Milton News Bulletin

Dear Parent/Carer

Plans for September 2020

We hope this finds you well.

Just to give you an update for our plans for September 2020.

We will be continuing our current offer for pupils with the one morning a week, three-hour session with their class. This will run from Monday 7th – Friday 18th September. This would lead onto a further gradual opening of pupils accessing school for a morning or an afternoon session every day, morning 0830-1130 and afternoon 1230-1530. This would start on Monday 21st and continue up until the October half-term break. Your child’s session will be confirmed in September once transport has been arranged.

As we are all aware the guidance from the government is constantly changing and we wanted to share our plans with you. To re-assure you that our main priority is the safety, health and wellbeing of our pupils and families and enable us to provide a slow transition back into school for all pupils as part of our recovery curriculum.

Best wishes

Mrs A Costello

Here are your weekly updates from the building of the two new classrooms! The workmen have been busy ensuring the school site is safe for all pupils, staff & visitors. We will be keeping you updated with regular pictures and videos from the progress of the buildings. Remember to follow the new procedures for dropping off and picking up pupils, as we have no access through the car park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU2GBR6o1Qg . If you need any help or assistance please speak to your child’s class teacher or a member of staff on site .

MILTON ART PROJECT

Week 2 : Children's Art Week - Connecting Across Generations

Go outside in your garden and collect twigs, leaves, pebbles, acorns etc and use them creatively to design your own piece of Art.

Take a photo and send in your work for our online gallery.

HAVE FUN!

keep an eye out for Art Challenges from your house leaders on twitter and Epraise

Leaderboard

Cook - 18,150

Drake - 17,235

Kingsley - 19,323

The number of parents logging in each week is fantastic and keeps increasing!

Well done.

We are giving out APP Acolades to pupils who's parents have downloaded the app which are also worth 10 house points.

We now have new things in the Epraise shop! go check out the new keyrings and you can even choose a wet bucket challenge for a member of staff!

Hello Team Cook!

Antoher fantastic week of learning this week. You've all done brilliantly. We're so very proud of you all.

Last weeks Team Cook Champion was Josh from Y10! Well done Josh!

We announce our champion every Friday afternoon on Twitter for the person who's earnt the most house points for Team Cook. So log and check out @TeamCookMS!

So many members of staff have been saying how great it has been to see so many of you on the video calls. It really is great to get to see all your smiling faces.

This week our challenge is can you name five green animals and give one fact about each of them? 5 house points for every entry!

Keep safe and keep being AWESOME!

From,

Miss Hale, Mr Brown and Mr Tomlinson

Hello Team Drake,

We hope that you are all okay. If you follow us on Twitter you may have seen that it has been Children’s Art Week. We have already been sent some amazing artwork of your favourite animals but if anyone else would like to tweet us their work please visit our Twitter page @TeamDrakeMS. Remember, each piece of fantastic work earns you 5 housepoints!

Our Drake Captain of the Week this week goes to Stacey in Y10. It has been lovely to see Stacey in school this week with her fantastic positive attitude. Well done Stacey!

Take Care Love Mr Carr & Mrs Roberts x

Kingsley Crusaders, what a fantastic week it has been.

The work you have shown us on Twitter has been absolutely amazing. From your pictures for ARTWEEK to your amazing maths and lifeskills, we are so very proud of you all. Lets keep flooding Twitter with your amazing work. We cant wait to see what you will send in.
Next weeks challenge is Lifeskills, whether you do a bit of baking, helping with the cleaning, making your bed, or making your lunch. Lets get helping with your amazing life skills challenges. All Twitter pictures get house points. So here's to a fabulous new week. keep working hard but also remember to have fun times too.

Love Mrs Storey & Mr Earl xxx

Don't forget to share all your great home activities with us on twitter so we can get you in the bulletin! @school_milton

Someone has been busy making his Godzilla toys a birthday cake with magic sand, looks good enough to eat, and we can't tell which one is the real boy in the second photo, great artwork!

Y4 - Super Artist !

J is over the moon to have seen his friends and teachers on zoom.

Great work on IXL from Alex Well Done

R(Y7) (pic 1) helping plant herbs in our new herb wall garden (pic 2). Pic 3 - strawberries & pic 4 - radishes, are progress from last time.

Taking a walk in the wilderness, Looking happy!

Thomas had a little break from academic work and we've concentrated on life skills instead. He's done some dusting and vacuuming and he's going to help me in the garden with some overgrown plants later. Great Work Thomas!

Thomas has been learning about patience, he’s been growing a dinosaur from an egg whilst learning not to touch until it’s grown !

Y10 Pupil from Plant - Plate !

How to make a Bird Box

Step 1. Choose your wood

You’re going to need a plank of wood that’s about 15mm thick to give the birds inside the insulation they’ll need. Make sure you use untreated timber too.

• Back: 45cm x 15cm
• Base: 11cm x 15cm
• Front: 20cm x 15cm
• Roof: 21cm x 15cm
• Side panels: 11cm x 25cm high at the back and 20cm high at the front.

Step 2. Sanding it down

Once the wood is cut, make sure you sand down all of the edges, so that you protect the birds that will be moving in.

Step 3. Hammer in those nails

Nail the side panels to the back panel then add the base. You’ll probably need three nails roughly for each join.

Step 4. Don’t forget to make an entrance

Before you add the front panel, make a hole that will become the bird’s entrance into their new home. You can do this with a wide drill bit and depending on the sort of birds you want to attract - we’d recommend a hole measuring 25mm for blue tits and up to 32mm for house sparrows. This front panel is then ready to nail to your box.

Step 5. The roof

For the roof we recommend you use self-tapping screws or a hinge, so that you can remove it later to make it easier to clean the bird box out in the autumn.

Step 6. Find the perfect spot and wait

Now for the final step, drill a hole at the top of the bird box to attach it to the perfect​ spot you’ve identified in your garden. The best position for a box is to be north-east facing, around 2-4 metres above the ground away from predators, with a clear flight path to the entrance hole. Make sure it’s sheltered from the rain, wind and direct sunlight.

For all the latest news on our Eco School campaign please visit our new Eco Schools Twitter page: @EcoschoolM https://twitter.com/EcoschoolM

This week’s wellbeing tip is to take care of your physical health. When we are physically healthy it has a positive impact on our mental health. There are lots more shops and places opening from this weekend and it’s important that we keep our immune systems boosted to help us fight off any unwanted germs, especially as some of us may be coming in to contact with more people than we have seen in the last few weeks.

Tips to boost your immune system include eating plenty of fruit and vegetables for lots of vitamins and minerals, keeping active, getting a good night’s sleep every night and very importantly keeping our hands clean and using a tissue to catch any sneezes or coughs so that we don’t pass our germs on to anyone else.

Hello Miltoners,

We hope this finds you well. We're now on week three of our helpful teams for reinforcing positive behaviour.

This week we're focusing on taking a break. Everyone likes to get things done early. Get it out of the way and then relax. Sometimes this can be daunting for children with special needs. Seeing lots of work pilled up can cause stress and really upset children. This is why it's good to let them know when breaks will be. Students really benefit from short regular breaks. Depending on how pupils cope with work depends on the period of work to break times. Set regular intervals up and discuss them with your child before starting working. Let them know after 15 minutes of work you'll take a five minute break. But then when it's over they have to get back to it. Have a drink, snack or just go get some fresh air.

This will help with emotions, stress, focus and can even be made into fun little challenges. Give it a try!

We really hope it helps with your home learning with your children.

Keep safe and keep being amazing!

The BIGS Team

screen brightness:

Screen brightness can have side effects that can lead to eye strain and headaches. You can lower your screen brightness to preserve both your eyesight and your sanity, in addition to saving precious battery life.

Adjust Screen Brightness on Your Laptop
You don’t have to be incredibly tech-savvy to turn down the screen brightness on your laptop, but the process will vary depending on the model of your device. First, check the line of F keys on the top of your keyboard. If any of them have a little icon that looks like a light bulb, a sun, or any other light source, try pressing them to see if it adjusts brightness. Chances are that they, more likely than not, will do so. Keep in mind that you may need to use your Fn or Function key to trigger these effects.

If you don’t see the brightness keys, it’s possible your laptop doesn’t have them, or has buttons on the front or side that control the brightness.

You can still manually adjust screen brightness, click the battery icon in your Windows 10 notification area, and adjust the brightness to suit your needs. To do so, open the Settings from the Start menu, select System, and choose Display. Adjust the slider to where you want your system’s brightness to be.

You can also click the search icon next to the Start menu and type brightness settings.

Broad bean - A member of the legume family, broad beans are pretty hardy and adaptable – they grow in most soils and climates. They're a great source of protein and carbohydrates, as well as vitamins A, B1 and B2.

At their peak from the end of June to mid-September. Broad beans are easy to grow in a veg patch or allotment.Buy broad beans as fresh as possible – pods should be firm and crisp. Avoid any that feel soft with pockets of air inside.Broad beans should be podded from their velvety jackets before using. Slit each pod along its seam and run your thumb along the furry inside to push the beans out.To double pod – or remove the thin skin that covers each individual bean – blanch the beans for 2 mins, drain and cool under cold water before using your nail to slit the leathery skin, then pop out the bright green bean. If the broad beans are particularly large, this outer skin can be quite leathery. Although double podding can be labour-intensive, it's a therapeutic task that reveals creamy, vibrant, sweet beans that sing of the flavours of spring.

Ingredients

• 2 pork chops
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, skin-on and bashed
• ½ lemon
• , cut into wedges
• 30g butter
• 2 thyme sprigs

For the Jersey Royal & broad bean smash

• 300g Jersey Royal potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
• 1 mint sprig
• 250g podded broad beans
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• pinch of dried chilli flakes
• handful of fresh mint leaves
• 1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. Take the pork chops out of the fridge 1 hr before cooking. Put the potatoes in a pan and cover with cold water and 2 tsp of salt. Throw in the mint, cover and cook for 12-15 mins until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Cook the beans in the same water for 4-8 mins, depending on size, then drain and rinse under cold water and peel. Crush half with the potatoes, season and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Pat the chops dry with a kitchen towel and season with sea salt on both sides, then place in the pan and do not move until they are caramelised and come away from the pan – around 3-4 mins. Turn the chops, then add the garlic and lemon, cut-side down. Cook for another 2-3 mins.

3. Remove the lemon and set aside. Add the butter to the pan, shaking to distribute it, then toss in the thyme. Baste the chops continuously with the butter, garlic and thyme for a couple of mins more, turning to coat both sides. Remove from the pan to rest.

4. Add the spring onions and chilli flakes and cook for 5-8 mins until tender. Tip in the potato mix, tossing with the spring onions, and cook for a few mins, allowing crusty bits to form on the Jerseys. Turn off the heat, toss in the herbs, then divide between plates and top with the remaining beans. Serve with the chops, and squeeze over the caramelised lemon.

We have been working on ways for communication to happen between staff and pupils and parents.

We have our Epraise system already setup and you should be getting homework and tasks to do through this. If you require any help in logging in to Epraise please email epraise@miltonschool.org.uk

We now have class email accounts that go straight to your teacher, this can be used to email questions or photos of work that you have been doing at home. We would love to see what you have been up to too.

The emails for each class are as follows;

• class1@miltonschool.org.uk

• year3@miltonschool.org.uk

• year4@miltonschool.org.uk

• year5@miltonschool.org.uk

• year6@miltonschool.org.uk
  

• year7@miltonschool.org.uk
  

• year8E@miltonschool.org.uk
  

• year8R@miltonschool.org.uk
  

• year9@miltonschool.org.uk
  

• year10@miltonschool.org.uk
  

• year11@miltonschool.org.uk
  

Don't forget we have our school twitter account http://www.twitter.com/school_milton feel free to share any work you have been doing for everyone to see.

If you do have any safeguarding concerns please email safeguarding@miltonschool.org.uk