Firstly this week I would like to include the photographs that managed to evade last week’s blog which focused on the outstanding staff team here at Hollinwood Academy. Here we have..
Miss Darlington..
Miss Peak..
Miss Holland..
and Mrs Potts..
This week has seen confirmation of another new pupil joining us into Year 9. She will be starting after Christmas and I am particularly pleased that the gender imbalance in the secondary department is beginning to be addressed. We have our last admissions meeting of the term next Tuesday where we will be discussing transition plans over the next two terms and beginning to look at the Year 7 applications for September 2016. Having reached the end of our first very successful term I feel that we are in a strong and healthy position to plan the growth and development of the school. We will keep you up to date with developments.
Staff and pupils have been extremely busy with preparations for Christmas this week. I know that families will be delighted with all the Christmas crafts and activities I have seen in classes. I have resisted taking photographs as I know that staff are waiting to surprise families with the creative decorations, cards and calendars etc. which should be going home next week.
Also going home next week will be our first term’s pupil reports. I am sure families will be delighted when we share the successes and progress made by their children. The end of term reports will build on the discussions from parents’ evening and we will welcome your feedback as we very much appreciate your support and involvement. It was lovely to speak with a parent this week who reported that she is so very impressed with the progress her son in Year 6 has made, particularly with his confidence in writing which has been reflected in his increasing interest in writing for pleasure at home.
Next week will include a number of festive celebrations and activities:
- On Monday we will be performing a dress rehearsal of our nativity ‘Stable Surprise’ in front of an audience from New Bridge School.
- On Tuesday we will be welcoming an incredible number of family members into the school for the nativity – we have now allocated over 100 tickets for the performance.
- On Wednesday pupils are invited to wear their Christmas jumpers and Christmas hats. We will be enjoying our Christmas dinner, provided by our wonderful kitchen staff, followed by our Santa Stroll fundraiser for the school. Sponsor forms will be going home and we are also setting up a page on www.justgiving.com for donations.
- Thursday sees a visit to the primary department from a very special gentleman, I wonder if you can guess who…
- Friday looks like being Christmas party day. Pupils are again invited to wear Christmas jumpers and Christmas hats on Friday which, I am reliably informed, is National Christmas Jumper day!
I will leave you with some photographs from this week’s work in Mr Corrigan’s class that don’t give away any Christmas preparations. The class have been working on developing the characters in the Ginger Bread Man story and can be seen here enjoying playing the parts, dressing up as the Old Man, the Old Woman and the animals and having fun re-creating the story…
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”49″ gal_title=”Gingerbread Man December 2015″]
I didn’t get very far with my Christmas shopping last week, although I did get the tree up, so I will be trying again this weekend.
Have a lovely weekend,
Sarah
Click here to catch up with Graham’s news this week.