LSSHTA Headteachers Conference
Last week, our Headteacher participated in another insightful LSSHTA Headteachers Conference, a crucial gathering of educational leaders. A key focus of the discussion was Ofsted reports, which were examined in depth, providing valuable insights into best practices, challenges, and strategies for continuous school improvement.
These discussions fostered a collaborative exchange of ideas, ensuring that our leadership remains informed and proactive in delivering the highest standards of education. Moving forward, we will integrate these learnings into our ongoing efforts to enhance teaching, learning, and student outcomes across our school community.
Staff Makaton Communication Sessions
A heartfelt thank you to Arlene, one of our dedicated Higher-Level Teaching Assistants (HLTA), for her unwavering commitment to fostering inclusive communication. Every Tuesday morning, she leads engaging and impactful Makaton Communication sessions for our staff, equipping them with essential skills to support all learners more effectively.
Her efforts are instrumental in creating a more accessible and inclusive learning environment, ensuring that every student has the tools to communicate with confidence. We deeply appreciate her dedication, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact of these sessions across our school community.
Luna/Chinese New Year
Lunar New Year (often called Chinese New Year is a major festival celebrated in many Asian cultures, marking the beginning of the new year based on the lunar calendar.
This year, we welcomed the Year of the Snake, a sign associated with wisdom, transformation, and intuition. At Bleasdale School, we embraced the spirit of the celebration with a range of engaging activities, allowing our students to explore the rich cultural traditions of the Lunar New Year. It was a fantastic opportunity for our school community to come together, celebrate diversity, and learn about this important cultural tradition in a fun and meaningful way!
Evidence for Learning (EfL)
Last week, Bleasdale School proudly recorded an impressive 210 entries on Evidence for Learning (EfL), showcasing the dedication and hard work of both our students and staff in capturing meaningful progress. A special shout-out to our Squirrels class, who contributed an outstanding 66 entries, demonstrating their enthusiasm for learning and development!
These records not only highlight our students’ achievements but also serve as a valuable tool in tracking their growth, celebrating milestones, and refining our teaching approaches. We are incredibly proud of the commitment across our school and look forward to continuing this fantastic momentum in the weeks ahead!
News Articles!
We have been featured on not one, but THREE news articles! One from the Lancashire County Council website read:
An innovative school pop up shop and teacher day placements are just some of highlights of a groundbreaking Lancashire work experience scheme.
The ‘Northern World of Work’ programme sees pupils and teachers from secondary schools including special schools and alternative providers, visiting workplaces and experiencing firsthand the array of job opportunities available locally.
Funded by the Careers and Enterprise Company and Lancashire County Council, the programme is being delivered by the Lancashire Careers Hub, in partnership with schools and employers across the county during this academic year.
It has seen staff and pupils at one Lancashire specialist school taking matters into their own hands by teaming up with Booth’s supermarket to set up their own pop-up shop.
Becky Parker, lead practitioner at specialist day school Bleasdale School in Silverdale which is supported by Lancashire Careers Hub, asked Booths supermarket last summer for help in setting up the shop as a hands-on learning tool for students to bring the workplace into the school.
The school provides an inclusive environment through differing curricula for children and young adults aged from 2-19 with profound and multiple learning difficulties and autism spectrum conditions.
The groundbreaking on site shop is designed to equip students with essential life skills in a practical setting, including real world experience in a shop environment, life skills such as handling money and completing transactions, valuable work experience, social skills and opportunities for members of the local community to interact with students.
Having notched up an additional £1,000 of funding to help through the Lancashire Careers Hub, along with a host of SEND institutions across Lancashire, Bleasdale School now aims to add a hospital ward and a hairdressing salon on site.
Becky said: “This will provide individual learning opportunities for all students, along with a range of learning experiences for all regardless of their disability. Each student will access the employment rooms once per week for up to one hour and over this time students will gain varying levels of understanding about different job roles, discover their interests and allow them to demonstrate preference.
“We are delighted with how things have gone so far, and our students have really enjoyed working with Booths. We hope to further develop workplace encounters and invite external employers to work alongside pupils in the space.”
Headteacher Sefton Booth expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Booths Supermarket for their generous contribution and unwavering support, adding: “The transformation of the Bleasdale Booths Shop has been a remarkable journey. Booths Supermarket has played a crucial role in making this vision a reality, and their support has significantly enriched our students’ learning experiences.”
Nicola Karran, head of Business Development and Hospitality at Booths, said: “Booths was delighted to hear from Bleasdale School and get involved in their fantastic vision of creating an on-site, hands-on retail environment for its pupils. As the good grocer, we champion growing healthy minds and knowing our support has helped enable Bleasdale students to gain more confidence, learn life skills and ultimately have fun has been extremely rewarding.”
Mark Bowman, Chief Executive of Inspira, the charity delivering the project, said: “Work experiences are an essential part of a young person’s development and the modern approach of a pop-up shop not only provides young people with real life situations it also really catches the imagination. Alongside the other initiatives it’s a great way of introducing the world of work to young people “.
Also on the menu as part of the ‘Northern World of Work’ scheme are one day teacher encounters, such as a visit to UK housebuilder ‘Keepmoat’ in Leyland on Thursday 23 January, which was attended by councillors. Teachers get to spend a day with a local employer to find out about the skills required in a modern workplace, consider how they can integrate these skills into different curriculum areas and meet young employees, including apprentices, which helps them to better advise their pupils.
Leader of Lancashire County Council, Councillor Phillippa Williamson, and County Councillor Jayne Rear, cabinet member for Education and Skills, visited the pop-up shop at Bleasdale this week, while County Councillor Rear also visited ‘Keepmoat’ along with teachers and County Councillor Ash Sutcliffe.
County Councillor Rear said: “We were thrilled to visit Bleasdale School’s new pop-up shop and see firsthand the real-life learning experience that pupils are experiencing which is really building their skills and helping them to see what they could do in the world of work.
“Similarly, I was thrilled to see that the teacher visits allow educators to engage directly with employers to see and learn about the different career pathways relevant to their subjects and observe how their subject is applied practically in business. ”
Leader of the County Council, Phillippa Williamson, said:
“This is a fantastic scheme which is helping staff and students gain a deeper understanding of opportunities as well as the skills needed for different roles and awareness of different pathways and routes into work.
“Taking place just as the Convention of the North is about to take place in Preston at the end of February, I am delighted that the ‘Northern World of Work’ programme is inspiring young people and educators about the plethora of job opportunities in the local labour market. and creating further investment in Lancashire for the benefit of businesses and residents in future.”
The other two articles from The Westmorland Gazette and Lancaster Guardian can be found below:
Sign of the week: Honest
Symbol of the Week: Honest
Coming up this week: A new Governor, Teacher interviews, a new member of staff and more!