WOW!! I cannot believe that we are fast approaching the last week of the Autumn term and what a term it has been!

I would first like to thank all the pupils and staff who supported the Christmas show on Tuesday evening. All the pupils performed fantastically and they have certainly made us feel the festive spirit..

This week I have asked staff to share their sporting experiences from both primary and secondary and what better way to start than with Mrs Dunsdon who wanted to share Henry’s amazing swimming achievements..

We are so proud of Henry who has been petrified of going into the pool. Last week he overcame his fears and with the support of Miss Darlington took the plunge. It was a pleasure to be able to share this achievement with his Mummy and Daddy who I know are also over the moon. Well done Henry!

Well done Henry, we are so proud of you.

From one proud pupil to some others. Miss McMurray’s form take part in the Prince William Award every Tuesday and this week they have conducted a fund raising event by creating, setting up and running an obstacle course. Before other students could pay to take part they had to test it for functionality and safety, and then made some minor adjustments before they opened the doors for staff and pupils to take part in during break time..

The pupils collected a very impressive £23.50 in just 15 minutes. They planned this event themselves and have decided that they want the money to be donated to Cancer Research UK. After the event their session did not stop there; they reviewed the task and discussed areas that were great and some that needed improving. Throughout the planning, rehearsal and event, the pupils displayed qualities they needed to be successful including teamwork, listening, co-operation, empathy, respect and problem solving. Fantastic achievements again!!

From one charity to another – Bethany, one of our older students, has created a fundraising page to help both children and adults. It’s inspirational to see our students volunteering their time and support to help others. Here is her story:

My name is Beth, I am 17 years old and I run a non profit organisation called Kindness Cards Project.
I send out cards and packages for free to anyone in the UK who has any chronic illnesses, disabilities, mental health conditions etc.
My project is all funded from my own pocket, so if anyone is able to help out with donations to fund my project, it’ll be so greatly appreciated.
Any money raised will be spent on items for the kindness packages, postage for the packages and stamps for the kindness cards.
If you’d like to have a look at what I do, or contact me, please visit my instagram page @kindnesscardsproject or my facebook page @kindnesscardsproject. The link to my JustGiving fundraising page is here if you are able to support my project.
Thank you for reading 😊 Beth xx

Sticking with secondary, the Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils at Hollinwood Academy and New Bridge have enjoyed each others’ company over the past weeks as they have been socialising at break and dinner times. Mrs Dickson is kind enough to offer our Key Stage 4 pupils some quiet time in her room at break and dinner and over the last few weeks a number of Hollinwood Academy and New Bridge pupils have been introduced to each other as they have a passion for chess! They have been meeting regularly and are becoming extremely competitive but showing great sportsmanship..

Also, the Key Stage 3 pupils at Hollinwood Academy have started a football tournament with pupils who have been coming across from New Bridge to join them in the sports hall at dinner time. The teams are of mixed ability with New Bridge and Hollinwood Academy teaming up together. The pupils have also been working with a number of volunteer football coaches on agility, pace, skills and playing matches and as you can see they are really enjoying themselves..

Mr Heap is our PE lead at Hollinwood Academy and he would like to share with you a number of activities that have taken place this term..

This term within the PE curriculum we have been developing our skills in basketball. Pupils have been improving their hand-eye co-ordination, communication and team work skills. The pupils’ behaviour has been fantastic and it has been great to see pupils developing their confidence and self-esteem..

This term some of our pupils also had the opportunity to represent Hollinwood Academy in our first multi academy trust basketball tournament. This was a great opportunity for our pupils to showcase their skills that they had been developing in PE each week. All the pupils showed fantastic sportsmanship both on and off the court and were rewarded by winning the tournament overall. This is a fantastic achievement as it was some of our pupils’ first opportunity to represent school in a sporting event..

As well as basketball, pupils have also taken part in health and fitness where they have been taking part in and discovering a range of fitness exercises. We have completed individual fitness and strength tests, participated in a range of fitness circuits and learnt about the importance of exercise. Have a look at some of our fantastic pictures..

Some of our primary pupils had the opportunity to represent school in the City in the Community primary schools football tournament at the Etihad stadium. All of the pupils had a great time and displayed fantastic behaviour. The pupils demonstrated sportsmanship and coped with winning and losing. The pupils cannot wait for the next opportunity to take part in the competition..

Some pupils within primary are continuing to access weekly Yoga sessions with our fantastic instructor Katie. We have all been exploring our body in different ways and developed our listening, balance and co-ordination. Some of our pupils can now recall a range of different Yoga positions independently and are progressing to learn a sequence..

This term some of our pupils have been accessing a range of environments during Outdoor Education. All the pupils have behaved brilliantly in their local communities and understand bus safety. This term we have been exploring different seasons and looked at changes that can happen in our local environment. We have discovered a range of habitats and explored our senses in different ways. All the pupils have a fantastic time on Outdoor Education and it has been a pleasure to see them all engaged and excited about where we are exploring next..

Mrs Lomax was very impressed with her class this week.

This week we have been doing lots of our recording of our Science experiments using Showbie. We have been investigating the different states of water including melting, freezing and evaporation..

Miss Carpenter would like to share with you her culinary delights and a primary yoga session this week…..

It has been a busy week in the build up to Christmas in Miss Carpenter’s Living Skills lessons.

On Monday, Year 9 learnt about food assurance schemes and how these keep us safe when buying food in the UK. They looked at the Red Tractor scheme and researched recipes which contained Red Tractor meats and seasonal vegetables. Year 9 also learnt how to use a supermarket website to find the total costs of their recipes to see if they were good value for money..

On Tuesday, Key Stage 1 had a relaxing yoga session and finished their lesson with some dancing. Here’s Corey showing us a beautiful mountain pose – what a professional!

Year 7 and 8 went bananas on us! Look at those faces enjoying making their banana muffins. We learnt how to use the ‘all-in-one’ method and how to add fruit but reduce sugar. I think we have some star bakers amongst the group..

On Thursday, Miss Carpenter challenged our other Year 8 class to make Yule logs. Considering they only had 90 minutes, they did a fantastic job. They made them by creating a chocolate Swiss roll and then rolling it filled with strawberry jam. The class then covered them in chocolate buttercream and created a pattern which looked like bark. The snow effect was created by dusting some icing sugar over the top. Well done Year 8!

Mr Rawson’s class ended their Living Skills lesson this year by making some stained glass window biscuits. The glass effect is created by crushing boiled sweets and cooking them in the oven. Mrs Potts who has her classroom next door thought we were having some building work done but we got there in the end. Those sweets were harder than we thought!

We ended the week with some glittery ginger buns. Miss Carpenter spent most of the day sparkling but it was worth it to see the quality products Key Stage 4 made..

Merry Christmas everyone!

The children in Mrs Dunsdon’s class have done some lovely homework. The task was to work with parents to find out about birds that migrate. We made some Canada geese in the classroom and we learnt about how they always fly in a V shape. We know that the birds leave North America in the winter and fly to South America..

Here is some of the fantastic work the children did at home..

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

• Mrs Dunsdon’s class:
  Star of the Week: Caitlin for using some full sentences and improved communication in lessons..

SEAL Superstar: Victory for managing his feelings and joining in the Nativity practice..

• Miss Grimsley’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lenni for letting the adults in his class know he needs the toilet by independently saying ‘toilet’..

• Mr Corrigan’s class:
  Star of the Week: George for an outstanding effort with his homework this week..

SEAL Superstar: Amario for a special act of kindness..

Here are this week’s Homework Stars..

• Mrs Dunsdon’s Key Stage 1 class:
  Star of the Week: Jacob for excellent work about migratory birds..

SEAL Superstar: Ollie for managing his feelings and joining in the Nativity practice..

• Mrs Lomax’s class:
  Star of the Week: Lucas for having done some fantastic work on Showbie this week and helping his friends and teachers to upload photographs!

SEAL Superstar: Vincent for being able to sort out a problem on Showbie and keeping on trying and not giving up..

• Mr Heap’s class:
  Star of the Week: James for fantastic behaviour during our nativity dress rehearsal. James is also our new ‘Marvellous Meerkat’. We hope you and Meerkat have a fantastic weekend and we can’t wait to hear about your marvellous adventures!
• Mrs Halkyard’s class:
  SEAL Superstar: Daniel for finding ways to keep calm when angry

Well done everyone!

I cannot wait for next week, there is so much to look forward to:

• Primary Nativity – Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th December at 9.30am
• Christmas jumper and dinner day – Wednesday 19th December
• Super Learning Day – Thursday 20th December
• The last day of the Autumn Term – Friday 21st December

I have a very busy weekend ahead with my girls: a pantomime trip, dance show rehearsals and Christmas parties. I do love this time of year!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Laura

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