2021 Spring Term 1

I want to start by thanking all parents and carers who have supported pupils in their online learning during this lockdown situation. The number of pupils engaging in the online programme is extremely high and the level of work which pupils have produced has been excellent.  Live lessons have made a real difference ensuring that education has been maintained for all pupils throughout this period. The session put on by care staff in the evenings such as bingo, quiz, music sessions, fitness sessions and live cookery session have also all been great to see.

The children of key workers and vulnerable pupils attending school have been working hard following the same online programme of lessons from within school. The Therapy Team have managed to continue to provide specialist support for pupils both in school and remotely via Teams sessions.  This has worked well and it has been a great way to maintain the personal contact for our pupils.   

The staff team have been working on some new exciting projects ready for when all pupils are able to return to school.  We await further government guidance on this and very much look forward to all pupils returning as soon as it is safe to do so.  I will update you all as soon as we have more information.        

Best wishes

Mr Anderson

Principal    

Because of the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 we have created the following Virtual Tour for parents and carers. Please click on the video below to access the Virtual Tour and I hope you will enjoy seeing all of the positive changes that have been made to the school. 

Year 7

I would like to nominate Ben as a Star of Lockdown for showing an outstanding commitment to his learning.

Ben has attended all his lessons and is a pleasure to teach.  He arrives to every lesson on time and is keen to make positive contributions by answering questions and helping support others in his class, often by offering helpful technical advice (and sometimes this is to the teachers!)  This positive behaviour has meant Ben has been awarded dojo points, in fact since online learning began Ben has achieved 41 dojos so far making his total 183 this year.

Ben would normally be a resident of Muntham House during the week, but as that can't be the case at the moment, he has also taken part in the Care Challenges, one of which was the online cook-along.  However, that is not the only challenge Ben has taken on, he has made an enormous effort with his reading on MyOn and I'm sure he'll be one of the prize winners!

Well done Ben - we're so proud to have you in 3b! From Mrs Kenny, Mr Cusack and Miss Sherbourne.

Year 8

PK has been a true Muntham star over lockdown. He has attended all of his online lessons, he is maturing into a wonderful young man. PK has made significant progress in his piano lessons in such a short space of time. He has shown he is committed to making progress and working hard. It is so wonderful to see so much progress in such a challenging time. PK has shown he is able to adapt to online learning and sets a valuable positive example to his peers. 

Year 7 & 8

The pupils in Year 7 & 8 have been learning all about animals and ecosystems. Some of this work has been challenging but many of the pupils have tried really hard, not just with the work but also the technology which has been a steep learning curve for teachers and pupils alike. Amongst the many superstars, some pupils deserve a special mention as they have gone above and beyond in logging onto every lesson from home and trying their hardest to think of ways round any little technical problems, then help their peers and sometimes even me to share their solutions. Amongst these are Jamie, Oliver, James, Charlie, Ryan and PK. These pupils especially have shown patience, perseverance and diligence under these strange and tough times.

A big well done and thank you from Miss Harris.

Year 9

It's been a difficult choice to pick one individual from the Year 9 group. All pupils have tried hard and been real starts, completing assignments, engaging in live lessons and just getting on with the changes and disruption to normal Muntham life. We salute you all year nine, you have all been excellent. 

There are two individual pupils who have particularly shined during remote learning, Constantine and Callum.  They are both helpful, polite and have attended every live lesson and tutor session. I have been really impressed with just how much both pupils have achieved during lockdown. 

It's seeing young people like Constantine and Callum transform, engage and enjoy their learning again. Thank you, Constantine, Callum and all of Year 9. 

Miss E Coutts and the Year 9 Team. 

Year 10

Our star has been exceptional in both this lockdown, and the last. Not only has he engaged in nearly all his lessons, he’s worked hard to build his strength working independently.

He has developed his art skills, has built a fire pit out of a laundry drum and improved his reading by working through comics. I know; I’ve seen them coming out of my online library!

Year 10 Star of Lockdown...Charlie D!

Muntham's virtual learning program has invited many pupils to take up individual music lessons on piano and guitar. Pupils such as PK, Ben, Callum, Kion and Dylan had never played a keyboard before and have opted to use their own care time to study 1:1 with Mrs Purdy. All the pupils involved in these extra-curricular activities have excelled, and really shown a dedication to trying something new. Ben has also opted to learn Piano at home, he has a real natural flare for music. It is wonderful watching the pupils continuing to strive for more and pushing their academic and creative abilities despite these challenging times. 

We have been pleased to be able to both continue and extend the opportunity for pupils to learn the guitar or bass guitar whilst in the current lockdown. Pupils have had weekly guitar lessons throughout the course of a week. Pupils are encouraged to listen to music to find what inspires them. We are also looking at the history of all things rock n roll, where pupils can learn about what happened in music in the past.  

So far, I have been really impressed by the attitude the young people have shown during their live lessons. The pupils have really enjoyed the interactive nature of the online music lessons and have seemed genuinely grateful. It has also been brilliant to see each pupil develop their skills and playing throughout the course of the last few weeks. I would like to mention Alfie who has made some tremendous progress and begun to look at some more advanced techniques and music theory. It is also lovely to see 2 of our year 11 pupils want to go on to study music at college next year. 

Key stage 3

Across the four different classes, each group has been following a weekly High intensity training work out. I have been incredibly impressed with the pupil's attitude towards P.E and level of interaction and engagement. The majority of the groups have been attending the sessions, year 7 in particular have had fantastic attendance and performance. 

It has been great to catch up with the pupils on a weekly basis and listen to the feedback given and discuss their likes and dislikes of particular exercises. I have even had pupils suggest which exercises they would like to incorporate in next week's work outs and how we could shorten the rest times to create a more intense workout where they exercise for longer.

Overall, P.E for all the groups has been a real success!

Key stage 4

In Key Stage 4, the pupils have adapted incredibly well to life in lockdown. Both those who have been learning from home and pupils in school have applied themselves in a positive way to a new style of sport and exercise. A big focus has been on what people actually mean when they talk about a person’s wellbeing and why that is so important for everyone at the moment. The pupils have discussed what they can do to improve their own health and fitness. Pupils have looked at the impact of social, emotional, mental and physical factors and come to the understanding that each has an impact on the other and will in turn affect how someone feels.

The pupils have also taken part in live sport lessons looking at different home workouts. Each of these have been designed to get the pupil’s heart rates up, get them moving around and enjoying exercise. This of course, has not come without its challenges for both staff and pupils but overall, I have been very impressed with the level of participation.

The sport department have also been setting different weekly challenges based on skills and fitness. Staff have videoed themselves demonstrating and then thrown down the gauntlet to pupils to see if they can take part by trying at home. This month sees the launch of Fit4Feb where we have challenged all young people to achieve a total of 60 minutes of activity every day.

Post-16 

NCFE Sport has seen great engagement and participation in online learning from post-16 pupils. David and Alex have been working incredibly hard in all of their assignment work. They have achieved merit and distinction grades throughout their current units, health and nutrition and participating in sport. Fantastic work, well done boys!

Despite the bad weather, Forest School has still been taking place! During these uncertain times I've wanted to concentrate on helping the pupils appreciate being outdoors and the calming benefits this brings. Appreciating and spending time outdoors can have huge psychological benefits for the pupils here at Muntham.

This half term, we have been cooking food over the camp fire and developing pupils communication skills. Amongst the things we have been cooking is bread. The pupils have been kneading bread, carving the bark off of a tree branch, wrapping the bread around the tree branch and cooking it over the fire. 

As the weather starts to get better, pupils will be foraging for forest food. What they find they will cook over their camp fires which the pupils will thoroughly enjoy. 

We started this term inside the poly tunnel looking at seed catalogues and deciding what we would like to grow. We have planted chilli seeds, the primary pupils spent a long time concentrating on one seed in each pot!

We harvested the celeriac and planted some strawberry plants. A new pupil joined the school and has enjoyed his time on the farm. He wanted to taste a leek but Mrs Woods suggested that he tried a carrot instead as leeks are best cooked. He found the carrots and using a trowel dug one up for himself, we then washed it and he tentatively tasted it. Then a great big smile came over his face and he exclaimed “I will love carrots for the rest of my life”

As the weather improves the farm will get into the swing of full sowing and growing and planting vegetables ready for the harvest.  

We all miss seeing all the pupils in school every day and we are very much looking forward to seeing everyone very soon. Like many other things around the school, the way the Library works has been different. I am glad to say that most pupils have carried on reading books using the MyON app. MyOn is easy to use, so if you have not already had a go please try it, you find it on the Muntham House School Students Portal.   

This lockdown the Reading Challenge was for the pupils to read three books weekly and take a quiz on Accelerated Reader – this can be­­­­­ any book of their choice at the pupil’s reading level. Every time they finish a book, they are added to Muntham House Reading Challenge League chart. 

There is an added incentive, a reward scheme that encourages the pupils to keep up their reading habits over these difficult times. When they have completed the challenge, they will receive a £20 voucher; also, the pupil at the top of the Challenge League table will receive a brand new Kindle for their prize. 

Benefits of reading books are as follows:

• Pupils, who read often, get much better at it. 
• It can exercise our brain. 
• Improves concentration. 
• Teaches pupils about the world around them. 
• Improves vocabulary and language skills. 
• Develops a young people imagination. 
• Helps young people to develop empathy. 
• Pupils who read achieve better in school. 

I have been running online quizzes each week for all of our Post-16 pupils and staff to join in with. These have been taking place on a Friday during general tutor catch up sessions and I am pleased to say that most of our pupils have participated in these. Quiz themes have ranged from various picture and logo rounds to driving theory and general knowledge as well as a round on Marvel and Cartoon film characters.

I have enjoyed putting these quizzes together for all to enjoy and will continue to do so each week. Hopefully we will all be back to our wonderful Post-16 community very soon as like myself, all of the staff have missed seeing our pupils. We are also running midweek quizzes and online Bingo each week early evenings and all pupils are invited to these as well.

Stay safe, take care and see you all very soon.

Best Wishes, Mr Barrett and all of the Post-16 staff team.

After much hard work and revision two of our Post-16 pupils DB and SS have had brilliant news this term in passing and achieving their Functional Skills English qualification.

Great work and congratulations!

The younger pupils have been missing the Residential provision during this lock down period, a few of them have had the chance to go to Hever floor during the school day with staff to spend some time baking and even had some time to play since they have been missing the facilities.

We are looking forward to being able to get back to normal and return to boarding at Muntham House School for Hever Floor again very soon.

Despite lockdown we have been able to engage the boarders with online cooking sessions. This has been a great success, as not only were we able to see and chat to the pupils, we were able to cook rice krispy cakes with them virtually. The pupils had great fun and produced some lovely cakes.

Pupils have also been participating in a weekly floor quiz, music sessions and weekly bingo games to maintain contact and enable them to interact with staff and their friends from floor. 

Virtual Cooking

Thinking outside the box we decided to do a weekly virtual cooking lesson with some of the pupils.

The ingredients needed for each week were sent home along with the recipe and method.  It was great fun, and even some of the parents joined in to help out!

It has been great to keep in contact with the pupils and to see how well they are doing, they engaged, they laughed and were very proud of what they had made.

Muntham House School had some great news this week when we heard that one of our ex-pupils has received an offer to go to Westminster University where he is studying Accountancy.

Conan is very excited about this and will continue to keep us up to date with his progress. We are all very excited and wish him every success in this exciting time in his life.

Conan is also keeping himself fit and helping his family at home. It is always great to talk to or see our ex-pupils doing so well for themselves.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions and the Bubble System in place across the school, we have appointed a number of new staff at Muntham House School. The following staff were all successful through the interview process and I am pleased to report have now started as additional members of staff. 

Adrian Henderson - Outdoor Recreation Teacher

Sophie Coppard - Primary Teacher

I would like to take a minute to introduce myself. My name is Mr Adrian Henderson and I am Muntham House’s new Outdoor Education Teacher. I have over 20 years experience working with and introducing young people from all walks of life to the joys of Outdoor Pursuits, such as rock climbing, abseiling, hill walking, canoeing, kayaking and mountain biking. I have lots of exciting plans for this year, especially once spring arrives and Covid leaves! We will have stand up paddle (SUP) boards, canoeing and kayaking. 

So far we have had some great muddy adventures locally with the pupils at school and i’m very much looking forward to meeting the rest of the pupils once they return to school.