Howes Hoose at the Gym 

The S6 pupils in Howes Hoose have been enjoying using the local gym facilities in Sheddocksley. The pupils are excellent at independently scanning their gym cards when they arrive. They have been trying out a variety of the gym equipment and building their confidence and stamina. The treadmill and bikes are definitely the favoured choices! It is fantastic to see our young people out and about accessing their local community. 

Volunteering In Howes Hoose

Some of the Howes Hoose pupils have started volunteering at Springhill Community Gardens. Their hard work will contribute towards their Personal Achievement Award: Interacting in the Community. This week we learnt how to use the soil churner so to get rid of the big stones in the soil. We also did some work trimming back the broom. The ladies at Springhill were super grateful for the boys’ hard work and look forward to giving us lots more jobs as we head into the Spring months and the garden starts to bloom. The Howes Hoose pupils will be painting some stones in the coming week to bring to Springhill to brighten up the rock garden. 

Howes Hoose Are Working Hard On Work Experience 

All pupils in Howes Hoose attend at least one work experience placement each week. It is a great chance to be out in the community, meeting new people and practising a variety of life skills. We currently attend 3 different placements. Somebody Cares at Hazelhead  is a local charity shop where pupils help to organise and tidy the donations. Our  Airyhall Community Centre placement gives pupils a chance to practise cleaning and hoovering and Honeycomb Community Cafe at Sheddocksley Church  provides the opportunity to practise using a dishwasher and interacting with new people.  It is always a really positive experience and pupils look forward to getting out and about into their community. 

Howes Hoose Enterprise 

Pupils in Howes Hoose have begun their soup enterprise project and already have lots of happy customers!  Pupils are involved in every aspect of making and selling the soup. Work begins with going round the school to ask who would like soup that week, a great chance to practise interacting with less familiar people. Next is shopping for ingredients and then making the soup in the Hoose. Selling the soup is another opportunity for practising communication skills as well as handling money. We then do some learning activities around the money we have raised! 

The first week we made leek and tattie soup with tatties we grew ourselves in Outdoor Education – it was a hit! 

Tidying Up In Howes Hoose

The pupils of Howes Hoose have been sprucing up their outdoor environment since returning to school. One of our first tasks was to wash and paint  our garden furniture. Running out of paint called for a trip to the shops which gave us the chance to practise our life skills out and  about in the community. We also helped tidy up the school sensory garden to make it a welcoming place for our peers as well as some litter picks along the farm track to care for our local area. 

Howes Hoose Fundraising Champions

Howes Hoose Fundraising Champions 

Over the past month the pupils in Howes Hoose have been taking part in a fundraising project to raise money for those in need as a result of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Pupils were shown a variety of causes and videos to explain each then voted which one they wanted to raise money for. The majority chose the earthquake.

We did an Easter themed ‘guess how many in the jar’ fundraiser where we filled a huge jar with tasty chocolate treats and went round classes asking to make a guess at the total and collect donations. The last few pounds are coming in but we have raised roughly £60 which we are very proud of! Incredibly one member of staff guessed the exact number of eggs in the jar so that very fortunate person is all sorted for Easter! 

Howes Hoose Fundraising

As part of our ASDAN work we have been raising money for a charity of our choice. Pupils were shown 3 videos of different charities then used symbols to select which one they would like to fundraise for. The majority of the class chose the Earthquakes in Syria and Turkey. We have seen this a lot on Newsound so it is a familiar story to our pupils.

 We are going to be doing an Easter themed  ‘Guess How Many In The Jar’ so we have been counting out lots of tasty Easter treats into a big jar. Some pupils took turns dropping the eggs in and others preferred to listen to the sound of them as they dropped in. One of our pupils was really keen to help us count out loud and impressed us with how far he could keep counting as we don’t usually talk about numbers that big in class! We are looking forward to visiting classes to collect guesses and donations over the coming weeks. 

New Horizons with Howes Hoose

Howes Hoose have been working on their New Horizons Personal module. We have been talking about personal skills we are good at and ones that we want to work on. After selecting a personal challenge from a variety of symbols we got to work. Challenges included – learning to use the washing machine, deciding what is for snack each day, hoovering and keeping desks clean. We are going to be reviewing our challenge this week and deciding if we found it easy or difficult! 

Exploring using Google Earth

Howes Hoose pupils have been having great fun using the website Google Earth. We have been learning about our homes as part of our ASDAN work so thought we’d share with each other what our homes look like. We used street view to navigate up and down our streets. Lots of us were very excited when we saw our homes. One pupil wanted to find the horses in the field nearby to his home so started taking us on adventure up the street! The next day we were shown two pictures of different homes and identified which was ours – we all did really well in this task!

Settling in to Howes Hoose

Howes Hoose are settling fantastically in their new ‘classroom’. We have been having great fun doing Boccia in the  living room. Boccia from  sofa’s has proved to be a winner! We are focusing at the moment on colour matching using the bean bags with nets, blocks, hoops and the parachute. We are all very impressed with the aim of our pupils and the proof is in the pictures!