I hope you’ve all had a good week and are ready for your weekend ahead. It has been very busy here, the timetable and extra curricular activities are now all in full swing with our After School Clubs running from Monday to Thursday. Mr Fieldhouse’s Karate Club is proving very popular, they have welcomed new members this term and the group are enjoying training two nights a week.

This week Miss Grimsley’s and Miss Meadows’ classes would like to share their learning with you. One aspect that Ofsted were particularly impressed with was our curriculum offer. We are constantly reviewing our setting and curriculum to meet the needs of our pupils. Miss Grimsley’s class have a sensory approach to all their lovely learning. Let’s see what they have been doing this week..

We have had a very busy first 3 weeks in Miss Grimsley’s class. All the children are settling back into school and are having lots of fun.

In literacy we have been reading the book ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ and the children have had lots of fun playing with the puppets and copying the actions..

We have been developing our mark making skills through a range of sensory approaches such as exploring cornflour and paint. We had lots of fun and it was very messy!

In the afternoons we have been very creative, making different animals from our story and we have enjoyed sensory play sessions.. 

We also had yoga for the first time this week and we learnt lots of new ways to stretch and relax..

I am very proud of all of the pupils’ progress, have a relaxing weekend and keep up the good work!

Miss Meadows has welcomed some of our existing Hollinwood Academy pupils and also a number of new pupils into her class. Miss Meadows’ class have a very bespoke curriculum that encompasses all aspects of the curriculum while having a lot of pastoral input from Miss Meadows and her team. Let’s see what they have been up to…

The last three weeks have flown by in Miss Meadows’ class. We have all been busy getting to know one another, we have been happily getting on with our exciting learning and have especially enjoyed our new topic ‘Titanic’.

In Music, we have been travelling around the world to Africa and we have been listening to different sounds that instruments may make. We made a Djembe and learnt an African drumming song. The week after, we used our friendship stones that we made in PSHE to discuss rhythm and we learnt a tricky song that originated in Ghana. We have loved this topic so far, the singing has been great and we have loved making different instruments that make varying sounds..

In English, we have been writing a Titanic newspaper article and we have been focusing on descriptive language. These have been successful and everyone has written their own paragraph using features of writing such as adjectives, adverbs and expanded noun phrases.

In Maths, we have been working hard to finish our place value topic. The progress we have made in Maths has been brilliant and we have listened very well to concepts. We have worked hard on counting in tens and ones..

..and have been playing group games on Dominoes to reinforce concepts such as reading 4-digit numbers in words..

Miss Rudge was impressed with our communication group and the Art work that they produced..

AB4 have been experimenting with colour wheels this week. We had lots of fun completing our Gorillas from last lesson and then adding some beautiful, bold colours to own our colour wheels. We have some wonderful artists in AB4 and our portfolios are already looking fabulous!! Well done Aiden, Katie and Adam!

Miss Carpenter has also been delighted with the work the pupils have been doing..

We had some delicious fruit fusions and kebabs made this week by our Year 7 and 8 classes. We were learning how to chop safely using the bridge and claw techniques. Lots of colourful selections were chosen by our pupils. They all created some fantastic work..

Some extremely impressive bread plaiting took place in our Living Skills lessons this week. Our Year 8 group learnt how to make a ‘Cottage Loaf’ and how to plait bread. I think we have some star bakers amongst this group!

Let’s see who our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Jacob for outstanding work in reading..

• SEAL Superstar: Victory for knowing the names of all the new children in class
• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lenni for having an amazing swimming lesson and swimming independently in the pool..

• SEAL Superstar: Daniel for being able to find his own picture during morning routine
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Alex for doing some excellent work in Maths exploring Roman numerals

• SEAL Superstar: Maisha for knowing something about everyone in her class
• Mr Wood’s class:
  Star of the Week: Corey for his brilliant painting skills during our Art lesson..

SEAL Superstar: Madison for helping others and being a super star during tidy up time..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Marley for working extremely hard on his handwriting and never giving up..

SEAL Superstar: Andie for recognising that she can help herself calm down by taking time out when needed..

• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Essah for having a settled week and trying hard..

SEAL Superstar: Nathan for knowing something about his friends in class..

• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Darnell for working very hard in Maths and being helpful
  SEAL Superstar: Rahmeen for being kind to others and sharing..

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: Rhys for trying hard to show good listening
  SEAL Superstar: Josh for knowing something about everyone in class
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luke for always contributing in lessons
  SEAL Superstar: Daley for working really well to find out new things about others in the class

• Mr Rawson’s class:
  Olivia got a ‘WOW!’ moment for getting 21/23 in her Maths assessment..

Well done, everyone!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I am going to Party in the Park on Saturday with my family and friends. I just hope we get better weather, if not we will be singing in the rain!

Laura

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