Work & Events Blog

A Guide to Disability, Transition and Family Finance

The above booklet gives information about parents’ and carers’ entitlements, young disabled people’s entitlements and help with your ‘better-off’ calculation. The booklet has a lot  of information and a list of useful organisations, publications and websites. To download a copy click here

‘As young disabled people turn 16, 17, 18 or 19 they become entitled to benefits and support in their own right. What they’re entitled to may, or may not, depend on whether they’re still in education, are job seeking or claiming benefits as the young adult they now are. Parents’ and carers’ benefits and tax credits can depend not only on the student or employment status of their disabled sons or daughters and their other children but also on what their disabled offspring are claiming.’

© Copy from child to adult booklet - A guide to Disability, Transition and Family Finance,
Published by Working Families © 2011 All Rights Reserved

This week we are in the Greenwich Time (page 6-7). Grace Lipski came down and interviewed some of us while the photographers captured our great outfits.

Poetry competitions

This half term the theme is ‘Light up the world with your Poetry’.

(Here are some entries so far)

Author, Poet and Illustrator of the month

This month, December, we have:

Author – Charles Dickens

Poet – Clement C. Moore

Illustrator – Tony Ross

Our Senior Librarian and PJ chose these people and also created their displays, including each
autobiography.

© Tony Ross

Writer of the month

This is awarded to a student from and is displayed in the library.

Pupil Librarians

We have:

PJ, Dion, Ashley, Dean, Megan, Claire, James, Libby, Shannon, Christopher and Abdoulie involved so far. They come to the library for one session a week and will gain an AQA from the experiences and skills that they learn with us. (PJ has a whole afternoon in the library).

Finally:

• Our library holds activities for Book Week.
• We have local newspapers delivered into school by staff and students. These are readily available for students to read during their session in the library.
• First News is delivered into the library each week. It is a worldwide news spread aimed and written for children.

As part of book week, today was Character Day at Charlton Park Academy and there were a lot of brilliant outfits - from Charlie Chaplin, clowns, princesses to Dorothy and the lion from the Wizard of Oz. We had our local Councillor Jackie Smith come in to help celebrate the day, as well as to promote reading. Tatayana and Martin from Woolwich and Eltham libraries came in with forms to sign up new members, and now Greenwich libraries have over sixty more new members today.

On Friday we have a parents’ workshop, where there will be inspiring ways to encourage and support reading with your children. However, throughout this week we are still collecting books for our library, so don’t forget to donate books that you no longer need. We love reading at Charlton Park Academy.

Friday 16 November was packed with excitement at Charlton Park Academy

In the morning we had a guess appearance from Cherry at Heart n Soul to tell us about all the amazing and creative things they do - from DJing workshops to dance events at the Royal Festival Hall.

There was also a KS4 poetry workshop organised by our librarians and they invited back Sara Williams to be part of it. However, throughout the day Children in Needs events were taking place. From face painting to a disco and cake sales to photographs with Pudsey, to the grand finale of a show compared by Captain Heinz. The main show allowed our pupils and staff to show off their skills as well as having lots of fun and laughter.

What a great way to end the week.

Monday 19th – Friday 23rd November 2012

During book week at Charlton Park Academy,  there will be:

• Book Character - Fancy Dress (Wednesday 21^st November 2012).
• Join your local Library
• Reading workshop for Parents
• Book Donation

So, pick up a book and stretch your mind drive

The Eco Team at Charlton Park Academy is getting back together. On Thursday, 22 November, a special visitor, Philip Hunton, is coming to do Eco workshops with Charlton Park Academy students to launch our new Eco Initiative.

He will be talking about recycling and making Tetra Pack purses with pupils in their classrooms. The workshops are all full, so hopefully he will come back to do more at a later date.

Tuesdy 13th November 2012

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust will be launching the Healthy Living Initiative at Charlton Park Academy. If you are interested in finding out how you can help our students by promoting a healthier lifestyle then join them between 2-3pm in the medical room.

Date: 22 November 2012

Location: Charlton House, Charlton Road, SE7 8RE

Time: 10:30am - 6:00pm

Cost: Free entry

A day of information and discussion on services for children with special needs in Royal Greenwich, including a talk by local Paralympic Games competitor Andy Barrow.

During this Autumn term G3 went to Woodlarks Campsite for two days where they had the opportunity to go live on Eagle Extra. Listen here to their show:

Charlton Park Academy has been very busy these last two weeks. Not only has one of our year groups been to Woodlarks for a two day trip where they built a campfire, made a radio show and met a gorilla, but Sara Williams came in for National Poetry Day and incorporated sensory objects and movement into the poetry sessions. Some of our aquatic students became swimmers of the week and have been duly awarded  with certificates; Greenwich Time came in to do an article on our Sports Award status and now we are preparing for:

World Food Day - Tuesday 16 October

The World Food Programme (WFP) is an organisation that fights hunger worldwide, saves lives during emergencies and works for long term solutions to hunger. On Tuesday 16th October it is World Food Day (WFD) and here at Charlton Park Academy, we think it is very important to recognise how fortunate we are to have school meals in the UK and other privileged countries of the world! WFD celebrates what organisations - such as The World Food Programme - does for children who without a meal provided by food aid, would go hungry and consequently not go to school.

For WFD some classes at Charlton Park Academy will be offering soup, pizza, burgers, salads and baked treats to raise money for the WFP and contribute to providing school meals for children every day in the countries that need it most. With a nutritious meal every day children are able to function at school, complete their studies and realise their dreams! I know that without food to fill my stomach and fuel my brain power I would find it very difficult to face school or work every day!

Find out more about the school meals incentive on the WFD website

Some of the food provided will be prepared using vegetables grown in the school vege trugs. Any donations will be much appreciated if you want to add to our contribution.

The Taming of the Shrew at the Greenwich Theatre - Friday 19 October 7pm

Charlton Park Academy is playing a vital role in Shakespearean performance at the Greenwich Theatre on Friday 19 October. The Shakespeare Schools Festival organisation have arranged for schools across the country to perform Shakespeare at their local theatres. However, the organisation encourages young people to have their own input and twist on proceedings. Charlton Park Academy are sending 10 young brave and creative students to perform extracts of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ including not only real text from the play but also with a cockney musical twist.

In the first half of the musical play, devised by Patrick, Rachel and the cast of students, we see the students working as a team to coordinate hand bell ringing along with some makeshift trumpet playing. The second half sees the students bring a huge sense of comedy and acting to perform well known snippets of songs we all love to accompany some of Shakespeare’s text.

It will be an evening to remember and tickets are available from the Greenwich Theatre website
box office number 020 8858 7755

What will next week bring to our school!

Team leader Sergio in the Sensory Garden

HSBC PB’s voluntary team came on their bi-annual visit to Charlton Park Academy. Sergio, who leads the team, brought some colleagues to help with general maintenance in the much loved Sensory Garden.

Nick, from Rainbow House, welcomed the team and gave them an overview of Charlton Park Academy and the importance to the school by their act of volunteering. After the detailed health and safety talk, the team were split up into groups: pruning and planting, irrigation and moving soil.

Sergio, an Analyst at HSBC PB, became involved with the HSBC PB’s voluntary scheme - which aims to help with education and community projects - many years ago.  Sergio first started volunteering in 2004 for a school in Greenwich, but a chance meeting with a fellow colleague who was volunteering at Charlton Park Academy, introduced him to the school and this rest is history. Sergio’s first project at Charlton Park Academy was working in the Sensory Garden – which was in its very early stages. Just knowing through the staff feedback about the importance of the garden and also what his son, who attends the school, gets from being in it makes Sergio passionate about the importance of volunteering.

Sean proudly standing by a previous project he was involved with

Sean, a regular volunteer, is part of the Loan Management Team loves returning to help support the work the school does through his volunteering. “It gives me a sense of well-being to know that I’m doing something for these children. Just knowing they get something out of it is great.”

Veronika, a new volunteer to the programme, is part of the Operational Risk Department and was on gardening duty. Veronika was attracted to this programme because she loved the fact that she would be working in a Special Needs School and she enjoys gardening too, so would happily return. Sajith, a Director, also a newbie to Charlton Park Academy but not volunteering in schools said, “It’s a break from work and I’m doing something for the community. I’m just happy to help.”

The rain in the afternoon did not halt the volunteers and a very productive day was had. The Sensory Garden is now back in use and ready for its first visitors.

Volunteers from HSBC PB at Charlton Park Academy

Four students were among some of the first to compete in the Olympic Stadium on Sunday 1st April. The students represented the Greenwich borough and the Panathlon Challenge to run in a relay over 100 meters. They also took part in a parade around the Stadium to the cheers of around 25,000 spectators which included lots of staff and parent support from School.

Well done to Harry and Roderick, who along with representatives from 32 other schools in the UK took part in a Press Conference with Lord Sebastain Coe at the Olympic Site. Harry asked Lord Coe “What will the legacy for disabled children in the Olympic Borough of Greenwich be?” you can hear his response here…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/17379286

Parts of the day went out live on the BBC One News and on the BBC School News Channel. Roderick did extremely well as he took part in a live broadcast from the balcony of the BBC flat overlooking the park with Sonali Shah from News Round.

Friday the 16th March saw the opening of our new Library. In order to celebrate the occasion staff and students dressed as their favourite book character for the day and several students either read a poem or talked about their favourite book. The Mayor was greatly impressed by these students and has promised to invite them to his parlour sometime.

The Christmas Concert was a great success this year.  There were some fantastic performances from the school choir, the band, members of Stage Right and G2, along with lots of celebration of the successes of the term.  we also said a sad farewell to members of staff, and we wish them well in their new ventures. It was the biggest turnout for parents and carers, so our thanks go out to all of you who attended.  We may need to find a new venue as our numbers expand!  A few pictures show how much all the students enjoyed this great event.  Thank you to everyone for making it such a success.

Charlton School is proud to achieve the MOVE Quality Mark and become a Regional Centre of Excellence.

We have become one of only four schools in Europe to achieve this status and congratulate all our staff, students and families who have work hard to achieve this.

Learn more about the MOVE programme www.move-europe.org.uk

Students and staff at Charlton School marked Children in Need by taking part in a huge array of fundraising activities. We raised an amazing £1,200!

At the end of the day, the whole school came together for a celebration assembly, the culmination of which saw the Head Teacher, Mark Dale-Emberton, being covered in custard and cream pies!

All in all, everyone had a really great day raising money with fundraising ideas for the next Children in Need already being talked about.

Key stage four perform A London Romance - The Production was a culmination of a whole years work in which every student played a big part including writing the script, set design, choreography and lighting….see and read more

Two students attend the Archway Project in Thamesmead. They are learning mechanical and riding skills by qualified staff as well as photography and cooking…….read and see more

Post 16 creative arts students have made a music video to the beat bullying song written and recorded by Charlton students. Take a look at their great work

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On Thursday 5th March Kathryn Blair (former Prime Minister’s daughter) presented the school with a special award and MOVE students with individual certificates. The School award was for our event held at the O2 Dome on 7th November 2008 when students passed on an Olympic torch to the cheers of their peers and the public using their mobility equipment and practising their skills from the MOVE programme. The MOVE Young Person Ambassador Kathryn Blair presented the school with a prize of £500 to spend on MOVE equipment. The whole school was present to share in celebrating the fantastic achievements of our students with physical difficulties in the MOVE programme. Well Done.

Charlton School appears on the BBC News - Monday 23rd February

Celebrating the work of Keith Parks and his book - Popular bible stories which have been re-written  - in cockney rhyming slang. See the work of Keith and students in call and response sessions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7906852.stm