am