This was a very special week for some of our pupils at Hollinwood Academy because we selected our first ever primary football team!! Not only was it the first time some of them had ever taken part in a sporting competition, it was also the first opportunity to show off our new Hollinwood Academy football kit in, of course, our school colours. The team looked fantastic and we are so proud of them..

Eight of our primary pupils had the opportunity to visit the Etihad stadium to represent school in the One City primary schools football tournament which was organised by City in the Community. Mr Heap drove the mini bus, coached and cheered the team throughout the competition. The children were amazed with the stadium and loved every minute of the day. Initially, some of them were rather overwhelmed but as the day went on they showed support, encouragement and great sportsmanship.

All of our pupils had a fantastic time and represented school brilliantly, true Hollinwood Academy ambassadors.

We can’t wait for the next tournament!!

Another first for Hollinwood Academy saw the start of the Maths Hub Peer to Peer tutoring project. It was an absolute delight to see it in action. Every pupil from Miss Meadows’ class has been paired with a pupil from Miss Parkinson’s class to coach Maths problems, teaching and learning. Pupils who don’t normally communicate in Maths lessons were actively engaging and communicating in Maths with their peers..

This project will look into the impact that peer to peer support can have within Maths. The impact might take the form of overall Maths progress, improved engagement in lessons, expanding the use of mathematical language and increased confidence amongst peers.

This first session was a huge success, the children really enjoyed it. The peer tutors were extremely professional in their approach to the younger peer tutees, they should be really proud of themselves. We are now excited to see how this develops in the future..

Mrs Needham, Director of Maths across the MAT, said after the session, “It was unbelievable to observe. It was amazing to see the pupils interacting with each other. I am very proud and I cannot wait to see future sessions. Well done to everyone involved!”

Hollinwood has also seen its first Christmas showcase rehearsal and, if this is anything to go by, the show is going to be AMAZING!! There is a buzz around school – the pupils love to perform in the show and I can’t wait to watch it!

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

This week the children in Miss Grimsley and Mrs Dunsdon’s class have been given a very special gift from Gemma and Glen De La Haye – they have hand made a rather palatial ‘Bug Hotel’! It is the Savoy of the Bug World, including bee tubes and a butterfly box. The children had so much fun on Friday furnishing the suites ready for the first guests to check in..

It is this kind of enrichment that is so important in the development of our pupils and we really cannot thank Gemma and Glen enough for this wonderful gift. We are so lucky. We are all so excited to see which bugs check in first and we will keep you all posted as we watch our guests with interest!

Thank you so much Gemma and Glen from all the staff and pupils.

Let’s see what Mrs Halkyard’s class have been learning this week..

This week has been a busy one for our class. In English we have been focusing on Remembrance and have created some fantastic war themed poetry. The children have thought very carefully about feelings and emotions when writing their poems and have used some excellent personification, as well as telling some lovely stories..

Once the poems were complete, we used iMovie to create a small movie clip where we typed the poems, added images and read them out.

This week has been Anti-Bullying Week. We have discussed what bullying is and through an interactive game we have been faced with scenarios where we decided as a group what would be the best course of action. It was great to see the children work together to solve the problems and give their opinions as to how they would deal with these situations..

On Tuesday, we took part in the Prince William Award programme as we do every week. The children were working in small groups to build towers out of straws and Blu-Tack. Having found Tuesday afternoons fairly tricky to start with, the children are now enjoying the sessions much more which has been great to see, encouraging their team building skills and resilience..

In ICT this half term we are focusing on animations. This week we have been experimenting with Stop Motion. We have used different objects and moved them very slightly in order to create a new frame for each movement. This requires a lot of patience and takes a lot of time! The children have shown how excellent their skills are..

In Science we are exploring materials. Last week we looked at the different properties of materials and this week we moved on to trying to find the best container to keep something warm. We tested a glass jar, a tin can, a paper based cup and a plastic cup by monitoring how quickly the hot water cooled down.

On Wednesday two members of our class took part in a football tournament at Manchester City’s stadium. They won 4 games out of 8, scoring 17 goals between the team which is excellent! They returned to school feeling very tired but excited to share their news..

Now to Miss Sanderson’s class..

The humanities department has had an exciting start to the school year. The pupils have been spending one half term on History and another on Geography.

In the History department the Year 7s have been working towards identifying their key skills and are now moving onto natural hazards. They have done some fantastic drawings and models of natural disasters..

The Year 8s have now begun learning about rivers and are hoping to go on a school trip to explore the journey of a river..

The Year 9s have begun the GCSE topic of Crime and Punishment and have begun looking at Britain in 1066. The GCSE groups are working hard towards their predicted grades and are preparing for a Crime and Punishment mock exam towards the end of term. In the next few weeks there will be a special announcement from the History department, so stay tuned!

We are also looking forward to our Tuesday lunchtime History Club – come along to HF19 from 1pm to see what you think..

This week in GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition, Year 10 completed a food science investigation. They looked at how meringues taste or texture changes if you use different methods of preparation.

Poor Miss Horsfield had the meringue test inflicted on her! It’s a good job the Year 10 class had worked their magic!

Mr Rawson’s class made bread this week and perfected their kneading skills, just look at their loaves! Well done!

Our SEAL Superstars and our Stars of the Week are:

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Brooke for joining in all the speech during Talk4Writing

SEAL Superstar: Fatima for encouraging other children to join in her play

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Daniel for trying hard and showing attention during the mystery bucket session

SEAL Superstar: Shayan for sharing toys during morning routine

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: Amario for being brave and trying something new
  SEAL Superstar: Brodey for sharing with his friends and understanding the importance of taking turns
• Mr Wood’s class:
  Star of the Week: Christopher for asking super clever questions during learning

SEAL Superstar: Henry for always being kind and asking people how they are

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Nimra for following instructions straight away and completing all her learning in lesson time

SEAL Superstar: Ibraheem for doing his Reflection Time with Miss Byrne and thinking about how others feel and for working independently so the teachers could help someone else

• Miss Parkinson’s class:
  Star of the Week: Zachary for fantastic research work on volcanoes in English this week

• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week:  Josh for fantastic behaviour on our school football trip
  SEAL Superstar: Jack for being a good friend by helping others
  Our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’ is Josh. 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: Josh for being a superstar all week!
  SEAL Superstar: Nathan for being a kind friend and helping others
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  Star of the Week: Luca for excellent effort all week and working hard
  SEAL Superstar: Aqsa for being a lovely friend and supporting others

In assembly we also congratulated all of the boys who attended the MCFC football tournament this week and displayed great team work and resilience..

Well done everyone!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. My girls are at a dance competition on Sunday with their Fierce dance family. They make me very proud.

Laura

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