Newsletter July 2010
School NewsWoodlands Community Special School
Woodlands school held a Chinese Arts Week at the end of last term. They had Chinese visitors and visiting artists throughout the week. Every pupil across the school enjoyed a variety of activities. Their friends from Whitleigh Primary and Sir John Hunt joined in with lots of the activities. They enjoyed learning and having fun together. On the Friday they celebrated all the pupils’ achievements in an open exhibition with a variety of practical activities to try and explore. People came from local schools to learn about China with them.
Woodlands school has been awarded the Arts Mark Gold Award for the third time. This award shows that Woodlands ensures that creativity and expression is central to childrens’ learning.
Congratulations to all the pupils for their enthusiasm and staff for their dedication to teaching through the Arts.
Whitleigh Community Primary School
Congratulations to the children in years 1 and 2 who had some of their impressive art work displayed at Plymouth University’s Roland Levinsky Building as part of the Lord Mayors Day Celebrations.
Sir John Hunt Community Sports College – 6th Form Update
67 young people have been offered a place to study in 6th Form at Sir John Hunt. Students have chosen a wide range of courses at 10 different training providers across the city.
Achievement Training will be delivering courses in Salon Services (Beauty) DIP L1, Hairdressing Salon Services DIP L1, CACHE Award and Customer Care Retail. There will be courses in Nail Services and Hairdressing delivered by GHQ. Hartley House will be delivering an Introduction to Hair & Beauty. New Hope are doing courses in Painting & Decorating, Creative & Digital Arts, Media, Carpentry and ICT Users. Vehicle Maintenance is being delivered by North Prospect Garage Project. Plymouth College of Art will be delivering a BTEC Diploma in Art & Design. Plymouth Skill Centre will be delivering Construction L1 (plastering) and Construction L1 VRQ. Basic Plumbing Skills will be delivered by Saltash College. Venus Training will deliver a Certificate in Health & Social Care and an NVQ in Health & Social Care and lastly the YMCA will deliver the Public Services BTEC Dip course.
It is estimated that 88% of the students will be eligible for EMA. EMA is paid to students whose parents earn less than £30,810 per annum. Students will be paid up to £30 per week if they have full attendance and are on task to complete their qualifications. Students will take part in a student voice “Everything you wanted to know about 6th Form but were afraid to ask” Event in July where they will put forward their ideas and vision on what they want their 6th Form to be like. Enrolment will take place on Friday 3rd September.
A library for every one!
Having quality reading material for all of our young people is a key priority. Equally, the environment is of major importance. Backed with friendly and helpful staff, means that the Wood View Library is a popular place for young and old, to choose a range of books for pleasure or information retrieval. You will also see students finding a quiet corner for last minute revision or extra study and regularly parents of primary children share that book searching experience after school.
Not surprisingly a current focus for display is the World Cup with both fiction and non-fiction about football and also books about all the countries taking part. This has proved to be very popular with our readers. Children have also been able to write book reviews shaped like footballs and place them in the goal net.
Community Thursday
If you had turned up after school had finished on a Thursday, you would have witnessed a range of students from across the campus taking part in a range of sporting, art, IT and musical activities. Students from all of the Campus schools, supported by specialist coaches and teachers have been sharing their skills in Taiko drumming, art, fencing, tennis, computer programming, mountain biking, tennis, wheel chair dance and table tennis. Student leaders from Sir John Hunt have ensured that younger children have been additionally supported and feedback has been excellent. The drummers have been invited to a festival in Exeter at the end of term - how great is that?
Plans are underway to expand the activities next year so get yourselves ready for a cultural mix of after school activities on a Thursday and learn some new skills in a relaxed environment.
Whitleigh & Southernway Children’s Centres
Summer Family Activity Days. They are taking place:
11th August 10.00 – 3.00pm Mary Dean Primary School
18th August 10.00 – 3.00pm Wood View Campus
25th August 10.00 – 3.00pm Hendwell Centre Southway
Lots of activities going on throughout the day so please everyone come along and they are all FREE!
Short Break Residential Care
We are privileged to have a specialist facilities on campus which can support children who require overnight short break residential stays. This service is a highly specialist and valued provision and requires skilled care and nursing staff. After a difficult period of re-organisation, we are delighted to say that the newly named Wood View Short Break Service is already successfully meeting the needs of families and their disabled children from across Devon, Cornwall and Plymouth.
Nominations for Parent Governors
In September 2010, there will be 4 Parent Governor vacancies on the Federated Governing Body of Wood View Learning Community – initially reserved for 2 Parent Governors at Sir John Hunt Community Sports College and 2 Parent Governors at Woodlands Special School.
Parents who are interested in taking up one of these roles are invited to put their names forward, or to nominate another parent. Nomination forms and further information can be downloaded from the Wood View Learning Community website: – forms must be returned by Friday 3rd September 2010. If more nominations are received than there are vacancies, an election will be held on Friday 24th September 2010.
Come and use our facilities!
We currently hire out our facilities to a wide range of local organisations. They include: Netball and Football in our Sports Hall, Tae Kwon Do and a Dance Group in the Gym & Dance Studio and many more.
Also we have our Fitness Suite, pictured. It costs £20.00 for an annual membership and then £2.00 per session. You will receive a formal induction and the gym is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 5.30pm–8.30pm.
The facilities are new and exciting and we look forward to seeing you soon.
This summer all young people living in Plymouth between the ages of 11-19 - or 11-25 if they have a disability or special learning needs - are getting the chance to try something they might never have done before as part of Plymouth’s Summer Mix 2010.
They are being given the chance to sign up to any of the free courses happening across the city during the summer holiday.
You could have a go at anything from fashion design to playing the steel drums, from learning how to beat box to making your own flavour ice cream or becoming a games designer or film director for a day! Everyone gets a certificate at the end of the courses and activities are a great way of finding out what you may like to do in the future as a hobby or even as a career.
So grab a friend and get signed up!