This week my blog takes us right up to the oldest end of school and into Mr Holland’s class. The highlight for me has been Grace’s successful residential trip to Wales. As our only Year 11 student I know she was quite anxious about joining the New Bridge Year 11s on their trip to Hafan y Mor Haven Holiday Park in Wales. She was accompanied by Miss Peak from Hollinwood Academy and has sent me a brief report during their return journey –

“This week was fun. I have made some friends and done things that I wouldn’t normally do like go karting, target shooting and I even took lots of pictures on Mr Bright’s camera. I have had lots of fun and I would love to come to Wales again. We are now currently on our way home on the coach.”

She was also captured earlier in the week enjoying herself in the ‘Rock Garden’. I am sure she will bring us more photos and reports from the week later on but it is clear that the trip was a huge success..

Whilst Grace has been away having fun, the rest of Mr Holland’s class have been hard at work. In ICT they have been using a program called ‘scratch’ to create games. Sasha has created an etch-a-sketch type game where she has put code together so that the arrow keys draw straight lines. Alex M has put together code and is in the process of creating a game where you use the arrows to aim at the dog.

In Science they have been setting fire to themselves!

We have some particularly talented artists in Mr Holland’s class so it is a pleasure to include some photographs of their drawings..

They have been working towards a GCSE art qualification, looking at art objectives AO2 and AO3 – completing observational drawings using different media and techniques such as oil crayon, pen and ink, water colour, mixed media and water colour pencil.

Another highlight of this week for me has been the appointment of Reece Leach as an Apprentice Teaching Assistant. I am particularly proud of this appointment as I have known Reece for nearly 10 years since he first arrived at New Bridge School as a Year 7 pupil. And what a pupil he was – memorable for all the wrong reasons!! I am afraid I use Reece as an example for many of our pupils on how ‘turning things around’ and ‘making the right choices’ really is the best route to take. Reece has come a long, long way and is now making his mark for all the right reasons. See Daniel’s blog here for more on how Reece is our most successful Future Finders student so far..

Today we have been raising money and awareness for POINT (Parents of Oldham in Touch) POINT is a local charity providing advice, support and activities to parents and carers of children and young people with additional needs and many of our families have benefitted from their services. Pupils have worn their own clothes based on the POINT colours and paid a pound for the privilege – by the end of the afternoon, the count had reached a total of £58 raised so far.

Key Stage 1 also held a special ‘colours assembly’ outside..

and played colour games..

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One of our pupils even brought in a special Hollinwood Academy ‘colours bear’ for the day..

Our Year 7 pupils liked the non-uniform theme for the day but you can see more of a trend towards grey and black, with a few making the most of the opportunity to wear their hoodies! Here they are baking cakes this morning..

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We will be back to standard uniforms after the holidays and I would like to ask families to remind our older pupils about appropriate, clean and smart uniform – including wearing a school tie. Thank you.

This week’s ‘Star of the Week’ awards have gone to:

Mrs Dunsdon’s class – Essah for using language to ask questions..

Mrs Lomax’ class – Vincent for listening to instructions and trying hard with his learning..

Mr Corrigan’s class – Finlay this week for his honesty: “Lesley in the office emailed me last night to say he found £5 in the car park and it was his idea to hand it into the office. Honesty is a big thing in our class at the moment and he has set a great example.”

Miss Parkinson’s class – the whole group for excellent behaviour and learning whilst on the trip out to visit Hoghton Tower.

Mrs Halkyard’s class – Ryan S for following instructions..

Mrs Mayall’s class – Jonathan for trying his hardest and making the right choices.

And my ‘Head Teacher’s Awards’ go to:

Ellie, Donte, Kia, Maia, Lucas and Olivia from Miss Parkinson’s class..

They visited Hoghton Tower on Monday where they thoroughly enjoyed dressing up as Knights and Ladies and seeing what it is like inside a real castle. The children went down into the dark dungeons and made a wish in the wishing well. Apparently they listened extremely well and demonstrated their understanding and interest by asking lots of relevant questions. They also behaved impeccably and the staff felt very proud that they set a perfect example for our school..

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And that just leaves me to sign off for a week. Enjoy your half term break. I am looking forward to spending a few days in Scotland with my family. I shall leave you with one of my favourite photos on the non-uniform ‘colours’ theme – my own little Ava walking to her school this morning to celebrate their non-uniform day. I’ve put in a £1 for her school’s charity and a £1 to POINT on her behalf..

See you in June!

Sarah

Click here to read this week’s news from Graham