Page 17 - Shaw Education Trust December Newsletter

A HAPPY HARVEST FOR ALL

Pupils across our schools have been holding harvest celebrations this term.

At Blackfriars Academy in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Mrs O’Connor led an interactive and multi-sensory Harvest
Festival assembly where the origin of food for the community was discussed.

The front of Blackfriars’ school hall had a wonderful display of tins and packets of non-perishable food that
was later transported to the Newcastle Food Bank thanks to the volunteering of Mr Goodman.

The school were praised for their hard work in a letter received from the food bank, explaining how the
school’s donation will help them to provide over 200 meals to people in crisis in the area.

Commenting on the school’s participation, Alison Parr commented: “We are keen to support this
charity because of its local impact.

“At the Newcastle Staffordshire Foodbank they have fed over 22700 people, including over 7800
children, since they opened in December 2012 and continue to feed about 80 people a week.”

Through the support of staff and parents, other schools also collected impressive amounts of
food for their local foodbanks, getting the whole community involved in the event.

Brookfields Special School drew a large crowd when two classes led a brilliant Harvest
Celebration assembly, collecting a high number of donations for the foodbank in Widnes.

Castlebrook High School has continued the giving spirit into the festive season with a Christmas
can appeal, supported by the local Co-Op.

Foodbanks are located across the country, providing families and young people with much
needed meals and supplies. For more information and to get involved, visit:
www.foodbank.org.uk

AUTISM AWARENESS IN SCHOOLS

Brookfields Special School are leading the way in developing improved autism practice in schools.

The Widnes-based school are developing a network of schools to collaboratively look at autism
provision in school. This comes after parents at the school previously raised over £700 for autism
awareness by getting tattoos with the autism awareness logo incorporated.

Working together, the educators involved will look at the Autism Education Trust’s materials and
audit autism practice in their schools.

Principal of Brookfields, Sara Ainsworth, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for schools to take a
pro-active approach in approving autism provision and it is great to say that, to date, we have 12 schools
wanting to participate in this project.”

The network will also be developing a peer review system across the schools involved to ensure best practice is
maintained. This project will launched in November 2018 and any schools wanting to get involved should get in
touch with Mrs Ainsworth.