DRUMBEAT SCHOOL Weekly Newsletter Dear Parents and Carers This has been a very busy and exciting week for all our children at Drumbeat. I have seen Waterloo class learning Maths with Ms Bowen. This was brilliant as the students were looking at interpretation of data. The Paralympic athlete, Ryan, set challenging tasks for our pupils and they were spellbound. It was an inspirational visit. Please take note of our changes for payments that we are hoping to introduce shortly. Details are on page 2 of this newsletter. Have a good weekend. Marie Neave Executive Headteacher Dates for the Diary. Wednesday 16 November Kangaroos & Koalas Stay and Play from 9:15 10:15 Friday 18 November Parents Coffee Morning from 11-12 at Downham & Brockley Friday 9 December Drumbeat Christmas Fair from 1:30pm at Downham Wednesday 21 December Last day of term. School closes at 1pm Wednesday 4 January Students back at school Parents coffee morning on Friday 18 November from 11am 12pm at Downham & Brockley Please join us for cup of coffee and cake whilst catching up with staff and other parents. Drumbeat School & ASD Service 1
Drumbeat Christmas Fair The Friends of Drumbeat are pleased to announce that we will be having a Christmas Fair at Downham on 9th December from 1:30pm. We would appreciate donations such as toys, books, clothes (used but in good condition), sweets or anything that can be used in a hamper or tombola. Please could these donations be delivered to the school by 18 November latest. We are also looking for face painting and nail art volunteers. Please contact our Friends of Drumbeat team if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the Christmas Fair. Sheryl can be reached on 020 8698 9738. A cashless system a new way of paying for parents We are looking at ways of making things easier for parents to pay for dinners, school trips and after school clubs. Currently you have to find the cash or write a cheque and then send this in to school. Some parents have been giving the money to the escorts to give to the school, they are not supposed to accept money so we need to find another way of helping you do this. We have been speaking with ParentPay who do this for lots of other schools. They provide parents with an online account which you can top up using a debit or credit card. If you prefer you can have a card that you can take to any PayPoint store where you will be able to pay in cash. You will get a text message or an email when your child s account needs topping up which should hopefully ensure you do not get into debt without realising it. If you have any concerns or questions please call Seán Richings, School Business Director, on 020 6989 738 ext. 140 or email s.richings@drumbeat.lewisham.sch.uk Drumbeat School & ASD Service 2
Tigers Class Tigers enjoyed their trip to the Barbican Centre this week. They were very excited to travel there on public transport and they enjoyed watching the musical performance Click, Clack Moo. After the concert we went for a walk along the river and the students enjoyed looking at boats and landmarks along the Thames. In class, we continued to explore our topic Colour and Light. The students designed a firework display for Bonfire night and learnt about patterns through a variety of activities. Drumbeat School & ASD Service 3
Lions Class We have been learning about road safety and especially how to cross the road safely. We started by using the cycle lane and pedestrian crossing we have in school. Here is a picture of Charlie stopping at the pedestrian crossing, looking and waiting for the bike to stop before he crosses the road. We have also used the interactive whiteboard in class to learn about being safe in the community. On Tuesday Ryan Ragho, Great Britain's number one Paralympic long jumper came into school to talk to everyone and run fitness sessions for many of the students. He told us about his life and how he became an athlete. His story was very inspirational and he made it clear that we can all achieve it if we try our hardest. Here is a picture of Tyrell who challenged him to a press up competition, who do you think won? Drumbeat School & ASD Service 4
Jubilee Class In Jubilee we have had another busy week. We have been working hard on our English and Maths targets and we enjoyed using the Mathletics (a fun maths programme) on laptops as part of our Maths class. We talked about Ryan Raghoo who came to visit us on Tuesday and we had a training session with him which was great fun. In humanities we discussed memories and how important it was to remember good things that have happened in our lives. We then talked about remembering people all around the world who give their lives in war times. After this we painted poppy pictures and made poppies as we learnt this is a symbol of remembering people who gave their lives. We have the theatre this Friday and we are all looking forward to seeing the performance of George s Marvellous Medicine. Drumbeat School & ASD Service 5
Waterloo Class In Thursday s Maths session Waterloo class worked on data handling. Students chose a category of interest then found out what their friends and staff members liked the most, using a tally chart. This week they went on to put the information they collected into bar graphs. All the students worked really hard and produced fantastic pieces of work. Some even went on to discuss their findings saying which was most or least popular. Drumbeat School & ASD Service 6
Djembe Class Getting Fit Djembe Class loved their workshop with Paralympic athlete Ryan Raghoo. They were all very quick to join in with the elements of circuit training that Ryan showed us. We will keep going with some of these and add them to our programme. We have a weekly long session of fitness on a Wednesday afternoon. First we warm up in the hall, then use gym balls and trampettes to work on our balance and core strength. We use the aerobic step and side to side jump mat. The third element is catching and throwing. Andy Brown joins us to spar with the boxing gloves. After our warm up we move to the gym; the treadmills and cross trainer are most popular. Students are encouraged to learn how to use the rowing machine and other machines too. When it s dry we can use the large outdoor trampoline. Finally we head to the new sensory room to wind down and relax before home time. As you can see from the pictures, we have great fun while keeping healthy! Drumbeat School & ASD Service 7
6F1 had a great week settling in after the half-term break. We are continuing with our maths topic Money - recognising coins and notes, working out change from a given amount, comparing prices of some household products between stores; and budgeting and shopping for a simple meal. Drumbeat School & ASD Service 8