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The Collett School November 2013 NEWSLETTER Autumn Term

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Rugby Player

Will Fraser opens new Sensory Rooms

Now we are 49…

We are entering The Collett School’s 50th year! On

the 4th October 1964, our school opened its doors

to its first pupils. As we prepare for the next 50

years, we feel it is important to look back and

understand where we have come from; examine

what we have learnt and reflect on what is

important for our pupils and their families…

Laying the foundations of the school

Will Fraser opens our new Sensory Rooms sponsored by Wooden Spoon

John Williams is a comedian. He is also a dad. This Edinburgh Fringe hit show will have you in tears of laughter…

Innovative

Partnership with

The Prince’s Trust Gillian Lawton , a member of staff

at The Collett School, has secured

a superb opportunity for our

teenagers to work with young

adults on The Prince’s Trust

scheme. The Prince’s Trust will

work with our pupils to create a

set of our very own reading

schemes to use at Collett.

Reading schemes are very

expensive and rarely cater to our

pupils’ needs and interests. To

inspire our pupils , they will co-

create the books - star in the

images, write some of the text

and will be based on stories they

come up with themselves. Hot on

the heels of our published story

and poetry books written by Year

8 with Miss Tallentire this

summer, our literacy projects

might well inspire the next J K

Rowling!

(Continued)

Special schools are changing; our pupils have a greater complexity of needs than before and conform to fewer ‘types’ of learners. At The Collett School we love difference! And, we are embracing the changes we are seeing. Now, our curriculum is more tailored to the child’s individual needs than ever before. We know that our parents have different views and aspirations for their children and we are reflecting this in our provision.

In moving forward, we are looking back to establish the successes of our alumni. We want to do this to ensure our parents today have a full, informed picture of what is available, what potentials there are, and how we can work together closely to ensure the transition from pupil to adult is as smooth as possible for every child at The Collett School.

If you came to the school’s Autumn Fayre in September, you might have seen our exciting video booths on loan from The University of Hertfordshire. These will be a regular feature at forthcoming events so we can capture our Collettarians’ favourite moments when they were at school and find out about what’s happened since leaving The Collett.

These oral histories will contribute to our research about The Collett School and our pupils with special educational needs. We are working in collaboration with the education and history departments of The University of Hertfordshire and, the National Health Service.

If you were a pupil, family member or friend of a ‘Collettarian’ please come to one of our events to share your stories of the school. If you would like to tell us your stories but would prefer to write or telephone us, we would be very happy to hear from you.

We were delighted to put on our annual fun run,

after being postponed earlier in the month due to

rain. The ground was still too wet to use, so

Cavendish School again kindly let us use their

astroturf pitch for the afternoon.

Lots of the Cavendish pupils joined the

many parents and friends who turned up

in cheering on the runners! All our

pupils take part, from Reception to Year

12. The stamina of many children put us

adults to shame as pupils sprinted,

jogged or walked many laps and several

‘personal bests’ were achieved.

A huge thank you to all the parents nd

Thank You! Our huge thanks also go to all the parents, grandparents, friends and pupils of the school for raising hundreds of pounds at our recent Autumn Fayre!

Fun Run

Our friends at Sainsbury’s Apsley are continuing to support The Collett as their Charity of the Year. Members of their staff team have been volunteering in school and actively supporting the children. At the till points are collection boxes for the school and Sainsbury’s are also supporting the production our photographic calendar this year! Our grateful thanks go to all the staff and customers of the store!

FunRun

Star supports

shining pupils

Over the last few years, we have seen the needs

of our children change to include those with more

complex sensory and communication needs, with

many of these children being on the autistic

spectrum. Through the generosity of Wooden Spoon

and its supporters, we have been able to create two

new spaces which dramatically improve our

provision for children with sensory needs.

We now have a small quiet room with music and

subdued lighting where the children can experience a

calming environment. In addition, we have a larger

adjoining sensory room, with a range of sensory

equipment which is used with some of the children

to encourage communication, and for others as a

learning space for activities such as interactive story-

telling. Our children (and parents!) were thrilled to

meet Will Fraser of Saracens and England when he

opened the rooms recently and, on behalf of the

whole school community, we would like to express

our thanks to him and to Wooden Spoon for their

fantastic support.

Collett’s Harvest Festival inspires donations worth £1000 for our local Homeless charity, DENS As a school, we fully understand the need for others’ support to make things happen. However in our teaching, we work with the children to recognise our part in supporting those in greater need. We are very thankful to our pupils, their parents and our staff for their bountiful donations to our chosen charity, DENS. Working in central Hemel Hempstead, this charity supports the homeless and those on very low incomes with food donations.

Our teachers contacted TESCO to ask if we could approach their customers to provide an item of shopping for the charity. The response was amazing; with many customers taking the time to thank the children for their efforts and confidence in their speaking and listening skills.

‘Give it all you’ve got’ Collett cuts a CD! We have a Young Enterprise group at The Collett School, called ‘Inspire’. In the summer ‘Inspire’ decided on making a CD of the pupils’ favourite songs that was then professionally produced. This project involved the whole school and was great fun to record. Many parents have since said this CD is a favourite on car journeys. ‘Inspire’ have been using their sales to inform their knowledge of functional numeracy. In doing so, they have been ale to produce accounts, fiscal projections and have identified cost analysis benefits for subsequent ventures. Look out for Inspire’s school calendar (supported by Sainsburys) later this year that will again star the pupils of the school…

The Collett School’s governors are people from all walks

of life who want to support and improve the education of

our pupils. On our website is a list of governors and their

posts. It is a role of the governor to challenge and

support the Headteacher in making decisions that affect

your child’s education and experience of school whilst at

The Collett (and beyond).

We know that our school is a wonderful community and

value this immensely. Our pupils are learning and we are

aware of how they compare to children nationally. We

believe that the journey a child embarks on at The Collett

needs to include a balance of different learning

opportunities, activities, challenge and crucially, each

child needs to be a happy learner in order to ‘shine’.

When you see any of the governors around, please do

stop us and tell us what you think about The Collett

School. Maybe you have a question about the school, or

have a view on how something can be improved further.

We are here to represent our entire community and

ensure the school is the best it can be! We look forward

to seeing you soon!

Collett expects National

Autistic Society (NAS)

Autism Accreditation Mark In September 2011, there were 28% of children on

role with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As of

September 2013 there were 38% of our pupils on the

Autistic spectrum and our numbers continue to

grow.

We are delighted that the National Autistic Society in

their recent assessment of the school have said they

are pleased by the work we undertake regarding

learners with ASD at Collet. As a result, we are

expecting their accreditation mark that reflects the

hard work, dedication and professionalism of the staff

at The Collett School with your children. The NAS

accreditation has a range of standards, each of which

expects a high and consistent approach to teaching

and supporting children and adults with ASD.

We are also very grateful to the many parents who

gave their views on the school to the NAS assessors.

The vast majority of respondents were ‘very happy’

with the provision at Collett.

The assessors recognised key strengths in our current

provision. They also showed strong support for our planned developments to the school as good for

children with ASD.

For more information: www.autism.org.uk

Friends of Collett This is our Parents and Friends

committee who have an increasingly important role in our school. Why not join us at Collett

on the 3rd Friday of every month to see our whole school assemblies

and enjoy coffee with like-minded friends who want to make a real

difference to the school…

Reflections of the Headteacher It has been a tremendously busy year that has again flown by! We are undertaking a great deal of work on the school – both in terms of physical infrastructure and in the determination of what and how we teach our pupils in order to prepare them for life as an adult in our mainstream world. I am pleased to say that in both these areas we are making excellent progress.

We have successfully rebuffed (for the time being) a Department for Education (DFE) plan to turn the school into a ‘forced academy’, which would have left the school in a significantly ‘different’ place than should we decide to become an academy in our own time. We have had monitoring visits from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate (HMI) regarding our progress towards achieving ‘Good’ at the next inspection. I am happy to say they are very pleased with our progress and our vision for the school. We are looking to get ‘Good’ in the next Section 5 full Ofsted Inspection. This has been brought forward by HMI and we know it will come anytime between now and the end of the Spring Term. And of course, we are delighted by the recent assessment of the school by the NAS.

The classrooms are looking great and the children and teachers are enjoying working together with our new curriculum. The changes have genuinely supported the children’s access to learning and is making abstract concepts ‘concrete’ and real by linking learning between different subject areas.

Our fundraising campaign also continues to do well – it has provided the school with a birthday present in the form of a ‘new hat’ (roof) that is slowly revealing itself behind the scaffolding (and rain!) We have made significant improvements to the interior of the school over the past year and I believe you will like the changes. The staff are a fantastic, dedicated and enthusiastic team who continue to work very hard and love their vocation. This is certainly a thriving and dynamic school – thank you too for all your support day in, day out! It is a fantastic community that makes this a very special family.

Best wishes for the new term,

Stephen Hoult-Allen