A very warm welcome back to everyone after the half term break. We have had a very busy first week back at school and the pupils have been happy to see their friends and teachers.

Firstly, I would like to share with you a very proud Macauley and his Head Teacher’s Award from before half term. Unfortunately Macauley was absent on the last day of term but he happily received his award today. Well done Macauley!

On Thursday, our primary classes had a wonderful British Values Day to commemorate 100 years since the end of WW1. All our primary pupils were invited to wear red, white and blue and took part in a variety of activities throughout such as making crowns..

..palace building..

..art work..

..a flag hunt..

..team building and learning songs. Mrs Halkyard’s class painted some beautiful sunset silhouette pictures..

..and Mrs Dunsdon’s class decorated some biscuits in red, white and blue..

At lunch time, all the pupils enjoyed a street party picnic lunch in our decorated dining hall while listening to songs from the war. I have to say a huge thanks to Alison and her team in the canteen for making this possible. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful team in the kitchen.

In the afternoon, we had a super assembly in which all the children showcased their work from the day and proudly stood to sing the National Anthem!

Thanks as always to all the staff who made this day so special for our pupils and to all the parents and carers for your continued support. We also raised a fantastic £138!

On the subject of fundraising, during the half term holidays our very own Luke took a very special and rewarding trip with Mrs Dunsdon, Miss Woodhead and his Mum, Gemma…..and climbed Mount Snowdon!

Luke showed true British spirit whilst preparing for and making the climb, and all the donations received from our British Values Day will be added to the funds that Luke is raising online and locally with charity pots. Gemma, Luke’s mum, would like to share her account of Luke’s days leading up to the climb and the day itself..

Mount Snowdon Challenge

A couple of weeks ago Luke was invited to walk up Mount Snowdon with Mrs Dunsdon and Miss Woodhead. My initial thought was that there would be no chance of Luke agreeing to it, but he did.

We started on a mission to get people to sponsor Luke to raise as much money as we could for school. We started off aiming for £200 but we smashed that target in just 24 hours so we increased the target to a whopping £1000.

Unfortunately, a few days before the event it all got too much for Luke. Luke said he wanted to pull out of the challenge and stay at home and was very upset, however, giving in was not an option so I agreed to go with him.

The big day arrived for the Mount Snowdon challenge. Luke was excited but also nervous. Lots of negative thoughts and the feeling that he was going to fail returned but once we had set off and we were on our way he seemed to become focused on reaching the summit.

The weather was kind to us, although it got extremely cold as we climbed higher. Luke was amazing, he stayed focused throughout his walk, apart from moaning for chocolate because there was no limit on it for that day only. Even when I gave in 3/4 of the way up, Luke continued on up to the summit.

After walking for approximately 3.5 hours Luke reached the trig point. The smile on his face showed how much that meant to him. He later told me that the only sad part about getting to the top was when he realised that he still had to walk all the way back down!!

Never could I have imagined that Luke would even agree to walking up Mount Snowdon, let alone do it. I am so proud of Luke for setting his mind to something and for the determination he showed when walking. What an incredible son we have.

Special thanks to Mrs Dunsdon for walking with Luke and supporting him to the very top!

The money raised will go towards an outdoor learning space for the children at Hollinwood Academy. The total currently stands at £1432*. We would like to thank everyone for their support in sponsoring Luke and would like to give a massive thanks to all the staff at Hollinwood Academy for their continued support.

Gemma

Mrs Dunsdon also said…

Determination, independence, resilience and achievement are just a few qualities we strive to help our students develop throughout their time with us. Everyday our students make us proud to be a part of their journey, so it was an absolute joy to be able to accompany Luke on his climb up Mount Snowdon in an effort to raise money for school.

The route is 9.5 miles to the summit and back with a 4.5 mile steep hill, loose rocks and snow at the top, it’s no gentle stroll any time but least of all in November. It’s hard going for the fittest of people but when you are nine years old every ounce of strength, resilience and determination are required to achieve. And achieve Luke did! Luke set off with a fear of dogs and heights, both of which are unavoidable on Snowdon but the bravery Luke showed in overcoming his fears was truly inspirational. I am delighted to say that Esme (the dog) who came to add moral support now has a friend for life! I cannot express how proud I am of Luke in completing his challenge and making it to the top with a huge smile on his face, knowing he had DONE IT!!

Luke’s efforts to raise funds for outdoor sensory play equipment at Hollinwood Academy have surpassed all expectations and although the final figure is yet to be announced, it is over £1500!!

A huge thanks must go to Gemma and Glen for their support and fundraising efforts and to everyone who so generously donated.

Well done Luke, you are AMAZING!!

Luke has written his own account of his adventure..

Hollinwood Academy is immensely proud of Luke and all he has achieved. Thank you to all the families who have donated to Luke and towards our British Values Day. Gemma has just confirmed that the total raised by Luke and his family is a staggering £1,500!!! The £138 donated on our British Vales Day will be added to that and the money raised will benefit the all the pupils at Hollinwood.

This week, I have asked Miss Shin’s class and Mrs Nuttall/Miss Bones’ form to share what they have been up to, starting with Miss Shin..

We had a very interesting start to the new term, we came in on Monday morning to find this!

Nathan and Jack thought it looked like a dinosaur had been into our classroom and made a mess and after further investigation we found out they were right!

We read the newspaper report which explained what had happened..

..and spent the rest of the week identifying and using the language features of newspaper reports..

In Maths some of us have been learning about squared and cubed numbers..

..and some of us have been practising counting forwards and backwards in multiples of 2..

..3..

..and 4..

I have been very impressed with the children’s hard work this week, especially Summer’s use of mathematical vocabulary which has been amazing!

For our new topic ‘Active World’ we are learning about earthquakes. As an introduction to this topic we made buildings out of sweets and cocktails sticks and placed them on a surface made out of jelly (this represented the land)..

We shook the tables and banged on them to simulate an earthquake and found out that most of the buildings got destroyed..

We are looking forward to finding out how and why earthquakes occur and how often.

With it being Bonfire Night the first day back, we took some time to learn all about fire safety. We wrote some helpful rules and also practised putting out a (pretend!) fire..

We used role play to decide what we would do in the event of fire emergencies and we learnt an important rule for if our clothes are on fire – stop, drop, roll!

On Thursday we took part in British Values Day to commemorate the lost lives of soldiers during past wars. We discussed what it means to be British and each of the values in turn. We worked together to make a poster and we also learned a song which is all about togetherness and performed it in our assembly..

[fvplayer src=”http://newbridgeschool.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Togetherness.mp4″]

We are also very happy to welcome Alex as a new member of our class!

Now over to Mrs Nuttall/Miss Bones’ form..

In Food Science, we have been doing a fats investigation. In order to do this, the pupils baked cupcakes using four different types of fat. At the end, they tested each other’s cakes and ranked them in order of tastiness. They came to the conclusion that the dairy free cakes and the ones made with full fat butter tasted similar and were the best tasting cakes.

In History, we are learning about crime and punishment in the 1700s. My gosh how times have changed! Back then, petty criminals were transported to countries such as Australia as punishment. The more serious criminals were iron branded with letters related to the crime they had committed e.g. ‘M’ for murder. We then tried some detective work of our own..

In Maths we have been working on solving equations using algebra tiles. Additionally, we have been continuing to use Showbie and Corbett Maths.

In Science, we have been experimenting with bacteria on different surfaces. We have been growing bacteria on agar plates over a period of three weeks and now we have added a variety of antibacterial products to see if the bacteria stops growing or disappears. We can’t wait to find out!

In English we have nearly completed our GCSE poetry topic! Only 4 more poems left to study out of 15! We have been using Showbie to demonstrate our independent study skills so each of us can develop our own personal response to each poem. Everybody has their own personal favourites and we have all developed our skills in analysis to a higher level!

This week we have been learning about the media triangle and consumption habits for various members of the population. We have also learnt about mass and niche audiences as well as active and passive audiences. It’s been a great start!

Mr Rawson’s class have had a busy week too!

This week we have been working on mental multiplication and division in Maths and playing Maths Bingo!

We have also started our new Science topic for the term and the pupils have been learning about a simple electrical circuit and how to construct one. To challenge the class and make it a bit of fun, they had to assemble the components blindfolded!

Let’s finish with our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Brooke for excellent work in Maths working with Numicon..

SEAL Superstar: Fatima for being a really good friend and encouraging other children to play and do their best..

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Myla for an amazing firework picture..

• SEAL Superstar: Jason for playing really nicely with another child..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Andie for producing some fantastic British Values work and presenting it to the whole school..

• SEAL Superstar: Marley for excellent listening in assembly..

• Mr Wood’s class:
  Star of the Week: Farrukh for amazing art work making a Diwali card and Rangoli patterns and Henry for exceptional bravery and getting in the pool today..

SEAL Superstar: Madison for super sharing, taking turns and acceptance of others following our story ‘The Rainbow Fish’..

Our Homework Stars were very proud of their work!

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Vincent for doing some fantastic phonics work..

SEAL Superstar: Callum for knowing what makes a good friend and showing these qualities with his friends in school..

• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Harrison for great participation in all lessons this week. Well done!

SEAL Superstar: Oliver for fantastic participation in our British Values day!

• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: Olivia for fantastic independent work in Maths this week
  SEAL Superstar: Alivia for interacting more with others in class
  Our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’ is Olivia. 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: Jack for having a great week, working hard and making good choices
  SEAL Superstar: Alex for settling in well to a new class
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Daley for having an excellent week, super effort and a great attitude
  SEAL Superstar: Finlay for settling in and adapting well to our class

Well done everyone!

Just a quick reminder, we have our Primary and Secondary Parents’ Evening on Tuesday. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure you send your reply slip back to school so that you can be given a convenient time.

There are some last minute tickets now available for our trip to the Opera House on 18th December to see Cinderella if you are quick! Our staff will be there to support our young people and you can find out more by calling Isabella on 0161 883 2401.

I hope you all have a great weekend,

Laura

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