Welcome to the new Hollinwood Academy blog. Here I hope to be able to keep families and pupils up to date with developments, progress and events at the school. I have also asked the staff team to let me have pictures and reports of successes and positive times in the classrooms.

It has been a pleasure to welcome all of our new pupils to the school. We have had a very busy start to the year. Everyone looked smart in their new school uniforms and it was lovely to see a couple of positive reports in the local paper, The Oldham Chronicle, recording our opening days. After just one week the pupils are saying that they already feel happy and settled in the school. One morning last week I watched two of our younger pupils running ahead of mum, with huge smiles on their faces, looking so excited about getting into class. These are two pupils who just last term refused to attend their school so it’s very rewarding to feel that we are able to make a difference and relieve some of the stress at home.

At the older end of the school our secondary pupils are demonstrating that they can act as great role models for the younger children. They have gone straight into an intensive academic timetable and I have been impressed with the amount of hard work going on in the classrooms. I have also seen two of our Key Stage 4 pupils who haven’t accessed a PE lesson in years confidently joining in with a double period of sports – with smiles on their faces.

We have had a couple of setbacks; with one wing of the building still not completed we are having to manage without a dining room, sports hall and soft play area. We have worked around this, eating lunches in the classrooms and, as the weather has been good, having PE and sports outside but we can’t wait until we are able to get into the soft play room!

I have enjoyed meeting so many parents and I hope to keep you up to date. Please keep checking in to see what is happening and let us know if you have any queries at all.

Sarah