The staff at South Colchester GROW have been watching as parts of their new building have been "air lifted" in! The classrooms are now fully built and set up - and will be a great learning space for the children. The team are looking forward to welcoming new referrals into the classroom following the Easter break.
Our pupils were excited this week that their daffodils were ready to be taken home - just in time for Mothers Day! The children planted their bulbs in autumn, and have been patiently waiting for the flowers to bloom.
GROW were pleased to hear from a referring school this week, who are thankful that their pupil has continued to engage in lessons since he has returned to his school. The Colchester team were inspired by the initiative that this member of staff had taken to adapt our 'Helpful Behaviour Sheet' - by recognising where this pupil had used these positive behaviours in his books - and we have decided to emulate this practice at the GROW provision. This pupil has shown that he has a talent for solving fractions, and has said that he is happy that he now "feels normal". The team are so proud to hear that this pupil is making great progress, as part of his class.
Today we visited a Year 5 pupil who is back at his school following a placement at GROW. This pupil had designed his own flag of Kenya - which is going to be used as a "WAGOLL" (What A Good One Looks Like) to inspire others in his year group! We were proud to see this pupil using his helpful behaviours throughout the day - having a go, listening to others and not giving up! Well done on your hard work.
On Wednesday, Braiswick Primary celebrated World Book Day. All the teachers and children dressed up to celebrate the day - and everybody looked great in their costumes! At GROW, we had our very own Burglar Bill (not to be confused with Gangsta Granny!), Where's Wally?, Mary Poppins, and Grandpa from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One pupil completed a World Book Day token hunt - and solved the clues to unlock the cupboard and find their world book day token!
Author and illustrator Tom Knight also visited the school for the day - visiting all the classes to talk about his books and answer their inquisitive questions about being an author. The children also learnt some funny medieval words to use at home - such as feather-head!
We would like to thank the parents and carers for helping the children prepare their costumes for the day - we know the children all had a great day dressing up and celebrating their love of stories.
This term, the Chelmsford GROW moved into their new premises within Newlands Spring Primary. For the last few months, the team have been sneaking in to see the progress being made with the building works, and they have now been able to move into their new space. The new building even has a sensory room and kitchen. We can't wait to share with you the learning that the children get up to in their two brand new classrooms!
Today, all of our GROW teams attended a seminar by Louise from Do Be Mindful, who had travelled all the way from Scotland to speak to our schools. This was in fact Louise's first trip to England in order to share the inspiring work that they do with adults and children around Scotland. Mindfulness is the practise of "paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally" (Jon Kabat-Zinn) and has been proved to help adults and children to manage stress, to enjoy better relationships,and to improve performance and health and wellbeing. For our professional development, all of our staff will be completing a course run by Do Be Mindful over the next five weeks to enhance our own skills and wellbeing.
A year 6 pupil at the Colchester North provision has been studying electrical circuits in science and has created his very own lighthouse model! The model includes a cell, wires, bulb and a switch to turn the lighthouse on and off. This pupil showed great listening skills and was also able to problem solve when things didn't work the way that he expected. The team at Braiswick are very proud of you for creating this amazing model. Well done!
Today we celebrated World Book Day at Braintree GROW. Both the adults and the children in the school all got involved to celebrate our love of books - and the children's costumes were particularly impressive! We were joined by our very own Cat in the Hat, Hermione Granger, Mr. Fox, as well as a Very Hungry Caterpillar! The children had the opportunity to take part in special activities throughout the day, and were able to show off their incredible costumes in the school assembly. We would like to thank the parents and carers for the effort they put into helping to create a fun and exciting day for the kids. As you can see, our team chose to dress up as the characters from A.A Milne's classic - Winnie the Pooh.
