It’s been another busy week here at Hollinwood Academy, particularly with our first Parents’ Evening of the academic year on Wednesday which was very positive and well attended. It was wonderful to see so many parents, I’m delighted that 83 of our 111 families were able to come. I hope that you all felt welcome and found the meetings with staff informative and helpful. If you have not had chance to let us know how it went, please click here to give us your views. The feedback we have had so far has been overwhelmingly positive, including comments such as…

• Fantastic school and all the teachers and staff are amazing, thank you!
• I am really pleased with his progress at Hollinwood Academy and think the school and teachers are fab.
• I felt parents evening was well organised and informative. It was lovely to speak to his teachers and find out how well he has settled lately. I loved looking through his books to see what he has been learning and am so impressed at the progress he has made. Thank you to Hollinwood and all your staff for your continued hard work and the fantastic job you are doing with him.
• I want to thank everyone for making parents evening a positive experience for the first time in my son’s school life.
• This was his 3rd week here and I feel that they know him well, I’m over the moon how he has settled and we hope he continues to go in well and keep having a fantastic time at school.
• Very pleased with his progress and hearing it from teachers was great.

This week I have asked Mr Corrigan and Mrs Potts to tell us what their classes have been up to. Mr Corrigan’s class have shared some of the learning that has taken place this week..

For Road Safety Week we went outside to practise what we have learned in the classroom about being safe on the roads in a real life setting..

We have been retelling the story of ‘The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark’ through role play – landing with a thump, thud, bounce, somersault, bounce..

        

..and finally, like a soft, white feather..

In our creative curriculum we have been exploring the properties of some sensory materials in our ‘Materials’ topic work in Science..

It’s great to see from these pictures how much fun our pupils are having. Learning should be enjoyable, it is what makes it meaningful for the children.

Mrs Potts’ class have shared the learning that has taken place this week..

In Drama the class have been acting out their homework which was to write about a time when they were younger. We have a lovely video clip of Danny talking about when he was at primary school and the people he met ..

Later in the lesson the class had to act out each other’s homework..

In Science the class have been looking at how to separate mixtures. Here you can see Sameh, Danny and Lewis separating a sand mixture, starting off by picking out the larger objects by hand..

ICT lessons have seen the class learning about E-Safety and working towards their E-Safety Award. Once they have successfully completed the award, the pupils are allowed to bring their own devices such as phones and Ipads into school with the consent of their parents, provided they continue to follow the E-Safety rules.. 

The class have been having a lot of fun in Music learning to play the ukulele with Mr Thompson..

Last week, we held our first school council meeting. It was lovely to hear from the children what has been working well for them. Here are some of the comments they made:

• They are enjoying having the structured ICT lessons with Miss McMurray
• They are enjoying the teaching and learning
• Everyone who is new to school has settled in well
• They have met new friends and everyone has helped each other
• The clubs at lunchtime have worked really well

We are going to be meeting again soon to have a think about which charity we want to raise money for this year and how we can develop some of our playgrounds.

Our ‘Stars of the Week’ are…

• Mrs Dunsdon: George for doing some fantastic work in Literacy about light and dark
• Mr Corrigan: Ethan for amazing progress with his written work – Ethan has worked hard and can now write his name
• Mrs Lomax: Thomas for learning all the words and signs for our Nativity songs
• Miss Louden: Jenna for her hard work and excellent writing in English
• Mr Heap: Olivia for trying her best to stay calm
• Miss Parkinson: Connor for improved behaviour and attitude towards his learning
• Mrs Halkyard: Leon for great team work this week

This week my Head Teacher’s Awards have gone to…

• Ethan for working hard on his writing
• Leon for settling well into school and showing some great team work

Well done, everyone!

Signs of Christmas are beginning to show at Hollinwood, I have noticed some trees and decorations popping up this week and I have also heard lots of singing coming from the primary classes! You will have already received your invitations to either our primary Nativity or the Christmas Showcase which will include stars from our secondary department. Becky will be sending a letter home soon to keep you in the loop with all the rest of our Christmas activities.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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