Pontville Blog 145: A week full of activity and celebratory moments

Justine Sims, Head Teacher takes the time out to catch us up.

Thanks to the staff team

I have witnessed the most amazing, talented, creative, and hard-working staff team – teachers, Instructors, HLTAs, TAs, and our technicians. A big thank you to our pastoral team who have continued to support pupils across the school and 16 to 19 as well as us as a staff team – it is greatly appreciated and you are the glue that helps to keep us all together. ❤

No successful school works without key teams who keep us clean and safe, fed and watered, and help the day to day running of the school to go smoothly – a huge thank you to the cleaning, catering, maintenance, and admin team (who have been working extra hours for us – thank you) – you are bobby dazzlers!

I would also like to say a huge thank you to the residential team – Thursday’s have become my new Friday night and it has been a real pleasure joining the Oakwood Family for dinner this term.

I would like to finally thank Michael Webster, Regional Director for all of his support – nothing is ever too much trouble and he is always there to support if we need it.

Feedback

Kayan Chan, Assistant Psychologist sent through a lovely statement from Harry’s parents about his transition to Pontville:

"We can’t tell you the difference in Harry at home since he started at your school. The whole house feels so different. He wants to go to school which he has never wanted to do. His anxiety has improved and he seems so much charmer. He talks about his new friendships and his day at school which he has never done before. We can’t believe how well he has settled."

Therapist, Lucy Shooter, celebrated and shared thanks for everyone’s input:

"Big thanks to all those that supported Children’s Mental Health Week, for sharing talents and being uniquely expressive and creative. James Williams has created a folder capturing lots of imaginative pieces of work from pupils. Also, lots of lovely pictures from pupils at home have been sent and saved."

Good news stories

P3 had a Wellbeing Morning organised by the TA’s. They made cards for each other and created a jigsaw of themselves before watching ‘Soul’ complete with popcorn, snacks, blankets, and pillows. Everyone enjoyed the morning and P3 are looking forward to doing it again.

Loree Smith, Assistant Head Teacher shared what an amazing day was had on Stone Age Day.

Pupils, Charlie and Luca produced some excellent recounts about what they did during the day.

The pupils and staff had a great day and it demonstrated the learning that they have acquired during our Through the Ages topic. 

Pupil, Thomas demonstrated his super hunting skills at Forest School and almost hit a mammoth with a bow and arrow!

Over in KS4, Jen Nickeas, TA, and Eddie Wishard, Science Lead shared some great news. Pupil, James engaged fully in the lesson, independently experimenting with resistors and the ‘potential different’ of a filament bulb. The quality of the presentation of his work was exemplary and the graph he drew to plot his findings is of the highest standard.  

Kate Woods, Maths Coordinator has some fantastic exam result news – the following pupils have passed their Level 1 functional skills maths exam – well done!

Pupils, George, Michael and James all passed Level 1 functional skills. 

Paul Rossington, Key Stage 5 Manager has shared some brilliant news from our BTEC students: 

Pupils, Thomas, and James have been busy preparing for their auditions at LIPA! James is a very prolific songwriter as well as a very good guitar player, and he has been rehearsing one of his original songs, backed up by Isaac on drums and Tom on guitar. As well as helping James, Tom has learnt a version of John Lennon’s ‘In My Life’ to perform for his LIPA audition.

Intrepid BTEC Esports pioneers, Tom and Damien, continue to go from strength to strength in this exciting new subject! Each week they take part in a Minecraft build-off, after studying the Esports industry. They have been amazed to find this week that the Esports industry worldwide is worth $159.3 billion!!

Jess Jones, Instructor shares some more great news from Key Stage 4.

4B kicked off their Community Action Project this week with Random acts of Kindness, delivering plants (which they planted earlier in the week and created labels for) and chocolate to randomly picked students and staff, spreading kindness and putting smiles on faces.

From 4D, Joanne Harrison, HLTA has shared some more talent this week. Pupil, Tom brought a Ukulele into school and was determined to learn how to play it. He’s made some great progress in just a couple of days listening to all of Dominic F-C’s advice and tutoring. Watch out Britain’s Got Talent, Pontville Ukulele Band are coming!

Over at 16 to 19 Centre, Anna Sawyer, TA, and the 5A Team have been celebrating pupil, Naj, who has been engaging with learning really well. He has fully thrown himself into our Eco project, researching and making phone calls to get quotes before ordering top-soil for our planters. He has also been e-mailing council representatives and managed to arrange a successful Teams Meeting with them (which 5A, 5B, and 5C were all able to join in with) so that we could ask questions and gain their suggestions on ways we can make improvements at the centre to help the wider environment. As well as all of that, Naj has also completed one of his Work Skills assignments, producing a very professional health and safety booklet. We think he should be very proud of himself.

Ceri Mason, Teaching Assistant has some lovely news to share this week from 5C. Pupil, Daniel has worked extremely hard in Maths. Dan’s confidence in maths has grown in the past few weeks, to see him smiling during a lesson (he will admit that he finds challenging) is so rewarding for me.

Over to residential, Louise Duff, Residential Support Worker has more stories of acts of kindness to the local community. Staff in Oakwood have been collecting clothes for families in need and on Wednesday night, pupils, Morgan, Tom, and Josh went to deliver them to the Evermoor Hub in Skelmersdale, this is a local Community Centre that supports all families needing food bank supplies, clothing, supporting the homeless and much more. They all enjoyed the trip out and it was great seeing them helping to organise the bags of items and packing the van and then from a distance (outside the Centre) they dropped off the bags and had some great feedback from the helpers at the Centre. On the way back in the van we chatted about what it means to give back to the community.

Dave Crofts, teacher has been celebrating the work of his class 3B who had two great lessons. 3B also gave a magnificent performance of the final act of The Tempest, which included a show-stopping performance from a pupil, James as King Alonso.

Another piece of good news is that pupil, Levi attended every lesson on Monday for the first time, earning a golden carrot from his class team!

Rachel Doherty, teacher, is feeling very proud as pupil, Sean has produced his very first essay this week in English. Sean was feeling anxious beforehand but worked hard to overcome his fear.  Also in 3D, pupils welcomed a new friend into their class, Matthew. They have all been very kind and polite to help his transition. Lovely social communication skills.

Kieran Ashton, HLTA has been celebrating the fitness and determination of 3B and 4E in their 12 minute runs this week while Laura Bennett, Key Stage 3 Manager has had a great time cooking up a storm with 3C.

Teacher, Rachel Doherty is feeling very proud this week as pupil, Sean has produced his very first essay this week in English. Sean was feeling anxious beforehand but worked hard to overcome his fear – well done Sean!

Finally, star of the week is: 

KS4 – James – Class of the week: 3F

Another amazing week – well done Pontville!