Welcome to another blog. Over the last few weeks we have welcomed some of our new pupils on transition visits to school in preparation for joining us in September. We have a number of children starting with us, from Reception through to Year 11, and I know many of you are waiting to hear about which class your child will be going into. I am hoping to get this information out to you very soon and invite you in to meet your child’s new class teacher.

Today we said goodbye to Mrs Halkyard who is starting her maternity leave. As a school we would like to wish her all the best of luck and we are looking forward to meeting her new addition in the not so distant future! We also welcome to our school a new teacher, Miss Shin, who will be joining the staffing team from Monday. Miss Shin will be teaching Mrs Halkyard’s class for the remainder of the year.

Now, let’s have a look at what we have been up to this week. On Tuesday Mrs Potts and Miss Rudge’s classes visited Leeds Armouries with Mr Hanif and the Year 7 pupils from New Bridge School. I asked Ciara in Miss Rudge’s class to write a brief account of the trip:

Dear Diary,
On Tuesday we went to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. We had lots of fun and loved it! The heavy and metal things were very tough and very difficult to put on..

..but it was very interesting to find out what people used to wear..

It felt really exciting being in the Museum and we really enjoyed it so much. It was brilliant!
Love from,
Ciara xx
(School Council Member)

The Year 6 children have also been out this week. They went to ‘Crucial Crew’ on Friday, a multi-agency safety event aimed at 10 to 11 year olds which is designed to provide children with the life skills that will, in the future, help to keep themselves and others safe. As children start to become more independent they learn to cope increasingly on their own and deal with changes in their lives, such as the move to secondary school. The Crucial Crew event aims to raise each participant’s awareness of threats and dangers in a fun and interactive way. The agencies attending ensure that their presentations are as interactive as possible and reflect current dangers to children, knowing that children learn by ‘doing’ rather than being ‘told’.

Crucial Crew is a fantastic way of getting young people involved in making a difference in their community, and it is a fun and innovative way of getting valuable safety, security and respect messages across to young children who will hopefully remember what they have learnt and put it into practice should the need arise..

Now let’s have a look and see what Mrs Dunsdon and the reception class have been up to this week..

It’s hard to believe that the school year is fast approaching the end and this is our final blog contribution this year. There have been so many highlights throughout the year and it has been a joy to be able to share them with you. All of our children in the Reception/Year 1 class have made so much progress and have had an incredible journey learning lots of new skills and finding out about all sorts of things. The children are communicating well and have become more independent. I have included in this blog some pictures from our learning on our recent topic ‘Come Fly with Me’ in which the children have learnt about things that fly..

Included in this has been lots of work on ‘Birds, Bees and Butterflies’ which the children have loved..

We have made bird feeders to put in our playground..

..and have learnt all about symmetry through looking at butterflies..

We have developed our learning further through using movement in PE and have been experimenting with our bodies how birds move, what they do and what they eat..

We are delighted with our children this year and the work they have done. It has been a pleasure to have them all in our class and I hope they take with them through school as many happy memories of their time in our class as we have..

Now over to Miss Rudge..

This week we held a big celebration in our form for Eid. We are very lucky to have pupils in our form who follow Islam and were able to teach us all about Ramadan and Eid and all the fun things surrounding the celebrations. We greeted our peers with ‘Eid Mubarak’ which we now know means ‘Happy Eid’..

We have had lots of fun recording our own carpool Karaoke section and we are looking forward to sharing that with you very soon!

Learners in class KS2BHP have been continuing with their wonderful movement classes from outside movement therapists. The sessions are based on ‘Building friendships and working together’ and the children have been working really hard in the sessions to help one another and build trust..

‘Aladdin and Jasmine’ rehearsals are now well underway and the Hollinwood pupils have been working really hard in their weekly rehearsals. Miss Rudge is really impressed with their level of enthusiasm and commitment and the show is looking fabulous!

A big ‘congratulations!’ goes to Cameron who won the title of ‘Formtime Captain’ this week for his use of beautiful manners. Cameron was rewarded for his great choices and now other pupils are working hard to earn the title next week!

A really great week for KS3ZRE!

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lewis for using signs to sign his name and the days of the week
  SEAL Superstar: Joshua for helping others cope with change in PE
• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jacob for making great progress with his independence in lesson time
  SEAL Superstar: Lucas for helping a class friend with change through an act of kindness
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Darnell for trying really hard in his number work
  SEAL Superstar: Darnell for helping his family with changes
• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia, Alivia and Lewis for their work in English
  SEAL Superstar: Brooke for helping others deal with change
• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luca for great work in English
  SEAL Superstar: Jacob for talking about ways he can help others deal with change
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia for trying hard to stay calm and telling a member of staff if she has a problem or worry
  SEAL Superstar: Donte for creating a fantastic poster all about things he would change if he was in charge of the world
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luigi for swimming without a woggle

Well done, everyone! I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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