It may be coming towards the end of the summer term, but Silver Class are as busy as ever! We have been preparing for the Turney School Sports Day by learning about the different races and what we need to do to be successful. We are also looking forward to Wicked Mr Wold, the Turney School summer production. The children have been learning the songs all term, and we can’t wait to see the older children in the school with their acting roles.

This is also a time of transition in Silver Class. We will be sad to be saying farewell to a number of our children at the end of the school year. We have been getting use to our new surroundings and new teachers by spending some time in our new classes. It is incredibly important that the children feel settled straight away when we return in September. This transition period has been highly successful, and we are confident that all members of Silver Class will continue with their fine work come September.

Orange Class have been continuing their phonic work as we come towards the end of the school term. We have been focusing on our CVC words – Consonant, Vowel, and Consonant. Guided reading sessions have been spent using different picture cards and simple words. The children then sound out the letters, and try and match the picture up with the words. The children who will be starting Key Stage 2 in September have been spending some time with the other primary school children. This has worked out really well, and we are looking forward to more learning in September with our new friends.

Purple Class have been looking forward to the summer holiday period as part of our ongoing topic looking at the different seasons. Using the class whiteboard, the children have been solving some giant jigsaws puzzles. The pictures display various summer scenes – our task was to put them all back together. The children have then been pointing out what they can see in the picture that is connected to the idea of summer holidays.

As part of our preparation for Wicked Mr Wolf, Red Class have been exploring different sounds made by various percussion instruments. We encouraged all of the class members to choose an instrument. These included drums, shakers and cymbals. We experimented with these to see how each instrument can create a different sound. With the rhythm section in place, we then added in some of our favourite songs from Wicked Mr Wolf. Pupils from around the school have been working on this production throughout the whole of the summer term. Our singing and signing show is starting to fall into place. Red Class are incredibly excited ahead of the main show. You can listen to a short burst from our music session in the podcast below.

Blue Class have been busy practising ahead of the Turney School Sports Day. This is always a highlight in the school calendar, and competition is tough! Blue Class have been focussing on the beanbag race. We have been talking about the rules that we need to follow, and how we all need to work together as a team to be successful. We have some wonderful young athletes in Blue Class and we are confident of having a great time at Sports Day! You can watch a short video of the practise session above.

Yellow Class has a successful shopping trip to Brixton Market this week. We have been learning all about how to handle money during our maths lessons. We wanted this to become a practical session, and so the pupils planned a trip to our local market. We researched first which would be the right bus for us to catch. We also talked about what amount of bus fare we would need. Each pupil had planned beforehand what he or she wanted to buy. We tried to think of items of fruit that we particularly like, or perhaps a favourite book or sporting item.

When we arrived at Brixton Market, the serious shopping commenced! All of our pupils were able to find their items, and more importantly, we were able to act independently out in the local community and interact with the traders on the market. One of our young pupils explains more about the shopping trip in the podcast below.

Gold Class had a brilliant end of term trip to the nearby Brockwell Park this week. We brainstormed first where we wanted to go for our afternoon out. The pupils had to come up with a number of possible locations, and then list the pros and cons for each. Brockwell Park emerged as the winner as it was nearby, free of charge and great fun! When we arrived at the Park, we explored the area and found out what facilities were available. The playground was the favourite place for the children to play.

Elsewhere around Gold Class and we have been preparing for the transition that some of our pupils will be undergoing at the start of the new school year. We have been getting familiar with our new teachers and surroundings, as well as helping to organise the resources that will be needed back in Gold Class come September. Have a great summer break, Gold Class!

Class 8 have continued their science work based around different forces. Having explored how gravity works, we are now learning about the force of air resistance. The pupils have been researching how a parachute works, and how the air resistance experienced helps to provide a soft landing. We found out that the force takes place here when the air comes into contact with the parachute cloth. The pupils have been experimenting with different size parachutes, and seeing how this has an effect on the air resistance.

Class 12 are putting the finishing touches to the fine products that we will be selling at the Turney School Summer Fair. We have decided that we want to decorate some cloth shopping bags with some beautiful designs. We started off by working from a basic tie-dye design, and then manipulated this using the school computers. We took a photograph of the original image, and then edited it using GIMP software in the ICT suite. Colours were added and changed, and we tried to give the image our own personal touch. These will then be printed off, and placed upon the bags that are for sale at the Summer Fair. You can watch a short video of the process being explained in the video above.

After weeks of incredibly hard preparation and planning, the grand afternoon finally arrived at Turney School – time for the prestigious end of term Summer Production! This is always one of the annual highlights in the Turney School calendar as it is an occasion when the whole school can join together and celebrate the many talents and enthusiasm that our pupils are able to put forward using music and acting.

We decided from the start that we wanted the Summer Production this year to emphasise our celebration of signing within the school community. This is an inclusive form of communication for all, and it allows everyone within our community to participate and access the curriculum. The production of Wicked Mr Wold was perfect for this – plenty of song, intrigue, and a plot that was ideal to share through the use of signing!

Pupils from Silver Class through to Class 12 have been working with Mr Louie and Miss Parker all term on the songs, signs and acting. We had a stunning cast acting out on stage, backed up brilliantly by a team of signers standing at the front of the stage to help all within the audience appreciate the performance. A couple of pupils provided extremely eloquent narration.

The success of the Summer Production was there for all to see, with not only the generous applause that each song received, but also the participation by all pupils within our community. This was an incredibly fun afternoon at Turney School! This of course wouldn’t have been possible without the support that we received from the many family and friends that kindly were able to attend the production.

We are proud to present a series of videos and some photographs to share below.

We are incredibly proud of our winning Boccia team here at Turney School! Having qualified for the national final of the competition, we proudly sent off a team representing the school to the prestigious event being staged at the Westway in West London. Qualification for the final itself was a huge achievement – imagine how proud the whole school is after having actually won the competition!

This is a sport that we play to a highly competitive level at Turney School. It is ideal for our pupils as competitors with different needs are able to compete at an equal level. Not only did we manage to win the competition, but also one of our young adults returned back to Turney School with the title of Player of the Tournament! You can find out more about our stunning sporting success in the podcast below.

20th July – Sports Day.

21st July – Primary school moving on assembly.

21st July – Summer Fair, 2pm.

22nd July – School production: Wicked Mr Wolf, 2pm.

23rd July – last day of term.

Purple Class have been preparing for the summer holidays by thinking about how we need to be careful when we are out playing in the sun. As part of our science work, we have been looking at how we need protection from the sun by wearing hats and putting on plenty of sun cream. The children have been looking at images of summer themes on the whiteboard, and then identifying what they can see. Our maths work in Purple Class has looked at sorting different materials, and exploring the texture and feel. We have also been continuing our work comparing different shapes. Our class-reading book is currently the Three Little Pigs.

Green Class are incredibly excited ahead of their Primary School assembly taking place later in the week. We are going to focus upon the theme of changing weather, and some of the activities that we associate with the different seasons. Green Class will start off their assembly by welcoming the other pupils with a weather song. We will then explain the difference between feeling hot or cold and how the seasons are continually changing throughout the year.

All of the children have been working incredibly hard on making their own weather props to proudly display during the assembly. We will be asking other children in the assembly to describe what the weather is like outside, and then think about a suitable activity to match the weather. With the summer now upon us, Green Class will conclude their weather assembly by talking about what we need to remember when we are out playing in the sun – wear sun cream, a hat and drink plenty of water!