Some children may struggle with having their nails trimmed, often due to hypersensitivity to touch or noise, making the experience feel overwhelming. This can cause distress for both the child and the parent, turning this routine task into a stressful experience.
To help your child feel more comfortable and better manage their sensory challenges, here are some practical tips to set them up for success during nail trimming.
See link here:
Stress free snips.pdfNail trimming social story.pdf
In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel, neuropsychiatrist and author of the bestselling Mindsight, and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson offer a revolutionary approach to child rearing with twelve key strategies that foster healthy brain development, leading to calmer, happier children. The authors explain—and make accessible—the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures. The “upstairs brain,” which makes decisions and balances emotions, was under construction until the mid-twenties. And especially in young children, the right brain and its emotions tend to rule over the logic of the left brain. No wonder kids throw tantrums, fight, or sulk in silence. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth.
Complete with age-appropriate strategies for dealing with day-to-day struggles and illustrations that will help you explain these concepts to your child, The Whole-Brain Child shows you how to cultivate healthy emotional and intellectual development so that your children can lead balanced, meaningful, and connected lives.
Amazon Link
Brainstorm Health® is a unique clinic focused on providing a Functional Medicine approach to supporting the health and wellbeing of children and young adults.
We specialise in working with children and young adults with Autism, ADHD, ADD, PANS and PANDAS, as well as those with behavioural and learning difficulties and food and chemical sensitivities.
Read the latest Gesher Gazette below! Please click on the link below to view the video links.
GesherClick on the link below to view the latest Gesher Gazette:
In the Autumn term, Zayit and Seorah class worked on an extended project across the two half terms. This was focused on the topic ʻAll about meʼ and was inked with learning related to our big question ʻWhat are the building blocks of me?ʼ In this project the children created our own Mr Men/Little Miss character to explore who we are as individuals and the building blocks that we need to best look after ourselves. For example, we looked at how to keep our bodies healthy, what helps us to have a healthy mind, the best ways to prepare ourselves for learning and celebrating where we are from and our cultures. The children created a range of work which was displayed in their Mr/Little Miss character books alongside a couple of class videos. We were excited to share all of the amazing learning we got to do throughout the Autumn term!
Teacher’s Reflections
“I have loved this project. I think the children really enjoyed it and have taken so much from it. In particular, the children have learnt so much about the best ways to regulate their bodies in accordance with the zones of regulation and what breaks best suit them. This has had a huge impact on the class culture as the children are now able to take themselves off independently for a classroom break away from the table if they are having a tricky moment. It has also given them a lot more fluency in how they are feeling and made them more accepting of taking a break if they need it.”
– Lucy Robinson
Students’ Reflections
“My favourite part of the project designing my own Mr Men.” – Harrison
“It was very good and we had fun.” – Seth
“I learned about about our feelings.” – Leora
We looked at how we could learn from our own heroes in our lives and amazing people within our local community. We interviewed people and learned all about what made us ‘heroes’ in our modern world. We collected our very own ‘patches’ by completing various activities that involved self-reflection, meeting, and helping others within the local area.
Teacher’s Reflections
“I found this project one of the trickiest I have done since we began PBL. There was some great moments, including the interviewing skills and learning about their community, however at times it did feel like there was a bit of a stretch on what we could do to meet the curriculum targets alongside deliverables. The pupils seemed to enjoy it and have come away with great understanding around what it takes to be a ‘hero’ in many areas in life, and the traits they need in each sector.”
– Leah Wright
Students’ Reflections
“It was amazing because I got to make my own superhero comic all about me tidying up Roxbourne Park. I liked interviewing my Dad because he is smart and clever and he is my hero” – Yoni
“I learned that it is okay to make mistakes because everyone does. You have to start with the prototype and not the final product and overtime you make changes.” – Efe
“I liked that the exhibition was good because lots of people came and gave nice feedback, they told me I worked really hard. I really liked showing people my superhero badges and my moodboard. I liked that the moodboard was like a real-life Seesaw.” – AF
This term’s in PBL project was centred around the Olympics, with a particular focus on obstacles that atheletes have had to overcome in order to achieve success. The students researched a range of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, creating biographries to better understand their journies and how they overcame adversity faced.
Other key areas we focussed on were teamwork, leadership and perserverance, which was showcased in our own ‘Mini-Olympics’ which the students planned and ran for the students of Keren and Gevurah. Some of these games involved rules that handicapped students, to provide insight into what it would be like competeing with a physical disability.
Teacher’s Reflections
“Despite some challenges, the project went quite well. The Fun Run was the clear highlight, with all participants showing resilience, determination and perserverance as they tackled the physical and mental challenge. Some students did not feel comfortable participating in the run itself, but went above and beyond to organise and manaage the event.
The biggest challenge was adequately preparing the students for a showcase that disrupted their day significantly. In addition, holding the showcase in a public space posed challenges such as interactions with the public (dogs off their leashes, other people jogging etc.) and a significant level of organisation to ensure all students were safe and enjoying themselves.
Overall, the Fun Run was a big success, but next time, we would probably need to do more work around raising money (communicating to parents, advertising to the public etc.) and ensure the weather is not so cold (ideally do it during Spring or Summer term).”
– Anthony Salerno
Students’ Reflections
“The project went well because eveyone wetn above and beyond to run the 5K
and organise it.” -Woody“When I got the megaphone and screamed, I also loved making the posters. I felt ecstatic when I held the megaphone because I could finally feel like I was in power.” – Liam
“My highlight of the project was when we did our mini paralympics (for the first time) – specifically doing the sitting down, blindfolded volleyball because it was funny.” – Bea
Our students have been working hard on a cross-curricular PBL project exploring the theme “How Can I Develop Self-Discipline in My Everyday Life?” In humanities, they researched and created Olympic timelines, while in English, they wrote detailed athlete profiles, which were later brought to life through role-played interviews. Building on this, students wrote and recorded narrative videos exploring self-discipline in sports, drawing on their own reflections and storytelling skills. The project culminated in the creation of a Vimeo channel, where their Olympic timelines, athlete interviews, and self-discipline narratives were shared a fantastic showcase of their learning, creativity, and collaboration.
Teacher’s Reflections
“The project was a great success, and it was fantastic to see students engaging so well across different subjects. A real highlight was the athlete interviews, where students brought their profiles to life and developed their confidence in presenting. I was also really proud of how they tackled the narrative videos, especially those who find writing challenging, as it gave them a chance to share their ideas creatively.
The most challenging part was keeping the project’s focus clear as students moved between subjects, and some needed extra support with the recording and editing process. Next time, I’d build in more time to practise these technical skills and allow more opportunities for peer feedback earlier on, particularly during the writing stage. That said, I wouldn’t change the collaborative and creative elements of the project, as these really helped students stay engaged and take pride in their work. Overall, it was a rewarding experience, and the final videos on the Vimeo channel were a brilliant showcase of their hard work and creativity.”
– Aymane Hamidi
Students’ Reflections
“The project taught If I’m having big emotions I can ask some one to help me and we like having good fun and I will might need some help if i need.” – Zac
“The project was great but a bit stressful when the internet was a bit funny and laggy and i almost lost my whole entire work.” – Bobby
“My highlight of the project was making my video because it was incredible and really fun. This is because it taught me a new skill of how to use stop motion which I have never used before..” – Aaron
Our first project this year was looking at the Stone Age. We looked at how people lived in the Stone Ages but also thought about how this compared to the way we live now. We learnt about the different lives of stone age people including how they dressed, the food they ate and the houses they lived in. We used all this information to create our own stories. The stories were then made into a simple coding programme called Scratch Junior. The children were able to add and change the characters, the background and move the characters around. The children were therefore able to use modern technology to present their knowledge on the lives of people in the past. We also used this idea in Jewish Studies looking at stories from the Torah and how we can use the messages from these stories in our day to day lives. In Life Skills the children were also thinking about how they can survive by looking at basic everyday skills of making their bed, washing their hands and hanging up their clothes.
Teacher’s Reflections
“I feel that this was a successful project as the children were able to learn about the lives of people who lived a long time ago and how they survived and compare that to our lives. I feel the trip to Chiltern Open Air Museum was a success as the trip was very practical and interactive and the children could try out skills they would have used in the Stone Ages such as making a fire and making a basic shelter. The children also enjoyed transforming their Stone Age story into a Scratch Junior coding project and using the different coding techniques although I feel this was a bit tricky for the less able students who just wanted to play rather than create a specific coding project!”
– Stephanie Sungtong
Students’ Reflections
“My favourite part of the project was the fossils” – Adam
“I felt really happy with my sone age story” – Kingsley
“My favourite part was using Scratch Junior for my project.” – Eli
“I would create longer pieces of work next time.” – Eli F
Required for: January 2025
Hours and Pay: Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm, competitive salary.
Gesher School is a unique all-through school providing a specialist, meaningful and functional learning environment for young people with special educational needs. This includes language, communication and social pragmatic difficulties. We have a specialism in autism spectrum challenges (ASC).
Young people are at the heart of Gesher School, where we foster a sense of belonging and community. Our school offers a happy, safe, friendly, and stimulating environment in which young people are supported to learn, interact and have fun. We believe that all young people have the potential to achieve, but that every child is individual and requires a tailored, young person-centred approach to learning.
The Gesher approach is warm, friendly and nurturing. Emotional health and resilience, developing young people’s independence and learning, is at the core of our vision.
At Gesher we provide:
- Opportunities that enable young people to thrive as we want our children to be ambitious about achieving their full potential
- A collaborative learning team around every young person to support each young person’s learning needs and maximise meaningful learning opportunities
- A therapeutic team that works together with families to nurture and support young people’s emotional, social, and academic development
- A partnership with families to improve the lives and life chances of young people with SEND by ensuring that they are healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and experience the wider community
Being part of our learning community, you will be able to use your creativity and shape the way our school provides excellent learning opportunities for our young people.
As a member of our team, you will:
- Join an innovative learning community with ambitious practices. Not only do we want to have an impact on the young people in our school, we also want to help shape the future of special education nationally and internationally.
- Join a committed community of staff and parents and wider supporters.
- Be supported to become the best you can be. We believe in valuing all our staff and therefore take professional development very seriously. In return for their high level of commitment to enabling our young people to reach the best outcomes, we will provide our staff with excellent opportunities for growth and development.
- Always be supported in terms of your leadership and you will be able to take on responsibilities in various areas of school life.
- Have access to a network of forward-thinking practitioners (Big Education, Rethinking Assessment, XP, etc.) via other members of our team.
For further information, please visit www.gesherschool.com.
To apply, please complete an application which can be found here.
Please, complete and return your application by December 13th to [email protected]. CVs will not be accepted.
Interviews will be organised on a rolling basis. This ad may be withdrawn as a suitable candidate is identified.
Diversity is a core value of Gesher School. We believe the power of diversity enriches all of us by exposing us to a range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and to discover, design and deliver solutions. As such, we actively encourage people from a variety of backgrounds to apply for roles at our school.
Gesher School is committed to safeguarding young people and staff. Successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced DBS check.
