This week both the primary School Council and secondary School Council met up. The primary team have been busy finding resources and equipment to make playtimes a little bit more fun. They looked carefully at what equipment they needed, added up the cost of it all and are now looking at rules that they can put into place so that all the children look after the equipment.

The secondary School Council talked about a reward system they would like to put into place, the use of mobile phones and how they could support the school staff in ensuring their peers put them away at the start of the morning. The secondary councillors would also like to discuss the idea of having a Summer Fair at the school. They are meeting with the primary councillors in two weeks’ time to discuss this in more depth. Watch this space for further updates!

You may recall Graham talking in his blog about Apple and the innovative work we are embarking on. To get it right for the Trust, Hollinwood are going to trial the use of iPads to enhance the teaching and learning experience that we offer all our pupils. Some of you may already heard of Showbie which is an app that will help build a virtual learning platform for our pupils. We have had a group of secondary school councillors volunteer to be involved in the process. Keep reading the blogs and we will keep you updated on how this goes.

This week it is the turn of Mr Rawson’s primary Nurture Group to tell us all what they have been learning. Mr Rawson has focused on their Science and wanted to share some of their work with you all..

This term our Science topic is ‘Sound’ and this week the class have been investigating how sound travels in waves. First we used our ears to find the direction a sound was coming from..

Then we studied sound vibrations in solids, liquids and gases..

The class made paper cup telephones to demonstrate how sound travels in vibrations..

We must have a mention for Finley as he has won a few trophies recently for his cart racing. A possible future Lewis Hamilton – well done, Finley!

I have asked Miss Daniels and Miss Rashid to tell you all what our oldest pupils have been doing this week..

This week has been really busy for KS4ADS at Hollinwood Academy. Maisy and Grace have been sitting their Art GCSE examination and are producing some fantastic pieces of work. Miss Rashid and I are so proud of them; here are some of their amazing pieces..

Maisy has also been putting the finishing touches to her Chemistry coursework by completing her investigation on ‘Which material is the best insulator?’ She has covered her beakers with aluminium foil because they wrap marathon runners in this at the end of the race to keep in their body heat, with bubble wrap because the bubbles contain pockets of air which is a good insulator and with wool because sheep grow their fleeces in the winter to keep them warm and we use wool to make jumpers and hats to stop us from losing body heat and keep us warm..

Her findings were that the wool (which is a natural material) kept the hot water just slightly warmer over a 10 minute period than the bubble wrap and tin foil. Are natural materials the best after all?

Nathan and Aaron have also been busy this week on their Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award camp at a site between Hathersage and Bamford in the Peak District. Miss Rashid and I were concerned about them camping out on Wednesday as it started to hailstone but I think they survived the damp weather in one piece and overall enjoyed the experience and the beautiful scenery..

On Friday Miss Hartley was really pleased with the class as they had a brilliant debate about extending the school day. They were able to put different points of view across and use them for a piece of opinion writing which will form the basis of an article piece for their GCSE English paper 2.

All the students in KS4ADS have also taken another mock Maths GCSE paper this week and once again they have all done really well. Eric has been revising hard for Maths using the Hegarty Maths interactive software!!!

Last but not least, Maisy and Grace have also been awarded their Peer Mentor Certificate. They have undergone voluntary training to become our most senior peer mentors and they will be available to mentor and help the younger pupils at Hollinwood Academy.

Wow, what an amazing week for KS4ADS!!! Well done to you all from Miss Rashid and Miss Daniels.

Now 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: Victory for independent work in arts and crafts..

SEAL Superstar: Renico for being able to show that the iPad is important to him

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Daniel for being brave and going into the big pool at swimming
  SEAL Superstar: Mia for doing some fantastic listening to the story ‘This is the Bear and the Scary Night’ about a little boy who lost his bear..

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: George for doing a fantastic piece of Geography work and using his direction words to direct us to his house!

SEAL Superstar: Amario for showing how he cares for his friends by helping his friends to tidy up their table..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Nathan for beginning to sound out words so he can spell them himself..

SEAL Superstar: Ethan for thinking of others by getting the water jug and handing out the cups for his friends at lunch time..

• Miss Louden’s class:
  Star of the Week: Brooke for working hard in English
  SEAL Superstar: Callum for being kind and thoughtful to others
• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Maia and Gabriella for fantastic work in English
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Darnell for fantastic behaviour and excellent work in Maths with his counting.
  SEAL Superstar: Josh for showing his confidence by doing good listening, signing and talking in front of others in Talk for Writing
  Our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’ is Darnell. We hope you and Meerkat have a fantastic weekend and we can’t wait to hear about your marvellous adventures!
• Miss Shin’s class:
  Star of the Week: Finlay for super work in Science
  SEAL Superstar: Kia for showing important people in her life that she cares about them
• Mr Rawson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia for having a fantastic week in school
  

We were so impressed with Olivia that she also got a Head Teacher’s Award from myself and a ‘WOW’ moment from Miss Williams. We had one very surprised and happy lady in assembly today!

Well done, everyone, a great week had by all!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Jaina

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