Here at the Orchard Gate, we are thinking about time and how we manage our work. We have just finished Week 7, and the alphabetical order questions are over for another year! Thank you for all your perseverance, for slowing down and for learning to work smarter, not harder. Having the alphabet written out in front of you is not cheating. There is a difference between knowing the sequence and using it. Sorting several words into alphabetical order can be quite tricky when you

At hte Orchard Gate this week we are thinking how we are just finishing Week 6, with two more weeks of learning before our half-term break. Next week, our English work focuses on dictionaries—helping us find words, understand their meanings and become more independent when reading and writing. On Friday 23 October, we will be visiting the British Museum. This is a chance to look closely at real objects and discover more about the people and places we have been learning about.

Our Orchard Gate assembly — a moment to gather, reflect and wonder, wherever we learn. The Orchard Gate is our equivalent of a school assembly — a moment each week when we all come together, wherever we happen to learn. Every Friday, I’ll be posting a new Orchard Gate. It’s a chance to pause at the end of the week, look back at what we have achieved, celebrate the things that have gone well, think about the things that perhaps didn’t quite go to plan, and look ahead to what i

Welcome Back ot the start of the Summer Term! I hope everyone has enjoyed a lovely Easter break. While the weather has been a little unpredictable at times, it’s encouraging to see it starting to improve as we move further into the season. As we raced towards the end of the spring term, it was fantastic to see so many of you working independently and completing your daily assignments ahead of your sessions. This has made a real difference, and I’m looking forward to seeing th

Tomorrow marks the final day of the Autumn term. It has been a very long 15 weeks, with Covid and norovirus affecting us in the first half of term, followed by a particularly tough half term that ended with three weeks of flu. This flu has hit our younger home schoolers and their parents especially hard, with some of our families feeling the effects for over 3 weeks. Despite all of this, the resilience and commitment across our community has been remarkable. Over the course o

As we head into our final week of Autumn 2, there’s a real sense of optimism in the air! It’s been a challenging half term for many of our homeschooling families, with a wave of norovirus, the 72-hour virus, and COVID making their rounds. But the good news is — we’re definitely on the mend!

Week 1 Return to Homeschooling Went Smoothly

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...

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...

We are now at the end of week 2. So far, we have have already done16 hours of maths and 15 hours of English and 98 units in total have...