Welcome to another blog. A few weeks ago, I told you that we had a number of new pupils joining the school and I am delighted to say that the 7 primary pupils and the 4 pupils in secondary have now settled into life at Hollinwood Academy well.

This week it’s the turn of Mrs Lomax and Miss McMurray to tell us what their classes have been up to..

Mrs Lomax’s class took advantage of a windy day to explore how fast the wind was blowing and tried to work out which way it was blowing by using balloons and ribbons..

We discovered that the balloons needed tails to stop them blowing away and out of the school grounds, possibly not a good idea with the M60 running behind us! James threw his balloon up and watched the wind carry it across the playground..

Jack investigated which way the wind was blowing by using his balloon..

Caelan enjoyed flying his balloon while riding the bike..

Joshua found it tricky to keep hold of his balloon in the wind!

Reece discovered how fast the wind could spin the ribbons..

In our class, as well as the academic learning we do lots of social learning. We have times throughout the day where we choose our own activities and play with other children to achieve simple tasks. Our choosing time sessions create opportunities for developing the children’s speech and language skills as well as learning to cooperate and share with others. The problems given by the teachers help the children to developing listening skills, listening to each other’s ideas as well as problem solving skills. Here you can see Reece and Vincent working together to try to create three separate rail tracks that connect in one place and have tunnels..

Reece and Vincent also explored forces together. They created a series of ramps at differing heights to test how far a wooden cylinder would roll. Together they worked out that the steeper the ramp, the faster and further the cylinder rolled..

Joshua, Jack and Darnell worked together to create a farm – the problem was that the animals kept escaping and there wasn’t a lot of fencing!

Caelan felt very proud when he completed the jigsaw without any help..

We have also been making worry dolls in class and using these to talk about our feelings..

It’s wonderful to see how well our children work and play together. Hollinwood Academy staff work hard to develop not just the academic potential of our children but to find ways in which we can help develop their social communication skills using recommendations from the Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapists. Well done Mrs Lomax’s class, you are working brilliantly!

Now let’s have a look and see what Miss McMurray’s class have been up to..

We have had a very busy week! During their Science lesson the pupils have been finding out about drag. To support their learning, the pupils had to fold their own paper aeroplanes and have a plane throwing competition. All the pupils did really well but congratulations to Sophie for coming first!

During intervention sessions the pupils have been planning and delivering their own lessons to the class. The pupils have had to research and create a PowerPoint to use to talk about their favourite topic. The topics have included Pokémon, Horrid Henry and Makeup. Well done to everyone for delivering their lessons and being a great audience..

When the class have a spare 10 minutes they enjoy playing games to help with their social skills. They enjoy games like Jenga, Connect Four, Cluedo and this week’s new favourite, Heads Up, where pupils have to use their questioning skills to try and work out what the answer is on the card on their forehead..

We have had a very exciting delivery this week too, a CPR training kit which the class will be using in the near future to learn how to recognise cardiac arrest and how to carry out CPR..

The primary children have been focusing on SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) which promotes social and emotional literacy in children and equips them with the skills they need to lead a healthy, happy life. We explore the different aspects and how you can get involved. SEAL in primary schools offers a whole framework for promoting social and emotional literacy, supporting children with:

• social awareness
• managing their feelings
• motivation
• empathy
• social interactions

The whole of primary is looking at the target “I can tell you something that I worry about.” It is vital that we explain to our children that it is important to talk about the things that worry them. Children with ASD can find this aspect very challenging. This week all the classes made some worry dolls which they have taken home..

Even I have one in my office! The staff in primary have worked with the children talking about their emotions and feelings and we have introduced a SEAL certificate to add to the Star of the Week.

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Farrukh for excellent behaviour and becoming more independent..

SEAL Superstar: George for being able to show staff he was worrying about his finger..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lucas for making great progress with telling the truth..

Seal Superstar: Ivy for beginning to appropriately express her feelings using reflection time..

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Caelan, for working really hard to make his worry doll and letting staff help him..

Seal Superstar: Nimra for saying sorry when she had bumped into someone..

• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Alivia for talking about her likes and dislikes
  Seal Superstar: Jenna for being able to share what has been worrying her
• Miss Parkinson’s class
  Star of the Week: Nathan for fantastic engagement in English this week
  Seal Superstar: Luke for telling the staff how he is feeling during carpet time
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Donte for consistently following instructions and making the right choices
  Seal Superstar: Maia for telling a member of staff straight away if she has a problem or worry
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Alex for improved attitude and behaviour
  Seal Superstar Eden for telling the staff when he worried about something

Finally, our Key Stage 2 pupils have been fortunate to have Sale Sharks in school as part of the PE curriculum. They have been learning all about Wheelchair Rugby and they are certainly all looking forward to the next fantastic session..

What a wonderful week we have had!

Have a great weekend,

Jaina

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