The corridors have been unusually quiet this week especially at Primary but the students and staff have been getting into the full swing of Christmas. We have decorated trees, mischievous elves, Santa Claus and singing students and staff. This is just what the students have needed this week after the last nine months and I’m looking forward to the next two weeks in school.

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We welcome back Primary bubble 3 on Monday 7th December, Secondary bubble 3 on Tuesday 8th December and Primary bubble 1 on Thursday 10th December and we can’t wait to see them all.

Let’s see what some of our classes have been doing this week, starting with Mr Rawson’s class…

This week the students have been learning about multiplication and division in class and have a good understanding of grid multiplication and division using chunking.

In Science the students have been learning about Light and have done some great experiments using light to solve crimes, how light travels in straight lines, calculating shadow growth, angles of reflection and how light is made up of different colours.

Measuring angles of reflection, then using mirrors to create angles with light.

Experimenting with colours in the Light Spectrum..

We have had 2 birthdays (last week), Bronson and Edward both aged 10 now..

The students have also put up the Christmas decorations and a tree in the classroom and are looking forward to Christmas.

They have also been busy making Christmas cards for the other students..

Mrs Lerigo’s class have been busy this week..

Wowzers what a week! We have a new student in our class this week and she has brought a lot of fun and joy to the classroom. We have all settled well and new friendships are being developed.

In Art we have been studying the artist Wassily Kandinsky and how he creates shapes in his art work. We have been looking at one piece of art in particular which is the ‘Colour study – squares and concentric circles’. We have been spinning a Lazy Susan to make circles during Attention Autism and have had great fun watching the paint fly everywhere. We have also been creating secondary colours and finding out what new colours can be made.

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In English we have started our story about the ‘Christmas Markets’. We have used drama to create a market experience, we have got dressed in Christmas jumpers and put on our winter hats, gloves, and scarves. We sang Christmas songs whilst driving on the pretend bus to the markets and also had a mulled wine (juice) in the café.

In Maths we have been continuing our work on patterns. We have made the patterns much more complicated and we have excelled. We have made patterns with our bodies, patterns with shapes and even made some paper chain repeating patterns to decorate our classroom.

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In Food Technology we are making Christmas treats. This week we practised making doughnuts. Next week we are going to decorate doughnuts and make patterns with sprinkles, marshmallows and coloured icing.

Busy week and lots of fun..

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We can’t wait to see what next week brings – maybe some more snow?

This week was 9PGD’S first week on outdoor education..

We went on the school bus to Daisy Nook and had a lovely walk round, we saw the lake and had a chat about the environment. The class enjoyed themselves and it’s a good job we had our waterproofs!

We have also been getting into the Christmas spirit in our classroom, we have made a ‘Take A SELFie’ we have had some fun with Miss. Bones, Miss. Heyes and Miss Bartlett. The students have also had fun taking selfies.

This week in food technology 9PGD have enjoyed making hot chocolates and squirty cream. We have been looking at the ingredients in cream and how each ingredient affects our body.

Here is your guide to a delicious hot chocolate this Christmas time!
(WITH AN ADULT)

Step 1:
Get together your cup, milk, hot chocolate and squirty cream.

Step 2:
Add 2-3 teaspoons of hot chocolate powder to your cup!

Step 3:
Add enough milk depending on how hot you want it!

Step 4:
Stir up the milk and make it into a nice chocolate paste.

Step 5:
With an adult add some hot water to your cup and stir gently.

Step 6:
Add cream and marsh mellows to your hot chocolate if you like them!

Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and SEALs..

• Mrs Halkyard’s STAR of the week is Jake for always following instructions and doing the right thing.
• Mrs Halkyard’s SEAL Superstar is Tyler for using mindfulness techniques every day.
• Mrs Halkyard’s WOW moment goes to Marley. Well done!

• Miss McDonald’s STAR of the week is Connor for coping with change in and out of school
• Miss McDonald’s SEAL Superstar is Renico for not getting annoyed and accepting when he was told off.
• Miss McDonald’s WOW moment goes to Gerard. Well done!
• Mrs Halkyard and Miss McDonald’s DOJO winners are Chris and Fatima.

• Miss Simms’ STAR of the week is Amario for being so confident during Christmas singing activities.

• Miss Simms’ SEAL Superstar is Andie for teaching everyone about 5 finger breathing.

• Miss Tootill’s STAR of the week is Byron for helping his family whilst isolating at home

• Miss Tootill’s SEAL Superstar is Sophia for recognising emotions and using strategies to calm herself down.

Well done everyone.

Can I remind families that if you have any donations for our local food bank we would be grateful if you could send these in to school by Friday 11th December. Oldham is now the HIGHEST area in the North West for child poverty with an increase of 9.3% and as a school and staffing team we want to support our local community.

You will have all received a copy of our draft policy today for Health and Relationships Education (HRE-Primary) and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE-Secondary) consultation. The Department for Education have announced that HRE and RSE are compulsory for Primary and Secondary School children within the UK from September 2020. We are in the process of drafting our HRE/RSE policy at Hollinwood Academy and we would like you to be involved. We are aware that this is a sensitive topic, therefore we feel it is even more important that we have your input on our new policy. Please read and if you have any comments or questions please complete the questionnaire via ParentApp as we value your input.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Millard

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