Another very busy week at Hollinwood Academy! On Wednesday we held a successful open evening for families considering a secondary place next September where we were able to showcase what we do at Hollinwood. Taking prospective parents around the school gives myself and the staff the opportunity to explain how we work to support our pupils and it was good to be able to share how our school has grown. We are now looking forward to our primary open morning on 7th December!

At the end of this week the primary pupils at Hollinwood celebrated Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, and they have enjoyed producing some beautiful work..

This week I have asked Miss Parkinson and Miss Nuttall to share with you what their classes have been up to, starting with Miss Parkinson’s class..

We have has a busy week. We have been continuing our work on rounding decimals in Maths. The children have had great fun becoming a human number line..

Our Science topic this term has been ‘animals including humans’  and the children have really engaged with learning about the circulatory system and enjoyed our activities such as making heart models..

..making blood smoothies and identifying the different parts of blood..

This week we drew what our circulatory systems look like inside our bodies..

This week we have also been looking at resilience and what it means. We have been doing lots of activities around problem solving and trying our hardest to be resilient. We have kept going and had a positive mental attitude of never giving up!

Today we have been celebrating ‘Diwali’ in class and enjoyed making decorations and Rangoli patterns..

Let’s find out what Miss Nuttall’s Key Stage 3 class have been up to this week..

In ICT, our class have been working on game design. Pupils had the task of creating a new level on ROBLOX game studio. They were also given an enterprise task which involved them researching components needed to make a fully functional PC. They were given a £1500 budget to complete the task. Most spent the full budget but our ‘thrifty’ Thomas still had £1200 left after building his fully functional PC!

In Science, the class have been learning about pollution and recycling, paying particular attention to the effect that plastic has on the environment. They also explored global warming and how it affects certain species such as penguins, pandas and tigers..

In Living skills the pupils have been baking scone based pizzas and fresh bread rolls. The boys did an experiment with different types of flour to decide which flour makes the best bread rolls. They also carried out a yeast experiment to find out which conditions yeast reacts to best. We found out the answer: it was body temperature!

KS3NNL were the inter-class Maths competition winners of TT Rockstars which they were all really excited about! It was lovely to see some friendly competition between the forms and to see my group all supporting one another. Well done guys – I’m very proud!

Meanwhile, in PSHE, we have been exploring the theme of responsibility and what it means to be responsible both around school and in the community. The boys came up with 5 ways they each feel they can become more responsible as well as writing some poems around the theme of responsibility.

In English, the group have been studying Macbeth as they have recently started the GCSE course. They have been paying particular attention to the theme of conflict and betrayal in the play and have just completed their first ever GCSE essay with great success. This is amazing for a group of Year 9s! Additionally, they have been ‘twisting’ the tale of Macbeth to suit a modern audience and even coming up with their own ‘all star’ cast if their scripts were to ever be made into a film!

Another point of interest this week has been their studies in Music as the pupils have been producing their own raps. They have been writing their own lyrics and composing their own beats which they have enjoyed very much. Maybe we could have a few famous faces in the future!

Thanks for a great week KS3NNL. Enjoy your weekend!

Miss Rudge’s Living Skills class had a lovely time making and sampling their very own tea and toast, I may have to pop into their next lesson..

Let’s have a look at who our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Renico for fantastic behaviour all week
  SEAL Superstar: Lewis for solving a problem by using symbols
• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Ijaaz for doing some fantastic Diwali painting
  SEAL Superstar: Fatima for knowing and finding her friend’s shoes
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: George for doing some excellent taking away work in Maths
  SEAL Superstar: Marco for helping his friends when they are upset to solve their problems
• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Ivy for making great progress in Maths and trying her best
  SEAL Superstar: Essah for solving the problem of his sleeves when putting his coat on
• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Mariam for sharing with her friends
  SEAL Superstar: Callum for showing concern for others
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Vincent for fantastic independent work in Maths and Joshua for fantastic work in English for being able to sequence instruments
  SEAL Superstar: Lucas for fantastic team work and turn taking during problem solving activities
• Miss Shin’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luca for fantastic attitude to learning, participation and behaviour all week
  SEAL Superstar: Reece for asking for help to solve problems
• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luke as star of the week for doing extra maths work at home
  SEAL Superstar: Aaron for finding ways to solve problems

Only one more week to go to the end of a very busy first half term! I hope you all have a great weekend,

Jaina

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