HWA Blog - 24.4.26
The sun is shining, which always lifts the mood and makes it feel like a better day. It’s hard to believe how quickly the time is flying by. This week has been incredibly busy, with lots of learning taking place alongside a wide range of extracurricular activities. I am really looking forward to sharing this week’s highlights with you and celebrating all that has been happening across school.
Sharing the highlights…
Goodbye to Courtney
I would like to say goodbye and good luck to Courtney. Those of you who know her will no doubt agree that she will be greatly missed.
Courtney has been at Hollinwood Academy for eight years, and during that time she has grown from an administration apprentice into our HOS Administrator. She has been an absolute asset to the team, and her dedication, professionalism, and support have made a real difference to us all.
As Courtney embarks on her new journey and career in the world of social care, I would like to wish her all the luck in the world. She will be brilliant. She is such a caring, empathetic, and hardworking colleague who is always ready to help others.
Good luck, Courtney, and don’t be a stranger. Hollinwood will miss you.
Interviews
This week, we concluded a highly successful round of interviews. We are delighted to welcome Karen as our new Head of School Administrator, Sid as our new Maths Teacher, and Amber as our new KS1/EYFS Teacher. I am confident that each of our new colleagues will be a valuable asset to the team and will contribute positively to our continued success.
Photography Exam
This week sees the culmination of our first ever cohort of GCSE photography students as they have tackled their final exam. Our students chose to create a meaningful response to themes including nature, reflection, isolation, interiors and time. They have had to research the work of existing photographers, demonstrating understanding of visual language. They each selected appropriate media, tools and techniques so that they could confidently record their ideas and insights, in realising their intentions.
Our class responses to the nature theme include shots taken in our students' local area, of plants, birds, rivers and waterfalls. The students responding to the interiors theme include a home showcase and a disused industrial factory. Our response to reflection presents a stunning Lancashire sunset superimposed onto the local canal path.
Locations explored for final picture editing, both on school trips and independently with families, include Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside, Manchester, the Yorkshire Dales and America.
Whilst we can't share the final edited pictures before this summer, we look forward to showcasing our first exhibit at the beginning of next school year. We are incredibly proud of our young people, who have taken passion, creativity, hard work and dedication to a whole new level. They are an inspiration to all our future photographers. Well done Year 11 - first GCSE exam of 2026....Done.
Message from Miss Hobson
Whilst travelling SE Asia Miss Hobson had the pleasure of meeting some students from Vietnam and Cambodia who spoke excellent English, were polite and welcoming. Miss Hobson’s experiences so far…
"In Vietnam, I met some other teachers from England who were teaching at a school in Ho Chi Minh after relocating as well as some year 13 students who were delivering a guided tour as part of their business qualification.
The students took myself and the others for a traditional Vietnamese breakfast before making our way to the independence palace. The students guided us through the city and around the palace whilst giving us knowledge and facts about the history of the palace and the president of the Republic of Vietnam who resided there.
After this, we made our way to the War Remnants Museum which revealed the sad and barbaric history of Vietnams past. The museum had many displays of evidence of the crimes and consequences of war which personally brought me to tears. The students were extremely compassion and really looked after me and the others whilst guiding us through the history of the first Indochina war and the Vietnam war.
In Cambodia we went to floating village in Kampong on the Tonlé Sap Lake where homes are built on 6–8-meter stilts to survive the water changes during the wet season which gives them the ‘floating’ title. In villages we went to a school which solely teaches English to children living there from all ages- our visit being up to 13 years old. The students were extremely polite and were excited to test their English skills on English speaking natives. We talked about what are favourite hobbies and food were as well football (being from greater Manchester) before saying goodbye and donating to the school to they can continue making a difference to the lives of the students in this remote village.
Both experiences were extremely humbling and I was amazed by the kindness and intelligence of these students all the way in Asia."
NH
Imperial War Museum trip
Our Year 10 Inspiration Hub visited the Imperial War Museum today, and it was a highly successful trip. The students were a credit to Hollinwood Academy and represented the school exceptionally well. Following this visit, the class will be working with Miss Bottery on an exciting new project inspired by the museum. It is wonderful to see how much the students gained from the experience, which will help support their next steps in learning.
Imperial War Museum
Parents Evening
We hosted our first parents’ evening on Thursday and were delighted to see such a great turnout. Thank you to all the parents who attended and shared their feedback. Thank you as well to our fantastic staff team for all your hard work. I am looking forward to round two next week, where options will be discussed with parents of children moving into key stage 4 in September. Exciting times ahead.
Reception class
Thank you, Harris, for sharing your fantastic creation. You have shown great progress in your weaving and threading skills. This demonstrates strong physical development, particularly in developing fine motor skills, as you confidently and safely use a range of tools with increasing control. Well done keep up the fantastic work.
Harris
Year 9 English Set C
Completed their creative writing work outside in the sunshine today and everyone produced some lovely work.
AGN
Primary Thrive Class Visits
Our Primary Thrive classes have been extremely busy and productive this week. Children have been working hard in preparation for both KS1 and KS2 SATs, showing high levels of focus, resilience, and determination throughout their learning. All children have been fully engaged in their tasks and have approached challenges with a positive attitude.
It has been particularly encouraging to see children working collaboratively, supporting one another and sharing strategies to help improve their understanding. This teamwork has helped to build confidence and has reinforced the importance of cooperation and mutual respect within the classroom.
Staff have been very proud of the effort and progress shown by the children, and it has been lovely to see their confidence grow as they prepare for the upcoming assessments. The calm, purposeful learning environment has reflected the strong relationships and positive learning culture within our Thrive classes. I look forward to popping into other classes next week.
Year 8 Class Visits
It has been a very positive week across Year 8 and pleasing to see the learning going on across school.
In the Wellbeing Hub, I have seen excellent, personalised activities in their targeted support lessons and the students have been keen to showcase their learning. In their English lessons, they have been exploring dyslexia and demonstrated an excellent recall of facts and knowledge. Students used resources to great effect to support their understanding in maths too.
In Y8 TRN, the students showed extremely high engagement in their English lessons and were engrossed in learning about the creation (and subsequent fall) of The Berlin Wall. They used their knowledge to then create effective recall paragraphs. Students were particularly reflective and empathetic to the feelings of the Berlin population and the impact the Wall had.
I have watched the students in Y8 NNL in English and they were engrossed in guided reading. Students were focusing on different books but utilising a shared skill set. Adaptations were used to great effect and behaviour for learning was excellent.
In Y8 PGD, I dropped in to a lesson focusing on newspaper formatting and layout. The class adaptations in place ensured the students could recall the names and features of a newspaper article and begin to explain their purpose. Students used a range of resources to show their learning.
Let’s see what has been happening in the classroom.
In Miss Hulme’s class this week…
After a lovely, restful and fun-filled Easter break, we have jumped straight back into our learning, beginning with our exciting new English topic, Jack and the Beanstalk. Since returning, the children have fully immersed themselves in the story using Talk for Writing. They have created their own story maps, taken part in lots of imaginative role play (with many enthusiastic ‘big, bad giants’), and enjoyed mark making activities to design their own beanstalks. Over the coming weeks, we will be building on this by creating our own versions of the story, where the children will invent and defeat a brand-new character.
This topic has linked beautifully with our Science learning this term, which focuses on plants. The children already have a great foundation of knowledge from earlier in the year, so we are now developing this further by exploring different types of plants and their characteristics, including wildflowers and evergreen trees. We have also planted our own French beans, and we are very excited to watch them grow - hopefully into super tall beanstalks just like in our story.
In Maths, we have been focusing on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s, as well as exploring equal and unequal groups. The children have been learning fun songs to support their counting, which they have really enjoyed. Taking advantage of the sunny weather, we went outside to collect flowers and used them in our counting activities. We mostly collected dandelions, and we are excited to see if they turn into the dandelion “wishes” that we can blow. This again links beautifully to our science topic. We have also been playing games using dice to explore whether different numbers can be grouped equally or unequally, which the children have thoroughly enjoyed.
In History, we have been learning all about explorers. We began by discussing what an explorer is and thinking about the different places explorers might travel to. The children were then given the exciting task of choosing somewhere they would like to explore, with most of the children deciding they would love to journey into space! We talked about what we might see on our adventures and what we would need to take with us. The children came up with some fantastic ideas, including cameras to capture what they discover, space suits to keep them safe and food so we don’t starve.
It has been a fabulous start to this half term, and we can’t wait to see what the rest brings. We are sure it will be filled with even more fun, learning, and hopefully plenty more sunshine."
CHE
In Mrs Potts’s class this week…
"11SPS are busy preparing for their exams. In a matter of weeks, we will see very few of them as they embark on study leave and eventually move on to college.
At the end of the exams, we have prom and the Alton Towers residential to look forward to, and it will be nice to celebrate the achievements of the last 5 years.
The students are preparing for their exams in their own unique way, and I am sure they will perform to the best of their ability.
Mrs Pott’s is extremely proud of her form for the way they have matured over the 5 years and tackled the challenges of secondary life and developing into young adults.
Mrs Pott’s and the class TAs would like to wish you all the best of luck in your exams and good luck for the next chapter away from Hollinwood.
I am sure you will all be successful and continue to flourish."
SPS
Now to our amazing SUPER STARs and HWA We are Passionate STARs
Mrs Lerigo’s and Mrs Sutcliffe's STAR of the Week is Cree Swift for fabulous progress with reading.
Mrs Lerigo’s and Mrs Sutcliffe's HWA We Are Passionate goes to Alfie Robinson for showing lots of enthusiasm when listening to our new lesson songs.
Miss Boothroyd’s STAR of the Week is the whole class for coping so well with a lot of change this week. We are all so proud of them.
Mrs McDonalds’ and Mrs Bramley’s STAR of the Week is Abdul for his engagement and enthusiasm in his reading lessons.
Mrs McDonalds’ and Mrs Bramley’s passionate star goes to George for being passionate about his learning and always trying his best.
Mrs Matthews’ STAR of the Week is Henry for being passionate during our PSHRE lesson.
Mrs Matthews’ We Are Passionate STAR goes to Toby Ingham for having an amazing attitude during English, whilst learning our model text.
Miss Pietraszewska’ s HWA We Are Passionate goes to Elsie, for making progress with her toilet training and independently asking to go to the toilet.
Well done, Elsie.
Miss Pietraszewska’ s STAR of the Week goes to Sienna, for engaging with our English story Elmer, reading the book, and retelling the story in her own words. Well done.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the Week is Teddy for having a wonderful first week in his new school.
Mr Corrigan’s STAR of the Week is William for settling back into school really well this week.
Mr Corrigan Congratulates Albi-Lee & Jack for being proud of their friends.
Miss Hulme’s STAR of the Week is Korey for creating an excellent story map in our English lesson.
Miss Donbavand’s STAR of the Week goes to Jared for showing good listening and trying his best to make the right choices.
Miss Donbavand’s HWA We are Passionate goes to Cleo for recognising when she needs help and asking for it.
Mrs Boylan’s STAR of the Week goes to Louis for excellent engagement in English lessons.
Mrs Boylan’s HWA We are Passionate goes to Oscar for persevering when tasks felt trickier this week.
STARS of the Week (24.4.26)
Well done to everyone.
I look forward to welcoming you to Parents’ Evening round 2.
Miss Gordon.
