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Please click on the link above to find out more information about the forthcoming Ability Fest in Glasgow.

www.abilityfest.org.uk

September Boardmaker

Please find attached the September boardmaker calendar showing all the events that will be taking place this month.  On Friday 9th, we will be electing our new school captain.

As you know our Parent Council Chair, Christina Larsen has been engaging with North Ayrshire Council to shape a Proposal paper on building a state of the art ASN school in North Ayrshire.  Christina spoke at a special council meeting that was held yesterday at North Ayrshire Council.  She highlighted the positive approach  the council had taken in working with parents in an open and transparent way to discuss future provision and gage parental thoughts, views and opinions about  a new standalone build for the future.  As a result cabinet have approved that the council move to a statutory public consultation  in terms of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 20120.   A number of public meetings will be held in the next couple of months in affected schools.  Education Scotland will attend the meetings and they will visit schools as part of their consideration of the proposal and meet with children, young people, staff and parents who may be affected by it.  Should you have any questions or queries about the proposal, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Christina Larsen 07854142196.

This morning Russell from Sensory Guru visited to set up our mobile magic carpet. We were able to purchase this specialist item of equipment thanks to the generosity of Mr Ian Dickson and his wife.  Russell trained a member of staff from each of the classes on switching it on, opening apps and creating apps.  The carpet comes with 500 interactive apps ready to use.  Whilst he was demonstrating, lots of learners were very interested in looking at it and exploring it.  As you can see, SC from Mull class was very keen to have a go at the Emocions App.  We are all very excited about this new item of equipment and because it is mobile it means every class can access it easily.  I think we are going to have a fight on our hands as to how many hours a week they will all want it for!

A warm welcome back to all of our friends, parents and carers. I hope everyone managed to enjoy the summer holidays despite the dreadful weather.  The first newsletter with all organisational information you need will be distributed tomorrow. Please can you return the consent forms for outings as soon as possible so that our children and young people can access learning in the community as soon as possible.  A fuller ‘Autumn’ newsletter will be sent at the end of September. Meantime keep a very close eye on our class blogs to find out what is happening in and out of class.  This morning all of our staff team participated in Blog training delivered by Rosslyn Lee, GLOW development officer for North Ayrshire Council.  Those who are already ‘champions’ spent time setting up individual pupil blogs.  I will keep you updated in due course about this.

Should anyone need to speak to me about anything, 📞phone me anytime from 8.00 in the morning.

Yvonne 😄

Our second day has been a lot of fun despite the cold and wet!!! This morning we went out on Inclusion the powerboat over to the Holy Isle.  Everyone got a chance to drive and Peter really enjoyed steering the boat, he was the best at keeping it in a straight line.  We enjoyed stretching our legs out and visiting the garden on the Holy Isle before having a very damp picnic.  We all chose a pebble from the beach to put onto the pebble pile in the garden for universal peace.  We then got back on the boat to head back to the centre.  No rest however, we headed to Brodick Castle and the adventure playground.  We have just had our tea and we are going back out to make a fire.  It is one of the activities in our 50 things to do outdoors book.  We are feeling very sad that we have to return home tomorrow.  Peter has already said “We will see you next year Arran, 2017”.

Don’t know what happened to all of our comments we added yesterday, they don’t seem to have posted.  Thank you everyone for your comments, we are having a brilliant time.

Mrs McIntosh, our Senior Manager visited the school this week to gather views from a Pupil Focus Group.  She was interested in gathering opinions about:

How learners felt about school

What they like and do not like doing in school

What they are good at doing

What is their favourite activites and

What are they best at

Our teachers worked hard to prepare visuals and photographic slideshows to help our learners participate in their conversation with Mrs McIntosh.

The past six weeks have been non-stop in the life of Haysholm School.  Here are a few of the main highlights:

Makaton Training

As well as staff achieving their Foundation course in Makaton, Jo Forde trained our transport contractors in an introductory Makaton Course.  It is our aim to spread the use of Makaton into the wider community to help us become as an inclusive society as possible.

Blog Training  for Parents

This session we have investigated the potential of using Glow Blogs of a way of recording evidence of successes and achievements for some of our young people.  The selected pupils parents attended a Blog Training delivered by the North Ayrshire Glow Development Officer on  how easy it is to  upload evidence of wider achievement from home.

Health Week

What fun we had during Health week!!!! As well as having our very own Tour De France, we hosted a mini Olympics, Walk a Mile and a Haysholm Bounce Off.  Here are a selection of photographs from the Bounce Off.