Rainforest Project

14th June 2022Website Admin

During this half of the term, Tamar class tried to answer the big question of ‘what would the world be like without rainforests?’ 

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To do so, they researched and produce a piece of work about a rainforest animal that is on the endangered animals list. They also organised a ‘movie and smoothie’ fundraising event to raise money to help protect these animals. They organised the event by choosing the movie, informing the other classes by making posters and even designing their own posters.

Teacher’s Reflection

“I enjoyed this project as it allowed the students to organise an event which linked to their work. This was the project that they seemed most engaged with and everyone was excited by the event we organised. This was also the project where students had the most independence over the work they produced. I think it would have been nice for the students to have more opportunities to showcase their work and explain how their work fed into answering the big question. Next time I would also like to invite parents or have a separate showcase for parents.

What was the best thing about the project?

– Students had ownership over how they produced their work (e.g., poster, presentations, videos)

– Organising an event which involved the whole school

– Allowed students to design the event

What did I find challenging?

– Differentiating the options for how students produce their work

– The audience for the showcase could potentially have included parents – this is something I have found challenging throughout PBL this year

– Not enough time at the zoo to see rainforest animals

– Found it challenging to refer to the big question throughout and for students to understand the implication of losing animals” – Sam Dexter

Student Reflection

“I loved the project because I enjoyed making my presentation. My highlight was watching the film because I liked Zootropolis. The project taught me how to use google slides.”

– Jack

“Best project ever! I loved the movie and smoothie morning.”

– Yitzi

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Great Britain Project

9th May 2022Website Admin

This term we explored life in Great Britain and the differences between the four different countries by using our leading question, ‘What makes Britain great?’ We explored popular cuisines, and landscapes across Great Britain and made newspaper articles to reflect all of our knowledge.

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We started the project by going on a hop on hop off bus trip around London, which we later used to choose our favourite landmark and sketched them out using different materials. We each researched places that we were from or that we were interested in and presented them to the class. We also had a special afternoon tea, where we took inspiration to create our final product the ‘Great Gesher Bake Off’.

To end our project, we invited all parents to our ‘Gesher Cafe’. Here, they were given ‘Great British’ treats that we made, had front row tickets to our ‘Great Gesher Bake Off’ event, read our newspaper reports and looked at the art exhibition of our drawings.

Teacher’s Reflection

“Considering it was only our second Project for a group of varied pupils with additional needs, it was a huge success! Especially with so many of our pupils who have sensory difficulties around food. They seemed to enjoy the variety of styles of learning and having more control over their own learning – I created digital worksheets for them and many of the pupils mentioned that they enjoyed using the laptops. I am really proud of their top trump cards, as I was trying to think of a more creative way to engage them in their learning which was a success.

I also loved how enthusiastic they were on the PBL Exhibition day and how much they thrived when their parents came in. If I did it all again, I would ensure to incorporate more history lessons as I think it would have enhanced their learning on Great Britain as a whole.” – Rowan Eggar

Student Reflection

“I thought it was good because it was full of fun things like making food and I got to show my parents. Overall it was amazing! It was a good journey in my learning. The only thing was the apple crumble was too cinnamon-y.”

– Ben

“I loved 99% of the project. I didn’t really like the exhibition. The exhibition just didn’t really capture what I like, but at least I got tea! I would’ve liked the exhibition if it felt longer.”

– Daisy

“I learnt that you can do top trumps in a different way. I learnt about Scotland and it has the oldest tree in Great Britain, and that the official animal is the unicorn. I learnt about newspaper articles and different recipes from Britain.”

– Moishy

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Gothic Literature Project

9th May 2022Website Admin

In Keren this term, students studied the novella Jekyll and Hyde with a key focus on duality and social justice. Through this term’s project students aimed to emphasise Jewish values, and the importance of advocacy through charity work. Students explored the concept of the duality of man with a focus on what drives our morals and values in our day to day decisions and choices.

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Keren had an exciting journey with them showcasing their skills and talent in their final product. Parents were very supportive as they provided an authentic audience for students to experience the real world of production. They were able to access the expertise of costume designers, artistic directors, actors and playwrights through our production workshops. Lights! Camera! Action! On production day, students had an immersive experience as they got their makeup professionally done by an external make-up artist, and lots of opportunities to show what they had learnt in English, Science, PSHE and other subject areas.

Teacher’s Reflection

“The best thing about this project was seeing and hearing the great sense of pride that students felt and expressed in presenting their final product! Students demonstrated much confidence and significant improvement in their oracy skills through the immense work and support from our therapy team. Importantly, there was raised awareness of social justice as students had debates about rights, responsibilities, equality, fairness and diversity.

One of the greatest challenges with this project was not with the actual content, but rather with getting students to navigate the social dynamics of working as a team. Students found it challenging to be patient and to take turns in presenting. Moreso, demonstrating resilience in repeating rehearsals to get it right was not the easiest skill for Keren to Master. With lots of support from our Therapy team, students were able to navigate these challenges, learning many key social skills in the process.” – Nikeisha Webb-Hardy

Student Reflection

“It taught me how to do some acting, how to work as a team and build my confidence”

– Moshe

“I learnt about social justice and how we should be kind to other people.”

– Poppy

“I was pleased at the end because I remembered all of my lines.”

– Riley

“It taught me to know the difference between good and evil.”

– Shamai

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River Life Project

9th May 2022Website Admin

This half term, Tamar class explored rivers through the big question of ‘what happens on, and in rivers?’

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To do this we visited the Iver Environment Centre and became ‘River Detectives’. We wrote a non-chronological report about river wildlife and designed and built our own riverboats. For our final project, students raced their own boats in Gesher’s first regatta! This took place in the penultimate week of term, with parents and other classes being invited along to watch.

Teacher’s Reflection

“Overall I believe the project was a success with the students being engaged throughout. In addition, this was the first time we had incorporated a trip into our PBL sessions and this provided an excellent real-world experience. It still remains a challenge to adapt the projects to meet the range of needs within the class. However, the more projects I am involved with the more skills I am developing to be able to do this. If I was repeating the project again I would like to have had a larger audience (including parents and other students).

What did I find challenging?

– Weather during the trip meant we weren’t able to fully explore the river.

– Incorporating meaningful literacy lessons into the sessions – we wrote a non-chronological report about beavers but this could have had greater links to our topic.

– Lower-achieving pupils found the technical vocabulary related to the rivers to be challenging.

– Exhibiting the project – only our class were able to visit the river to test the boats.” – Sam Dexter

Student Reflection

“My highlight was going on the trip to Iver Environment Centre and catching creatures with the net. It also taught me how to recognise what fish are.”

– Gadi

“It taught me that projects are more useful than normal lessons.”

– Yitzi

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‘Trek for Gesher’ in Jan 2023

26th April 2022Website Admin

’Trek for Gesher’ in Jan 2023 For those of you who know me, you will know that I am a keen and avid trekker. It ticks all of my boxes of adventure, camaraderie, head space and physical activity.

Back in October 2018 (pre Covid!), 20 marvellous women trekked with me to Matchu Pitchu via a High Andes Pass to raise over £70,000 for Gesher.

The Next ‘Trek for Gesher’ will take place JANUARY 2023 (19th-29th). We will be trekking in Colombia following the trail to Thet Lost City and having a shabbat experience in Bogata.

Bookings are open and anyone over the age of 18 is invited to join.  All the details including costs/itinerary can be found on the link below.

https://www.ultimatechallenges.co.uk/challenges/south-america/gesher-colombia-trek/

If you have any questions please do get in touch.

Hope you will consider joining us!

Best, Sarah

 

Pesach: A Visit from the Chief Rabbi

26th April 2022Website Admin

Gesher moved to its new home in Pinner in September 2021. Since then we have been very fortunate to welcome The Chief Rabbi to the school on three occasions.

The first was to put our mezzuzahs up in our original building!  The second was to record the Shabbat UK 2022 song with the students and the third was in April when the school transformed itself into a sensory immersive Pesach experience replete with animal sounds, live locusts and plenty of frogs. Three of our students hosted The Chief Rabbi and other guests along the ten plagues learning walk culminating in a freedom party in the school hall.

It was a really special afternoon and we are truly grateful for the time, support and interest The Chief Rabbi has shown to Gesher. We very much look forward to his next visit next term.

The Difference A Building Can Make

26th April 2022Website Admin

Gesher Dramatherapist, Chris Gurney, talks about the difference a bigger building has made.

The therapy provision that we offer at Gesher is integral in helping our pupils access the school setting, as well as providing them with the skills required to engage with the wider world and home environments. Since moving to our new larger premises our therapy team has talso expanded to include the following:

• Two full-time speech & language therapists; their focus is supporting the social communication needs of the pupils, and assisting with language development.

• Two full-time occupational therapists; they work on a wide range of skills, including self-care (i.e. toileting, dressing, feeding, etc.) and typing/writing, as well as specific targets related to fine and gross motor skills.

• Two full-time creative arts psychotherapists; an art therapist and a dramatherapist support the pupils with their wellbeing and mental health, as well as assisting the development of emotional understanding and social skills using creative and child-led techniques.

• One part-time educational psychologist; they work closely with both teachers and parents in helping to ensure every pupil’s needs are understood and well-known. They are familiar with each child and offer interventions where needed to assist with specific needs such as dyslexia and attachment disorder.

The therapy team is incredibly blessed to have a number of dedicated therapy spaces throughout the school that allow for them to work closely with the pupils without impacting the academic side of their education.

In fact, both therapy and academics go hand-in-hand in creating a holistic experience for the students that helps prepare them for their future.

Currently, the therapy team has begun working with both pupils and families in helping educate the young people at Gesher about their needs and those of others, with the goal being that they can ultimately become advocates for themselves and the SEN community at large. Whilst every child is viewed as an individual and will therefore have different long-term outcomes, one thing that we aim for with all our pupils is that they will be able to be happy and reach their potential. This is not something that would necessary be possible without our provision as these children would often be viewed as disruptive or unable to engage. With the skills that the therapy team support our pupils to develop alongside the rest of the school team, we are excited to see how our therapy provision continues to grow alongside the school as we move further into secondary education.

Gesher’s Big Build

26th April 2022Website Admin

In July 2021 we embarked upon our most ambitious fundraising exercise to date – Gesher’s Big Build.

Having found a new site to relocate and expand our school, we spent 8 months with architects and planners to assess the work needed to transform a one form entry, mainstream primary school into an all through school for SEN pupils. We will need to spend £6.5m in total over a number of years to modernise, update and adapt the building. The infrastructure and use of spaces are critical as they reflect our approach to education. Our fund raiser in July was the first phase of this project allowing us to do the first tranche of work. It was a remarkable weekend and we felt truly enveloped by the support and generosity shown towards the campaign from across the community and beyond. Over 24 hours we raised a staggering £2.2m. Thank you to all who took part, including the charity extra team, our Big Build Team, the Gesher students and of course all of our wonderful donors.

Drums Donated to Gesher Students

22nd April 2022Website Admin

Over the last year, Gesher has been lucky enough to have received regular visits from a young man called Leo. He has been fundraising prior to his Bar Mitzvah so as to able to support Gesher pupils in accessing music through drumming and percussion, something which is a huge passion of Leo’s. Subsequently, he raised over £700 and has kindly used this to purchase a number of instruments which Leo has donated 

to Gesher. Alongside this, Leo has also been investing his time in coming to demonstrate how to use the drums and provide introductory lessons for our pupils. We cannot understate how incredibly grateful we are to Leo for the kindness and generosity he has displayed, and it is a testament to what an outstanding citizen he is within the community. Thank you, Leo – our pupils cannot wait to get their hands on our new drum kits!