Orchard Training

All Jammed Out! - well the younger group is. They have been learning how to make basic jams, jellies and cheeses (the word cheese here means a jam that is very thick. It is made with fruit, sugar and water, which is boiled down well past the setting point. You can then slice the fruit cheese rather than spoon it.)

We started with the Rhubarb we picked way back in March, then the gooseberries, followed by the strawberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants and finally the cherries. The first two fruits we made into your straight forward jam. Learning the technical skills of fruit preparation, which sugar to use, how to sterilise the jars and all about pectin.

As the strawberries came in we had enough to make jam and soft set jam using different methods. Here we were kindly aided by one of our grandparents: grandpa supplied us with enough strawberries (you may remember we scoffed, did I say scoffed I meant "tasted" all of our strawberries grown in the Orchard Training Garden) and grandma showed us the techniques need to make ensure the strawberries stayed soft whilst cooking and even dispersed throughout the jam when setting. Although we did have someone who did their own thing, and ended up with whole strawberries all at the top of the jam but a fabulously tasting jelly underneath.

The blackcurrants was made in to a gorgeous cheese. I am afraid to say the first jar has already disappeared- it was so gooood!

We were joined by some younger sisters in the redcurrant picking at the local pick your own farm and just as well we were! It was a very sultry afternoon, and just as we collectively harvested just enough - the heavens opened. Some of us got pretty wet, they walked back to the car because they didn't want to drop the redcurrants. So, the right amount of redcurrant arrived at the kitchen already pre-washed!

The cooking cherry tree in the Orchard Training Garden did not preform so well this year. What with the pigeons and squirrels, its yield was just enough for two small jars for personal use and defiantly not of a class of 6. So, we supplemented them with shop bought cherries. I would very much like to thank the person who texted as soon as the cherries hit the supermarket grocery department, this came just in time for our jam making session. One of the most time consuming things is de-stoning cherries - lucky many hands made light work and many purple fingers. Only 6 cherry stones made it to the maslin (the stainless steel preserving pan).

The older cookery club members have already made straight forward jam last year and this year they are researching more complex recipes they would like to have a go at. Once we have agreed upon six we will get preserving. Look out for their post later in the year.

I hope you all had a restful Easter break. The Orchard Training Cookery Club spent some time with me on Maundy Thursday making hot cross buns from scratch. Learning the history of the bun and adapting the basic recipe to their liking.

As we restart the final term of the year, we are celebrating everyone who has gained a place at college. I word here needs to said about the college places. Changes in funding means that there is an expectation that you are continuing to study maths and English outside of college days, so some of you might have to stay with me next year – so sorry!

We have done over 150,000 questions this year. Which is an average of 75,000 per term. It will be important to keep that pace up. The brilliant Year 5 boys took both first place with (almost 4,000 questions) and second place (almost 3,000) correctly answered questions on the leader board and our lovely Y3 young lady took third place. Obviously, KS2 is easier than KS3 but it is not for them as individuals they are learning new stuff just as much as KS3 are. However, what needs to be recognised is that they are much younger and putting in a whole much more effort than the upper KS3’s (Year 9 in particular).

We have six weeks until our next break and I am resetting the leader board to show skills mastered. That means how many skills are completed to 100. That means not giving up because you have reached 80 or 90 but getting to the end. Now I know many in Year 9 who might complain at this because we have just finished the hardest section of their maths. The good news is that their units of maths is now much easier and play in to their natural maths skills.

Support materials have already gone out – you don’t have to open them until Monday. However, you do need to open the envelopes on Monday and get working on them. We are back to learning on Monday 17th April.


May I please remind all parents that they need to book for next term.

End Of Term Reflections

Well we have made it after 14 weeks of hard work. Together as a community we have opted to stop a week earlier than normal we have been plagued with the sickness bug, the coughing viral, countless positive covid tests, heavy colds and we are in the epicentre of one of the Strap A outbreaks. We would traditionally be finishing on the last Thursday before Christmas, we have stopped learning this year now.

Several of you have been sick and being sick is a legitimate reason for not doing school work. Some of you have had a very rough half term with deaths in the family or a key family member in hospital. If that is the case then don't worry - there is no conversation to be had. Life happens and we need to flex and bend sometimes to allow for the though times, and as homeschoolers - we can simply do that. Just like when the weather is bad, we need to do more homeschooling, so we can play outside when the sun shines - when things are going better we need to put more time in to our learning in order to recover the slack, when things are not so easy.

We have done over 70,000 questions, we have spent over 500 hours doing maths and English and most of us (not all of us and you know who you are!) have made progress. Those who have not made progress we have already had that conversation with parents present.

I have noticed with our experiment of less support materials that over the course of the week most of you are working steady doing bits and pieces every day (this is the best option) and contacting me when you need help. Some of you like to spend 1 whole day doing your work. However, what tends to happen is you start off well, then get to the tricky bits and you stop and leave it all to your lesson. We agreed that you would call - so call!

Well done to everyone who has taken part in the DT, this year! It has been very tricky this year working around lot of illness. However, we have been able to do some woodwork, some sewing and some gingerbread houses. Not everyone has been able to take part in every thing but those who have, have done have done a brilliant job! Many of the younger learners have been able to take part, so our gingerbread houses have quite a young feel to them. When it is time to vote for the best one - remember who's made them.

You will be able to vote for your best one from now. Go to the DT Gingerbread Houses 2022 page and click on the hart in the left hand corner of the photograph of your favourites. We will announce the best - when we return in January.

We will be back to learning on Tuesday 3rd January. Support Materials will be coming out over the holidays. So, they will be with you before you start back. I will be doing them in the 3 week packs again to save time, petrol and effort.

Thank you all for your hard work. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We have come to the end of the first 8 weeks of the new learning year. They have been some very busy weeks too! We started off with every one having face to face lessons and ended with half of you back on virtual lessons because of your time keeping abilities. Most of you (not all of you) have recovered the lost time and have caught back up with the schedule.

Now, if you just didn’t get your act together in those first few weeks at the beginning of term and there are still a few units not done – then the half term is the time to put in some time and get them done! However, if you were sick during the half term and some of you were – then you can be kind to yourselves and have more of the half term off.

Some things are going to change for the next half term. I have been giving you support sheets for every unit setting out the days and units you need to work on. However, what became clear over the last 8 weeks is that you were not reading them and you were contacting me instead. So, I won’t be writing anymore and we will continue with you directly asking, as many of you this year appear to be aural and kinaesthetic learners not visual learners. But that doesn’t mean the other work sheets will not appear in you pack - you still have to have a rounded education and you still have to do them.

We started this half term with running as part of our health program. We need to complete our last week of the 5K or 10K programs over the half term break. When we return to learning in November, we will be swimming. Swimming indoors, now the weather has got cold and wet. You need to be in the much warmer pool water at the sports centre; if you are learning to swim, new to swimming or haven’t been swimming since last year. If you have not already signed up for swimming lessons now is the time to do so. We will be working to our joint goal of swimming the distance equivalent to the English Channel – 21k.

I have included a few pictures from this morning’s wild swim, taken at about 6.40am. We are all seasoned swimmers and we follow strict safety protocols. You cannot join us now, as it is too late in the year and way too cold to start this activity! I would absolutely counsel you not to try this independently.

The Good News is I got over the line!

It was a lovely day: the sun was out but not excessively hot. The crowd was magic and it was great fun. We found somewhere to park before all the roads closed – and I crossed the line!

I was never built for speed, even when I was young. I always performed better in the cross country run rather than the sprints, which stood me in good stead yesterday on the Great South Run. My aim was to cross the line, I was not worried by the time or doing well – just getting over the line. My training had been interrupted in August with a sprained ankle and I knew I would be very slow – which is why I encouraged the other runners, running for ACS, to not to run with me. I knew before I started, that I was overweight, injured and old - so fast was not going to happen.

I started at the back of the last wave of runners to start. Very soon the gap between me and the runners in front of me opened up and for most of the race I was by myself. But I did not travel alone.

I want to say a huge thank you to all those volunteers who travelled alongside me. Many were from the Gosport Running Club, Portsmouth Running Club and Southampton Runners. In return for their kindness, I bent their ears about all the fabulous things that ACS does, in particular our Young Carers Team. We now have a local company who fits disabled equipment, looking out for and asking the question – Are you a registered young carer? And with all the details on how to get their customers in touch with us.

I would also like to thank the dance group, who were all packed up and ready to go home when I came around the corner, who then gave me a personal performance to cheer me on the way. I would like to thank the road sweeper who personally cleared a path through the discarded bottles of water at the 4-mile mark, so I would not trip. A big thank you to marshals that checked up on me to see if I was ok and to the St John Ambulance crew who suppled me with the ice packs.

The thing to take away from this is I got over the line. I didn’t give up – I didn’t even think about giving up. So, when you next get to a maths problem or an English text and you say – “I can’t do it” or “I give up on this” you won’t get any easy ride.

As I ran, I twisted my ankle on the cobbles in the Historic Section of the route, which triggered off the pain in my knees and hips from my fall 3 and half years ago. The last 8 miles were painfully slow but I did not stop and I managed the 17 minutes a mile required by the Marshal.

I crossed the line - I crossed it for all the fabulous people who work for ACS, for all the young carers who have so much to put up with as a young carer and for all of you who gave me their pocket money to sponsor me.

I crossed the line - I may have crossed the line third from last - but I crossed the line!

Time to Support Your Homeschool Teacher!

This week you will notice that you will have in your pack both week 6 and week 7. This is because next week is the Great South Run, which I will be running in and I won't have time to print off week 7.

I have been training for this run for months often turning up to lessons with sore or stiff muscles. Now it is your time to do a bit of support.

I am looking for you to sponsorship!

How you can sponsor me:
1) You can give me some of your pocket money in our lessons this week or next week.
2) You can pester you parents to go on line at http://www.justgiving.com/OrchardTraining

I am running for Young Carers. Some of you and your study buddies are Young Carers. You will also know I am a Trustee at Action for Carers who support Surrey Young Carers.

We are here to support carers of all ages, right across Surrey, with information, support and advice.

As a carer my self I am very proud to support this amazing charity because Action for Carers Surrey can support carers by phone, through face-to-face meetings, support groups, events and workshops.

We have ‘Hubs’ – locations across Surrey for carers to drop-in for information and support. We can help with benefits advice, advocacy, give practical guidance on moving and handling, and provide a wealth of information and free resources. We can also signpost carers, and the person they care for, on to relevant specialised sources of support.

Action for Carers Surrey have specialist support too. It is this section of the charity, I have done all this huffing and puffing for.

If you’re a young carer (aged under 18), our Surrey Young Carers Team offers free information and support, plus workshops, activities and groups, to give young carers time out from caring and help you achieve as much as you can in life. They also help schools identify and support young carers, who are not homeschoolers!

Please get in touch by calling the fabulous team on 0303 040 1234; TEXT us on 07723 486730; or email [email protected].

They will be delighted to hear from you.

Mum's and Dad's would you be interested?

Can you help us support Surrey’s carers? We’re grateful to hear from individuals and organisations who might be able to help with fundraising or other support. We’re also keen for volunteers – mainly to work in our ‘Hubs’ but in other roles too, such as Trustees and at events.

Nicola's page Help Nicola Walsh raise money to support Action for Carers (Surrey)

Welcome back to all out homeschoolers and a warm welcome to all our new learners here at Orchard Training.

Some of you are still on holiday or abroad and not yet back. However, you have told me and I have given you the support materials and I know you have been working over the summer holidays to get these weeks done before you left. When you are back you will go straight int to the correct week. I want to say a big thank you for doing that! I, personally, feel that means you are showing how much respect you have for your learning and homeschooling. You are going the extra mile!

Those of us who have started this week - well we have got off to a tremendous start too! Almost all of you have finished the benchmark test at the start of the year. Interestingly, over the course of the summer some of you have made progress in maths and English without learning anything - I am putting it down to your brains being tired at the end of the summer term and now your brains are feeling a whole lot fresher, after a very relaxed summer holiday. Those of you who have not finished have let me know that you have been having technical issues - thunder and lightning does interfere with the internet signal out in the countryside. We know this - so when the weather is calmer you can finish in your own time.

Most of you have sourced your reading book, but for some of you - the book has been delayed in transit. You have told me straight away and that is also ok! It's life and it happens!

On Monday, we will start in earnest the maths and English units for your year groups. Some of you are working above your age and some below. That is not important - what is important is that you are working and you are trying your best. The is all we ask.

You have all been given note books and shown how to fill them out. At the back is this year's time table. Now, you don't have to ask me every week - how many weeks to half term or the holidays! May I remind every one that the C word (Christmas) is a dirty word until the 6th of December - not to be talked about until then. I really don't need to know how many homeschool learning days or shopping days there are until the big event! We have so much to get done and do before then, it can wait until December to be thought about - ok!

There is a really big and important thing that will interrupt our lessons this term and that is the Queen's funeral. We are in a period of national mourning at the moment. Over the course of the next few days, we are all dealing with that according to our own customs and traditions. However, on the day of the funeral there will be no lessons. The date has not yet been announced. Now, it is entirely up to you, if this falls on a normal homeschool day; you can do your work early in the morning before the funeral, you can not do your homework on that day but do it on the Saturday or you can do it as normal with out reference to the funeral. What you can not do is: - not do your homework. What ever you feel about the monarchy - be mindful that other people have different ideas, thoughts and feeling about this. They will be working through their own traditions and customs at this time. I know this has not happened before in my lifetime. Therefore, what we are exactly doing is being made up on the spot for most of us. Many of us will be doing what feels right for us, at this time. With this in mind, remember to be respectful if people are doing it differently from you.

Autumn is on its way - and so is our return to learning!

Autumn is not far off, if the weather is anything to go by this morning. This photograph was taken during my wild swim exercise. I hope you all have been keeping up your physical exercise efforts over the holidays. If you have not, next week would be a good place where to start - get walking.

We have 10 days left of the summer holidays and then we are back to working hard and getting on with things.

I have now worked out all the timetables, which also means I am now fully booked. We have a Y4, Y5, Y6, Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 and Y11 running this year. I am looking forward with excitement - I hope you are too!

See you on Monday 5th September.

Homeschool Garden Club - Chilli Peppers One of the plants that survived the later winter storms was the chilli peppers. This was because we put them inside and the were not blow away with the greenhouse damage. We had a good success with them last year and so when the opportunity of a packet came up this year in the seed swop - we took it...

Homeschool Garden Club - Jobs for January January has been a poor start to the year. Many of us have been caught in the rain and wind. The mud has not been welcome as I have been out and about dropping off the support materials to everyone. Although there has been some rays of sunshine and colour in the garden this week. Today has been a br...

New Blog Post November is for our Design and Technology Month

We Are Back to Learning on Monday Half term has wizzed passed, hopefully you have all relaxed and been busy out and about. We are back to learning as normal on Monday! However, the clocks will be going back tonight. Now I know that this will muck some of you up with your sleep patterns. The good news is our smart phones will automat...

Friday's Reflections We have now reached week 8 of the new year and we have managed to answer almost 24,000 maths and English questions between us. Absolutely fabulous going! We have had a few more new learners join us and there will be some shuffling over the half term within our study buddy groups. I understand that o...

Friday's Reflections We have just finished our first four weeks. The learners from last year came back and have returned to the pace before the holidays. We are already at over 12,000 answered questioned in the first 20 days of learning this year. Following on, have been the new intake and they have got off to a great s...

The 2021 Photography Gallery Is Now Open I have now had all the entries for the ICT homework in and they are published on our website. Visit orchardtraining.org use the drop down menu under Galleries to find Photography 2021, to see everyones lovely homework. At the beginning of next week, the judges will be getting together, (for coffee a...

Romeo and Juliet 2021 This week we went with the English GCSE's learners to The Globe to see a version of Romeo and Juliet. Now most of you will know by know I failed to pass my GCES (O level as it was then) five times simple because I could not say this was the best play ever written for the examiner. More importantly,....

ICT Homework - Helpful Suggestions Most of you have now reached Challenge 5: Wild Life, Farm Animals and Pets section of your ICT homework. Unlike the subjects of your challenges the subjects of this photography will not sit still and be photographed - the complete opposite in fact, they will be moving. So here are some top tips to h...

Y7 English and Maths These sessions will cover the first half term of Autumn 2021

When is the end of term? This is a question I am asked a lot right now.

Term time ends at 5.00pm on Friday 23rd July for the Homeschoolers.

If you have done everything asked of you before, then you can start you summer holidays early. If you are working slowly and steadily - then that Friday will be a welcome relief. This will include Y3 as most of you now have had to have a week off due to chickenpox and Y5 due to illness and a bad case of hay fever.

However, if you have not finished - then learning time will continue into the summer holidays. I have already spoken to your parents - they know and they will back me up! How far into the summer holidays is down to getting the work done. There are 2 weeks left and that is enough time to get it done.

Most of Y7, Y8, Y9 and Y10 are racing to the finish to get an extra week off. I can tell: I know this because every morning when I log on, I get a report telling me just how many hours and how many questions every individual has done in the last 24 hours. We are well over the 110,000 questions mark and the tally is rising fast. I won't take it personally in that you all are doing it to escape me. There is a sense of achievement to be had in earning an extra week off. There is always an extra long summer after the last exam date of those taking them. Working for that is all part of homeschooling, working harder on the cold wet days to be out and about on the lovely warm sunny days.

If you are now flagging - that is normal! The end of the summer term has always been a hard half term. However, we are homeschoolers and we don't do a day of running in straight lines and we don't have (and you have made it very clear that you don't want) a stage to put on a bit of a song and dance.

I can tell you, my friends and colleagues who are teachers in school are flagging to just now. They have worked just as hard as you have, if not harder, to keep things going. So spare a thought for them this year. If you were in school there would be sports days, residential trips, prize giving days and end of year productions to detract from the lessons. But we are not, so I am sorry, it is English and Maths to the very end! keep going you can do it!

Everyone has put in an unbelievable effort since March 2020 when the first lockdown began. We have kept the pace throughout and we have managed the changes really well. We have kept our sense of humour and copied with the frustrations with kindness and friendship. it is now only 10 days, or 40 (learning hours) hours to go, (or less if you finish early)

Well done!

Weekly Maths Problem Don’t forget to write out the problem at the top of the page, date the work and show all your workings out (even the wrong answers) and then file the evidence in your folder! This is a multi-step problem – you are estimating the answer. Think about all the steps you need to do to find the answer...

A big thank you to all the families who have cancelled face to face sessions, this week, as a result of positive tests.

As a homeschool community, we all appreciate each others' efforts to keep us all safe. The cancellations this week have been caused by a brother or sister being picked up by the "in school' tests, their year group being sent home from school and the family isolating. Nobody in this group has had direct contact with Covid and the Orchard Training tests are all negative.

We have had one family, where the family have tested positive. The parents were picked up via work place testing and they were on the phone very quickly, days before their lesson was due. Therefore, we have been protected that way as well.

Thank you to everyone who has complete the Covid-19 weekly form on time (before the lesson, even if I have had to give you a little nudge.) It means the Cookery Club and Garden Club can continue to meet. The established study buddy groups can meet up to learn and exercise together and not in isolation. It also means that I can come out and do face to face with everyone who really need that contact.

May I just say once again, how grateful everyone is of everyone else's actions and precautions - we are all working together to stay safe and keep our study buddies and their families safe.

We Are Celebrating World Ocean Day

Well we have made it to the end of term with our sense of humour still in tack. We have answered over 90,000 maths and English questions and studied for over 650 hours. The result of this week’s maths tests also show that everyone has made good steady progress in Maths.

I am very pleased to say everyone reached their targets which means we all get a full Easter Break. That means our learning will restart on the 19th April.

Sadly, the rules around Covid-19 have not substantially changed. The restrictions remain in place across the country and unfortunately that does include us too. We should be remaining home and only going out for essential reasons only. Exercise being one of them and so instead of walking or running by yourself or with a family member - what we can do is to meet up, for exercise, as a study buddy group at a local park. Stick to 6 people only in the group. However, as the teacher, if I join you I don’t count as part of the 6. Remember to observe the distance spacing, which means we can, if you want to, go for a 5k run or walk around Virginia Water Lake. What we are not able to do is the Thames Walks again this year. We still can’t mix in the support vehicles getting there or if we need a rest. I am hoping the gyms and local swimming pools open up soon and we can get back to exercising there. You won’t be able to go as a study buddy group without me being present, so invite me along if you want to go as a group and I will gladly act as the responsible adult. In the meantime, I am hoping that the local lake will be open very soon and I can get some open air cold water swimming in before we are back to learning. look out for me on my bike as I will be out and about on my bike too!

The Orchard Training Homeschool Garden Club will continue over the holidays as now is a very important time to sow and plant out, so we will continue to meet up virtual. Under the rule of 6 we can meet up at the allotment but we need to keep our distance. This would be a great time to swop and potted on plants that you have for others in the group.

Whilst this week, was the last recipe of the term for the Orchard Cookery Club, if you cook over Easter don’t forget to add that to your diary, write it up and take photos: as that adds to you learning time next term.

I am also very happy to say that the Easter Bunny was able to deliver all the Easter Eggs too!

So, with that all said, I wish you all a very happy Easter break.

Ops! Something went wrong!

Our blog posts should be automated from our website to Facebook. I know all you learners visit our blog on the Orchard Training website directly to pick up your homework (and text me if I am late getting anything out) and find out what we are up to.

Facebook is mainly for your mums who want to know what is going on. Well over the last few months, we have been really busy doing our Maths and English and learning so much other stuff that I didn't check Facebook and none of your mums mentioned that the link between the blog and Facebook appeared to have come undone. So, it appears that we have been a bit quiet here on Facebook, when in reality we have been working our little socks off.

Please bear with us - hopefully, by the end of the day we will be back up and running here at Facebook too!

Keep Calm for Easter!

Well what a difference this week, we are all feeling a whole lot more cheerful and looking forward to the Spring. This may be because of the Orchard Training Seed Swop. It has caused quite a stir and a lot of conversation in the last few days. We have a few duplicated seed packets in the pot which can be called up for new growers, if you fancy a go at growing: beetroot, tomatoes, Brussels Sprouts cabbage, okra, aubergine, sprouting seeds, potatoes and herbs. let us know and we can share out the packets - but it will be first come first served. Once they are gone they are gone!

There are some keen growers in the Orchard Training Garden Club down in the Southampton area who took part in the sunflower competition last year. This year, we are all growing two types of tall sunflowers, Hallo sunflowers because we these are the sunflower seeds we could get hold of from the garden centre. These grow to about 150cm tall so it is a fight to see who can grow the tallest. The Titan sunflower, growing to a hight of 300cm were handed into the Seed Swop, when a local gardener hear about the competition. So these will be also shared out between everyone - but it will be a first come first served with these, as we have a limited number of seeds.

The second sunflower competition is the number of flowers per plant. Last year, it was hard to get hold of seeds we wanted and we had to grow what was available. This meant that I lost the competition with my Van Gogh sunflowers that only just grew taller than a school ruler (30cm). However, I was impressed with the variety colours and shapes with this sunflower seed packet., so I will be growing them again this year. The Grandad who started off the competition also was very interested and suggested this second challenge. Together, we have chosen Little Leo, for this challenge, as a dwarf plant that is good for pots to allow those of you who don't have the space for very tall sunflowers. We should get beautiful proportioned mini multi flowerhead sunflower. The biggest number of heads on the plant at any one time, is the challenge. These have to be verified by either myself or our helpful grandad, depending upon where you live and Covid-19 rules.

We will be sharing out the seeds and instructions nearer the time but if you want to take part in the competitions you do need to register with your teacher.

The other thing I think cheered everyone up this week was the recipe for this week in the Orchard Training Cookery Club we have a variety of blueberry pancakes over the year groups. Now who isn't going to cheer up for a plate full of blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Just what you need to get you started for the ratios in Y8 and the Bodmas in Year 7, fractions in Y5, division in Y3 and spellings in Y2, Y1 and Reception.