A Work Placement Celebration

We are very proud of all our students and the work we all do around work experience and are very thankful to all our supporters who offer placements for our students, which provide them with invaluable skills for life. Our aim is that all our young people at The Castle School are successful and can achieve employment when they leave us.

This week Waitrose, who are a fantastic supporter of our school and work placements, celebrated their Partnership day. This was attended by many schools and Waitrose partners. Richard Benyon, Newbury MP, also attended and said how much he appreciated the partnerships that had been build up between Waitrose and organisations in the community.

I was privileged to be present along with several of our students and staff. One of our students, Sean who has had a work experience placement with Waitrose, has now been offered a job and is working there on a Saturday - we are all very proud of him and, by all accounts he is a wonderful employee. During the speech by Mr Benyon, he said that if the young people in the room worked hard they may end up working for Waitrose - to which Sean said to the packed room "I already am!". He said it with such pride and confidence it made us all so very proud.

Well done to Sean and all of our students who do so well in their placements and thank you so much to all the partners at Waitrose who make all this possible. Below is a picture of Sean with, from left to right: Chris Andrews (Waitrose Deputy Manager), Jon Hewitt (Headteacher), Sean, Richard Benyon, Andy Ward (Store Manager) 

 

 

Primary Sports Afternoon

Well, we all had a wonderful afternoon on Tuesday with Primary Sports. All the pupils got involved and had a thoroughly brilliant time racing over hurdles, playing skittles, going through the assault course and trying out football skills to name but a few. We mustn't forget the parents and families who came along as well and really got involved - I would like to extend a thank you to you as it really made the day perfect. Here are some of the photos from the day. Enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And not forgetting the mums' and dads' races

 



An enterprising lot!

Our pupils are an enterprising bunch and to demonstrate this you only have to look at the amazing enterprise projects they have been running at The Castle School. Ranging from cooked breakfasts on sale to making soap, everyone has been making sure that they have been involved. The wonderful thing about these projects is that they are great fun and enable our young people to learn more about business, sales, product development and money. These are all great transferable skills that can be taken out into the real world. Here are some photos of what our young people have been doing with their enterprise:

 Corfe Class Selling their produce to the staff

 

 Rightly proud of their efforts

 

 Students from other classes purchasing some cakes

 

 Counting up the profits!

 

 Lancaster class preparing one of their incredible lunches

 

 Preparation is the key

 

 Pendragon's lovely shaped and wonderfully-smelling soaps

 

 Windsor pupils selling ice creams

 

Lots of maths skills at the till

Action and Adventure

As you will know, as part of all the wonderful learning that takes place inside our school we are passionate about getting out into the community and wider world to enable all our young people to develop their skills and learning. The benefits are huge, including social skills development; an increased understanding of the environment; problem solving; working as a team and trying new things to name but a few. Below are some pictures taken from recent residential trips so you can hopefully get a flavour of what the young people get up to.

 

 

 Canoeing on The River Wye

 

 The fun of getting in and out of the boats!

 

 Sailing - top teamwork

 

 Pupils from Dover class learning to canoe

 

 A spot of problem solving!

 

 Working as a team to find their way through

 

Learning new skills

Celebrating 50 years - our 1960s week

This week, to celebrate 50 years of The Castle School, students and staff have been enjoying a 60s themed week.

We have all been taking part in a whole range of activities based around the 1960’s – the decade when the school first opened. This has seen the pupils tasting various foods from the era and voting for their favourite, which turned out to be pigs-in-blankets. Their least favourite was Gypsy Tart, which contained evaporated milk. At lunchtimes we have been showing 1960s cartons with popcorn, we have a 1960’s dance today and on Wednesday we had a wonderful whole school picnic on the field. The weather was very kind and the staff and pupils ate their lunch to the tunes of the 1960s.

 

Castle's Got Talent

We had a wonderful talent show this week called "Castle's Got Talent". We had entries from pupils of all age groups and they really did us proud. The confidence that our young people showed is a credit to their parents and to the staff who work with them. There were lots of proud mums and dads in the audience with tears in their eyes.

Everyone was amazing and a special mention needs to go to Nathan Hopkins who compered the whole event with great humour and banter - you would have thought he was a professional.

Thank you to all who helped organise, especially Christine Cranstoun who planned and implemented the whole event - quite a logistical achievement!

Here are some photographs from the event. I hope to possibly put the video on Youtube and then send parents the link.

 Nathan starts off proceedings

 

 Aaron and John play along to "We Will Rock You" by Queen

 

 The judges, Helen, Tracey and Ali - watch out Simon Cowell!

 

 Nathan doing a sterling job of compering the event

 

 Ricky and Bradley - The Winners - well done lads

 

 Adam with his Michael Jackson Routine

 

 Brad, Leo and Dante sing about Pinocchio

 

 Eddie, Dan and Sam play experimental music

 

 Rock Star Ashton!

 

 Bruno showed us some pretty impressive moves

 

 Appleby Class perform some moves to Swan Lake

 

 The appreciative audience - a packed house!

 

 Soccer skills from Kira and Alisha

 

 Lily dancing to Jason Derulo

 

Abbie singing Story of My Life by One Direction to end the event