Rochester (M@W)
Waterfall Pathway
Welcome to the Rochester class page, we will be keeping you updated with some of the learning and activities we complete as the school year progresses.
ASDAN
The students are following ASDAN courses to build their range of experience and help to prepare them for life post Milestone. We are following three different types of ASDAN qualifications currently.
Employability
The students will take part in a range of written and practical activities designed to help prepare them for the world of work.
Through each element of the course they will work towards gaining a recognised accreditation.
Short Course
Students have been given the opportunity to choose a short course in one of the following areas.
Local History
Sports
Performing Arts
Through each course they will work towards gaining a recognised accreditation.
Life Skills Challenge
This term for our life skills challenge we are following a first aid course, whilst we hope that they never have to put the skills gained to use I am sure you will agree that the skills are invaluable.
This course will also lead to them gaining a certificate.
Functional Skills
We have functional skills Maths and English lessons each day. See below for examples of our work.
Term 1
Students have all settled in well to term 1, especially those who have joined Rochester for the first time, we have made a fantastic start working towards our certificates and accreditations.
The class have begun working towards the Employability accreditation where they have been demonstrating their understanding of workplace standards through work experience opportunities in our cafe here at Wilmington and in our days at Beams. The pupils have made presentations on the importance of health and safety at work, written job descriptions for the cafe, had work appraisals to assess effective work standards and discussed ways to improve.
We have enjoyed shopping trips to restock the M@W cafe where we have the opportunity to budget money and strengthen life skills.
Rochester class is also working towards a certificate in Basic First Aid where students can now identify and respond to an asthma attack and know what to do if someone was bleeding.
In Maths and English students are working towards their exams with exam style questions to get students used to the language and layout, along with lots of reminders to “read the question!”
Creative Writing
A Deal is Still a Deal By Becky
Term 2
Term two has been very eventful, we have had a work experience trip to Parliament to meet Laura Trott, a cinema trip and we have been busy being creative in our Employability enterprise sessions.
Houses of Parliament Trip -Tuesday 21st November 2024
We went to London by a train then we got off the train and walked and walked. Then we got to a place (Portcullis House) where we met a guy named Sam that works with Laura Trott, alongside Sam there was another guy named James. They took us on a tour around the place I think the place was called Westminster.
We went underground and walked down the hallway where there was a unicorn and a lion statue. First we went into Westminster Hall and saw where the Queen was laid out. Then, into the House of Lords and the House of Commons and after we watched the thing in the House of Commons. After lunch we had a video with a human named Graham, he talked and talked. Then we did a task about whether Laura Trott be on TickTok and the pros and cons. Then Laura came into the room that had four TVs. We asked Laura questions (I didn’t), took pictures with them (I didn’t). We then went to the shop then walked all the way back to the train station, got the train back to Swanley to go home.
By the way, Yasmin got told off by armed police!
Written by Bonnie Mai
Christmas Markets - Employability
Our first market will take place on Thursday the 30th November at the Wilmington Market in the Memorial Hall.
Every student has come up with ideas of Christmas products, sourced the materials and priced up costs to work out how much each product should be sold for to make a profit. Students have worked in groups and focused on each product making sure they all have a part in making.
The second market will be on the 12th December at Milestone Academy mainsite, it is also open to the public to come and see all the great Christmas gifts that we have been making.
Wilmington Market in the Memorial Hall Thursday 30th November
Snow White Panto at Woodville Halls
As part of our festive celebrations, Milestone@Wilmington pupils had the delightful opportunity to attend ‘Snow White,’ an enchanting Christmas pantomime held at The Woodville Halls Theatre in Gravesend. This experience proved to be truly magical for our pupils. They not only thoroughly enjoyed the performance but also demonstrated exemplary behaviour, contributing significantly to the overall joy of the experience.
The Pupils laughed and cheered, participating in the traditional pantomime call and response, as well as booing the evil Queen.(and even danced at the end!) and everyone had a truly wonderful time. There wasn’t an empty seat in the packed theatre and everyone found it hilarious.
Christmas Market at Milestone mainsite
This was a great event where the whole of phase 4 joined together to host stalls full of their hard work and crafts. The market was the first of its' kind with members of the public attending along with pupils and staff from school.
Christmas Dinner
M@W's Christmas dinner, the afternoon was an accumulation of lots of hard work and planning. First, pupils researched the cost of ingredients making sure the checked different shops for the best price. Then, we organised ourselves into two groups, shoppers and chefs. The first group of students went out to the supermarket to buy the ingredients making sure they stuck to our budgets and the other half were our cooks. It was a fantastic festive atmosphere that we will remember for a very long time to come.
Stuntman visit - John Street
John Street is a World-renowned Stunt Coordinator who has worked on some of the highest-grossing action movies of all time. A specialist fight choreographer, John has worked in all aspects of action. He came in on Friday 15th to talk about his job and take questions from the students who are working towards their Performing Arts Asdan accreditation.
Term 3
Jennifer has entered two young writers competitions and won both.
She says: "For the first Young writers competition I entered I could write anything, I wrote a story about the park I went to in the summer holidays with my family and for the second competition I had to write something about Halloween.
The prizes I have got for winning the competitions are my stories are going to be published into two Young Writers books. My stories are called Mythical Magical Montreal and Haunted Halloween.
The first book is called Young Writers Dreams In Ink and the second book is called Young Writers Fright Club Haunted Dreams. All of the Young Writers books are available to buy on the Young Writers website and some are also available to buy on Amazon.
On the day when my story was published in the Dreams in Ink book it was being sold on Amazon within a few hours it was completely sold out and I think it is a six to seven month wait for Amazon to restock the books and for more of the books to be printed and sent to Amazon.
My story was published in the Young Writers Dreams in Ink book on the 24th November 2023 and my Halloween story is published on the 16th February 2024 in the Fright Club Haunted Dreams book."
If you want to buy the books you can follow these links:
https://www.youngwriters.co.uk
Well done Jennifer - we are very proud!
Storytelling Week
The Blue Hood Boy
There was a tall boy named Blue Hood Boy. He loves doing things to make people happy and he loves helping his family. He got his mom, he got a dad and he also got an older brother named Jeff. Jeff is a karate person.
The Blue Hood Boy was walking through the forest, he heard a noise behind the tall trees and he heard the noise and then the noise had stopped. He then carried on walking and he heard footsteps behind him and there was no one there. He carried on walking through the forest and then he heard another noise, he turned around and he said “Hello, is anyone there?” He heard a roar coming behind him and he saw a big bad bear running after him.
Blue Hood Boy started to run away as fast as he could and he shouted his brother's name as loud as he could. He shouted “Jeff, Jeff, Jeff! Help me, help me!” Blue Hood Boy heard his brother calling his name, he said “Blue Hood, Blue Hood where are you?” The Blue Hood Boy said, “I’m over here behind the really tall tree.” His brother said “what tall tree?” Blue Hood Boy said “It's near the cliff.” His brother said “Which one, the one in the middle, the one on the right or the one on the left?” Blue Hood Boy said “I'm behind the middle tree.” Jeff can see Blue Hood Boys legs because Blue Hood Boy has very long legs. Then they both saw the big bad bear.
Jeff realised that he had a knife in his pocket. Jeff pulled out his knife out of his pocket and Jeff said “I will end you big bad bear!” The bear roared at Jeff and Blue Hood Boy. Jeff said, “Don’t mess with me, leave me and my brother alone now!” The bear got angry, he is now going to kill the Blue Hood Boy and Jeff. They run really fast and stab the bear and kill the bear. Now the bear is now dead. Yay, everyone celebrates.
The end
The story created by KK
Little Red Football Fan
One beautiful sunny day Little Red Football Fan’s mum was doing her basket because Little Red Football Fan was going to her nan’s house because she was poorly. Little Red Football Fan mum’s shouted at her and said “PLEASE CAN YOU COME DOWN HERE PLEASE BECAUSE I HAVE SOME BAD NEWS!” Little Red Football Fan said “YES I WILL MUMMY!” So Little Red Football Fan came downstairs to her mum and her mum said your nan is really sick. Please can you give these flowers to her and you have to go on your own, you have to walk through the muddy yucky Dartford woods “DON’T YOU DARE TALK TO ANY STRANGERS OR ANIMALS ON THE WAY TO NANNY’S HOUSE PLEASE LITTLE RED Football Fan!” Little Red Football Fan said “okay I won’t talk to any strangers or animals on my way to nanny house mum I promise.”
Little Red Football Fan left the house to walk through the muddy yucky Dartford woods. While Little Red Football Fan was walking through the yucky muddy Dartford woods she heard a noise through the bushy trees. Little Red Football Fan was so scared she thought someone was following her. All of a sudden, Little Red Football Fan saw something through the bushy trees and it came out and scared the life out of Little Red Football Fan, it was an alpaca. The alpaca said to Little Red Football Fan “Hello, what's your name little girl.” Little Red Football Fan said “I am not allowed to talk to strangers or animals because my lazy mum said so.” The alpaca said, “your mum is right there young lady and where are you going with those flowers little girl?” Little red Football Fan said “I am going to my nanny’s house and I am giving these smelly beautiful flowers because she is very sick, she lives right down there, so bye.”
The alpaca was running to the Little Red Football Fan nan’s house and the alpaca knocked on the door and said “It is Little Red Football Fan, can I come in please because I have some smelly beautiful flowers for you.” Nanny said “yes you may Little Red Football Fan.” Then the alpaca went up to Nanny, she said “you’re not Little Red Football Fan, who are you?”
All of a sudden, the alpaca ate the nan. Then the alpaca put on her clothes because the alpaca was going to trick Little Red Football Fan. She arrived at her nan's house, knocked on the door and said “Hi nanny, it's Little Red Football Fan here, I have some smelly beautiful flowers for you, can I come in?” The alpaca said “yes you can Little Red Football Fan.”
Little Red Football Fan came through the door and said “Hey nanny are you feeling better now? I brought you some flowers to make you feel better.” The alpaca said “thank you so much for buying me some smelly beautiful flowers, you didn’t have to do that for me young lady.”
Little Red Football Fan realised something and said “What wonderful eyes you have and what beautiful ears you have.” Then the alpaca jumped out of bed and started chasing Little Red Football Fan. Then suddenly the woodcutter came through the door and killed the alpaca.
Little Red Football Fan, the woodcutter and the Nan all celebrated in the house. They did this by going out for a lovely meal and having a few drinks together.
Written by Tegan
Term 4
Easter Enterprise Project
This term has been hardworking and full of reward for the class. Rochester Class planned, researched, made and sold some fantastic Easter gifts. This begun with market research in class and out in public, testing out initial ideas. The ideas that seemed to be the most popular became the products that the groups had to research and source. Pupils worked in groups and planned how to make and create the products playing to the strengths within the group.
Below are photos from the coffee morning Rochester class attended where we sold over £100 worth of goods.
Later that week we went to Wilmington market where pupils set up a stall and they were very polite and enjoyed engaging in conversation with customers which resulted in them selling lots more of their Easter goodies!
Skills 360 Event
Students from Rochester recently took part in a Skills 360 “Reverse Interviews” event, which was hosted at Rowhill School. The Students involved were able to talk to 15 different employees from a number of different sectors. They came up with some extremely interesting questions to ask and found out about new opportunities for their futures.
Term 5
There was lots going on in term 5 for Rochester - the class was most excited for the residential and the activities we had for those staying back at school. Pictures below are a mix of both home and away. The residential was a highlight, and the photos capture the fun and learning that took place. Looking forward to more exciting experiences in the next term! Keep up the great work, Rochester Class! 🌟✨📚
Also, I want to congratulate all students for working so hard to complete all the ASDAN accreditations and short courses. They should be extremely proud of all their hard work throughout the year. It's been fantastic to see their dedication and progress. Well done to everyone for their achievements and enthusiasm.
Term 6
Term 6 in Rochester Class is off to an amazing start, final term of what has been a truly fantastic year. As we gear up for the end of term, we are getting ready to bid farewell to some of our wonderful friends who will be heading off to college. But before the goodbyes start flowing, we have an array of exciting events to look forward to!
From the enchanting end of year production of Cinderella to the glitz and glamour of our prom night, along with fun trips out and heartwarming leavers assemblies, there is so much excitement in the air.
In addition to all the upcoming events, we have a special new addition to our school routine - the Trevor the dog! Trevor brings an extra joy to our days and helps us all stay calm and happy.
Here's to a fabulous Term 6 filled with unforgettable moments and new adventures in Rochester Class! 🎉🐶
Exams!
Just a quick update to let you all know that the Maths, Reading, Writing, and Speaking functional skills exams have all been completed this week. I am thrilled to say that all the pupils put in their top efforts, and I couldn't be prouder of their hard work and dedication. It's been such a positive and rewarding experience seeing the progress they've made. A massive well done to each and every one of them! Keep up the fantastic work
Sports Day Helpers
Our students have been absolute stars by helping the younger ones access their sports day activities. It's been heartwarming to see the interactions between the older and younger students - they've really bonded well. This initiative not only helped the younger children engage more actively but also encouraged them to interact more during their sports day. It's fantastic to witness such positive camaraderie and support among our students!
Prom 2024
This year's prom was an absolute blast! It truly was a night to remember for all our students. From the moment they arrived, excitement filled the air. The evening kicked off with arrival drinks, setting a festive mood right from the start.
Our prom-goers were treated to a scrumptious feast featuring sizzling burgers, delicious hotdogs, and mouth-watering waffles.
The dance floor was alive with energy as the music pumped through the venue. Our students showed off their best moves and the dance floor was constantly filled with enthusiastic dancers. The atmosphere was electric, with laughter and joy echoing throughout the night.
One thing that truly stood out was the effort put into outfits. Our students looked nothing short of royalty in their stunning attire. The glamour and sophistication on display were truly a sight to behold.
As the night progressed, friendships were strengthened, memories were made, and fun was had by all. This year's prom was a resounding success, and it's safe to say that everyone had a fantastic time.
Here's to more unforgettable moments and memorable experiences to come in the future!
The performance of Sassy Cinderella
What a phenomenal show "Sassy Cinderella" turned out to be! The stage was brought to life with laughter, impeccable acting, and a rollercoaster of emotions that left the audience utterly spellbound. It fills my heart with pride to acknowledge the hard work and dedication put in by every member of the cast and the tech team, who collaborated tirelessly under the expert guidance of KEren to deliver a truly unforgettable show.
From the first moments of the performance to the final bow, the audience was completely engrossed in the magic unfolding before their eyes. The blend of talent, passion, and sheer determination shone through every scene, creating a unique atmosphere that resonated with everyone present.
Kudos to everyone involved in making "Sassy Cinderella" a roaring success – here's to many more triumphs ahead!
Dymchurch Trip
Last week the M@W crew had a fantastic trip to Dymchurch. It was an absolute blast! The sun was shining, the sea was glistening, and our students had a great time.
We spent the day playing in the sea, building sandcastles, and enjoying some fun games on the beach. Of course, a trip to the seaside wouldn't be complete without indulging in some delicious fish and chips followed by mouth-watering ice creams. A true English seaside experience!
