Newsletter

July 2014

Leavers Prom

We held our first leavers Prom for the Year 11’s this

year. This began with a special assembly for the leavers

with their parents to celebrate their amazing

achievements and best moments at Rainbow School.

The leavers, who were Diji, Furat and Adam, then got

their Prom clothes on (whilst we had a celebratory drink)

and had a special photo shoot before heading off to

Covent Garden for a 3 course meal at Maxwell’s. We

even had mocktails to celebrate! The final treat was to

go to see the musical Mamma Mia in the West End.

They all absolutely loved it, and sat enthralled by the performance. At the end we all got up and had a

dance. It was one of the most special nights I have ever had, and a memory I will treasure forever, seeing

everyone having such a wonderful time.

Lesley Love

Head Teacher

Tenerife 2014

Our first ever trip abroad this year was to Tenerife. We took the

older pupils and it was a huge success! We enjoyed trips to the

Loro Park, the Medieval Castle, two water parks, the beach and

the pool. It was so much fun and the pupils learnt so many new

things. One pupil learnt to go to bed without his iPod; one learnt

to use the toilet when out and about; one to try new foods; one to

wash himself; one to cross a road; and many pupils learnt to get

their own food from the server, and just be generally more

independent! WOW!!! We are hoping that this can be a yearly

event from now on, and we are looking forward to taking some

different pupils next year.

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Tram House Oily Cart visit

The Oily Cart came to visit us in the

Bradbury Hall for two days. They covered up

the doors and windows so no-one could

peek inside and we were all very intrigued!

They put on a wonderful interactive show

which the Tram House children thoroughly

enjoyed. Singing, dancing, bouncing and

swinging in suspended chairs, it was a great

sensory experience. Their show was called

“Tube” and consisted of tubes filled with

sound, tubes glistening with kaleidoscopic

colours and tubes that puff out gentle

breezes and the scents of the natural world.

Spencer Park Police Horse visit

On Friday 30th May we were delighted to be visited at our secondary school by PC Aly Whitaker and

PC Neil Davis and their wonderful Police Horses Gladstone and Lorcan from West Hampstead

Police Station. The visit was kindly organised by Neil and Frank Brennan, a retired Police Officer who

used to lead our local Safer Neighbourhood Team, who is now one of our School Governors.

It was the most wonderful experience for our students and such a great learning opportunity too. It

was amazing to see how the children interacted with Gladstone and Lorcan. While some were

content just to watch, there were also so many magic moments as individuals overcame their initial

wariness and slowly but surely built up from stroking the horses to getting into the saddle.

We were lucky to have our photographer at school that day and he captured some really fantastic

photos – lots of very happy faces! We are very grateful to West Hampstead Police Station for the

visit and delighted to have the opportunity to make new links into the community.

Newsletter

Other special events

It was great to see so many of you at our special

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day assemblies this year.

Both assemblies were so special. The Mums were all in

tears as they received their daffodils, and the Dads

were ‘Supermen’, dancing around in their spotty socks.

Both were a fantastic opportunity to meet together and

celebrate our Rainbow School family.

Coffee mornings

It has been good to see you at our coffee

mornings throughout the year. These are such

valuable times to have a chat outside of any

official meetings. Next school year we are

going to attach training to the coffee mornings.

The coffee will start at 9.30am and the training

will start at 10.30am-12pm. We are alternating

between school topics and other training. The

timetable for next year is as follows:

17.9.14 Read, Write Inc and Cued

Articulation

(Bennie Lesch and new SALT)

4.11.14 EHC Plans/Transition Reviews

(Andy Lusk)

14.1.15 Dealing with Problem Behaviour

(Lesley Love)

5.3.15 E-safety

(Carolyn Eyre)

16.4.15 School topic

(TBA)

24.6.15 Autism and sleep disorders

(Luci Wiggs)

Autism Show

It was wonderful to meet a wide variety of parents, professionals and

individuals from the autism community across the two days of The Autism

Show in June. This year, in addition to promoting Rainbow School and ABA,

we launched our programme of outreach, training and consultancy services -

an exciting range of services which utilise the knowledge and experience of

our highly skilled, trained and motivated staff. BeyondAutism offers tailored

training and consultancy services for parents, carers, professionals and

schools, and is certified by the Behaviour Analyst Certification Board (BACB)

as an Approved Continuing Education (ACE) provider. Using the latest

research into VB/ABA, our team deliver life changing outcomes for children

and young people with severe autism. Information on our outreach and

training services can be found on our website: www.beyondautism.org.uk/who-we-are/our-future

Open Days

Thank you so much for joining us on our Open Days

this year. Both days were a complete success, and

definitely worth doing again in the future! Please let

us have any feedback you feel will help us improve it

for next time. Any positive comments will also be

gratefully received.

Newsletter

Cricket 4 Change

Through fundraising by the Thomas’s School

Foundation (TSF) the pupils have enjoyed coaching from

The Change Foundation. There have been ten sessions

of cricket, through which the pupils have worked on and

improved both their sports skills, (especially their hand

eye coordination through batting and fielding) and also

their social interaction skills (eye contact, following

instructions from unknown people and waiting skills). We

thank both TSF and The Change Foundation for this

opportunity and hope we can continue working together

in the new school year.

Read Write Inc

As you are all aware, English is now being taught across the whole school and Read Write Inc (RWI) is our

current phonic scheme that we follow. There are 3 areas in RWI, Phonics, Reading and Writing and we are

currently focussing on Phonics. We’ve trained staff on the Phonics teaching aspect of RWI and this is now

being delivered by Class Leaders throughout the school. This ensures that we all teach and deliver high quality

lessons on the Phonics aspect (seen as the key area to make the teaching and learning process towards

Reading and Writing successful). Basic phonics writing and reading are part of the Phonics scheme. The next 2

stages will follow in September 2014. More information will follow on this as we have planned a Parent training

morning on RWI and we are looking forward to see you all there!

Buildings and grounds

It has been wonderful having the Bradbury Hall this

year. It has enabled us to use it for indoor PE and

Yoga, as well as assemblies and snack/lunch times.

The main room at Tram House has been painted for

us this year by HSBC bank volunteers. It looks lovely

and has really brightened the place up. We are

hoping to move onto two new projects in the coming

year: an Interactive Communication Suite and a Soft

Play and Sensory Interactive Suite.

Website

We are in the developing stages of designing our new

Rainbow School website. Our initial plan is to launch the

website in September 2014. The new website will be a

work in progress as we are striving to create a user

friendly site that will contain up-to-date and relevant

information about our school. Watch this space!

‘Outstanding’ & ‘Most Improved’ Pupils

Tram House

Most Outstanding Pupil

Parisi

Runner Up

Toby

Most Improved Pupil

Mia

Runner Up

Veronica

Nominees

Oliver, Kofi, Jan, Toby and Kenny

Spencer Park

Most Outstanding Pupil

Adam

Runners Up

Reuben, Nathan and Leo

Most Improved Pupils

Geerthan, Jonah and Niaz

Runners Up

Cassie and Aaron

Nominees

James, Zaak, Furat, Harry, Olivia, Ciaran, and Sid

Term dates 2014/2015

We have adjusted the school dates next year,

so please have a careful look at them. We have

had to align them to the mainstream school

holidays in line with the Government’s

recommendations to not allow Head Teachers

to agree to holidays outside of school holiday

times. We have also increased the holiday by a

week as we were finding it difficult to recruit

quality staff and to get maintenance work done.

There were also a number of other deciding

factors that were very carefully thought about

before presenting the dates to Governors earlier

in the year.

Autumn 2014

Term starts: Mon 8th September (INSET days: 4th and 5th September. These will be focused on School Vision, Performance Management, Government Changes and Team Building)

Half term: Mon 27th - Fri 31st October

Term ends: Fri 19th December at 12.30pm

Spring 2015

Term starts: Wed 7th January (INSET days: 5th and 6th January)

Half term: Mon 16th - Fri 20th February

Term ends: Fri 27th March at 12.30pm

Summer 2015

Term starts: Tues 14th April (Inset day: 13th April)

Bank Holiday: Mon 4th May

Bank Holiday: Mon 25th May

Half term: Mon 25th - Fri 29th May

Term ends: Thurs 24th July at 12.30pm

Newsletter

Uniform

Next year we are having a crack down on uniform, to

see how smart we can get. We are going to consult

with you regarding some changes to the uniform in

the new school year, so if you are buying new things

this year, I have highlighted in BOLD on the uniform

list (attached to this newsletter) what to buy, as

these are items which are likely to remain. If your

child would like to join ‘Song Club’ (Rainbow School

Choir) in the new school year, then they will need a

white polo shirt with the school logo on. More

information to follow on this. Please ensure that your

sons and daughters wear school uniform daily and

do not wear any jewellery in school. Please label all

clothing with your son/daughter’s name.

EHCP plans

From September 14, the Government are bringing in

a number of changes to the law for children and

young people with special educational needs and

disabilities. This should mean a better family centred

approach, with improved rights for parents and

young people right up until they are 25 years old.

Statements are being replaced with EHC Plans. This

will encompass all of your child’s Education Health

and Care, encouraging joint working and bringing all

the people together who are involved in your child’s

life. Parents will also get personal budgets to

accompany the plan, so they can have more control

over what their child receives. Every Local Authority

now has a duty to publish a ‘Local Offer’ detailing

everything that they have to offer children and young

adults in their authority. The Government have

issued a new Code of Practice 0-25 which details

everything in it (this has still not been finalised, but

you can see the draft if you follow this link: https://

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/

attachment_data/file/304534/

Code_of_Practice_Draft.pdf).

Gifts and hospitality

At this time of year we realise that parents often like to thank staff for their work during the year. Whilst in no way

wishing to either encourage or prevent such lovely gestures we would like to remind parents that BeyondAutism

has a staff gift policy. Staff can accept gifts and other gestures of gratitude or hospitality so long as the value is

not over £40. If a member of staff were to receive a gift or hospitality of a higher value they have to disclose it to

the Head Teacher or COO so that it can be recorded and a decision taken whether it can be accepted.

Class changes

In September we are renaming all of the

classes using the colours of the rainbow. There

are only going to be two classes at Tram

House (Red and Orange) this is to make better

use of the space and staffing.

The other colours will go up in age groups

starting at Spencer Park with Yellow, then

Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. The 6th Form

are going to be called the 6th Form for next

year! You will soon receive letters informing

you of your child’s class, supervisor, class

leader and tutor for next term.

6th Form

We are excited to be opening our first 6th Form

class in September, with pupils Furat, Diji and

Adam as our trail blazers, and under the

leadership of Emma Frew and Rich LeRoy.

Their new curriculum will involve Vocational

Studies, Work Experience, Asdan, Enterprise,

Community Visits and Sports and Leisure. Of

course they will still do English, Maths and ICT

and individual target work too. A busy week for

the students, I’m sure you’ll agree. They can

now abandon their school uniform too as they

get to wear their own clothes next year!

Newsletter

Pupil numbers

We currently have 51 pupils on roll, and are

looking forward to having 54 in September 2014

with 4 new pupils joining us. We were sad to

say ‘Goodbye’ to Henry this term, who has

moved away with his family to Milton Keynes.

We wish him all the best in his new school, and

hope he makes lots of new friends. Taiwo,

Kenny and Oliver are moving from Tram House

to Spencer Park in September. We know they

will continue to do well!

We still have so many families wishing to visit

the school, and many families hoping to get

their children into the school.

Staff news

We are pleased to welcome Emma Frew, our

new Head of 6th Form, to the school in

September. We have also already welcomed

Yllka Rexhepi as an ABA Supervisor at Tram

House. Yllka previously worked as a

Supervisor in Kosovo.

Holly Walter and Amy Sarrasin were promoted

to Senior Tutors in the year, and recently they

were joined by Russell Irving, Matt Le Blanc

and Lucrecia Arroyo. Sarah Larner is also

taking up her old position as Class Leader as of

September.

We also have a new Speech and Language

Therapist starting in September, Chloe

Watkins. She is an experienced SALT with

great ABA experience, as well as NHS

experience. We are excited about Chloe

joining us.

We are sad to be losing Sam Hoskin at the end

of this year. Her contribution to Rainbow

School as a Teacher has been outstanding,

and we wish her all the best in her new job.

We are also sad to be saying ‘Goodbye’ to

Cressida, our SALT. Wow, what an impact she

has made in a year. Cressida is off to broaden

her horizons, but we hope she will return to

Rainbow School one day. We were also sad to

see Melissa our OT leave to go home to

Australia. We are currently recruiting for a new

OT.

Lucy Ranson (Admin) has also recently left

Rainbow School for a promotion. Jacqui

McLoughlin (Admin) will be moving to Tram

House in September.

Congratulations are also in order as Tracy

Cooper has just passed her BCBA exam, and

Rich his Middle Management Course, entitled

‘Developing Leaders.’

Seal Class

We have had a busy and fun summer term in Seal Class. We welcomed Max, who made the transition from

Dolphin Class. He has settled in really well, which is great to see!

This term we were fortunate enough to watch a performance by Oily Cart Theatre. Everyone loved it! Jan didn’t

take his eyes off the actors and Parisi loved hiding behind his umbrella while they squirted him with water.

As the weather has been so great, we have been taking our Messy Play outside. Kenny and Taiwo loved

painting their feet and running across big pieces of paper, they also enjoyed playing with frozen shaving foam

and feeling it melt between their fingers.

We brought our shredded paper pit out into the playground and everyone loved it! Oliver particularly enjoyed

throwing the paper in the air and watching it fall around him. The playground (and some of Garratt Lane) was full

of shredded paper and it was a big tidy up mission afterwards!

Dolphin Class

Summer term is always a busy one and it’s been no exception this year! There have been a few changes this

half term as Max has moved to join Seal Class and Mia has moved from Penguin Class to Dolphin Class; she’s

settled in really well.

Our Food Fun and Messy Play groups have been popular this term with much fun had and mess made! We’ve

made the most of the warmer weather and tried to hold Messy Play outside…particularly useful for the foot

painting session. All of the children got involved and enjoyed slipping and sliding along the paper with slimy red

feet, Idris particularly enjoyed it! We have also created clown faces with fruit and ketchup, and made

marshmallow caterpillars with honey and coconut which left us all with sticky fingers.

Alexander has made great progress with initiating greetings, and likes to say ‘hiya’ to everyone when he comes

in to school. William has been working hard on his vocals and can now ask for ‘foam’ and ‘water’. This term we

also got to experience the Oily Cart production in the hall at Spencer Park which was amazing. All of Dolphin

Class enjoyed it, and Max in particular was incredibly calm and relaxed throughout. The Father’s Day assembly

went down a treat, I think Veronica particularly enjoyed seeing her Dad taking part in the Superman song; she

wanted to go and dance with him! Here’s to another great term after the summer holidays.

Newsletter

Highlights of the term at Garratt Lane

Penguin Class

This summer term has been a very busy one in Penguins. Several changes happened this half term and we were

very sad to say goodbye to Mia as she moved to Dolphins. However we welcomed Roshan and Yusuf and they

have settled in really well into Penguin Class.

As a class we have particularly enjoyed our yoga, messy play and food fun sessions this term. We did many

indoor and outdoor fun activities and got very messy at times. We really enjoyed playing with cooked spaghetti,

frozen foam, coloured ice cubes and making foot prints outside on paper. This term Sebastian and Zachary in

particular have made excellent progress with touching and feeling different materials and textures.

Toby has also made great progress with making eye contact when requesting. Adam and Kofi have been doing

really well in Yoga sessions and taking group instructions.

This term we also went to see the Oily Cart production which was a lot of fun. All of Penguin Class found it very

calming and relaxing. Adam in particular really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.

We also had the Father’s day - it was very funny seeing all of the Dads taking part in the Superman song.

Zachary was very excited to see his Dad and was jumping up and down. We wish every one a great summer

holiday and looking forward to another great term in September.

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Photo highlights of the term at Garratt Lane

Newsletter

Highlights of the term at Spencer Park

Class A

Class A has had a very eventful term with the addition of two new pupils -

Leo and Qatada. They have both settled in very well at school and we look

forward to their progress and learning in the new academic year. We have

had a lot of birthdays this term and we do love a party! Leo loves animals

and was excited when the police horses came in for a visit. Miya thoroughly

enjoyed our trip to Clapham Junction Station for Autism Awareness day;

she especially liked holding the money bucket and giving out stickers.

Olivia has made excellent progress with her walking around school;

she is now speeding up and down the stairs. We have enjoyed

hearing her voice as she has been very chatty recently. Sincoln has

had a fantastic term listening very well during his group work

sessions. We are also pleased with how much Sincoln is tolerating

change in the classroom specifically the toy shelf. We are extremely

pleased with the clarity of Johnny’s manding, he has been working

hard on his pronunciation of words he finds difficult to say. Johnny loved

musical chairs at the party! Cassandra has had a wonderful term, she has

been working hard on saying some vocals when manding ‘huh’ for hug and

‘buh buh puh puh’ for bubble paper, one of her favourite items! We are

thrilled that Harry is now able to vocalise when manding, he says ‘puh puh’

for paper and ‘sss’ for crisps. Zain has made excellent progress with his

sharing attention and focus in group work; he will now wait beautifully and

work hard when asked to do a task.

Class I

Adam, Diji and Furat are graduating from

Year 11 and Class I. It has been a pleasure

to have them in the class and they have all

made excellent progress since September.

Adam, Furat, Ciaran, James and Gabriel all

had a fabulous time in Tenerife. They all

tried new things and adapted to new

routines. They all enjoyed the activities, in

particular the water parks. Everyone was

very good with being away from home and loved every minute

of the holiday. Diji tried very hard this year at trying to get over

his fear of planes. He enjoyed visiting Brooklands museum and

made a huge step forward to conquering his fear. Diji also really

enjoyed looking at the racing car exhibitions. Sacha has done

really well when attending his medical appointments and

practising to have a blood test. Sacha has also been doing

really well with shopping for and cooking his lunch. He has become more

confident in the kitchen and really enjoys cooking. Sidhant continues to do

excellently with his SALT programme, his vocals are becoming very clear

and he is speaking a lot more. Sidhant has also enjoyed participating in the

various sporting activities we have done in school, especially Yoga - he

is very good at the poses!.

Newsletter

Highlights of the term at Spencer Park

Class O

This has been a great term for Class O. We have all worked very hard and

we have had lots of fun. Nathan, Reuben and Diogo all enjoyed going on

holiday to Tenerife with school. They had a great time and enjoyed going

to the Beach and trying the different food. Diogo particularly enjoyed going

to the wave pool, Nathan loved watching the seal show and Reuben really

liked dancing in the Disco every night.

Geerthan has had a fantastic first year at Rainbow School. He has settled

in to his class really nicely and is a lot of fun to be around. He has learnt

many skills this year and also loves singing in assembly. Niaz has made great

progress with his work this year. He has been working on his imitation skills and

following receptive instructions. He is very happy to be in school and has enjoyed

going to Yoga lessons! Hamza is doing very well with his self help skills.

He is very good at brushing his teeth and has been spreading butter

onto his toast.

We are all sad in Class O as this will be Henry’s last year with us. He

has made great progress since being at Rainbow School and we are all

going to miss him very much. We all hope that he has fun in his new

school and we hope to hear from him soon! I hope that everyone has a

good summer and look forward to seeing everyone again in September!

Class N

Class N have had a wonderful term this summer! We have really been pushing our

student’s abilities with the new assessment tools that were put in place earlier this

year. We have all really enjoyed cooking some delicious foods. Class N have

gained some understanding about cooking safely in the kitchen especially

around hot cookers and with food hygiene. The students are all aware that they

need to wash their hands and put on cooking aprons before cooking can begin

which is fantastic! Most of the students in Class N have also been attending

curriculum groups of Maths and English three times a week. They are making

fantastic progress, learning about letter sounds in English and number patterns

and prepositions in Maths. Individually, the students have also had

an excellent term. Jonah has been learning to use sign and has

mastered a few already! Jack has recently learnt to tie his shoe

laces which is amazing as he found it really difficult - perseverance

is key! Kofi has mastered some amazing Maths skills including

carrying during addition and Ben has been sitting at the table for

longer periods of time and therefore has learnt so much including

functions of items and labelling letter sounds. Zaak has had a

fantastic term, learning about sorting identical and non identical

items and Lola has shone in all the groups she attends, responding to the lead teacher.

Bushi has mastered learning sight words in the community and Natanya has worked really hard on labelling

common items found in the household. All the students in Class N have worked so hard and achieved so much in

such a short space of time and we look forward to their continued success and achievement in the coming year.

Newsletter

Rainbow School

48 North Side Wandsworth Common

London SW18 2SL

Tel: 020 3031 9700

beyondautism.org.uk

A word from the charity

Current fundraising projects

We are currently aiming to raise £52,000 for the equipment we need to convert

the old lunchroom at Spencer Park into a Soft Play and Sensory Interaction

Suite, and £15,000 to kit out an Interactive Language and Communication Suite

in one of our recently redeveloped outbuildings.

Soft Play rooms encourage mobility and expression and are an extremely

beneficial resource which can be used for a variety of functions. They also

provide a safe environment for children with physical disabilities to perform

mobility exercises, and this room will be used extensively for Occupational

Therapy. The sensory room will be designed to be a highly stimulatory

environment. It will be kitted out with a range of equipment including Bubble Tubes, fibre optics and a

projector; and children will be able to change the colours, sounds and ‘mood’ of the room. Staff will be able to

use both rooms as a way of teaching children to communicate, as the spaces will be highly motivating and

reinforcing.

The Interactive Language and Communication Suite will house a library, interactive listening programmes

and space for Speech and Language therapy or quiet one to one work. Resources will include computers,

headphones and iPads. The Suite will be a place where our children with communication difficulties can

learn to develop a love of books, and an interest in them. It will have interactive equipment so that children

who respond well to computer technology, rather than books, can learn to enjoy interactive stories in a calm

environment. The interactive suite will also be a calm, quiet space where they can learn to communicate, and

work with the speech and language therapist to develop their listening and communication skills (including

requesting for their favourite things, and developing clarity in their speech.) It will house our reading schemes

which have been carefully thought through to develop the children’s ability to learn to read, and also favourite

books that all children enjoy (such as ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’). The space itself is a beautiful Victorian

summer house, ideally suited to being a perfect space where children can be calm and encouraged to love

books and reading. We plan to have headphones on the walls so children can hear people telling stories too.

Fundraising highlights:

Beatrix Potter: Our thanks go to Rainbow School parents who ran their annual stall in aid of

BeyondAutism at the Beatrix Potter Summer Fair on Saturday 14th June. The theme of the stall this year

was dressing up and the stall did a roaring trade earning £362.58. We’d also like to thank anyone who

donated items to the stall.

David Checkley and Family: We were touched to learn that David Checkley (Harry’s Grandpa) had

requested donations to BeyondAutism in lieu of gifts at his 70th birthday lunch earlier this year, and we

are very grateful. The generosity of his friends and family raised a total of £395 (£477.50 with Gift Aid) for

the charity.

Sainsbury’s Partnership: Our local charity partnership with the St John’s Hill Sainsbury’s Local is going

really well. The store has raised over £100 in the collection buckets on their tills and we’d like to thank the

staff for their involvement in promoting World Autism Awareness Day.

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