How many men does it take to stand around a hole in the ground, and how many women does it take to ask why? It sounds like the start of a very bad joke here at The Orchard Gate, but after a tricky and frustrating Monday for me and our homeschoolers, I had to go down the hill and ask the chaps how the roadworks were coming along. Thankfully, the chaps looking down the hole say they’re nearly finished! My apologies for Monday’s erratic start, and thank you for bearing with me.

The Sporting Recipe: A Young Athlete’s Game Plan for Good Food For young people who compete regularly, life can be busy. And when learning is built around a sporting calendar, making sure everything fits together can take a lot of planning. But amongst the training sessions, competitions and lessons, there's something else worth thinking about. Are young athletes fuelling both their sport and their growing bodies? A little about me I'm Elena, a sports nutritionist working in

It’s been a slow return to learning this week at Orchard, with flu doing the rounds. I hope those of you who’ve been unwell are starting to feel better. Lucky me, I had some germs for half term! Our Christmas making began this week with wooden decorations. Next come metal decorations, then sewing, and finally our gingerbread houses. Work with what you have at home, please do not go out and spend lots of money. We’ve already seen some decorations made from paper and cardboard,

Our half-term break is coming to an end, and this Orchard Gate is reminding us that we are back to learning this Monday, 2 November. I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone and hearing what you have been doing. We have two sets of congratulations to send out! Two of our Orchard boys did very well in their boxing competitions over half-term, both bringing home an impressive collection of gold medals. Well done to each of you! Those medals represent hours of training,

As we reach the end of our first half-term, there is so much to celebrate in the week's The Orchard Gate. We began with 30 families and now have 44. A warm welcome to the 14 families who have joined us! Thank you, too, to the mums who have been encouraging, supporting and gently chivvying reluctant learners along. Your patience and effort matter. This half-term’s achievements have taken many forms. One of our new girls couldn’t join the museum visit, so explored virtually and

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.

When something goes wrong This week, I have spent quite a lot of time talking to the police and CID while supporting somebody who was mugged at knifepoint for their clothes and shoes. That is frightening, and it is serious. I am sharing it with you via The Orchard Gate because something important came out as the police began taking witness statements and putting together what had happened. It became clear that one of the young men involved may not really have been happy 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

When children are small, it is very easy to concentrate on the next thing. Learning to read. Remembering number bonds. Writing a sentence that somebody else can actually read. Then suddenly they are twelve. Then fourteen. Then before we quite know how it happened, conversations begin to include college, apprenticeships, qualifications, jobs and what they might like to do with their lives. So what are we actually preparing our homeschooled children for? We are preparing them f