About Us
Lion class are a very practical and hands on learning class. We like to ensure our learning is meaningful and allows opportunities to generalise the skills we are learning to a variety of environments in the school, as well as out in the community and, hopefully, at home too.
Our learning is structured around the Beech Pathway. This delivers a unique and personalised curriculum to develop social communication, emotional regulation skills and promoting independence as much as possible. Activities are tailored to encourage and develop the pre-requisites for learning including joint attention, engagement and participation, communication, mutual regulation and self-regulation. We aim to maintain flexibility and adapt individual timetables to support children to regularly access interventions outside of the class.
Term 5 Timetable
Monday 15th April 2024 - Staff Development Day
Tuesday 16th April 2024 - Friday 24th May 2024
Monday 6th May - Bank holiday
Please see the Beech newsletter for all updates on events this term
Term 5 Focus
English (Sensology + Sentence building
This term we will be focusing on building sentences during sensology sessions. We will be encouraging pupils to utilise their 5 main senses to engage with objects, make requests and choices between 2 objects and then begin building sentences about their chosen object. We will be building confidence in using pronouns, nouns, verbs and adjectives, with progression to using reasoning language to communicate what we liked or disliked about the object and why.
Maths (shape)
This term we will be focusing on the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. We will be learning how to identify these shapes in our environments, and their purpose. We will be observing the different properties of these shapes and beginning to use the appropriate tools to measure the angles that make them up e.g. a square has 4 right angles.
When we are confident in our shapes we will begin looking at patterns and symmetry within the shapes and constructing our own patterns of shapes to challenge the adults and our peers to say what could come next.
Bucket
Bucket (attention autism) is a learning approach that aims to develop natural and spontaneous communication skills and progress attention levels in children through the use of visually based and highly motivating activities. We are currently accessing 3 stages of attention autism with a view to begin stage 4 in term 6.
The 4 stages of attention autism are:
Stage 1: The Bucket to Focus Attention.
Stage 2: The Attention Builder.
Stage 3: The Interactive Game - Turn-Taking and Shifting Attention.
Stage 4: Individual Activity - Focus Shift and Re-engage Attention.
Forest school
This term, Lion class will be going off site on a Wednesday to engage in outdoor learning at Ross woods. This session will be led by a trained forest school teacher who will be providing opportunities to participate in a variety of seasonal activities, combining and developing numeracy and literacy knowledge alongside gross and fine motor skills.
We are not expecting it to be too wet or muddy however we recommend your child wears long sleeved and legged clothes, a coat and either wellie boots or trainers that can get dirty.
Opt-In sessions
These sessions will provide a choice of engaging activities for pupils to opt-in to. These low-demand sessions are designed to support interaction between peers and encourage their exploration. Examples of these activities include: fine motor skills, exploring music, role-play and sensory play.
How We Learn
In Lion Class, we follow the TEACCH cycle (in Maths & English).
This structured approach aims to:
• Build independence.
• Allow pupils to interact and communicate with peers.
• Retain attention throughout the lesson.
• Teach key functional skills.
• Increase predictability.
The class are split into 3 groups who will cycle round the classroom, spending equal amounts of time at each area.
Group Table
This is where main learning takes place, the teacher and TAs will support pupils with achieving the objective of the lesson.
Workstation
Pupils will have short independent tasks pitched at their ability.
Leisure
A brain break for pupils, with an opportunity for them to relax, explore or initiate play amongst a variety of resources.
Important Information
iPads/Technology
Please could VOCA’s be charged at home where possible, we can charge them if they run low however this may mean they have limited access to them when needed during lessons.
If your child uses a device to support them on transport please let us know so we can ensure it is kept safe during the day and has charge for the journey home.
Juice/Squash
If your child drinks juice/squash, please could you bring a bottle in every couple of weeks with their name on.
Swimming Kits
Please bring swimming kits in on Thursdays during term 1 and 6. We do have spares but may not be available to certain sizes.
Key Essentials
Snack, spare clothes (including shoes), waterproofs, wellies and a PE kit.
Evisense
Home | Evisense (v3uk.evisense.com)
You will be able to track your child's progress through the use of photos and videos (once consent is given), using the online tool Evisense.
If you do not have login details, please contact a member of Lion Class.
Contact
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions:
Kirstie Philpott
Lion Class Teacher
k.philpott@stns.org.uk
01227 464316
