Ash Class

Coral class are a secondary class made up of pupils in year 8 and 9. We are a ready to learn class, developing our skills academically, whilst continuing to build upon on life skills to support us for the future. We are lucky to have specialist teachers supporting us in ICT, Art, PE and Thrive, with the rest of our curriculum being delivered in the classroom between Martin and Jake, with excellent support from Alisa. This year the pupils have been given the chance to select an option to take on during Wednesday afternoons to help prepare them for their future qualifications and potential streamed learning. The courses include Duke of Edinburgh, Hospitality, Animal Care and Gardening.

Meet the Staff

Martin Lenihan

Class Teacher & PE Lead

Martin is the class teacher and this is the start of his 7^th year working at The Mendip School and the 4^th as a teacher. He joined the school when it originally opened back in 2015 on site at Fosseway School as a teaching assistant, going on to work for 3 years as a TA before leaving to complete his PGCE. Martin originally aspired to be a mainstream PE teacher or coach but his experiences as a TA at TMS inspired him to pursue a specialism in SEN as a teacher. Martin loves working with children to support them in achieving their full potential in all areas of their lives, with the ambition of giving them the skills to become independent in the future. During Martin’s free time, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing football and going to the gym. 

Alisa Slade

Teaching Assistant

Summer term 1 – Learning overview

English – fiction Talk for writing – Writing about and learning about rivers & writing our own river based stories.  

English – A focus on vocabulary and explicitly teaching the role of grammar in our writing.  

Maths – Area, Perimeter and Units of measure.  

IT – Flat file and branching databases – searching, sorting and analysing. Asking questions and producing graphs from data. Online safety – Big data and digital footprints.

Science – Chemistry – Combustion, reactions, thermal decomposition

Humanities – Forgiveness and the role it can play in our lives.  

Art –  

Life Skills – Understanding and Identifying positive relationships. Things we can do physically to support ourselves mentally.  

Food and Nutrition – Different foods from round the world and different cultures. 

PSHE –  

PE – Cricket  

Autumn Term 1 (September 2022)

Coral had a very busy start to the new academic year in Coral class with the new members settling in seamlessly. The pupils enjoyed playing a big part in creating new rules and routines for the coming year. A large number of the group took a visit down to The Somerset County Cricket Ground for the DIScover ABILITY day which involved a variety of different sports on the main pitch and the indoor facilities. The pupils made a fantastic start to their core subjects with mental maths becoming a permanent morning fixture on a daily basis and expressing themselves to show their capabilities across a number of different subjects. We were lucky enough to be able to experience a train journey with Robin from Great Western Railway which involved the pupils receiving information via Rob in line with their life skills topic during a journey from Castle Cary to Exeter St Davids.

Autumn Term 2 (November 2022)

We are excited to continue to develop our skills in our core subjects and being our options sessions based on the choices made from the taster sessions in term 1. In week 2 some of our class members will be representing the school in our first football fixture of the year at home to North Hill House School from Frome, with the fixture taking place on site on the MUGA. Towards the end of the term we will be taking part in a train trip with a day visit to an unconfirmed location with our support from Robin at GWR.