Welcome to another week’s blog. This week we saw a group of pupils travel down to Worcester to compete in the IZB National Wheelchair Basketball Finals. Mr Howard, Mr Valentine and 7 pupils from New Bridge School and Hollinwood Academy set off from Oldham just after 6 o’clock in the morning. Here’s Mr Howard to report on how they got on…

On Wednesday New Bridge represented the North West of England in the prestigious IZB national Wheelchair Basketball finals at Worcester Arena. Lewis, Jack, Suhan, Aaron, Nathan and Jake set their alarms extra early for the 6am start and the team arrived at the home of the Worcester Wolves basketball team just in time for their first game at 9.45am..

They lost their first 2 games before recovering brilliantly to win their next 2 and secure a place in the quarter finals. Everyone played superbly but unfortunately they were defeated by the South East which meant a 6th place finish out of the whole country – a fabulous achievement considering that our players are relatively new to the sport!

A huge congratulations to the players who were brilliant on the day. They had a fantastic time at Worcester Arena (just ask any of them!) and they were a real credit to New Bridge and the whole of the North West.

I would also like to say a big thank you to Mr Valentine for his fantastic support throughout the long day – despite leaving home at 5am and not returning until 8pm, he thoroughly enjoyed it.

This week we have Mrs Halkyard’s class and Miss Gordon’s Nurture Group to share what they have been up to. Let’s start with Mrs Halkyard..

In Music, the children have been focusing on World War One troop and social music where they have role played soldiers and the army drills they had to undergo..

This half term our topic is the Maya Civilisation. So far, the children have found ancient locations on a map and learnt about the different Gods that the Maya believed in..

From here, they then designed their own Gods..

In English we have been focusing on a short animation called ‘Dia de Los Muertos’ which means ‘Day of the Dead’. This is a Mexican celebration which happens every year and the film highlights how even though it may seem sad, the people have a great time in order to remember the lives of people who have passed away. The children have thought about the emotions that the girl feels throughout the film and have used the pictures to create a storyboard before moving on to retelling the story..

    In ICT the children have been creating an animation of their choice using ‘2 Animate’..   

Our SEAL target this week was to ‘tell or show how I feel about the important people or animals in my life’. The class created posters to explain who is important to them and fed their thoughts back to the rest of the group..

Let’s move on to to see what our Key Stage 3/4 Nurture Group have been up to..

In Geography this week the pupils have been busy studying the weather in the UK. They have been investigating why the South of the country is warmer than the North..

The pupils are studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in English. This week they have been analysing characters and explaining the effects that Shakespeare’s use of language techniques has on the audience. They are required to use quotes from the play to evidence their understanding. Each pupil accepted the role of one or more of the characters and volunteered to read to the class..

This week’s food inspiration came from Japan. Ewan, Tom and Alex were busy cooking omurice. Getting the rice perfect was a challenge, however Ewan had it covered with his ‘Golden Ratio’..

The Nurture Group have attended Lego Therapy with Miss Knott in Intervention. Lego Therapy involves building Lego models in small groups and the pupils take on different roles and work together. They are encouraged to practise turn taking, sharing, joint problem solving and general social communication skills..

In other news, rehearsals for the Summer show of ‘Aladdin and Jasmine’ have now started and Miss Rudge’s class are getting to grips with their lines..

Miss Rudge also wanted to share what her form group have been learning in Citizenship: ‘what makes a good friend’. They have discussed together the key qualities of a good friend..

In assembly the class looked at ‘how can we help each other to grow’..

They talked about how we can build other people up with kind words and thoughts. We then compared this to our seeds…if we water and take care of our seeds, they will eventually grow beautifully. Yet if we neglect our seeds and forget to take care of them, they will stay as seeds forever..

Our SEAL target for this week is “I can tell or show how I feel about the important people or animals in my life.”

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Farrukh for great independent work
  SEAL Superstar: Marley for being able to talk about the important people in his life
• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Zachary for being a great role model to the rest of the class with his kind hands and kind voice..

SEAL Superstar: Jacob for choosing Ethan as someone important to him because they play together…

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Joshua for making good choices for himself and Darnell for accepting help when things have gone wrong and using deep breaths..

SEAL Superstar: Nimra for being able to talk about her more and say why her mum is important to her..

• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Justin for trying his best with his reading
  SEAL Superstar: Lewis for talking about his family and how he feels about them
• Miss Parkinson’s class
  Star of the Week: Sahil for trying really hard in Maths this week
  SEAL Superstar: Summer for making a brilliant poster about all the important people in her life
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia for fantastic behaviour and excellent work in Music and Drama
  SEAL Superstar: Thomas for creating a fantastic poster about the things he loves and cares about
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Ronnie for great work in Maths
  SEAL Superstar: Luigi and Kyle for sharing and explaining who is important to them
• Mr Rawson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Bradley for great work in Maths
  SEAL Superstar: Dayley for caring for his family

Well done, everyone!

Mr Valentine and Miss Peak wanted to make a special mention of some of the pupils in Key Stage 4…

• Summer – well done for completing her Maths accreditation and improving her behaviour in school – keep it up!
• Maisy – for controlling her anger even though the beginning of the week was difficult
• Beth – for doing her first full week in school in a very long time and being a lovely addition to the class group
• Nathan – for working hard in all lessons and communicating well with staff
• Aaron – well done for representing HWA at Basketball and maintaining high standards
• Eric – well done for completing his Drama accreditation and creating a high standard lesson in History
• Connor – for maintaining high standards of behaviour and taking it in his stride and even passing his first Maths accreditation
• Harry – for making us laugh and always being polite
• Alex – for improved attendance at school and working hard in class
• Hayley and Robbie have both done really well this week and have come to school even when it has been a challenge for them

Well done from me to all the pupils in Key Stage 4.

Finally, I hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend,

Jaina

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

You can find all our previous blog entries here