Month: June 2023

TOGETHER TRUST Music and Performing Arts Festival

Pupils from 10 specialist schools across Greater Manchester and Cheshire came together for the Together Trust’s Music and Performing Arts Festival. Hosted at the Lowry in Salford Quays, the music festival will showcased a number of performances ranging from singing to dance, with an ensemble of different types of singing groups.

Our very own Sing and Sign Choir elected to perform three songs which they did brilliantly. We are incredibly proud of their fantastic performance in front of such a large crowd.

 

Specialist Provision School of the Year

We are thrilled beyond words to announce that Rowan Tree Primary School has been honoured with the esteemed title of Specialist Provision School of the Year Award! This recognition reaffirms our commitment to excellence, and we are bursting with excitement as we continue to make a positive difference in the lives of our learners.

Staff at Rowan Tree Primary School are spreading the word about the impact of restrictive diets on their learners.

Back in 2019 the school recognised from staff and parent feedback that a high proportion of their learners had a restrictive diet due to their additional needs, with pupils often eating just one or two types of food. This was having a negative impact on the children’s weight, mood, oral health and ability to enjoy family meals.

Senior leaders committed time to researching avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) before developing a training plan for staff and families and a Food Facts curriculum which included daily personalised sessions for every one of the school’s 117 learners. 

Leaders know the Food Facts project is having a positive effect by monitoring each learner’s food intake and seeing the increase in the variety of foods and textures they try. This information is then used by staff to support the learners to further widen their diets.

Rowan Tree Primary is now providing training, resources and ongoing support to colleagues in mainstream schools across their local authority so that they too can support pupils with additional needs and ARFID. 

Judge Vijita Patel said: “The evidence base presented by the school in their submission clearly demonstrated the impact of their work. The way the school has tackled the challenging topic of diet and worked with pupils, staff and families to make it work so well is extremely impressive.”

– Tes Website

Staff Yoga and Relaxation

As a part of Sports Week, Vicki Lowe one of our school HLTAs with a passion for yoga has been operating a series of Yoga and Relaxation sessions for both pupils and staff! In accordance with the Summer Solstice, an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere – staff met to enjoy deep meditation and given thanks for all their blessings.

Studying Ancient Greeks in Cedar 2

Cedar 2 have been exploring the Ancient Greeks during their Humanities lessons. They have handled artefacts from the Greeks and been very careful with them. They have also used clay to make Greek sculptures, they were not sure about holding the clay but they were all very brave and had a try.

Butterfly Project in Willow 2

Willow 2 visited Pennington Park to release our school butterflies. Learners have watched and studied their growth from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis to Painted Lady Butterflies. After watching them fly away, they enjoyed Take Five on the park.

The entire transformation from caterpillar to adult butterfly took about three to four weeks, each class took super special care in making sure their Butterflies grew to be big and strong ready for the next stage of their journey.

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Oak 2 Sports Day

Oak 2 had an amazing sports day! Pupils across school enjoyed javelin, sack races, ball games, completed hurdles and enjoyed the bikes before venturing onto the field to enjoy target practice playing darts, football and hoopla. We cheered our friends on and all took part. Well done Oak 2 you were all amazing!

Interschool activities with Pine 2

Pine 2 have had the opportunity to visit our friends at Meadowbank and St Philip’s Primary Schools. They have been engaging with play activities at Meadowbank and reading buddies at St Philip’s. This has been so beneficial for our children as it has given them a chance to socialise with children outside of our school community and grow skills. It has also been wonderful in helping to promote understanding of neurodiversity in our neighbouring schools. We will be continuing our visits throughout this term as the children loved it. Great job everyone.