Another jam packed week at Hollinwood which we ended with a non uniform day to raise money for Children in Need. This week we are going over to the youngest children in our school who are taught over two classes with Mrs Dunsdon and Miss Grimsley. Our Early Years team work together to ensure that we not only meet the educational needs of our pupils but the social, emotional and sensory development that all our pupils at Hollinwood require. Let’s have a look at what they have been up to..

Reception have been very lucky in the past few weeks as our outside area has been transformed into a wonderful play area which the children love. You will see from the photographs that we have a new climbing frame, new bikes and lots of other exciting things that we can use to develop skills across the curriculum..

This half term our learning theme is ‘Time to Party’ and we have been doing some wonderful learning all about light and dark. Within this we have done lots of learning about nocturnal animals and the children have done some beautiful work which we have made into this fantastic display..

As part of our work on nocturnal animals we had a visit on Friday from two mice, ‘Sugar and Spice’. The children really enjoyed meeting them and some even had a little hold!

This week in English we have read the story ‘Laura’s Star’. We have tried super hard to complete some star jigsaws in class..

..and we have had lots of fun getting messy making and painting our own salt dough stars..

In Maths we have been learning about triangles, we went on a triangle hunt and had to find them in shredded paper!

In class we really enjoyed painting big triangles in lots of different colours..

As Christmas is fast approaching we have started practising our songs for this year’s Nativity play. If you have never been to one of our Nativity plays, we can assure you that you are in for a big treat – but you will need to bring lots of tissues!

We now move to one of our static bespoke classes, our secondary Nurture Group. Miss Gordon and the team work with some of our pupils who require a heavy emphasis on the social and emotional aspects of learning and life. They do, however, spend time with other teachers in the school for Maths, ICT and Science. Let’s see what they have been up to..

The Nurture Group have been busy learning in a variety of subjects areas this week. In English the pupils are reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’; this is a powerful story which they are engaged and interested in and the context is initiating lots of discussion within the group. Their tasks include developing an understanding of the characters, summarising chapters and speaking and listening tasks including volunteering to read to each other. We are coming to the end of the book and the pupils are looking forward to watching the film..

In Maths this week the pupils have been working on fractions and percentages. The group are accessing Hegarty Maths on a daily basis and are able to see the progress they have made at the end of each session. Miss Daniels has introduced the group to the digestive system and the human anatomy in Science. The pupils labelled the body’s organs and highlighted the role they play using a life size drawing of the human body..

The group have been researching Hundertwasser in their Art lessons with Miss Rudge..

The Nurture Group supported Children in Need by attending school in their own clothes and donating £1 for charity. They also enjoyed making posters for Children in Need..

It has been a very enjoyable and productive week- thank you to the Nurture Team for all your support.

This week Mr Layton took over Mrs Millard’s Living Skills cooking lesson while she has been poorly. The pupils all enjoyed making their kebabs but sadly they didn’t last long enough to take pictures of!

Finally our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Victory for excellent work and behaviour all week..

SEAL Superstar: Renico for being a good friend and offering comfort when another child was upset..

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Fatima for doing some fantastic independent matching in literacy
  SEAL Superstar: Mia for smiling at her friends when she comes into class in the morning..

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Marley for trying to do his morning challenge on his own
  SEAL Superstar: Tyler for joining in with our Tusk, Tusk story and apple experiment for Anti-Bullying week and being able to say what makes a good friend..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Oliver for settling into his new class really well and completing his first full day..

SEAL Superstar: Ethan for helping his friends feel good about themselves..

• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Callum for always being helpful to staff and pupils
  SEAL Superstar: Mariam for sharing her ipad with friends who don’t have one
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Josh, Nimra, Maisha and Thomas for coping well with change, making good choices and all-round good behaviour
  SEAL Superstar: Liam for giving some brilliant answers when asked ‘What makes a good friend?’
• Miss Shin’s class:
  Star of the Week: Summer for making great progress with working independently
  SEAL Superstar: Lana for trying her best to be a good friend
• Mr Rawson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia for making the right choices – she has had a great week, well done Olivia

Well done, everyone!

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

Click here for this week’s news from Graham

You can find all our previous blog entries here