On the 6^th December, we held a whole school assembly with the election as the theme. Sally the local Vicar from Hertford Heath came in to introduce herself. I couldn’t have asked for a better warm-up act!

We feel it’s really important that the pupils feel included in the election as it is all around them in the pre-election period. One of the aims was to deepen their understanding of democracy and our system of government. It is perhaps our most basic of British Values. The pupils were introduced to the parties as coloured teams e.g. ‘The Yellow Team – The Liberals and a very much simplified version of each manifesto were discussed. They were also given an animated impression of each party leader. They were introduced by their Christian names – Boris, Sian, Adam, Jeremy, Nigel, Nicola, Jonathan and Jo (I’ll let you work that one out!)

At the end of the assembly, we discussed how to actually vote. Each tutor group were given a ballot box and a set of ballot papers and we have held our own election.

The results were…

• Brexit – 7

• LibDems – 10

• Conservative – 10

• Green Party – 13

• Labour Party – 62

Therefore I can declare that the Red team, the Labour Party have won our election by a landslide. Not only the highest score but more votes than all the other teams put together. Hmmm, I do wonder the value of being the first square to put your cross in???

Let’s see what happens in the real election.

Pinewood pupil Daniele is one of the stars of the Wouldn’t Change a Thing (WCAT) 2020 Calendar. WCAT promote changing of negative perceptions of Down’s Syndrome through various activities.

Daniele’s mum, Michelle said ‘Daniele is a typical teenage. He went to a local mainstream primary school until he was 11 and then we decided it was best that he transferred to a special needs school in the local area. He’s passionate about football, especially Spurs and enjoys karate which he attends at the Laura Trott Centre and has lots of other interests’.

For more info on WCAT see their website or to buy the calendar for a snip at £9.99 from their shop

It’s book fair at Pinewood at the moment and pupils are invited to come along and buy a book or two to read at home. There are over 200 titles to choose from starting from £3 and with a wide choice, there’s definitely a book for everyone. There’s also stationery items and a competition to win book vouchers!

On the 15th November, the Pinewood School Community came together to raise some money for the fantastic Children in Need charity. The day was filled with dressing up – as the staff and students came into school in Non-Uniform yellow/spotty items of clothing, and most importantly, brought in/purchased lots of sweet treats from the bake sale at break time, which was a huge success!

We would like to thank everyone donated what they could and/or baked some brilliant cakes to help support disadvantaged children across the UK, and especially to Miss Davies and Miss Holding who spent plenty of time baking/decorating 100 Pudsey biscuits, which the students enjoyed at lunchtime.

To see more photos from the day’s event, head over to our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pinewoodschooluk/) where you can see what we all got up to!

Total Raised to Date (As of 19th November) – £374.41! Well done to all!