Welcome to another jam-packed blog!

This week has been Children’s Mental Health Week and our primary classes have incorporated this into the SEAL work that they do.

Mr Rawson’s Nurture Group have been doing some work as a class..

Our class split into 2 groups and wrote their similarities and differences with each other on large sheets of paper and each group discussed them. The groups all then wrote a list of 3 things they wanted to be better at and they shared them with the class – they were encouraged to give compliments when others were good at something, give encouragement when others struggled and talk to others when they feel bad about themselves or are unhappy..

The emphasis was on how we are all unique and have different skills we can share, and that we should feel positive about ourselves so we can cope with life’s challenges..

Miss Louden’s class have been discussing their likes and dislikes and what the children like about themselves. They each drew a self-portrait and wrote what they like about themselves around their portrait..

Mrs Lomax’s class looked at Yoga and relaxation to support positive mental health..

As you know from last week’s blog, we have been working hard to support our pupils’ mental health. After half term I have 3 staff members who will be training as mental health first aiders and Ms Hollingsworth and Miss Gordon will be working with some of our Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 pupils who have asked to become peer mentors.

This week Mrs Dunsdon wanted to share with you all how well our reception class have been doing with accessing our PE equipment. They showed excellent skills in balancing, climbing, making shapes and travel using different parts of their bodies. They were fantastic at waiting their turn and watching each other..

Miss Louden’s group have been learning all about the Victorians and this week they visited Portland Basin to experience life in Victorian times. The children enjoyed exploring the museum..

..and their role play in the Victorian classroom..

..the church..

..and even a Victorian pub!

Miss Parkinson’s class have been very busy too..

What a term we have had! In our Winter Wonderland topic we have looked at the differences between the Artic and Antarctica. Did you know there are no penguins in the Artic? We created a Venn diagram to compare the similarities and differences between the two..

In Science we have been looking at the topic of Light. We have enjoyed doing some cool experiments – we found out how to split colour and reflect light..

In Literacy we have been doing some lovely writing about the characters in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’..

We spent some time looking at the Northern Lights in Art and everyone enjoyed creating their own pictures using chalk..

In our Maths lessons we have been looking at multiples of numbers and, as you can see, we have been working extremely hard..

Finally, this week also saw the finals of ‘The Battle of the Bands’ on TT Rockstars….and I am extremely proud to announce that we won!

We had some friendly competition between siblings but it was nice to see them congratulate each other and celebrate together! 

TT Rockstars is our very popular resource that helps pupils build on their times tables skills and can be played via the website or using the app on an iPad or mobile phone. Our inter-form ‘Battle of the Bands’ continues to generate a lot of excitement – congratulations to our latest winners KS2APA! The reigning champions KS3NNL presented the ‘Battle of the Bands’ TT Rockstars trophy to the new champions..

The final score for Ks2APA v Ks3SPS was 17,698 v 11,345! Ks2APA have shown excellent determination and fantastic teamwork to become the new champions..

Mrs Needham would like to share some more outstanding Maths work. Thomas Cockcroft has been investigating quadratic graphs and has produced what can only be described as some ‘truly amazing’ work..

Hollinwood joined in Safer Internet Day on Tuesday and one of the activities the children took part in was designing their own jigsaw piece to tie in with this year’s theme, ‘Create, Connect and Share Respect: A better internet starts with you’. Mr Bright ran a competition to find the best design and we were delighted to hear that Ciara is the winner!!

Ciara will be presented with her certificate and prize when we return after half term, and her winning design will be printed on a canvas by the New Bridge Digit4ll students and proudly displayed in school. Well done, everyone! If you have not already seen it, there is a wealth of information, tips and advice on the UK Safer Internet Centre’s website here – definitely worth a look!

There have been more exams this week for many of our Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 pupils – not ‘mocks’ this time but formal Level 1 and Level 2 Functional Skills exams. All of the pupils have worked really hard and they should be very proud of themselves and the fantastic attitude and maturity they showed in the exam room. Well done!!

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lenni for being really focused and on task..

SEAL Superstar: Ollie for showing that it is ok to touch different materials during his work..

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Ijaaz for doing some amazing mark making during literacy
  SEAL Superstar: Mia for joining in and singing the hello song every day this week
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Joshua for doing some excellent learning in his Maths and being able to work out what comes before or after a given month
  SEAL Superstar: Marley for learning how to get someone’s attention in a nice way
• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Thomas for outstanding bravery in PE..

SEAL Superstar: Oliver for fantastic effort with his homework goals

• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia for using amazing adjectives in English
  SEAL Superstar: Mariam for working towards her own goals independently
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: James for fantastic behaviour and following instructions first time
  SEAL Superstar: Rahmeen for talking about herself and what makes her unique
• Miss Shin’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jacob for working hard in English this week
  SEAL Superstar: Alfie for a great first week back at school..

I hope you all have a lovely half term. I know that the pupils who are accessing our Holiday Club have some fantastic activities to look forward to!

See you all back on the 19th February.

Jaina

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