Welcome back to the new academic year of 2018-19. I hope you have all had an enjoyable Summer and are looking forward to the year ahead as much as I am!

It has been lovely to welcome all our pupils to school, both old and new. I have thoroughly enjoyed walking around school and going into the classes to find out how their Summer holidays have been and getting to know our new pupils.

Our numbers have once again substantially increased over the Summer period. Due to this, we have created new classes and increased our curriculum offer at secondary, welcoming a number of new staff members to both our primary and secondary classes. 6 new teaching staff have joined us:

• Miss Bones
• Mr Hartley
• Mr Francos
• Miss Carpenter
• Mr Page
• Mr Wood

..together with 14 new teaching assistants:

• Miss Collinson
• Miss McKenna
• Miss Bickerton
• Mrs Whitworth
• Miss Price
• Mr Larkin
• Miss Jenkinson
• Miss Ryder
• Miss Johnson
• Miss Prescott
• Mrs Smith
• Miss Sutcliffe
• Miss Pratt
• Miss Wharfe

All the pupils and staff have had a fantastic first week back and are looking forward to sharing their learning with you each week on our blog. This week features a number of classes and just a few of the activities that have been taking place..

Miss Grimsley’s class

We have had a very busy first week in Miss Grimsley’s class. We have had lots of fun listening to the story ‘If you’re happy and you know it,’ singing along and playing with the sensory props..

In Maths this week we have been learning our primary colours and have done lots of matching activities..

In the afternoon we have our phonics lesson; we listened to the way musical instruments sound and how the sounds can be changed by playing them loud or quiet..

Mrs Lomax’s class

We have had a lovely start to our new school year. All the children have enjoyed making new friends or meeting back up with old friends. Every morning we have a nice social time, doing activities with our friends. The activities help develop our thinking and small motor skills, as well as helping us to share with our friends..

Mr Corrigan’s class

The class have had an absolutely fantastic first week..

We have been very busy with new friendships, routines and learning. We have made and ordered our class calendar in Maths..

..as well as showing off our Drama skills in Literacy..

Miss Parkinson’s class

The children have had a great first week back! They all seem to have settled well back into school which is fantastic 🙂 We have enjoyed getting to know our new staff team and learning all about each other..

The children especially enjoyed finding a few things out about our new topic of The Stone Age in soft play!

Miss Shin’s class

We have had a super start to the year! We began our Egyptians topic by exploring a dark tunnel filled with Ancient Egyptian artefacts, we then had to predict and infer what life was like in Ancient Egypt based on the artefacts we found. We are looking forward to learning more about Pharaohs, pyramids, the River Nile and mummification over the next half term. Finlay also made some Egyptian inspired lego figures..

We read Egyptian Cinderella and compared it to the traditional version of Cinderella through drama. I was super impressed with Liam who had a great growth mindset and performed with confidence in front of the class despite being nervous. Well done Liam!! All of the children have learnt what it means to have a growth mindset and we will be practising developing this over the next year.

In Science, we are learning about living things and their habitats. To start our topic we learned all about the parts of a flower by dissecting a lily and identifying its parts and their jobs..

 

Finally, Mr Francos was very impressed with the children’s wonderful Spanish singing! We will be sharing a lovely clip of the class with you next week!

Mr Heap’s class

We have had a brilliant and very settled first week in Mr Heap’s class and it has been lovely to see everyone and listen to their exciting holiday news! This week we have been very creative and made a range of items related to our Roman topic. We have made Roman helmets and shields using a range of different materials and we have started our own mosaics..

I hope everyone has a lovely and restful weekend after a very busy first week of school.

Mrs Halkyard’s class

The children have settled in well and have been very kind to our new addition to the class which has been lovely to see. We have started our new topic on The Vikings where the children have been creating timelines and cover sheets for their books on the iPads..

We have also been getting used to and exploring new apps on the iPads which the children seem to love..

Key Stage 2 Nurture Group

Here you can see the class writing out their new targets for this Autumn term – Mr Rawson has asked the pupils to really challenge themselves with a personal target and 2 academic targets!

In Maths this morning, the class used concrete objects and place value charts to help with identifying the values of numbers in a 6-digit number and also help when adding and subtracting from 6-digit numbers. The class enjoyed the lesson and they all made great progress!

Miss Rudge’s class

The first day back saw us sort out lots of books and seating arrangements. We decided to choose our own seats and make our own class rules. Miss Rudge and Miss Peak were really proud of how mature we were on our first day in Year 9. We took part in some relaxation exercises with Miss Rudge and visualised all the things that we are grateful for, and what we would like to achieve this year. We think this is going to be an amazing year!

Miss Meadows’ class

We welcomed some new students into our class this week and we have been having fun getting to know one another and settling into our new routines at Hollinwood Academy. It has been a pleasure to work with these young people this week and we have had a busy time – we have been paying particular attention to our mathematical and place value skills!

Every student has been amazing and I am looking forward to seeing more this half term!

Miss Carpenter’s class

We started our new school year with some ‘getting to know you’ games as we have a new teacher, Miss Carpenter, and a new Teaching Assistant, Miss Price..

Our class made a time capsule so we can see how much we have all changed when we reach the end of the academic year – we won’t open our time capsule until July 2019! We have also been reading some of our favourite books in class too. These have included ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and ‘Mr Stink’..

We have chosen our plant monitors ready for next week who will look after our indoor herb garden. We’re all looking forward to this year and what we are hoping to achieve.

Mrs Potts and Mr Francos’ class have also settled back into school life and have been working hard..

Key Stage 4 Nurture Group

This first week the group have returned to school to meet their new teacher (Mr Page) and their new Teaching Assistant (Miss Wharfe). They have settled back in to the day to day routine superbly and in English they have been analysing the opening of George Orwell’s seminal dystopian novel, 1984.

Miss Rudge also wanted to tell you about a special project..

Walking around on the first day, there was lots to do and all the teachers were busy prepping for the week (and maybe even a little nervous just like our young people!) when our lovely Beth stopped me, bursting to share her Summer project with me. It blew me away! Beth has been sending out kindness cards to those who might need something to smile about if they are experiencing upset in some way..

Beth has used her spends to fund the project, asking for nothing in return. A beautiful, selfless act, which has proven to have left a smile on lots of faces reading the feedback she has received. We are so proud of you Beth. I have displayed my card with pride and smile every time I look at it..

On Thursday 23rd August, the staff and I celebrated with our school leavers as they received their GCSE results. What a fantastic day! We are amazed by what our pupils have achieved while at Hollinwood Academy. We are so proud of all our pupils and their fantastic GCSE achievements and we wish them all luck as they move on to the next stage of their education. These pupils were the first cohort to take their GCSEs at Hollinwood Academy and their results represent the next step in our journey to achieving outstanding Key Stage 4 outcomes and successes for our pupils..

From one celebration to another! I was delighted to share with families our recent Ofsted report on the inspection that took place on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th July last academic year. Hollinwood Academy was judged to be OUTSTANDING in all areas! School has been overwhelmed with well wishes from families, colleagues, local authorities, supporting partnerships and many more representatives of Hollinwood Academy and the New Bridge Group.

I was thrilled that the inspectors recognised the hard work, commitment and dedication that occurs daily and I am yet to read another report that praises pupils, families, staff, management, leadership, linked professionals, trustees and governors so highly. OUTSTANDING! It is safe to say ‘outstanding’ was my favourite word this week. If you have not yet seen it, the report is available here and will be published on the Ofsted website next week.

One of my favourite features of our weekly blog is seeing our little shining Stars of the Week receive their certificates and listening to the reasons why they have been awarded them. Here are some of our primary Stars of the Week:

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Thomas for doing some excellent ‘getting to know me’ work..

SEAL Superstar: Lucas for explaining the different rules we have in class and why we have them..

• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week:  all the class for having such a settled first week back!
  
• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jack for fantastic behaviour and working hard in all his lessons..

SEAL Superstar: Alivia for settling into her new class and school routine
Our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’ is Olivia for fantastic work and behaviour. 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: Liam for taking part in drama with confidence despite feeling very nervous and Summer for super behaviour in school and working hard in every single lesson..

SEAL Superstar: Jack for settling in well to a new school

• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Aqsa for adapting well to a new school

What a truly amazing start to this academic year! I cannot wait to continue these high expectations and strive to do the best for our pupils and families.

What an outstanding week had by all!

Have a lovely weekend. I am looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

Laura

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