BLOG #6

An exciting week at Larwood, with a big focus on Science and a visit from a company that promotes pupil engagement with Science. A range of experiments took place in assembly, followed by all pupils attending a special work shop.

Our pupils continue to help with the local community via Jubilee Court old peoples home, litter picks in our local area and in other areas of Stevenage, alongside our own Life Skills course.

We look forward to our non-uniform day on Friday 16^th, Secondary School Transition evening for Year 5 parents on the 22^nd March, Sports Relief activities and those wonderful end of term trips are not far away!

Please note that the results from our Autism Accreditation review should be available in the next 6 weeks. A huge thank you to all parents who engaged in the process and the comments that were made.

BLOG #4 We launched our week with an assembly relating to anti-bullying led by Miss Gwynne. We often discuss this issue with pupils and look at the various ways it can happen (verbal, physical, on line etc) and the feelings that it produces. At the end of the week, I asked pupils to recall if they could think of a situation during the week, which involved them being kind. Being kind is almost as far away from being a bully as you can be! I did ask pupils to consider if their kindness was at school or after school, and the clear majority of pupils could recall an act of kindness. Great emphasis is placed on kindness at Larwood and it’s lovely to see pupils reacting so positively to this. 

Please note that our Facebook page is back, and Mrs Ford will now be overseeing it. If you do use Facebook, please join the group. 

BLOG #2 Working hard on our writing skills! Just to show how hard our pupils are working on this area, here is a quote from Pobble. (Pobble is the online platform that allows pupils to share work, comment on it and develop their skills in a collaborative way. It also enables parents to see what pupils are working on and what they have written). 

Larwood Primary School has made an excellent start to the new school year! They began the year in style by using exciting story starters from Pobble 365, before publishing their brilliant writing for the world to see on Pobble. With 2000 views and nearly 500 comments, writing is most definitely exciting at Larwood!
Huge congratulations to Larwood Primary for being Pobble’s School of the Week!

Great work Team Larwood!

BLOG #10 SATS have taken place and are now finished! Hooray! This is always a tricky and challenging week for us and across the country for all primary schools. Our approach to our pupils has been made very clear. We have encouraged pupils to do their best, and get used to the fact that tests exist in all walks of life, as well as setting up a nice treat at the end of the week for them. 

Next week we get back to our usual approach to life at school and have several events on the horizon to look forward to. This includes Dragon Boat and Bell Boat next couple week, the Year 6 residential trip on 21st June and Sports Day on July 4th.  All of which will be much more fun than and just as important as SATS!

BLOG #8

Jumping into a Virtual Reality!

As part of Science week at Larwood School, we all had the opportunity to experience virtual reality. With the help of Gareth P from SharkIT,  pupils and staff were immersed into underwater scenes with a huge Whale, stepping out of a lift and onto a thin plank, being in charge of a jet, back pack and flying to high rise buildings, visiting a museum, riding a roller coaster, as well as taking a trip in the Millennium Falcon! We have used the experience with pupils to encourage some more quality writing and it certainly worked.

I wonder if we will ever see the day when all aspects of education will be delivered by virtual reality? I hope not!

BLOG #6

It’s about this time of the year when I start to wonder where the beginning of the year has gone so quickly.  Larwood School always has something going on! 

• So far this year we have taken delivery of some new sensory equipment and have started to complete Sensory Profiles related to some of our pupils. This should really help with some of the specific sensory needs that we know some children have. 
• Our pupils have attended a cricket event within Stevenage and a mini Olympics and, as usual, they did us all proud! 
• We are about to launch a new way of sharing and reviewing written work called ‘Pobble’, and you have all been sent letters related to this. Please support us this new venture as we believe it will really help to improve work in lots of ways. 
• After school clubs continue to be a great success with our residential pupils and day pupils combining and enjoying a range of activities.

Finally, during Friday’s assembly, every class teacher mentioned at least one pupil in their class for acts of kindness that had been seen during the week. Some were mentioned for their kindness that had been consistently applied for a number of weeks. A great way to end the week!