Thorn Park News - Summer 2009

Wow! What a way to end the year with such a positive report from the Ofsted HMI visit. The report recognises the good progress we have made over the year, lending support to our judgement that Thorn Park is a good school. I was particularly pleased with the observation that ‘pupils in all lessons enjoy their work and participate eagerly’. Pupils’ enthusiasm is certainly clearly evident when you walk around the school and the extensive range of activities and opportunities provided can be judged from reading through the newsletter. What has been most striking this term has been the success of the Sponsored Walk and the National School Sports and Healthy Schools Week, organised by Chris Lawson, where older pupils supported the younger ones, creating a truly inclusive and cohesive school community – one to be proud of!

Parents have also benefited this term from a ‘Positive Parenting Course’ provided in school over 10 weeks by the National Deaf Children’s Society. This has proved to be very successful and well attended by our parents who were presented with their certificates in a celebration on Tuesday 14th July. Well done to you all!

Parents celebrating their success in the“Positive Parenting Course”

This is the emotional time of year when we say ‘Goodbye’ to our school leavers, pupils and staff, and wish them all well. Sheila Johnstone our Connexions Personal Advisor who has helped so many pupils establish further education and future career opportunities is retiring after many years working with Thorn Park School. She will certainly be missed! I also thank Brian Robinson who has provided invaluable voluntary support to the Secondary Department over the year and to PC Glyn Butterworth who has amazed us with the range of exciting opportunities he has continued to provide for our pupils. Many thanks to all the staff for their continued hard work and commitment to the school which is very much appreciated. I wish you all a happy holiday and hope that you are able to join us for our Leavers’ Assembly on Friday, July 17th at 2pm. Pupils return to school after our Summer holidays on Thursday 3rd September.

Christine Roche, Acting Head

OXFAM

The Oxfam Trailtrekker is a huge challenge-a 100km walk over the Pennines to be completed within 30 hours and Thorn Park entered a team. Our aim was to raise £1,500 for charity through sponsorship from the walk, student’s sponsored walk and events run by our students to raise funds.

The walk itself took place on 30th/31st May; it was one of the hottest days in the year. We set off at 8.00am and walked non-stop for 27 hours. It was extremely tough, lots of blisters, tears and pain but we did manage to finish it in an extremely good time.

Massive congratulations and well done to all our students who took part in their own sponsored walk and raised over £700 wow! Almost all the money has been paid into Oxfam and we have achieved our pledge of over £1,500-so well done and thank you to parents and staff for their valuable contributions. Thank you!

Mrs Butterworth/Miss Gibson

PC Butterworth

PC Glyn Butterworth has continued to work with our older pupils in the secondary department. They have been able to experience a range of outdoor activities such as horse riding, climbing and more educational experiences linked to consequences of crime. A huge climbing tower is coming to Thorn Park on Wednesday 15th July for all the children to gain confidence in climbing and experience a more adventurous sport.

British Sign Language

Congratulations to the following pupils on achieving:

BSL Level 1
Zaahida Desai, Peter Hadfield, Mariyh Malik, Mamona Saleem.

BSL Level 2
Wasim Baig, Joshua Farrar, Shabana Khatun, Naila Mariam, Majid Shakil

The following have completed 1 unit at BSL Level 2:

Sohaib Basat, Chaand Mehtab, Anka Batool, Falak Adil, Neelam Hussain.

And, finally, our Communication Support Worker, Ruth Schofield, had just recently achieved NVQ Level 4 in BSL.  She is the first person, apart from the Deaf Instructors, to achieve the BSL qualification at this level.

Carol McEachran

Lunchtime Supervisors

Congratulations to the following lunchtime supervisors on completing the CACHE Level 2 Award in Support Work in Schools:-

Senga Sprott, Misbah Imran, Rashida Bhungrawala, and Leanne Domanski … well done!!

Carole Hall

Art Exhibition

Year 11 pupils held an exhibition of their GCSE Art work on 15th July, attended by parents and other guests with a light lunch prepared by themselves.  Visitors were extremely impressed with the standard of the work which is outstanding.

Sabiqa Younus

Congratulations to Sabiqa Younus our Parental Involvement Officer who gave birth to a little boy, Isaac, in May 2009.  She has brought him in to visit us.