We would like to wish all of our staff, pupils, parents, carers and supporters a very enjoyable festive season!

The pupils have begun their Christmas play rehearsals.  They have been learning the actions and words for their festive songs! Please click the link below to see the photos.

This week, all of the pupils have participated in an assembly in honour of Anti-Bullying Week with this year’s theme being One Kind Word.  They have made a poster with different kind words that they can use and discussed the issues of how unkind words and behaviours can make others feel. The pupils also then took part in a kind act whereby they created a thank you card for either a staff member, a family member or a peer.

The Quest School have celebrated Children in Need today. The pupils have participated in an Assembly where they learnt  more about what Children in Need is and why fundraising is so important. They also participated in a range of activities including arts and crafts, a collaborative Pudsey Bear, a Dance-a-thon, biscuit decorating and a bake sale. The pupils were also given the option to come to school in their own clothes.

Together with pupils, parents and staff, we have raised just over £160!

Some of our pupils have been working hard in their ‘Social Use of Language’ group lesson. This is a session focused on teaching interactions between the group through a variety of activities.  Today they have been playing barrier games where they need to complete an activity in an identical manner to each other. This is done through one pupil being the speaker who gives instructions; and the other pupil being the listener, who places their items in the correct place from the instructions given.

Other activities that the pupils also participated in were, ‘Be teacher,’ ‘Tic-tac-toe,’ ‘what’s in the box?’  These teach skills such as; the ability to make inferences, take turns and to take the lead role in conversations such as pretending to be the teacher.

To end off Term one, the pupils have participated in a very vibrant and colourful Asian Theme Day.

They have completed a range of arts and crafts activities including making a fan, decorating a dragon, designing a Cherry Blossom Tree and contributing a piece of work to a group art project.

In addition, the pupils spent time in a pop-up sensory room where they participated in a yoga and meditation session.

The pupils have also tried a range of different traditionally Asian food including fried rice, prawn crackers, chutney, mango and poppadoms.

We wish our the pupils, parents, carers, staff and friends of Quest a happy half term break.

Please click on the link below to see more photos.

As COVID restrictions are being lifted, we are now able to visit a goat sanctuary as part of our sixth form curriculum.  Some of the pupils have been learning about how to take care of the goats.  They have listened to a talk on safety instructions, have been grooming the goats and filling up their water troughs.  This has also been a great experience for them to practise their social skills with adults who are not familiar to them.

October is AAC month. AAC is Alternative and Augmentative Communication which includes all forms of communication other than oral speech. AAC is used to express thoughts, needs, wants and ideas and allows for all individuals to functionally  communicate in the world around them. AAC includes symbols, pictures, writing, facial expressions and gestures.

Here at Quest, our resident Speech and Language Therapist, along with all other staff, work hard to ensure that we provide our pupils with the opportunity to communicate in a way that works best for them. This includes Makaton, PECS and Proloquo2go, which is an app that is used on the iPad or iPod.  We expose all pupils to a Total Communication approach to enable them to be able to communicate with each other.

Today is World Mental Health Day.

Here at Quest, the mental health and well-being of our staff and pupils  is paramount.

For the staff, we are proud of our supportive culture, robust Mental Health and Well-being Policy and the comprehensive range of external support provided by our Employee Assistance Provider –  Health Assured.

We teach our pupils how to recognise their feelings and how to communicate them.  The pupils are then taught how to regulate their feelings by learning the “tools” that they can use that are unique to them as individuals.

Here at Quest, the safety of the pupils online is of paramount importance.  The pupils have Online Safety lessons and are regularly reminded of the rules when using the internet to keep them safe online. Please see the parent tab on our website which has a new document added detailing helpful websites and information for parents and carers.  We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that our website has the “Click CEOP” button which enables you to report online concerns directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP).