What a busy week we have had! On Thursday we held our first open morning for prospective new families. We welcomed 35 families who attended the tours at both primary and secondary. There was a good mix of all key stages and they thoroughly enjoyed their tours. We have another open afternoon for secondary pupils on Wednesday 10th October, 2pm-5pm. I am sure this will be another popular turnout as the Year 6 pupils decide on their secondary placements for the next academic year. Exciting times ahead!

Mrs Nuttall’s Year 10 English class took a trip to the Lowry on Thursday afternoon to see a special performance of Macbeth as part of their English Literature GCSE work..

On Thursday 4th October, our Year 10 pupils went to The Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays to see a production of Macbeth. This particular production was performed by the prestigious National Theatre. This theatre is one of the three most prominent performing arts venues in the UK, along with The Royal Shakespeare Company and The Royal Opera House. Most of their productions are performed out of their own venue in London, however, they do occasionally take their productions on tour and this year is all about Macbeth!

As part of their GCSE English Literature course, our Year 10 pupils have to study a range of set texts. These include: a Shakespeare play; a 19th century novel; a modern drama text and a cluster of 15 poems. Our chosen Shakespeare play was Macbeth and our pupils have managed to gain a thorough understanding of the play and its context throughout the last academic year. On hearing that the National Theatre were taking their adaption of one of Shakespeare’s most well known plays on tour, we simply could not miss the opportunity to see the play performed live on stage. Furthermore, it is incredibly important that the pupils understand staging and dramatic techniques in order to achieve the highest grades in their exams. This gave us all the more reason to take a trip out to the theatre..

The pupils were impeccably behaved throughout the afternoon and were an absolute credit to the school. Despite there being a technical error at the theatre soon after the play started, the pupils enjoyed the performance and it has definitely enhanced their learning.

You may like to see some of the audience reactions..

..and hear the Director talking about how the play was staged..

Let’s see what Mr Hartley’s class have been doing this week at secondary..

In English we have looked at different creative and persuasive writing techniques with the theme around the Titanic. The pupils have developed their own creative story endings, written them up and acted them out and they have looked at the use of alliteration, fact and opinion for persuasive writing this week. The pupils have become their own Titanic Detectives. They have studied facts about the Titanic and developed their own opinion, using persuasive writing, on who they think was most responsible for the loss of life on board the ship..

This term we are studying forces in Science. The pupils have been investigating at how to measure speed and develop a distance time graph. They have had fun carrying out their own practical experiment to measure speed by using a toy car, speed ramp and tape measure..

In Mindfulness the pupils have looked at breathing techniques to help them deal with stress and become more mindful. We have used the inviting bell this week and timed our meditation to align with the bell.

For our Art lesson, we have created an Andy Warhol transfer using modelling clay. Pupils have created some beautiful pieces of art work. Sadly, some of the models cracked during the drying process. When we reflected, our assessment was that our tiles needed to be made thicker..

The pupils have enjoyed using games in their Maths lessons..

Next week is Mental Health Awareness week and pupils have looked at mental health issues and how to support each other. They have designed their own posters to help people understand the issues around mental health and the support available.

Mr Corrigan and his class would like to share their learning with you too…

In Literacy we are looking at poetry. This week we have been discussing and recreating the smells, tastes, sights, sounds and feel of the seaside to make senses poems. We have used sensory activities..

..and Sherborne techniques to inform our writing..

In Maths this week we have started to look at addition, using what we have learned from our previous work counting in 2s, 5s, 10s etc. and concrete manipulatives..

In Science we are looking at what makes a healthy lifestyle. This week we have been looking at healthy eating and for our homework we will be tracking our daily intake of fruit and vegetables..

We have been looking at movement in Drama this term through the book, Funny Bones. We have been retelling the story using freeze frames and this week we have used ‘Mirroring’..

In our SEAL sessons the children have been working on their communication skills. We have learned what each other’s likes and dislikes are, as well as our frustrations and what to do if we feel angry..

The children have loved Spanish this term with Mr Francos and enjoy greeting each other in a different language..

Mr Rawson’s Nurture Group have also been working hard..

This week’s Science lesson was about reflection and refraction. The pupils carried out experiments to prove angles of incidence and reflection..

In Maths our topic is 2D and 3D shapes. On Tuesday the pupils had to feel shapes and describe their properties to the rest of the group who had to guess what the shape was..

We have our own secondary Mangahigh super stars this week! Thomas, Ethan and Bradley have all successfully completed the Mangahigh Maths challenge. We are extremely proud of all three boys – well done!!

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Brooke for using the outside area to experiment with sound..

• SEAL Superstar: Jacob for expressing when he feels happy or sad..

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lenni for fantastic matching work in topic
  SEAL Superstar: Ijaaz for smiling in the mirror during the ‘happy and you know it’ song
• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Nimra for knowing her friend was sad and showing kindness by making her friend a flower..

SEAL Superstar: Callum for doing some fantastic map work in Geography..

Alex got a ‘WOW!’ from Miss Williams for settling into school and doing a full week..

• Mr Wood’s class:
  Star of the Week: Renico for trying lots of different, healthy food..

SEAL Superstar: Henry for participating more during learning time..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: George for settling into his new class extremely well and getting used to the new rules and routines..

• SEAL Superstar: Amario for being a fantastic friend, playing nicely and offering to share with others..

• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Charlie for being resilient and trying hard in all his lessons all week
  SEAL Superstar: Ivy for being able to recognise different emotions in people

• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Alivia for fantastic work in Maths this week on Showbie
  SEAL Superstar: Josh for showing different feelings and emotions through different ways
  Our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’ is Alivia. 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: Jayden for being hard working, kind and helpful every day
  SEAL Superstar: Summer, Rhys and Liam for recognising their friend was sad and helping him to feel better
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Daniel for keeping calm and positive all week, even when feeling frustrated. Well done, Daniel!
  SEAL Superstar: Luke for sharing what makes him feel happy, sad, scared and excited

Well done, everyone! Don’t forget that we are supporting the charity Young Minds and their #HelloYellow mental health awareness campaign. As part of this, we would like to invite all our pupils to wear something yellow, alongside their uniform, on Friday 12th October and bring in a donation to support Young Minds.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Laura

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