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

11 September is Make Your Own Bed Day. It sounds like one of those slightly odd days that appears on the calendar and gives us something to smile about. However, at Orchard, it made us stop and think. Who actually makes your child's bed? And perhaps more importantly: why? It's not really about the bed We aren't particularly interested in perfectly tucked corners, matching cushions or whether the duvet is completely straight. We are interested in what happens when a child begi

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

What a Changing Google Map Can Teach Us About Geography, Digital Life and the Way We See the World? If your child tells you this week that the United States is being renamed South Canada, don't rush to buy a new atlas. It is a joke. But like many good jokes, there is a real story behind it — and that story raises some surprisingly important questions about geography. So, who gets to name the world on the map? Who gets to name the world on the map? Last week, US President Dona

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

It is relatively easy to see when a small child is making progress. One day they can't read a word and then suddenly they can. They count to ten, then twenty, then one hundred. Their first attempts at writing might need a little imagination to decipher and, before you know it, they are leaving you notes on the kitchen table. As children get older, progress can become much harder to spot. They are reading. They are writing. They are doing maths. So how do you know they are act

One of the strange things about starting homeschooling is that suddenly nobody is telling you what a school day should look like. There is no bell at 9 o'clock. Nobody says maths must last exactly an hour. You don't have to stop science because it is 11.15 and the timetable says it is time for English. That freedom is wonderful. It can also be slightly terrifying, so what should a good homeschool week actually look like? A good week needs some structure At Orchard, we don't b