Busines Name

The Joseph Swan Cluster is made up of the following schools:

Joseph Swan School
0191 442 2000

Dryden Special School
0191 420 3811

The Cedars Special School
0191 433 4046

Glynwood Primary School
0191 433 4117

Kelvin Grove Primary School
0191 477 4186

Harlow Green Primary School
0191 487 6703

Kells Lane Primary School
0191 433 4140

Oakfield Junior School
0191 433 4086

Oakfield Infant School
0191 487 0354

The Extended Services Co-ordinator for the Joseph Swan Cluster is Elaine Smith. Elaine is responsible for co-ordinating activities and services throughout each school in the Joseph Swan Cluster to ensure that each element of the Extended Services Core Offer is being met within the Cluster. Elaine can be contacted for any queries regarding Extended Services in the Joseph Swan Cluster. Elaine's contact details are:

Elaine Smith
Joseph Swan School
Saltwell Road South
Gateshead
NE9 6LE
(0191) 442 2000
elainesmith@josephswan.org.uk

Also supporting Extended Services in the Joseph Swan Cluster are:

Family Support Workers

Nicola Owens
0191 442 2000
nicolaowens@jospehswan.org.uk

Angela Noble
0191 442 2000
angelanoble@josephswan.org.uk

Administrative Assistant

Julie Mason
0191 442 2000
juliemason@jospehswan.org.uk

FREE ENTRY

Friday Youth Village
6.00 pm - 8.30 pm

The Joseph Swan Cluster consists of 9 schools, 1 secondary school, 2 special schools, 5 primary schools and 1 infant school.

The cluster has been and continues to work together to maintain and develop the services currently on offer to the pupils, families and surround community. In order to provide the best service possible we work with private, statutory and voluntary organisations within Gateshead. Our over all aim is raise aspirations, decrease exclusion, increase inclusion, improve transition and provide enriching opportunities for every body.

An extensive range of activities is currently on offer across the whole of the cluster. Activities include Morning Maths, Bikers Breakfast, and Cheerleading, Family Cookery, before and after school child care plus a wide range of Adult Education Classes.

The aim of the cluster is to continually develop we have plans to introduce further transition workshops, a series of activities used to familiarise children with the change from key stage 2 to key stage 3 education. We also intend to introduce a range of parenting courses and further family learning activities throughout the course of the year.



The Joseph Swan Cluster have recently been successful in appointing two Family Support Workers who will work across the cluster concentrating on associated achievement issues. The Extended Services Co-ordinator along with the Family Support Workers liaise with external agencies to provide the best possible opportunities for the children and families who access the service.

The cluster as a whole is confident that the activities in which they are providing are contributing to the team achieving each of the five elements of the full core offer.

We are now into the second year of the Extended Services Subsidy Pathfinder, which will see the Joseph Swan Cluster join the Thomas Hepburn and Hookergate Clusters to become the third cluster in Gateshead to receive Subsidy Funding at a total of £120,000 across the 9 schools in the cluster. This funding has come to be known as 'Willy Wonka's magic ticket', as it provides out-of-school activities for children and young people in the cluster who could not afford to attend otherwise.

Children, young people and their families from the cluster will be invited to a Market Place Event at Joseph Swan School, which will introduce them to an array of activity providers, for example Stepney Bank Stables, Newcastle United Community Football Foundation and The Soundroom Music Project to name a few. Feedback from those attending the event will be used to inform decisions made by the schools as to what activities to commission with this funding.

Cluster Market Place

The Joseph Swan Cluster has now become the third cluster in Gateshead to receive extra funding which will allow all schools to provide more activities before and after school plus during school holidays.

Pupils and Families from across the cluster were invited to a Market Place Event at Joseph Swan School on the 13th May.

A number of providers attended the event all with the aim of showing the attendees why their activity should be commissioned as part of Extended Services Activities.Providers included, Professor Pelicano, Cycle 4 Adventure, Radiowaves and Film Club to name but a few.

Feedback from the event was extremely positive, pupils and families all enjoyed the various activities on offer and came away with some excellent ideas for future projects.

TELL US WHAT YOU WANT!!!!!!

REMEMBER we want to put on activities, trips or visits that you want to attend, so if you are a pupil at one of the schools in the Joseph Swan Cluster why not TELL US WHAT YOU WANT?

All you have to do to feedback what you want is to go to the homepage and post your comments by leaving your leave your age, school that you attend and area that you live in and of course WHAT YOU THINK!!!!

For ideas on activities that could be provided, check the Subsidy Pathfinder article listed in the Recent News section on the Homepage.

Over the course of October half term 150 children from across the Joseph Swan Cluster where invited to attend activities at Joseph Swan School. The activities included, Self Defence, Rugby, Football, Cheerleading and Creative Arts. The whole week was a great success with all children taking advantage of the specialist coaching they received!

Year five gifted and talented children from across the cluster where invited to Joseph Swan to take part in a seven week course concentrating on literacy skills. The concept behind the seven week course was Creation: An English course tailored to INSPIRE young minds. The aim was to encourage the children to become independent learners, develop confidence in their language and learning as well as enhancing their creativity and imagination using their senses. The course was a huge success with all children thoroughly enjoying the activities, comments from the children included:

‘When can I come back?’

‘I have enjoyed learning new things’

Watch this space for further courses!!!

Gifted and Talented Master Classes

A new group from across the cluster have been taking part in the Jaguar Maths in Motion Challenge. A group of 30 gifted and talented children descend on Joseph Swan School every Thursday evening for two hours to experience new activities all aimed at developing their mathematical skills. So far the children have taken part in origami, orienteering, bridge building and cookery plus much more! The children have really enjoyed taking part in all of the activities and have made some new friends along the way!

All schools within the cluster provide childcare both before and after school. Oakfield Junior School has childcare facilities on site provided by Lamesley Childcare Services. All children within the area are able to access this service which will allow them access to various activities such as arts and crafts.

During the week commencing 09.03.09. and 16.03.09 Oakfield Infant School held Family Learning Mornings focused around literacy. Parents / Carers where given the opportunity to learn new ways to support their children. They then worked alongside them on activities in the I.T. Suit, Classroom and ‘’outdoor’’ environment. Year 2 staff, Children and Parents had a very valuable and enjoyable morning as you can see from the photographs! Home cooked biscuits where provided which was a good incentive for parents to attend!

A Thursday afternoon sees Joseph Swan being taken over by Primary Aged School Children from across the cluster. Each school comes along on alternate weeks to access the excellent sports facilities, coaching and equipment available at Joseph Swan. Children experience the Climbing Wall, Trampolining and Table Tennis activities in which they have not participated in before.

Glynwood Primary School have recently become part of ‘Bike It’, a new and exciting initiative introduced to encourage more children and families to bike it to school. As part of the initiative many events have taken place in school such as ‘Bikers Breakfast’ This was a free breakfast along with free bike accessories for those children who biked to school on that day.
School also took part in the ‘Bike It Virtual Bike Race’ Each time a child, Parent / Carer or a member of school staff cycled to school 4 miles was added to the virtual race map!

The Cedars School have their very own Hydrotherapy Pool on Site which is used on a daily basis by Parents, Babies and Toddlers through the school day. After school the pool is used by older children who are in main stream school who may have physical difficulties. All sessions involve Colin the schools swimming teacher and lifeguard. The pool also has ‘disco’ light and music too!!

Pupils at Joseph Swan School have been taking part in ‘Active Lunchtimes’ physical activities ranging from Climbing, Basketball, Badminton, Football and Table Tennis to name just a few. Activities run every lunchtime with a qualified member of staff facilitating each session. Children are finding the additional activities a fantastic opportunity to gain specialist coaching, increase fitness, learn new skills and socialise with others. Active Lunchtimes have proved to be a great success and something we hope to continue running in the future.

Oakfield Primary School run a very successful Gardening Club for Year 2 children. The children have grown a wide range of vegetables in the vegetable patches, including potatoes, radishes and spring onions. They were so successful that this year the children hope to sell their produce to parents! Oakfield Infants also take part in Gateshead in bloom and are currently getting entries ready, the school had several winners last, so they now have a lot to live up to!

An extensive array of adult education classes are available at Joseph Swan all facilitated by Gateshead Council. Courses include Pilates, Spanish, German, Belly Dancing and Leading Country Walks. Courses run after school with a qualified tutor. If you would like further information please call (0191) 433 8646.

Some Year 6 children from Kells Lane Primary School have been attending Maths Breakfast Club. As well as having a healthy start to the day the children take part in tailored maths activities which they thoroughly enjoy!! Everyone involved now finds maths a breeze!!

Following on from highly successful French and Italian Days, on Wednesday 4th February the whole school took part in a Spanish Theme Day! Children and Staff alike all dressed in the colours of the Spanish Flag or Traditional Spanish Costume.

Spanish Speaking parents and governors came into school to work with he staff and children.
We were immersed in the Spanish Culture for the day – the Spanish language, music, dance, art, food and drink were greatly enjoyed by all. One of our parents is Spanish and he made a huge contribution to the day, with activities including power point presentation and the best paella we have ever tasted!

Karate is offered to all physically able students from Dryden School. At the moment 12 children attend, two of which have their 1st colour belt, and another is training for his 3rd belt and accesses Karate Club outside of school. Hopefully the other students will all gain their 1st belt in the summer term.

The Cedars School runs an extremely successful after school club which is called Kestrels. Children who attend have the opportunity to compete in various sports competitions which take place across the country.

Congratulations to Josef Craig for being selected by British Swimming to join the World Class Talent Programme. Josef (pictured right with fellow Gateshead Kestrel Stephanie Moore and double gold Paralympic medalist Ellie Simmonds) who swims in the S8, SB8 category took part in the 50M, 100M, 400M Freestyle, 50M, 100M Backstroke and 100M Breaststroke. His race times were fast enough to be inside the British Swimming World Class Talent Programme boundaries and have highlighted Josef as a possible future British Paralympian and will enable him to access top Great Britain swimming coaches and facilities. Well done Josef and good luck in the future!

To read more click on the link below:

Download file Swimming Champions

Active Kidz is a holiday scheme that is ran by the council. It gives children the opportunity to socialize with children there own age and the chance to experience new activities they wouldn't usually have at home, including Arts and Crafts and a mixture of different outdoor activities. The scheme runs for 2 weeks in the Easter holidays and a 5 week scheme in the summer holidays, it is also held at different venues across Gateshead.

Joseph Swan had 25 children at thei Active Kisz scheme during the Easter Holidays. The staff team there ran various activities to stimulate the children and also to keep them fit. different activities such as swimming, Going for walks to saltwell park, Visiting the Alan Shearer centre, Dodgle ball and many more. The staff team were very energetic which had the children in the right mind to have fun. The children were laughing and smiling throughout the day and the activities give the children many different benefits for example it keeps the children fit whilst having fun, they learn new games so they can play them at home and it is something different for the children to experience. Below are a few quotes from the children from Joseph Swan.

I really liked it when the staff acts silly, It makes me laugh all of the time.
Laura Aged 10

I feel really tired when i go home because they have us running around all day on the field playing games, football is my Fav!
Craig aged 9

My best part of the day is when we all get to go to arts and crafts and when we made them big posters of the people.
Jessica aged 11

The Alan Shearer Centre

The Alan Shearer Centre enables people with a disability, and their carers to share leisure time in a setting which provides wide ranging challenge, leisure, relaxation and tehrapeutic opportunities. People can use this as a place to relax and unwind either to stay for a short session or a longer stay, indoors or out. The Alan Shearer Centre is sponsored by St Cuthbert's Care project and is for both Adults and Children with Disabilities.

The Alan Shearer Centre is a brilliant place to get all children involved. It is really stimulating and really promotes healthy living whilst having fun.
Abigail, Play Development Service

Reported By Matthew Ternent - V talent Volunteer

Glynwood Primary School have taken part in the Bike-It project. Bike It is a national Sustrans led project, which aims to increase cycling in schools. There are many benefits of the project including increased physical activity of the children, reduction in local traffic congestion and a decrease in pollution and carbon emissions.

The Bike-It project focuses on running a number of events and activities including:

 Bike rides
 Bike ride breakfasts
 Bike maintenance classes
 Dr. Bike sessions
 Cycle coaching and cycle safety
 Classroom activities including geography, environment, health and growth and history
 PE activities
 Assemblies
 Dressing bike up
 Virtual bike race around the world
 Bike trails and displays with 3 x world champion
 National art competitions

The impact of Bike-It in Gateshead for 2008/2009 shows:

 11.9% of children cycle to school everyday compared to the national average of 1%
 A further 24.2% of children in the area cycle to school at least once per week

For more information contact Gateshead Bike-It Officer:

Alan Barlow
(0191) 261 6160
Alan.barlow@sustrans.org.uk

To read more on the Bike-It project click on the link below:

Download file Bike-It

A new group from across the cluster have been taking part in the Jaguar Maths in Motion Challenge. A group of 30 gifted and talented children descend on Joseph Swan School every Thursday evening for two hours to experience new activities all aimed at developing their mathematical skills. So far the children have taken part in origami, orienteering, bridge building and cookery plus much more! The children have really enjoyed taking part in all of the activities and have made some new friends along the way!

Eight pupils from Joseph Swan attended Whickham Thorns Activity centre this half term. A great day was had by all which involved snow-tubing, archery and a gruelling 700m assault course.

It has been an exciting term so far for pupils of Kelvin Grove with a number of different things going on around the school including:

A visit to Seven Stories in Newcastle with an aim to increase reading for pleasure.

The Jeff Rich Drumming workshop (aka the drummer from Status Quo) came into school. A great time was had by all although parents and carers have been stocking up on ear plugs!

Year 5 began ukulele lessons!

Visits to Armstrong house care home to entertain the residents.

A Tudor visitor came to school to bring the Tudors to life.

Eid and Diwali parties held across the school

Congratulations to Cedars Special School who have been awarded winners of the category “Excellence in Disabled Sport” at the School Sports Matters Awards. The award was received by Stephanie Moore and Rebecca Morton and given to them by Paralympian David Weir.

Cedars achieved sports college status in September 2007 and have gone from strength to strength. Gateshead Kestrels sports club, co-ordinated by Cedars school has had numerous sporting achievements at recent sporting events including 28 swimming medals and 36 athletic medals. Cedars is the only special school to be selected by the Youth Sports Trust in which 15 students fulfil the requirement of being in the top 5% nationally in their discipline.

Here at Joseph Swan we have been running hair and beauty classes after school since September 09. Every Thursday 15 pupils attend the classes and learn ways to apply make up, look after their skin and explore different forms of cultural dress. A fun time was had by all!
Pupil Comments included:

‘I have really enjoyed learning how to apply make up properly’ (Chantelle Year 8)

‘I especially enjoyed the Henna Hand Painting’ (Emma Year 11)

‘Doing each others hair was the best!’ (Louise Year 9)

Family French Classes start at Joseph Swan School on Monday 18th January from 5pm until 6.30pm. All are welcome! (Children must be aged 5yrs and over) Come along and learn a new language with your child in a fun and relaxed atmosphere!

Over the past term, Mrs McGinty and Miss Jackson have provided ICT lessons to young children in the community. Joseph Swan Student Ian Herron has provided support to students throughout the lessons. The course content is equivalent to GCSE level and everyone who attended managed the practical tasks with ease.

Ian Herron, Robson Young, Harry Jones, Jack Saul, James Reynard and Matthew (Matty) Moralee.

Participants in the course as young as Year 5 made the following comments:

“I think the course was very good. It was fun, exciting and joyful.” Jack Saul.

“I think this course was fun because you do things you have never done on the computer”. Robson Young.

“It’s really good learning about ICT” James Reynard.

“The course is really good and I wish it went on forever”. Matthew Moralee.

“This course is really good and you learn a lot about ICT and making a Video” Harry Jones.

“It has been a really good course because I like ICT. I have really enjoyed doing this course with my friends”. Daniel Edwards.

Ian commented “I thought the lessons were very good and I have really enjoyed helping with these lessons and helping the teachers with the lessons as I have learnt new concepts of the software and enjoyed working with younger children”.

All the children had a very exciting time. They were able to go home and create a video clip adding images, sound, transitions and credits by themselves using the Microsoft Windows Movie Maker software.

The Joseph Swan Cluster wants to know what YOU THINK, whether it be what services or activities you would like to see taking place in the cluster, comments on the Joseph Swan Cluster Web page or any comments in general about the Joseph Swan Cluster PLEASE TELL US!!!!!!!!

All you have to do to feedback what you want is to go to the homepage and post your comments by leaving your leave your age, school that you attend and area that you live in and of course WHAT YOU THINK!!!!

Joseph Swan School