Welcome to another blog! It’s great to start this week with some sporting news. Some of our Key Stage 3 pupils joined New Bridge and Spring Brook pupils and travelled to Manor Academy in Sale on Wednesday to take part in a basketball tournament..

The competition was of a high calibre and all our pupils played very well, displaying good technique and showing skills they have been developing in their PE lessons. We had 2 teams in the competition, Team 1 with players from New Bridge and Hollinwood and Team 2 with players from Hollinwood and Spring Brook. Both teams showed fantastic teamwork and won the majority of their games. Team 1 just missed out on the semi finals on baskets scored while Team 2 made it all the way to the final, losing a well fought game against Egerton School..

The pupils were fortunate to meet Manchester Giants player David Akiri and show off their skills to him during the lunch break!

Mr Lawrence would like to congratulate all the players who represented school and thank the staff who supported them on the day. Well done to everyone who took part!

This week my blog will focus on Miss Louden and Miss McMurray’s classes. Let’s see what our Key Stage 2 pupils have been learning this week in Miss Louden’s class…

This term in Science we have been learning all about our body and how it works. This week we have used what we have learnt to make our own intestines to demonstrate how they work! We then moved on to making our own ear wax, whilst encouraging the children to explain why we have ear wax..

Every week we have a Sherbourne session which helps all the children in a variety of ways. For some it reduces stress and anxiety, for some it works on their sensory processing for touch and for some it helps with their interactions with others. The Sherbourne sessions have built upon all the children’s ability to follow instructions and their agility and balance..

In our secondary department I have asked Miss McMurray’s Key Stage 3 class to tell me what they have been doing this week..

What a week KS3NMY have had at Hollinwood Academy! 4th – 10th October 2017 is National Space Week and during their Science lesson with Miss Dunkerley the class discussed the Solar System and whether there could be life on other planets. After doing independent research the pupils were given the opportunity to then use their findings to create a project on something they had a keen interest in. Cameron, Bradley and Waj decided to create a rocket made from recycled materials. Once they had designed and made the rocket, they used spray paint to finish their model. The three young men were very proud of their rocket, as was Miss McMurray who now has it on display in her ICT room.

During Geography the pupils were deepening their knowledge and understanding of the Solar System. Miss Sanderson had provided each pupil with a polystyrene ball which they had to decorate to replicate one of the planets in our Solar System..

During ICT, the pupils have started their Scratch topic where they use block coding to design their own Flappy Birds Game. This week they designed their own version of the Flappy Bird Sprite and background, ready for them to start programming next week – here is Ciara’s..

The class are enjoying being able to us their imagination skills and are looking forward to becoming computer game programmers!

I really like the way the students have created their own blog entries, they are very interesting – over to Nathan..

This week in school I have done work, so in Science I did work and research about Space – I did about the UNNNNIIIIVEERRSE (echo echo)..

In P.E. we did basketball, it was fun and I enjoyed it so much. In English we’re doing about the classic British language, it’s sort of fun and it’s a bit boring, just a bit. Then in Maths we’re doing rounding, it’s fun and I’m enjoying it. In R.E. we’re doing about religions and our place in the world. ICT we’re doing programming, it’s fun and easy (sort of easy) and that’s my week in HOLLINWOOD ACADEMY.

..Cameron..

This week has been a good week. On Wednesday I got selected to go on the basketball trip with school where we went and competed in a tournament organized with other schools. We came 3rd..

In Science I worked really hard to build a rocket as it’s Space Week. Me, Waj and Brad worked together, we had 3 plastic bottles, paper and card. After the rocket was complete we went outside and spray painted it gold and silver..

..and Waj…

This week we made a rocket about 1 metre long, also it took in total 4 hours to make – we did 2 hours on Tuesday and then 2 hours on Thursday..

Also it was fun making it, it’s in our classroom now, me and 2 other people in my class made it. Also we spray painted it gold and silver. It looked amazing at the end. Next from rockets we made planets, I made the planet Mars. We did it because it was international space day, that’s why we made it. It was really fun.

Mr Rawson’s class have been to Alexandra Park to complete a wildlife survey. This week the group were tasked with collating data on the number of each species of bird or mammal they could see in the park and producing a tally chart which they all enjoyed, including James who has a passion for herons!

The class are also practising hard for round 1 of Battle Of The Bands on TT Rockstars when they are up against Mr Heap’s class!

Unfortunately we don’t have pictures of this week’s proud pupils to share with you yet but our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jake for initiating play outside with other children
  SEAL Superstar: Lewis for being more aware of his feelings
• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Fatima for using more words
  SEAL Superstar: Mia for expressing how she feels while singing ‘If you’re happy and you know it’
• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Thomas for showing fantastic confidence in Maths
  SEAL Superstar: Ivy for talking about her feelings throughout a tricky week
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: George for trying extra hard with his writing
  SEAL Superstar: Joshua for recognising when his friends were feeling sad
• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Alivia for talking more freely
  SEAL Superstar: Lewis H. for being a kind and caring member of the class
• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Thomas for fantastic behaviour and work all week
  SEAL Superstar: Kyle for expressing how he feels
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: James for fantastic work in Maths and English and showing excellent behaviour all week and Darnell for trying really hard to tell a member of staff if he has a problem or worry and for making the right choices
  SEAL Superstar: Nimra for talking about when she has felt scared and happy
• Miss Shin’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jayden for outstanding effort with all of his work and having a sensible and mature attitude all week
  SEAL Superstar: Luca for communicating his feelings in a calm and sensible way and Jacob for recognising when other people feel sad and trying to help

Well done to all our ‘Stars’ this week!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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