Special
Academies
Milestone Academy
The drive at Milestone this module has been to increase parental engagement and extracurricular opportunities for students.
Dartford Lantern Procession
The first event planned was the participation of phase 2 in the Dartford lantern procession organised by the group Cohesion Plus on Friday the 25th November. Students from phase 2 classes took part in creating their own lanterns with a visiting artist and then paraded them through Dartford with other local schools.
This is the first time Milestone has taken part in this event and students and families had a wonderful evening.
Reading Brunch
On Tuesday 6th December, parents and carers were invited to join their children at a festive themed reading brunch in our event teepees. It was a fantastic opportunity for parents, carers and staff to share stories with the children, with all of them excited and engaged. Helen Warren, one of our governors, performed a Christmas signing story and Tim Sibson a festive sensory story.
The children and adults really enjoyed the performances and were able to experience lots of different textures and Christmas scents such as pine and cinnamon sticks. Phase 3 baked some reindeer shortbread and managed to raise £33 worth of donations for the Milestone Friends. It was a really successful event and we look forward to running another one in the Easter term.
Christmas Pantomime
For the first time in three years students were treated to a Christmas pantomime in the drama studio. Milestone is lucky to have professional actors on its staff and it was their company who skillfully staged an adapted version of a Christmas Carol. Students from all pathways watched the performance which was staged in a way that enabled all our pupils to participate and enjoy the event.
Snowfields Academy
Two Colleges Become One
This term has seen the first Snowfields cross campus squad meeting. The students were exceptional and had lots of wonderful ideas on how to make Snowfields Academy even better. These ideas ranged from lunchtime yoga and mindfulness sessions, to helping manage stress and anxiety, to more student-led lunch activities such as a graphic novel book club.
The Squad have also been using their student voice to help staff stock the vending machines; this has seen an array of rewards from their very own Otis teddy, a mountain of Pokémon cards and a full range of fiddle toys.
Snowfields students, family and staff are thrilled with the new outdoor sunken trampolines which was a response to the Student Squad request.
Next term, we look forward to more student voice led activities and the introduction of some new clubs as suggested by the students.
International-Mindedness
We have set up an International-Mindedness Club at lunch times where we have been learning more about the countries that qualified for the World Cup. The aim of this is to make students aware of different nations that they may not have heard about or haven’t had an opportunity to learn more about.
We have been studying facts and statistics about each country, learning where in the world they are, their population and the average wage of each country. Once we have obtained the information from each country, we will be turning this information into a set of ‘Top Trumps Cards’ which students can play with and compare and contrast different countries.
Communication and Mental Health
Our Year 7s have been focusing on emotional regulation with the Zones of Regulation being a key focus. They enjoyed making their own zones keyrings with their personalised strategies.
Anxiety was the focus for Year 8s and we have been really impressed by how open and honest many of them have been. Students learnt a lot about different types of anxiety and some strategies to try.
Our tech savvy Year 9s have spent the term focusing on Online Communication, looking at boundaries, how online differs to in person communication and the impact of online communication on our wellbeing.