An announcement that Ofsted will be visiting our school for an inspection tomorrow (16.01.18). This will be expected to commence at 9:00am.

Kind regards,

Well this year has continued where last years ended with continued sporting success! We are delighted to continue to take part in a wide variety of sporting activities and events - already this term there has been a swimming gala, a horse riding extravanganza, dodgeball, kinball and specialised sports coaching from Everton in the Community. In school lunchtime clubs include table tennis and boccia. Pupil participation has been outstanding with reports from accompanying staff of fantastic behaviour, development of social skills and all round pride at seeing Merefield pupils collaborating and/or competing with pupils from other schools.

It was our first parent/carer event of the year the other week - each year we combine our initial parent/carer teacher meeting with supporting Macmillan. There were three wonderful events all organised by pupils from Upper School and very well attended by parents/carers. Over £250 was raised for Macmillan - thank you to everyone who donated in any way.

This forthcoming Friday I am looking forward to welcoming our new parents/carers for an informal "making sure you know everything you need to know session".  Although every new parent/carer has at least 3 meetings with various school personnel before their son/daughter starts at Merefield, there are always things that crop up once the child/young person is actually in their class - this session is an opportunity to discuss any questions that have arisen during the past few weeks since the start of the term and also to meet other new parents and find out the various ways parents/carers can get involved in the life of the school.

There will be a collection of tins/dried foods as part of our Harvest celebrations which will then be sent to Southport Foodbank - we thank you in advance for your contributions.

Half term approaches - the week beginning Monday October 23rd - and we will be holding our annual Monster Mash Family Disco on Tuesday October 31st 16:00 - 17:00 - further details will be sent out in due course.

Sue

The whole school theme this term is Time

Happy New Academic Year Everyone!  I was delighted to welcome everyone back to school yesterday - so many smiling faces, all eager to meet up with their friends and share their summer news - and that was just the staff! It really was lovely to see all our wonderful pupils again after our summer break - we welcomed 12 new pupils, 5 new members of staff and everyone else from last year - in total 97 pupils! The majority of pupils have remained with the same staff team but some have naturally changed classes - so far everyone seems very happy and settled!

I have spent a lot of time today going through the diary for this forthcoming term to identify dates for all the various events that take place during this very busy term - dare I mention we have set the dates for all our Christmas activities!! A calendar will be sent home this week for parents/carers in order for those important dates to be shared with all!

For the first time in ages there was no building work during the summer holidays so no changes to share! Actually there is not any spare building within school left to change so unless we build on our roof I think this is probably it! Mind you I do still have a vision of a purpose built rebound therapy room within the garage space but.....!!  I received notification from The Lords' Taverners that our new minibus is moving up the production line - still hopeful for it being delivered around Christmas!

As usual we will be holding our annual Macmillan Events at the end of this month which is a great opportunity for parents/carers to come into school and meet new class teams whilst raising money for a wonderful cause at the same time - I hope to see many of you then.

Sue

A fantastic achievement tonight at the Sefton Sports Awards!

Team Merefield are officially Sefton School Sports Team of the year!!

More details to follow.

This week our Jessica Bolton held a parent information workshop on the topic of sharing some of the ways in which we promote, support and develop reading skills here at Merefield School. She also provided some suggested activities you could do at home to further support reading, speech and language development.

If you would like to view the materials and presentation resources from this workshop, please click on the link below.

(Link) Reading at Merefield Information Workshop 28.06.17

Where has this term gone?!! I have just come to write this blog and am horrified to see that my last blog was 2 months ago!! What happened to May and June?! Just shows how busy we have all been these past weeks! As I look through the diary I can see that every week there has been something special taking place including various sporting events, trips out, musical events, Wally Cain Dance Festival, parents reading workshop to name but a few! As always our pupils have given 100% effort and enthusiasm and all displayed impeccable behaviour. Whilst out this week at a local high school for a musical concert, the headteacher of the host school commented to me how polite and well behaved our pupils were! We all know that opportunities for our pupils to spend time with peers from other schools is invaluable to their development and I am so glad that our wonderful staff are always prepared to go that extra mile in order to make sure that these opportunities are taken up. We have taken part in so many sporting events this past year - some we have won! - and I am delighted that our efforts have been recognised by our shortlisting for the Sefton Sports Team of the Year Award!! We will be attending a special awards evening on July 12th - fingers crossed we return with the trophy!! A trophy we have won (again!) is the Sefton Green Star Eco League Award!! This is for all our recycling efforts throughout school during the past year.

Last month we asked each class to create an innovative reading space within their classroom environment! What a challenge! Each class created a truly personalised reading space that will encourage reading and enjoying books for every pupil. It was a very difficult decision to pick a winner but in the end Squirrel Class were triumphant with their beautifully thought out Reading Center with individual reading packs for each pupil. Well done to Squirrel Class and well done to everyone for all their efforts - reading is such an important part of every child's development and we have really embraced this throughout school.

Last Saturday was our annual Summer Fair and I would like to thank everyone who came along or who contributed to our prizes or bought raffle tickets. I am delighted to say that we raised just over £1200! As I explained at the fair we are currently awaiting delivery of a new school minibus courtesy of The Lords Taveners Charity, but we do have to pay £21,000 towards the overall cost - the money from the fair will be going towards this target! All fundraising efforts this next 12 months will be aimed at this minibus target. We received an email on Tuesday from a new visitor to the school who had attended the fair and who wrote to tell us that "you have a beautiful school with lots of lovely staff, family and friends - an amazingly friendly and welcoming atmosphere for all to enjoy!" What a wonderful ( and truthful! ) observation of our school!

It was wonderful to see our pupils and their siblings enjoying our wonderful Adventure Playground and I am delighted that we are now in a position to facilitate our pupils' families using the playground at the weekend and during school holidays. Letters explaining the system of purchasing a key have been sent home to each pupils' family/carers. If anyone requires any further information please speak to Gemma Parker.

Sports Afternoons are taking place during the next couple of weeks and then our end of year OSCAR Celebrations are being held on Friday July 14th - letters have been sent home but again contact the office if you have any questions.

End of Year Reports are also being sent home on July 14th with Parent Coffee morning/afternoons taking place during the last week of term.  All in all I hope that there is at least one occasion for everyone to be able to come into school before the end of term  - if not I wish you all a very happy and relaxed summer break.

The whole school theme for this Summer Term is Water and many classes have interpreted this under the title of Pirates!! As you will recall we launched our Pirate work during World Book Day and so already much of the school environment makes you feel as if you are about to walk the plank! As a launch event Willow and Juniper went to New Brighton Beach on Friday to spend time on an actual pirate ship - this is a fantastic resource and completely free! If you find yourselves with any spare time this summer we would highly recommend a visit - search for "The Black Pearl New Brighton" on Facebook for full details.

As you know we always focus our termly work around an appropriate book/story and as such each classroom does have a dedicated reading space within it. This term we have challenged each class to redesign their reading space with a prize for the most creative and innovative  - judging will be taking place next Friday April 28th - the winner and photographs of all the reading spaces will be shared after then!

As everyone within school appreciates, opportunities for our pupils to get out and about within our local, regional and national areas in order to experience real life learning activities is of the utmost importance. Of course the vast majority of these visits require transport for our pupils and whilst we currently have 2 vehicles at our disposal our minibus is 13 years old this year and we are very conscious that it is not going to be road worthy for much longer. With this in mind last December I completed a bid to The Lord's Taveners Charity for a new minibus that school and Lord's Taveners would finance together - last Friday I was thrilled to receive confirmation that our bid had been successful! We should be receiving our new minibus towards the end of this year so lets get fundraising!!  After the success of our fundraising for the Adventure Playground we know we can do it!

At the end of last term I had the absolute privilege to attend the Sefton Duke of Edinburgh Awards Evening at the Southport Theatre. I was so proud of our students as they went up to receive their Bronze Awards. A very special moment for us all.

This term we will be taking part in the Wally Cain Dance Festival, Southport Learning Partnership Arts Festival and also a Merseyside Special School Music Festival - all wonderful opportunities for our pupils to work with pupils from other schools and also showcase their many talents!

Thank you to everyone who came into school during the last week of the Spring Term to our Easter Showcase Events. Parent comments were so positive and proud of all our pupils achievements so far this academic year - I know this next Summer Term will be as equally busy and productive for everyone!

Sue

Unfortunately the national news today is one of sadness and disbelief for the people caught up in the terrible events in London yesterday. There were various groups of school children visiting the Houses of Parliament and walking around taking in the sights  - our thoughts are with everyone affected by yesterday's events.

Here at Merefield we are looking forward to our Easter Showcase Events next week - this is a lovely opportunity for parents to come into school to share and celebrate with us all the wonderful learning that every pupil has achieved so far this year.  With regards to the Easter Holidays I have been told we may be getting a visit from a special Easter character next Friday but I can say no more at the moment!!  Speaking of characters this term the topic has been Super Heroes and the other Friday we were very lucky to get a visit from Spiderman himself!! The pupils absolutely loved his acrobatics!

My last blog was just before our annual residential to Center Parcs - as always this was a wonderful week. The weather was very kind, the pupils who attended were amazing - an absolute credit to their families - and the staff went above and beyond as always. I always come back from these experiences completely in awe of our wonderful staff - nothing is ever too much trouble and the pupils could not be better cared for.

World Book Day took place on March 2nd - this event just gets better and better each year! The theme this year was Pirates and there were various activities around school for everyone to enjoy! Again many thanks to all the staff who organised everything - especially Jess!

I have just taken round prospective new parents for September - I always love walking around school as there is always such exciting activities in each and every classroom. Comments from visitors always include how warm and welcoming everyone in school is - pupils are proud of their work and love showing it off!

Hope to see many parents next week at the Easter Showcases but if not I hope everyone has a very happy Easter!

Sue

As I sit here with storm Doris raging all around us I am only glad that Doris is here this week and not next when I will be in Center Parcs with 3 colleagues and 9 members of Upper School!! Hopefully Doris will have moved on by Monday when we go up to Penrith for our annual Center Parcs residential! I did not manage to go last year so I am really looking forward to everything we have got planned - an action packed 5 days! However I am disappointed that I will not be in school on Thursday when it is World Book Day - Merefield is embracing the theme of Pirates and there are various exciting learning activities planned with every class using a specific Pirate Book as their starting point! Students from Edge Hill are also joining us for the day and bringing some new resources for our children and young people to explore!

As this is the mid point of this academic year myself and Jo Ashcroft are currently meeting with every class teacher to discuss the progress each pupil is making across all areas of their learning. This is an opportunity to celebrate success and also to ensure that everything is being done to support each pupil with their individual learning. There are some links to websites for learning at home on the Parents Page of this website - have you looked at these yet? If you come across anything that you find useful with your son/daughter why not let us know and we will share with other families!

We will be holding our popular Easter Showcase Events at the end of this term to share with our families all our pupils' amazing learning during this Spring Term - letters will be sent home this week advising of dates/times.

Sue

Huge congratulations to Reece Wells who is one of our students being given the opportunity to present an animation that he and other young people star in to the Children with Additional Needs (CWAN) network.

If you would like to view the animation, please click on the link below.

https://www.seftondirectory.com/kb5/sefton/directory/site.page?id=FpnEqzn1mtc&localofferchannel=0