Welcome back to the final term of this academic year. I hope you all had a lovely Easter break, I know the children who access Holiday Club had a fantastic time, especially on the Eureka trip..

..and with some lovely Easter crafts..

This week I have asked Mrs Dunsdon and Mr Holland to share with us what their classes have been up to. Let’s start with our oldest pupils in the school:

A stop-start week in KS4HD has seen us welcome a new member to our group. Welcome, Beth! The shorter week has seen us getting back into the swing of things and preparation is underway in earnest for those members of our group who will be sitting GCSE Maths this Summer. As well as our focus on academic subjects, we have two of our students who are travelling to Worcester next week to take part in the National wheelchair basketball finals. This is after they won the North West competition.
Despite the shorter week, we still finished by gathering in the Common Room at 3:00 pm. At this time we reflect on our week’s work and think about what we have done to feel good about and what we might endeavour to do better in future. We do this as a group, usually over a coffee and some doughnuts or cookies (depending on how generous Mr Holland is feeling!) Our students are finding that they have more and more reason to feel proud of their achievements, boost their self-esteem and overcome their biggest barriers to learning. We’d have loved to have shown you some photos of this but despite the fact that our students love a ‘selfie’, they can be a bit more camera shy than their younger colleagues in Primary!

Key Stage 4 can be a challenging time with the pressures of exams and school but I am pleased to say that the work that Mr Holland, Mr Valentine and Miss Peak do helps our students cope with these pressures and manage their daily challenges.

Now on to our youngest pupils who have started their new topic off by holding a ‘Colours of the World Day’ on Thursday – Key Stage 1 was very colourful indeed as you can see..

Reception, Key Stage 1 and some of Key Stage 2 took part in our Colours of the World Day. The children were all allocated a different country and asked to come to school in either National Dress for their country or come wearing the colours of the flag. The children looked super in all their colourful clothes and huge thanks must go to parents for all their efforts finding the costumes and coloured clothes..

The day started with a parade of colours in the hall followed by games of ‘Continent Corners’ and ‘Continents and Sharks’. The children had lots of fun running around trying to get to the continents before they got caught by a shark! The children were brilliant playing together well and helping each other onto the mats. They cheered for the winners and it was a real carnival atmosphere..

After games in the hall children spent some time in their classes tasting breads and dips from around the world. We had tortilla wraps from Mexico, Pitta from Greece, Brioche from France, Garlic Bread from Italy and many more. Some of the children were reluctant to try the breads and dips but enjoyed feeling, smelling and crumbling the breads. We all thought that the Guacamole looked like something unmentionable but tasted great!

Our next session was very exciting as we split into two groups. Each group had a turn in soft play where we had to find strips of flags which we made into giant paper chains. The staff were more competitive than the children trying to make the longest chain (Mrs Choudhury!)

While one group were in soft play the other group enjoyed a music and drama session with Miss Rudge. They learnt a song about saying ‘Hello’ in different languages and they did different actions to go with the words. All the children enjoyed the session and joined in trying to say the words even though some of them were very difficult to say..

In the afternoon the children all designed and made their own flags out of fabrics. The flags are really colourful and Mrs Turner will be backing them all and sewing them together to make a beautiful Colours of the World wall hanging which will be displayed in school soon (when the gallons of glue have dried!)..

Colours of the World Day has been a huge success and the children have really enjoyed all the fun learning and activities. Thank you again to parents and to staff for all their enthusiasm and hard work to make the day run so smoothly.

Here are a few quotes from our children about the day:

“I loved today because everything I did was great!” – Marley, Reception Class
“I loved hunting for the flags and running about in Soft Play” – Nimra, Mrs Lomax’s class
“I enjoyed playing the games in the hall and running quick to make it onto the mats.” – Darnell, Mrs Lomax’s class
“I really enjoyed today but the shark game the most. I like chasing people.” – Ivy, Mr Corrigan’s class
“I like making flags the most because I like the colours” – Bronson, Mr Corrigan’s class
“I loved dancing and the Hello around the world song” – Zachary, Mr Corrigan’s class

You can see from this that they have had lots of fun and what a wonderful way to start off their new learning!

I had a lovely visit from out swimming teacher Mrs Fitzsimons this week who told me about Diego’s fantastic achievement yesterday as he swam 500m – apparently he is the first pupil in Hollinwood to do this. We are super proud of him, well done, Diego!

We do not have any SEAL Superstars this week as the children have just started working on a new target, “I can tell/show how I feel about the important people or animals in my life.” I’m looking forward to telling you how they have done with that next week.

Our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class: Lewis for counting to 10!

• Mr Corrigan’s class: Essah for completely independently making and drinking a cup of water for the first time
• Mrs Lomax’s class: Jack for doing all his learning, even when he is tired
• Miss Louden’s class: Brooke for being a good friend and being kind to others
• Miss Parkinson’s class: Connor for fantastic participation in all lessons BUT especially PE
• Mr Heap’s class: Finlay for his fantastic work in Maths
• Mrs Halkyard’s class: Leon for excellent effort in Maths

I have been very generous with my Head Teacher’s Awards this week and I have chosen one of the children who was a star and a child who works hard all the time – Connor in Miss Parkinson’s class and Lewis in Miss Louden’s class.

Well done to all the pupils who have settled back into the school routine really well.

Letters have gone home for our May Holiday Club, please make sure you return the forms by next Friday 28th April if you would like to request a place for your child. If you need another copy, please contact the school office or click here to download them.

We’re very excited about the start of our New Bridge Group lottery next week. A £1 ticket will give you the chance to directly support our young people and be in with the chance of winning a cash prize too. Please click here for details if you would like to join us and feel free to tell your family and friends – good luck!

Have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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