At Quest, we work hard to teach our pupils a range of life skills that will help to prepare them for different situations and activities in school, at home and in the wider community. This week, the pupils have been spending time completing different gardening tasks, practising calming tools and participating in playground games to teach the skill of play and co-operation. In addition, pupils took part in different activities to further enable imitation for life skills, such as using mirror images.

The pupils are safely back in school after a very successful and exciting residential trip to Carroty Wood. They settled in very quickly to the environment and seemed to enjoy looking around their new home for the evening. On day one, the pupils learnt how to do archery and participated in an adventurous low ropes course. They then ate a delicious meal of spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread, salad and ice cream. The pupils also enjoyed sitting around a camp fire before putting on their pyjamas and getting in to bed. On day two, the pupils woke up early to eat breakfast and make their packed lunch for the day. The pupils then tidied up the lodge and got ready for the day’s adventures. They enjoyed swimming with lots of different pool floats and accessories before rock climbing. After lunch, everyone returned back to school tired but very happy.

Today the pupils were immersed in a history-based Topic afternoon where they learnt about the Titanic. They explored the timeline of the Titanic and also learnt more about the different passenger experiences. They created a Titanic information poster and also designed and made a model showing the Titanic hitting the iceberg. The pupils appeared to enjoy watching video re-enactments of the night the Titanic hit the iceberg and sunk.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our pupils who have returned back to school this week after the Easter break. The pupils have dived back into their school routine and have been working hard in their lessons. We hope everyone has had a restful break.

Today at Quest it has been German theme day. The pupils have engaged in a range of activities including decorating a flag, making a German hat, decorating a ginger bread man and sequencing the Hansel and Gretel story. They have explored the German language through colours of a rainbow and playing hall games where they had to run to the correct colour in German. Wishing all our pupils and their families a lovely Easter break!

This afternoon the pupils at Quest have been learning about people in the community who help us. We were lucky enough to have a special visit from Kent Police.  The officers talked about what they do and how they may support our pupils in the community. The pupils got to explore the police car, try on police uniform and also see the flashing lights and siren. Thank you to our Police liaison officer for your visit!

We have been celebrating Red Nose Day today and fundraising for Comic Relief! The money raised goes to help people live free from poverty, violence and discrimination. This has also included funding organisations that are supporting people in Ukraine and those attempting to cross the border. We raised money by wearing our own clothes, participating in various sports activities and buying delicious treats in a bake sale. Pupils attended an assembly where they learnt more about why and how we celebrate Comic Relief. They also participated in different arts and crafts activities, they went on a joke hunt around the school and they took part in a food technology activity making meringue nests with different red-coloured food. The Quest School raised £129.80. Thank you very much to all parents, pupils and staff for taking part in Red Nose Day 2022!

At the Quest School, we work hard to foster a love of books in our pupils and encourage the pupils to spend time engaging with different texts daily. Our staff and pupils have enjoyed celebrating World Book Day this year. They learnt why we celebrate World Book Day and listened to different songs celebrating books. The pupils looked through a range of characters from books and chose a character to design and decorate a mask. They wore their character masks and participated in a small parade in the hall. The pupils also explored different fictional and non-fictional books and participated in a hunt whereby they looked through books to find particular characters and settings.

At Quest the pupils have been exploring the sensory tent and light wall. Children with Autism may experience differences in the way their bodies process sensory stimulation which can result in them seeking out or avoiding sensory experience or may cause them to become overwhelmed or agitated in environments which may be challenging for them. Ensuring pupils have a balanced sensory diet consists of many types of activities that target various sensory systems in order to calm, alert, provide distraction, promote attention, self-organisation and regulation.

We would like to extend our warm welcome to the new pupils who have recently joined The Quest School. The pupils are settling in well and are getting to know the staff and pupils.

After a lovely half term break, all our pupils are starting to settle back in to school routine.