November 2025 edition

Contents

End and start of term information

End of term - Friday, 19th December

On the last day of term, young people will be ready to go home from 14:15. However, if you wish to take your child home after the Carol Concert, please let your class teacher/ tutor know. 

Bags will be ready for collection in Reception, please notify Team Managers/ Assistant Care Managers of any items you would specifically like. 

Young people will be able to have a cooked lunch that day in Bradbury Hall Dining Room.

The collection point for medication will also be in Reception. Could we please ensure all young people have been collected by 3pm at the latest. Please make sure Reception is aware of your arrival and then your son/daughter will be brought there to meet you.
Please ensure any medication which is required for the holiday is requested through the Nursing team at least ten days prior to the last day of term. Please send any unused medication back in the Green Bag to us on the first day of the new term.

Extended provision (44-week term):

  • Extended provision week - N/A

Returning to school for the start of term - Monday, 5 January

Times of arrival:

  • 10am -11am: Giles, Shirley, Millington. Summerhill, Henley house students
  • 11am - noon: Todhunter, Fleming, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring house students
  • Day pupil times as normal 

Please can all parents, carers or taxis returning children ensure that even if the main gates are open, you let Reception know of your arrival by communicating via the intercom at the gates before entering the site. This will enable us to make sure staff are aware and ready to meet you and your child.  Once on site, proceed to park in the Bradbury Hall or Seasons car parks. A staff member from the house will collect your child (and belongings) from your car.

Topic in focus - Learning Framework

In each parent newsletter, we're now going to be focusing on a key term at Prior's Court and what it means. This edition it is the Learning Framework.

The Learning Framework is what the young people we support will learn during their time with us. Our underpinning values are for health, happiness and skills in work/work experiences. It is, for want of a better word, our curriculum.

The Learning Framework is made up of seven Areas of Learning that we feel best support the young people at Prior’s Court to gain skills and achieve the best quality of life for them as individuals. The seven Areas of Learning look at developing independence and generalising skills in Communication, Daily Living Skills, Healthiness (split into PE and Care), Keeping Me Safe, Creative Arts, Functional Academics and Vocational Learning. 

These seven areas cover learning in all settings - classroom, home, community and more. While Care and Education "own" different Areas of Learning, the expectation that all staff members will contibute to each Area of Learning. For example, "Communication" as a concept is owned by our Therapies team, but all staff are expected to model use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication methods such as communication books.

Each learning pathway is bespoke to the individual through their targets and smaller ‘I Can’ statements (more on 'I Can' statements in a later edition of the newsletter).

Starters and leavers - young people

Welcome to our latest new starter, Wilfred who joined Prior's Court at the start of November. Wilfred is in MIllington House and Chestnut Class. A huge welcome to Wilfred and to his family too.

At the opposite side, we've had to say goodbye to young adult Luca in November. Luca had been with Prior's Court through our School and Young Adult Provision for 11 years, most recently living in Bradbury Cottages. Known across site for his cheery "morning" greeting (whatever the time of the day), Luca grew into a wonderful young man in his time with us. We wish him all the best in his new placement.

Read more about Luca on our social media

Starters and leavers - staff

Below is a list of staff changes at Teacher, Care Manager, Assistant Care Manager, Team Manager, therapist or senior management level since the previous newsletter:

Starters - Max Hunter, Music Tutor

Role changes and other notes - As per the ParentMail letter, Mark Mederson (erstwhile Care Manager for Summer and Winter House) will be stepping up to the Head of Care - Children's Home role upon his return from paternity leave in the middle of December.

Nurse Abi Mederson is currently on maternity leave, as is Robin Cottage Care Manager Clare Maxwell. Nathan Ward, previously Assistant Care Manager for Todhunter and Fleming Houses, is now the Care Manager for Robin. Tim GIlks, formerly Team Manager in Fleming House, takes up Nathan's old role.

Leavers - None to note

Ofsted Care visit

Earlier in November, the Children’s Home had an inspection visit by Ofsted Social Care 

We expect the report to be published by mid-December. The outcome of this report will be shared with you directly once we are able to.

New Regulation 44 visitor

Please be aware that we have a new Regulation 44 visitor in place.

Michael Garrity, pictured below, replaces our former Reg 44 visitor Chris Peel, who came to the end of his term working with us.

Read more about the purpose of a Reg 44 visitor

Parent survey now open

The Prior's Court Parent Survey 2025/26 is now open for responses. The survey is anonymous and it should not take more than 10 minutes to complete This survey is vitally important in finding areas to improve your child’s education and care during their time with us.

The questions have been tweaked from previous years with a view to getting more holistic data.

The link to complete the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JL2P3WQ

The survey will close on Sunday, 21 December.

Christmas at Prior's Court - get involved

Our Christmas programme of events is now finalised. We will be sending out a digital guide to all the events taking place for young people at the start of December, so you can see all of the activities we have going on.

Families are invited to attend the following events:

  • Christmas Theatre Performances - 2, 3 and 10 December
  • Reindeer visit - 17 December
  • Christmas Carol Concert - 19 December

Further details of these events and how to register to attend are available on the events page of the Family Information area of our website.

Sensory circuits

The OT team has temporarily adopted the Seasons Gym to create a sensory circuit available for post-16 and YAP during their therapy sessions, and during the Extended Day. This will remain while we replace the Gym equipment. The Lower School young people continue to have their own sensory circuit space in the school building.

With the Multi-sensory building out of action temporarily, the OT team has also created posters to guide staff in supporting young people with following a sensory circuit in our outdoor spaces, including the woods, music circle, climbing frame, and outdoor gym. We hope these will be enjoyed and beneficial and intend to maintain these beyond the multisensory building reopening.

Sensory circuits help young people to regulate to the ‘just right’ level of alertness, helping them to learn and access other activities. They use sensory-based movement activities in the order of ‘alerting’, ‘organising’, and ‘calming’.

A more comprehensive update about Therapies provision will be sent out in a separate ParentMail message.

Estates work round-up

There has been a significant amount of work being done by the Estates team since the start of the academic year across the site to highlight:

  • The swimming pool filters have been replaced and a new liner installed - the liner is blue like a community swimming pool to aid recognition.
  • Awnings have been installed in a number of locations to provide share for areas which are exposed to long periods of sun during the summer.
  • Acoustic panels installed in the Main School building.
  • New play equipment has been installed in a number of locations, with more to come.
  • Bradbury Cottages laundry room renovation.
  • Continued renovation work of Beechcroft House.
  • Ongoing renovation work in the Multi-Sensory Building (done between our on-site staff and contractors).
  • Renovation and installation of equipment for new sensory rooms in Giles and Shirley Houses (done between our on-site staff and contractors).

This is in addition to usual remedial and reactive works our Estates team completes and smaller projects. While the above works are disruptive, they are a) providing better resources for young people and b) showing our commitment to improving our physical environment.

Speeding sign on the main drive

A vehicle activated speed sign has been installed on the main driveway to encourage all visitors to site to stick to the 10mph speed limit. Studies have shown that these signs do reduce speeding and have a long-term impact - so we're hoping to see this on our site too.

Piper Arts Centre update

This remains the first academic year in which we're fully utilising Piper Arts Centre so it is very early on in establishing how we practically use the facility.

Primarily, the area is for planned, structured activities, rather than being an area for young people to "hang out" (as the latter would undermine the chance of success of the former).

Tanya and Elise, Performing Arts Co-Leads, are working with Care teams to create planned, structured, creative activities across the Extended Day. An example of this is recent prop-making workshops open to all residential young people, empowering to be involved in the creation of props for the Polar Express Christmas performance next month.

But the intention is to first get the School hours part of the offering at the centre done well, before we then rollout to the whole Extended Day. So please bear with us as we slowly, but correctly, build up the offering.

Here are some images of props being made for the Polar Express performances. We're deliberately not sharing too many photos to make the performance more of a surprise. The performance will be filmed and put on YouTube for parents who are unable to attend to watch.

Events, term dates and more key information

Term dates Events this year Uniform information
Clothing labels Prior Insight Parent Portal Parent Handbook

Please remember to sign in and out at Reception on every visit to site.

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