Vranch House

Date added: Friday 20th September 2013
Latest updated: Thursday 23rd February 2023

Welcome to another academic year at school, particularly to our very new pupils and their families, Saud, Grace and Caitlin (and very shortly, Lizzy). We hope you enjoy your time at school with us as we are already enjoying working with you. Our topic in school is Colour and Light for this term and newsletters from classes will be coming home shortly, with further details, if they haven't already arrived. There will also be details of your child's therapy times and group activities. Please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher, therapist, Kate Moss (Head of Therapies) or myself if you have any questions, concerns or good ideas. We always welcome new ideas and feedback.

Holidays in Term Time: From 1st September Head teachers are no longer permitted to authorise holidays during term time, except in exceptional circumstances. At Vranch House we recognise that parents do not take their children out of school unnecessarily, such visits as Brainwave, respite or Bobath are considered by us to be medical visits and are recorded as such.
Holiday requests will still be considered but please be aware that we are also expected to liaise with any mainstream partner schools to ensure that attendance across both settings is low (including absence due to illness) before allowing any additional holiday time.

OFSTED questionnaire: We have been contacted by OFSTED who have asked us to forward you the following information regarding their annual child questionnaire.

Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) inspects the education in your school or children's home. We would like you to complete an online survey to help us understand how well your school looks after you and educates you. We plan to ask you to fill in this point-in-time survey every year.

Here is a link to the online survey we would like you to fill in:

https://surveys.ofsted.gov.uk/survey?token=3ozh [1]

Information on how we will use your responses to the survey isavailable at the link above.

You can complete the survey online between 9 Sep 2013 and 21 Oct 2013: after this date it will not be accessible.
If you require assistance with this request or a paper copy please call us on 0300 123 1231 or email us at [email protected].
Thank you for completing our survey. Your views will be very helpful to us.
Kind regards, Sarah Tiernan (Inspection Management Support Team Leader)

I would be very grateful if you could complete the questionnaire with your child. If you do not have access to a computer and would prefer a paper copy please let us know via your child's diary. Many thanks.

Wear it Pink Day - Thursday 17th October, 2012: On this day we encourage everyone to dress with at least a little pink to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research. Please send in donations, if you wish, on the day.

Harvest Celebrations - Our Annual Harvest celebrations will take place during this term and classes have chosen Wednesday 23rd October as ‘Harvest Day' with a similar format to the previous year. Further details will follow via class letters in the near future.

Signing Workshop: An invitation is attached to the next Signing Workshop which is to be held in school on Tuesday 22nd October. If you wish to attend please either email Cat Ward at [email protected] or complete the slip at the bottom of the invitation and return it to Cat at Vranch House by Tuesday 15th October.
A copy of the signs of the week for this half term is also attached.

Understanding Postural Management: An invitation to join an informative session to find out about the benefits of a Postural Management Programme for your child is attached. These sessions are for parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, respite carers, teachers and teaching assistants. Two sessions are being held during the Autumn term - Tuesday, 22nd October and Friday 29th November - if you are interested in attending either of these sessions please complete the form and return it to school or if you have any queries with this regard telephone either Lucy Wills (physiotherapist) or Clare Webber (occupational therapist) on 01392 468558.

Head Teacher: - In December I will be leaving school to take up a new post as a VI Advisory teacher in Cornwall. Viktoria Pavlics has been appointed as Acting Head Teacher and will be working four days per week in this role from the Spring Term 2014. Class teachers will once again take on the role of Inclusion Advisors as they did whilst Viktoria was on maternity leave.

I have very much enjoyed working at Vranch House and doing my best to support the children with their learning and development. I am looking forward to new challenges in Cornwall and I wish Vranch House continued success in the future.

September and October Planners for your information.

Jane Parsons
[email protected]

Links to download:

September Newsletter

Signs of the Week

Parent Signing Workshop

Postural Management Invitation