Welcome to another week’s blog. I am going to keep what I have to say very short as I have asked three class groups to share what they have been up to this week.

Let’s start with the Nurture provisions which we have in our primary and secondary departments. These pupils need a consistent teaching approach which incorporates cooking and outdoor education to help develop their social skills and mutual respect between the children. Miss Gordon and her Key Stage 3 and 4 Nurture Group have had a busy week..

The Key Stage 3 Nurture Group have been busy studying various subjects this week including Shrove Tuesday, ‘Holes’ in English, Pythagoras’ theorem in Maths, food from different countries in Technology, the weather in Geography and various Citizenship topics such as current affairs and debates.

Alex and Ewan worked hard to complete ‘problem solving’ activities using Pythagoras’ theorem..

The students enjoyed watching the film ‘Holes’ after reading the book as a group – Miss Gordon was very pleased that all the learners volunteered to read..

The group discussed the reasons behind Pancake Day and quickly got to work in the kitchen where they made their own pancake mix from scratch..

Tom and Alex enjoyed making traditional pancakes..

Ewan, on the other hand, decided to forget tradition and created his own stack of American style pancakes..

..even adding a ‘Rhoden style’ finishing touch..

Just look at the final dish ready for sharing..

Now let’s find out what Mr Rawson and the primary Nurture Group have been up to..

This week has been a busy week for Key Stage 2 Nurture, the children started a new topic in Maths looking at fractions and they have all done really well. Monday’s Outdoor Ed. was cancelled due to the bad weather so the children went to Soft Play instead.

We have started a new topic in Science for this term which is ‘Space’ and we enjoyed watching Professor Brian Cox telling us all about our universe. We have done some quizzes about the Earth, Sun and Moon, and the children have also made their own model of the Solar System which is now on display in the classroom..

Our Titanic topic is going well and the children have been writing letters as if they were passengers on the Titanic, watching parts of the film and building a 3D model of the ship..

Yesterday in English with Miss Gordon, the children wrote their own eye witness accounts of the journey and disaster which eventually sank the Titanic.

Everyone is doing well, Daley has been ill for most of the week but has put on a brave determined face and come into school, Bradley and Tobias have been great all week and Jake bounced back after being poorly on Wednesday.

Mr Leach is preparing for his TV appearance as there was filming in the class yesterday and the children were quite excited as well (Daley wore his ‘Timberland boots’ apparently just for the occasion.)

Mr Heap’s class has now grown to 11 pupils as we have been really lucky to have Finlay join us. He was so excited when I met him and could not wait to start at Hollinwood Academy – let’s see why..

With Shrove Tuesday, World Book Day and even SNOW occurring within the same week of school, we have certainly had a very busy time in Mr Heap’s class.

On Tuesday the class had lots of fun firstly by visiting soft play to solve the pancake challenge! The children were put to the test, having to calculate the column addition sums and find the matching pancakes. Everyone had a great time..

In the afternoon the children became researchers and designers. They researched the history of Shrove Tuesday and how it is celebrated throughout the United Kingdom. Did you know…

One of the most famous pancake races takes place in Olney in Buckinghamshire. According to tradition, in 1445 a woman living in Olney heard the church bell while she was making her pancakes and not wanting to be late for the service, ran to the church in her apron, still holding her frying pan. Today woman in Olney still take part in the race.

The children also had lots of fun designing and making their perfect pancakes with Miss Peak. They were flipping fantastic!!!

And finally, to end what has been a fantastic week we celebrated World Book Day 2017. The children were given the exciting task of taking a photograph of themselves reading in an interesting place. Here are just 2 examples of the brilliant reading spots they picked..

Each pupil presented their photo to the rest of the class and wrote independently about it. We also had lots of fun sharing and discussing our favourite books.

Everyone has engaged within what has been a fantastic week at school.

Finally, our wonderful ‘Stars of the Week’ are…

• Mrs Dunsdon: Amario for working with the other children in his class..

• Mr Corrigan: Ethan who has been trying extremely hard with his learning and putting his hand up to answer questions..

• Mrs Lomax: Vincent for doing some fantastic independent learning..

• Miss Louden: Mariam who used some great story telling skills during World Book Day..

• Miss Parkinson: Jayden who has done a fantastic piece of independent writing
• Mr Heap: Ellie for some excellent work in English and Aaron for doing some great listening and following instructions the first time around..

• Mrs Halkyard: Kyle for being kind and supportive towards other children in his class..
• Mr Rawson: Daley for all his hard work and effort this week, even though he has been poorly he has been determined to come into school and Jake for making the right choices..

Well done, everyone!

As Mr Rawson mentioned earlier, the Digit4ll students from New Bridge School have been filming our very own Mr Leach here at Hollinwood this week – I think you will be very interested to hear ‘Reece’s Story’..

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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